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M ED I T ER 


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CYPRUS 




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Mogadon 




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AFRICA 


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mm 


London,, Couwdl & Compete,. Limited,. 














































































































































































THE 


Storehouse 


ti 


OF 


General Information. 



A — Be as. 


CASSELL & COMPANY, Limited: 

LONDON, PARIS <k MELBOURNE. 

1891. 


[all rights reserved.] 



Phy- 


Argentine Republic 


Armorial Bearings 


Acoustics and other 
sical Articles 

Aeronautics . 

Afghanistan . 

Africa. 

Agriculture . 

Alcohol and other Chemical { 
Articles .j 

Algas and other Botanical ) 
Articles. 

Algeria. 

Alphabet . 

Alps . 

America, North . 

America, South . 

Animal Kingdom and other > 
Zoological Articles ... j 

Annuity 

Arabia. 

Arch . 

Architecture ... 


,0. G. JONES, B.Sc. Loud. 
(Demonstrator at City Guilds 
Technical Institute). 

I W. H. Le FEVRE, President 
t of the Balloon Society. 

C. E. D. BLACK, India Office. 

( Prof. A. H. KEANE, Vice- 
-■ President of the Anthropo¬ 
id logical Society. 

J. P. SHELDON, Professor of 
Agriculture at the College of 
Agricidture, Downton. 

J. SCOTT TAYLOR. 


J-Prof. G. S. BOULGER. 

ROBERT BROWN, Pli.D. 
HENRY SCHERREN, F.Z.S. 

( The Rev. Canon BONNEY, 
'( F.R.S. 

POULTENEY BIGELOW. 

J. W. WELLSj M.I.C.E. 

HENRY SCHERREN, F.Z.S. 


C. ETHERINGTON. 
ROBERT BROWN, Ph.D. 

R. PHENE SPIERS, F.S.A., 

Master of the Architectural 
School of the Royal Academy. 

( G. ZENDEGUI ( La, Nacion, 
( Buenos Ayres). 

(A. C. FOX-DAVIES ( Fair- 
( bairn’s “ Book of Crest* ”). 


I 


Armour ... 
Army 


Aryans and other Ethno-). p a il K EANE. 
logical Articles 


( Col. C. COOPER-KING, Late 
Professor of Military History, 
( Royal Military College. 


Asia . 

. C. E. D. BLACK. 

Assyria. 

(B. T. A. EVETTS, British 
.( Museum. 

Astronomy 

.0. G. JONES. 

Athens . 

. C. EDWARDES. 

Atomic Theory 

. 0. G. JONES. 

Australia 

. W. LAIRD CLOWES. 

Austria. 

. W. ASTON LEWIS. 

Babylonia 

. B. T. A. EVETTS. 

Bach . 

fW. A. BARRETT, Mus.D., 

1 Mus. Bac. Oxon. ; Vicar 
j Choral of St. Paul’s; Joint 
.j Author of Stainer & Barrett’s 


“ Dictionary 
Terms." 


of Musical 


Bacteria and other Medical ) W. H. HAMER, M.A., M.D. 
Articles .( Cantab. 


Ballad ... 
Ballot ... 
Banking 
Bankruptcy 

Baptists 


Baron and other Heraldic 
Articles 

Bart, Jean 

Base-ball 


.. W. BAYNE. 

.. J. S. MANN. 

.. A. DRUETT. 

.. C. ETHERINGTON. 

( Rev. J. B. MYERS, Secretary 
'* ( of Baptist Missionary Society. 


,IC j-A. 


C. FOX-DAVIES. 


W. LAIRD CLOWES. 
POULTENEY BIGELOW. 


LIST OF PLATES. 

Map of Africa . 

Bacteria . 

Animal Kingdom.—I. 

Steam Communication in the Atlantic 

Animal Kingdom.—II. 

Bridges . 


, 

... Frontis. 


To face p. (55 
„ „ 129 ’ *L 













CASSELL’S 


Storehouse of General 

Information. 


A, the first letter in nearly every alphabet; it i 
may be sounded, in English, in various ways—as I 
in fate, fare, father, fat, amidst, fall, what, and j 
Thames. In music A is the sixth note of the scale 
of C major. A is frequently used as an abbre¬ 
viation. [Abbreviations.] 

A 1, a symbol used in nautical language to 
signify a vessel of the first class at Lloyd’s ; hence, 
figuratively, anything very excellent. 

Aa, a river in the province of North Brabant, 
Holland, flowing N.W. past Bois-le-Duc into the 
Meuse. The Duke of York was defeated on its 
banks by the French (Sept. 15, 1794). A dam at j 
Bois-le-Duc prevents the Rhine making another | 
exit into the North Sea. The name is allied to the j 
Latin aqua (water), and consequently is applied to | 
many other small rivers in North Europe. 

Aachen (Fr., Aix-la-Chapelle; Lat., Aquis- j 
granum), an important town in a province of the 
same name, situated 38 miles S.W. of Cologne in 



AACHEN CATHEDRAL. 


Rhenish Prussia. Apart from its pleasant situa¬ 
tion and its celebrity as a health resort on ac¬ 
count of its sulphur and chalybeate springs, 
Aachen possesses a never-failing source of attrac¬ 
tion to visitors in its historical antiquity, and more 
particularly in its cathedral. This splendid build¬ 
ing, of which the oldest portions date back to 796, 

1 


is a specimen of the Byzantine style, and forms an 
octagon in shape, surrounded by various additions 
which make it outside a sixteen-sided figure. In the 
octagonal chapel is the tomb of Charlemagne, while 
some of his bones are in the sacristy ; and the cathe¬ 
dral also possesses a store of “ relics,” some of which 
are exhibited only once in seven years. Other build¬ 
ings of interest are the Rath-haus (where for seven 
centuries the successors of Charlemagne were 
crowned), the public library, the gymnasium, and 
the theatre. Aachen is an important centre of 
commerce, its chief industries being the production 
of glass, cigars, chemicals, machinery, woollen 
fabrics, and silken goods. It is also of historical 
interest as the scene of the conclusion of various 
treaties of peace—one in 1668 between France and 
Spain, ending the war for the possession of the 
Spanish Netherlands; another in 1748, which 
ended the Austrian war of succession. In 1818 a 
Congress was held here, at which it was agreed 
that the army of the Allies should be withdrawn 
from France, and that France should once more 
resume her position as a Power, after having paid 
the amount agreed upon. 

Aalborg, a town in the province of Jutland, 
Denmark, situated on the Liim Fiord where it 
widens into the Bredering Lake. It is the capital 
of the district, and does a large trade in grain, 
fish, skins, tallow, spirits, etc. It also possesses a 
school of seamanship. 

Aar, a river in Switzerland, rising in the Ober 
and Unter Aar Gletscher, W. of the Grimsel Hos¬ 
pice, has a fine fall of 200 feet near Handeck, takes 
a N.W. course to Meiringen, flows through the 
Lakes of Brienz and Thun, and thence past 
Berne, then turning somewhat abruptly N.E. passes 
Aarberg, Soleure, Aarau, and Brugg, where it is 
joined by the Limmat and Reuss, and enters the 
Rhine at the village of Coblentz (Confluentia), near 
Waldshut. From it the Aargau Canton in the 
N,W. of Switzerland derives its name. 

Aard-vark, any species of the African genus 
Orycteropus (q.v.), containing two, or perhaps 
three species, of which the best known is O. 
caper)sis , called also Earth-hog and Cape Ant- 
eater. It is a timid, nocturnal animal, not unlike 
a short-legged pig, with a long snout, large ears, 
tubular mouth, and long, fleshy tail, the whole 
surface covered with long bristly hair. There are 



















Aard-wolf. 


Abatement. 


( 2 ) 


four digits on the fore limbs and five on the 
hinder ones, all armed with powerful hoof-like 
claws, with which the animal burrows and tears 
down the hills of the white ants on which it feeds, 
sweeping the insects into its mouth with its long 
extensile tongue. The flesh is much prized for food. 

Aard-wolf, Proteles cristatus, a carnivorous 
mammal from South Africa. It is about the size 
of a fox, but with larger ears, longer legs, and a 
shorter and less bushy tail, and has an erectile 
mane along the middle of the neck and back. In 
colour and markings it resembles a young striped 
hyaena, from which, however, it may be readily 
distinguished by its long pointed head and a fifth 
claw on the fore feet. It is a nocturnal burrowing 
animal, feeding on carrion, larvae, and white ants. 

Aarhuus, a port on the E. coast of Jutland, 
Denmark. Its Gothic cathedral is the largest in 
Denmark. It has a good harbour and considerable 
trade, and manufactures of wool, cotton, and 
tobacco. 

Aaron, a son of Amram and Jochebed, of the 
tribe of Levi, and brother of Moses and Miriam. 
When Moses went to receive the law on Mount 
Sinai, Aaron yielded to the importunity of the 
Israelites and made a golden calf for them to 
worship as a symbol of Jehovah. In obedience 
to Divine command he was appointed High-Priest, 
and the tribe of Levi was consecrated to the service 
of God. At Hazeroth he conspired against Moses 
with Miriam, and was rebuked by a voice from the 
pillar of cloud. He died at the age of 123, after 
holding the priestly office for 40 years. 

A-Babua, a large Negro nation heard of both 
by Stanley during the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition, 
and by Dr. Junker during his explorations of the 
UpperWelle Basin. Their territory lies a day’s march 
north of the lower Arundimi between 24° and 26° E. 
longitude, and is coterminous with that of the 
A-Barambo on the east, and the Banjias on the 
north, being situated mainly between the Welle 
and the Itimbira (Loika) rivers* They are men¬ 
tioned by Stanley in connection with the Mabode, 
who lie still farther to the east, about the head¬ 
waters of Nepoko, a chief affluent of the Arundimi, 
and who are described as having “ square houses 
with gable roofs,” with neatly-plastered walls and 
clay verandahs. From these and other indications 
the A-Babua are evidently an outlying branch of 
the “ white ” or southern Niam-Niams (A-Zandeh), 
the most civilised of all divisions of that wide-spread 
family. The form of the tribal name is clearly 
Niam-Niam, the initial syllable A being the plural 
prefix in that language, answering to the Wa-, Ba-, 
Ya-, etc., of the Bantu tongues. 

Abaca or Abaka, the Manilla hemp, a valuable 
fibre obtained from the leaves of Musa textilis, a 
native of the Philippine Islands, related to the 
banana. The fibre is used for cordage and paper- 
making. The name is also applied to the plant. 

Abacus. (1) An instrument sometimes used to 
facilitate arithmetical calculations in infant schools; 
it is made of parallel wires, on which are strung 
beads of various colours. It was used in Greece 


and in Rome, and is still employed in China, where 
it is known as Shwanpan. 

In architecture , an abacus is a flat stone (Lat. 
abacus , a cushion) crowning the capital of a column. 
In the Tuscan, Doric, and ancient Ionic styles, it was 
square or flat; in the Cor¬ 
inthian and Composite 
orders, as well as in some 
of the later Ionic, the sides 
were hollowed and the 
angles truncated. 

Abaddon, a Hebrew 
word signifying “destruc¬ 
tion ” ; it is used in Revel¬ 
ation (ix. 11) as the name 
of the angel of the bottom- ABACD8 - jg&Zf' tai/rom 
less pit. 

Abana (Barada), a river in Syria, rising in 
Mount Hermon (Jebel-esh-Sheikh), and flowing into 
the lake known as Bahret-el-Ateibeh. Damascus is 
situated upon it. Naaman coupled it with Pharpar 
(Awaj) (2 Kings v. 12). Extensive irrigation works 
now connect the two. 

Abandonment. (1) Marine Insurance. The 
relinquishment of all claim on the part of a person 
who has insured a ship or goods to *any portion of 
the same which may be saved. The person claim¬ 
ing compensation must give notice of his intention 
to abandon within a reasonable time after receiv¬ 
ing information of the loss, any unnecessary delay 
being taken as an indication of his intention not 
to abandon. (2) Scottish Legal Procedure. The 
signification by the pursuer (or plaintiff) of his in¬ 
tention to withdraw from the case. This may be 
done at any stage before final judgment is de¬ 
livered, the pursuer having to pay all costs in¬ 
curred ; he is, however, entitled to bring another 
action on the same ground. (3) Abandonment is also 
used in reference to the exposure and abandonment 
of infants or children under two years of age. 
When a child is abandoned, so that its life is 
endangered or its health likely to be permanently 
affected, the person abandoning the child is liable 
to penal servitude. (4) The term has significance 
with reference to a trade-mark, as opposed to 
mere non-user. 

Abano, a small town in the Euganean Hills, near 
Padua, in Venezia, Italy, famous in ancient times 
for hot mineral springs (Fons Aponi or Aqua Pa- 
tavina), which are still used; it possesses also 
large quarries of trachyte ; it is said to be the 
birthplace of Livy. 

Abatement. (1) The beating down or re¬ 
moving of any nuisance or illegal obstruction. (2) 
The quashing or judicial defeat "of legal proceedings, 
known as Abatement of Actions, as when a writ is 
overthrown by some fatal exception taken to it in 
court; pleas designed to this effect are termed 
Pleas in Abatement; all dilatory pleas are con¬ 
sidered pleas in abatement. (3) The suspense of legal 
proceedings on death of an essential party, or on 
change of interest necessitating the substitution‘of 
some new party. (4) Of Freehold. Forcible entry 
of a stranger into an inheritance, before the heir 









































Abattis. 


Abbey. 


( 3 ) 


or devisee can take possession. (5) Reductions 
made in legacies or annuities when the estate is 
not sufficient to pay in full. (G) The discount al¬ 
lowed for cash payment, and the deduction made for 
damages or loss in warehouses by the Customs House. 
{7) In Heraldry , a mark on an escutcheon denoting 
.some dishonourable action on the part of the bearer. 

Abattis, an intrenchment formed by felling 
trees and placing them side by side. The ends are 
then fixed in the earth, and the boughs, with the 
smaller twigs cut off, pointed towards the enemy; 
these structures afford cover for the defenders, and 
impede the advance of an attacking force. 

Abattoir, the French term for a slaughter-house. 
Napoleon instituted the public abattoir system in 
Paris in 1810; and in 1855, after the removal of 
the cattle-market from Smithfield, an attempt was 
made to introduce the system into London. 

Abauzit, Firmin, theologian and mathema¬ 
tician, was born in Languedoc, 1679, and said to have 
been of Arab origin. He fled with his mother to 
■Geneva at the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, 
went early to Holland, and met Bayle; thence he 
passed over to England, and became the friend of 
Newton, who esteemed him so highly as to con¬ 
sider him fit to settle the differences between him- 
.self and Leibnitz. Returning to Geneva, he assisted 
in translating the New Testament, and was ap¬ 
pointed Public Librarian (1727). Rousseau and 
Voltaire speak highly of his learning. His works deal 
■chiefly with theological subjects. He died in 1767. 

Abbas I., Shah of Persia, seventh of the Sophi 
dynasty, was born in 1537, and succeeded in 1575. 
He displayed vigour and ability, though not with¬ 
out an admixture of cruelty and treachery. He put 
his own son to death. . He extended the kingdom 
in all directions by conquest, wresting from the 
Turks the territory annexed by them, and, with the 
aid of an English fleet, taking the island of Ormuz 
from the Portuguese (1622). By his poorer sub¬ 
jects he was beloved, for he protected them from 
the extortions of officials. He died in 1628. Abbas 
II.. great-grandson of the above, succeeded in 1629, 
at the age of 13. He was a patron of the fine arts, 
but addicted to intemperance and violence. Died 
1666. Abbas III., the last of the Sophis. He was 
set on the throne (1732) by Nadir Shah at the age 
of 8 months. He died four years later. 

Abbas Mirza, born 1785, third and favourite 
son of Fateh Ali Shah, who made him his heir in 
preference to Mahomed Ali Mirza, the firstborn. 
He exerted himself to introduce European civilisa¬ 
tion into Persia. Both he and his brother died 
before their father, and thus a civil war was 
averted, in which Russia and Great Britain would 
have been opposed, as taking the parts respectively 
of Abbas and Mahomed. The two powers then 
assented to the nomination of Mahomed Mirza, son 
of the former, as crown-prince. 

Abbe, originally the French equivalent for 
Abbot; but previous to the Revolution it was used, 
in a more general sense, for anyone who received 
the tonsure. The French king had a right to 


nominate Abbes commcndataires, who without any 
duties obtained one-third of the revenues of their 
monasteries; the title was thus often applied to 
many who had neither taste nor ability for the 
clerical calling. A considerable class in society 
was formed by these abbes, who, not holding any 
appointments, often took to literary work, teaching, 
etc. The name is now loosely applied to any un¬ 
beneficed clerk. 

Abbeoknta, West Africa, the capital of Egba- 
land, is situated on the Ogun river, about 81 miles 
from the coast, and close to the borders of Da¬ 
homey, whence hostile incursions are experienced. 
The inhabitants early encouraged European inter¬ 
course, and several missionary establishments have 
been settled there. By a treaty concluded 1852, and 
renewed 1861, the slave trade and human sacrifices 
were abolished. 

Abbess, the lady superior of a nunnery, cor¬ 
responding in authority to an abbot, except that 
she, unlike the abbot, cannot exercise purely ec¬ 
clesiastical functions. 

Abbeville, an ancient and prosperous town in 
the department of the Somme, in France, and on 
the river of that name. The unfinished church of 



ST. WOLFRAN’S, ABBEVILLE. 


St. Wolf.ran (1488) is a gorgeous specimen of the 
Flamboyant style (q.v.), but only the facade is com¬ 
pleted according to the original design. In the streets 
there are to be found excellent specimens of ancient 
domestic architecture. The museum, which owes its 
existence to Boucher de Perthes (q.v.), the eminent 
geologist, contains a most interesting collection of 
implements from the drift—an epoch well illus¬ 
trated in the valley of the Somme. The manu¬ 
factures consist of woollen and linen goods, soap, 
and paper. The Somme is navigable to this point. 

Abbey, a term used both of an institution con¬ 
sisting of persons, and of the building in which the 
persons dwell. As an institution it signifies a 
society of monks or nuns, presided over by an 
abbot or abbess, who withdraw themselves from 
the world and bind themselves to live in seclusion. 
As a building, the term is used to designate not 












Abbot. 


( 4 ) 


Abbreviations. 


only such buildings as are actually occupied by 
such societies, but also cathedrals or churches, 
which were inhabited bv monastic communities 
before the Reformation. [Convent, Priory.] 

Abbot, a term derived from Abba (Heb. father), 
and originally applied to any ecclesiastic, more es¬ 
pecially if old, but later used to signify only the 
president of a monastery. Later still, it was further 
restricted to mean the president of an abbey as dis¬ 
tinct from the president of a priory, but eventually 
this latter limitation was disregarded. Abbots were 
most generally chosen by the monks over whom they 
had to preside, but, in the case of the abbots who 
sat in the House of Lords, the assent of the Crown 
was also necessary for election. Up to the sixth 
century all abbots were not necessarily priests, but 
after that date most of them held clerical orders, 
and in 787 they were allowed to give minor orders 
to their subjects. At first they were under the juris¬ 
diction of the bishops, but in the eleventh century 
some of their number succeeded in throwing off 
the yoke, and they henceforth owned no authority 
save the Pope ; abbots of this class were known as 
exempted or insulated abbots. Permission to wear 
mitres was frequently given to abbots, sometimes 
without exemption from episcopal authority, and 
before the Reformation twenty-seven mitred abbots 
and two priors sat in the House of Lords. They 
ceased to be peers, however, after the suppression 
of the monasteries. 

Abbot, George, born 1562, son of a cloth worker 
at Guildford, educated at Balliol College, Oxford, 
subsequently became Master of University College 
and Vice-Chancellor. He espoused the cause of 
the English reformers, and thus was brought into 
collision with Laud. He was made Dean of Win¬ 
chester in 1599, and entrusted with the translation 
of the Gospels. In 1608 he visited Scotland, and 
advocated Episcopacy, for which he was appointed 
to the see of Lichfield, and subsequently transferred 
to London. In 1611 he was promoted to the 

A.B.—Able-bodied seaman. Bachelor of 
Arts (Artium Baccalaureus). 

A.C.—Before Christ ( Ante Christum). 
acc., a/c., or aect.—Account. 

A.D.—In the Year of Our Lord ( Anno 
Domini). 

A.D. C.—Aide-de-camp. 

Ad. lib. —At pleasure (ad libitum). 

JEt. or JE tat.—In the year of his, or 
her, age ( cetatis anno). 

A.H.—In the Year of the Hegira, (522 
A D, (Anno Hegine). 

A.M.—In the Year of the World (Anno 
Muiuli). Before noon ( ante meridiem). 

Master of Arts (Artium Magister). 

Anon.—Anonymous. 

A. It.A.—Associate of the Royal Acade¬ 
my. 

A.R.II.A.—Associate of the Royal Hi¬ 
bernian Academy. 

A.R.S.A.—Associate of the Royal 
Scottish Academy. 

A. S.—Anglo-Saxon. 

A.U.C. — From the founding of Rome 
(ab urbe condita). 

A. V.—Artillery Volunteers. Authorised 

Version. 

A 1.—First class of ships. 

B. A.—Bachelor of Arts. 

Bart, or Bt.—Baronet. 


Primacy. In politics he took the popular side, and! 
opposed the views of James I. as to the Countess- 
of Essex’s divorce, and the king’s declaration in 
favour of Sunday sports. He founded the hospital 
which still exists at Guildford, and retired to that 
town in 1619. In 1621 he, by accident, killed a 
keeper whilst shooting deer in Lord Zouch’s park. 
Laud insisted that this act of homicide disqualified 
the archbishop from all priestly functions. But 
the king took Abbot’s part, and the latter returning 
to court, was present at his sovereign’s death, 1625. 
Charles I. was not favourably disposed towards so- 
liberal-minded a prelate, who signed the famous- 
Petition of Right, and Abbot was suspended ; but 
the House of Lords, on petition, restored the arch¬ 
bishop to his office, which he continued to hold tilL 
his death in 1633. His successor was Laud. 

Abbotsford, the home of Sir Walter Scott,, 
upon which he lavished his earnings, and where 
he lived in seigneurial style, is an irregular, many- 
turreted building situated three miles from Mel¬ 
rose on the sloping bank of the Tweed. Sir Walter 
himself converted it from a farmhouse into a 
chateau, and his descendants preserve it as a 
museum of personal and national relics. The 
great author’s apartments remain just as they 
were left when he died. Here may be seen some- 
interesting memorials of the Stuart period, and a 
fine bust of Scott by Chantrey. 

Abbreviation, the curtailment of a word by- 
omitting some of the letters; abbreviations were- 
very largely employed by the Jewish Rabbis, in 
ancient inscriptions, in Greek and Roman MSS.,, 
and by the mediaeval copyists. Their decipher¬ 
ment and interpretation requires special study and 
training. [Palaeography and Diplomatics.]) 
In the following list only abbreviations in common 
use in England at the present day are given, such 
obvious contractions as Rev. for Reverend, adj. for 
adjective, Feb. for February, N. for North, etc.,, 
being omitted. 

Cr.—Creditor. 

C. S. I.—Companion of the Star of India- 
C wt.—H und red we ight. 

D. C.—From the beginning (da capo). 
D.C.L.—Doctor of Civil Law. 

D.D.—Doctor of Divinity. 

Delt.—Drew (delineavit). 

D.G.—By the grace of God (Dei gratia). 
D.L.—Deputy Lieutenant. 

D.Lit.—Doctor of Literature. 

Do.—Ditto, the same. 

Dr.—Doctor. Debtor, 
dr.—Drachm, or dram. 

D.Sc.—Doctor of Science. 

D. V.—God willing (Deo volente). 

Dwt.—Pennyweight. 

Ebor. - York (Eboracensis). 

E. C. —Established Church. 

e. g.—For example (exempli gratia). 
etc., or & or &c.—And the rest, so forth 

(et ceetera). 

Ex.—Example. 

F. or Falir.—Fahrenheit. 

f. —Franc. 

F.B.S.—Fellow of the Botanical Society. 
F.C.—Free Church (of Scotland 1 ). 
F.C.A.—Fellow of Institute of Chartered 
Accountants. 

F.C.P. — Fellow of the College of Pre¬ 
ceptors. 


B.C.—Before Christ. 

B.C.L.—Bachelor of Civil Laws. 

B.D.—Bachelor of Divinity. 
jC/L. —Bill of Lading. 

B.L.—Bachelor of Laws. 

B.M.—British Museum. 

B.P.—British Pharmacopoeia. Boiling 
point. 

B.Sc.—Bachelor of Science. 

B. V.M.—Blessed Virgin Mary. 

C. —Centigrade. Celsus. 

C.A.— Chartered Accountant. - 
Cantab.—Of Cambridge (Cantabrigien- 
sis). 

Cantuar.—Of Canterbury (Cantuarensis). 
C.B.—Companion of the Bath. 

C.C.—County Councillor. 

C.C C.—Corpus Cliristi College. 

C.E.—Civil Engineer. 

Cent.—Hundred. 

Cf.—Compare (confer). 

C.I.E.—Companion of Order of Indian 
Empire. 

CM.—Order of the Crown of India. 

C.M. and Ch.M.—Master in Surgery. 
C.M.G.—Companion of St. Michael and 
St. George. 

C.M.S.- Church Missionary Society, 
c/o.—Care of. 

Co.—Company. County. 







Abbreviations 


Abbreviations. 


F.C.S.—Fellow of the Chemical Society. 

F.D.—Defender of the Faith ( Jidei de¬ 
fensor). 

Fee.—He, or she, made or did it (fecit). 

F.E.J.S.—Fellow of the Educational 
Institute of Scotland. 

F.F.a.—F ellow of the Faculty of Actua¬ 
ries (Scotland). 

F.F.P.S.—Fellow of the Faculty of 
Physicians and Surgeons (Glasgow). 

F’.G.S.—Fellow of the Geological 
Society. 

-F.K.Q.C.P.I.— Fellow of the King’s 
and Queen’s College of Physicians 
in Ireland. 

F.L.S.- Fellow of the Linnaean Society. 

F.M.—Field Marshal. 

F.O.—Field Officer. Foreign Office. 

F.O.B., or f.o.b.—Free on board. 

F.P.—Fire-plug. 

F.P.S.—Fellow of the Philological 
Society. 

F.R.A.S.—Fellow of the Royal Astro¬ 
nomical Society ; or Asiatic Society. 

F.R.C.P.— Fellow of the Royal College 
of Physicians. 

F.R.C.S.—Fellow of the Royal College 
of Surgeons. 

F.R.C.si.E.- Fellow of the Royal Col¬ 
lege of Surgeons of Edinburgh. 

F.R.G.S.—Fellow of the Royal Geo¬ 
graphical Society. 

F.R.S. —Fellow of the Royal Society. 

F.R.S.E.—Fellow of the Royal Society 
of Edinburgh. 

F.R.S.S.—Fellow of the Royal Statistical 
Society. 

F.S.A.—Fellow of the Society of Anti¬ 
quarians ; or of Arts. 

F.Z.S. - Fellow of the Zoological Society. 

•G.C.B. —Grand Cross of the Bath. 

•G.C.L.H.- Grand Cross of the Legion of 
Honour. 

'G.C.M.G.—Grand Cross of St. Michael 
and St. George. 

•G.C.S.I.—Grand Cross of the Star of 
India. 

•G.P.O - General Post Office. 

H.B.M. —Her Britannic Majesty. 

H.E.I.C.S.—Hon. East India Co.’s 
Service. 

H.I.H.—His, or Her, Imperial Highness. 

H.M.S.—rfer Majesty’s Ship. 

Hon. or Honble.—Honourable. 

H.P.—Horse Power. 

H.R.H.—His, or Her, Royal Highness. 

H. S.H.—His, or Her, Serene Highness. 

Ib. or Ibid —In the same place {ibidem). 

Id.—The same (idem). 

j.e.—That is (id est). 

I. H.S.— Jesus Saviour of Man (Jesus 

Hominum Salvator). 

Incog.—Unknown (incognito). 

Inf.—Below (infra). 

Inst.—The present month (instant). 

Inv.—Designed (invenit). 

I.O.U.—I owe you. 

-Jr. j nr.—Junior. 

, J P.—Justice of the Peace. 

K.C.B.—Knight Commander of the Bath. 

K.C.M.G. - Knight Commander of St. 
Michael and St. George. 

K.C.S.I.—Knight Commander of the 
Star of India. 

KG.—Knight of the Garter. 

kilo.-Kilometre, Kilogramme. 

K.M.—Knight of Malta. 

K.P.—Knight of St. Patrick. 

K. T.—Knight of the Thistle. 

£ or l .—Pound (sterling). 

L. or lib.—Book (liber). 

L. A.—Licentiate in Arts. 

lat.—Latitude. 

lb.—Pound (weight). 

L.C.J.—Lord Chief Justice. 


( 5 ) 


L.D.S.—Licentiate in Dental Surgery. 
Lit. D.—Doctor of Literature. 

L.L.A.—Lady Licentiate in Arts. 

LL.B.—Bachelor of Laws (Legum Bacca- 
laureus). 

LL.D.—Doctor of Laws (Legum Doctor). 
LL.M. — Master of Laws ( Legum 
M agister). 
log.—Logarithm, 
long.—Longitude, 
loq.—Speaks (loquitur). 

L.R.C.P.-Licentiate of the Royal Col¬ 
lege of Physicians. 

L.R.C.P.E.—Licentiate of the Royal 
College of Physicians of Edinburgh. 
L.R.C.S.—Licentiate of the Royal-Col¬ 
lege of Surgeons. 

L.S.—The place of the seal (loco sigilli). 
L.S.A.—Licentiate of the Society of 
A pothecaries. 

L. S.D.—Pounds,' shillings, and pence 

(libree, solidi, denarii). 

LXX.—Septuagint Version (70). 

M. A.—Master of Arts. 

M.B.—Bachelor of Medicine (Medicines 
Baccalaureus). 

M.C.—Master of the Ceremonies. 

M.C.C.—Marylebone Cricket Club. 

M.D.—Doctor of Medicine (Medicines 
Doctor). 

Mem. —Remember (memento). 

M.F.H.—Master of Foxhounds. 
M.I.C.E.—Member of the Institute of 
Civil Engineers. 

M.P.—Member of Parliament. 

M.P.S.—Member of the Philological 
Society ; or Pharmaceutical Society. 
M.R.A.S.—Member of the Royal Acade¬ 
my of Sciences ; or Asiatic Society. 
M.R.C.P.—Member of the Royal College 
of Physicians. 

M.R.C.S.—Member of the Royal Col¬ 
lege of Surgeons. 

M.R.C.V.S.—Member of the Royal Col¬ 
lege of Veterinary Surgeons. 
M.R.I.—Member of the Royal Institute. 

M. R.I.A.—Member of the Royal Irish 

Academy. 

MS.—Manuscript. MSS. Manuscripts. 
Mus. B. —Bachelor.of Music. 

Mus. Doc.—Doctor of Music. 

N. B.—North Britain. Mark well (nota 

bene). 

'Nem. con.—No one contradicting (ne- 
mine contradicente). 

No_Number (numero). 

N.S.—New Style. 

N.S.W.—New South Wales. 

N. T.—New Testament. 

Ob.—Died (obiit). 

O. H.M.S.—On Her Majesty’s Service. 

%. —Per cent. 

O.S.—Old style. 

O. T.—Old Testament. 

Oxon.—Of Oxford (Oxoniensis). 
oz. — Ounces. 

p.—Page, pp.—pages. 

P. and O.—Peninsular and Oriental 
Company. 

p.C.—Privy Councillor. Police Consta¬ 
ble. 

Per.—For. 

Per aim.—By the year (per annum). 

Per cent.—By the hundred (per centum). 
Pinx.—Painted (pinxit). 

P.M.—Afternoon (post meridiem). 

P.M.G.—Post-Master General. 

P.O.—Post Office. 

P.0.0.—Post Office Order. 

P.P.—Parish Priest. 

P.P.C.—To take leave (pour prendre 
conge). 

P.P.S.—Postscript additional. 

P. R.—Prize Ring. [my. 

P.R.A.—President of the Royal Acade- 


P.R.B.—Pre-Rapliaelite Brotherhood. 
P.R.I.B.A.—President of the Royal 
Institution of British Architects. 
Prox.—Next month (proximo mense). 
P.R.S.—President of the Royal Society. 
P.S.—Postscript. 

p. t. or pro tern.—For the time (pro 

tempore). 

P. T.O.—Please turn over. 

Q. , Qu. or Qy.—Query, question. 

Q.C.—Queen’s Counsel. 

Q.E.D. Which was to be proved (quod 
erat demonsti andum). 

Q.E.F.—Which was to bedon e(quod erat 
faciendum). 

Q.M G. Quartermaster-General 

Q. s. or quant, suff.—As much as is 

sufficient (quantum sufficit). 

q. v.— Which see (quod vide). 

R. —Reaumur. Rex, regina, kingerqueen. 
R or R.—Take (recipe). 

R.A.—Royal Academician. Royal Artil¬ 
lery. 

R.A.M.—Royal Academy of Music. 

R.C.P.—Royal College of Preceptors. 
R.E.—Royal Engineers. 

R.H. A. - Royal Horse Artillery. Royal 
Hibernian Academician. 

R.H.G.—Royal Horse Guards. 

R.l.P.—May he, or she, rest in peace 
(reqniescat in pace). 

R.M.- Royal Marines. Royal Mail. 
R.M.A.—Royal Marine Artillery. 

R.M.S.—Royal Mail Steamer. 

R.N.—Royal Navy. 

Rs.—Rupees. 

R.S.A. - Royal Scottish Academician. 
R.S.E. —Royal Society of Edinburgh. 
R.S.L.—Royal Society of London ; or 
Literature 

R.S.M.—Royal School of Mines. 

R.S.V.P.—Please reply (repondez s’il vous 
plait). 

R.T.S.—Religious Tract Society. 

R. V.—Revised Version of the Bible. 

Royal Volunteers. 

S. or St.- Saint. SS. Saints. 

Sc.—Engraved (sculpsit). 

sc.— Namely, that is to say (scilicet). 
Sc.D. —Doctor of Science. 

Seq. or sq. seqq. or sqq.—The following 
(sequens, sequentia). 

S.G.—Specific gravity. 

S.J. —Society of Jesus (Order of the 
Jesuits). 

S.P.C.K.—Society for the Promotion of 
Christian Knowledge. 

S.P.Q.R. - The Roman senate and people 
(senatus populusque Romanus). 
sq.—Square. 

Su p.— Above*(sMpra). 

s.v.—Under such a head (sub voce). 

U.K.—United Kingdom. 

Ult.—Last month (ultimo mense). 

U.P.—United Presbyterian. 

U. S.- United States, 
v. —Against (versus). 
v. or vid.— See (vide). 

V. A.—Order of Victoria and Albert. 

V.C. - Victoria Cross. Vice-Chancellor, 
viz.—Namely (videlicet) 

V.R.—Victoria the Queen (Victoria 
Regina). 

V.R.I.—Victoria Queen and Empress 
(Regina et Imperatrix). 

V. S. - Veterinary Surgeon. 

W. S.—Writer to the Signet. 

Xmas.—Christmas. 

Xtian.—Christian. 

Yr.—Younger Year. 
f (= r for radix).—The sign of the root. 
$—Dollars. 

4to.—Quarto. 

8vo.—Octavo. 

12mo.—Duodecimo. 








Abd-el-Kader. 


Abdomen. 


( 6 ) 


Abd - el-Kader (Sidi - el - Hadji-Ouled-Mahid- 
din), the son of a venerable Marabout, born in 
1807 near Mascara in the province of Oran. His 
eloquence, prowess, and popularity early provoked 
the jealousy of the Dey of Algiers, and he fled to 
Egypt. On his return (1829) he was chosen by the 
tribes in the neighbourhood of Oran to lead them 
in an effort to expel the French from their terri¬ 
tory. The young Emir (1832) at the head of 10,000 
horsemen vigorously attacked Oran, which was 
held in succession by Boyer and Desmichels. 
Louis Philippe, fearing to be drawn into serious 
operations, now sanctioned a treaty (1834) by 
which the Emir was virtually recognised as sover¬ 
eign of Oi'an, with the River Chelif as his eastern 
boundary. Having with French aid crushed some 
rival chiefs, he proceeded to seize a town within 
French borders. General Trezel, sent out to give 
the Emir a lesson, found himself surrounded at 
Macta (1835), and only escaped with the loss 
of his baggage and wounded. Indignation knew 
no bounds at Paris, and the famous Marshal 
Clauzel was dispatched as Governor of Algeria, 
with instructions to make short work with the son 
of the desert. The Marshal executed a pretty 
military promenade, but left Abd-el-Kader’s power 
unbroken. Marshal Bugeaud next took the busi¬ 
ness in hand, and, after offering terms which were 
rejected, marched to the relief of the French troops 
beleaguered in Tlemcen. The Emir attacked him 
in the defile of Sakkak, but the Marshal defeated his 
assailant with heavy loss. The treaty of Tana was 
then concluded (1837 and 1838), making Abd-el- 
Kader a tributary of France, but giving him a large 
territory and ample freedom of action. After a 
brief interval, the Emir broke loose onpe more, and 
for some months was kept at bay by the Due d’Orleans 
and Marshal Valee (1840). Marshal Bugeaud, again 
appearing on the scene, by means of razzias (q.v.) so 
harried the Emir’s followers that they began to 
desert. Mascara was captured (1841), and the gal¬ 
lant chief with a few devoted Kabyles was driven 
back to the desert. He was compelled (1842) by the 
Due d’Aumale to seek refuge in Morocco. The Em¬ 
peror was disposed to support him, but Bugeaud by 
land, and the Prince de Joinville by sea (1844) frus¬ 
trated this design; and as Abd-el-Kader’s popularity 
began to undermine the Emperor’s authority, the 
latter made common cause with the French. 
Many months were spent before the bold Arab 
could be crushed. At last the failure of a night 
attack on the Emperor’s camp (1847) induced 
the Emir to surrender to General Lamoriciere 
and the Due d'Aumale. In violation of solemn 
promises, he was conveyed as a prisoner to France, 
and there kept in confinement at Toulon, Pau, 
and Amboise successively. In 1852 he was re¬ 
leased on parole by Napoleon III. He resided 
successively at Broussa, Constantinople, and Da¬ 
mascus, where he exerted himself in defence of 
the Maronite Christians. He was supposed to 
have died at Mecca in 1873, but his death really 
took place in 1883. 

Abdera, a town at the mouth of the river 
Nestus in the S.W. of Thrace. It was first founded 


(b.C. 656) by Timesius of Clazomenae, and colonised 
after the Persian War by the Ionian inhabitants of 
Teos (b.c. 544). It is famed as the birthplace of 
Democritus, Protagoras, Anaxarchus, and other 
philosophers, though dense stupidity was the pro¬ 
verbial characteristic of its inhabitants.. 


Abd-er-Rahman Khan, the Ameer of 

Afghanistan, was born about 1830, and was re¬ 
cognised by the English Government as the ruler in 
1880. He is the grandson of Dost Muhammad, a 
former Ameer, but the earlier part of his life was. 
spent in much trouble, as. civil war was constantly 
raging, and Abd-er-Rahman was. continually taking- 
up arms on behalf of one relative or another. In 
1868, however, he retired into Russia, and it was; 
not until 1880, • the year of his assumption of 
the sovereign power, that he displayed marked 
activity. His position, at first, was the reverse of 
secure, but was much strengthened in 1885, when 
the English Government agreed to pay him a 
yearly subsidy of £120,000. Since that date his 
reign has been comparatively peaceful, although in 
1887 it was with difficulty that he quelled some re¬ 
bellious outbreaks of the Ghilzais. [Afghanistan.J 

Abdication, the relinquishment of any office, 
but more especially the throne. In England the 
sovereign cannot constitutionally abdicate without 
the consent of Parliament. 


Abdomen, the lower of the two cavities into 
which the trunk of the human body is divided 
by the diaphragm. Below, the abdominal cavity 
is continuous with that of the pelvis (q.v.), the 
boundary between the two being known as the 
pelvic brim. For convenience of reference, the 
abdomen is described as consisting of three- 
zones, an upper, middle, and lower, each zone¬ 
being again divided into three parts, thus forming 
The epigastrium (a) is the 
the • 


nine regions in all. 
middle region of 
upper zone, having 


on 



either side the right (b) 
and left (c) hypochon¬ 
driac regions. In the 
middle zone is the um¬ 
bilical (d), bounded on 
either side by the right 
(e) and left (f) lumbar 
regions; while the lowest 
zone presents laterally 
the right (h) and left (i) 
inguinal regions, includ¬ 
ing between them the hy- 

pogastrium(G). The liver lies mainly in the right 
hypochondrium but extends into- the epigastrium; 
the spleen is found in the left hypochondrium ; 
the stomach occupies the epigastrium and part of 
the left hypochondrium; and the pancreas is 
placed transversely across the superior zone, lying 
mainly in the epigastric or middle region, but ex¬ 
tending into the lateral regions on either hand. 
The two kidneys are situate in the right and left 
lumbar regions respectively. The caecum or first, 
part of the large intestine lies in the right, inguinal 
region, and the succeeding parts, are the. ascending 









Abdominalia. 


A’Becket. 


( 7 ) 


colon, which passes upwards through the right lum¬ 
bar region, the transverse colon, which runs trans¬ 
versely across the umbilical, the descending colon, 
which passes through the left lumbar, and the sig¬ 
moid flexure which occupies the left inguinal region ; 
the terminal portion, the rectum, being found in 
the pelvis. The convolutions of the small intestine 
occupy mainly the umbilical and hypogastric, but 
extend into the right and left lumbar regions. The 
abdomen is lined throughout by a serous membrane, 
the peritoneum (q.v.), which is reflected over the 
several viscera, and serves to maintain them in 
position. One of the chief surgical advances of 
modern times has been made in connection with 
the abdomen. The operation of opening the ab¬ 
dominal cavity is now not infrequently undertaken 
for the relief of certain diseased conditions, and a 
large number of cases have now been conducted to 
a successful issue, which in former days would 
have been regarded as of too desperate a nature to 
admit of alleviation or cure. 

Abdominalia, a sub-order of Cirbipedia, the 
members of which live as parasites in Molluscci or 
other Cirripedia. Parasitism has as usual pro¬ 
duced degeneration, which is especially marked in 
the males. Alcippe, one of the best known genera, 
is common on the English coast, frequenting the 
shells of whelks and similar molluscs. 

Abduction, the taking away of a child from its 
parents, a wife from her husband, or a ward from 
her guardian by fraud, persuasion, or open force. 
In the case of a woman over 21 years of age, ab¬ 
duction is the taking away of a woman against her 
will. Various penalties may be inflicted as the 
gravity of the different cases demands, ranging from 
two years’ imprisonment to fourteen years’ penal 
servitude. The abduction of children under 14 is 
termed child-stealing (q.v.) or kidnapping (q.v.). 

Abdul-Aziz-Khan, Sultan of Turkey, thirty- 
second of the Ottoman dynasty, the second son of 
the Sultan Mahomed II. He was born 1830, and 
succeeded his brother Abdul-Medjid 1861. Accord¬ 
ing to Turkish precedent he had lived up to that 
time in great retirement; but his education had 
been conducted under French guidance, and he 
showed an interest in agriculture, having founded 
a school at Scutari. His reign began with con¬ 
siderable promise. Riza Pasha, the Finance Min¬ 
ister, suspected of embezzlement, was arrested ; the 
civil list was reduced by four-fifths; the harem de¬ 
populated ; the Sultan himself looked industriously 
into the working of all administrative departments ; 
foreigners were permitted to hold landed estates ; 
and it really appeared as if Turkey were about to be 
brought within the pale of European civilisation. 
Omar Pasha succeeded in crushing the Montene¬ 
grins (1862), and after a more troublesome series of 
operations, an insurrection in Crete, fomented by 
Greece, was temporarily subdued (1866-68). Abdul- 
Aziz visited the French Exhibition (1867), and ex¬ 
tended his tour to London, creating in both capitals 
a favourable impression. On his return he estab¬ 
lished a Council of State, a college open to Mussul¬ 
mans and Christians alike, and published the first J 


instalment of a Code of Civil Law. All these inno¬ 
vations were not undertaken without strong oppo¬ 
sition from the conservative Turks, and plots were 
formed against the life of the Padishah, whose 
career from 1868 to 1875 proved a miserable failure. 
Ignatieff, the Russian ambassador, was omnipotent 
at the palace, national bankruptcy was imminent, 
Bosnia and Herzegovina revolted, and finally the 
Sultan was deposed May, 1876. Shortly afterwards 
he died from the bleeding of a wound in the arm, 
said to have been self-inflicted. His successor, 
Murad II., the imbecile son of Abdul-Medjid, only 
reigned a few weeks when he was set aside in favour 
of his brother, Abdul-Hamid II. 

Abdul-Hamid II. succeeded Abdul-Aziz- 
Khan as Sultan, 1876 (see above), in troublous 
times. Bulgaria, Servia, and Montenegro were up 
in arms, and in 1877 Russia, having a secret 
understanding with Austria, declared war. Osman 
Pasha’s heroic defence of Plevna checked for a 
few weeks the march of the invaders over the 
Balkans, but ultimately Constantinople was sur¬ 
rounded and the treaty of San Stefano signed. 
This was followed by the Berlin Convention. 

Abdul-Medjid, thirty-first Sultan of the 
Ottoman dynasty, born. 1823, and succeeded his 
father, Mahmoud II., 1839. The young sovereign 
found himself at once face to face with grave 
political difficulties. The conservative and fan¬ 
atical Turks, secretly instigated by Russia, had 
resolved to restore the ancient order of things, and 
had chosen as their leader Mehemet Ali, the power¬ 
ful pasha of Egypt, already in revolt against his 
suzerain. Ibrahim, Mehemet Ali’s putative son, 
won the battle of Nezib just as Abdul-Medjid came 
to the throne, and the Turkish fleet mutinied. The 
Porte was saved by Lord Palmerston’s diplomacy 
and the intervention of the Powers, always except¬ 
ing France. The Sultan, aided by Reschid Pasha, 
now resumed the measures of reform initiated by 
his father; promulgated the Tauzimut or Edict of 
Gulhane, giving all his subjects equal civil rights ; 
proclaimed the equality of all creeds in the eyes of 
the law; and extended his protection to the Polish 
and Hungarian refugees of 1848. Russian intrigue 
at this juncture began to weave fresh toils round 
“the sick man,” and England and France drawing- 
together to check Russian aggression, the Crimean 
War ensued. The Treaty of Paris (1856) brought 
this chapter of history to a close, but Turkey was 
left weak and impoverished, a prey to intestine 
factions, and by no means free from Russian influ¬ 
ence. Abdul-Medjid showed signs of premature 
exhaustion, and his habits became extravagant. 
He died in 1861, and was succeeded by his brother 
Abdul-Aziz. 

A’Becket, Thomas, born in London, 1118, the 
son of a well-to-do merchant probably of Nor¬ 
man race. He received a good education botli in 
England and in France. On his father’s failure 
in business he became a lawyer’s clerk, but in 1142 
the Archbishop of Canterbury gave him a post 
in his court, and he displayed such ability that he 
received from Henry II. the Chancellorship of 





Abel. 


Abelites. 


( 8 ) 


England (1155). In this position he was a zealous 
partisan of the King against ecclesiastical encroach¬ 
ments ; he fought valiantly, if cruelly, in the War 
of Toulouse; enforced scutage on the clergy; and 
in 1159 conducted with great magnificence an 
embassy to France for the purpose of arranging 
the marriage of the heir apparent. In 1162 he was 
elected Archbishop of Canterbury, though as yet 
only in deacon’s orders. His views thereupon 
underwent a complete change, and he stood forth 
as the champion of Papal authority against that of 
the Crown. In those days the Church represented 
democracy, whilst Henry and his barons were 
striving for a supremacy of class and race. Hence 
the sympathies of the Saxon population were en¬ 
tirely with the Archbishop. Worsted at first in the 
struggle, A’Becket was forced to pledge himself by 
oath to observe, the Constitutions of Clarendon. 
The Pope absolved him from this obligation, which 
he repudiated with vehemence. He was summoned 
before a great Council at Northampton, and con¬ 
demned to pay a heavy fine for alleged misappro¬ 
priations during his Chancellorship. Upon this he 
claimed the protection of the Holy See, and fled to 
France, whence he denounced Henry, Pope Alexan¬ 
der III. lending him countenance. Henry, fearing 
the Church, was fain to seek for reconciliation, and 
after an interview with A'Becket(1170) agreed to his 
return. This agreement was violated by the King, 
so the Primate on reaching Canterbury excom¬ 
municated the Archbishop of York and the Bishops 
of London and Salisbury, who fled to join their 
royal master in Normandy. Henry on hearing of 
A’Becket’s reception in England exclaimed, “ Of all 
the cowards who eat my bread, is there not one 
who will free me from this turbulent priest ? ” This 
taunt moved four knights, Fitzurse, Tracy, Morville, 
and Brito, who forthwith proceeded to Canterbury, 
unknown to the King, and threatened the Arch¬ 
bishop, in the cathedral, with death (1170) un¬ 
less he absolved the 'excommunicated prelates. 
On his refusal, A’Becket was murdered before the 
altar of St. Benedict. Two years later he was 
canonised, and his shrine—fruitful in miracles— 
became the most popular in England. Henry VIII. 
ordered his body to be exhumed and burnt as that 
of a traitor, and his "shrine to be destroyed, but it is 
doubtful if the order was executed. Some remains 
found in the cathedral in 1889 were at one time 
thought to be identified as those of the murdered 
prelate. 

Abel ( Heb. breath, vanity), the second son of 
Adam and Eve, slain by Cain, his elder brother, 
through jealousy, because Abel’s sacrifice of sheep 
was preferred by God to the produce of the earth 
offered by Cain. 

Abelard, Peter, one of the few striking figures 
that infuse a living and romantic spirit into the 
annals of mediaeval scholasticism. The son of 
a Breton nobleman, born at Palet, near Nantes, in 
1079, he received the best education that the age 
could offer. His handsome person, melodious voice, 
sweet disposition, and intellectual ardour, early 
marked him out as destined to play a great part in 
the world. He studied in Paris under William of 


Champeaux, the head of the diocesan school, and 
a famous exponent of the prevailing Realism. 
Against this system Abelard revolted, and attached 
himself to Roscelinus, the upholder of Nominalism. 
He soon stepped into the arena himself as a philo¬ 
sophical disputant or lecturer; nor was it long 
before he drew crowds of listeners—first at Melun, 
then at Corbeil. Having sated himself with logic 
and metaphysics, he next turned to theology, which 
he studied under the renowned Anselm at Laon. 
Returning to Paris, he attained the highest fame as 
a theological teacher, without, however, entering 
the priesthood. At the age of 38 he fell in love 
with a young lady who had come under the influence 
of his impassioned eloquence—Heloisa, the beautiful 
niece or daughter of an ecclesiastic named Fulbert. 
Why they should not have married remains still a 
mystery, in spite of the subtle disquisitions of many 
biographers, and the explanation offered by the lady 
herself. They unhappily preferred an illicit con¬ 
nection, which Fulbert discovered, and, though a 
form of marriage was gone through, punished by 
an irreparable outrage upon the lover. Abelard 
assumed the cowl and entered the monastery at 
St. Denis, Heloisa seeking refuge in the convent of 
Argenteuil; and, for a time, their lives appear to 
have been sundered.' Suspicions of heresy soon 
began to spring up against the refined philosopher, 
to whom the narrowness, ignorance, and debauchery 
of the monks, his companions, were naturally dis¬ 
tasteful. He moved to St. Gildas, in Brittany ; but 
the atmosphere there was the same. He then 
(1120) started an independent course of lectures, 
under the protection of the Count of Champagne, 
and thousands flocked to hear him. A council at 
Soissons condemned one of his dissertations as un¬ 
orthodox. In 1122 he built himself a little oratory 
near Troyes, which he dedicated to the Paraclete. 
His fame attracted many followers; a large monas¬ 
tery grew up; persecutions were renewed; and in 
1125, to escape annoyance, he accepted the posi¬ 
tion of abbot in his former retreat at St. Gildas. 
Heloisa meanwhile had become prioress of Ar¬ 
genteuil; but the priory (1127) was claimed by the 
Crown. Abelard, thereupon, made over to her his 
establishment of the Paraclete, and she became the 
abbess. It is from this period that the famous 
letters date. In 1136 the Abbot of St. Gildas was 
again lecturing in Paris, John of Salisbury being 
amongst his hearers. But the relentless wrath of 
the ecclesiastics still pursued him. A council held 
at Sens (1140), under the influence of St. Bernard, 
condemned him to lifelong seclusion. Peter of Cluni 
prevented this sentence being carried out, and 
offered him a retreat in that abbey, where he spent 
in peace the last two years of his troublous career. 
He died 1142, at St.'Marcellus, near Chalons-sur- 
Saone. A Gothic tomb in the cemetery of Pere-la- 
Chaise, Paris, built of fragments from the Paraclete, 
commemorates the sad story of the ill-starred lovers. 
Pope and Rousseau have helped to perpetuate but 
not to sanctify their fame. 

Abelites or Abelians, the names given to a reli¬ 
gious sect mentioned'by St. Augustine; the Abelites 
held the principle of compulsory marriage with 






Abencerrages. 


Aberdeen. 


( 9 ) 


compulsory abstinence from its consummation, 
alleging that Abel lived with his wife in this man¬ 
ner. The sect was never numerous and was short¬ 
lived. 

Abencerrages, a powerful Moorish family 
which lived in Spain from the 8th century until the 
loth, when they are supposed to have been annihi¬ 
lated by the King of Granada. Their fall has been 
the subject of many poems and romances. 

Aben Ezra, or Ibn Ezra (Abraham Ben Meir 
Ben Ezra), one of the ablest Jewish grammarians and 
commentators, and celebrated also, as an astron¬ 
omer and physician ; he was born at Toledo about 
1090, and lived in Italy and England, dying in 1168. 
His Commentaries on the Old Testament form the 
starting-point of scientific Biblical exegesis. With¬ 
out neglecting Rabbinical tradition, he adopts the 
literal rather than the cabalistic method of inter¬ 
pretation [Cabbala], bringing to bear on the text 
a profound knowledge of Chaldee and Arabic. 

Aber, a prefix denoting the situation of a place 
at the mouth of a river or a confluence of waters. 
It is a word belonging to the Kymric branch of the 
Keltic stock, the corresponding Gaelic term being 
“ inver.” Not a single name beginning with Aber 
is found on the west coast of Scotland, in Ireland, 
or the Hebrides ; but on the east coast of Scotland 
and in Wales it is common. 

Aberavon, a town in Glamorganshire, on the 
river Avon, 8 miles from Swansea on the road to 
Cardiff, and 196 from London. Though a place of 
great antiquity, its importance dates from the recent 
development of metal-smelting, the district abound¬ 
ing in coal, iron, lead, zinc, and copper. Port Talbot, 
the harbour, has been much improved. 

Abercrombie, John, an eminent physician, 
born at Aberdeen, 1781. He practised for many 
years in Edinburgh, and made valuable researches 
in pathological anatomy. His fame, however, rests 
on his moral and logical speculations embodied in 
his two works, The Intellectual Powers of Man and 
the Investigation of Truth , and The Philosophy of 
the Moral Feelings. His kindly manners and un¬ 
affected piety caused him to be much beloved. He 
died suddenly in 1844. 

Abercromby, Sir Ralph, K.B., born at Tulli¬ 
body, Clackmannanshire, 1734, and educated for 
the law, but at his earnest request he obtained a 
cavalry commission (1756) and in due course rose 
to the command of the 103rd Infantry. In 1783 he 
went on half pay, probably disliking to serve 
against the American colonists. He received the 
command of a brigade, 1793, under the Duke of York 
in Holland; was wounded at Nimeguen; and 
covered the disastrous retreat of 1794-95. Being 
appointed to the command in the West Indies he 
took (1796-97) St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Grenada, 
Demerara, Essequibo, and Berbice. As Comman- 
der-in-Chief in Ireland (1798) he did his best to 
restore order without resorting to unconstitutional 
means, but resigned on finding Government would 
not support him. The disastrous expedition to 
Holland in 1799 brought him fresh distinction, and 


in 1801 he was chosen to command the force 
destined to drive the French out of Egypt. After 
effecting a masterly disembarkation at Aboukir, he 
fought and won the decisive battle of Alexandria, 
but stricken down by a spent ball he died seven 
days later, March 28, 1801. He possessed all the 
qualities of a great soldier, and was universally 
esteemed and beloved. Parliament erected a monu¬ 
ment to his memory in St. Paul's Cathedral. 

Abercromby, James, Lord Dunfermline, 
third son of the above, born 1776; called to the 
bar 1801 ; entered Parliament for Midhurst 1807 ; 
joined the Whig opposition, to which he rendered 
valuable services. Canning, on coming to power, 
made him Chief Baron of the Exchequer in Scot¬ 
land, 1830. He was one of the first members for 
Edinburgh in the Reformed Parliament, of which 
he was elected Speaker in 1835. Resigning in 1839, 
he received a peerage, and passed his remaining 
years in privacy at Colinton, near Edinburgh, 
where he died 1858. 

Aberdare, a town in Glamorganshire, 4 miles 
from Merthyr - Tydvil, of which parliamentary 
borough it forms part. Situated in the midst of 
a rich mineral district, it has grown enormously 
in prosperity and population. 

Aberdeen (George Hamilton Gordon), 5th 
Earl of, born 1784; succeeded his grandfather, 
1802; sat in Parliament as a representative peer, 
1807 ; and was in 1814 created a peer of the United 
Kingdom as Viscount Gordon. He joined the Tory 
party, and was Foreign Secretary in Wellington’s 
administration (1828-30). In 1841 he held the 
same office under Peel, and on the latter’s death 
was regarded as head of the Peelites. In 1852 he 
became Prime Minister, and formed the coalition 
Government which was responsible for the Crimean 
War, 1854. His moderation towards Russia made 
him unpopular, and he made way for Lord 
Palmerston, February, 1855.. He died in 1860, 
leaving a son, the 6th Earl, who, after a ro¬ 
mantic life, perished at sea, and was succeeded 
by his brother. 

Aberdeen, a town situated on the east coast of 
Scotland, 542 miles north from London, and 111 
north from Edinburgh. It lies between the mouths 
of the rivers Dee and Don, in both of which salmon 
fishing is carried on. In its neighbourhood are 
extensive granite quarries, of which material the 
town is built and its streets paved. From this it 
has received the name of the “ Granite City.” In 
the city itself are the largest granite polishing 
works in the United Kingdom. Other leading 
industries are the making of combs, paper, and 
textile fabrics, the preserving of provisions, and the 
catching of fish. Formerly celebrated for its 
clipper-bow ships, now superseded by iron steam¬ 
ships, it still does a considerable ship-building 
trade. Among its institutions, the university, 
founded in 1494 by Bishop Elphinstone, takes the 
lead. It comprises two colleges, King’s and Maris- 
chal—until 1860, two distinct universities—and 
with Glasgow sends one representative to Parlia¬ 
ment. Other educational establishments are the 





Aberdevine. 


( 10 ) 


Abeyance. 


Grammar School, the Art Gallery and Art School, 
and Gordon’s College. Most notable amongst the 



THE MARKET CROSS, ABERDEEN. 


public buildings are the County and Municipal 
Buildings, the East and West Churches, the Music 
Hall, the Market Hall, the Trades Hall, Free Church 
Divinity Hall, Royal Infirmary and Lunatic Asylum. 
In 1886 was opened the Free Library, which has 
over 27,000 volumes. At the east end of Union 
Street—the principal street in the city—is a wide 
open space where markets are held, and where 
stands the Market Cross erected 1682. Among the 
statues are the last Duke of Gordon, Queen 
Victoria, Prince Albert, and, in the Duthie Park, 
Wallace, and Gordon Pasha. The city sends two 
representatives to Parliament. In Old Aberdeen, 
which adjoins the city on its north side, is situated 
the Cathedral of St. Machar, dating from 1357, 
and King’s College. North of the old town, again, 
is the Brig o’ Balgownie, the terror of Byron’s 
boyish days. 

Aberdevine. [Siskin.] 

Aberfeldy, a village in Perthshire, situated on 
the Tay, 32 miles from Perth on a branch of the 
Highland Railway. The Falls of Moness mentioned 
in Burns’s poem, The Birhs of Aberfeldy, are in 
the vicinity. The Black Watch (42nd Highlanders) 
was embodied here in 1740, the fact being com¬ 
memorated by a monument. 

Abergavenny (sometimes pronounced, Aber- 
genny), a market-town in Monmouthshire, 14 miles 
W. of Monmouth, situated at the junction of the Usk 
and the Gavenny, and supposed to be the Roman 
Gobannium. It contains the ruins of a Norman 
castle and a Benedictine priory, and has a fine stone 
bridge over the Usk. Its manufactures are shoes 
and woollen goods, but large coal and iron-works 
are the chief source of its prosperity. 

Abernethy, John, an eminent surgeon, and 
grandson of a well-known Irish Nonconformist 
divine; born in London 1764. After receiving 
his early education at Wolverhampton Grammar 
School, iie was apprenticed to Sir Charles Blicke, 


whom he succeeded (1787) as assistant-surgeon of 
St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. His success as a 
private lecturer induced the Governors to build a 
theatre and establish the now famous school of 
St. Bartholomew’s. In 1815 he became principal 
surgeon; having already (1813) been appointed 
surgeon to Christ’s Hospital, and (1814) Professor of 
Anatomy and Surgery to the College of Surgeons. 
His book entitled Surgical Observations on the 
Constitutional Origin and Treatment of Local 
Diseases was the first -attempt to bring surgery 
and physiology into scientific connection. His 
teaching was clear and accurate, but dogmatic. 
Towards his patients he adopted a manner, said 
to have been foreign to his private life, in which 
plainness of speech verged on brusquerie and rude¬ 
ness. He resigned his position at St. Bartholomew’s 
in 1827, and his professorship at the College of 
Surgeons in 1829; dying at Enfield in 1831. 

Aberration, Chromatic, an effect observable 
in simple lenses, due to the different refrangibilities 
of light of different colours. An object viewed 
through such a lens will be observed to have 
coloured edges, the focus for one colour not coin¬ 
ciding with that for another.' This defect is 
remedied by making the lens achromatic. [Achro¬ 
matism.] 

Aberration of light, the name given to the 
apparent alteration in the true direction of the rays 
of light from any heavenly body, due to the earth’s 
own motion. Raindrops falling vertically, when 
viewed from a moving railway carriage, have ap¬ 
parently an oblique motion. The faster the 
carriage moves, or the slower the raindrops fall, 
the more oblique will the motion appear. So also 
with light, the obliquity of the rays of light from 
any star depending on the velocity of the earth as 
compared with that of the light itself. Thus a star 
is never seen in its true position, but always a little 
distance away in the direction of the earth’s motion. 
The aberration is greatest when the earth’s velocity 
is a maximum, i.e. in mid-winter. Thus a know¬ 
ledge of the earth’s speed enables us to determine 
the velocity of light. [Light.] The phenom¬ 
enon was discovered by Bradley in 1727, and re¬ 
ceived full mathematical treatment first by Bessel. 

Ab'erystwith, a seaport, watering-place, and 
municipal borough on Cardigan Bay in the county 
of Cardigan, Wales, situated at the confluence of 
the Ystwith and Rheidol, 244 miles N.W. of London 
on the Cambrian Railway. Some amount of trade 
is carried on, the exports being lead, flannel, arid 
iron. The University College of Wales is estab¬ 
lished here. In the summer many visitors are at¬ 
tracted by the climate, and the picturesque sur¬ 
roundings, among which the Devil’s Bridge is not 
the least interesting. The ruins of a castle of 
Edward I. crown a promontory t*o the S.W. Until 
1885 Aberystwith was one of the Cardigan parlia¬ 
mentary boroughs. 

Abeyance. —A freehold or inheritance is said 
to be in abeyance when it is potentially existent 
but actually vacant. 
















Abhorrers. 


( n ) 


About. 


Abhorrers, in English history, the name given 
to the Court party in the reign of Charles II., who, 
in 1679, expressed in counter-petitions abhorrence 
at the views of those who had presented petitions 
praying the king to summon Parliament; they 
considered that the original petitioners or addres¬ 
sers were encroaching on the royal prerogative. 

Abigail, the wife of Nabal of Carmel, who 
refused to shelter David when he was pursued by 
Saul, for which act he would have been severely 
punished had not Abigail met the king with a 
present and a judicious speech. Nabal died a few 
days later, and David thereupon married Abigail 
(1 Sam. xxv.). The name has passed into a 
general appellation for all “ handmaids,” from the 
title used by Abigail in her address to David, al¬ 
though some derive the expression from Abigail 
Hill (Mrs. Masham), attendant on Queen Anne. 

Abimelech (Heb. father of the king, or 
king-father), an official title of Eastern sovereigns, 
also the name of the son of Gideon who killed his 
seventy brethren with the exception of Jothan, and 
made himself King of Shechem, but was himself 
slain by a stone thrown by a woman at the siege of 
Thebez (Judges viii. 31). 

Abingdon, a market-town in Berkshire, 51 
miles N.W. of London, and 6 S. of Oxford, on 
the right bank of the Thames at its junction with 
the Ock. The name, originally Abbaddun (Abbots’- 
town), was derived from the great Benedictine 
monastery established there, 680. Offa, King of 
Mercia, built a palace in the town. It possesses 
two ancient churches and a free grammar-school 
(founded, 1563, rebuilt 1870), and a clothing factory. 
Up to 1885 it returned a member to Parliament, 
but is now merged in the division of the county to 
which it gives its name. 

Abiogeuesis, the production of life by the 
spontaneous generation by dead matter without the 
intervention of any pre-existing life. It has been 
contended that the living bacteria that grow in 
solutions in which meat or other organic matter 
has been steeped have been thus spontaneously 
generated. The researches on which this con¬ 
clusion was based are now discredited, and no satis¬ 
factory experimental proof of abiogenesis has been 
obtained. 

Abjuration.— The oath of abjuration was im-* 
posed in 1701 upon all holders of public offices and 
members of Parliament, binding them to renuncia¬ 
tion of all allegiance to the Stuarts. In 1858 the 
oath was remodelled, and became a declaration of 
allegiance to the present Sovereign combined with 
a promise to support the Protestant succession and 
a denial of all authority of foreign princes. In 
1868 the Promissory Oaths Act enabled Jews and 
Catholics to substitute a short oath of true allegi¬ 
ance for the old abjuration oath. 

Abkha/sict, or Abasia, a district on the coast of 
the Black Sea (lat. 42° 30' to 44° 45' N.; long. 37° 3' 
to 40° 36' E.), having the Caucasus to the N. and 
Mingrelia to S.E. Mountainous, with fertile valleys. 

O 


Ceded to Russia by Turkey, 1824. The population, 
owing to emigrations, is inconsiderable. Sukum- 
kaleh is the chief town. 

Abner (Heb. father of light), Saul’s cousin and 
commander-in-chief. He quarrelled with Ish- 
bosheth, Saul’s son, and transferred his allegiance 
to David, being warmly welcomed by the king. 
Soon after this Joab and his brother killed him in 
the gate of Hebron (2 Sam. iii. 33, 34). 

Abolitionists, the name given to that party in 
the United States which had for its object the total 
abolition of slavery. Their aims were accomplished, 
after many years of agitation, when President 
Lincoln abolished slavery, in 1863. [Slavery.] 

Abolla, a woollen cloak worn principally by 
soldiers in ancient Greece and Rome, and opposed 
to the toga, which was the distinguishing mark of 
a civilian. At Rome the Stoic philosophers adopted 
it as a distinctive dress. 

Abomey, capital of Dahomey, "West Africa, 
about 60 miles N. of the chief port, Whydah. A 
large, straggling, dirty, mud-built town, whose 
inhabitants carry on a brisk trade in palm-oil, 
ivory, gold, and slaves. It contains the palace of 
the king, where the annual “ customs ” are cele¬ 
brated by butchering numbers of prisoners and 
captives. 

Aborigines, the earliest known inhabitants of 
any district. The ternr was applied, however, by 
Roman historians specially to an ancient tribe in¬ 
habiting Latium; it is now used in its general 
sense to signify the original occupiers of a country 
as distinguished from colonists or invaders. 

Abortion, the separation and expulsion of the 
contents of the uterus, occurring prior to the end 
of the third month of pregnancy. Premature 
labour is in rare cases artificially induced by 
accoucheurs where the life of the mother or the 
foetus is at stake. The crime of administering 
any medicine or drug, or using surgical implements, 
with the intent of procuring miscarriage, in both 
England and Scotland, is a crime at common law 
punishable by penal servitude or imprisonment. 
In the United States it is a felony and punishable 
by fine and imprisonment. 

Aboukir, a coast village in Egypt, 13 miles 
N.E. of Alexandria, gives its name to the spacious 
bay stretching E., where Nelson won his famous 
victory over the French fleet under Brueys in 1798, 
and where Abercromby’s expedition landed in 1801. 

About, Edmond Francois Valentin, a French 
novelist, journalist, and dramatist, born at Dieuze 
(Meurthe), 1828; distinguished himself as a stu¬ 
dent at the Lycee Charlemagne, the Ecole Nor- 
male, and the French School at Athens. His first 
important work, La Gre.ee Contemporaine (1855), 
attracted immediate notice; and was followed 
by a romance in the Ilevue des Deux Mondes, en¬ 
titled Tolla, which brought upon its author a 
not wholly unmerited charge of plagiarism. In 
1856 he tried his hand on the drama ; but his 





Abracadabra. 


( 12 ) 


Abscess. 


play ( Guillery ), produced at the Theatre-Frangais, 
proved an utter failure. Under the pseudonym 
44 de Quevilly,” he replied vigorously to his de¬ 
tractors in the columns of the Figaro. It was, how¬ 
ever, as a writer of feicilletons for the Moniteur 
that he made good his claim to literary distinction. 
Five brilliant novels— Lcs Mariages de Paris, Le 
Rot des Montagues, Germaine, Les Jackasses de 
Maitre Pierre, and Trente et Qnarante, revealed a 
freshness of style, a delicacy of humour, and a 
power of description, that at once enlisted public 
sympathy. In L' Homme a Voreille cassee , which 
attained great celebrity, he appeared under a new 
guise. Art-criticism at this period received much 
of his attention. A visit to Rome resulted in a 
more serious work, La Question Romaine, which, 
by its anti-papal tendencies, provoked warm dis¬ 
cussion, the author keeping up the irritation by a 
series of articles (“ Lettres d’un bon jeune Homme”) 
in the Opinion Nationale. Some little success 
attended La Risette, ou les Millions de la Man- 
■sarde , a dramatic trifle played at the Gymnase; 
but in 1862 a more ambitious effort, Gaetana, was 
driven off the stage of the Odeon by a combination 
of hostile forces. M. About in the meantime had 
joined the staff of the Constitutionnel. In 1870 he 
took a somewhat prominent part in public affairs, 
and was special correspondent of the Soir. He 
ultimately accepted the Republic with something 
like enthusiasm. He founded and conducted the 
XIXme Si'ecle, a moderately democratic journal, 
acting also as correspondent of the Athenceuvi. Ho 
died in 1885. 

Abracadabra, a construction of letters placed 
as in the figure adjoining. This figure was copied 

ABRACADABRA 
ABRACADABR 
ABRACADAB 
ATiRACADA 
. A B R A C A D 
A B R A C A 
A B R A C 
A B R A 
A B R 
A B 
A 

on to a scroll and hung round the neck as 
an amulet, and was supposed to be a preventive 
against fever and other diseases. 

Abraham (Heb. father of a multitude), first 
named Abram, was the son of Terah, a Shemite, 
who dwelt first at Ur, in Chaldasa, and afterwards 
migrated to Haran. Abram married Sarai, his 
half-sister or niece. At the age of 75 he left 
Haran with Lot, his nephew, and travelled towards 
Canaan. He took Hagar as a second wife, and 
Ishmael was born. Twenty-four years later the 
promise was renewed, his name changed to Abraham, 
and circumcision instituted. Sarah then gave birth 
to Isaac, and Hagar with her son was cast forth. 
The patriarch lived to the age of 175, and was 
buried by his two elder sons in the sepulchre of 
Sarah (Gen. xxv.). 


Abraham-man, the name given to that class 
of sturdy beggar in Shakespeare’s days up to the 
Civil Wars who roamed through England begging 
and stealing. An Abraham man is described in a 
work (published 1575) as 44 one that walketh bare¬ 
armed and bare-legged and fayneth himself mad 
. . . and nameth himself 4 poor Tom.’ ” 

Abranchiate animals, those destitute of bran- 
cilia or gills. 

Abrantes, a town in the province of Estrema- 
dura, Portugal, situated in a beautiful and fruitful 
district on the Tagus, about 70 miles N.E. of 
Lisbon. It is fortified, and commands one of the 
approaches to the capital. Junot, Napoleon’s gene¬ 
ral, was created Duke of Abrantes. 

Abrus, a genus of plants belonging to the pea 
and bean tribe, the most important of which is the 
tropical A. ptrecatorius. The root of this plant 
yields Indian liquorice, an inferior substitute for 
the true liquorice of Europe, the product of an 
allied plant. Its well-known scarlet seeds with a 
black 4 liilum ’ or scar at one end are known as 
crab’s eyes or jequiritv seeds. They are strung into 
rosaries by Buddhists, whence its nam eprecatorius, 
44 relating to prayer,” and are stated to have been 
used as carat weights in weighing diamonds. They 
contain an alkaloid, jequiritine, stated to be antago¬ 
nistic to atropine, and are consequently employed 
in ophthalmia, etc. 

Abruzzo, a district of Italy, extending for about 
80 miles along the coast of the Adriatic, and con¬ 
stituting formerly one province of the kingdom of 
the two Sicilies, but now subdivided into three— 
Abruzzo Ulteriore I., Abruzzo Ulteriore II., and Ab¬ 
ruzzo Citeriore. The Abruzzi have an area of 4,900 
square miles. The country, being traversed by the 
Apennines, is rugged and wild, but the valleys 
are productive, and the uplands provide pasture 
for large numbers of sheep. The chief towns are 
Teramo, Aquila, and Chiete. 

Absalom (Heb. father of peace), the handsome 
and beloved son of David, by Mascah, daughter of 
Talmai. His ambition led him to form a party, 
and to organise an armed rebellion against his father, 
who fled beyond Jordan. A battle ensued in the 
forest of Ephraim, the conspirators were utterly 
defeated, and Joab, finding Absalom caught in a 
tree near Mahanaim, killed him with his own hand 
(2 Sam. xviii.), whereupon David gave vent to the 
well-known words of lamentation. 

Abscess, a collection of pus or matter in the 
tissues of the body. Abscesses are classified as 
acute, and chronic or cold. They must be regarded 
as the result of disease rather than a disease in 
themselves, e.g. the alveolar abscess or “gumboil” 
which occurs in dental caries (q.v.), or the abscesses 
which are so frequently met with in the strumous 
joint disease of children. The surgeon detects the 
presence of matter by the sense of 44 fluctuation ” 
which it yields to his examining fingers. The early 
evacuation of the contents of an abscess cavity is 
in many cases a matter of great importance. 




Abscissa. 


( 13 ) 


Abydos. 



Abscissa, a terra used in geometry to designate 
the length of a line (A b) drawn from a fixed line (a) 

in a fixed direction to 
any given point (c d) on 
a curve (c a d). It was 
formerly applied only to 
the conic sections. 

Absentee, a term 
especially used with re- 
abscissa. ference to those land¬ 

lords who leave the 
management of their estates entirely in the hands of 
agents, and rarely visit and never settle in the country 
from which they obtain their income. It is agreed 
by most authorities that this system of absenteeism 
in Ireland has been the cause of much of the dis¬ 
content and disturbance. Beyond the obvious dis¬ 
advantage of leaving the estate to the management 
of an agent, and thus destroying all hopes of any 
personal intercourse between landlord and tenant, 
the system further entails the spending of much 
money out of the country from which it is obtained 
and the diminution of the feeling of responsibility 
on the part of the landlord. 


Absinth, a strong spirituous liquor flavoured 
with wormwood and other plants containing the 
principle known as absinthin. It is made chiefly 
in Switzerland, and is consumed in France and 
America. The drinking of absinth is carried to 
great excess, and ha§ markedly deleterious effects, 
sometimes leading to insanity or paralysis. 


Absolution, a term generally used in the sense 
of remission of sins, although it was at one time 
a term in Roman law. There has been some differ¬ 
ence in the forms of absolution as administered 
at different times, which may be classed as the 
precatory or optative, and the declaratory or 
indicative absolution. The latter is much more 
authoritative than the former; at first the formula 
in use was JDeus or Christus absolv'd te; later, how¬ 
ever, this was changed to ego absolvo te. Absolution 
as used in ecclesiastical law signifies the release of 
the individual from church censures and from all 
penalties belonging to them. In the English 
Church service absolution is always precatory, 
except in the case of the Service for Visitation of 
the Sick, when it is indicative—the priest using 
the words, “ By His authority committed to me, I 
absolve thee from all thy sins.” 

Abstract, as opposed to concrete , the state 
of viewing any particular propei’ties of an ob¬ 
ject apart from its other properties. Abstract in 
law signifies the summary of a book or document: 
it has an especial meaning with reference to sum¬ 
maries or epitomes of the evidences of ownership, 
when it is known as abstract of title. A perfect 
abstract shows that the owner has both the legal 
and equitable estates at his own disposal without 
any encumbrance. Abstracts of title are used to 
enable any purchaser to judge of any encumbrances | 
affecting the title before purchasing. 


Absurduni, Reductio ad, an indirect method 
of proving a proposition by showing that its 


incorrectness would lead to an absurdity. Euclid 
frequently uses it in his geometrical demonstra¬ 
tions. 

Abu, the sacred mountain of the Jain sect (q.v.), 
is in Sirohi one of the Rajputana states, and has a 
height of some 6,000 feet. On the top stands a 
block of granite bearing the footprints of Vishnu,, 
and half-way up are tw r o magnificent marble 
temples, the finest specimens extant of Jain archi¬ 
tecture. The place is used by Europeans as a 
sanatorium. 

Abu-Klea, The Wells of, situated in the 
Bayuda Desert, Nubia, not far from the Nile at 
Metemneh. Here an engagement took place Jan. 
17, 1885, between a column about 1,600 strong, 
under Sir Herbert Stewart, detached from the 
main body of Lord Wolseley’s expeditionary force 
at Korti, and an outpost of the Mahdi’s army, re¬ 
sulting in the defeat of the latter. 

Abul-Faraj, Gregok, known as Abulfaragius 
and Barhebraas, an Armenian Jew, born 1226, and 
educated as a physician. He settled in Tripoli, 
and became first Bishop of Guba (1246), afterwards 
of Aleppo. His History of the World contains 
valuable information as to the Saracens, the Tartar 
Mongols, and the conquests of Genghis-Khan. He 
died.at Maragha in 1266. 

Abul-Feda, Ismael Ben-Ali, Emad-Eddin, 
an Arabian prince ; distinguished as a warrior and 
a man of letters ; born at Damascus, 1273, being of 
Saladin’s family. He fought against the Crusaders, 
and later against the Tartars and Bibacs. He 
inherited the princedom of Hamah, 1298, but was 
not established there firmly till 1311. His Univer¬ 
sal History and Geography are the most important 
records extant of Arabian affairs during the period 
preceding his own. He died in 1331. 

Abutment, a term used in architecture to 
denote the solid part of a wall, pier, or mound 



against which an arch rests. The abutments of a 
bridge are the supports of its two extremities. 

Abydos, a town situated on the Hellespont, in 
the province of Mysia, Asia Minor, nearly opposite to 
Sestos on the European side. It played an import¬ 
ant part in Greek history, for it was the point from 
which Xerxes crossed on his bridge of boats; and 
it offered a stubborn resistance to Philip II. of 
Macedon: The story of Hero and Leander has 


































Abyssinia. 


( H ) 


Abyssinia. 


rendered it still more famous. The old Turkish 
castle of the Dardanelles lies a little S. 

Abyssinia, the name of which is derived from 
the Arabic word Habesh, a mixture, in reference to 
the mixed population, is a mountainous country of 
E. Africa, lying between 7° 3(7 and 15° 4(y N. lat. 
and 35 J and 40° 30' E. long. It is bordered on the 
N. and N.W. by Nubia, on the E. by the African 
possessions of Italy, on the S. by the territory of 
the Gallas, on the W. by the regions of the Upper 
Nile. The area is about 200,000 square miles, and 
the population between three and four millions. 
Abyssinia consists of a series of extensive table¬ 
lands, the average height being 7,000 feet, inter¬ 
sected by deep valleys hollowed out by the action 
■of water, and by precipitous mountain ranges, the 
chief of which are the Sarnen (15,000 feet), the 
Lamalmon, and the Lasta. The slope is abrupt 
towards the Red Sea, more gradual towards the 
valley of the Nile. The whole region must have 
been the scene of immense volcanic activity in the 
latter part of the Tertiary age (q.v.), and there are 
still some thermal springs in the interior, and occa¬ 
sional eruptions on the coast of the Red Sea. 

The principal rivers are tributaries of the Nile. 
The Mareb, the most northerly, rises in the moun¬ 
tains of Taranta, and after a course of over 500 
miles loses itself in the sand, though in the rainy 
season it reaches the Atbara. The Takazza or Atbara 
rises in the Lasta mountains, and after a course of 
about 800 miles flows into the Nile. The Abai, 
Bahr-el-Azrek, or Blue Nile, rises in two mountains 
near Geesh, 10,000 feet above the sea-level, passes 
through the Lake of Dembea, and after enclosing 
the province of Godjam in a semicircular curve, 
Rows northwards till it joins the White Nile at 
Khartoum. The Hawash rises in the province 
of Shoa, and flows N.E. to Lake Abhelbad. The 
largest lake is the Tzana, 60 miles by 40. 

In the river valleys and swamps the heat and 
moisture are suffocating and pestilential, but in 
general the climate is pleasant and healthy. The 
vegetation varies with the altitude from tropical 
plants to the pines, heaths, and lichens of N. 
Europe. The soil is fertile, three crops being 
grown in the year in some parts. Maize, wheat, 
barley, peas, beans, and taff and tocussa, two kinds 
of grain used locally for bread, are cultivated, as 
are also the date, orange, banana, pomegranate, 
lemon, vine, sugar cane, cotton, coffee, and indigo. 

The cattle are small and humped, the sheep fat- 
tailed and woolly, the horses strong and active, and 
there are numerous goats. The spotted hysena 
'is the most destructive of the animals, but the 
elephant, rhinoceros, lion, and many other wild 
beasts are found. Eagles, vultures, hawks, and 
•other birds of prey, partridges, pigeons, parrots, 
and thrushes are plentiful. 

In Abyssinia there are three distinct ethnical 
■elements : 1. The aboriginal Negro, on the northern 
and western slopes. 2. The Hamitic, aboriginal, 
on the plateaux (Agau, Dembea, Falasha, Klam- 
ants) and recent intruders in the south and south¬ 
east (Gallas). 3. The Semitic (Himyaritic branch), 
intruders from south-west Arabia, and throughout 



abyssinian (Tigre Branch). 


the historic period constituting the dominant 
political race. Of the Semites there are two 
branches—the Tigre in the north-east, and the 
Amharic in all 
the other pro¬ 
vinces. Origin¬ 
ally both spoke a 
Himyaritic lan¬ 
guage, the Ghez, 
which about the 
fourteenth cen¬ 
tury became dif¬ 
ferentiated into 
the two neo- 
Himyaritic lan¬ 
guages, Tigrina 
and Amharina, 
the former 
slightly, the lat¬ 
ter profoundly 
modified by 
Hamitic words 
and grammati¬ 
cal forms. Ghez 

is still studied as the language of the liturgy, while 
Amharina has become the language of the court, 
of diplomacy, and general intercourse. All these 
languages are written in a peculiar syllabic alpha¬ 
bet resembling that of the Himyaritic inscriptions 
in Yemen; but none possess a literature in the 
strict sense of the term. Like their speech, the 
Semites themselves have become largely blended 
with the surrounding Hamitic populations. But as 
both Semites and Hamites belong to the Caucasic 
stock, the modern Abyssinian type is remarkably 
regular, though the normal complexion is a 
yellowish-brown, with a great variety of shades, 
from the almost light colour of the nobles to the 
dark brown and even black of the lower classes. 
The people are Christians of the Monophysite sect; 
the National Church being a branch of the Coptic, 
and its spiritual head, the Abuna, always a Copt 
consecrated by the Patriarch of Alexandria; but 
the Falashas, i.e. “ Exiles,” practise Jewish ob¬ 
servances, and have even been regarded as Jews, 
or as the “ Lost tribes of Israel.” Socially the 
Abyssinians are more civilised than the neigh¬ 
bouring Gallas and Somalis, but fall far below 
the European standard. They may be described 
as in the “barbaric” state, the natural evolu¬ 
tion of their social system having been arrested 
by the interruption of their intercourse with the 
Byzantine empire, caused by the sudden irrup¬ 
tion of Islam into the Nile valley in the seventh 
century. The industrial arts are little developed. 
The Abyssinians, who call themselves “ Ithiopia- 
vian,” i.e. “ Ethiopians,” in the elevated style, and 
“ Habeshi ” in familiar language, are a light¬ 
hearted, intelligent people, but vainglorious and 
of coarse habits. Their feasts of raw flesh, as 
described by Bruce, are still in use ; potygamy is 
prevalent, and the marriage tie easily severed. 
The national garb is the skuma , a cotton or silk 
robe of the toga type. Education is entirely in 
the hands of the clergy, who own much of the 
land. 







Abyssinia. 


( 15 ) 


Acacia. 


The four chief provinces are Tigre in the N., 
Amhara in the centre, containing the capital 
Gondar, Godjam in the S.W., and Shoa in the S.E. 
Abyssinia was known in the time of the Ptolemys, 


were killed. King John, however, was killed by 
the Dervishes at Metemneh in 1889. Thereupon 
Menelek became king, and accepted the pro¬ 
tectorate of Italy. 



OUTLINE MAP OF ABYSSINIA. 


and in the fourth century Christianity was intro¬ 
duced. In the sixth century the greatest height of 
prosperity was reached, but the Mohammedan con¬ 
quests of the seventh century drove the Abyssinians 
back into their tableland. Legends of Prester John 
were from the fourteenth century onwards identi¬ 
fied with the King or Negus of Abyssinia, and in the 
fifteenth century the Portuguese reached the 
country in search of him. They tried to introduce 
the Roman Catholic faith, but though the Royal 
family accepted it for a short time in the seven¬ 
teenth century, the bulk of the people remained 
unchanged. Theodore began to extend his power, 
and in 1855 was crowned king by the Abuna. In 
consequence of a fancied insult he imprisoned the 
British Consul, Captain Cameron, together with all 
the other Europeans in his dominions, and refused 
to negotiate with the embassy sent in 18G4. A 
British expedition of 10,000 men of all arms was 
sent out under the late Lord Napier of Magdala, 
nnd were welcomed by the inhabitants as their 
deliverers. In 1868 the fortress of Magdala was 
stormed, and he was found dead. On the departure 
of the British troops a struggle for supremacy en¬ 
sued among the native chieftains, but in 1872 Prince 
Kassai of Tigre was crowned under the name of 
John. In 1885 Italy annexed Massowah and 
'virtually the whole coast. King John and his 
Minister, Ras Alula, protested, and in 1887 an en¬ 
gagement took place between the Italians and 
Abyssinians, in which all but ninety of the former 


Acacia, a genus of shrubs and trees belonging 
to the sub-order Mimosece of the natural order 
Lcguminoscc , including about 420 species, natives 
of tropical and sub-tropical countries. The leaves 
are generally bi-pinnate and the flowers small and 
in rounded clusters ; but in some, especially among 
Australian kinds, leaf-stalks or pbyllodes, flattened 
in a vertical plane, take the place of leaves. In 
some species, as in A. splicerocepbala, the bull’s- 
horn thorn, of Nicaragua, the spinous ■ stipules are 
hollow and are inhabited by ants, which feed partly 
upon glandular bodies terminating the leaflets but 
protect the plant from leaf-eating species. Acacias 
mostly exude gum. Acacia Senegal yields most of 
the best Gum Arabic, Picked Turkey, White Senaar 
or Gum Senegal, the best coming from Kordofan, 
and that from Senegal being shipped via Bordeaux. 
Acacia stenocarpa and Segal, believed to be the 
shittimwood of Scripture, yield Suakim or Talca 
Gum ; Acacia arabica, Babul or East Indian Gum 
Arabic, coming from Africa, but shipped at Aden to 
Bombay and thence to England; Acacia horrida , 
Cape Gum ; and Acacia gvmmifera , Morocco, Moga- 
dor or Brown Barbary Gum. The Australian 
species, known as wattles, Acacia pycnantha, 
Golden Wattle, A. dealbata, and retinodes, Silver 
Wattle and A. decurrens, Black or Green Wattle, 



acacia catechu ( showing Leaf, Flower, and Fruit). 


yield Wattle Gum, and their astringent bark, known 
as Mimosa or Wattle Bark, or an extract from it, is 
largely imported for tanning. Babul bark, that of 
A. arabica, is similarly used, as also are the pods 
of A. nilotica, known as Heb-neb. The astringent 
medicine known as Catechu or Cutch is obtained 
by boiling down the wood, especially that of A. 
Coiechu. Several Australian species produce fine 
dense timber, especially A. melanoxylon, Blackwood, 




















Academy ( 16 ) Acapulco. 


and A. homalophylla, Myall, the latter being frag¬ 
rant and used, therefore, for tobacco-pipes. The 
name acacia is popularly applied to the North 
American Robinia Pseudacacia, the Locust-tree, a 
large tree with pinnate leaves and pendulous 
racemes of white pea-like blossoms, planted as an 
ornamental tree in Europe. 

Academy, in foreign countries an institution 
for the promotion of one or more of the arts and 
sciences, corresponding to such English societies 
as the British Association, the Royal Society, 
the Statistical Society, etc. The first academy 
is said to have been founded by Ptolemy Soter 
at Alexandria, and the collections of books and 
art treasures formed by the members were the 
origin of the famous Alexandrian library. Acade¬ 
mies for various purposes existed during the 
Middle Ages, and the revived interest in learning 
and literature at the time of the Renaissance led to 
the establishment of many, especially in Italy. 
The famous French Academy was founded in 1635 
by Richelieu, and from the beginning may be said 
to have taken the French language under its 
charge, whether for good or for evil is a much vexed 
point. It has now developed into the Institute of 
France, subdivided into five sections, each of 
which is called an “ academy.” The Imperial 
Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg is almost 
equally well-known and is justly celebrated for its 
contributions to the knowledge of the vast Russian 
Empire, and of Oriental religions, languages, and 
customs. It is obviously impossible to attempt to 
give a list of the academies of science, literature, 
history, the fine arts, archaeology, medicine, and 
surgery which exist in every civilised country, but 
mention should be made of the Royal Academy of 
Arts in London, founded in 1768, with Sir Joshua 
Reynolds as the first president. It is a self-govern¬ 
ing, self-supporting body, maintaining a school of 
art in which education is given free to all who can 
pass the necessary examinations, and opening an 
exhibition of the works of living artists every 
summer, and of the “ old masters ” every winter. 

The term academy is also applied to a place 
where the.arts and sciences are taught, and though 
in England the word in this sense has been degraded 
to the use of second- and third-rate schools, in 
Scotland and elsewhere some of the best educa¬ 
tional establishments are called academies. It may 
also mean an institution for training in some special 
art, as a riding or dancing academy, and with this 
meaning the military college for training officers 
at Woolwich is called the Royal Military Academy. 

The word itself is derived from the name of a 
garden near Athens, the original possessor of which 
was said to have been Academus, a contemporary 
of Theseus. The Greek philosopher Plato taught 
his disciples there for nearly fifty years, and hence 
they were styled the Academics, and the system of 
philosophy the Academic. 

Acadia, or Acadie, the name given to the 
French colony in North America founded by De 
Monts (1604), but subsequently seized by the English, 
and by royal patent (1621) named Nova Scotia. 

Acalephse. [Jelly Fish.] 


Acantharia, an order of Radiolaria, includ¬ 
ing those whose skeletons are composed of acanthin, 
a horny substance allied to chitin (q.v.). 

Acanthocephala, a class of worms, parasitic 
in Crustacea or insects in one stage, and in fish, 
birds, or mammals in another ; they are mouthless 
but have a proboscis armed with teeth, by which 
they are attached to the intestine of the host. The 
only genus is Fchinorhynchus. 

Acanthocladidse, a family of Bryozoa found 
in the Carboniferous and Permian periods. 

Acanthoglossus. [Echidna.] 

Acanthology, the study of the structure, etc., 
of spines, more especially of those of sea urchins. 

Acanthopterygii, an order of Teleostean 
fishes, distinguished by the presence of unjointed 
spines in the dorsal, anal, and ventral fins, and the 
generally separate condition of the lower pharyn¬ 
geal bones. The order has nineteen divisions, and 
contains some of the commonest fishes, as the 
perch, stickleback, sea-bream, mackerel, mullets, 



STICKLEBACK—ACANTHOPTERYGI AN. 


gobies, etc. The fossil species of the order are 
mainly Tertiary, but it has some representatives in 
the Chalk. 

Acanthotelson, a Carboniferous Crustacean, 
either an Amphipod or Schizopod. 

Acanthoteuthis, the oldest known “ devil 
fish” (Octopus'). It is found in the Solenhofen 
lithographic stone. 

Acanthus, a genus of herbaceous plants belong¬ 
ing to the natural order 
Acantliacece , natives of 
South Europe. The large, 
handsome, deeply-cut, spin¬ 
ous leaves of the common¬ 
est species, A mollis, 

Bear’s-breech, are sup¬ 
posed to . have suggested 
the capital of the Corinthian 
column. , 

Acapulco, a town on the 
Pacific coast of Mexico, 190 
| miles S.S.W. of the capital, 



ACANTHUS 

(Corinthian Capital from 
the Pavtheon). 






























Acarina 


( 17 ) 


Acclimatisation. 


was formerly the seat of Spanish trade with the 
East. It is still important as a station for mail 
steamers; exporting wool, skins, cocoa, etc., and 
importing piece-goods and hardware. 

Acarina, an order of Arachnida, including a 
large number of small forms, in which the body is 
not marked off into two distinct regions by a trans¬ 
verse constriction. Kespiration is usually effected 
by tracheae, minute tubes ramifying through the 
body and opening to the exterior. Many are para¬ 
sitic. It includes the “water bear,” cheese and 
water mites, ticks, etc. 

Acarnania, now Carnia, a province of ancient 
Greece lying between iEtolia and the Ionian sea; 
a rugged country, populated by shepherds of Epirot 
race who in olden times served the Athenians as 
^lingers. Chief town, Stratos, afterwards Leucas. 

Acarus. [Acarina.] 

Accadians, a pre-Semitic cultured people of 
the lower Euphrates, whose empire was overthrown 
by the Assyrians between 1700 and 2000 B.c. Their 
language was agglutinative, and supposed to belong 
to the Ural-Altaic family ; it is preserved in the old¬ 
est cuneiform writings. [Assyria and Babylonia.] 

Acceleration, in kinematics, or science of 
motion, the rate of change of velocity of a body. 
That which produces it is termed a force (q.v.), 
and relates to dynamics. If a body, starting from 
rest, is subject to a constant acceleration, its ve¬ 
locity at any instant is proportional to the time it 
has been in motion, and to its acceleration. Change 
•of direction implies change of velocity (q.v.), and 
therefore implies an acceleration. Hence a body 
moving along any curve has an acceleration, though 
it move with constant speed. 

Accent, the marking of a certain syllable or 
syllables in a word with special intonation of the 
voice. In a word of more than three syllables, 
and in some of three syllables, there is more than 
one accent, while in words of two syllables only 
one accent is used. The modern tendency of pro¬ 
nunciation is to throw the accent as far back as 
possible. In music it signifies an emphasis occur¬ 
ring at regular intervals of time. Generally the 
accent occurs on the first note of the bar. 

Accentor, a genus of Warblers, with 12 species 
from Europe and Asia, one of which, A. modularis, 
the Hedge Accentor, or Hedge Sparrow (q.v.), is 
British, and another, A. alpinus, the Alpine Accen¬ 
tor, an occasional visitant. The latter may be dis¬ 
tinguished from the hedge sparrow by the throat, 
which is white spotted with black, and the wing- 
coverts, which are reddish-brown, varied with black, 
and tipped with white. 

Acceptance, the final act in the completion of 
a Bill of Exchange, and it consists in the person on 
whom the bill is drawn writing the word “ accepted 
across the same and adding his signature. Such 
acceptance may be either absolute, conditional, or 
partial. Absolute acceptance is a contract to pay 
the bill strictly according t o its tenour. Conditional 
acceptance is a promise to pay on a contingency 
occurring, as for example on the sale of certain 

2 


goods consigned by the drawer to the acceptor. 
Partial acceptance is a promise to pay only part of the 
sum mentioned in the bill, or to pay at a different 
time or place from those specified. In all cases the 
acceptor must sign by himself, or by some person 
duly authorised by him. Acceptance has also a 
distinct legal signification in Scotland. There a 
contract usually commences with an offer, and is 
afterwards completed by acceptance ; the offer is 
conditional on acceptance, but may before accept¬ 
ance be recalled. In the United States the law on 
the subject of “ acceptance ” is nearly the same as 
in England. [Bill of Exchange.] 

Accession, legally , a mode of acquiring pro¬ 
perty in things that have a close connection 
with each other; thus the owmer of the cow be¬ 
comes likewise the owner of the calf, and a land- 
owner becomes proprietor of what is added to his 
estate by alluvion (q.v.). Accession produced by the 
art or industry of man is termed industrial accession, 
as when wine is made out of grapes. In Scotch bank¬ 
rupt law, when there is a settlement by trust deed 
it is accepted by each creditor by a deed of acces¬ 
sion. In United States law accession is the right 
to all the production of one’s own property, the right 
to that which is united to it, naturally or artificially 
by accretion. Where a chattel is sold or pledged, 
and such sale or pledge is accompanied by delivery 
and afterwards other materials are added by the 
labour of the vendor or pledger, these pass by acces¬ 
sion. 

Accessory, or Accessary, a person guilty of 
a felonious offence, not as principal but by partici¬ 
pation, as by advice, command, aid, or conceal¬ 
ment. In treason there are no accessories, every 
person concerned being considered and treated as 
a principal. In crimes below felony also, .all persons 
concerned, if guiltj at all, are regarded as princi¬ 
pals. Accessories are of two sorts —before the fact 
and after it. An accessory before the fact is pun¬ 
ishable to the same extent as the principal, and 
there is now indeed no practical difference between 
them. Accessories after the fact are punishable 
with imprisonment not exceeding two years. In 
Scotland no distinction is made between actual 
commission of crime and accession thereto. In 
the United States there is absolutely no difference 
between accessories and principals. 

Accidentals, in music, those signs which occur 
in a composition to denote the temporary raising or 
lowering of a note. 

Accipitres. [Aetomorph^e.] 

Acclimatisation, strictly, the gradual adapta¬ 
tion of plants or animals to climates differing from 
those they have originally endured and at first in¬ 
jurious to them. The term is often confounded 
with domestication, the cultivation, that is, of 
foreign species that need not even be hardy : and 
with naturalisation, the running wild of a hardy 
exotic species that may have come from a similar 
climate and not have required any adaptation. 
Acclimatisation may be brought about in the life¬ 
time of an individual by its gradual transfer or by 







Accommodation. 


( 18 ) 


Aceldama. 


the physiological effects of the climate ; but this 
can probably seldom effect much. It is more likely 
to succeed by transporting a considerable number 
of healthy adult individuals to some intermediate 
station and breeding from them, with careful selec¬ 
tion of their hardiest offspring. Little has as yet 
been done in this direction. There are a good 
many Acclimatisation Societies in existence, of 
which perhaps the best known is the Paris Scciete 
(V Ac cl i mat at ion. 

Accommodation Bill. Where some person 
joins in a note or bill without receiving value, and 
to enable another person to raise money, he is said 
to take an “ accommodation bill.” [Bill of Ex¬ 
change.] 

Accommodation of tlie Eye, the me¬ 
chanism by which the images of objects at varying 
distances are brought to a focus on the retina. 
Helmholtz has demonstrated that this is effected by 
the contraction of the ciliary muscle, which, by 
influencing the tension of the suspensory ligament 
of the lens, admits of alteration in the convexity of 
the anterior lens’ surface. [Presbyopia.] In the 
theory of vision, it is that power which the normal 
eye possesses of adjusting itself to see objects at dif¬ 
ferent distances. The distance from the lens in the 
eye to the retina is practically constant. Hence, if 
the eye were incapable of accommodation, only ob¬ 
jects at one definite distance would produce clear 
images on the retina. But the curvature of the 
crystalline lens in the normal eye may be so varied 
by muscular alteration of its anterior surface that 
objects may be clearly seen at all distances beyond 
five or six inches. The range of vision is said to 
extend from six inches to infinity ; thus a star may 
be seen as clearly as one of these letters. With old 
age the accommodating power diminishes, and the 
eye has to be assisted by the use of spectacles. This 
defect is, however, quite distinct from that of long¬ 
sightedness, in which case the range is abnormal, 
though the accommodation for that range may be 
perfect. 

Accompaniment, in music, any part or parts 
which are subordinate to the melody and which are 
added to complete or enrich the harmony. Accom¬ 
paniment may be either vocal or instrumental. 

Accordion, a musical instrument, which is in 
reality a simpler and earlier form of the concertina; 
it is of very limited capacity, and is now merely 
used as a plaything for children. 

Account, in its legal signification, a state¬ 
ment shewing an amount or balance due by one 
party to another for sums paid, goods supplied, or 
services rendered. A balance agreed and settled 
between the parties is termed an “ account stated.” 
In bankruptcy the failure of a tradesman to keep 
proper accounts of his business is a criminal offence. 
Corporations and officers of the Court are generally 
required to publish periodical accounts; life as¬ 
surance companies are necessitated under the Act, 
1870, to make very elaborate returns and accounts ; 
building societies are also required to do the same 
with the registrar annually. 

O v 


Accountant, “ one whose profession it is to 
understand book-keeping and accounts of all kinds 
in theory and practice.” The principal work 
devolving upon him is: (1) To audit books of 
account in order to secure correctness and detect 
fraud ; (2) to prepare balance-sheets and any other 
returns and statistics of trade ; (8) to administer 
insolvent estates of companies and private debtors,, 
and adjust the rights and liabilities of partners and 
creditors; (4) to investigate and arbitrate upon 
business disputes. Since 1880 the profession has 
been governed by the “ Institute of Chartered 
Accountants in England and Wales,” the qualifica¬ 
tion for membership being five years’ clerkship 
under articles and the passing of three examinations. 
Scotland also possesses three Chartered Institutes 
in Edinburgh, Aberdeen, and Glasgow. 

Accrall, a town in W. Africa, under British 
jurisdiction, about 75 miles N.E. from Cape Coast 
Castle. The Danes and Dutch had also factories 
here, called Christiansborg and Crevecoeur, but 
both hqve been ceded to Britain. Exports : Gold 
dust, ivory, palm oil, ground nuts, etc. Imports : 
Piece goods, hardware, guns, knives, spirits, etc. 
It is now the seat of government in the Gold Coast 
Settlement. 

Accrington, Old and New, two townships 
in Lancashire, 4 miles E. of Blackburn on the 
East Lancashire Railway. Calico-printing, cotton¬ 
spinning, and coal-mining are the principal indus¬ 
tries. Of late years the population has increased 
to a very large extent. There is a fine town-liall. 

Accumulation. In addition to its various 
meanings, this term has the following special sig¬ 
nification. An Act of Parliament popularly known 
as “ The Thelluson Act” (it having been enacted to 
counteract dispositions similar to those under 
which as those made by a Mr. Thelluson tying 
up the enjoyment of his property for an almost 
illimitable period of time), prohibits the selling- 
or disposing of property by deed, will, or other¬ 
wise, so as to accumulate the income for any longer- 
term than the life or lives of the settlor or settlors 
and 21 years after. The Act relaxes this principle in 
certain cases of minority and of provision for pay¬ 
ment of debts and portions. 

Accumulator, in hydraulics, a contrivance 
for storing up energy in the form of water at high 
pressure. The applications of hydraulic power are 
now very extensive, many machines being very con¬ 
veniently worked by water. It is, however, wanted 
at very great pressures. To obtain this continuously 
the accumulator is used. It is simply a heavily- 
loaded hydraulic press. Water is forced into it by 
pumping-engines, and gradually lifts the ram. The 
water now within the press, having to support the 
full load on the ram, is at great pressure, and may 
be drawn off to the different hydraulic machines. 
In electricity. [Secondary Batteries.] 

Aceldama ( ;t Field of blood”), the name given 
to the field which was purchased by the priests with 
the money given back by Judas after his repentance 
(Matt, xxvii. 8). 




Acephala. 


( 19 ) 


Achene. 


Acephala. [Pelecypoda.] 

Acerose, a term applied to the 
apex of a leaf when sharp-pointed 
or needle-like, as in the Juniper. 

Acerra, a town in Campania, 
destroyed by Hannibal for its loyalty 
to the Romans, but afterwards re¬ 
built (Livy, xxiii. 17 ; xxvii. 3). 

ackrose leaves Acervularia, a genus of Ru- 
(■ Juniper-tree ). g° s e corals ot interest, as some ot 
the species (as A. ananas ) almost 
certainly belong to existing families. [Rugosa.] 

Acetic Acid, HC 2 H 3 0. 2 (= CH 3 .CO.OH), the 
acid principle of vinegar. It is produced in nature by 
the fermentation of alcoholic liquids, and its forma¬ 
tion in this way accompanies the growth of a fungus, 
My coderma aceti , to the activity of which, as a 
carrier of oxygen, its development is due. In 
countries where alcohol is cheap, acetic acid is 
manufactured by this process of fermentation. In 
England it is mainly obtained by the dry distilla¬ 
tion of wood. The crude acid obtained by the 
latter method is termed Pyroligneous Acid, and 
requires purification from tar and wood spirit. 
Pure acetic acid, as obtained from pyroligneous 
acid and vinegar, by processes of refinement, is a 
colourless liquid which congeals below 16°C., and is 
hence called Glacial Acetic Acid, B.P. 118°C.; S.G. 

= 1-05. It can be mixed in all proportions with 
water, alcohol, and ether ; and forms salts called 
Acetates, which, for the most part, crystallise well 
and are very soluble in water. Acetic acid, as 
usually sold, is a mixture of pure acid and water ; 
as defined by the British Pharmacopoeia, it contains 
about 33 per cent, of the glacial acid. It is used in 
medicine to relieve nervous headaches and fainting 
fits, and in manufactures for calico printing, and 
the preparation of acetates. 

Acetone, C 3 H 6 0 (= CPI 3 CO CH S ), or Di-methyl- 
Ketone', the first of a series of organic com¬ 
pounds known as the Ketones. [Ketone.] It 
is usually prepared by the dry distillation of 
acetates, but may also be obtained by the destruc¬ 
tive distillation of many organic substances, and is 
one of the by-products in the manufacture of acetic 
acid from wood. Acetone is a colourless, limpid, 
and very inflammable liquid, which mixes in all 
proportion with water, alcohol, and ether, and ^is a 
solvent for camphor, fats, and resins, B.P. 56° C.; 
S.G. £— -81. 

Acetylene, C 2 H 2 (=r CI1.CH), or Lfthine, a 
gaseous substance of disagreeable odour, which is 
produced by the incomplete combustion of hydro¬ 
carbons ; the well-known smell of a Bunsen burner 
which has been turned low and “ lit back ” is due 
to formation of acetylene. It was discovered by 
Bert helot in. 1859, by discharging an electric 
current between carbon points, in an atmosphere of 
hydrogen, and forms the starting-point in his 
celebrated synthesis of alcohol. [Alcohol.] 
Acetylene may be liquefied at ordinary temperatures 
by a pressure of about 80 atmospheres ; it forms a 
characteristic compound with copper, known as 


Copper-acetylene, a substance which is precipitated 
as a red and somewhat explosive powder by passing 
the gas into an ammoniacal solution of a cupric 
salt. 

Achsetas, those Gephyreans, or spoon worms, 
not provided with bristles; it includes the com¬ 
monest members of that class, such as the Sipun- 
culidce. 

Achaia, the ancient name of a country in the 
Peloponnesus, lying along the S. coast of the Cor¬ 
inthian Gulf, also called .Egialea. It was peopled 
by the Achaians, who originally came from Thessaty 
and conquered the greater part of the Pelopon¬ 
nesus ; but on the return of the Heraclidae they were 
driven to the N. coast. There the name spread very 
widely ; and about 280 B.c. was formed a confeder¬ 
acy, which embraced twelve cities, known as the 
Achaian League. Under Aratus and Philopoemen 
this remarkable organisation kept alive the tradi¬ 
tions of independence, and afforded a model of 
federal government. When the Romans conquered 
Greece, they gave the name of Achaia to the south¬ 
ern portion of the country, formerly known as the 
Peloponnesus. With Macedonia it constituted the 
whole of Greece, and consequently the phrase 
Macedonia and Achaia came to be used as an 
equivalent for the ancient Greece. It now forms, 
together with Elis, a province which occupies much 
the same situation as the ancient Achaia. 

Achard, Louis Amedee Eugene, a French 
novelist, born at Marseilles, 1814. After a few 
yehrs spent in business in Algeria, and in official 
life in the provinces, he went to Paris (1838) and 
entered upon the profession of journalism. Under 
the pseudonyms of “ Grimm ” and “ Alceste,” he 
contributed literary articles to the fipoque and the 
Assemblee Rationale. Later on he plunged into 
politics, and in 1848 took an active part as an 
officer of the Garde Nationale against the insur¬ 
gents, his brother being killed by his side. In 
1850 he was severely wounded in a duel with M. 
Fiorentino. He was war correspondent of the 
Moniteur in 1870, and was present at several en¬ 
gagements. His death took place in 1875. Amongst 
the numerous works on which M. Acharcl’s fame 
rests, the best known are Chateaux en Espaync , 
La llobe de Nessus, Belle-Rose, Maurice de Treuil, 
Les Seductions, Les Fourches Caudines, and Mar- 
celle. Several of his dramatic productions have 
been successful. 

Achates, the faithful friend of -Eneas (Fidus 
Achates, JEneid i. 188, etc). The name has become 
generally used as an equivalent for a faithful friend. 

Achelous, a river of Epirus, which, rising in 
the Pinclus range, and flowing between -Etolia and 
Acarnania, empties itself into the Ionian Sea, where 
its silt forms a group of small islands known as the 
iEchinades. Its name, celebrated by many poets, 
from Hesiod downwards, became almost a synonym 
for water. 

Achene, or Achsenium (from the Greek, mean¬ 
ing “ not splitting”), an indehiscent, superior, dry, 
one-chambered, and one-seeded fruit or carpel. 








Acheron. 


( 20 ) 


Acid. 


Tlie fruit of the buttercup is a collection (etrerio) 
of achenes, and that of the strawberry only differs 
in the fleshy mass supporting the achenes. 

Acheron, a river of Epirus flowing through L. 
Acherusia into the Ionian Sea. Either from the 
supposed origin of its name ( aclios, woe) or from 
local legends, it became confused or identified 
with one of the rivers of the infernal regions. 

Acheta, a genus of Orthoptera, one species of 
which, A. domestica , the house cricket, is more 
widely known than appreciated. Its structure 
agrees closely with that of the cockroach, to which 
reference should be made. 

Acheul, St., Type. [Flint Implements.] 

Achievement, in heraldry, a complete repre¬ 
sentation of a shield with all its quarterings 
and accessories ; it is generally used of a funeral 
escutcheon when it is intended to show the rank 
and family of the deceased gentleman. 

Achill, an island off the W. coast of Ireland, in 
county Mayo, from which it is separated by Achill 
Sound. It is 16 miles long by 7 broad, and has a 
coast-line of 80 miles. Between it and a smaller 
island (Achillbeg) lies Achill Sound, a deep and 
safe haven. Achill Head, 2,222 ft. high, is the 
name of its S.W. promontory, that on the N. being 
called Saddle Head. The W. coast is steep, rocky, 
and dangerous: but on the E. the approaches are 
easy and sheltered, the sea being fordable at low 
water. The soil consists of rock and bog, and but 
little of it can be cultivated. Amethysts are 
found here, and there is a valuable bed of lime¬ 
stone. 

Acliilles, the son of Peleus (Pelides), and grand¬ 
son of Abacus (iEacides). His mother, Thetis, a 
daughter of the sea-god, Nereus, dipped her son in 
the Styx, which rendered his body invulnerable, 
except the heel by which he was held (Achilles 
Tendon). He was educated by the Centaur, Chiron, 
and became king of the myrmidons of Phthiotis in 
Thessaly. To .escape the fate predicted for him 
in the Trojan expedition, he assumed a girl’s dress, 
and hid himself at the court of Lycomedes of 
Scyros when the other warriors were setting forth 
(Hor. Ocl. I. viii. 13). Ulysses, however, by an 
artful stratagem, penetrated his disguise, and he 
joined the invading host. Early in the war he was 
compelled to give up to Agamemnon the captive 
maid Briseis, and the quarrel that thereupon ensued 
protracted the siege of Troy, and provided a theme 
for Homer’s Iliad, of which Achilles may be re¬ 
garded as the hero. He sulked in his tent till his 
friend Patroclus was slain. Then the desire for 
vengeance prevailed; he buckled on the new armour 
made for him by Vulcan, and Hector speedily fell 
before his spear. The epithet most frequently ap¬ 
plied to him by Homer is podokys, “ swift-footed.” 
Homer refers to the death of Achilles, but we 
learn from legendary sources only that he was 
shot in the heel by Paris whilst celebrating his 
nuptials with Polyxena, daughter of Priam. Tela- 
raonian Ajax and Ulysses contended for his 


armour, which the Greeks awarded to the latter. 
His son was named Pyrrhus, or Neoptolemus. 

Achilles, Tendon of 

( Tendo Achillis), the largest 
and strongest tendon of 
the human body, by means 
of which the calf muscles 
are attached to the heel. 

This tendon is occasionally 
divided, for the relief of 
certain malformations. 

[Tenotomy.] 

Achimenes, a large 
genus of dicotyledonous herbaceous plants belong¬ 
ing to the order Gesneracece , natives of Central Ame¬ 
rica, cultivated in our stoves and greenhouses, for 
their large showy mono-symmetrically salver-shaped 
flowers. 

Achromatism of Lenses, a device usually 
obtained by the use of compound lenses, to remedy 
the effects of chromatic aberration. A combination 
of lenses made of different kinds of glass, and of 
definite focal lengths, will enable us to unite as 
many coloured images as there are lenses. For 
ordinary purposes it is only necessary to combine 
two of the more intense colours, such as the orange- 
yellow and the green-blue. This is done with 
crown and flint-glass lenses. It has been dis¬ 
covered recently that single lenses, if manufactured 
of carefully-prepared glass, may be made achro¬ 
matic. Blair achieved the same result a century 
ago by the use of fluid lenses. 

Aciculidee, a family of air-breathing Gaster- 
opods, the mouths of whose shells are closed by 
opercula. They are confined to the Tertiary era. 

Acid, the term anciently given to sour liquids, 
denotes, in the more restricted acceptation of 
modern chemistry, a Salt of Hydrogen , which is 
capable of exchanging the whole, or part, of the 
hydrogen it contains for a metal. The usual 
method of effecting this exchange is to act upon 
a metallic oxide with a solution of the acid. 
Acids, which, in such a process as this, can part 
with no less than the whole of their hydrogen, are 
called Monobasic acids, and can form only one salt. 
(Ex. Hydrochloric Acid, HC1; Acetic Acid, CH 3 
CO.OH.) Acids which can part with their hydrogen 
in two halves are capable of forming two salts, and 
are hence called Dibasic. (Ex. Sulphuric Acid, 
H 2 S0 4 ; Oxalic Acid, H 2 C 2 0 4 .) The definition of a 
Tribasic acid is precisely similar. (Ex. Phosphoric 
Acid, H 3 P0 4 ; Citric Acid, H 3 C 6 H 8 0 7 .) Acids are 
sometimes classified as inorganic and organic ; the 
former are extremely powerful and corrosive, and 
do not, on this account, exist normally in nature. 
Sulphuric , nitric, and hydrochloric are the princi¬ 
pal inorganic acids. Organic acids are produced by 
the activity of living tissue in plants and animals ; 
they frequently occur in the free state. (Ex. Citric 
Acid in lemons.) Acetic, oxalic and tartaric are 
important acids of this class. Solubility in water, 
sourness, the power of reddening blue litmus paper, 
also of effervescing with alkaline carbonates, and of 



TENDON OF ACHILLES. 










Acidaspidse. 


C 21 ) 


Acosta. 


neutralising and being neutralised by alkalis; all 
these are characteristic properties of acids, although 
not necessarily essential. 

Acidaspidae, a family of Trilobites found in 
the Silurian and Devonian rocks. 

Acidimetry, a branch of chemical analysis, 
which occupies itself with the determination of 
the strength of acids. Acidimetry is usually per¬ 
formed in the volumetric manner, but is sometimes 
effected by weight-analysis. 

Acinetaria. [Tentaculifera.] 

Acis, a Sicilian shepherd, who fell in love with 
the nymph Galatea, a daughter of Nereus. He had 
a formidable rival in the Cyclops Polyphemus, who 
crushed him with a reck, and his blood gave its 
name to a stream that flows from Mount Etna. The 
story has been musically treated by Handel in his 
famous cantata, Acis and Galatea. 

Aclinic Iiine, or Magnetic Equator , the name 
given to the irregular curved line drawn in 
maps round the earth, indicating the points at 
which the magnetic needle remains horizontal, with¬ 
out dipping. 

Acne, a form of skin disease, the result of in¬ 
flammation in and around the sebaceous or fat-secret¬ 
ing glands. Reddish pimples of the size of a pin’s 
head or somewhat larger present themselves, usually 
on the face and on the back between the shoulder 
blades, never on the palms or soles. The disease 
particularly affects young adults, and causes, while 
it lasts, considerable disfigurement. Comedones 
(v. Comedo) are not uncommonly present between 
the acne pimples. The basis of all treatment is 
cleanliness, in conjunction with which sulphur 
lotions prove of service. Acne rosacea is an 
affection quite distinct from ordinary acne, con¬ 
sisting in chronic congestion of the skin of the 
nose and adjoining parts of the face. One form of 
this disease, more common in men than women, is 
generally supposed to be produced by excessive 
drinking ; this is, however, by no means always the 
case. 

Acoemetae, the name given to those monks in 
the fifth century who divided their communities 
into three relays, so that worship might be carried 
on unceasingly. 

Acolyte, the highest of the four Minor Orders 
in the Roman Church ; a cleric in such order. The 
special functions of acolytes are to carry the lights, 
minister the wine and water, and attend on the 
celebrant at mass. These duties are now generally 
performed by lay men or boys, to whom the name 
is loosely applied. 

Aconcagua, the name of a province, river, and 
peak in Chili, South America: The valley watered 
by the Aconcagua is one of the most fertile in that 
region ; and the mountain, non-volcanic, that looks 
down upon it is about 23,000 feet high. San Felipe, 
formerly called Aconcagua, the capital, lies at the 
foot of the Andes, about 60 miles N.N.E. from \ al- 
paraiso, and is a prosperous, well-built town. 


Aconite or Monk’s-hood, a genus of more than 
60 species of herbaceous plants, belonging to the 
order Ranunculacecc , natives 
of the mountains of the 
northern hemisphere. Many 
kinds are grown for then 
flowers, which have a large 
hood-like sepal, blue or yel¬ 
low, arched over two stalkec, 
honey-secreting tubular pet¬ 
als. The dark tapering root.' 
contain the alkaloid aconit 
ine (C 3o H 47 N0 7 ), a white, un¬ 
cry stallisable, bitter, acrid 
substance, which renders 
them virulently poisonous. 

They act as an irritant and narcotic. The power¬ 
ful Bikh poison of Nepaul used for arrows is pre¬ 
pared from Aconitum ferox, which is now preferred 
as a source of aconitine to the common European 
species, A. Najwllus. The latter is a doubtful 
native of England. Its roots have been mistaken 
for the pale-yellow Horse-radish. 

Aconitine, the active principle of Aconite, is 
a most active poison. It is used medicinally in the 
form of the Aconite Ointment for external ap¬ 
plication to painful surfaces. Internally, aconite 
is administered mainly in the form of the tincture, 
a powerful drug, in the use of which much caution 
is necessary. 

Acorn, the corn or fruit of the oak (Anglo- 
Saxon ax'), formed of three coherent carpels with 
an adherent perianth-tube, which terminates in a 
point and becomes horny. Its three chambers and 
their six ovules are aborted to one chamber with 
generally but one seed. The acorn is surrounded 
at the base by a cup or cupule. The bitterness of 
the seed varies both in species and in individuals, 
the acorns of several kinds of evergreen oak being 
still used as human food in the Mediterranean 
region. Swine, deer and goats, squirrels, pigeons, 
and other animals feed largely upon acorns. 

Acornshells. [Balanid^e.] 

Acorns, a small genus of plants of the Aroid 
family, of which Acorus Calamus , the Sweet Sedge, 
is commonly naturalised in Europe. The starchy 
underground stem, or rhizome, of this plant con¬ 
tains a fragrant oil, said to be tonic and stimulant 
and of use in ague and dyspepsia. It is used for 
hair-powder, as a candy, in aromatic vinegar, in 
herb-beers, gin and snuff, and for chewing to clear 
the voice. It was formerly cultivated in Norfolk, 
but is now imported from South Russia. 

Acosta, Christoval, a Portuguese naturalist 
and physician, who visited the East Indies, and 
especially Goa, in the 16th century, to seek for 
drugs and plants, on which he wrote a treatise.. 
He died in 1580 at Burgos, in Spain. 

Acosta, Joaquim, a distinguished geographer 
and historian in the military service first of 
Columbia and afterwards of New Granada. In 
1834 he began a series of explorations, which have 



ACONITE. 

1. Flower. 2. Leaf and 
Inds. 3. Root. 







Acotyledons. 


( 22 ) 


Acre. 


added much to our knowledge of South America. 
In 1848 he published a valuable compendium on 
the discovery and colonisation of New Granada, 
and in 1849 he re-edited the works of Caldas, a 
learned antiquarian often quoted by Humboldt. 

Acotyledons, a name somewhat inaptly 
applied to the cryptogamic portion of the vegetable 
kingdom by analogy with the divisions Dicotyle¬ 
dons and Monocotyledons, comprising all flower- 
less plants. It signifies that their spores or re¬ 
productive elements do not contain any cotyledon 
or embryonic leaf. Though this is strictly true, 
as they do not at first contain even an embryo, in 
the higher Cryptogams such as the Ferns an 
embryo is subsequently produced, one portion of 
which gives rise to a cotyledon, much as in Mono¬ 
cotyledons. 

Acouehy. [Agouti.] 

Acoustics, the science relating to those ef¬ 
fects called sounds, their causes and transmission, 
qualities and analysis. Drawing a bow across a 
violin-string causes it to vibrate. A certain effect is 
produced on the ear, an effect varying with dif¬ 
ferent ears, or at different distances with the same 
ear. This effect is transmitted from the string to 
the tympanum or drum of the ear by a vibratory 
motion of the particles of the air, or other elastic 
medium, which may intervene. Without an 
elastic medium to transmit this effect no sound 
would be heard. Thus a bell ringing inside the 
exhausted receiver of an air-pump cannot be heard. 
The velocity of transmission depends on the nature 
of the medium, varying with its elasticity and with 
its density. If the elasticity be increased the 
velocity will increase ; if the density be increased 
the velocity will decrease. The rate at which 
sound travels in the air is 1,093 feet per second at 
0° C., increasing about 2 feet per second for every 
degree Centigrade. The velocity of sound in 
liquids is as a rule much greater than in gases, 
and much greater in solids than in liquids, the 
elasticity increasing more rapidly than the density. 
Thus in water the velocity is 5,000 feet per second, 
and in iron 16,000 feet per second. The chief laws 
of acoustics are thus stated :—( a ) The intensity 
or loudness of a sound varies inversely as the 
square of the distance of the sonorous body from 
the ear. If the distance is doubled the intensity is 
diminished to (b) The intensity increases with 
the amplitude or extent of vibration of the sonorous 
body; (e) it diminishes if the density of the 
medium is diminished, and (d) it is strengthened 
by the neighbourhood of other sonorous bodies. 
Hence the use of sounding-boxes in stringed instru¬ 
ments, and of sounding-boards for the voice. 
Sounds vary in pitch or acuteness if the fre¬ 
quency of the vibration varies ; thus, if the number 
of vibrations per second be increased we obtain 
a higher note, if diminished we have a lower. If 
the number be doubled a note is heard that pro¬ 
duces a certain physiological effect of sameness. 
This note is the octave, or first harmonic. If trebled 
we get the second harmonic, and so on. The limits 
of hearing of the ordinary human ear are from 


about 34 (Helmholtz) to 34,000 vibrations per 
second, but the range varies considerably with 
different individuals. 261 vibrations per second are 


recognised by our musical sense, as A 

tuning-fork used on a sounding-board gives us a 
nearly pure note such as this, but as a rule we 
never get simple notes corresponding to definite 
frequencies of vibration. Thus in sounding C on a 
pianoforte it is easy to recognise some of the 
liar monies, especially when the keys of the har¬ 
monic notes are kept down. This admixture of other 
notes to the fundamental gives us. the quality or 
timbre of a sound, and we are thus enabled to dis¬ 
tinguish between the voices of different people or 
the sounds of different instruments. [Musical 
Instruments.] Like other wave motions, sound 
waves may be reflected or refracted; they may 
augment each other or they may interfere. [Re¬ 
flection, Refraction, Interference.] 


Acraspeda, a sub-class of Hydrozoa, includ¬ 
ing the majority of the large permanently un¬ 
attached jelly-fish. The main characteristic, 
from which the name is derived, is the absence 
of a velum. The body consists of a bell-shaped 
disc, in which the polvpite is suspended; the 
structure may be compared to an open umbrella, 
with a very short handle. In the craspedote jelly¬ 
fish a velum or shelf runs round the umbrella, 
a little above the base, and limiting the opening ; 
this is absent in the Acraspedce. The most in¬ 
teresting feature in this group is its development. 
The life history is divided into three stages, ex¬ 
cluding the embryonic. After the free-swimming 
ovum has become fixed, it develops into a small 
liydra-like body, the Scypldstoma (this stage is not 
known in many forms). By a series of constric¬ 
tions this tube becomes transversely divided, and 
then resembles a pile of saucers with ragged edges ; 
this is the Strobila stage. The constrictions deepen 
and successive segments are cut off; these swim 
away as Ephyrce , each of which develops into the 
adult form, which is sometimes of a gigantic size. 
The four bodies on the margin of the disc, which 
serve as sensory organs, are covered by hoods. The 
group is, therefore, often known as the “ covered¬ 
eyed Medusae.” Aurelia , one of the commonest of 
the larger jelly-fish round the British coasts, serves 
as a good type of the class. [Aurelia.] 

Acre, a measure of land, consisting of 4,840 
square yards or 10 square chains, or 4 roods. 
The measure of an acre in the United States is the 
same as the English acre, but the old Scotch and 
Irish acres were somewhat larger. 

Acre, St. Jean d’Acre, or Accho, probably 
founded by Phoenicians, and known to the later 
Greeks as Ptolemais, is a fortified sea-port in Syria, 
situated on a projecting tongue of land that forms 
the N.E. limit of the Bay of Acre, the promontory 
of Mount Carmel being to the S.W. It was captured 
by the first crusaders, 1104, and again by Baldwin, 
1110. Saladin retook it, 1187, but Richard Coeur de 
Leon and Philip Augustus won it back, 1191, and 
gave it to the Knights of St. John. In 1291 it again 






Acridiidse. 


( 23 ) 


Act. 


passed into Saracen hands, and gradually fell into 
decay. Towards the end of the 18th century Ahmed 
Djezzar, Pasha of Sidon, improved and fortified the 
place, and in 1799, with the help of Sir Sydney 
Smith, held it successful!}'’ against the French under 
Bonaparte. Ibrahim Pasha besieged it in 1832, and 
.scarcely left a house standing. Another bombard¬ 
ment by the English and Austrian fleets under Sir 
Pt. Stopford occurred in 1840, when a magazine blew 
up that swept away two Egyptian regiments and 
■completed the destruction of the town. Its great 
trade has melted away, and now solid fragments of 
masonry alone bear witness to its former strength 
.and prosperity. 

Acridiidss. [Grasshoppers.] 

Acroceraunian Mountains, a range of 
mountains in Epirus ending with a bold pro¬ 
montory beyond Oricum, much dreaded by sailors 
—infames scopulos Acroceraunia. The name is, 
perhaps, derived from the exposure of th^se high 
peaks to lightning. In modern times the headland 
is called C. Linguetta. 

Acrogens, or Summit-growers, a name applied 
to the higher cryptogamic plants, viz. mosses, 
ferns, horse-tails, and lycopods, in which there are 
•a distinct stem and leaves, the former increasing 
most notably in length, by growth at its apex. The 
vascular bundles are in a ring, and like the indefinite 
•ones of Monocotyledons, closed, so that the stem 
increases little in diameter, whilst its apical growth 
results mainly from the repeated division of one 
large apical cell. 

Acrolein, C 3 H 4 0 (= CHo.CH.CHO), or Acrylic 
Aldehyde , a characteristic product of the destruc¬ 
tive distillation of fats, being produced by the 
decomposition of Glycerin. It is usually prepared 
by heating pure Glycerin in a retort with Phos¬ 
phoric Acid or Acid Potassium Sulphate, and con¬ 
densing the product in a receiver surrounded by 
.a freezing mixture. Acrolein thus obtained is a 
volatile, limpid, and very refractive liquid, fairly 
soluble in water; much more readily soluble in 
ether, B.P. 52° C. ; S.G. ■= *84. Its vapour is ex¬ 
cessively irritating to the nose and eyes, and it is 
very difficult to keep for any length of time even in 
closed vessels, as it changes spontaneously into an 
insoluble substance, called Disacryl, which is pro¬ 
bably a polymeride. By exposure to air or by 
treatment with silver solution it is oxidised to 
Acrylic Acid (C 3 H 4 0 2 ). 

Acropetal, a hybrid term, partly of Greek, 
partly of Latin derivation, in botany signifies deve¬ 
loped in succession from base to apex. It is essen¬ 
tially identical with “ centripetal,” but is usually 
applied rather to elongated structures, as, for in¬ 
stance, the secondary rootlets originating from a 
tap-root or the leaves unfolding along a shoot. 
Structures which are not acropetal are termed 
adventitious. 

Acropolis, the common Greek name for all 
fortified citadels. In ancient Greece the most 


notable of these citadels were those at Corinth, 
Thebes, Argos, and Messene; but the term is 
especially used of the rocky eminence that crowns 
the city of Athens. This is a square, craggy mass, 
with steep sides, about 150 feet high ; the flat sum¬ 
mit has a length of 1,000 feet and a breadth of 500. 
The view from this eminence is naturally very com¬ 
manding, and now affords an admirable opportunity 
to the visitor of realising the relative positions of the 
historical landmarks of Athens. After the Persian 
war it was uninhabited, and dedicated solely to the 
worship of Athena. A splendid flight of marble steps 
led up from the Agora to the Propyloea, or porch of 
the enclosure. This noble structure of pure Pentelic 
marble consisted of a grand central entrance deco¬ 
rated with massive Doric columns and two side 
galleries, that to the left being the Pinakotheka, or 
museum of pictures. The temple of Nike Apteros 
faced the W. front. On passing through the gate¬ 
way the Parthenon immediately met the eye. It 
also was of Pentelic marble and in the Doric style. 
The building, 228 feet in length, 101 feet in breadth, 
and 66 feet high to the top of the pediment, dis¬ 
played 50 majestic columns, enclosing a cella that 
contained two chambers of unequal size. The 
metopes within and the friezes without were sculp¬ 
tured in high and low relief respectively, and the 
whole building was full of sculptures and statues, all 
executed under the direction of Phidias, who him¬ 
self carved the marvellous colossal statue of Athena. 
This magnificent figure, 40 feet in height, was of 
ivory where the flesh was represented, and the 
drapery was of solid gold. It was probably tinted. 
A still larger effigy of the virgin goddess in bronze 
stood in front of the Parthenon, and towered above 
it so as to serve as a landmark to ships at sea. 
Another glory of this sacred spot was the Erech- 
theum, where Poseidon was worshipped. Its date 
is later than that of the Parthenon, and its style 
Ionic. Here sprang up the primeval olive tree 
at the bidding of Athena, and here could be seen 
the imprint of Poseidon’s trident on the rock. In 
a hollow beneath the Acropolis lay the cave of 
Pan. 

Acrosalenia, an extinct genus of sea-urchin 
in which a series of additional plates is present in 
the apical-disc. The genus is confined to the 
Jurassic and Cretaceous systems. [AriCAL-Disc.] 

Acrostic, a series of lines or words so 
arranged that their initial letters taken in 
order form a word or a name. The practice of 
making acrostics was at one time much in use, but 
at the present day they are composed mainly as 
puzzles. 

Act has several distinct meanings: (1) a docu¬ 
ment in writing declared to be the act and deed 
of the party signing; (2) an act of bankruptcy, 
being any act which subjects a person to be pro¬ 
ceeded against under the bankrupt law; (3) an 
act of God, being any event not brought about by 
human means or which human means could not 
have avoided. In such cases (apart from special 
contract) no one is entitled to redress or damages 
from another. In insurance, an act of God is an 





Act. 


( 24 ) 


Actinotrocha. 


exception to the insurer’s liability. [Act of Par¬ 
liament.] 

Act of Congress. [Congress.] 

Act of Parliament, the name given to a 
Bill (q.v.) after it has passed successfully through 
both Houses of Parliament and has obtained the 
Koval Assent. It is then absolutely binding. 

Act of Settlement, an Act passed in 1700, 
by which all prior claims to the throne, except¬ 
ing that of the issue of William or of Anne, 
were set aside in favour o£ Princess Sophia, Elec- 
tress of Hanover, and the heirs of her body; by 
this Act George I., her son, succeeded to the crown 
on the death of Anne. In 1652 Cromwell’s measure 
for the settlement of Ireland, also known as the 
Act of Settlement, was passed; it is this settlement 
that Mr. Lecky regards as “ the foundation of the 
aversion between the proprietary and the tenants, 
which is the chief cause of the political and social 
evils of Ireland.” 

Act of Toleration, an Act passed in 1689 
relaxing the severe provisions against Protestant 
Dissenters contained in the Act of Uniformity 
(q.v.), the Five-mile Act (q.v.), and the Conventicle 
Act. 

Act of Uniformity (1662), the name given 
to that statute by which all ministers were re¬ 
quired to give their assent to the Book of Common 
Prayer, and to read the morning and evening 
services from it. In consequence of this Act 2,000 
clergymen resigned their livings. The Act of the 
same name passed in 1559 was directed against any 
persons who made use of an'y other form of prayer- 
book than Edward VI.’s Revised Prayer-book. 

Actaeon, son of Aristasus, the child of Apollo, 
and Autonoe, daughter of Cadmus. He was a 
mighty hunter, and came upon Diana bathing in 
a woodland stream. To punish him for his in¬ 
trusion the goddess transformed him into a stag, 
and he was devoured by his own hounds. 

Actaeonidae, a family of Gasteropoda which 
has existed since the Carboniferous period. 

Actinia, one of the commonest- genera of 
the sea anemones, which affords a good type 


ACTINIA. 

of the structure of that group. A. equina, “the 
Beadlet,” is one of the commonest British species ; 
it occurs attached to rocks, stones, and even crabs, 


all round the coast. It consists of a fleshy cylinder 
one to four inches in diameter and one inch in 
height. Its firm adherence to the object on which 
it lives is secured by its flat base, the disc ; in the 
centre of the upper end of the cylinder is the 
mouth surrounded by rings of tentacles. The mouth 
leads to a short digestive tube, the stomodmum ; 
this is open below to the body cavity and is held in 
position by radiating membranes, the mesenteries ; 
upon these are the reproductive organs. Its only 
method of defence is the shooting out of minute 
barbed threads. Actinia should be compared with 
Alcyonium, from which it differs mainly in that the* 
mesenteries occur in multiples of six instead of 
eight and that the tentacles are not fringed. 

Actiniaria, the order of Anthozoa, which* 
includes the sea anemones. Actinia, which has- 
been described, is a fairly typical representative 
of the group. The principal variations are that 
some are not attached, but free-swimming, as- 
Minyas, or burrowing in mud, as Peachia ; in 
some the mesenteries are eight (Edwardsia) or 
in multiples of eight (PARACTiNliE), though they 
usually conform to the hexameral (six-rayed) ar¬ 
rangement of the Anthozoa. 

Actinism, that property of certain kinds of 
light which produces chemical action, as distinct 
from their heating or light-giving powers. Thus,, 
of the constituent rays of the sun’s light the- 
actinic rays are those at and beyond the violet 
end of the visible spectrum, those rays at the other 
end producing no apparent chemical effect. If the* 
actinic rays be screened off by a piece of ruby- 
glass, which prevents the passage of any rays but 
the red, no chemical effects will be produced.. 
Hence the use of ruby-glass lanterns in photography.. 

Actinocrinus, one of the best known genera 
of Crinoids of the Palaeozoic era; it is common in 
the carboniferous limestone of the North and West 
of England. [Crinoidea.] 

Actinomere, one of the divisions of the body 
of the Ctenopiiora. [Pleurobraciiia.] 

Actinomycosis, a disease characterised by 
the formation of tumour-like growths, occurring; 
in the tongue and lower jaw 
of cows, but not unknown in 
the human subject. It is 
caused by the actinomyces 
or ray-fungus, the exact bo¬ 
tanical status of which is not 
yet clearly decided. 

Actinophrys, a common 
genus of Heliozoa. It occurs 
in both fresh and salt water. 

A. sol, the “sun animalcule,” 
is the best known species, and 
its ordinary size, including its radiating pseudo- 
podia, is about T inch in diameter. [Heliozoa.] 

Actinotrocha, the larva of Phoronis. It is 
greatly expanded anteriorly, and surrounded by a 
ring of long cilia at each extremity; the whole 
body is covered by shorter cilia. 





ACTINOPHRYS SOE. 

{Magnified.) 











Actinozoa. 


( 25 ) 


Adam. 


Actinozoa, a synonym of anthozoa (q.v.). 

Action ( Legal ). The proceedings taken at law 
by any one to enforce his rights against another. 
All proceedings of a civil nature are designated 
actions, but the Chancery Division of the High Court 
of Justice is the proper tribunal to resort to for 
relief of an equitable nature, such as the specific 
performance of contracts, matters of trust, etc. 
In Scotland there is no formal distinction between 
law and equity, indicated above, and which has 
from almost the earliest time prevailed in England. 
Ordinary costs of an action usually follow the event, 
although the judges have now a larger discretion 
in such matters than formerly. 

Action (Physical). The action of one body on 
another, as understood by Newton in his third law 
of motion, is simply the force that the one impresses 
on the other. This law is that action and reaction 
are equal and opposite, or that the mutual actions 
of any two bodies are always equal and oppositely 
directed. Thus, if one body presses another, it is 
also pressed with the same force in the opposite 
direction ; if one body exerts an attractive force on 
another, it also is attracted with an equal force. 

Actium, a promontory in Acarnania, at the 
entrace to the Ambracian Gulf. Here stood a 
famous temple of Apollo, and the coast was 
dreaded by sailors. The spot is famous for the 
sea-fight, in which Augustus defeated Antony, B.c. 
31. To commemorate his victory, Augustus insti¬ 
tuted quinquennial games called Actia, and founded 
Nicopolis, on the opposite shore of the straits. 

Acton (“ oak-town ”), the name of many small 
towns and villages in England, and also of a suburb 
of London, on the Oxford road, where during recent 
years a large population has sprung up. 

Acts of Sederunt, statutes made by the 
Lords of Session, sitting in judgment, by which the 
forms of procedure for administering justice are 
determined; in 1540 the Scottish Parliament con¬ 
ferred upon the judges the powers embodied in this 
Act. 

Acts of the Apostles, the fifth book of the 
New Testament, dealing with the work of Paul, 
Peter, and the leading Apostles. It is said by 
some to have been written by the Evangelist Luke. 
It is the subject of much controversy between 
theologians, some maintaining its absolute his- 
torial accuracy, while others affirm that it was 
written with the view of reconciling two hostile 
factions within the church. It has, however, always 
been admitted by the authorities into the Canon of 
the New Testament. 

Aculeata, the division of Jlymenoptera , in 
which the ovipositor is converted into a sting. 
Ants, Wasps, Hornets, and Bees are the principal 
representatives of the group. 

Acupressure, a method of checking haemorr¬ 
hage by means of a needle thrust into the tissues 
in such a way as to press upon and occlude the 
bleeding vessel. 


Acupuncture or puncture with a needle, a 
method of treatment at one time in considerable 
vogue, now but rarely made use of. In cases of 
chronic rheumatism and neuralgia it is still occa¬ 
sionally adopted. In sciatica, for example, a steel 
needle is sometimes passed into the back of the 
thigh, right down to the bone, and there left for 
two or three hours. The relief afforded is occa¬ 
sionally considerable, and, if carefully performed, 
the operation is a simple and comparatively pain¬ 
less one. Obviously, however, it is not to be lightly 
undertaken, and, in particular, an intimate ac¬ 
quaintance with anatomy is necessary for its safe 
execution. Acupuncture has now fallen into some 
disrepute, largely on account of the extent to* 
which quackery has been associated with it. 

Adagio, in music, one of the slowest indications 
of time measures, and ranks with largo and grave ; 
the name is applied to a movement or section of a. 
piece as well as to the measure of its time, as the 
Adagio in F, etc. 

Adalbert, a German ecclesiastic, born 1013, 
and raised by the favour of the Emperor Henry III. 
(1043) to the Archbishopric of Bremen and Ham¬ 
burg, which included all Scandinavia. He accom¬ 
panied his patron to Rome, and is said to have 
refused the tiara. His efforts to raise Bremen to 
the position of an independent patriarchate rival¬ 
ling Rome were frustrated by the death of the 
Emperor and the influence of Cardinal Hildebrand. 
As one of Henry IV.’s guardians, he endeavoured 
to win him over to his designs, but was unsuccessful. 
After three years’ banishment he was restored to 
office, 1069, and died at Goslar, 1072. 

Adam (Heb. man or ruddy), the first man. 
The story of his creation will be found in the first 
three chapters of Genesis, told, perhaps, by two 
different hands, and bearing many points of re¬ 
semblance to the primitive legends of India, Persia, 
Greece, and other countries. The temptation of 
Eve by the Serpent, and of Adam by Eve ; the sin 
of eating the forbidden fruit of the tree of know¬ 
ledge ; their expulsion from Eden, and the curse 
upon their posterity, have given rise to multi¬ 
tudinous discussions, according as the words of 
the Bible are taken in their literal sense or ex¬ 
plained on a figurative or allegorical hypothesis. 
Adam and Eve had several sons and daughters, 
Cain, Abel, and Seth being the eldest. The date 
of the Creation was assigned by chronologers of 
the old school to the year 4004 b.c., and Scripture? 
states that Adam lived 930 years. Amongst many 
strange legends collected in the Talmud, one of 
the best known is that which makes Lilith (q.v.), 
the mother of demons, Adam’s first wife. 

Adam, Adolphe Charles, a well-known 
French musician, was born in 1803, and died in 1856. 
He wrote, among numerous other works, the operas 
entitled Lc Chalet and Le Postilion dc Longumeau. 

Adam, Alexander, a Scotch schoolmaster 
and educational writer of some note, was born 
in 1741, and died in 1809. His most valuable- 
books were The Principles of Latin and English 





Adam. 


( 26 ) 


Adams. 


Grammar , Roman Antiquities, A Summary of His¬ 
tory and Geography , and a Latin dictionary. 

Adam, Robert, an eminent architect, born at 
Edinburgh in 1728, and in 1762 appointed architect 
to George III. In conjunction with his brother 
James (whence the name of Adelphi [brothers'] 
borne by one of their enterprises), he filled 
large quarters of London with buildings in the 
quasi-classical style—for the most part uninterest¬ 
ing, but not devoid of light and space. Fair speci¬ 
mens of his taste and skill will be found in 
Portland Place and Caen Wood House, and his 
name survives in Adam Street, Strand. He sat for 
many years as M.P. for Kinross, and died in 1792. 

Adam, The Right Hon. William, a lawyer 
and politician, born in Scotland in 1751. He 
entered Parliament in 1774, fought a duel with 
Fox in 1779, but remained the close friend and 
all}" of that statesman in his struggle against the 
suppression of public liberty. He had a con¬ 
siderable practice at the Bar, and was one of the 
managers of the Warren Hastings trial. In 1806 he 
was for a brief period Chancellor of the Duchy of 
Lancaster. From 1815 to 1830 he presided over 
the Scotch Jury Court for trying civil causes, and 
died in 1839. 

Adamawa, a country of vague extent in 
Central Africa, lying half way between Lake Chad 
and the Bight of Biafra, and watered by two tribu¬ 
taries of the Niger—viz. the Benuwe and the Faro. 
The soil is very rich, and there is abundance of 
durra, yams, ground-nuts, bananas, and cotton. 
Elephants are plentiful, and ivory forms an im¬ 
portant export. Yolla, the capital, stands between 
the two rivers. Slavery prevails, and the govern¬ 
ment is in Mohammedan hands, the Sultan of 
Sokoto being the nominal suzerain. 

Adamite, the name adopted by a religious 
sect in the second century, who sought to revive 
the state of man before the Fall, and therefore 
rejected marriage and worshipped without clothes. 
The sect had some devotees in the 12th and 15th 
centuries. 

Adamnan, or Adomnan, a native of Ireland, 
who flourished about 624 to 704, and was Abbot 
of Iona during the last twenty-five years of his 
life. He tried in vain to induce his monks to 
adopt the observance of Easter according to the 
Roman Calendar, and he wrote two curious books : 
a Life of St. Columba, and a treatise, Re Situ Terrce 
Sanctce. 

Adams, Charles Francis, son of John Quincy 
Adams, born 1807, graduated at Harvard, and 
admitted to the bar 1828. After long experience 
in the local legislature of Massachusetts, during 
which as a Free-Soiler he supported Van Buren, he 
entered Congress on the Republican ticket in 1858. 
In 1861 he was appointed Minister to England, and 
held that post with dignity and credit during the 
critical period of the Civil War and the discussion 
of the Alabama claims. Retiring in 1868, he served 
as f.rbitrator under the Washington Treaty in 1871. 


He aspired to the Presidency, but met with insuffi¬ 
cient support. He was, however, elected Governor 
of his native State, and wrote much in reviews and 
magazines. He died in 1880. 

Adams, John, one of the founders of the 
United States, was born in Massachusetts in 1736. 
He was educated at Harvard, and entered the office 
of Putnam to study law. Rapidly rising in his 
profession he very soon forecast the future destiny 
of the Colonies, and in 1765 joined in protesting 
against the Stamp Act. Yet he defended Capt. 
Preston and his soldiers from a charge of murder 
in 1770. He was a member of the first Congress of 
1774, and was sent in 1777 with Franklin and others 
as Commissioner to France. Two years later he 
was employed to negotiate for peace, and to make 
a commercial treaty with England. He maintained 
a firm attitude in face of French opposition to 
these aims, and succeeded in bringing Holland into 
friendly relations with the New Republic, which in 
1785 he represented at the Court of St. James’s. 
Before returning to America in 1787 he wrote a 
Refence of the American Constitution , strongly con¬ 
tending for the co-existence of two chambers. A 
little later he combated the propagandism of 
French revolutionaries in a book entitled Riscourses 
on Ravila. He succeeded Washington as President 
in 1797. At the expiration of his office he made 
way for Jefferson, being unable to deal satisfactorily 
with the pretensions of the French demagogues. 
He felt, however, no jealousy towards his successor, 
whose policy he cordially approved. Living in 
retirement at his native place, Braintree (Quincy), 
he reached the venerable age of eighty-nine. His 
death took place in 1825. 

Adams, John Quincy, eldest son of the pre¬ 
ceding, and born at Braintree, 1767, spent much of 
his earlier years in Europe. He graduated at 
Harvard, was called to the bar, wrote with ability 
in a Boston newspaper, and was sent by Washington 
as ambassador to the Hague, 1794. Thence he 
went to Prussia, but being recalled, 1801, entered 
Congress as a Federalist in 1803. Breaking with 
his party, he retired to practise the law, and lecture 
on literature at Harvard until 1809, when, after 
denouncing a Federalist plot for separating New 
England from the Union, he went as ambassador 
first to St. Petersburgh and then to London, assist¬ 
ing in framing the Treaty of Ghent, 1814. In 1818 
he became Secretary of State, and in 1825 was 
chosen President. Whilst in office he adopted 
Protectionist views, and also endeavoured to pur¬ 
chase Cuba. Jackson defeated his re-election, and 
for two years he lived in retirement, but returning 
to Congress in 1831 he by his exertions paved 
the way for the Abolition of Slavery. He was 
seized with paralysis in the midst of a debate (1848) 
and died two days later. 

Adams, Samuel, born at Boston, U.S.A., 1722, 
being second cousin to John Adams. Owing to 
his father’s failure in business he went through 
severe struggles in youth, becoming ultimately tax- 
collector for Boston. He very soon threw himself 
into the struggle against the British Government; 





Adam’s Apple. 


( 27 ) 


Adder-beads 


was a member of the Philadelphia Congress, and 
signed the Declaration of Independence. As 
President of the Massachusetts Senate, Lieut.- 
Governor, and Governor of the State, he held office 
till 1797. He attached himself to the Republicans 
under Jefferson, and withdrew from public life 
when the Federalists got the upper hand, dying in 
1803. Napoleon’s famous reproach—“The English 
are a nation of shopkeepers,” is traced to one of 
Adams’s speeches. 

Adam’s Apple, the name given to the pro¬ 
tuberance in the fore part of the throat, caused 
by the thyroid cartilages of the larynx; the name 
lias arisen from the legend that a piece of the 
forbidden fruit stuck in Adam’s throat. The name 
is also applied to some fruits. 

Adam’s Bridge, the name given on legendary 
grounds to a series of sand-banks connecting Ceylon 
with India. 

Adam’s Peak, a conical peak, about 7,000 ft. 
high, in the S. of Ceylon, 45 miles E.S.E. of 
Colombo. Mohammedans and Buddhists regard 
the spot with equal veneration, for at the summit 
of the mountain, within a small wooden temple, 



ADAM’S PEAK. 


is a depression in the ground, 5| ft. by ft., 
which the former assert to be the footprint of 
Adam, whilst the latter are no less confident that 
it was made by Buddha as he stepped over to Siam. 
The shadow cast by Adam’s Peak at sunrise is one 
of the most extraordinary sights in the world. 

Adana, a province and capital city, in Asia 
Minor. The latter is on the right bank of the 
Sihun, 30 miles from the sea, and occupies the 
site of Antiochia ad Sarum. Commanding the 
route over the ranges north of Syria, it was 
seized by Ibrahim Pacha in the revolt of 1832 
and held until 1840. The fine bridge over the 
river is attributed to Justinian. The surrounding 
plain is rich in agricultural produce. 

Adanson, Michel (1727-1806), a distinguished 
French naturalist, of Scottish Jacobite ancestry, 


was born at Aix, in Provence, 7th April, 1727. He 
was educated at Plessis ; Needham first gave him a 
microscope, and he studied under Bernard de Jussieu 
at the Jardin des Plantes. Having obtained an 
appointment in Senegal in 1748, he remained there 
until 1754, mapping the country, making astro¬ 
nomical and meteorological observations, studying 
the languages, and forming immense collections, 
part of which he described in 1757 in his Jlistoire 
Xaturelle du Senegal. This work contains the 
first sketch of his system of classification, applied 
to molluscs. In 1763 he applied it, in his Families 
des Plantes , to the vegetable kingdom, and in an 
immense unpublished work, offered in 1774 to the 
Academy of Sciences, of which he had been elected 
a member in 1759, he applied it to all three king¬ 
doms of nature. His system consists in drawing up 
a number of artificial classifications—classifications 
based, that is, on one set of characters—and finally 
placing together those species which came together 
in the greatest number of classifications. He thus 
distinguished 58 families of plants, and prepared 
the way for Jussieu’s natural system. Reduced to 
poverty, he received a small pension, and died, 
August 3rd, 1806. The Baobab was named Adan- 
sonia by Linnaeus in his honour. 

Adaptation. [Evolution.] 

Adda, anc. Addua, a river of North Italy, rising 
from a confluence of streams in the Rhaetian Alps 
and flowing through the Valletellina into the north 
end of Lake Como. Thence it issues at Lecco, and 
traversing the plain of Lombardy unites with the 
Po 8 miles above Cremona. It formerly separated 
Venice from the Milanese, and has played an im¬ 
portant part in military history. Lodi, the scene of 
the Austrian defeat in 1796, is on its banks. 

Addax, a genus of Antelopes with one species 
(A. nasomaculatus'), popularly called the Addax, 
ranging over North Africa, North Arabia, and 
Syria. In size and make it resembles a large ass ; 
colour, reddish-brown above, grayish white beneath, 
a broad band of white on the face ; hoofs large and 
spreading ; horns expanding outwards in two turns 
of a wide spiral and annulated nearly to the top, 
present in both sexes. 

Adder, an alternative name for the Viper (q.v.). 
The word is also used with an epithet to denote 
some of Viperidse, as the Berg Adder ( Vipera 
atropos ) and the Puff Adder ( V. arietans) of South 
Africa, and the Death Adder ( Acantlioplds tortor ) 
of Australia, all of which are extremely venomous. 

Adder-beads, called also Serpent stones and 
Drnidical beads, large beads of glass or vitreous 
paste,- and amber, occurring, usually singly, 
in prehistoric British sepulchral cists or urns. 
This fact would seem to show that they were not 
regarded as personal ornaments, but rather as 
amulets, and as such were deposited with the ashes 
of the dead. The source whence these beads were 
derived' has long been a subject of dispute, but 
they probably came from the South or South-east 
of Europe. The same folk-lore has grown up con¬ 
cerning these as is prevalent with regard to Snake- 
stones (q.v.). 

















Adder-pike. 


( 28 ) 


Addison’s Disease. 


Adder-pike. [Weever.] 

Adder-stones, the translation of the Gaelic 
clathnathrach, the folk name for prehistoric 
stone spindle-whorls. [Snake-stones, Spindle- 
whorl.] The name is also applied to Adder- 
beads (q.v.). 

Addington, Henry, Viscount Sidmouth, 
son of Lord Chatham’s medical adviser, born at 
Reading 1757. After being educated at Winchester 
and Oxford, he was called to the bar, but imme¬ 
diately entered Parliament (1784) as M.P. for 
Devizes. “ The Doctor ” was one of Pitt’s intim¬ 
ates, and in 1789 was elected Speaker, in which 
capacity for twelve years he displayed tact and 
dignity. In 1801, when Pitt went out of office 
owing to the king’s obduracy as to Catholic Eman¬ 
cipation, Addington came in at the head of “ the 
King’s Friends,” and concluded the short-lived 
Peace of Amiens. The combination of Pitt and 
Fox, to urge on Parliament more adequate plans for 
national defence, ousted the Cabinet of Courtiers 
in 1804, but Addington returned next year as Presi¬ 
dent of the Council, with a peerage. In 1805 his 
attitude towards Lord Melville compelled him once 
more to resign, but on Pitt’s death he came back 
for a year as Privy Seal and Lord President. In 
1812 he resumed the latter post under Perceval, but 
soon exchanged it for the Home Office, which he 
held for ten years in Lord Liverpool’s ministry. 
He displayed his courage, consistency, and ill- 
judged loyalty in one continuous effort to suppress 
the liberties of the people, and to him the “Man¬ 
chester or Peterloo Massacre” of 1819 was largely 
due. From 1822 to 1824 he sat in the Cabinet 
without a portfolio, and then retiring into private 
life he attained the venerable age of 87, dying Feb. 
15, 1844. 

Addison, Joseph, the eldest son of the Rev. 
Laurence Addison, afterwards Dean of Lichfield, 
born at his father’s rectory of Milston in Wiltshire, 
on the 1st of May, 1672. He went to school 
at Amesbury, Salisbury, and the Charterhouse; 
in 1687 he entered Queen’s College, Oxford, two 
years later he was elected to a demyship at Magda¬ 
len College, he became M.A. in 1693, and fellow of 
his college in 1698. Little is known of his Oxford 
life, except that he showed there the shyness which, 
to a certain extent, always clouded the calm, sweet 
strength and loveableness of his character. A walk 
under the elms by the Cherwell is still called by 
his name. In 1693 he addressed a short poem to 
Drvden, who received it very favourably. His 
other work of this period is an Account of the 
Greatest English Poets, an address to King 
William, classical translations for Tonson the 
bookseller, and Latin verses in the Musa; 
Anglicance. In 1699 Somers and Charles Mon¬ 
tague, afterwards Lord Halifax, obtained for 
him a travelling pension of £300 a year, in order 
that he might qualify himself for the service of 
the State. Addison visited France, Italy, Ger¬ 
many, and Holland. He composed the Epistle 
from Italy while crossing Mont Cenis, and also 
wrote while abroad the first four acts of Colo, and 
the Dialogue on Medals. His pension stopped in 


1702 with the fall of the Whigs, and he returned to 
London in 1703 without an income or prospects. 
While living in shabby lodgings in the Haymarket 
he was invited, on Halifax’s recommendation, to 
write a poem in celebration of the Battle of Blen¬ 
heim. He produced the Campaign, and his fortune 
was made. He was appointed a Commissioner of 
Excise in 1704, he was promoted to be Under¬ 
secretary of State in 1706, he entered Parliament 
in 1708—where he is said never to have opened his 
mouth—he became secretary to Lord Wharton, the 
Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland in 1709, and was also 
made Keeper of the Records. In Ireland he came 
to know Swift well, who, like all his friends, speaks 
of him in the warmest terms of affection and ad¬ 
miration. From 1704 to 1710 his only literary pro¬ 
duction of any importance was the unsuccessful 
opera of Rosamund, but when the Whigs went out of 
office in the latter year he was in possession of a 
competence and free to devote himself to the chief 
work of his life. His friend, Richard Steele, had 
started the Tatler in 1709, and Addison from 
the first was a contributor. When the Tatler 
dropped in 1711 it was succeeded the next year by 
the still more celebrated Spectator, for which 
Addison wrote 274 of his wonderful essays, inimit¬ 
able alike in their easy style and delicate humour. 
“ He poured in paper after paper,” says Thackeray 
in the English Humorists, “and contributed the 
stores of his mind, the sweet fruits of his reading, 
the delightful gleanings of his daily observation, 
with a wonderful profusion and, as it seemed, an al¬ 
most endless fecundity.” In 1713 the tragedy of 
Cato was put on the stage, and from its political 
application was at once a brilliant success, though 
the play itself is cold, correct, and uninterest¬ 
ing. Addison contributed various political 
papers to the Whig Examiner and the Guardian, 
and published, in defence of the Government, in 
1715 and 1716, fifty-five numbers of the Freeholder. 
He was re-appointed Secretary for Ireland when 
the Whigs once more came into office in 1714, and 
made a Lord of Trade. About this time Pope broke 
with him, a quarrel made famous by the celebrated 
lines on “Atticus.” In 1716 Addison made what 
is commonly regarded as an unhappy marriage with 
the Dowager Countess of Warwick, and during the 
next year he was Secretary of State for eleven 
months, but he resigned owing to failing health, 
and received a pension of £1,500 a year. In the 
Old Whig he defended the Peerage'Bill of 1719, 
against the attacks of Steele in the Plebeian, but 
while the controversy was proceeding his health 
grew worse, and he died at Holland House on 
the 17th of June, 1719. He was buried in West¬ 
minster Abbey, Bishop Atterbury reading the ser¬ 
vice. He left one daughter by the Countess of 
Warwick, Charlotte Addison, who died unmarried 
in 1797. 

Addison’s Disease, a disease in which a 
peculiar bronzing of the skin is accompanied by 
tlie development of nausea, vomiting, and extreme 
debility. It was shown by Dr. Addison, of Guy’s 
Hospital, to be intimately associated with tuber¬ 
cular disease of the suprarenal bodies, i.e. those 





Address. 


( 29 ) 


Adelaide 


bodies placed at the front of the. upper part of each 
kidney. The hue of the skin is the most charac¬ 
teristic symptom ; it is distinguished from jaundice 
by the fact that the conjunctive (the mucous 
membrane lining the inner portion of the eyelids) 
remain unaffected. 


Address, Forms of. The following are the 
correct ceremonious forms of superscription, com¬ 
mencement, and reference:— 


The Queen or King. —The Queen’s or King’s Most Excellent 
Majesty; Madam or Sir. or May it please Your Majesty ; 
Your Majesty. 

Princes anil Princesses. —His or Her Royal Highness the-; 

Sir or Madam ; Your Royal Highness. • 

Ambassador. — His Excellency-H.B.M.’s Ambassador and 

Plenipotentiary ; accordingto rank ; Your Excellency. 

Ambassador's Wife. —According to rank. 

Archbishop. —His Grace the Lord Archbishop of-'.My 

Lord Archbishop ; Your Grace. 

Irish Archbishops consecrated since 1868 .are styled The Most 

Rev. the Archbishop of-, and the terms My Lord 

and Your Grace are not used. 

Archdeacon.— The Venerable the Archdeacon of-; Vener¬ 

able Sir. 

Baron. —The Right Hon. Lord-; My Lord; Your Lord- 

ship. 

Baroness .—The Right Hon. the Lady-; Madam; Your 

Ladyship. 

Baronet. —Sir John B., Bart. ; Sir. 

Bishop. —The Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of-; My Lord 

Bishop; Your Lordship. 

Scotch, colonial, suffragan, and retired bishops and Irish 
bishops consecrated since 186S are styled the Right Rev. 
the Bishop of-, and addressed Right Reverend Sir. 

Canon. —The Rev. Canon-; Reverend Sir. 

Cardinal .—His Eminence Cardinal- ; Your Eminence. 

Clergy. —The Rev. John B., the Rev. Lord-; the Hon. 

and Rev.-; Reverend Sir. 

Consul. -Esq., H.B.M.’s Agent and Consul-General, 

Consul, or Vice-Consul, as the case may be. 

Countess.— The Right Hon. the Countess of-; Madam; 

Your Ladyship. 

Dean. -The Very Rev. the Dean of-; Very Rev. Sir. 

Daughters of Diikes, Marquises, and Earls. —The Lady Mary B.; 
Madam ; Your Ladyship. If married to a peer she takes 
his title; if married to a baronet, knight, or commoner, 
she changes her surname for his. 

Daughters of Viscounts and Barons. —The Hon. Mary B ; 
Madam. If married to a peer, or to the younger son of a 
duke or marquis, she takes his title; if married to a 

baronet or knight, she is styled the Hon. Lady--; if 

married to a commoner, she changes her surname for his. 

Doctor. —The letters M.D., D.D., etc., are placed after the 
usual designation, or else Dr. precedes, as The Rev. Dr. 


Dowager , Lady .—On the marriage of a peer or baronet, the 
widow of the previous holder of the title adds, The 
Dowager, or her Christian name, to her former desig¬ 
nation. ,, , 

Duchess .—Her Grace the Duchess of -; Madam; Your 

Grace. _ , 

.Dttfce.—His Grace the Duke of-; My Lord Duke ; Tour 

Grace. _ _. 

Earl.— The Right Hon. the Earl of-; My Lord ; Tour 

Lordship. ^ » 

Governor of Colony .—His Excellency - Governor of 


-; Your Excellency. 

Judge .—The Hon. Mr. Justice 

Sir-; Sir, on the bench My Lord. 

Judge of County Court .—His Honour Judge - 
bench Your Honour. 

Knight.— Sir Thomas -: Sir. Knights 


if a knight The Hon. 


Sir, on the 


m _ wii _ __ , _„ . and companions 

of tlie^English orders of knighthood have the initials K.Q., 
K.C.M.G., C.B., etc., added to their usual designation. 
Lord Advocate of Scotland .—The Right Hon. the Lord Advo¬ 
cate; My Lord, or Sir. • 

Lord Chancellor .—The Right TIon. the Lord High Chancellor , 
according to his rank as a pefer. „ 

Lord Chief Justice.—The Right Hon. the Lord Chief Justice of 
England, or the Right Hon. Sir-Lord Chief Justice 


of England ; if a peer, according to his rank, if not, as a 
judge. 

Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. —His Grace if a Duke, otherwise 
His Excellency the Lord- Lieutenant of Ireland; accord¬ 
ing to his rank as a peer. 

Lord Mayor.— The Right Hon. the Lord Mayor of-; My 

Lord; Your Lordship. 

Lord Mayor’s Wife. —The Right Hon. the Lady Mayoress of 
-; Madam; Your Ladyship. 

Lord of Appeal in Ordinary and his Wife. —As Baron and Baro¬ 
ness. Their children have no title. 

Lord of Session. —The Hon. Lord -; My Lord; Your 

Lordship. His wife has no title. 

Lord Provost. —The Right Hon. the Lord Provost of-; 

My Lord ; Your Lordship. His wife has no title. 

Marchioness. —The Most Hon. the Marchioness of-; 

Madam; Your Ladyship. 

Marquis. —The Most Hon. the Marquis of-; My Lord 

Marquis; Your Lordship. 

Mayor .—The Right Worshipful the Mayor of-; Sir; 

Your Worship. 

Members of the House of Commons. —Add M.P. to usual desig¬ 
nation. 

Minister Resident.— Add H.B.M.’s Minister Resident, to 
usual designation. 

Officers in the Army and Navy. —The professional title is pre¬ 
fixed to any other rank, e.g. Gen. the Right Hon. Lord 

-; Captain Sir-R.N., but for Lieutenants or 

those of inferior rank the professional title is dropped. 

Privy Coxincillor.— The Right Hon. precedes usual designa¬ 
tion. 

Queen’s Counsel. —Add Q.C. to usual designation. 

Secretary of State. —Her Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State 
for the-Department. 

Serjeunt-at-Law. —Serjeant, or Mr. Serjeant. 

Sons. —The eldest sons of Dukes, Marquises, and Earls bear 
by courtesy the second family title, and are addressed in 
every respect as if they were peers, and their children are 
addressed as if their fathers were peers. 

The younger sons of Dukes and Marquises are styled The Lord 
John-; My Lord; Your Lordship. 

The younger sons of Earls, and the sons of Viscounts and 
Barons, are styled The Hon., and addressed as Sir. 

Vice-Chancellor. —As a Judge ; Sir, on the bench My Lord. 

Viscount .—The Right Hon. the Viscount-— ; My Lord ; 

Your Lordship. 

Viscountess. —The Right Hon. the Viscountess-; Madam ; 

Your Ladyship. 

Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, giving 

its name to the environing county, was founded, 
1836, on the river Torrens, which divides the 





THE POST OFFICE, ADELAIDE. 

town in two and flows into the Gulf of St. A in- 
cent. It is remarkably well laid out, and the 
excellent arrangement of its streets has earned for 























































Adelaide. 


( 30 ) 


Adige. 


it the name of the “ Model City.” King William 
Street is the principal thoroughfare, and it pos¬ 
sesses very tine terraces, as well as a Town Hall, 
a tine Post Office, Botanical Gardens, Cathedral, 
and University. The trade, which is considerable, 
has for its centre Port Adelaide, distant about 
seven miles, but connected by rail and water. 
The climate is warmer than that of the neigh¬ 
bouring colonies, but is healthy. 

Adelaide, daughter of George, Duke of Saxe- 
Meiningen, was born in 1792, and married in 1818 
William, Duke of Clarence, thus becoming Queen 
Consort of England 1830. Though much younger 
than the king, her strong character and sound 
common s«onse enabled her to exercise a powerful 
influence over him. On his death the queen 
dowager was treated with the utmost respect and 
affection by her niece, Queen Victoria, and enjoyed 
a very wide popularity. She died in 1849. 

Adelung, Joiiann Christoph, born at Span- 
tekow, in Pomerania, 1792; appointed professor 
at the gymnasium of Erfurt 1759, but resigning 
two years later, he resided as a private littera¬ 
teur at Leipsic until 1787, when the Elector of 
Saxony made him his librarian, w T ith the title of 
Hofrath. His life was devoted to study, and he 
did much to fix the standard of his native tongue, 
then despised and broken up into dialects. Some¬ 
what arbitrarily he set up the idiom of Upper 
Saxony as the perfection of German, and attempted 
to force grammar and vocabulary into-conformity 
with that ideal; still his Dictionary of the German 
La.nyuaye remains a monument of industry and 
erudition. In his incomplete work Mi’tkridates he 
laid the foundation of the science of comparative 
philology. He died in 1808. 

Ademption. Where property which a tes¬ 
tator devises or bequeaths specifically is changed 
in character before his death (for instance, if he 
after making his will devising a particular estate 
disposes of such estate by sale or otherwise), the 
devisee gets nothing. 

Aden, a seaport of Yemen, in Arabia, situated on 
a peninsula 100 miles E. of the Strait of Bab-el- 
Mandeb. It was taken by the British in 1839, and 
on the establishment of the overland route to India 
became an important coaling station. It possesses 
a good harbour and magnificent water tanks, and 
though hot is not unhealthy. At present 1,600 
vessels call there during the year; the exports 
amount to nearly two millions, and the imports to 
about half a million more. The town is built to the 
east of the peninsula. The settlement is under the 
Government of Bombay, and the surrounding terri¬ 
tory belongs to the Sultan of Lahej. 

Adenitis, inflammation of the lymphatic glands, 
not unfrequently associated with angeioleucitis, or 
inflammation of the absorbent vessels. In the latter 
affection the course of the inflamed lymph canals 
may be traced as red lines beneath the skin ; it is 
usually excited by a wound. Adenitis may occur, 
however, alone, and not uncommonly results in an 


abscess ; it may be regarded as a conservative pro¬ 
cess, tending to prevent the passage of poisonous 
material beyond the lymphatic gland and into the 
general circulation. 

Adenoid Tissue, that form of tissue which is 
met with in lymphatic glands, adenocele or ade¬ 
noma being an abnormal growth or tumour made 
up of such tissue. 

Aderno, the ancient Adranum, a city of Sicily. 
17 miles N.W. of Catania, and near the foot of 
Etna. Though clean, well-built, and full of churches 
and monasteries, it is unhealthy. 

Adeta, the group of Spatangoid sea urchins in 
which there are no fascioles. [Fasciole.] 

Adhesion, as used in pathology, an unnatural 
union of parts, as the result of inflammation; 
it is also applied to the process occurring in 
the healing of wounds. Adhesions may occur 
between joint surfaces and, preventing free move¬ 
ment, may require to be “ broken down.” 

Ad hominem or Argumentum ad liominem, 
in logic, an argument based on an appeal to 
either a man’s conduct or professed principles. 
Rom. ii. 17 furnishes an example of this argument. 

Adiantum, the genus of ferns known as 
Maidenhair, including upwards of sixty species, 
natives of hot and temperate climates. They have 
slender hair-like leaf-stalks, often black; leaflets, 



adiantum (Capillus veneris). 


generally trapezoid, pinnate, or pedate ; veins, 
forked or netted; and fructification, oblong or 
rounded, and covered by the reflexed margin of the 
frond. They are closely related to the Bracken 
( Pteris ). A syrup is prepared from them, known 
as Capillaire. 

Adiaphorists, the name given to those 
Lutherans in the 16th century who maintained, 
with Melanchthon, that many of the doctrines and 
practices in dispute between the Church of Rome 
and the stricter Lutherans were indifferent or un¬ 
important. 

Adige (Germ. Etsch, anc. Atiiesis), a river of 
Italy formed bv the confluence near Glarus of many 
streams from the Rhfetian Alps ; flows E. to Botzen, 
whence it is navigable, passes into Lombardy, near 
Roveredo, and turning first S., then E., falls into 
the Adriatic at Porto-Fossone, near the mouth of 




Adipocere. 


( 31 ) 


Admiral. 


the Po, after a course of 220 miles. It is rapid, 
shallow, and very liable to floods. Trent, Legnago, 
and Verona are on its banks. 

Adipocere ( adejos , fat; cera, wax), a substance 
produced by the degenerative changes which occur 
in dead bodies. It is fatty in nature, and is not 
infrequently found in disinterred coffins. 

Adipose Tissue, or fatty tissue, is widely dis¬ 
tributed throughout the human body; a layer of 
it exists beneath the skin, and its presence there is 
of considerable importance in maintaining the 
temperature of the body, fat being a bad conductor 
of heat. Among parts which are devoid of adipose 
tissue may be mentioned the subcutaneous tissue of 
the eyelids. Microscopically it consists of little 
vesicles, which present a sharply defined edge, 
and are composed of a structureless ensheathing 
membrane of protoplasm, forming a sort of micro¬ 
scopic bag, in which fatty matter is contained. A 
good example of such fat globules may be readily 
seen in a drop of milk when examined under the 
microscope, but here the globules float freely in 
the containing fluid, whereas in adipose tissue 
they are held together by a network of fibres. 

Adirondack Mountains, between Lakes 
Champlain and Ontario, in the State of New York, 
U.S.A. They consist chiefly of granitic masses, with 
extensive forest growths, rising from a plateau 2,000 
feet above the level of the sea. The highest sum¬ 
mit, Mount Marcy, attains 5,337 feet. The Hudson 
river and the Richelieu river have their sources here. 

Adjudication, the judgment or decision of 
a court in any litigation or proceedings before 
it. It has also a particular signification in the 
English bankrupt law, and means the order ad¬ 
judging the debtor to be a bankrupt and vesting 
his property in a trustee. In Scotland the analo¬ 
gous proceeding is termed a decree of sequestra¬ 
tion, but it differs in some essential points from adju¬ 
dication as understood in English bankruptcy law. 

Adjutant (military'), an officer attached to each 
regiment of horse or foot whose special duty is to 
assist the commander. An adjutant is never above 
the rank of major, and generally serves for four years. 
He has the task of communicating the orders of his 
commander to the different subordinates. The 
Adjutant-General is a high official whose duties 
towards the whole army are similar to those of an 
ordinary adjutant to his regiment. His duties in¬ 
clude the carrying out of all orders relating to the 
equipment, instruction, recruiting, and efficiency of 
troops, and he is the medium for all reports. 

Adjutant ( Zooloyical ), (Lejjtoptilus aryala), a 
gigantic stork-like bird from tropical India. It 
ranges from 5ft. to nearly 7ft. in height; bill long, 
head, neck, and gular pouch bare; at the back of 
the neck is a second pouch which is inflated during 
flight; plumage, ashen-gray above, white below. It 
is a voracious bird, and feeds on carrion and offal, 
and in some places is protected by law for its use¬ 
fulness as a scavenger. The popular name is said to 
be due to the fact that it frequents camps and parade 


grounds. The marabou plumes of commerce are 
obtained from the under feathers of the tail and. 



adjutant (Leptoptilus argala ). 


wings of this species,.and its African congener, the 
Marabou (L. marabou), but those from the former 
are the more valuable. 

Ad libitum, a term used in music to signify 
that the performer may use what time or expression 
he pleases. When used of instruments, as “ with 
flute ad libitum,” it signifies that the flute part may 
be performed or left out at pleasure. 

Admetus, son of Pheres, king of Pherce, in 
Thessaly, where Apollo served for a time as 
shepherd. By the help of the god Admetus ob¬ 
tained the hand of the daughter of Pelias, Alcestis. 
who died for him, but was rescued from death by- 
Heracles. 

Administration, the ordering and disposi¬ 
tion of the affairs, financial and otherwise, of 
a kingdom, a company, a private individual, 
a bankrupt, etc. It has also a special sig¬ 
nification in regard to deceased persons and 
their estates. In the year 1857 the Court of 
Probate was constituted, and the granting of pro¬ 
bates and administrations is vested in this branch 
of the Supreme Court. The grant is usually 
made to one or more of the deceased’s relatives, 
who are termed the administrator or adminis¬ 
trators. The husband has an absolute right 
to administer to his wife’s estate, and the wife is 
usually preferred in the case of her husband’s. 
Where there is no husband or widow the next of 
kin, according to relationship, may administer, and 
the court, if a fit case be shown, has power to 
appoint as administrator a creditor or person 
entirely without interest in the estate. 

In politics Administration is specially applied to 
the Ministry (q.v.) or the executive government. 

Admiral, Vice-Admiral, and Bear-Admiral, 
the various gradations in rank of the highest 
















Admiral. 


( 32 ) 


Adoption. 


naval officers in the British navy. Of admirals , a 
very small number are called admirals of the Jieet , 
and these officers are distinguished from ordinary 
admirals by receiving additional pay, without addi¬ 
tional command; the ordinary admirals display their 
flags at the maintopgallant masthead, and rank with 
generals in the army ; a vice-admiral displays his 
flag at the foretopgallant masthead, and takes 
rank with a lieutenant-general; while rear-admirals 
■carry their flags at the mizzentopgallant masthead, 
and rank with major-generals. The distinction 
which formerly existed of three different coloured 
flags is now done away with. The office of Lord 
High Admiral has not been held since 1828, when 
it was held by William IV., then Duke of Clarence. 
The office was frequently held by Princes of the 
blood Royal, James II. holding it for several years 
during Charles II.’s reign, when he was Duke of 
York. The duties are now performed by com¬ 
mission. [Admiralty Court.] 

Admiral. [Vanessa.] 

Admiralty, Board of, the department which 
has the management of everything relating to the 
British navy. There are six Lords of the Admiralty, 
two of whom are civil lords, the four others being 
naval or sea lords. The senior civil lord , known as 
the First Lord, is a member of the Cabinet, and is 
responsible for all the business of the Department. 
Under the lords of the Admiralty there are the 
•Secretaries, three in number: the First Secretary, 
whose duties are parliamentary ; the Naval Secre¬ 
tary, who performs professional duties; and the 
Second Secretary, whose post is a permanent 
one. 

Admiralty, Court of, a Court of Law for¬ 
merly presided over by the Lord High Admiral, 
and after the abolition of that office carried on by 
commission. The High Court of Admiralty (now 
part of the Probate, Divorce, and Admiralty Juris¬ 
diction of the High Court of Justice) has jurisdic¬ 
tion upon the high seas in all British seas. It 
has a civil or instance jurisdiction, and a prize 
jurisdiction in time of war. The latter does not 
extend to the Irish or Scotch Admiralty juris¬ 
diction. The questions arising in time of peace 
are chiefly collisions, seamans wages , bottomry , 
9 rearing unlawful colours, salvage , and causes of pos¬ 
session. Causes under the Slave Act Treaties are 
also cognisable. The evidence is all documentary. 
The criminal jurisdiction of the Court of Admiralty 
extended some time since to all crimes committed 
at sea which were triable at common law if com¬ 
mitted on shore, but such offences are now subject 
to be dealt with at common law on surrender. 

Admiralty Island, belonging to the United 
States, is in lat. 58° N. and long. 134° W. Its size is 
90 miles by 25 miles. 

Admiralty Islands, a group of forty islands, 
the largest being 50 miles long, situated N.E. of 
New Guinea, between lat. 2° and3°S. and long. 146° 
18' and 147° 46' E. They are covered with a 
luxurious growth of cocoa-nut trees, and have a 


Adolphus, John, born in London 1768, and 
called to the bar 1807. He did a considerable 
practice at the Old Bailey, his defence of the Cato 
Street conspirators being his ablest piece of work. 
In literature he was widely and favourably known 
as the author of The History of England from the 
Accession of George III. to 1783, and other books. 
He died in 1845. 

Adonai, a Hebrew name for God. The Jews 
fear to pronounce the word Jehovah and speak the 
word Adonai whenever they meet with Jehovah in 
reading. 

Adonis (Heb. Adonai), the mythical lover of 
Venus, was killed by a boar, and the goddess turned 
him into a flower of the colour of his blood. He 
was allowed to quit Hades for six months in every 
year for the purpose of consoling his admirer. 
General lamentations marked the anniversary of 
his death, which is supposed to have typified the 
passage from summer to winter. He is identified 
with the Phoenician Thammuz and the Egyptian 
Osiris. 

Adonis, or Pheasant’s-eye, a small genus of 
Ranunculaceous plants with bright red or yellow 
flowers and much divided leaves, natives of Europe 
and Asia. 

Adoption, an act by which paternal and filial 
relations are established between persons not filling 
that character by nature. Adoption in this sense 
was very prevalent among the Greeks and Romans, 
and was strictly regulated under their laws! 
Adoption has never been an institution in 
England or Scotland. The benefits arising there¬ 
from may, however, be conferred by deed, as where 
a testator places himself in loco parentis, but a 
contract with the true parent is necessary before 
any legal obligation is incurred by the adoptor. In 



native population. The Dutch discovered them in 
1616, but they are rarely visited. They were an- 
nexed by 
Germany in 
1885, and 
form part 
of the Bis- 
marckArchi- 
pelago. 

Adnate, 

a term em¬ 
ployed in 
botany to 
describe ad¬ 
hesion or 
union of two 
dissimilar 
structures, as 
opposed to 
connate or 
coherent. 

For example, the leafy bract in the Linden is 
adnate to the flower-stalk, or epipetalous stamens 
are adnate to the corolla. 


branch of linden (showing adnate bract). 










Adulteration. 


Adoptionists. ( 33 ) 


the United States there are express statutes re¬ 
gulating adoption. It is generally accomplished by 
mutual agreement in terms prescribed by law, and 
binding upon the adoptor who agrees to treat the 
one adopted as his own child, towards whom he 
will fulfil all parental duties, while the child adopted 
takes upon himself all the duties and obligations 
of a child towards his or her parent. These laws 
are various in the several States, though they all 
have the same general purpose. 

Adoptionists, the name given to those who 
in the eighth century advocated the belief that 
Christ was adopted, not born, the Son of God. 

Adrastus, one of the legendary Greek heroes, 
the son of Talaus, king of Argos. Driven from his 
country by Amphiaraus, he took refuge at Sicyon, 
where his maternal grandfather reigned, and ulti¬ 
mately became sovereign himself. Being reconciled 
to Amphiaraus, he returned to the throne of Argos. 
He took up the cause of his son-in-law Polynices 
against Eteocles, and joined in the expedition of 
the Seven against Thebes, being the sole survivor 
at the end of the struggle. Two years later he 
stirred up the war of the Epigoni , in which he lost 
his son iEgialeus. He died of grief at Megara. The 
Nemean games were believed to have been instituted 
by him. 

Adria, an ancient Italian city of Etruscan 
origin, and once a seaport. It is situated in the 
province of Rovigo, between the Adige and the Po. 
The neglect of the dykes has separated it from the 
sea, and its prosperity declined before the Roman 
period. 

Adrian. The name of six popes, of whom 
three were distinguished ; viz. : 

Adrian I. (772-795), a contemporary of 
Charlemagne, who protected him against the en¬ 
croachments of Desiderius, king of Lombardy. The 
7th (Ecumenical Council of Nicasa (Nice) was held 
in his pontificate, and restored the worship of 
images (787). Charlemagne, calling a general 
council of the West (794), condemned the worship 
but sanctioned the use of these symbols, much to 
the Pope’s annoyance. He was an independent, 
liberal, and able pontiff. 

Adrian IV., Nicholas Breakspere, the 
only English Pope, was born at St. Albans, and 
settled in France as abbot of a monastery near 
Avignon, 1137. The strictness of his discipline 
recommended him to Eugenius III., who made him 
Cardinal-Bishop of Albano ; and upon the death of 
Anastasius IV. (1154) he was raised to the Holy 
See. He held very advanced views as to papal 
supremacy, and began a quarrel with the Emperor 
Frederick (Barbarossa), which led to a rupture under 
his successor Alexander III. He died in 1159. 

Adrian VI. of Utrecht, tutor to Charles V., 
and successor in the papal chair of Leo X., 1521. 
He attempted to reform the Church, and especially 
to mend the lives of the higher clergy. He thus 
rendered himself very unpopular, and his death 
(1523) was hailed with much delight. | 

3 


Adrian, capital of Lenawee Co., Michigan, in 
the United States, 73 miles S. of Detroit, on the 
Michigan S. Railway, and a branch of the Raisin 
river. It is the centre of a grain-growing district, 
and has many mills worked by water-power. 

Adrianople (Turk. Edreneii), a city in Rou- 
melia, on the banks of the Tundja, i37 miles 
W.N.W. of Constantinople. Formerly known as 
Uskadama, it was improved and adorned by the 
Emperor Hadrian, who gave it his name. The 
Turks took it in 1360, and it was the seat of their 
empire in Europe till the capture of Constantinople, 
1453. The ruins of the sultan’s palace (Eski-Serai), 
the bazaar of Ali Pacha, and the mosque of Selim II. 
attest its former grandeur. A great deal of trade 
is done in raw silk, Turkey red, cotton, attar of roses, 
and wine, which is produced abundantly in the dis¬ 
trict. It was taken by the Russians in 1829, and 
again in 1878. 

Adriatic Sea (Mare Adriaticum') derives its 
name from Adria (see above), and divides Italy, on 
the W., from Trieste, Croatia, Dalmatia, and from 
Albania on the E., having an extreme length of 450 
miles and a mean breadth of 90 miles. Its depth 
varies from 12 to 22 fathoms ; the tides are slightly 
more marked than in the Mediterranean ; the water, 
too, is more salt. Its chief ports are Venice, Trieste, 
Ancona, and Brindisi, the latter having sprung up 
into great importance lately as the place of em¬ 
barkation for India. The Italian shore is low and 
marshy, but the opposite coast presents generally a 
steep rocky front, broken by many safe creeks and 
inlets. The gales from S.E. and N.E. render navi¬ 
gation rather dangerous. 

Adullamites, the name given to a political 
party which arose in 1866, and was led by Mr. 
Lowe (Lord Sherbrooke), who objected to some of 
the proposals of Mr. Gladstone’s Franchise Bill. 
The term was one of derision, referring to David’s 
sojourn in the Cave of Adullam, when he was 
followed by all who were “ in distress, in debt, or 
discontented.” 

Adulteration. “ The act of debasing a pure 
or genuine article for pecuniary profit, by adding to 
it an inferior or spurious article, or taking one of 
its constituents away.” Until 1860, so far as the law 
was concerned, traders were free to adulterate the 
articles they dealt in to any extent. In 1855, how¬ 
ever, Mr. William Scholefield, one of the members 
of Parliament for Birmingham, moved for a Select 
Committee of inquiry into the adulteration of 
foods, drinks, and drugs. The disclosures made 
before this committee, which sat for two sessions 
and presented three reports, were such that legis¬ 
lation followed in 1860, giving permissive power to 
local authorities to appoint analysts and imposing 
penalties of a somewhat mild character upon 
offenders. Under this Act practically nothing was 
done. In 1872 the Adulteration of Food Act 
became law, and in this the appointing of analysts 
was made compulsory. In 1874 a Select Committee 
was appointed to inquire into the operation of the 
Adulteration of the Food and Drinks Act, 1872, and 
this committee recommended the consolidation of 





A lultery. 


( 34 ) 


Adventitious 


the Acts of 1860 and 1872. This was done in a 
Government measure, and the Sale of Food and 
Drugs Act, 1875, with its Amendment Act, 1879, 
embodies the present law relating to adulteration, 
According to these Acts the mixing of injurious 
ingredients in any food or drug meant to be sold is 
forbidden under a penalty not exceeding £50 
for the first offence, and not exceeding six months’ 
hard labour for subsequent offences. If the seller 
of articles so mixed with injurious ingredients can 
prove that it was impossible for him to know of the 
presence of these ingredients, such proof is an 
adequate defence. Again, the selling of food and 
drugs “ not of the nature, substance, and quality of 
the article” demanded by the purchaser is for¬ 
bidden under a penalty of £20. It is also forbidden, 
under a penalty not exceeding £20, to abstract from 
an article of food any part of it so as to affect in¬ 
juriously its quality, substance, or nature, and to then 
sell this article without giving notice of its altered 
character. Any purchaser that suspects the articles 
he buys may have them analysed by the public 
analyst on paying a fee not exceeding ten shillings 
and sixpence for each case, and for this he is entitled 
to receive from the analyst a certificate of the result 
of the analysis. Many private purchasers call in 
the services of the analyst, not with a view to 
prosecuting tradesmen, but for their own guidance, 
and if they find the articles submitted to analysis 
to be tampered with, they change their custom. 
If a prosecution be intended it is necessary for the 
purchaser at the time of making the purchase to 
tell the seller of his intention to have the article 
bought analysed, and to offer to divide the article 
into three parts—one to be left with the seller, one 
for himself, and one for the public analyst. If the 
seller declines the offer then the whole is taken to 
the analyst, who divides it into two, one for analysis 
and one for the purchaser. Prosecutions for 
adulteration are usually based on purchases made 
by inspectors and police-constables, and any dealer 
refusing to sell to such any article offered for sale 
in his shop is liable to a penalty of £10. There is 
a special provision in the Act dealing with tea, 
which is thereby examined by the Customs on im¬ 
portation, and if found unfit for human food is 
destroyed. The extent to which tea used to be 
adulterated may be inferred from a report pre¬ 
sented to the House of Commons in 1783, where 
it is stated that four million pounds were annually 
manufactured in England from sloe and ash 
leaves—this, too, at a time when the total imports 
into this country were only six million pounds. 
In 1843 again, an Inland Revenue official reported 
that there were eight factories in London for re¬ 
drying exhausted tea-leaves which they purchased 
from hotels and coffee-houses at 2|d. per lb. A 
common adulterant with coffee, and perhaps the 
least objectionable, is chicory, which is only a 
sixth of the price of coffee ; others are, or used to 
be, roasted wheat, ground acorns, roasted carrots, 
scorched beans, roasted parsnips, mangold wurzel, 
dog’s biscuits, burnt sugar, red earth, roasted horse- 
chestnuts, mahogany dust, baked horse’s and 
bullock’s liver. The number of prosecutions that 
takq place under the Food and Drugs Act is through 


milk, which is easily and profitably adulterated by 
adding water. A large proportion of cream is often 
taken from the milk, which is then sold as genuine. 
Beer is adulterated with salt, and tobacco 
and drugs are added as well, to increase its 
alcoholic strength and pungency. Most of what is- 
sold as honey is made from starch. Tobacco, like 
milk, is extensively watered, and a tobacconist was 
prosecuted not long ago for cutting up brown paper 
and mixing it with tobacco for cigarettes. Mustard 
is said to be never purchasable in a pure state, but 
mixed with flour, turmeric, cayenne pepper, ginger, 
etc., to an enormous extent. Bread is adulterated 
with alum, potatoes (which enable the flour to cany 
more water), boiled rice, carbonate of soda, and so< 
on—the flour, too, from which it is made having 
most likely suffered at the sophisticating hands of 
the miller. A special Act was passed in 1887 
relating to the adulteration of butter. To give an 
exhaustive statement of the extent to which adul¬ 
teration is practised would be to recount nearly every 
article that enters into human consumption. 

Adultery, according to English law, the* 
sexual intercourse of a married person with some 
person other than his or her wife or husband. 
Among the Greeks and in the earlier period of 
Roman law, and according to the Scriptures (as ex¬ 
pounded by some of the best commentators), it is- 
not adultery except wdiere a married woman is the 
offender. In Britain it has been reckoned a spiri¬ 
tual offence, and cognisable by the spiritual Courts. 
The common law only allowed the party aggrieved 
his action for damages. In England the husband 
can claim damages from the adulterer in a petition 
for dissolution of the marriage. Adultery alone on 
the part of the wife entitles the husband to a dis¬ 
solution of the marriage, but the wife is only en¬ 
titled to a dissolution against the husband where 
there has been, in addition to the adultery, some 
other offence, as bigamy, gross cruelty, or desertion. 
She is, however, entitled to a judicial separation 
in case of adultery alone or of the other offences- 
alone. [Divorce.] 

Ad valorem (“ according to value ”). a term 
used in the Customs, and applies to those duties 
which are levied on goods, not according to their 
number or weight, but according to their estimated 
worth. 

Advent (“ the coming ”), in the Church Calen¬ 
dar, is the name given to the four weeks preceding 
Christmas, or more exactly, which include four 
Sundays, commencing with the Sunday which falls 
nearest to St. Andrew’s Day (Nov. 30th)—either on. 
before, or after that. day. It is regarded as pre¬ 
paratory to Christmas as Lent is preparatory to 
Easter. Advent, however, is never so strictly ob¬ 
served as to fasting, etc., as Lent. 

Adventists and Seventh-day Adventists, 

the names applied to those sects in America whose 
adherents look for a speedy second coming of Christ. 
The latter differ from the former in fixing no actual 
date for the coming. 

Adventitious Buds, those which occur in 
no definite order, as on the heads of pollarded 





Advertisement. 


( 35 ) 


iEcidium. 


trees. The term adventitious is similarly applied 
to those roots which, like those of the strawberry, 
are not in acropetal succession, i.e. which develop 
in regular order from below upward. Leaves are 
never adventitious. 

Advertisement, a public notification of 
some fact affecting the financial or other interests 
of either the advertiser or the persons addressed. 
It is usually effected by means of paragraphs in 
newspapers, fly-leaves, bills, posters, etc. The duty 
on advertisements was first enacted in 1712, and its 
abolition in 1853 gave a great impulse to advertis¬ 
ing, which is now carried on to an extent which 
at one time would have been thought incredible. 
The expenditure by a house of business of £30,000 
a year in advertising is nowadays thought by no 
means extraordinary. 

Advocate, a lawyer trained and authorised to 
plead for clients in the Courts of Law. In Scotland 
the term is synonymous with that of barrister in 
England, and so also in most European countries. 
In the United States no distinction exists, as in 
Great Britain, between barrister or advocate and 
solicitor. 

Advocate-General, the adviser of the Crown 
in questions of military and naval law. 

Advocate, Lord, the name given to the prin¬ 
cipal Public Prosecutor in Scotland. He is assisted 
by a Solicitor-General and some junior counsel as 
subordinate assistants. The office was established 
in the early part of the 16th century. Formerly 
he had no authority for the prosecution of cri¬ 
minals without the concurrence of some private 
person, but in the year 1597 the power without 
any such concurrence was conferred upon him. He 
has the privilege of pleading in Court with his 
hat on. If the Lord Advocate decline to prosecute, 
a private party may do so, but the concurrence or 
“ concourse ” of the Lord Advocate must be ob¬ 
tained. This very rarely occurs. 

Advocate, Queen’s, an officer whose duty is 
to advise and act as counsel for the Crown in 
questions of civil, canon, and international law. 

Advocates, Faculty oe. The Faculty of 
Advocates in Edinburgh constitutes the Bar of 
Scotland. It consists of about 400 members, but 
the number of those in actual practice does not 
exceed 130. The profession has existed in Scotland 
from an early period, and in the year 1424 an Act 
was passed securing assistance to the poor from 
advocates. The advocates of Scotland date as a 
faculty or society from the institution of the 
College of Justice in the year 1532. The amount 
of litigation carried on in the Courts has greatly 
diminished during the present century, in con¬ 
sequence chiefly of improvements which have been 
made in the Sheriff's Courts. The Bar in Scotland 
is, however, still regarded as the chief introduction 
to public and official life in Scotland. It is recruited 
from all ranks of society. An advocate is entitled 
to plead in all the Scottish Courts—also before the 
House of Lords. There are two necessary examina¬ 
tions to be passed before admission—one in general 


knowledge ; the other in law. The first is dispensed 
with for Masters of Arts of a British university, or 
where applicant has a foreign university degree. 
Fees on admission, about £330. The Dean of 
Faculty is elected from this body, and he has pre¬ 
cedence over all the other law officers. 

Advocates’ Library, a library belonging to 
the Faculty of Advocates in Edinburgh, founded 
by Sir George Mackenzie, of Rosebrough, Dean of 
Faculty, in the year 1682. The first librarian was 
appointed in 1686. In 1700 it was removed to 
Parliament House, where it still exists. It has the 
privilege of receiving a copy of every book entered 
at Stationers’ Hall. The number of volumes is now 
computed at over 305,000. 

Advocatus diaboli (the devil’s advocate), in 
the Romish Church the term applied to the func¬ 
tionary appointed to bring forward every possible 
objection to any person’s canonisation, as opposed 
to the Advocatus Lei , who pleads the cause of the 
candidate. 

Advowson, in the Church of England, the 
perpet ual right of presentation to a vacant benefice ; 
it is of three kinds :—(i) Presentative, when the 
patron presents his clerk to the bishop, who insti¬ 
tutes him ; (2) Collative, when the bishop owns the 
advowson, in which case he presents as well as in¬ 
stitutes the clerk ; and (3) Lonative, where no pre¬ 
sentation is necessary, because the king, or some 
licensed subject, has founded the church, not 
subject to the bishop. An advowson attached to a 
manor is termed an advowson appendant, but when 
sold to a purchaser becomes an advowson in gross. 

Adze, an instrument composed of a handle 
and an arched cutting blade, differing from the 
axe in having the blade transverse to the handle. 
It is used by carpenters, shipwrights, etc., for 
chopping the surface of timber. 

iEcidium, or Clustercups, the name formerly 
applied to a genus of fungi 
parasitic upon living flower¬ 
ing plants, but now known to 
be only a stage in the life- 
history of what was consid¬ 
ered a distinct group, the 
Uredinece. They are some¬ 
times called JEcidiomycetes, 
the “rust” of wheat Puc¬ 
cini a graminis being the best 
known example of the group. 

Some species are autcecious, 
passing through all stages 
on one host-plant; others, 
such as the rust, are lietercecious, passing parts of 
their life-cycle on distinct hosts. The black two- 
celled spores (teleuto-spores) produced on straw in 
autumn, in the case of the rust appearing in linear 
clusters, germinate in spring, producing short tubes 
or promycelia, the branches of which terminate in 
sporidia. These sporidia will only germinate on 
the leaves of the barberry, the epidermis of which 
they perforate, producing “ spawn ” or mycelium 
threads in their interior. On these barberry-leaves 
yellow spots soon appear, which burst into cup-like 



magnified. 










iEdile. 


( 36 ) 


iEneas. 


structures filled with chains of spores. These 
clustered cups are still termed cccidia and their 
spores crcidiospores , but they were formerly supposed 
to complete the life-history of the fungus JEcidium 
berberidis. . The ascidiospores of the barberry will 
only germinate on the surface of a grass such as 
wheat, and in from six to ten days, burst out in 
linear masses of orange spores ( uredo-sjjores ), 
formerly known as TJredo. These uredo-spores will 
germinate on grass, giving rise to others like them¬ 
selves ; but towards the close of the season are re¬ 
placed on the same spawn by the black teleuto- 
spores known as Puccini a. Thus three apparently 
distinct fungal parasites are found to be merely 
stages in the life of one. It is suggested that the 
aepidia are sexually produced within the barberry 
leaf. Another species of this large group causes 
the “ witches’ broom ” in fir trees. 

iEdile, the name given to a Roman magistrate 
whose business it was to look after the roads, 
aqueducts, sewers, weights, measures, and public 
worship. Originally there were two aediles, later 
the number was increased to four, and Julius Caesar 
added two more. The term is now sometimes 
applied to the President of the Board of Works, who 
is a member of the British Government and whose 
business it is to look after public buildings, etc. 

JEdui, the name of a powerful tribe which 
inhabited the territory between the Saone (Arar) 
and the Loire (Liger) in Gaul at the time of 
Caesar’s invasion (58 B.C.). At first they made 
common cause with Caesar against Ariovistus, but 
later they followed Vercingetorix in his final effort 
at Ales-ia (Alise-Sainte-Reine). 

iEgean Sea, the classical name of that portion 
of the Mediterranean which lies between Greece and 
Asia Minor, now known as the Grecian Archipelago 
(q.v.). The influence which this narrow gulf, with 
its numberless islands and bays, exercised upon the 
Greek character can hardly be overestimated. The 
origin of the name is lost in antiquity; some trace 
it to the town yEgae, others to iEgea, a doubtful 
Amazonian queen, others to King iEgeus. 

JEgeus, a legendary king of Athens, son of Pan- 
dion, and father of Theseus. In his days, Minos of 
Crete imposed on the Athenians a yearly tribute of 
seven youths and seven maidens as food for the 
Minotaur. Theseus, being one of the sacrificial 
batch, determined to rid the world of the monster, 
and agreed with his father to hoist white instead 
of black sails on the returning vessel if he was suc¬ 
cessful. This he forgot to do, and vEgeus seeing a 
black sail on the horizon threw himself into the 
sea, which henceforth bore his name. 

2Egina, an island 8 miles long by 6 broad, lying 
20 miles distant from Athens, in the Saronic Gulf. 
It is rugged, for it contains Mount Oros and the 
Panhellenian Ridge, but tolerably fertile, and very 
healthy. It was the home of the legendary Abacus, 
and named from his mother. At the date of the 
battle of Salamis it rivalled Athens in naval power, 
and to this day ruins of walls and towers remain. 
Athenian jealousy ended by crushing the fortunes 


of the island, which was colonised by the victors. 
Lysander in vain restored the former inhabitants. 
Later on Algina passed under the sway of the Vene¬ 
tians, who transferred it to the Turks, 1715, but in 
1828-9 it shared in the liberation of Greece. The 
famous Aiginetan marbles preserved at Munich 
formed part of a fine temple probably dedicated to 
Panhellenian Zeus. 

iEgineta, Paulus, a Greek physician and 
voluminous writer of the 7tli century A.d. His 
works form a mine of information on the surgery 
of his time. 

JEgis, in Homer, the shield of Zeus (Jupiter). 
Later the term was used for the shield of Athene 
(Minerva), and was represented as a sort of breast¬ 
plate with Medusa’s head in the centre, and fringed 
with snakes. It is symbolic of a shielding or pro¬ 
tecting power. 

iEgistllUS, the mythological son of Thyestes 
and Pelopea, who, having been adopted as a son bv 
Atreus, seduced Clytemnestra, the wife of Agamem¬ 
non, then absent in the Trojan War. On the return 
of the latter, yEgisthus, with his paramour’s assist¬ 
ance, slew him, and reigned in Mycenae for seven 
years, when he was killed by Orestes. The story 
furnished ACschylus with a plot for three of his 
tragedies. 

iEglina, a genus of Trilobites (q.v.). 

JEglinidse, a family of Ordovician Trilobites 
characterised by the possession of few rings in the 
body, and large head, tail, and eyes. 

iEgoceratidse, a well-known family of Ammo¬ 
nites found in the lower Jurassic. 

AEgophony, a term applied to a peculiar sound, 
said to resemble the bleating of a goat, whence its 
derivation, and occasionally heard on auscultation 
of the chest, particularly in cases of pleural effusion. 

iEgospotami, a small river in the Thracian 
Chersonesus, falling into the Hellespont near Sestos, 
having a town on its banks. The Athenians under 
Conon were severely defeated here (405 b.c.) by the 
Lacedaemonians under Lysander, and one conse¬ 
quence of this disaster was the capture of Athens 
and the conclusion of the Peloponnesian War. 

iElfric, a learned Saxon writer known as “ the 
Grammarian.” About his life little is handed down 
to us. He flourished at the end of the tenth and 
beginning of the eleventh centuries, was a pupil of 
Ethelwold and a friend of Dunstan. He appears to 
have been occupied in teaching at Winchester first, 
and afterwards at Cerne in Dorsetshire. His works 
are numerous, including a Grammar and Glossary 
in English and Latin, a Colloquium, his Homilies, 
and treatises on the Old and New Testament. 

JEluroidea, a division of Fissiped Carnivora, 
containing the Felidae (Cats), Viverridae (Weasels), 
Protelidae (Aard-wolf), and Hyaenidae (Hyaenas'). 
[Carnivora.] 

JEneas, a legendary Trojan prince, son of 
Venus and Anchises. He appears in the Iliad as a 







JEolian. 


( 37 ) 


Aeronautics. 


comrade of Hector, and Virgil made him the hero 
of the JEneid. In that poem he is described as 
escaping from burning Troy with his father on his 
shoulders, carrying his household gods, and lead¬ 
ing his son, Ascanius, by the hand. His wife 
Creusa was lost in the tumult. After many ad¬ 
ventures, the principal of which was his love 
affair with Dido, the queen of Carthage, iEneas 
landed in Latium, allied himself with Latinus, the 
king of the country, married, his daughter Lavinia, 
and founded Lavinium. His rival Turnus, king of 
the Rutulians, was killed in battle, and the JEneid 
carries the story no farther. Livy, taking up the 
narrative, says that he reigned for three years in 
Latium ; was slain in a war with the Rutulians, 
aided by Mezentius of Etruria, and was carried up 
to heaven. Ascanius, his son, who changed his name 
to lulus, was claimed as the forefather of the 
Julian Gens. 

iEolian Action, the action of wind (so called 
from JEolus, god of winds), one of the minor 
agencies in geology. The transporting action of 
wind forms the shifting sand-dunes along the coast 
and the sand-storms in the desert, burying buildings 
or obstructing streams. To it is also attributed the 
accumulation of the loess in the interior of con¬ 
tinents, as in China, and in the great plains west 
of the Mississippi, a fine-grained dust containing 
few land-plants or shells, and sometimes hundreds 
of feet thick. By blowing sand, wind exercises an 
erosive power, varying with the square of its velo¬ 
city, which seems to have produced the under¬ 
cutting of some sandstone rocks, such as the Toad 
Rock, Rusthall, near Tunbridge Wells, and the buttes 
of the Colorado deserts. 

iEolian Karp, an instrument made by stretch¬ 
ing catgut strings over a thin piece of wood 
generally shaped like a box ; this is placed in a 
window (opened sufficiently to admit it), and the 
wind passing over the strings produces a succession 
of beautiful sounds, very low and mournful when 
the wind is slight, but increasing in strength and 
height as the wind increases. 

iEolian Islands, a group of volcanic origin to 
the N. of the Straits of Messina, now called the 
Lipari Islands ; mentioned in Horn. Od. x. 1. The 
chief of these are Hiera, Strongyle, Didyme, 
Phoenicusa, Euonymus, and Ericusa ; their modern 
names being Vulcano, Stromboli, Salina, Felicudi, 
Panaria, and Alicudi. Their ancient appellation is 
derived from iEolus, the god of winds, who was 
supposed to govern them. 

iEolidae, a family of shell-less sea slugs or 
Nudibranchiate Gasteropods. 

iEolus, the mythological son of Hippotes, who 
was descended from iEolus, son of Hellen, the pro¬ 
genitor of the iEolian Greeks. He was regarded as 
the divine controller of the winds, his home being 
placed in Lipari or Stromboli. (See Horn. Od. x. 
and Virg. JEn. i.) 

JEpyornis, a genus of sub-fossil ratite birds, 
with three or four species, from Madagascar. The 
e2rg of - E . maximus is computed to have three 
times the capacity of an ostrich’s egg. 


iEqui, a tribe of Italy who were a source of 
trouble and irritation to the Roman Republic. 
They inhabited the north-east corner of Latium, 
and made frequent raids upon the Roman territory. 
They were not finally subdued until 302 b.C. 

iEquoridae, a family of jelly-fish of interest, as 
it includes some of the best preserved fossils of 
this group ; they come from the lithographic stone 
of Solenhofen. 

Aerated Sread, bread made by machinery, 
with flour moistened with prepared carbonic acid 
water, which makes the bread light and porous. 
Aerated bread is not so sweet-tasting as ordinary 
bread, but is made quicker, is absolutely pure, and 
is not touched with the hand in making. 

Aerated Waters, waters made effervescing 
by the introduction of carbonic acid gas. Carbonic 
acid water , or Soda Water, is the most common, 
but there are many waters, such as Seltzer, Apolli- 
naris, Vichy, which are naturally aerated. The 
manufacture of simple aerated water mixed with 
fruit syrup or other flavouring is very extensive. 
Gasogenes may be obtained for manufacturing 
aerated waters at home. [Mineral Waters.] 

Aerial Roots, roots produced in the air, 
which mostly also take in nourishment from atmo¬ 
spheric moisture. They are accordingly almost con¬ 
fined to tropical plants. The roots put out by the 
climbing stems of ivy serve to attach the plant and 
take in water that may trickle down the trunk on 
which it grows. Most aerial roots, such as those of 
the banyan (Ficus indica'), are produced adventi¬ 
tiously from the branches ; but in mangroves they 
are tap-roots produced by the germination of 
seeds in fruits still hanging on the parent tree. In 
both these cases the aerial roots grow to the ground 
or mud, acquire a thick cork, and resemble stems 
externally. Many tropical orchids are epiphytes, 
attached to the boughs of trees by green aerial roots 
which never reach the ground. 

Aerobic, or Aerobiotic. Micro-organisms have 
been divided by Pasteur into aerobic and an-aerobic, 
the former term being applied to those which are 
only able to grow in the presence of oxygen. 

Aerodynamics, that branch of dynamics 
which treats of the force-relations of air or other 
elastic fluids. It is usually studied in conjunction 
with hydrodynamics (q.v.), of which it may be re¬ 
garded as a special application. If the force-rela¬ 
tions are such that equilibrium is the result, we 
have the division aerostatics. If motion is pro¬ 
duced, aerokinetics. The practical applications of 
the science to aerial navigation introduce us to the 
art of aeronautics. [Balloon and Parachute.] 

Aeronautics. Our ordinary dull and com¬ 
monplace method of locomotion upon the surface 
of the earth has for many ages incited men of an 
enterprising turn of mind to give their attention 
to rising in the air, and attempting to soar aloft 
through the upper regions. The engineer and the 
student of mechanical science know that there 
is nothing unreasonable or inconsistent in the 







Aeronautics. 


( 38 ) 


Aeronautics. 


possibility of commanding locomotion through the 
air over the land and the water. The problem of 
producing motion in a given direction through the 
air is somewhat analogous with that of producing 
motion in a given direction through the water. 
The complete form of the problem of aerial 
navigation is, of course, that of flying; and the 
study of the mechanical condition of that wonderful 
process is one of the most interesting offered by 
Nature. 

In 1670 an Italian Jesuit of the name of Francis 
Lana first published a project, in which he proposed 
to rise in the air by the aid of four copper balls 
from which the air had been exhausted to form a 
vacuum. In 1766 a Doctor Black, and in 1782 an 
Italian named Cavallo, were also actively at work in 



trying to solve aerial navigation. About the year 
1782 a new departure took place, when the Brothers 
Montgolfier introduced the balloon, and thus over¬ 
came the great obstacle to aerial navigation caused 
by the action of gravity, and so simplified the con¬ 
ditions as to bring the problem much more within 
the reach of practical skill. After a number of 
experiments, Stephen and Joseph Montgolfier were 
convinced that a certain degree of heat would 
considerably diminish the weight of air. 

They then experimented with balloons made of 
silk and linen, filled with hot air and smoke made 
by burning chopped straw and wood. These ex¬ 
periments proving successful, they next sent up a 
linen balloon, 30 feet in diameter, which had no¬ 
thing to lift except its own weight. It therefore 
rose to a great height, and descended in a field a 
mile and a half away. The next experimental 
balloon carried a car, in which were a sheep, a 
cock, and a duck, which proving successful, in¬ 
duced M. Pilatre de Bozier and the Marquis d’Ar- 
landes to ascend in a balloon 45 feet in diameter 
and 75 feet high. They started about two o'clock 
in the day, and passed over Paris, much to the as¬ 
tonishment of the people. The balloon attained an 
altitude of over half a mile, and was inflated with 
hot air. Ballast was for the first time employed 
for regulating the ascending power of the balloon. 


The first gas-inflated balloon was invented by Pro¬ 
fessor Charles, which ascended in December, 1783. 
from the Tuileries. 

M. Henri Giffarcl, the inventor of the “ Injector,” 
in 1852, made the first attempt to utilise the screw 
for balloons. As a power to work his screw he 
used a steam engine. M. Depuy de Lome in 1872 
made a successful ascent in an elongated shape 
balloon ; the car carried a screw propeller of two 
sails with a view of giving a velocity to the balloon 
independent of the wind. 

While France can claim the initiators of the 
science of Aeronautics, England has furnished the 
most successful operators, for Messrs. Glaisher and 
Cox well in 1862 accomplished the highest ascent 
which has yet been made, rising to the enormous 
height of 7 miles. 

The aerostat is in appearance the shape of a 
large fish. A car is underneath ; and at one end oi 
the inflated spheroid is a projecting wing-like object, 
used as a rudder. 

The rudder consists of a sail, 39 feet square, 
which projects outside the car like that of a boat. 
The screw propeller, or aerial screw, is at the 



MESSRS. GLAISHER AND COXWELL IN THEIR BALLOON. 

(From Mr. Glaisher’s “ Travels in the Air.’’) 


front end of the balloon, and is rotated at a swift 
rate by the “ Gramme ” machine, which is itself 
worked by the current from a battery of accumu¬ 
lators or voltaic cells. The gas envelope is made 
of light, stiong silk, covered with a netting, from 
which the platform or car is hung. 

The error into which most persons have 
fallen in attempting aerial locomotion is a 
futile endeavour to fly, after the manner of those 
creatures which are specially adapted bv Nature 
for that purpose. 




























Aerophor. 


( 39 ) 


iEschines. 


In these days of scientific discoveries it cannot 
he said that flying by mechanical means will never 
be accomplished, but it is doubtful whether it 
would be of practical use in all states of the 
atmosphere. 

Now, to accomplish aerial locomotion it is 
necessary to give almost as much buoyancy to 
the body of a man as would enaDie it to remain 
suspended in mid-air. To do tnis it requires a 
lifting power lighter than the atmosphere. The 
practical utility of aerial locomotion must always 
be considerably restricted by the effect of the wind, 
rain, hail, and snow, which it is impossible for any 



WAR BALLOON USED DURING THE FRANCO-GERMAN WAR. 


Hying body to evade; and, on the whole, balloons 
which can be so constructed as to dispense with 
ballast, and rise and fall at the will of the aeronaut, 
and thus utilise the currents going at different 
altitudes in different directions, will at some future 
■date form a feasible and useful addition to the 
present means of transport by sea and land. 

The introduction of petroleum, at a moderate 
■cost, for locomotive purposes is already in use ; and 
mineral oils have- many advantages over coal and 
■electricity as a motive power. Coal is too heavy 
for aerial purposes, and electricity has very little 
■effective power. Until some satisfactory method 
can be discovered for sufficiently controlling 
balloons, they can never be of very great practical 
value. They have, however, been used with some 
■success in military operations, notably during the 
•siege of Paris 1870-71 ; and in 1886 M. L’Hoste and 
M. Mangot, French aeronauts, successfully steered 
a balloon, by the aid of a sail, ropes, and floating 
anchor, from Cherbourg to the Isle of Wight. By 
the aid of the screw they were enabled to bring the 


balloon to within a few yards of the water, drop the 
floatinganclior, and hoist the sail, and thus guide the 
balloon in the desired direction. They were thus 
enabled to maintain a low altitude, and counteract 
the heat from the sun's rays, which tends to raise 
the balloon to higher currents, by letting down a 
can in the water, which was filled, raised, and 
emptied in a reservoir fixed below. They thus 
proved for the first time the power and direct con¬ 
trol of balloons travelling over the sea. [Balloon.] 

Aerophor, an apparatus largely used in 
Germany for distributing moisture in the form 
of a very fine water-cloud, which may be either 
cold or warm. 

In factories where the manufacture of textile 
fabrics is carried on it is essential that the air 
should be continually and equably moist, other¬ 
wise much damage is done by the frequent 
breaking of threads and similar occurrences. The 
aeroplior obviates the necessity for the projection 
of steam into the rooms, or the damping of floors 
(often so dangerous to the health of the operatives), 
by the following means. 

The apparatus is fixed just under the ceiling, 
at given points, and consists of two separate 
nozzles—one for propelling the air by creating an 
induced current, and the other for moistening it. 

A jet of water under pressure is projected 
through a horizontal nozzle into a casing in which 
there is a vertical nozzle. The water is diffused 
into the atmosphere in the form of a very fine cloud, 
and the large drops are caught and retained by 
the aerophor. It will project only such particles of 
water as can be absorbed immediately 7 , so that 
no damage to machinery or fabric is incurred ; 
and the air not being overcharged, no unhealthy 
condition is obtained. The machine is used to a 
slight extent in England. 

Aerostatic Press, the name given to a 
machine for utilising the pressure of the atmosphere 
for extracting the colouring-matter from dye-woods 
and for other purposes. The machine is divided 
into two parts by 7 means of a horizontal partition, 
upon which the matter from which the extract is 
to be obtained is laid ; the partition is perforated 
with small holes, and a perforated lid fits over it. 
The liquid which is to extract the colouring-matter 
is then poured on the top, and the air extracted 
from the lower portion of the vessel by means of an 
air-pump, and by atmospheric pressure the extract¬ 
ing liquid is forced through the substance, carrying 
with it the required colouring-matter. 

Aerostatics, that branch of statics which 
treats of the force-relations of air or other elastic 
fluids, when the force-relations are such that 
equilibrium results. [Aerodynamics.] 

JEschines, -the famous Athenian orator and 
rival of Demosthenes, born circa 389 B.C. After 
fighting at Mantinea, he entered on a political 
career. He went on an embassy to Philip of 
Macedon, and subsequently—or perhaps before— 
advocated peace with that monarch. Demosthenes 
accused him of receiving bribes, and he retaliated 
by charging Ctesiphon with illegally proposing to 


















iEschylus. 


( 40 ) 


^Estivation 


confer on his rival a golden crown. Demosthenes 
delivered his most famous oration in defence of 
himself and his friend, with the result that 
JEschines was exiled. He is said to have esta¬ 
blished a school of oratory at Rhodes, and after¬ 
wards to have lived in Samos, where he died in his 
75th year. 

iEschylus, the earliest and greatest of Greek 
tragedians, was born in 525 B.C. He took pare in 
the defeat of the Persians both at Marathon and 
Salamis, and his play entitled the Perscc is a 
glorious monument of this momentous struggle. 
He wrote seventy tragic dramas, all highly success¬ 
ful, of which only seven have come down to us. 
It would seem that he was opposed to the demo¬ 
cratic principles of the Periciean era, and retired 
to Sicily, dying at Gela in his sixty-ninth year. 
Some attribute his expatriation to jealousy of 
Sophocles, who carried off the prize for tragedy in 
468 B.C. His style, though obscure and sometimes 
harsh, possesses a stern, majestic eloquence to 
which no other Greek dramatist can pretend, and 
he was evidently inspired with a deep religious 
feeling and a sense of the highest duties of a 
national poet. 

JEsculapius (Gr. Asklepios), son of Apollo 
and the nymph Coronis, though others assign to 
him a different origin, was educated in the healing 
art by the Centaur Chiron. For his impiety in 
restoring Hippolytus to life Zeus destroyed him with 
a thunderbolt, but he was admitted to heaven and 
became the god of medicine. In this character he 
had many shrines in Greece, the grandest being at 
Epidaurus, where his effigy represented a bearded 
old man bearing a knotted stick entwined by a 
serpent. Hygieia was reputed to be his daughter. 
The cock, the raven, and the goat were sacred to 
him. 

JEscnlin (C l5 H l3 0 9 ), a substance obtained 
from the bark of the horse-chestnut {JEsculus 
hippocastanuni) in the form of needle-shaped crys¬ 
tals, which are colourless, inodorous, and bitter 
to the taste. AEsculin is only slightly soluble in 
water and alcohol at ordinary temperatures, but 
dissolves more freely at a boiling heat. Glacial 
acetic acid is also a very good solvent; but by 
ether it is scarcely affected. iEsculin is celebrated 
for the beautiful blue fluorescence which is shown 
by its aqueous solution, a characteristic which be¬ 
comes still more marked if the liquid be alkaline, 
but is destroyed by acids. 

JEsop, the accredited author of the celebrated 
fables, was born about 619 B.C., probably in 
Phrygia. He came to Athens as a slave, and was 
manumitted by Iadmon of Samos. According to 
Plutarch he visited the court of Croesus and rebuked 
Solon for his arrogance. The Lydian king sent 
him to Delphi with a large sum of money to dis¬ 
tribute, but as he did not execute his mission to 
the satisfaction of the Delphians, they killed him, 
564 B.C. Though antiquity is clear as to his having 
been the author of fables, none of them are extant, 
and it is impossible to trace his work amongst the 
productions of his numerous imitators. 


^Esthetics, a term of somewhat vague mean¬ 
ing, owing to the different significations with which 
it has been applied. Kant and his followers under¬ 
stood by it the science which treats of perception 
by the senses, thus keeping close to the original 
Greek derivation. In 1750 the German philosopher 
Baumgarten limited it to denote the science of the 
Beautiful, and this is now its commonly accepted 
meaning. Again, within the last ten years the words 
aesthetic, aesthete, etc., have been used in exclusive 
connection with a certain type of “sentimental 
archaism.” 

./Esthetics, regarded as the science of the 
Beautiful, or of the principles of art and taste, 
proceeds by two fundamentally distinct methods, 
the metaphysical or a priori , and the scientific or 
empirical. The first starts with assuming that 
beyond the material world lies some ultimate con¬ 
ception which is more or less embodied in different 
forms of beauty, and seeks by means of this con¬ 
ception to determine deductively what it is that- 
constitutes beauty. The scientific method compares 
and classifies recognised phenomena of beauty and 
art, and endeavours by so doing to establish certain 
laws. It should be remembered, however, that 
most writers on {esthetics have treated the subject 
as part of a philosophic whole, the principles ot 
which it is first necessary to grasp. The science of 
the Beautiful also includes the determination of 
the laws and nature of the Sublime, and the 
Ludicrous, and much has been written on their 
mutual relations, especially as regards the Ludi¬ 
crous. Psychologically considered, the Beautiful 
is a source of pleasure which presents unity in 
diversity, and so is easy of apprehension. Any trait 
which entails conflict, or difficulty of apprehension, 
jars, and turns the pleasure into pain. Artistic 
pleasure, therefore, springs largely from harmony. 
Lessing lays stress on this principle in his Laohoon. 
“ Among the ancients,” he says, “ beauty was the 
highest law of the plastic arts. And this, once 
proved, it is a necessary consequence that every¬ 
thing else over which their range could be at the 
same time extended, if incompatible with beauty, 
gave way entirely to it; if compatible was at least 
subordinate.” The power of association in {esthetic 
feeling is too well known to need dilating upon, 
and the whole question is greatly complicated by 
the fact that not only the associations of the in¬ 
dividual, but those of the race must be considered. 

^Estivation (from the Latin ccstivus , belonging 
to summer ”), the term applied in botany to the fold¬ 
ing of the floral leaves, or sepals and petals in the 
flower-bud, such buds being mostly produced in 
summer. It is a character of importance as serving 
to distinguish some of the natural orders of flower¬ 
ing plants. The folding or rolling of the leaves 
individually, and their collective arrangement have 
to be separately considered. Individually they 
may be reclinate, their apex folded to their base ; 
conduplicate, their two sides folded together; 
plicate , folded like a fan ; convolute, rolled up from 
one side, like a scroll; involute, with their mar¬ 
gins rolled inwards or upwards ; revolute, with the 
margins rolled backward ; circinatc, rolled up from 







Aethrioscope. 


( 41 ) 


Afghanistan. 


apex to base, as in the petals of Hamamelis; or 
crumpled, as in those of poppies. Collectively 
they may be valvatc, meeting at the edges without 
overlapping, as in the sepals of Clematis or of the 
Malvacece and the petals of the vine ( Vais') ; or 
imbricate, overlapping one another. Among varie¬ 
ties of imbricate aestivation, the chief is that known 
•as contorted, where one edge of each leaf is rolled 
over the next, as in the petals of Malva. 

Aethrioscope, an instrument for determining 
the radiation against the sky. It was invented by 
Sir John Leslie, and consists of a differential 
thermometer, whose bulbs are protected by a 
metallic cup, one of the bulbs being in the focus of 
the highly-polished interior. 

iEtolia, a mountainolis and woody country of 
ancient Greece, having the Gulf of Corinth as its 
S. boundary, and separated on the W. by the river 
Achelous from Acarnania. Fertile plains stretch 
along the coast and the banks of the Achelous. 
The population was wild, treacherous, and un¬ 
civilised, but courageous and patriotic. During 
the palmy days of Greece they played no im¬ 
portant part, but the JEtolian League held out 
long against Philip of Macedon and the Achrean 
League. The A2tolians joined the Romans against 
Macedon, but subsequently turned against their 
allies, and were completely subdued by iEmilius 
Paullus. Ultimately their country was merged 
in the province of Achaia. Before the disruption 
of the Greek Empire, Theodorus Angelus esta¬ 
blished a dynasty in iEtolia and Epirus, •which 
lasted till 1432, when the Turks put an end to it. 
George Castriot, known as Scanderbeg, struggled 
for a time against Mohammedan supremacy, but 
the country was reduced by Mohammed II. It 
now forms part of the kingdom of Greece. 

Aetomorphae, a group of carinate birds, 
equivalent to the Raptores or Accipitres of older 
systematists. [Birds, Birds of Prey.] 

Affidavit, a solemn statement of a fact or facts 
known to or believed by the person making it, and 
attested by the oath of such person made before 
some person authorised to administer an oath, and 
according to the faith of the deponent. In England, 
and with Christians, on the Holy Gospels. Affi¬ 
davits are also necessary in many cases to show 
that certain formalities have been observed, as in 
bankruptcy and probate. Formerly, an oath was 
always indispensable in affidavits, but Quakers, 
Moravians, and Separatists have long been privi¬ 
leged to make a solemn declaration or affirmation, 
in lieu of an oath. [Affirmation, Declara¬ 
tion, and Oath.] Affidavits abroad are usu¬ 
ally made before the British Ambassadors or 
consuls. In England there are commissioners 
specially appointed, usually practising solicitors, 
for the purpose of administering oaths. Affidavits 
in all the English courts must be made and ex¬ 
pressed in the first person. 

Affiliation, or Filiation, the term applied to a 
magistrate order in England on the putative father 
of a bastard for maintenance. The term is also ap¬ 
plied to an action in the Sheriff's Court of Scotland 


by the mother of a natural child for its support 
from the reputed father. The rates of maintenance 
vary in different districts. The father’s liability 
may be enforced by imprisonment. [Bastardy.] 

Affinity (Legal), in contradistinction to con¬ 
sanguinity, the term denoting the relationship 
brought about by marriage between the husband or 
wife and the blood relations of either. But this re¬ 
lationship is personal to the husband and wife re¬ 
spectively, and does not extend so far as to bring 
into affinity the blood relations of one with those 
of the other: thus a wife’s sister has no affinity 
with her husband’s brother. 

Affinity, in Chemistry, the force in virtue of 
which substances are enabled to combine together 
and produce a compound which cannot be destroyed 
by mechanical means. The fact that the action 
of this force is always attended by a development 
of one or more forms of energy, as heat, light, or 
electricity, points to the probability that chemical 
affinity is itself a variety of energy. 

Affirmation, or Declaration, a statement 
which is now substituted for an oath in cases of 
those whose conscientious scruples prevent them 
from taking an oath, as Quakers, Moravians, or 
atheists. If made before the proper authorities, 
a court of law or commissioners, the affirmant is, 
in case of false statement, liable to the same con¬ 
sequences as if he had taken an oath thereto. 
[Affidavit, Oath.] 

Afghanistan, an Asiatic country, bounded 
by India on the east, Persia on the west, Baluch¬ 
istan on the south, and the River Oxus and the 
Russian possessions in Central Asia on the north. 
It has an area of about 240.000 square miles, and 
a population estimated at over five millions. 
One of the most gigantic mountain ranges of 
the world—the Hindu Kush, an offshoot of the 
Himalayas — overspreads the greater part of 
Afghanistan. The temperature thus varies from 
extreme cold in the highlands to the most intense 
heat in plains, such as those of Jelalabad, 
Candahar, and Seistan. The monsoon which 
deluges India has scarcely any effect beyond the 
Suleiman range, the eastern limit of the Afghan 
plateau. Mineral wealth is believed to be abun¬ 
dant in the northern and eastern parts, iron, 
lead, copper, antimony, and other metallic ores, 
sulphur, and several of the earthy alkaline and 
metallic salts being met with in greater or less 
abundance. Gold in small quantities is brought 
from Candahar, the Laghman Hills, and Kunar. 
Badakshan is famous for its rubies and lapis-lazuli. 
The ordinary domestic animals, such as the horse, 
camel, cow, buffalo (occasionally), sheep, goat, etc., 
constitute the main wealth of most of the Afghans ; 
while several of the wild animals, such as the wolf 
and fox, are hunted and trapped for the sake of 
their furs. The principal towns are Cabul, Herat, 
Candahar, Ghazni, Jelalabad, Maimana, Saripul, 
Mazar-i-Sharif, and Balkh. 

Cultivation is of two kinds, abi and lallam, the 
latter being dependent solely on rain, and the 








( 42 ) 


Afghanistan. 


Afghanistan. 


former on irrigation above or below ground ( 'Jtarez ). 
Fruits, including the apple, pear, almond, peach, 
quince, plum, pomegranate, grape, fig, melon, etc., 
are produced. In most parts of the country there 
are two harvests, one, consisting of wheat, barley, 
with some peas and beans, being sown at the end 
of the autumn and reaped in summer; while the 
other, which includes rice, arzun, millet, jowari, 
Indian corn, and the like, is sown at the end of 
spring and reaped in autumn. Cotton is found 
in the hotter districts; the castor-oil, madder, 
tobacco, and assafcetida plants are common, great 
quantities of the last being exported to India, where 
it is a favourite ingredient in cookery. Agriculture 


ancient traffic, in spite of such discouragements, is 
very remarkable. The imports into India also include 
horses, madder ( vianjit ), fruits, ghi, and raw silk. 
In return the Afghans receive cotton goods, indigo, 
sugar, and tea. Such trade as exists is carried on 
under great difficulties, there being no made roads, 
and, generally speaking, nothing being done to faci¬ 
litate communication. The rivers are not bridged ; 
and it is only when a route becomes absolutely 
impassable that it is repaired, and then only by 
travellers for their own convenience. 

Afghanistan forms an ethnological area of a 
highly complex character, the chief elements being 
—1. The politically dominant Afghans proper, a 



GROUP OF AFGHANS. 


is the principal employment. Owing to the normal 
state of unrest throughout the country, manufac¬ 
tures are unimportant, the more noticeable being 
the production of silks and felt (especially at Can- 
dahar), the manufacture of postins , or sheepskin 
coats, and dyeing. There is a good trade with 
Persia, through Herat; and an increasing trade 
with India, through Candahar and the Sind Pishin 
Railway in the one direction, and via the Khaibar 
and Gomul Passes in the other. The latter route 
is preferred by the Powandahs, or itinerant mer¬ 
chants, who'move about with their flocks, and act 
as carriers of goods between Afghanistan and India. 
They import carpets, furs, woollen, silks, drugs, 
dyes, and dried fruits, and descend into the plains 
of the Punjab, leaving their families in charge of 
the camels, flocks, and herds, while the Powandahs 
themselves travel far over India to dispose of their 
goods. They are subject to endless exactions, 
attacks, and robbery from the border tribes, more 
particularly the Waziris; and the vitality of this 


member of the Iranic branch of the Aryan family, 
centred chiefly in the Cabul, Arghandab, and 
Helmand basins, and in the Suleiman highlands, 
numbering about 3,000,000. 2. The Tajiks, also 

Iranians of the Persian branch, forming agricultural 
and also trading communities in the more fertile 
districts; about 1,000,000. 3. The Rindkis—i.e. 

Hindus, chiefly traders, and numerous, especially 
in the eastern districts ; about 500,000. 4. The 

Hazaras and Aimaks, of Mongolo-Tatar stock, 
now speaking Persian, in the northern highlands 
between Bamian and Herat; 600,000 to 700,000. 

5. The Kataglidns, or Uzbegs, forming the bulk of 
the population in Afghan Turkestan; 200,000. 

6. The Badakshi of Galcha (Eastern Iranic) stock, 
in Badakshan, 100,000; the Kohistani and Siah 
Posh Kafirs, also Galcha stock, in Kohistan and 
Kafiristan; 120,000. 

The Afghans proper speak Pushto, a rude Aryan 
language, intermediate between the Iranic and 
Indie branches ; but in diplomatic, and even private 
































Afium. 


( 43 ) 


Africa. 


correspondence, they employ the more refined Per- 
sian. They are Mohammedans of the Sunni sect, 
and this is a chief ground of their hereditary hatred 
of those Persians who belong to the Shiah sect. 
Although loosely united under one Amir, they do 
not constitute a homogeneous nationality, but are 
split up into a multiplicity of more or less hostile 
tribal groups, of which the more powerful are the 
Durani, to which belongs the reigning dynasty; pop. 
X(X),000; the Ghilzais, 600,000; the Yusafzaes, 
600,000; and' the Waziri, 250,000. They are 
■physically of a somewhat coarse, vigorous type, 
with regular features, swarthy complexion, and an 
occasional Jewish cast of expression, which lends 
some colour to their claim to the title of “ Bani- 
Israel,” or “ Sons of Israel.” The name Afghan 
has been connected with the A<jvaka of the Mahab- 
harata. Another national name is Pciklitun, whence 
the form Patlian, by which they are commonly 
designated in India. 

The government is a military, aristocratic, and 
despotic republic. Religion is the counterpoise to his 
authority, which gives the clergy, or “ mullahs,” 
great influence. The dominions of the Amir are 
politically divided into the four provinces of Cabul, 
Turkistan, Herat, and Candahar, to which may be 
added the districts of Badakshan and Wakhan, the 
governors of which dispense justice after a feudal 
fashion. In Shere Ali’s time the revenue of the 
country was estimated at £712,968 a year, the 
government demand varying from a third to 
a tenth. The army is said to "have been founded 
.by Shere Ali. 

The whole of Afghanistan was conquered by Timur, 
Cabul remaining in the hands of his descendants, 
and Candahar being added to it by Sultan Babar 
in 1522. Nadar Shah, the Persian, held the Afghan 
provinces till his assassination in 1747, after which 
they were formed into a single empire under Ahmed 
Shah. The latter part of the century was marked 
by a series of internal wars, till the news that the 
Emperor Napoleon and the Czar had agreed upon 
an expedition to India through Persia resulted in 
the despatch of Mr. Elphinstone to Cabul. A 
treaty was concluded with Shah Shu jab, the ruler 
of Afghanistan, at Peshawur, in 1809. His rule, 
however, proved unpopular, and he was dethroned 
in favour of Mahmud Shah. In 1837 Mahomed 
Shah, ruler of Persia, encouraged, as it is said, 
by Russia, laid siege to Herat, the defenders being 
assisted by Lieutenant Pottinger. The British 
determined to restore Shah Shujah to the throne 
of Cabul, and in 1839 took possession of Candahar, 
and Shah Shujah was crowned. Ghazni soon fell, 
and the Anglo-Indian army entered Cabul. Fre¬ 
quent insurrections, however, soon arose, culminat¬ 
ing in the serious revolt of the winter of 1841- 2. 
In January the British division was practically 
annihilated, but this was avenged in General Pol¬ 
lock’s expedition the same year, and the British 
army returned in triumph to India. In 1863 Dost 
Mahomed became master of Herat, but he only 
lived thirteen days afterwards, and was succeeded 
by his son, Shere Ali Khan. His reign was most 
troublous, and internal wars with the chief princes 
were incessant. In 1878, when the relations between 


Russia and Great Britain were strained, Shere Ali 
made overtures to Russia, and received a Russian 
mission at his capital. War was declared by Eng¬ 
land against the Amir, and Cabul captured. Shere 
Ali fled and died in Afghan Turkistan, his son, Yakub 
Khan, being acknowledged as Amir, while a British 
envoy was installed in the citadel of Cabul. In 
September an insurrection resulted in the massacre 
of Sir L. Cavagnari and his followers, and a fresh in¬ 
vasion of the country took place. The next important 
event was the march of Ayub Khan, 3 'ounger 
brother of the ex-Amir Yakub Khan, on Can¬ 
dahar, and his defeat of the English in July, 1880. 
Sir F. Roberts totally defeated Ayub Khan in 
August, and the country became quiet. In 1880 
the British forces were withdrawn to Quetta. 
Abder Rahman has since successfully maintained 
his position, and has quelled the revolt of Ishak 
Khan, governor of Afghan Turkistan. 

Afium-Kara-Hissar, a city of commercial 
importance, 200 miles E. of Smyrna, in the pashalic 
of Anatolia, It is a mart for opium and local 
manufactures. 

Africa. Extent , Configuration , Islands .—Africa 
is a continent, smaller than Asia and America, 
about three times larger than Europe, with area 
11,950,000 square miles, including the islands, and 
population vaguely estimated at from 200 to 
220,000,000, or from 16 to 18 inhabitants to the 
square mile. Geographically Africa forms a south¬ 
western peninsula of Asia, with which it was con¬ 
nected from remote ages by the Isthmus of Suez 
till the year 1869, when that narrow neck of land 
was pierced by a navigable canal. In form, as in 
position, it is intermediate between the two other 
southern continental masses, being of irregular trian¬ 
gular shape ; in its outlines less monotonous than 
Australia, less diversified than South America, and, 
like the latter, tapering from its base north of the 
equator to its apex in the Austral seas. The dis¬ 
tance between the extreme northern and southern 
points, Cape Blanco (lat. 37° 19' 40" N.) and Cape 
Agulhas (lat. 34° 5P 15" S.) is nearly the same as 
between the extreme eastern and western points, 
Cape Guardafui in the Indian Ocean (long. 51° 14'E.) 
and Cape Verde in the Atlantic (long. 17° 32' W.), 
nearly 5,000 miles one way, over 4,500 the other. But 
owing to its generally uniform contours, with no 
gulfs or inlets penetrating far into the interior, 
except Cabes and Sidra on the Mediterranean, and 
with but few bold headlands, such as Capes Eon 
and Blanco on the north, Verde and Lopez on the 
west, Good Hope on the south, and Guardafui on 
the east side, the total coast line is little over 
15,000 miles, or 4,000 miles less than that of the 
much smaller but far more varied continent of 
Europe. There is also a remarkable absence of 
islands : scarcely any on the northern and southern 
seaboards, none in the South Atlantic except the 
islets of Annobon, Ascension, St. Helena, and Tris¬ 
tan d’Acunha; none in the North Atlantic except 
the Madeira, Canary, Cape Verde, and Bissagos 
groups, with Fernando Po and one or two other 
volcanoes in the Gulf of Guinea; in the Red Sea, 
Perim, Dahlak and other coralline reefs; in the 









Africa. 


( 44 ) 


Africa. 


Indian Ocean, Socotra, Pemba, Zanzibar, and Mafia, 
near the coast, besides the great island of Mada¬ 
gascar with the surrounding Comoro, Seychelles 
and Mascarenhas groups, apparently dependencies 
or remnants of a now submerged continent of 
“ Lemuria.” 

Physical Features .—Africa is the most elevated 
of the continents, for although the mountain sys¬ 
tems are generally less lofty and less developed than 
elsewhere, the land stands at a higher mean level 
above the sea—3,000 to 4,000 feet in the south, 
1,200 to 1,300 in the north, average 2,200, several 
hundred feet more than Asia, the next highest. 


Angolan, and Damara coast ranges on the west 
side (6,000 to 13,500). In the interior there 
are no extensive mountain systems, but only dis¬ 
connected or isolated chains, such as the Tibesti 
range (5,000 to 8,000) in Central Sahara ; the Jebel 
Marrah (4,000 to 6,000) in Dar-For; Mfumbiro 
(10,000), and Ruwenzori (20,000 ?) in the equatorial 
lake region; the unexplored Lokinga (Mushinga) 
range forming the divide between the Congo and 
Zambesi basins. 

Geoloyy .—In its geology Africa presents the 
appearance of great antiquity, the more primitive 
plutonic and sedimentary rocks mostly prevailing 



MAP OV AFRICA, SHOWING THE DIFFERENT POSSESSIONS OF THE EUROPEAN POWERS. 


The surface is thus disposed in two vast plateaux 
at two different levels, with an outer rim or escarp¬ 
ment, leaving a relatively narrow zone of low-lying 
coastlands between the uplands and the sea. This 
escarpment, somewhat low and even effaced on 
parts of the north-east and west sides, is more 
elevated and often disposed in terraces on the other 
sides, where are developed the lofty Nieuweveld 
and Draken (8,000 to 10,000 feet), flanked by the 
lower Zwarte and Lobombo ridges in the south and 
south-east; the Namuli, Nyassa (Livingstone), 
Usagara, Masai (Aberdare), Kaffa and Abyssinian 
highlands stretching along the east side from 
Mozambique to the Red Sea (6.000 to 15,000 feet, 
and culminating in Kenia and Kilima-Njaro, both 
nearly 20,000); the Atlas system in the extreme 
north-west (8,000 to 12,000 feet) ; the Cameroon, 


over the more recent corresponding formations. 
Thus late eruptive rocks and still active volcanoes 
are mainly confined to the Cameroons and adjacent 
islets on the west; and on the east side to a iine of 
volcanic disturbance extending from the Comoro 
group in the Mozambique Channel through Masai- 
land and the east slopes of Abyssinia northwards to 
one or two volcanic islets in the Red Sea. Syenites, 
old sandstones, and nummulitic limestones prevail 
throughout the Nile basin; in Abyssinia the old 
limestones are associated with doierites and tra¬ 
chytes resting on a granite basis ; the sands of the 
Sahara are not of recent marine origin, as has been 
supposed, but have mainly resulted from the wea¬ 
thering of quartz, carboniferous limestone, and very 
old sandstones ; crystalline rocks, granites, gneiss, 
and sandstones are widely diffused throughout 


































































Africa. 


( 45 ) 


Africa. 


•Sudan ; granites and auriferous quartz crop out in 
Upper Guinea, and are intermingled in Kordofan 
•with porphyries and syenites ; basalts, crystalline 
quartzites, limestones, shales, clay slates and other 
metamorphic rocks, red and other sandstones are 
characteristic of the Mauritanian (Atlas) region. 
The metamorphic rocks of the Congo basin are 
separated by the alluvial plains of the Zambesi 
from the granites and crystalline slates underlying 
the fossiliferous rocks of the Orange basin and 
terrace lands (Karoos) of the extreme south. The 
most widely diffused minerals are gold (Upper 
Guinea, Nubia, Matabele Land, Transvaal) ; copper 
(Congo and Welle basins, Namaqualand, Dar- 
Fertit) ; iron (Transvaal, Makaraka Land, Morocco, 
and many other regions) ; salt (Sahara) ; diamonds 
(Vaal basin). 

Hydrography. —Both extra-tropical regions are 
poorly watered, each with an almost rainless zone 
(Sahara and Kalahari Deserts), and almost destitute 
of navigable rivers. From the Senegal on the 
Atlantic to the Juba on the Indian Ocean there is 
not a single perennial navigable stream except the 
Nile, and the Nile itself is joined by no affluent 
north of the Atbara confluence many hundred miles 
above the delta. The Igharghar, Messawara, and 
other copious watercourses, which in quaternary 
times intersected the now arid Sahara in various 
directions, have disappeared, and the oases of this 
region, as well as large tracts in Mauritania, de¬ 
pend for their supplies on underground reservoirs. 
Even the Baraka, chief affluent of the Red Sea, 
reaches the coast only during the rainy seasons. 
So also in the south, the only important streams 
beyond the Zambesi are the Limpopo flowing to the 
Indian and the Orange to the Atlantic Ocean, and 
the former alone is navigable for a short distance 
above its mouth. 

But the inter-tropical zone, comprising four-fifths 
of the continent, is one of the most abundantly 
watered regions of the globe. Here is the island- 
studded Lake Chad, occupying an extensive area 
of inland drainage in Central Sudan and fed by the 
copious rivers Shari from the south and Komadugu 
from the west. Here are the vast equatorial lakes 
Victoria Nyanza, Albert Nyanza, and Albert 
Edward, which with Lake Tsana in Abyssinia drain 
through the Nile to the Mediterranean ; Bangweolo 
and Tanganyika, which discharge through the 
Congo to the Atlantic ; Nyassa, which sends its over¬ 
flow through the Shire to the Indian Ocean. The 
four great arteries of the Congo, Nile, Niger-Benue, 
and Zambesi have a collective drainage area of nearly 
5,000,000 square miles ; and the Congo with its great 
affluents, Mobangi-Welle, Aruwimi, and others on 
the right bank, Kwango-Kassai-Sankuru on the left, 
presents many thousand miles of navigable waters. 
But all the main streams, as well as many other 
African rivers (Senegal, Ogoway, Cunene, Orange. 
Limpopo), are still entangled in the intricacies of 
the plateaux and obstructed by falls on their lower 
or middle courses. Smaller coast streams with 
separate catchment basins are numerous, especially 
on the seaboards of Senegambia, Upper Guinea, 
Cape Colony, and Zanzibar. But relatively to the 
extent of their basins few of the watercourses are 


copious, and the Congo, which in this respect ranks 
next to the Amazons, has a volume probably equal 
to the collective discharge of all other African 
rivers. 

Climate .—Despite its greater mean altitude, 
Africa is the hottest of the continents. Neverthe¬ 
less, the hottest parts are not those lying on or 
about the equator, but those extensive tracts that 
are farthest removed from the influence of the sur¬ 
rounding seas, and are at the same time destitute 
of lofty mountain ranges. Such are the arid water¬ 
less plains of the Sahara and its eastern extensions, 
the Libyan and Nubian deserts. But owing to the 
dryness of the atmosphere, these regions are far 
more healthy than the cooler but moister fluvial 
valleys, the low-lying coastlands, the Mauritanian 
“ shotts,” and other swampy tracts where malarious 
fevers are endemic. In the stony and sandy wastes 
sultry days are followed by cool nights, caused by 
the rapid radiation of the solar heat, and in the 
northern parts of the Sahara snow falls occasionally 
and stagnant waters are covered with a film of ice. 
Yet the glass rises in this region to 120° Fahr. in the 
shade, while the normal temperature is not more 
than 70° Fahr. at the northern and southern ex¬ 
tremities of the continent. Speaking generally, 
these two extra-tropical regions, comprising the 
Mediterranean seaboard and the Cape lands, to¬ 
gether with parts of the Masai and Abyssinian up¬ 
lands and of the equatorial lake districts, are 
thoroughly salubrious and adapted for European 
colonisation. The white race has already been 
acclimatised without difficulty in the extreme 
north and south, but elsewhere probably not more 
than one-tenth of the land is suitable for permanent 
settlement. In the northern zone dry trade winds 
prevail throughout the year, interrupted in Mauri¬ 
tania by winter rains, and here also have their 
origin the pestilential simooms or hot winds, 
accompanied by fierce sand storms, which are 
known as the harmattan in the west and khamsin in 
the east, and which, crossing the Mediterranean, re¬ 
appear under the name of the sirocco in Italy and as 
the fohn in the Alpine valleys. In the inter-tropical 
region the moisture-bearing clouds follow the course 
of the sun, which in combination with the oceanic 
monsoons gives rise to a double rainy season on the 
east and west seaboards, and to permanent rains 
on and about the equator. 

Flora .—This continuous rainfall, though not ex¬ 
cessive (normally 50 to 60 inches, seldom anywhere 
exceeding 100, and at Wadelai on the White Nile 
falling to 42), suffices to support in the Gaboon 
and many parts of the Congo basin, as in Manyuema 
and the Aruwimi valley, an exuberant forest vege¬ 
tation comparable to that of the Amazon’s basin 
itself. On the plains about the Congo-Nile water- 
parting the rivers disappear beneath a dense tangle 
of overhanging foliage, likened by travellers to long 
“ galleries ” following their winding course. But 
impenetrable forest growths, matted together by 
the coils of huge lianas, are by no means the 
dominant feature of the African flora. In fact, the 
forest zone proper is chiefly confined to the region 
between the great lakes and the west coast, and to 
the slopes of the Atlas, Abyssinian, and Masai 








Africa. 


( 46 ) 


Africa. 


highlands. Woodlands cover probably less than 
15 per cent, of the whole surface, which is else¬ 
where marked by the sharpest contrasts between 
the boundless grassy steppes of the plateaux, the 
cultivated corn-yielding plains of Sudan, and the 
sandy wastes of the northern and southern desert 
regions. The African flora is, on the whole, poorer 
in distinct species than that of the other continents. 
Thus the characteristic date, dum, deleb, and oil 
palms are widely diffused in their respective 
northern and central zones; but the palm family 
itself is represented by ten times as many species 
in Asia and America as in Africa. Highly typical 
plants are the gigantic baobab (Adansonia), the 
ensete and kigalia of Sudan and Senegambia, the 
thorny and gummiferous acacias of the steppes, the 
papyrus, ambatch, and other graminace;e of the 
Nile basin, the remarkable welwitschia of the arid 
southern districts. Mauritania, with its olives, 
chestnuts, conifers, cork-tree, and evergreen oaks, 
presents a transition between the South European 
and African floras, while the Cape lands form a 
distinct botanical zone, distinguished by a sur¬ 
prising variety of grasses, heaths, ferns, and flower¬ 
ing shrubs. Of cultivated and other economic 
plants the most valuable are wheat, durra, cotton, 
indigo, manioc, coffee (two varieties indigenous), 
maize, alfa grass, ground nuts, butter-tree, bananas, 
and date palm. 

Fauna .—Owing to the absence of great mountain 
barriers the African fauna is marked by a certain 
degree of uniformity, many of the characteristic 
forms, such as the lion, leopard, hyaena, jackal, 
elephant, giraffe, buffalo, rhinoceros, ostrich, and 
some members of the antelope family, ranging al¬ 
most from one extremity of the continent to the 
other. Amongst the most typical animals are the 
zebra and now extinct quagga of the south ; the 
anthropoid apes (gorilla and chimpanzee) of the 
tropical forests; the widely-diffused cynocephalus 
(dog-faced baboon); the colobus and green monkey, 
the Dinka and Senegal cattle, koodoo, eland, gnu 



and other antelopes, fennec (Egyptian fox); weaver- 
bird, balseniceps rex, secretary, ibis, flamingo, and 
guinea fowl; huge pythons and many venomous 
snakes; the locusts, termites, and still more destruc¬ 
tive tsetse and donderobo flies, whose bite is fatal 
to most domestic animals. Of these, the commonest 
are the horse, the camel (introduced by the Arabs), 


the ox, goat, sheep, and poultry, and in non- 
Mohammedan countries the dog and pig. 

Population .— 

The aboriginal 
inhabitants of 
Africa belong 
to two distinct 
stocks, the Ha- 
mitic and the 
Negro, and the 
great bulk of the 
population pro¬ 
bably represent 
diverse inter - 
minglings of 
these two primi¬ 
tive elements. 

The proper 
home of the 
Hamites, who 
are themselves 
a branch of the 
Caucasic family, 


is the northern 
section of the 
continent from 
the Mediterra¬ 
nean to the Sudan. 



HOTTENTOT. 


They form four main groups : 
Berber (Kabyle, Sliluh, Tuareg, etc.) in Mauritania 
(“ Barbary” States) and the western Sahara; Tibbu 
(Teda,Dasa, and others) in the eastern Sahara; Egyp¬ 
tian (Copts, Fellahin) in the Lower Nile valley; Ethi¬ 
opian (Beja, Afar, Agau, Galla, Somali) generally 
east of the Middle and Upper Nile from Egypt to the 
equator (Nubian Steppes, Abyssinia, Somal, Kaffa, 
and Galla lands). Interspersed among the Hamites. 
are the Semite intruders from Asia (Jews in 
Mauritania, Arabs in Mauritania and West Sahara, 
Himyarites dominant in Amhara, Tigre, Shoa, and 
other parts of Abyssinia). The proper home of the 
Negroes is all the rest of the continent; but they 
are found in a more or less pure state only in some 
of the western and southern parts of Sudan (Beled- 
es-Sudan, i.e. “ Negroland ”), in upper Guinea, the 
White Nile, Welle-Makua and Shari basins. Marked 
groups are the western Mandingans, Joloffs, Son- 
ghais, Ashantis, Ewes, and Nupes; the Central, 
Haussas, Battas, Mosgus and Mabas ; the eastern 
and southern Nubas, Shilluks, Dinkas, Monbuttus, 
and Zandehs (Niam-Niam). The greater portion 
of the continent south of Sudan is occupied by the 
Bantu peoples, who all speak dialects of the same 
Bantu stock language, but who physically present 
almost every shade of transition, from the typical 
Negro to the typical Hamite. Marked Bantu 
varieties are' the Zulu-Kaffir group of the extreme 
south-east, the Bechuanas south of the Zambesi, 
the Swaheli of the Zanzibar coast, the Wa-Gandas 
of the Victoria Nyanza, the Ba-Lundas of the 
Congo basin, the Kabindas (Ba-Fyots) and Angolans 
of the west coast. Divergent or intermediate 
groups are found both in the Hamitic and the 
Negro domains. Fulus, Toucouleurs, Kanuri along 
the north frontier of West Sudan; Nubians in the 
Middle Nile valley. Fans in the Ogoway and Gaboon 
basins, all apparently Hamites modified by Negro 









Africa. 


( 47 ) 


Africa. 


influences; Hottentots and Bushmen in Cape 
Colony and the Kalahari desert; Akkas, Batwas, 
Obongos, and other dwarfish peoples met in 
large groups, especially in the forest zone of 
the Bantu lands. In general the Hamites and 
Semites are Mohammedans, the Negroes Nature 
worshippers; but Islam is spieading amongst all 
ihe Negroid peoples of Sudan, and has already 
reached the Atlantic coast of Upper Guinea and 
Senegambia. On the other hand, the Hamitic Copts 
of Egypt and the Semitic Abyssinians are Christians 
of the Monophysite sect. Christianity has also 
made some progress amongst the Yorubas of 
Upper Guinea, the Basutos and others of Cape 
Colony, the Manganjas of Nyassaland, and the 
Pretos of Angola. 

Of the early European and Asiatic immigrants 
(Greeks in Cyrenaica and Lower Egypt, Phoenicians, 
Romans, and Vandals in Mauritania) all have dis¬ 
appeared, leaving but doubtful traces of their 
presence, chiefly amongst the Berbers of Algeria. 
Of later European immigrants the most numerous 
are the Greeks, Italians, Spaniards, and French 
along the Mediterranean seaboard from Egypt to 
the frontiers of Morocco; the English and Dutch 
(Boers) in the extreme south. Most of the so-called 
Portuguese are half-castes, and all the French 
Huguenots of the Cape had already been absorbed 
by the Dutch before the British occupation. 

Geographical Exploration. — Since about the 
middle of the present century geographical dis¬ 
covery has progressed at a rapid rate. Little had 
been done before that time to enlarge our know¬ 
ledge of the continent except by James Bruce, 
discoverer of the source of the Blue Nile (1770) ; 
Mungo Park and the brothers Lander in Sene¬ 
gambia and the Niger basin (1795-7 ; 1806 ; 1830) ; 
Clapperton in Central Sudan and Sahara (1822) ; 
Gobat, Krapf, and Rebmann in East Africa and 
Abyssinia (1830-52); Du Chaillu, in the Ogoway 
and Gaboon basins (1850). Then followed with 
little intermission the memorable explorations of 
Livingstone in South Central Africa, lakes Nyassa, 
Bangweolo, Ngami, etc. (1849-73); Barth, Richard¬ 
son, and Overweg in Central and West Sudan 
(1850-55); Burton and Speke, lakes Tanganyika 
and Victoria Nyanza (1857-8) ; Speke and Grant, 
lake Victoria and White Nile (1860-62); Baker, 
Albert Nyanza (1863-5); Schweinfurth, White 
Nile and* Welle (1868-71); Nachtigal, Central 
Sudan (1869-74); Cameron, South Central Africa 
(1873-5); Stanley, circumnavigation of Lake 
Victoria, Lake Alexandra, Lualaba-Congo (1875-77); 
Serpa Pinto, Bengucla to Natal (1877-79) ; Pogge, 
Wissmann and Wolf, Congo basin (1881-86); 
Junker, Libyan Desert, Makaraka Land, Welle- 
Makua basin (1875-86) ; Grenfell and Van Gele, 
Congo basin, Ubangi river (1885-6; 1888); Joseph 
Thomson, Masai Land (1884); Fischer, Lake 
Baringo (1885-6); Count Teleki, Lake Samburu or 
Rudoif (1887) ; Stanley, Aruwimi basin, Ruwenzori 
mountains, Lake Albert Edward, Semliki river, etc. 
(1887-89). 

There still remain some extensive tracts to be 
explored, especially in Somali, Galla, and Caffa 
Lands, and in the equatorial region between the 



great lakes and the west coast; but all important 
geographical problems have now been solved. 

Political Divisions .—Politically Africa has al¬ 
most become a dependency of Europe. The only 
still independent native states are Morocco in 
Mauritania ; Liberia and Dahomey on the Guinea 
Coast; the Tua¬ 
reg and Tibbu 
domains in the 
Sahara; Wadai 
(with Kanem and 
Baghirmi) and 
Bornu in Central 
Sudan; Unyoro, 

Karagwe, and 
Ruanda in the 
Equatorial Lake 
Region; Garen- 
ganze, Msidi's ter¬ 
ritory in the Con¬ 
go basin ; and the 
two Dutch repub¬ 
lics (Transvaal 
and Orange Free 
State) in the 
south. All the 
rest of the ex¬ 
plored part of 
the continent is 
either actually uoitentot. 

occupied or ad¬ 
ministered, or claimed as under their protection, or 
within their respective spheres of influence, by 
various European Powers, as under:— 



Area in 
sq. miles 
(est.) 

Popula¬ 
tion (est.) 

Great Britain : Cape Colony, Natal, 
Zululand ; Zambesia (Becliuana, Mata- 
bele, Masliona, and Barotse Lands) ; 
Nyassaland ; British East Africa with 
Zanzibar and Uganda; West African 
Colonies ; Niger protectorate; North 
Somali Land; St. Helena, Mauritius, 
Socotra, and other islands in the 
Atlantic and Indian Oceans - - - - 

2,615,000 

4S,610,000 

France : Algeria and Tunis; Senegal and 
Upper Niger basins ; West Sahara ; 
parts of Gold Coast; Gaboon, Ogoway 
and Lower Congo ; Obock ; Reunion . 

1,650,000 

10,853,000 

Germany : German East Africa; Damara 
and Great Namaqua Lands ; Came- 
. roons; Togoland.- . - 

970,000 

2,800,000 

Portugal : Angola, Kabinda, and “Hin¬ 
terlands”; Mozambique; Madeira,Cape 
Verde, St. Thomas and Prince’s Islands 

800,000 

7,744,000 

Spain : West Sahara Coastlands ; Ceuta; 
Fernando Po, and Corisco Islands - - 

300,000 

900,000 

Italy : Red Sea Coastlands and Islands ; 
East Somali Coast; Abyssinia (Pro- 
tectorate) . 

360,000 

7,560,000 

Turkey : Tripoli, Barca, and Fezzan ; 
Egypt, and Egyptian Sudan (revolted 
under the Mahdi, 1882). 

1,660,000 

17,870,000 

International Commission : Congo Free 
State (administered by King of the 
Belgians). 

1,400,000 

40,000,000 

Total --- - 

9,755,000 

136,337,000 

























Afrit. 


( 48 ) 


Agaric. 


Afrit, Afreet, a powerful evil genius in the 
Mohammedan mythology. [Jinn.] 

Agades, the capital of the Air or Asben king¬ 
dom in Central Africa, lat. 17° 2' N., long. 8° 5' E. 
It was formerly a great depot for the trade be¬ 
tween the Berbers and the Songhay Empire, but 
has now dwindled into insignificance. 

Agamemnon, the epic hero who succeeded 
his father, Atreus, as king of Argolis. During 
the usurpation of Thyestes and iEgisthus he took 
refuge with his brother, Menelaus, at the court of 
Tyndareus, king of Sparta, and there married the 
princess Clytemnestra, Menelaus taking to wife 
her sister Helen. When the latter was carried 
off by Paris, Agamemnon took the command of the 
expedition against Troy. On reaching Aulis, the 
chief killed a deer sacred to Artemis, and, as a 
punishment, the fleet was detained by contrary 
winds until, at the bidding of Calclias, he sacri¬ 
ficed his daughter Iphigeneia to appease the 
offended goddess. However, the victim was not 
really slain, for Artemis substituted a stag, and 
•carried the girl off to be her priestess at Tauri. 
The feud between the king and Achilles began 
with a slight quarrel at Lemnus or Tenedos, and 
reached its height when the former, being com¬ 
pelled to give up the captive maiden Chryseis, by 
way of compensation seized Briseis, who had been 
allotted to Achilles. Then followed the quarrel 
that forms the subject of the Iliad. Whilst 
Achilles sulked in his tent, Agamemnon fought 
gallantly, though in vain, and was wounded. 
Agamemnon is always referred to in the Iliad as 
the “ king of men,” and is presented as a proud, 
haughty, but brave and courageous chieftain After 
the capture of Troy, the king returned to Mycenic, 
taking Cassandra, the daughter of Priam, as part of 
his spoils. On his arrival he was murdered by his 
wife and her paramour, iEgisthus. The fate which 
hung over the house of Agamemnon formed the sub¬ 
ject of the great trilogy of Mschylxxs,the Agamemnon, 
the Clioephori , and the Eumemdes. According to 
Homer (Od. iv. 512—537; xi. 385—461), hired 
assassins slew him at a banquet, and Clytemnestra 
herself killed Cassandra. iEschylus describes Hlgis- 
thus as striking the fatal blow when his rival was 
in a bath, the wife assisting in the deed. Orestes 
presently, under the influence of the curse of 
Atreus, slew his mother, Clytemnestra, thus aveng¬ 
ing his father, but bringing on himself the pur¬ 
suit of the Furies. The tomb of Agamemnon was 
in later times pointed out at Mycenaj (Pausanias, ii. 
16, 5), while the recent excavations made under 
the direction of Dr. Schliemann at Mycente are 
thought to have led to the actual discovery of 
the tomb itself. 

Agami. [Trumpeter.] 

Agamidae, an extensive family of lizards of the 
division Crassilingues, representing in the Eastern 
Hemisphere the Iguanas of the New World. The 
body is broad and flat, and the skin covered more 
or less with spiny scales. They are terrestrial in 
habit, and are found principally in deserts and 


sandy places. Many of them have vivid and 
varied coloration, and to this family belong the 
“ dragons ” or flying lizards. 



FLYING LIZARD (DrUCO VOldUS) 


Agamogenesis, reproduction by non-sexual 
methods, such as by budding, fission, or partheno¬ 
genesis (q.v.). It is common amongst the lower in¬ 
vertebrates, as well as among plants. 

Agape, or Love-feast, the name given to a 
kind of feast held by early Christians in con¬ 
nection with the Communion. At first these 
feasts seem to have been mainly used as opportuni¬ 
ties for the wealthy to feed their poorer brethren, 
but latterly the holders were charged with impurity, 
and finally the institutions were banished from the 
church. 

Agapemone, the abode of love, the name given 
to an institution founded in 1859, near Bridgewater 
in Somersetshire, by the Rev. H. J. Prince, which 
was at one time very notorious. 

Agar-Agar, or Bengal Isinglass, a vege¬ 
table gum extracted from seaweeds. It is brought 
from Singapore and other parts of Asia in the form of 
transparent strips, which dissolve in water, forming a 
thick, tasteless jelly; is used for bacteriological work. 

Agaric (from the Greek agarilton, a mush¬ 
room), a general name for the species of the genus 
Ayaricus, a group of hymenomycetous fungi (i.e. those 
fungi which have the hymenium exposed on the 
surface of the spore case [Fungi]), of which the 
mushroom (q.v.) is the most familiar example. Like 
all the other Ayaricince, or genera belonging to the 
same tribe, Ayaricus has its “ hymenium,” or spore¬ 
bearing surface, spread over a series of plate-like 
gills (“lamella}”), radiating from the stalk under¬ 
neath the umbrella-like “pileus,” or cap. In this 
genus the gills are membranaceous, haven tendency 
to split into two plates, are acute at their edges, 
and are persistent until the whole pileus putrefies! 
The hymenium passes into the somewhat flocculent 
interior mass or “ trama ” of the gill; and the spores 
fall off their “basidia” or pedicels. As the genus 
includes nearly a thousand British and over twelve 










Agassiz. 


( 49 ) 


Agave. 


hundred European species, the total number of 
forms included in it must be very large. 

Agassiz, Jean Louis Rodolpke, the greatest 
ichthyologist of this century, was born at Motier, 
on the Lake of Morat, in Switzerland, May 28th, 
1807, where his father was pastor, his mother being 
the daughter of a physician. As a boy he kept 
pets of all kinds, including fish. He was educated 
at the gymnasium at Bienne, the academy at Lau¬ 
sanne, the medical school at Zurich, and at the 
universities of Heidelberg and Munich. At Heidel¬ 
berg he had Tiedemann, the anatomist, Leuckart, 
the zoologist, and Bronn, the palaeontologist, as his 
teachers, and Schimper and Braun, whose sister, 
Cecile, afterwards became his first wife, as fellow- 
students ; and at Munich he lodged with Dollinger, 
the embryologist, and attended lectures by Martius, 
Sehelling, and Oken. In 1829 Agassiz took his 
degree as Doctor of Philosophy at Erlangen, and 
in 1830 that of Doctor of Medicine at Munich, 
though not wishing to practise. He was entrusted 
by Martius with the description of the fishes 
collected during the Brazilian voyage, the publica¬ 
tion of which served as an introduction to Cuvier 
and Humboldt on his visiting Paris in 1831. Here 
he attended Cuvier’s last lectures, and imbibed his 
teleological and anti-evolutionary opinions, re¬ 
ceiving also from him all his notes and drawings 
relating to fossil fish. In 1832 he became Professor 
of Natural History at the newly organised Lyceum 
at Neuchatel, a chair which he retained until 184(7 
During this period he produced his chief work, 
the lleaherches sur les Poissons Foss lies, in five 
volumes, with 311 plates, describing 20,000 speci¬ 
mens, belonging to 1,700 species, contained in 
eighty of the chief museums of Europe. In this 
work he uses the scales as a basis of classification, 
establishing the order of “ Ganoids,” and points 
out the correspondence between the development of 
an individual fish and the succession of types of 
fish-structure in geological time. During the pro¬ 
gress of this work he became a member of the 
French Academy of Sciences and of the Royal 
Society, visiting England in 1834, 1835, and 1840. 
In 1836 he adopted Charpentier’s views as to the 
former greater extension of the glaciers of the 
Alps, and subsequently propounded the theory of a 
Glacial Period (q.v.), converting Buckland and 
Lyell to his views, as published in his Etudes sur 
les Glaciers (1810) and Systemc Glaciaire (1846), 
and showing glacial action to have occurred in 
Scotland, Wales, and the Lake District. With the 
help of Desor he completed, in 1842, his Mono- 
graphie (VEchinoderm.es Vi vans et Fossiles , and in 
1845, with that of Karl Vogt, his Freshwater Fishes 
of Central Europe. In 1846, with the assistance 
of many other naturalists, he issued his Nomen- 
clator Zoologicus , which was supplemented in 1848 
by the Eiblioyraphi a Zoologia and G col ogive. In 
1846 Agassiz went to America, originally on a 
temporary lecturing tour, but, as it proved, for the 
remainder of his life. He aroused a remarkable 
enthusiasm for scientific research ; a chair was 
endowed for him at Harvard ; and government 
steamers were placed at his disposal for coast 

4 


dredging. In 1857 he issued the first volume of 
his Contributions to the Natural History of the 
United States , containing the celebrated Essay on 
Classification , his last great work. The Museum 
of Comparative Anatomy at Harvard, established 
in 1859, now became the chief object of his life. 
In 1865 he made a journey in search of health and 
specimens to Brazil, accompanied by his second 
wife (nee Cary), and in 1871 he made a cruise right 
round South America, in the Ilassler. On his 
return, Mr. John Anderson presented him with 
Penikese Island for a school of marine zoology, 
and he had just successfully launched this, his 
final idea, when his life of unremitting scientific 
toil ended peacefully at Cambridge, Mass., 14th 
December, 1873. 

Agate, named from the river Achates in Sicily, 
where it was found, a form of quartz or silica (Si0 2 ). 
It consists mainly of the chalcedonic or non-crys¬ 
talline variety, but contains layers of crystalline 
quartz. It occurs in rounded nodules in amygda¬ 
loid basaltic rocks, especially at Oberstein and 
Idar, on the Nahe, in Germany ; in Uruguay, in 
New South Wales, in Scotland, and elsewhere. 
Lapidaries often know the stone as “Scotch 
pebble,” but the chief factories, those in Germany, 
now derive their main supply from Uruguay, via 
Brazil. The nodules seem to have originated as 
bubbles, or infiltrations of gas-cavities, in the rock 
when fused, every gradation being traceable from 
the hollow “geode” or “potato-stone” with a mere 
lining of quartz-crystals to the perfectly filled 
agate. The various layers are of different tints, 
mostly of gray, but, varying in porosity, are arti¬ 
ficially tinted at Oberstein to almost every colour, 
by boiling in metallic salts. If in regular con¬ 
centric bands the agate is termed onyx; if in 
bands with an angular, zig-zag, or bastion-like 
outline, fortification-ay ate ; whilst the subsequent 
infiltration of colouring-matters along fissures has 
produced the forms known as moss-ayates and 
payoda-stones. Fracture and re-infiltration have 
produced the ruin-agate. Agates are often found 
in river-gravels, having been liberated by the 
weathering of the rock containing them. By the 
ancients agate was chiefly valued as a material for 
carving cameos and intaglios, a layer of one colour 
being cut away so as to reveal another differently 
tinted. In addition to its use for ornamental 
purposes, seals, beads, rings, etc., agate is employed 
for metallurgical pestles and mortars. 

Agatliocles, the son of a potter at Rhegium, 
who, by his ability, made himself tyrant of Syra¬ 
cuse, 308 B.C. After several victories over the 
Carthaginians, he met with defeat, and his soldiers 
drove him out, killing his sons. He contrived, 
however, to reinstate himself, and destroyed the 
Macedonian fleet off Corcvra, ravagingalsothecoasts 
of Italy. He died in 290 b.c., aged seventy-two. 

Ao-ave, a large genus of A maryllidaccve, mostly 
natives of the southern parts of North America, 
yielding several useful substances. In structure 
the Agaves bear a great resemblance to the 
Liliaceous, genus Alo’c (q.v.), differing from most 





( 50 ) 


Age. 


Amaryllidaceee in the absence of bulbs, in their 
thick woody steins, thick fleshy and often spinous 
leaves, valvate aestivation and hollow styles. They 
differ from Aloes in having an inferior ovary. The 
Agaves produce flowering stems, sometimes many 
feet in height, which vegetate for many years, ulti¬ 
mately producing a large terminal panicle of 
flowers and dying of the effort. A single plant may 
produce 5,000 flowers, so that the ground beneath 
is wet with the honey distilled by them. Agave 
americana is known in the United States, from a 
mistaken idea as to the period of vegetative growth, 
as the “ century plant, ” and in the Mediterranean 
region, where it is naturalised, as the “ American 



agave (Agave Americana), a, Flower. 


aloe.” In Mexico it is cultivated, under the name 
of “ maguey,” over 50,000 square miles for the sake 
of its saccharine sap and its fibre. The terminal 
bud is cut out just before flowering, and abundance 
of sap exudes, which is fermented into a drink 
called pulque, that yields on distillation a spirit 
known as mescal. The fibre of the veins of the 
leaves was used by the ancient Mexicans for paper, 
and is now largely exported for the same purpose 
and for cordage. That of A. americana is known 
as Pita or Mexican grass and is shipped from 
Tehuantepec; that of A. vivipara is termed Hi Ik 
grass, and that of A. sisalana , shipped from Yucatan 
and now also from Jamaica, Grass or Sisal hemp. 

Age, in Lam, the time of competence to do 
certain acts. The period before a person reaches 
twenty-one is termed infancy, and during that time 
all contracts, other than contracts for necessaries, 


Agglomerate. 


made by the infants are void. A boy at fourteen,, 
however, and a girl at twelve may make a legal- 
marriage. Between the ages of fourteen, when 
the infant is said to have arrived at partial 
discretion, and twenty-one, the boy or girl is fully 
responsible for criminal acts. At twenty-one full 
age in both sexes is reached. 

In Arclioeology the antiquarians divided the period 
of man’s existence on the earth into three ages, the 
stone age, the bronze age, and the iron age. The 
first is subdivided into the Palaeolithic and Neolithic 
ages. [Archaeology, Palaeolithic, Neolithic.] 

Age is also used to denote particular periods of 
time distinguished by particular characteristics.. 
Hesiod made five ages : the Golden Age, governed 
by Saturn, characterised by simplicity and peace ; 
the Silver Age, governed by Jupiter, distinguished 
by licentiousness and profanity ; the Brazen Age of 
Neptune, which was warlike, savage, and wild; the- 
Heroic Age in which a desire for higher things- 
comes in; and the Iron Age governed by Pluto, 
when justice, truth, and honour had altogether 
vanished. We also speak of the Park Ages, the 
Middle Ages, etc. Shakespeare divides the life of 
man into seven ages (As You Like It, ii. 7). 

Agelacrinus, a genus of Cystoidea, with a 
flat, disc-shaped body, from the centre of the upper- 
side of which radiate five curved ambulacral grooves, 
which give it a rather starfish-like appearance. The- 
genus ranges from the Lower Silurian to the Car¬ 
boniferous systems. 

Agen, the chief town of the department of Lot- 
et-Garonne, France, is situated on the Garonne, 
73 miles from Bordeaux. Its facilities for water- 
carriage make it an important centre of business. 

Agent, one who acts for another in any kind 
of business, generally either commercial, legal, 
social, or political. The principal (for whom the- 
agent acts) is bound to abide by the acts which the- 
agent performs during the transaction of the- 
business, and if they are within the scope of liis 
employment as expressed or implied. The term- 
political agent is especially employed in India to 
denote intermediaries between the British Govern¬ 
ment and the native states. 

Agesilaus, son of Archidamus II., was put 
upon the throne of Sparta in preference to his- 
nephew, Lysander (398 b.c.). To check the de¬ 
signs of the King of Persia he led an army into- 
Asia, but in the moment of victory was recalled, 
owing to the league formed by Athens and Thebes 
against Lacediemon. At Chasronea (394 B.C.) he- 
defeated the allies, but his illness allowed the 
Thebans to achieve some successes. These he re¬ 
trieved after recovering nis health. His military 
policy entailed many losses on his country, but his 
courage, skill, and high moral character won him 
the confidence of his subjects. He died in 3G0 b.c., 
at the age of eighty-four. 

Agglomerate, a coarse, usually unstratified 
accumulation of lava and other rocks, in angular or 
sub-angular masses, generally in a glassy or semi- 









Aggregation. 


( 51 ) 


Agnosticism. 


crystalline ground-mass, which has accumulated at 
the close of an eruption in the chimney or bottom 
ot the crater of a volcano, thus forming a “ neck.” or 
central mass resisting denudation, in a volcanic hill. 

Aggregation. Many substances are capable 
oi existing in the three forms of matter—solid, 
liquid, and gaseous; and the difference between 
them in these diverse conditions is supposed to 
consist in the distances which exist between their 
ultimate molecules. Again, many substances are 
identical in chemical composition and in physical 
state, but entirely different in their physical pro¬ 
perties, and here, again, the difference is due to the 
dissimilar ways in which the same elementary 
molecules are aggregated. [Allotropy.] An ex¬ 
cellent clue to the laws of aggregation will doubt¬ 
less often be furnished by a study of colour changes. 

Aghrim, or Aughrim, a village in Galway, 
4 miles W. of Ballinasloe, celebrated for the vic¬ 
tory of General Ginkell, in command of the army 
of William III., over the troops of James II. under 
St. Ruth in 1691. The Irish numbered 25,000, and 
lost 7,000, besides their commander. The English 
casualties amounted only to 700 killed and 1,000 
wounded. This action so crippled the adherents 
of James II. in Ireland that complete submission 
soon ensued. 

Agincourt, the scene of the famous battle 
between the English and the French, is situated in 
the north of France, in the department of Pas-de- 
Calais, to the S.W. of Boulogne. The battle took 
place in October, 1415, when Henry V., who had 
landed with a force of 15,000 men at Harfleur, was 
opposed at Agincourt by an army numbering 50,000, 
under the Constable D'Albret. After a bloody con¬ 
test lasting for three hours, the English gained a 
signal victory, losing only 1,600 men, while the 
French loss was estimated at 10,000. One of the 
results of this engagement was the Treaty of 
Troyes (q.v.). A good deal of the action in Shake¬ 
speare’s Henry V takes place on the battle- field of 
Agincourt. 

Agio, a term used in commerce to signify the 
difference between paper money and actual coin ; 
also used in the sense of premium, an amount given 
above the nominal value of any article. 

Agis, the name borne by four kings of Sparta. 

I. reigned, according to tradition, about 1037 B.C. 

II. occupied the throne from 427 to 399 b.c., and 
Avas distinguished in the Peloponnesian War, de¬ 
feating the Athenians at Mantinea, 414 B.C. III. 
succeeded (338 b.c.), and took an active part in 
the struggle against Alexander the Great. He was 
killed at Megalopolis in a battle with Antipater, 
331 B.C. IV. began to reign in 244 B.C., and strove 
to revive the ancient institutions of Lycurgus. In 
this he was opposed by the wealthy classes under 
Leonidas, his colleague, but was supported by Ly- 
sander, Mandroclides, and Agesilaus. Leonidas 
Avas banished, and Cleombrotus put in his place; 
but the intrigues of Agesilaus frustrated all plans 
of reform. Agis now led an army to assist the 
JEtolians against the Achasan League, and was 


moderately successful. On his return, however, 
he found Leonidas in power, and was thrown into 
prison, where he was soon after strangled, with his 
mother and grandmother, 240 b.c. 

AgnailO, a lake occupying the hollow of an 
extinct volcanic crater near Naples. Its circum¬ 
ference is about two miles, and on its shore is the 
famous Grotto del Cane, a small artificial recess, in 
which the carbonic acid gas emitted from the soil 
beloAV rises to the height of eighteen inches, and 
thus kills a dog,whilst a man escapes with impunity. 

Agnates, in law, kinsmen by the father’s side, 
as opposed to cognates, kinsmen by the mother's 
side. The ancient Roman distinction between ag¬ 
nates as persons related to each other through 
males only, and cognates as persons related through 
one or more females being interposed, was abolished 
under Justinian. 

Agnes, St., a Roman maiden who, according 
to ecclesiastical legends, was martyred under 
Diocletian (a.d. 303) at the age of 13. She was 
canonised, and her name has ever been associated 
with virgin purity and girlish faith. 

Agnesi, Maria Gaetana, an Italian lady 
born at Milan, 1718. She early displayed great 
mental powers, and mastered the classical languages, 
Hebrew, and most European tongues in her child¬ 
hood, besides acquiring a thorough knowledge of 
mathematics and philosophy. She wrote a valuable 
treatise on Algebraic Analysis, and for a time filled 
her father’s place as professor at Bologna. Retiring 
into a convent, she died in 1799. 

Agni, the name for the Indian god of fire, who 
is supposed to have especial dominion over the 
south-east quarter of the world. 

Agnone, a town of S. Italy, at the foot of 
Monte Capraro. It is famous for the manufacture 
of copper goods. 

Agnosticism, the doctrine that no knoAvledge 
of a spiritual world does or can exist for mankind, 
must be carefully distinguished from Atheism, 
which asserts dogmatically that there is no God. 
Professor Huxley derived the word Agnosticism 
from the inscription on the altar seen by St. Paul 
at Athens (Acts xvii. 23), Agnosto Theo (to an un¬ 
known God), and the possibility of the existence of 
a Deity is not denied, the conclusion of philosophy 
being accepted, that, as all knowledge rests on the 
law of the uniformity of nature (a law merely co¬ 
extensive with human experience), where experience 
stops knowledge must stop also. The necessity for 
an Ultimate Cause, or Persistent Force, is recognised, 
but to quote Mr. Herbert Spencer’s words, “ our 
own and all other being is a mystery for eA^er 
beyond our comprehension.” The question arises as 
to what Agnosticism can substitute for the sanc¬ 
tions of religion when the dictates of morality are 
concerned. Love of our fellow-creatures and self- 
sacrifice for their sakes seem to be generally regarded 
as the result of the gradual strengthening of the 
sympathetic emotions in the evolution of humanity, 
and it is asserted that this development will 












Agnostid®. 


( 52 ) Agrarian Laws. 


continue. But it obviously remains to be proved 
whether such is the case, and also whether with 
most men altruistic sentiments will prevail when 
unsupported in the conflict with the contradictory 
impulses of a strong egoism. 

Agnostid®, the family of Trilobites (q.v.) 
characterised by the possession of the smallest 
number of body segments, viz. two ; they were blind. 
It ranges from the Upper Cambrian to Lower 
Silurian. 

Agnus Lai, “ the Lamb of God,” is used : (1) as 
a title of Christ (John i. 29) ; (2) as the name of a 
prayer in the Roman Catholic service of the Mass ; or 
a musical setting of the same ; and (3) as the name 
for cakes of wax, silver, or gold stamped with the 
device of a lamb bearing a cross. These medals are 
consecrated by the Pope and given away to the 
people. They were formerly used as amulets (q.v.). 

Agones, the name given to the national games 
that were such important institutions in ancient 
Greece. The word is etymologically connected 
with the Greek agora, and signified primarily ‘‘an 
assemblage.” There were four of these great 
gymnastic and equestrian contests : the Olympian, 
the Pythian, the Nemean, and the Isthmian games. 

Adonic Line. The magnetic needle does not, 
as anile, point to the true north. Thus, at London 
the declination from the true north js now about 
18° to the westward. There are, however, certain 
points on the earth’s surface where the magnetic 
and geographical meridians coincide, that is, where 
the needle points true north and south. These 
points lie on an imaginary line called the agonic 
line or line of no variation, which is of some im¬ 
portance in navigation. Roughly speaking, the 
western portion of this line traverses Hudson’s 
Bay, Cape Hatteras, and the South Atlantic; the 
eastern portion crosses the White Sea, the Caspian 
Sea, the Indian Ocean, and the Great Australian 
Bight. 

Agora, the market place of a Greek town 
whicli corresponded very much to the forum, of the 
Romans. The agora was frequently used as the 
place for public meetings and assemblies ; the term 
was also applied to the assemblies themselves, in 
which sense it signified much the same as the more 
common term boule. 

Agouta, the popular name of Solenodon para¬ 
doxus, a small insectivorous mammal with a long 
trunk-like snout, from St. Domingo. Its sole con¬ 
gener (S. cubanus), from Cuba, is popularly called 
Almiqui. 

Agouti, the name given to any species of the 
South American rodent genus Dasgprocta. D. 
agouti is the best known form ; it is from eighteen 
to twenty inches long, somewhat like a small, 
slender-limbed pig, varying from brown to yellow 
in colour, with the middle line of the abdomen 
white. It is very quick in its movements, and 
often does considerable damage to gardens and 
sugar plantations. In the southern parts of Brazil 


and Paraguay, and Bolivia, it is replaced by 1). 
azarcc, Azara's agouti; the Aeouchy (JD. acoucJig), 



AGOL'TI. 


a smaller species, is found in Guiana, the North of 
Brazil, and some of the West Indian Islands. 

Agra, a division, district, and city situated in 
the Doab, N.W. Provinces of India. The division 
comprises six districts. The area of the district 
is about 1,873 square miles, and the population 
over a million. As regards physical characteristics 
the country presents an almost uniform level inter¬ 
sected by watercourses and small ravines. The 
elevation above the sea is about G50 to 7C>0 feet, 
and the soil is sandy and ill-supplied with water, 
except in the immediate neighbourhood of the four 
chief rivers, the Jumna, the Chambal, the Uttaugan, 
and the Kari. The gross revenue in 1871 was 
£660,52C ; that derived from land being £162,882. 
Eighty-eight per cent, of the population are 
Hindus. 

Agra City, the capital of the district, is situated 
on the river Jumna, stretching in a semi-circle 
along the banks for a distance of 4 miles. It was 
formerly the capital of the North-West Provinces, 
and is a fine, prosperous, and populous city. Lord 
Lake captured the place from the Mahrattas in 1803, 
and in the mutiny of 1857 many European refugees 
found safety here. The glory of Agra is the Taj- 
Mahal, the marvellous white marble tomb erected 
by the Emperor Shah Jehan to the memory of his 
favourite wife, Mumtaza Mahal. Within the fort, 
which was built by Akbar at the end of. the six¬ 
teenth century, are two other noble buildings—viz. 
the Audience Hall of Shah Jehan, and the Moti 
Musjid or “Pearl Mosque,” a gem of Indian-Mo- 
hammedan art. The town contains three important 
colleges and a medical school. 

Agrarian Laws, or laws relatingto land. Such 
laws were enacted at various times by the Romans 
to regulate the ager pub liens or public domain. At 
the foundation of Rome, when the city was very 
limited in extent, the whole land was ager gmblicus, 
that is, unappropriated public property, every 
citizen receiving, however, an interest in it as atenant 
at will of the State. As time progressed the des¬ 
cendants of the original founders, or patricians. 












Agricola. 


( 53 ) 


Agriculture. 


transformed these primitive concessions into abso¬ 
lute rights (termed in the Roman law de jure 
quiritio). This principle prevailed during the 
whole time of the Republic, and all property 
acquired by conquest was acquired for the 
State, and could only become the property of 
individuals by concession from the State. The 
class of the plebeians was subsequently founded, 
when conquests had increased, and lands were 
given as private property conditional on the pay¬ 
ment of a tribute or undertaking public services; 
but the patricians always retained their ancient 
right of receiving in possession and using parts of 
the public domain on paying to the public treasury 
a tithe of the product. Lands thus held could pass 
by inheritance, and were sold, notwithstanding that 
the State could always resume possession. 

In almost all countries the land has been origin¬ 
ally vested in the sovereign or chief, or the people 
at large. Similarly, the land of a conquered coun¬ 
try was held to be transferred to the sovereign 
power of the conquering State, and to be subject to 
the laws for its regulation from time to time enacted 
concerning it by such State. 

Agricola, Cn^uus Julius, a famous Roman 
general, born at Forum Julii in Gaul, A.D. 37. He 
served in the East as quaestor, and attached himself 
to Vespasian, who made him governor of Aquitania, 
A.D. 73. After filling the consulate in 77 he was 
sent to govern Britain, where he conquered the 
Ordovices in N. Wales, and took Mona (Anglesea). 
He crossed the Tweed, and in 80 pushed on to the 
Firth of Tay, building a chain of forts from the 
Clyde to the Solway Firth. His policy in Britain 
was conciliatory, and he did his best to win over 
the native population to Roman manners. He was 
recalled by Domitian, to whom his popularity was 
distasteful, and lived till 93 in retirement. There 
is reason to suspect that he was poisoned by the 
emperor. Tacitus the historian, who was his son- 
in-law, wrote his life. 

Agricola, Johann, originally named Schneider, 
was born at Eisleben in Saxony, 1492. He formed 
a friendship with Luther at Wittenberg, but later 
on broke off his attachment to the reformer, who 
maintained that the Ten Commandments were bind¬ 
ing on Christians, whereas Agricola absolved them 
from any obligation to the Mosaic law. The sect 
that adopted this view became known as Antinom- 
ians. Its founder died in 15G6, leaving behind him 
many theological works and an interesting collec¬ 
tion of German proverbs. 

Agricola, Rudolph, a learned Dutchman, born 
near Groningen in 1443. After studying in Italy, 
he became professor at Heidelberg, 1482, and died 
there three years later. Erasmus praised his 
scholarship, and he was by all accounts a highly 
accomplished man. 

^gricill'fcurc. -Zifs development .—The pursuit 
of agriculture is an art, not a science, for the lines 
on which it is conducted are elastic, variable, and 
adaptable. It is greatly influenced by climate, 
seasons, weather; by latitude, altitude, location ; 
by the character of soils, the supply of water, and 
by the tastes, habits, and requirements of different 


nations. The accumulated experience of many 
generations of men. pai’ticularly in Western Europe 
and Eastern Asia, has raised it to the dignity of a 
high art; yet, though some of the sciences—chem¬ 
istry, geology, botany, biology, for example—have 
been very freely enlisted into its service, the extrinsic 
influences by which it is surrounded will not admit 
of it becoming, strictly speaking, a science. 

It may be said, however, that we have the science 
as well as the art of agriculture ; and these com¬ 
bined embrace and accomplish all that is known 
on the subject. The theory of agriculture is a 
science—or, rather, an aggregation of sciences— 
dealing with the origin and properties of soils, the 
varieties and habits of plants, the breeds and 
capabilities of animals. These subjects, or some 
of them, admit of scientific definition ; and hence 
it is that the union of science and practice in 
agriculture has produced such striking results in 
our time—results, indeed, the series of which is, 
we believe, far from coming to an end. There is 
an endless variety of processes and results in agri¬ 
culture, and as the measure of success in it cannot 
be predicted with certainty, it is constantly dis¬ 
closing surprises. 

The nineteenth century has witnessed develop¬ 
ments in agriculture greater, perhaps, than those 
of all previous time—in the British Islands, at all 
events, whatever it may have done elsewhere. The 
introduction of steam ploughs and cultivators, of 
reaping, mowing, and threshing machines, of 
centrifugal cream-separators, mechanical butter- 
workers, and cheese and butter factories, of artifi¬ 
cial manures, and imported feeding-stuffs, more 
than sufficiently distinguishes it from all others, 
and these are only the leading things in a great 
number of striking innovations which have occurred 
within comparatively recent years. Nor must we 
omit the stupendous importations of breadstuffs 
and dairy produce from foreign countries, and 
within modern years the vast trade in American and 
Canadian beef, both dead and alive, and in Aus¬ 
tralian and New Zealand mutton, all of which have 
had a pronounced influence on the character of 
British agriculture. It is as true to say now that 
agriculture is in a state of transition and develop¬ 
ment, as it was a century ago to say it was in a 
state of inanition and even stagnation. 

Wheat-grominy. —Since the middle of the current 
century the tendency of British agriculture has 
been gathering increasing strength in the direction 
of stock-raising and dairy farming, and away from 
arable cultivation. The vast wheat-growing regions 
of 'Western America and of Eastern Europe have in¬ 
terfered seriously with English wheat-growing. The 
plough, greatly improved as to beauty as well as 
utility, no doubt, is less the symbol of practice than 
it formerly was. After the middle of the century 
its fame was found to be suffering, and its im¬ 
portance to be diminishing, when Fowler, and 
Howard, and others, introduced the steam plough. 
The stiff soils on which our wheat was grown were 
too costly to cultivate at a profit with horse-power, 
and steam was introduced, thus checking the 
downward tendency. For some years past, however, 
it has been freely admitted that, on heavy soils, 






Agriculture. 


( 54 ) 


Agriculture. 


wheat-growing at a profit is out of the question; 
and that on * medium and light soils wheat is no 
longer the crop to which the others of the course 
(Rotation) must be made subsidiary. The value of 
wheat straw has risen as the value of wheat has 
fallen, and it has nat uncommonly happened that 
the straw was worth as much as the grain ; in this 
way, indeed, there has been a little compensation ; 
and although straw has no commercial value in the 
American wheat regions, and is commonly burnt to 
get rid of it, the bulk of it compared with the 
value is too great to admit of its being brought in 
quantity to Europe. 

Statistics .—The average value of wheat per Im¬ 
perial quarter was, in 1888, 81s. lid., as compared 
with 63s. 9d. in 1868 ; the average yield of wheat 
per acre in 1888 was 28 bushels, while that of the 
United States was 11 bushels. In 1887 the total 
import into England of wheat (grain and flour) was 
78,399,415 cwts., in 1888 the amount was 78,399,415 
cwts. The number of live cattle imported in 1877 
was 201,193, value £3,817,499; in 1888, 377,088, 
value £5,912,361. In 1877, 4,401,902 cwts. of dead 
meat were imported; in 1888, no less than 
6,734,493. In 1889, the total area of land under 
cultivation in Great Britain was 32,733,357 acres. 

Live-Stock .—The tendency therefore in England 
has for some years been to lay down more and more 
land to permanent grass. The live stock of the farm 
were formerly regarded as subsidiary to crops on 
arable farms, but now the position to a great extent 
is reversed, and crops are subsidiary to live stock. 
Instead of wheat being an all-important feature, 
it is now simply taken in its turn in rotations 
whose leading object is the sustenance of animals 
—of sheep or of cattle, one or both, as the case 
may be. The production of food is still and must 
remain the aim and object of farming operations 
in these islands, as elsewhere, but it is now far more 
in the form of beef and mutton, and of milk and 
cheese and butter, than of grain. On the mixed 
farms of this country the crops produced on arable 
land are supplementary to the hay-crops of the 
meadows as food for stock in winter ; and also 
indeed, in summer, green crops are made addi¬ 
tional to the grass of the pastures. In this way it 
occurs that various modifications have taken place 
in the practice of farming; and the soil of the 
country, lying so much under permanent grass, is 
laying up a store of plant-food which will be found 
most valuable in the future. 

Dairy-farming .—Perhaps the most remarkable 
transformation that has taken place is seen in the 
growth of the milk trade between cities and country 
farms. This trade has grown up almost entirely 
since about 1865, and is now very large and im¬ 
portant. It is not too much to say that the milk 
trade has been a prop without which dairy farming 
would have fallen into disaster almost equally 
serious with that through which arable farming has 
had to pass. Stock-raising, however, is a part and 
parcel of dairy-farming, and with the exception of 
intervals, fortunately of brief duration, occurring 
now and again, this branch of husbandry has been 
profitable. The consumption of milk by urban popu¬ 
lations having greatly increased during recent years, 


and urban cow-sheds having been to a great extent 
wisely disestablished, the production of the great 
bulk of the milk that is consumed in towns and 
cities has to a corresponding degree been thrown 
into the hands of farmers in the shires. Milk, 
indeed, is commonly conveyed 150 miles and up¬ 
wards, by rail, from milk-producing districts to 
towns and cities. From Derbyshire, for example, 
milk is sent to London in very large quantities, 
and even to Newcastle-on-Tyne. Commendable 
facilities have been afforded to the trade by many 
of the leading railway companies, but it may be 
said that still more favourable conditions might be 
given with advantage alike to farmers, to the public 
who drink milk, and to the railway companies 
themselves. The position of dairy farming to-day, 
despite the enormous importations of cheese and 
butter from various foreign sources, is one of hope¬ 
fulness, demanding, however, keener and more 
energetic management than it formerly did. The 
number of cattle in the British Islands fluctuates 
very considerably, and hence it is that the profits 
alike of stock-raising and of milk-production vary 
year by year. 

The lines on which dairy farming is being de¬ 
veloped are in the direction of more extensive 
improvement of the soil. The milk trade, which is 
gradually extending in all districts which possess 
cattle and also railway facilities, requires better 
management of stock and land than is considered 
necessary for cheese and butter-making purposes. 
The use of artificial manures on the land, and of 
purchased feeding-stuffs to cattle, is extending, and 
cannot fail to enrich the soil and increase its stock¬ 
carrying capacity ; hence it follows that an effi¬ 
cient tenant-right Act is more than ever necessary, 
to secure tenant farmers’ interests in the improve¬ 
ments they contribute to the soil of the country. 
To what extent in the future the competition of 
other countries in store and fat cattle, in dressed 
beef, and in dairy products, will affect the dairy 
farmers of* Great Britain, remains to be seen. So 
far its effect has been to stimulate them to greater 
exertions. The quality of our cheese and butter is 
improving, cheese and butter factories are becoming 
more numerous, and tuition in dairy work is ex¬ 
tending, while improved dairies, dairy appliances 
and machinery, have greatly lessened the drudgery 
and untidiness which in former times were almost 
unavoidable. 

Fruit farming , jTower-grorHng , etc .—The cultiva¬ 
tion of fruit and flops, and market gardening gene¬ 
rally, has of late years assumed a position of much 
greater importance than that which it formerly 
held; and but for the incubus of heavy railway 
rates for transport, and in some instances the “ ex¬ 
traordinary tithe,” this branch of agriculture would 
increase even more rapidly than it does. It is 
considered imperative that all restrictions should 
be taken from the development of these industries, 
leaving the law of supply and demand to regulate 
the extension. 

The growing of flowers for Jthe markets has lately 
received much encouragement, and this industry is 
now found sufficiently profitable by some to merit 
their whole attention. 





Agriculture. 


( 55 ) 


Agriculture. 


Agricultural Societies. —The many societies which 
■exist for the improvement of every branch of agri¬ 
cultural industry have done and are doing immeasur¬ 
able good. The Royal Agricultural Society, the 
British Dairy Farmers’ Association, the Smithfield 
■Club, the Highland and Agricultural Society of 
•Scotland, and the Royal Agricultural Society of 
Ireland, are national in their scope and influence in 
the three kingdoms ; and a large number of societies 
nnd farmers’ clubs exist, more local in character, 
amongst which the Bath and West of England 
•Society is at or.ce the oldest and most important. 
And, in addition to these, there are various so¬ 
cieties which exist for the improvement of horse- 
breeding, which in recent years has found a great 
and most gratifying revival. Several of the 
.-societies mentioned aim not only at the improve¬ 
ment of whatever in agriculture is susceptible of 
improvement, but also at the agricultural edu¬ 
cation of ’the rising generation of farmers. The 
annual exhibitions held by all the societies are in 
themselves a perennial source of education of the 
highest practical importance. In respect to animals, 
for example, individual merits can only be correctly 
•estimated when they are subjected to competition 
in the prize-ring, and to the critical scrutiny of 
practical men, and it follows that the estimate 
can only be satisfactorily made when many superior 
animals are brought together for exhibition. It is 
in this way that agricultural exhibitions of what¬ 
ever kind are emphatically educational and stimu¬ 
lative in character. The same may be said with 
regard to every other department with which the 
exhibitions concern themselves—with cereals, roots, 
poultry, dairy products, and machinery. The tests, 
indeed, to which most kinds of machinery and 
appliances applicable to agriculture have been sub¬ 
jected, have resulted in very remarkable improve¬ 
ment all round. Competitive trials have raised the 
standard of all these things to a point beyond 
which, in respect to some of them—to mowers and 
reapers, threshing machines, steam-engines adapted 
to the requirements of farmers, dairy appliances, 
and so on—it may well be questioned whether much 
further improvement is possible. To a remarkable 
article in the Journal of the Royal Agricultural 
Society (Part II., 1890), we must refer those 
who wish to become familiar with the modern 
■“ Development of Agricultural Machinery.” The 
exhibitions of the Royal Agricultural Society, un¬ 
approachable as they are in variety and excellence 
of things exhibited, bring together men from all 
progressive countries, and so it is that the agri¬ 
culture of Britain has had a marked effect on that 
of many lands. 

Agricultural Education. —Public institutions, ex¬ 
isting to impart scientific and practical agricul¬ 
tural education, are not as numerous as they per¬ 
haps ought to be in Great Britain. The Royal 
Agricultural College at Cirencester stands at the 
head of them in seniority, closely followed, if 
not indeed surpassed in efficiency by 

the College of Agriculture, Downton ; the Colonial 
Training "College, in Suffolk; and the Glasnevin 
Agricultural College, near Dublin. A few others 
there are of minor importance, each doing excellent 


work in its way, and all of them self-supporting, 
save the one in Ireland, to which a Government 
grant is allotted. The education imparted at these 
places is varied and comprehensive, embracing sub¬ 
jects strictly agricultural in character and the cog¬ 
nate sciences. The former include the cultivation, 
draining, and improvement of land; the breeding, 
feeding, and general management of the live-stock 
of the farm ; the rotations of crops, with the culti¬ 
vation, manuring, and management they require ; 
as well as the management of permanent grass land ; 
cheese and butter making; estate management, 
land-surveying and forestry; book-keeping and 
commercial knowledge. The latter embrace Physics 
and Mechanics, Chemistry, Geology and Mineralogy; 
Botany and Vegetable Physiology ; Zoology ; Ana¬ 
tomy and Physiology; and Veterinary Medicines 
and Surgery, each in its bearing on agriculture. 
Many of our leading farmers take pupils, and a 
practical education may be obtained on a farm 
quite equal to that at a College, whatever may be 
said as to the theory or science of the art of agri¬ 
culture. 

The Agricultural Labourer. —That the condition 
of the agricultural labourer has been sensibly im¬ 
proved in recent times is as true as it is satis¬ 
factory. He is now better fed, better clothed, 
better housed, better educated, better able to 
make provision for old age, than he ever w r as be¬ 
fore. Able to read for himself, the power of the 
labourer to better himself cannot but increase in an 
age of cheap and abundant literature ; he becomes 
more intelligent, more energetic, more self-reliant; 
the colonies are open to him and he reads about 
them ; he is less wedded to the spot of his birth, 
he is more in feeling a citizen of the world. 

The Future of Agriculture. — The position of 
agriculture is hopeful, for the age is ; progres¬ 
sive. A long period of depression has followed 
one of inflation. The leaps and bounds of the 
“seventies” have wholly subsided for the time 
being. It is a period of transition and adaptation, 
of new departures, new energy, and greater eco¬ 
nomy. Less money is made than of yore, but what 
is made is better husbanded. Foreign competition 
is understood now, and expected; it is no longer a 
terror as it was when it leaped into sudden promi¬ 
nence. To know what it is provides the means of 
meeting it. From the experience of a trying period 
we may predict that our farmers will be found equal 
to meet what the future may have in store. Free¬ 
dom of cropping and of sale of produce, security 
for unexhausted improvements, a fair share of local 
and Imperial taxation, are, sooner or later, the in¬ 
evitable sequel of unrestricted foreign competition. 
The value of land, as the raw material for the pro¬ 
duction of food, is finding its level; the cost of 
freightage is the regulating medium. So long as 
British commerce thrives, British agriculture will 
live and prosper. The future of farming, indeed, 
problematical as it no doubt is, need not trouble us 
specially, for it will be in keeping with the future 
of the country at large. 

Foreign Farming. —The condition of agriculture 
in continental Europe will compare unfavourably, 
all things considered, with that of Great Britain, 






Agrigentum. 


( SG ) 


Agrippa. 


save, perhaps, in some of the smaller countries— 
Belgium, Holland, Denmark. The farmers and la¬ 
bourers of England live well for the most part, and 
are not oppressed with too many hours of toil. 
The employment of women in the "toil of the fields 
is almost wholly a thing of the past, but in France, 
and particularly in Germany, it is still continued, 
where the comparatively small use of machinery 
entails much waste. The peasant proprietors of 
France, of whom we have heard so much, and the 
petite culture which is so commonly found in that 
country, and to some extent in countries adjoining, 
do not present a picture which is calculated to ex¬ 
cite very much the envy and emulation of England. 
The small farmers of Ireland are also in a condition 
which leaves much to be desired. It is the culti¬ 
vators of little farms—hardly deserving the name 
of farms—in any country who, as a rule, are the 
first to feel the pinch of agricultural depression. 
The tenants of small farms pay rents, generally 
** rack-rents ”; the peasant proprietors pay interest 
on mortgages; it is commonly a distinction rather 
than a difference, varying only in degree. Agricul¬ 
ture under these conditions is starved for want of 
capital, or want of will to use it. 

American Agriculture .—It is notorious that the 
ma jority of American farmers in the West are mort¬ 
gagors, paying a high rate of interest that is worse 
than a rent. They work as no English labourer is 
compelled to work, they dress more meanly than he, 
fare no better in food, and live in huts that he would 
look down upon. They have, however, a chance, 
which he has not, of rising to better things, and 
many of them rise accordingly. But they are the 
victims of a financial policy which is designed to en¬ 
rich the manufacturing classes. Farming on the 
North American continent is generally of an order 
which an English or Scotch or Welsh farmer would 
consider slovenly to a degree. This, with exceptions, 
is true alike of Canada, of the United States of 
America, and of the United States of Mexico. In 
each of these vast countries, however, there are 
districts, the farming of which would be no dis¬ 
credit to the Lothians, or to any county in England. 
It is not the farmers of these countries who occupy 
the best position, but the ranchers—though not ail 
of these. It must not be supposed that it is British 
agriculture which feels most severely the keen com¬ 
petition of America. The American farmers feel 
it too, more than our own. The rapid spread of 
farming in most of the Western States has made 
its mark in the Eastern ones, just as the opening up 
of the North-West of Canada has told its tale to 
the farmers of Ontario, Quebec, and the Maritime 
Provinces. Here too, as in England, yet still more 
rapidly, land is finding its intrinsic level, so far as 
agriculture is concerned. When this level has been 
fairly reached, and men have accommodated them¬ 
selves to it, the condition of agriculture will rest on 
a solider basis, and again improvement will be the 
order of the day. 

Agrigentum, now Girgenti, an ancient city 
on the S. coast of Sicily, colonised from Gela, 
582 r.o. It throve as a free commercial city, till 
it rivalled Syracuse. Phalaris set himself up as 


tyrant, but was killed after a reign of fifteen years. 
Later on, Theron assumed the same position, and 
was successful in repelling the Carthaginians. He 
died in 472, and the democratic form of government 
was revived. The city at this period was adorned 
with magnificent public buildings, and was re¬ 
nowned for its beauty and luxury. The population 
was estimated at 200,000. In 406 the Carthaginians 
took the place, and swept away nearly every trace 
of its prosperity. Timoleon, in 840, re-colonised it 
with citizens from Velia ; and after terrible vicissi¬ 
tudes during the Punic Wars, it ultimately fell into 
the hands of the Romans. On the fall of the Eastern 
Empire further disasters were experienced, and the 
Saracens became masters of the city. But few frag¬ 
ments of architecture now mark the site of this once 
large and powerful community. 

Agrimony, the popular name of the small genus 
Agrimonia , in the order Itosacerr. It includes eight 
or ten species, widely distributed, two being 
British. They are perennial herbs with pinnate. 



(Shotting leaf and /lower.) 

sometimes lyrate, leaves, and racemes of short- 
stalked, small, yellow flowers. The floral leaves are 
in fives, but there are only two carpels, and in some 
species, such as A. odor at a, there are subsidiary 
rows of stamens. The rhizome is astringent and 
yields a yellow dye, and the bruised leaves are 
aromatic and reputedly tonic. Hemp-Agrimony is 
the popular name of the Composite Hupatorium 
cannabinum, a very different plant. 

Agrippa, Henry Cornelius, born at Cologne 
in 1486 of a noble and ancient family. Entering 
the service of the Emperor Maximilian as secretary, 
he fought in the Italian wars, but soon abandoned 
arms for learning. He visited France, Spain, and 
England, lecturing on theology, between 1507 and 
1510. After a sojourn in his native place he again 
joined Maximilian in Italy, and lectured at Pavia 
and Turin. His opposition to monkish legends and 
to prosecutions for witchcraft brought upon him 






(S7) 


Aguessoau 


Agripps,. 


the enmity of the Dominicans. He was driven out 
of Metz, where he held important municipal offices, 
and reports were spread as to his familiarity with 
the “ black art.” We find him successively dwell¬ 
ing at Cologne, Geneva, and Lyons, and for a time 
he enjoyed a pension from Francis I. of France, 
but losing the favour of the Queen Mother, took 
refuge with the Emperor Charles V. in the Nether¬ 
lands, and became his historiographer. On the 
publication (1530) of two treatises upon Occult 
Philosophy and the Vanity of the Sciences he was 
again persecuted by the Inquisition, but Cardinals 
Campeggio and de la Marck protected him. Im¬ 
prisoned for a. time at Brussels, he next went to 
Bonn, and thence to Lyons, where he was once 
more incarcerated, this time for a libel on the Queen 
Mother. He was released, and died at Grenoble 
in 1535. Though influenced by Luther, he re¬ 
mained till death within the pale of the Roman 
Church, and his writings show him to have been a 
Christian, with a tendency towards Quietist doc¬ 
trines. He was thrice married. 

Agrippa, Herod. [Herod.] 

Agrippa, Marcus Vipsanius, born in 64 b.c. 
He became the devoted friend of Augustus, and 
urged that prince after Caesar’s murder to put him¬ 
self at the head of the State. We do not hear of 
him in the civil war that ensued, but he fought 
successfully in Persia and Gaul. Subsequently 
devoting himself to naval affairs, he created the 
Pontus Julius, trained a fleet, defeated Pompey in 
36 B.C. (Virgil, JEn. viii.'682), and contributed 
largely to the later victory at Actium. After the 
Illyrian war he became iEdile, and raised magnifi¬ 
cent public works, including the Pantheon. On the 
death of Marcellus he married his widow, Julia, the 
daughter of Augustus, who adopted his two sons 
Caius and Lucius. He visited Syria in 14 B.C., and 
died in Campania two years later. He prepared 
and published a valuable statistical survey of the 
Empire. 

Agrippina the Elder, daughter of the fore¬ 
going, married C. Gennanicus, and courageously 
shared in the fortunes of his campaigns, often 
aiding her husband by her sagacity and vigour. 
When Gennanicus died at Antioch, she returned to 
Rome with his ashes. Tiberius, fearing her popu¬ 
larity, banished her to the island of Pandataria, 
where she was killed by his order. Caligula and 
Agrippina the Younger were her children. 

Agrippina the Younger inherited much of 
her mother’s ability, but combined with it boundless 
ambition and unparalleled vice. She married 
Domitius Ahenobarbus, and became the mother 
of Nero. After her first husband’s death she mar¬ 
ried another, whom she poisoned in order to become 
the wife of her uncle, the Emperor Claudius. She 
murdered him, too, so as to make way for her son 
Nero, by whose order she was herself put to death 
in 59 a.d. 

Aguas Calientes, a town in Mexico, 270 
miles N.W. of the capital, important as a centre of 
inland trade, being situated between Zacatecas, 
Durango, San Louis Potosi, and Guadalaxara. 


Cotton fabrics are manufactured here; the soil is i 
fertile, and the climate excellent. The town takes 
its name from two hot springs impregnated with 
copper. 

Ague, or Malaria, a fever characterised by re¬ 
curring paroxysms in each of which a cold, a hot, 
and a sweating stage are present. When complete 
intermissions exist between the paroxysms we have 
to deal with intermittent fever, as distinguished from 
remittent, the more severe form, in which the fever 
only abates in severity but does not disappear 
between the attacks of shivering. The different 
varieties of intermittent fever have been classified 
according to the duration of the intermissions. 
Thus in quotidian ague there is a daily febrile 
paroxysm, in tertians the paroxysm occurs every 
third day, in quartans every fourth day, there being 
two clear days of freedom, and so on. Again, 
double tertians have been described in which ague 
fits occur every day, but those of the odd days pre¬ 
sent certain common characters, in which they 
differ from those of the even days. Ague is most 
common in tropical countries, but is limited toler¬ 
ably definitely to certain spots, so that in many 
parts of the tropics it is unknown. It is now very 
uncommon for cases to originate in this country, 
though this was by no means true in former times. 
Agueish districts are frequently swampy, so that 
the affection is often known as marsh fever; 
the English expedition to Holland in 1794 was 
notorious for the extent to which the army suffered 
from remittent fever. The poison is probably manu¬ 
factured in the soil of the agueish locality. It has 
been supposed to be associated with decaying vege¬ 
table matter, and was at one time held to be a gas. 
In 1879 Klebsand Tommasi Crudeli isolated from 
the soil of certain districts near Rome an organism, 
the bacillus malariae, which they hold to be the 
active agent in the causation of ague. The most 
recent view is that the vera causa of malaria is the 
“ plasmodium malariae,” a protozoon'which is found 
in the red blood-cells of ague patients. Enlarge¬ 
ment of the spleen is an almost constant phenome¬ 
non in attacks of ague, and in those in whom the 
disease assumes a chronic form some permanent 
increase in size of that organ may result. Various 
forms of neuralgia are also met with in old subjects 
of ague, of which “ brow-ague ” has received a 
special name. In the treatment of ague quinine 
and arsenic are the drugs of greatest value. 

Aguesseau, Henri Francois D’, born at 
Limoges in 1668, was carefully educated by his 
father in all branches of liberal learning, and was 
specially trained for the profession of the law. At 
the age of twenty-two he became “ Avocat-General 
for the parliament or high court of Paris, where his 
eloquence and ability soon made him conspicuous. 
He exerted himself to uphold “ Gallican liberties ,v 
against Papal encroachments in the case of Fene- 
lon’s censure; and in 1700 was made “ Procureur- 
General.” In this office he effected many useful 
reforms, fighting in vain against the famous bull 
“ Unigenitus” (1713), by means of which the Jesuits 
sought to crush their opponents. After the death 
of Louis XIV. he was, in 1717, created Chancellor 





Aguilar. 


( 58 ) 


Ahriman. 


<of France. The next year, his opposition to Law’s 
scheme and the influence of Cardinal Dubois led 
to his exile. He was recalled in 1720, and weakly 
lent his support to the registration of the Papal edict 
against which he had so boldly struggled. To satisfy 
popular discontent he was again banished, and 
spent five years in study. In 1727 he returned to 
Paris, and ten years later resumed the Chancellor¬ 
ship. He now devoted himself to legal reforms, 
and above all to the codification of the law. Re¬ 
tiring in 1750, he spent his last days in religious 
studies, dying in 1751. 

Aguilar, Grace, a lady of Jewish race, born 
at Hackney in 1816. She possessed considerable 
literary ability, and wrote several romances, a num¬ 
ber of tales, and a few religious tracts. The Vale 
of Cedars and The Bays of Bruce are the best 
known of her novels. The style is mock-heroic 
and dull. Her sketches after the manner of Miss 
Edgeworth hit the taste of her generation, and the 
titles, Home Influence, The Mother's Recompense, 
Woman's Friendship, Home Scenes and Heart 
Studies, indicate clearly enough their character. 
Among her more serious writings, The Women of 
Israel and The Spirit of Judaism are the most im¬ 
portant. She died in 1847 at Frankfort. 

Aguilar de la Frontera, a town in the pro¬ 
vince of Andalusia, Spain, 22 miles S.E. of Cordova, 
and on the left bank of the Cabra. It occupies the 
summits and bases of four low hills, and is clean 
and well built. The inhabitants are employed in 
agriculture, the breeding of sheep and cattle, and 
local industries. 

Agulhas (Portug. Needles'), the most southerly 
cape of Africa, is situated 100 miles S.E. of the 
Cape of Good Hope. Off the coast at this point is 
a vast bank, the Ayullias Bank, which extends for 
560 miles, and has a breadth opposite the Cape of 
200 miles. 

Allah, son of Omri, succeeded his father as 
King of Israel in 918 B.C., and reigned 22 years in 
Samaria. He married Jezebel, daughter of the 
King of Sidon, and was by her led into idolatry 
and luxury. Elijah, Micaiah, and other prophets, 
who boldly denounced his wickedness, incurred 
constant persecution, Twice he defeated the over¬ 
whelming hosts of Ben-hadad, King of Syria, with 
the help of God, but he spared his defeated enemy 
and incurred thereby Divine wrath. He was slain 
in battle by a chance arrow. 

Ahasuerus, or Achasverosh, a title borne in 
the Bible by four Median and Persian kings, the 
first of whom may be identified with Astyages, the 
second with Cambyses, the third -with Xerxes or 
Artaxerxes Longimanus, and the fourth with 
Cyaxares I. The third is the most important. 
(Esther.] The “Wandering Jew” of legendary 
tradition bears this name. 

Ahaz, the eleventh king of Judah, succeeded 
Jotham, his father, about 775 B.C., and reigned for 
16 years. He allied himself with the King of Assyria 
against an invasion of the Israelites and Syrians, 
and Damascus, the Syrian capital, was taken by 


Tiglath-Pileser. He was succeeded by his son 
Hezekiah. 

Ahmedabad, a district and city in Gujerat, in 
the Bombay Presidency, India. The latter is on the 
left bank of the Sooburmuttee, and 290 miles distant 
from Bombay, on the Bombay, Baroda, and Central 
Indian Railway. It was founded by Ahmed Shah 
on the site of Beder, or Ashawal (1413-1443), the 
capital of the Mohammedan province, possessing 
great wealth and many noble buildings. The mosque 
of Sultan Ahmed at the disruption of the Mogul 
Empire was fought for by Mussulmans and Mah- 
rattas. Col. Goddard took the city in 1780, but 
it remained in the hands of the Mahrattas, who 
destroyed its prosperity, until 1818. Since that 
date a considerable revival has taken place under 
British rule. The earthquake of 1819 laid much of 
its architecture in ruins. 

Ahmednuggur, a district and city in the pro¬ 
vince of Auzungabad in the Bombay Presidency, 
India. The city is on the river Seena, and is 
distant 122 miles from Bombay, on the Great Indian 
Peninsular Railway. Its ancient name, Bhingar, 
was changed by the Nizam Ahmed Shah (1494), 
who added new buildings. The eastern wall of 
Hussein Shah (1562), the mausoleum of Salabut Jung, 
and the palace of the Sultans still remain. About 
half a mile from the town is the fort, an oval stone 
structure nearly one mile in circumference. It 
was captured by Wellington in 1803, and in 1817 
the whole place came under British rule. 

Ahmedpoor, a town in the feudatory state of 
Bhawalpoor in N.W. India, about thirty miles S.S.W. 
from the capital, Bhawalpoor. It is inhabited 
chiefly by Mohammedans, and consists of mud 
houses, with a large mosque. A kind of gaily-co¬ 
loured silk and cotton waist-band, called “loonghi,” 
is made here. 

Ahmed Shah, the founder of the Durani 
dynasty in Afghanistan, was born in 1724. He 
served in early life under Nadir Shah, and on the 
assassination of his chief escaped to his native 
country, where he was proclaimed king in 1747. He 
became possessed of the celebrated diamond, the 
Kohinoor. In 1748 he invaded the Punjab, which 
he annexed, together with Kashmir. In 1757 he 
pushed on as far as.Delhi, took the city, and held 
it for some time against the Sikhs and Mahrattas. 
He utterly routed the latter in 1761 at the battle 
of Paniput. Being then recalled to Kabul by 
troubles at home, he left the Punjab to the Sikhs, 
and devoted the rest of his life to spreading his 
conquests westward to the Caspian Sea. His death 
occurred at Murgha in 1773, and his son Timir 
succeeded to a vast empire, which Was speedily 
broken up. 

Ahriman, Arimanes, in the Zend-Avesta, 
the principle of evil, symbolised by darkness, and 
opposed to Ormuzd, the principle of good, symbo¬ 
lised by light. According to the Magians, both 
existed from eternity, though Zoroaster himself 
seems to have taught that only the latter was 
eternal and that the former was a created being. 
The Zend-Avesta says that this world will be for 





Ahwas. 


( 59 ) 


Ailsa Craig. 


12,000 years the scene of a fierce conflict between 
these principles, but that good will finally triumph 
over evil. 

Ahwas, a town in Persia on the river Karun, 
occupying the site of the ancient Aginis, of which 
many ruins still exist, amongst them being the 
bund ,, or stone dyke that dammed the river, and 
supplied the now desolate country with water. 
The population is reduced to a few hundred Arabs. 

Ai. [Sloth.] 

Aid, the term given to the payments, origin¬ 
ally voluntary, made by a tenant to his lord under 
the feudal system. Aids afterwards became com¬ 
pulsory, and were exacted (1) for the ransom of the 
lord, (2) the expenses of marrying his eldest daughter, 
or (3) of making his eldest son a knight. This tax was 
abolished in 1672. 

Aid was also used as the name for a subsidy 
granted to the king by Parliament as part of his 
revenue. [Supplies.] 

Aide-de-camp, the name given to a military 
officer who conveys the orders of a general to other 
officers. In times of peace he acts as a secretary 
and assistant to the general. 

Aidin, or Guzel-Hissar, a town of Asiatic 
Turkey, in the pashalic of Anatolia, 70 miles S.E. 
of Smyrna, with which it is connected by rail¬ 
way. It is pleasantly situated on the famous 
Meander, and the ancient Tralles stands on a neigh¬ 
bouring hill. The district is very fertile, and pro¬ 
duces great quantities of figs, which are dried and 
exported to Europe. A good general trade is done 
in the bazaars. 

Aigues Mortes (Aqu^e Mortuas), so called 
from the neighbouring lagoons caused by the mouth 
of the Rhone, a town in the department of the 
Gard, France. It is 3 miles from the Mediterra¬ 
nean, and 21 miles S.W. of Nimes. The inhabitants 
are principally occupied in fishing, and the produce 
is exported via the Grand Roubine Canal. 

Aikin, John, biographer and popular scientific 
writer, was born at Kibworth Harcourt, Leicester¬ 
shire, on January 15th, 1747 ; was educated at the 
Warrington Academy, at the University of Edin¬ 
burgh, and under Dr. William Hunter in London, 
and graduated M.D. at Leyden, in 1784. Not 
being very successful as a physician, he devoted 
himself to literature. In 1780 he had published 
Biographical Memoirs of Medicine , and between 
1792 and 1795, in conjunction with his sister, Mrs. 
Barbauld, issued six very popular volumes entitled 
Evenings at Home. From 1796 to 1807 he edited 
the Monthly Magazine , and from 1807 to 1809 a 
short-lived Athenceum. Besides various separate 
biographies, he published between 1799 and 1815 
a Biographical Dictionary in ten volumes. He 
died at Stoke Newington, 7th December, 1822. 
There is a memoir of him by his daughter, Lucy 
Aikin, with an engraved portrait by Englehart, and 
there is also an engraving of him by Knight, after 
J. Donaldson, and a silhouette in Kendrick’s War¬ 
rington Worthies. The genus Aikinia was dedi¬ 
cated to him by Salisbury. His son, Arthur (1773- 


1854), was secretary to the Society of Arts from 
1817 to 1840, and was well-known as a geologist. 
His daughter, Lucy, mentioned above, was born in 
1781, and died in 1864. She was a well-known 
historical writer, and author of a Life of Addison , 
Lorimer: a Tale, and other works. 

Aikman, William, a portrait painter of emi¬ 
nence, born at Cairney, Aberdeenshire, in 1682. 
He studied under Sir John Medina, in Scotland ; 
then visited Rorne, Constantinople, and Smyrna, 
returning in 1712. For ten years he worked in 
Edinburgh under the patronage of the Duke of 
Argyll, and in 1723 moved to London. There he 
speedily attained a high position, and became the 
friend of Swift, Pope, Gay, Thomson, and the lead¬ 
ing literary men of the day. He modelled his style 
upon that of Kneller, and his portraits of Gay, 
Thomson, Fletcher of Saltoun, and W. Carstairs 
attest his ability. He died in 1731, whilst engaged 
on a picture of the Royal Family, and Thomson 
wrote some lines to his memory. 

Ailantus, a genus of trees belonging to the 
order Simarubece, natives of tropical Asia. The best 
known is A. glandulosa, a native of China, culti¬ 
vated in many temperate climates, and frequently 
found in gardens and plantations in England. In 
Japan it is known as “ ailantoin Italy as “ albero 
di paridisoand in Germany as “ Gotterbauni;" 
It reaches a height of 50 or 60 feet, and has large 
alternate pinnate leaves, and compound racemes of 
small dioecious flowers. These have five sepals, five 
involute petals, and ten stamens, all hairy at their 
bases, and five winged, one-seeded carpels forming a 
samaroid fruit. Its leaves are the food of the 
Asiatic silkworm, Bombyx cynthia; but in England 
it is only grown for ornament, and in the eastern 
United States for shade. It grows rapidly even in 
bad soil, enduring either heat or drought, and send¬ 
ing out spreading roots which sprout into suckers. 

Ailsa Craig, a rocky islet in the mouth of the 
Forth of Clyde, remarkable for the abruptness with 



AILSA CRAIG. 


which it rises from the sea, its height being 1,139 
feet. Geologically it is composed of a jointed 





















Ailurus. 


( GO ) 


Ainsworth. 


grey syenite, and it has a cave on the north side. 
Vast swarms of sea-birds haunt the spot, and a 
ruined tower shows trhat it was once occupied by 
man. 

Ailurus. [Panda.] 

Aimard, Gustave, a French writer of fiction, 
whose works occupy much the same position as 
those of Captain Mayne Reid in England. He 
was born about 1818, and spent his early life in 
America, where he travelled and hunted. He also 
visited Spain, Turkey, and the Caucasus. Les 
Trappeurs de VArkansas, Le Coextr Loyal , Les 
Aventuriers, Les Bisons Blancs , and others of his 
spirited romances, have been translated into many 
languages. M. Aimard was an officer in the Garde 
Mobile as early as 1848, and in 1870 he organised a 
corps of Francs-tireurs that fought bravely at Le 
Bourget. He died in 1883. 

Ain, one of the Eastern departments of France, 
lying between Jura, Saone-et-Loire, and Rhone to 
the N. and W., Here to the S., and Savoie and 
Switzerland to the E. Its greatest length and 
breadth are 52 miles, and its area 2,241 square 
miles. Mountainous in the E., the country trends 
into level plains to the W. and S.W., and is wa¬ 
tered by the Rhone and its affluents, the Ain and 
the Saone. The valleys and plains are fertile, pro¬ 
ducing all kinds of cereals, fruits, and wine. On 
the higher slopes are valuable forests, and the 
mountains are rich in such products as potter’s 
clay, building and lithographic stone, asphalt, and 
iron. Bourg is the chief town, and Belley is the 
seat of a bishopric. 

Ainhum, a disease affecting the negroes of 
South America and the west coast of Africa. The 
name is derived from a negro word meaning to saw, 
because a constriction presents itself, most fre¬ 
quently on the little toe, which gradually deepens 
until the peripheral portion, that beyond the groove, 
becomes in time actually separated. The course of 
the disease is very slow. 

Ainmiiller, the reviver of the art of glass- 
painting in Germany, was born at Munich, 1807, and 
having devoted himself early to this art, became in 
1828 director of the royal factory. His process of 
enamelling a design painted upon the glass was a 
recurrence to the practice of the Renaissance, and 
speedily found favour. Specimens of Ainmiiller's 
work may be seen in the cathedrals of Cologne, 
Ratisbon, Glasgow, and St. Paul’s, and in Notre 
Dame at Munich, He was a skilful painter in oils, 
especially of architectural interiors, and his pictures 
of St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, and Westminster 
Abbey are fine works. He died in 1870. 

Ainos, the aborigines of Yezo, South Sakhalin, 
and most of the Kurile Islands, and formerly widely 
diffused throughout the whole of Japan and the 
lower Amur basin, where they are still represented 
by the Ghiliaks. The Ainos, i.e. “ Men,” are ab¬ 
solutely distinct in pl^sique and speech from the 
surrounding Mongolic races, forming an isolated 
ethnical group, apparently of Caucasic stock, but 
with no known or certain affinities elsewhere; 


taller than the Japanese and well made, with 
regular, almost European features, light-brown com¬ 
plexion, somewhat wavy black hair, very lull beard 
and hirsute bodies, whence their Japanese name, 
Mozin, from the Chinese Mao-shin (“hairy body”). 
They are a gentle, inoffensive people, possessed of 
considerable intelligence, but still in the fishing 
and hunting state, living in rude huts like those in 
the remoter uplands of Japan, forming small mono¬ 
gamous family groups rather than tribes, paying 
much respect to their women, choosing as head of 
the group some person distinguished by age or 
wealth, but exercising little absolute control. They 
venerate as divinities the sun, moon, sea-god, and 
all striking natural phenomena, worshipped under 
the form of simple symbols, with sacrifices and 
offerings. The dress is a short-sleeved smock 
reaching a little below the knee, made of bark- 
cloth in summer, of fur or sealskin in winter, and 
of like form for both sexes. All go bareheaded, the 
women allowing their abundant hair to fall loosely 
over the shoulders. The pure Aino race, now re¬ 
duced to about 15,000, appears to be dying out; 
but a population of half-breeds has sprung up 
along the shores of Yezo by alliances with the 
Japanese. 

Ainsworth, Henry, born near Blackburn, 
Lancashire, about 1560. He went to Cambridge, 
and there adopted the tenets of the Brownist sect 
of Independents. Driven from England for his 
views, he appears to have lived in great poverty at 
Amsterdam. When the Brownists built a church 
there, Ainsworth and Francis Johnson took charge- 
of it, and published a Confession of Faith that set 
forth the claims of the Independents to religious 
liberty. For many years Ainsworth was engaged in 
the bitter controversies waged between the Noncon¬ 
formists and their opponents. In this strife his 
profound knowledge of Hebrew, his cultured intel¬ 
lect, and his high personal character gave him great- 
advantage. He died at Amsterdam about 1623, and 
is said to have been poisoned. 

Ainsworth, Robert, born near Manchester, 
1660. He realised a competency by keeping a 
school first at Bolton, subsequently in the neigh¬ 
bourhood of London, and the latter part of his life 
was devoted to the compilation of Ainsworth's 
Dictionary , a book that for nearly a century held 
its own in schools and colleges, though full of serious 
imperfections. He died in 1743. 

Ainsworth, William Harrison, born at 
Manchester, 1805. His first novel, Bookwood , 
appeared in 1834, and—combining as it did con¬ 
siderable descriptive power and some archaeological 
knowledge with a romantic, not to say sensational, 
plot—attracted popular favour at once. This was 
followed by Jack Sheppard. The Tower of London, 
Old St. Paul's, Windsor Castle, and many other 
romances in the same style, numbering over thirty 
volumes. Ainsworth also wrote articles and poetry 
for various magazines, and was the proprietor first 
of The New Monthly, and afterwards of Bentley's 
Miscellany. Notwithstanding the immense success 
of his books, Ainsworth was not prosperous, and 
he died almost in poverty at the age of 77. 





Ain-Tab. 


( 61 ) 


Ait on. 


Ain-Tab, a garrison town of some importance 
in Syria, about 65 miles N.N.E. of Aleppo. It has 
a trade in hides, leather, and cotton. 

Air. [Atmosphere.] 

Air, in music, a rhythmical melody or succession 
of notes as opposed to a harmonic combination. 
The air used to be divided into two classes— 
the aria da capo, and the aria without da capo; 
the term is now, however, frequently applied to the 
leading melody in a composition, whether vocal or 
instrumental. 

Air-bed, as the name implies, a bed consist¬ 
ing of air-tight cloth or indiarubber inflated with 
air. They are useful for invalids and in cases of 
sickness, and can be easily transported, but as the 
air gets heated by the warmth of the body they are 
not so good as water-beds. 

Airdrie, a burgh and market town in Lanark¬ 
shire, Scotland, 11 miles E. of Glasgow, on the high 
road to Edinburgh. The place depends for its 
prosperity on the iron and coal mines in its vicinity. 
Cotton-mills, foundries, and other manufactories 
have been established there. It was formerly 
grouped in Parliamentary representation with Fal¬ 
kirk and other boroughs, but is now merged in the 
county division. 

Aire, the name of two French towns. 1. In the 
Pas de Calais, 10 miles S.E. of St. Omer, possess¬ 
ing barracks and manufactories of hats, cotton, 
wool, soap, etc. Pop. about 9,000. 2. In the 

Landes, on the left bank of the Adour, the ancient 
capital of the Visigoths, and the seat of a bishopric. 

Aire, a river in Yorkshire, joining the Ouse 
above Goole. Leeds is on its banks. 

Air-engine, an engine worked by means of 
the expansion of air when heated. Cold air passes 
through a furnace, becomes greatly heated, and 
thereby expands. Its expansion is made to drive a 
piston forwards in a cylinder; the air is then passed 
off to the exhaust or to a i-egenerafor, and a fresh 
supply drives the piston back. This reciprocating 
motion of the piston is converted into a rotatory 
motion by means of a connecting rod and crank, and 
continuous motion is so produced. Great economy 
of heat is effected, there is no liability of 
expense, and management is easy. But air-engines, 
though theoretically efficient, have not hitherto 
been quite successful in practice. The high tem¬ 
perature of the air causes it to burn away the less 
durable working parts of the machine, and the 
constant repairs necessary diminish the practical 
efficiency. 

Air-pump, a machine invented by Otto von 
Guericke of Magdeburg, in 1654, for the removal 
of the air or other gas from a closed cavity. The 
principle of most air-pumps is as follows:—A 
cylinder, with a closely fitting piston, is con¬ 
nected at its lower end with the receiver or enclosed 
volume of air, by a pipe. On working the pump- 
handle the piston moves downwards, and a portion 
of the air effects a passage through a valve in the 


piston. On the return of the piston this valve 
closes so that no more air passes through, whereas 
that portion which effected the passage is driven 
out of the cylinder through another valve at it; 
upper end. lie- 
petition of the 
motion there 
fore draws more 
and more air 
from the re¬ 
ceiver. 

The Sprengel 
air-pump,which 
is far more effi¬ 
cient, depends 
on a totally dis¬ 
tinct principle. 

Mercury falling- 
down a vertical 
tube connected 
laterally with 
the receiver is 
found to drag small bubbles of air with it until a 
very perfect vacuum is obtained. The apparatus 
has been used with great success in cases where 
almost complete exhaustion is required; as, for 
instance, in incandescent electric lamps. 

Aisle, the wing or side passage in a church, 
attached either to the nave, transepts, or chancel. 
In English churches there are generally only two 
aisles, and in small churches only one ; but in many 
of the continental churches the number of aisles is 
greater, Antwerp Cathedral having six, and Notre 
Dame, Paris, seven. 

Aisne, a department on the N.E. frontier of 
France, S. of Belgium and W. of the Ardennes. Its 
greatest length is 75 miles, and its greatest width 
53 miles, the area being 2,838 square miles. Com¬ 
prised within its limits are parts of Picardy and 
the Isle of France. Laon is the chief town, and 
Soissons the seat of the bishopric. Other im¬ 
portant places are St. Quentin, Vervins, Hirson, 
and Chateau Thierry. The undulating plains that 
stretch up to the hilly part of the Ardennes pro¬ 
duce abundance of wheat, barley, oats, rye, flax, 
beets, fruit, and potatoes. Numbers of cattle and 
horses are reared in the pastures. The wine is not 
good. Much of the country is wooded, and build¬ 
ing-stone, as well as slate, is quarried. The indus¬ 
trial products are very considerable, and include 
muslin, shawls, glass, iron, sugar, and potter}'. An 
interesting and important experiment in co-opera¬ 
tive production on Socialistic lines is being carried 
out at Guise, where 1,200 men are employed in M. 
Godin’s ironworks. 

Aiton, William, first director of the Royal Gar¬ 
dens at Kew, was born near Hamilton, in Scotland, 
in 1731. In 1754 he entered the Chelsea Physic 
Garden under Philip Miller, and in 1759, was 
appointed director of the newly-established Botanic 
Gardens at Kew, where he remained till his death, 
1st February, 1793. In 1789 he published the 
Hortus Kewensis, a catalogue in three volumes, 
arranged on the Linnjean system, which was mainly 






























Aix. 


( G2 ) 


Akbar. 


the work of Dryander and Solander, two Swedes, 
pupils of Linnaeus, settled in England under the 
patronage of Sir Joseph Banks. There is an oil 
portrait of Aiton at Kew. His son, William Towns¬ 
end Aiton (17G6—1748), succeeded him, and be¬ 
tween 1810 and 1813 issued a second edition of the 
Jlortus Kewensis, in which he was assisted by 
Robert Brown. 

Aix, the Aqiue Sextice of the Romans, an 
ancient city giving its name to an a/rrondissement 
in the department of the Bouches-du-Rlione, 
France. Its hot springs were valued by the 
Romans, but are not much used at present. Aix 
was renowned as a seat of learning under the 
Counts of Provence, and still possesses a fine library 
and an academy. There are in the streets many 
interesting specimens of architecture, Roman and 
mediaeval. Cotton and silk manufactures exist, and 
a large trade is carried on in corn, wine, and oil. 

Aix-la-Chapelle. [Aachen.] 

Aix-les-Bains, in the department of Savoie, 
France, on the Lake Bourget, eight miles N. of 
Chambery. The efficacy of its hot mineral springs 
impregnated with sulphur and soda was well known 
to the Romans, and all the gouty, rheumatic, and 
dyspeptic sufferers that can afford the treatment 
flock thither at present from every quarter of the 
globe. Royal patients give the place a fashionable 
prestige that increases the swarms of annual 
visitors. The town is charmingly situated and 
well kept. Splendid hotels and villas have sprung 
up of late, and society finds amusement there, as 
at Hombourg. 

Aj accio, the chief town of the French island 
of Corsica, is situated on the W. coast, and has a 
commodious and safe harbour. It is well built, 
and contains all the buildings connected with the 
administration, as well as a bishop’s palace and a 
School of Hydrography. The house in which 
Napoleon Bonaparte was born (1769) is still extant. 
The trade of the place is principally in wine, oil, 
fruit, anchovies, and coral. 

Aj ax, the name of two Homeric warriors, be¬ 
tween whom there appears to have been no kin¬ 
ship. 1. The ‘‘Great” Ajax was the son of Tela¬ 
mon and King of Salamis. There was in the Iliad 
nothing to connect him with Attica until Solon 
inserted a spurious line (ii. 557), after which he 
was adopted as an Athenian hero and a theme 
for dramatists. Renowned in Homeric times for 
physical might, sturdy courage, and manly beauty, 
he is deficient, perhaps, in the finest and noblest 
qualities of the hero. His defeat by Ulysses in 
the competition for the arms of Achilles led him 
to quarrel with that king and with Athena. The 
goddess afflicted him with madness, which resulted 
in his slaying himself, as related by Sophocles in 
his tragedy. 2. The “Lesser” Ajax, son of Oileus, 
King of Locri, is extolled by Homer for his swift¬ 
ness of foot and his courage, but he was haughty 
and insubordinate. According to the Epic legend, 
he lost a ra-ce with Ulysses (II. xxiii. 754—784), 
incurred also the enmity of Athena and was 


wrecked on his homeward voyage (Od. iv. 499). 
Other stories relate that the goddess was offended 
by his assault on Cassandra, and that he put out to 
sea in a small craft and was drowned. 

Ajmere, a district and town in Rajpootana, 
British India. The district (Ajmere Merwara), 
80 miles in length by 50 in breadth, has an area of 
2,057 square miles, and a pop. of about half a million, 
the majority being Hindoos. Towards the E. the 
country is flat or undulating, and produces cereals, 
sugar, maize, oil-seed, tobacco, and cotton. In the 
N.W. the Aravalli range presents rugged valleys, 
with sandy deserts and occasional spots of fertility. 



THE PALACE OF AKBAR, AJMERE. 


There are no rivers of consequence and no manufac¬ 
tures. The city is in the mountainous district on the 
Taragarh Hill, and is surrounded by a stone wall 
with five handsome gates. There are palaces built 
by Akbar and Jehaugir, a venerable Dargab, and a 
fine Jaire temple. The Anasagar Lake, artificially 
formed, supplies water. It is a clean and well-built- 
city, and was founded in 145 A.d. by Aji, whose 
descendants ruled independently, or as vassals of 
Delhi, till 1365. For two centuries the chiefs of 
Mewar and Marwar disputed its possession. Akbar 
then conquered it, and the Moguls retained it till 
1770, when the Mahrattas became its master. 
Ultimately the British purchased the city in 1818. 
The trade is principally in salt and opium. The 
agent for Rajputana has his residence here, and 
there is a thriving college. 

Akabah, The Gulf of, is the E. bifurcation 
of the Red Sea at its N. end. It extends for 100 
miles with a breadth of 12 to 17 miles. The steep 
mountains of Arabia Petrma hem it in, and the 
Golden Port, 29 miles E. of Mount Sinai, is the only 
safe harbour. Akabah, a village near its head, is 
supposed to be the ancient Elath, and some ruins 
in the sea close by are conjectured to mark the 
site of Eziongeber. 

Akbar, Jellaladin Mohammed, was born 
in Sindh in 1542. and succeeded his father Hum- 
awn as Mogul Emperor in 1556. He found that 
his realms were disorganised and his authority 













A Kempis. 


( 63 ) 


Aksu. 


impaired by revolts and disaffection. By conquest 
and by conciliatory methods he succeeded, during a 
long reign of nearly half a century, in consolidating 
the empire on a firmer basis than before. Justice, 
moderation, and sympathy, were the characteristics 
of his policy. He even had the strength of mind 
to cast aside Musulman bigotry and adopt a purer 
Deism. He was a liberal patron of literature and 
had many Sanscrit works, and perhaps the Gospels, 
translated into Persian. The misconduct of his 
two eldest sons, who died through intemperance, 
and the rebellion of the third, Selim, afterwards 
the Emperor Jehangir, embittered Akbar’s last 
days. He died at Agra in 1605, and was buried at 
Secundra. 

^ A Kempis, Thomas, the author of Be Tmitatione 
Christi , was born at Kempen (whence he took his 
name) about 1380. The greater part of his life was 
spent in a monastery at Zwolle, near the Zuyder Zee. 
Here he became sub-prior in 1429 and remained 
there until his death in 1471. Some critics affirm 
that he was only the copyist of the Imitatio 
Christi , but it seems to be now agreed that he was 
actually the author of this, one of the most beautiful 
of devotional books. 

Akenside, Mark, poet and physician, was 
born at Newcastle-on-Tyne in 1721, his father 
being a butcher and a Dissenter. He was educated 
at the Universities of Edinburgh and Leyden, and 
took the degree of M.D. in 1744, in which year he 
published his chief poem, “ The Pleasures of the 
Imagination.” Pope had read it in manuscript 
and praised it, and Johnson highly commended 
the intellectual ability of the poet and his skill in 
blank verse. By the generous help of Jeremiah 
Dyson the author started in medical practice at 
Northampton, moving later on to Hampstead, then 
to Bloomsbury Square, and lastly to Burlington 
Street. His vanity and overbearing disposition 
made enemies, but his undoubted abilities caused 
his speedy professional advancement. He became 
physician to St. Thomas’s Hospital and to the Queen. 
Among other poetical works his Odes, and Epistles 
to Warburton and Curio, deserve notice. He died 
of putrid fever in 1770. Smollett drew him in the 
character of “ The Doctor ” in Peregrine Pickle. 

Akers, Benjamin Paul, an able American 
sculptor, born in Maine, 1825. He went to Rome 
in 1855 and spent some years there in study. His 
best works are busts of Everett and Longfellow, and 
a head of Milton. He died in 1861 at Philadelphia. 

Akhalzikh, a city of Georgia in Transcaucasian 
Russia, 110 miles W. of Tiflis. A large trade is 
carried on in silk, honev, and wax. There is a 
strong castle, a college, library, and mosque. Pop. 
mostly Armenians. 

Ak Hissar, anciently Thvatira, a mud-built 
town in Anatolia. Turkey in Asia, 58 miles N.E. of 
Smyrna. Cotton is grown in the district and scarlet 
dyes are produced. Many ruins of the Greek city 
exist, 

Akhtyrka, a town in the Ukraine, Russia, 45 
miles N.W. of Kharkov. There is an image of the 


Virgin which is much venerated, the neighbourhood 
is rich in fruit, and an annual fair is held in May, 

Akiba, Ben Joseph, a famous Jewish Rabbi, 
who lived in the first and second centuries of the 
Christian era. He was a very popular teacher at 
Jaffa, and is believed to have influenced the doctrines' 
of the Talmud. Having joined the false Messiah, 
Bar-Eskeba, he was flayed alive by the Romans 
under Julius Severus at the age of 120. He is still 
venerated as a martyr. Only one of the books 
attributed to him appears to be genuine. 

Akkas, the northernmost group of the Negritos, 
a dwarfish negro population, which are scattered in 
isolated communities over a great part of the Cenfral 
African forest zone. The Akkas appear to be con¬ 
fined chiefly to the region stretching south from 
Monbuttuland about the head waters of the Welle. 
They have been carefully studied by Dr. Schwein- 
furth, who met some of them at the court of the 
Monbuttu king Munza, and by Miani, who brought 
two of them to Italy in 1874. The Akkas are taller 
than the more southern Negritos, averaging about 
4 feet 9 or 10 inches in height; but they are 
specially remarkable for their disproportionately 
large heads, which seem to be insufficiently sup¬ 
ported by a small slender neck. The features 
are also of a highly- pronounced negro type, with 
projecting upper teeth, everted lips, and exagger¬ 
ated prognathism, giving them a strong simian ap¬ 
pearance. They are a quick, nimble people, using 
both lance and bow and arrow skilfully, and are 
consequently often employed by the Monbuttus to 
hunt the elephant, which they face fearlessly. Yet 
they walk with the toes turned inwards, in this re¬ 
spect differing from all their neighbours. Next to- 
nothing is known of their social condition and do¬ 
mestic habits, as they have never been visited in 
their homes. But according to their own account, 
the Akkas, known also as Tikki-tikki, are a hunting 
people, living exclusively in the forests, and pos¬ 
sessing no domestic animals except poultry. Their 
nearest congeners are the pygmy people discovered 
in 1888 by Stanley in the dense forests of the Aru- 
wimi valley. 

Akmollinsk, a province and capital city of 
Asiatic Russia, situated N. of 50° lat. and E. of 70 c 
long. The province has an area of 210,564 square 
miles, and a pop. of 463,347 (1882). It was formed 
by ukase in 1868. The city is on the river Ishim. 

Akron, the capital of Summit County, Ohio, 
U.S.A., 36 miles S. of Cleveland, on the Atlantic 
and Great Western Railway and the Ohio, Erie 
and Pennsylvania canals. Wheat and mineral 
fire-proof paint are largely exported thence, and 
extensive manufacturing industries carried on. 

Aksu, a garrison town of Chinese Turkestan, 
250 miles N.E. of Yarkand, the centre of a large 
caravan trade. It is noted for the manufacture of 
the richly ornamented deer-skin saddlery so es¬ 
teemed in Central Asia, and it has some manufac¬ 
tures of cotton, besides copper and iron mines 
worked by Chinese convicts. The pop. of the 
district is about 100,000. 





Alryab. 


( C4 ) 


Alarcon y Mendosa. 


Akyab, a district and city in the Aracan division 
of British Burmah, stretching along the Bay of 
Bengal between 20° and 21^° N. lat. and 92° 12' 
and 94° E. long. Its area is 4,858 square miles, not 
more than a quarter being capable of cultivation. 
The fertile portion borders on the Myu, Koladyne, 
and Lemyu rivers, and produces vast quantities of 
rice, that goes down to the port of Akyab for export¬ 
ation. The district came into British hands after 
the war of 1825. The inhabitants are mostly 
Buddhists. 

Alabama, one of the states of the North Amer¬ 
ican Kepublic, situated on the N. shore of the Gulf 
of Mexico, and bounded W. by Mississippi, N. by 
Tennessee, and E. by Georgia. It extends N. 330 
miles and has an average breadth of 154 miles, and 
an area of 50,722 square miles. The Alleghany Moun¬ 
tains skirt the N. of the state, and the centre is hilly, 
but for GO miles inland from the sea an almost 
dead level prevails. To the N.E. the country is 
watered by the Coosa and Talapoosa, which unite 
just above Montgomery, the capital, to form the 
Alabama. The latter, flowing S.W., joins the Tom- 
bigbee 45 miles above Mobile, and the united stream 
is called the Mobile river. The climate is sub¬ 
tropical, but healthy on the higher levels. The 
soil is fairly productive, and cotton, sugar, and 
tobacco thrive as well as cereals, cattle, and timber. 
Iron and coal are abundant and of good quality, but 
little worked as yet. Discovered by I)e Soto 1541, 
the country was occupied by the French 1711, 
ceded to England 1763, and admitted as a separate 
State 1819. . 

Alabama, the name of a vessel built at 
Liverpool which served as a privateer in the service 
,of the Southern States in the American Civil War 
in 1862. In 1864, after doing much damage to the 
North, the Alabama was sunk. After the conclu¬ 
sion of the war. compensation was claimed from 
England, and by the decision of the Geneva tribunal, 
to which the claim was referred for arbitration 
after many vain attempts at settlement, and when 
the relations between the two countries had become 
very strained, America obtained, in 1872, an award 
of over three millions sterling. 

Alabaster, a name (said to be of Arabic origin 
and to signify “ white stone”) properly restricted 
to the translucent or semi-opaque massive varieties 
of gypsum or hydrous calcium sulphate (CaS0 4 -}- 
2Aq.). When pure it is white, with apearly lustre. 
A. yellow variety known as “alabastra agatato” 
occurs at Siena. The mineral is not uncommonly 
fibrous in texture, and is then silky in lustre, and is 
called “satin-spar.” Being very "soft, capable in 
fact of being scratched with the finger-nail, it is 
readily carved or turned into statuettes, vases, and 
other ornamental articles. It is not uncommon, 
occurring in thick beds with the more earthy 
variety of gypsum, which is quarried for the manu¬ 
facture of plaster of Paris. Derbyshire and Stafford¬ 
shire are the chief counties in England in which it 
is worked. Florence has long been the centre of 
the alabaster trade of the world, the mineral being 
abundant in Tuscany, and at the time of the 


Renaissance it became a favourite material for 
tombs and other sculpture. Being slightly soluble 
it is not suited for out-door use, and though its 
softness makes it comparatively cheap, it is hardly 
durable enough for work of permanent value. The 
name “Oriental alabaster,” “Algerian onyx,” or, 
“ onyx marble,” is applied to a stalagmitic variety 
of calcium-carbonate, a slightly harder and entirely 
distinct substance, generally clouded in concentric 
curves with shades of brown, and long quarried 
in Oran, Algeria. 

Alagoas, a province and city of Brazil. The 
province is situated on the coast between Pernam¬ 
buco N. and Sergipe S., being bounded on this side 
by Rio San Francisco. It extends inland 150 miles, 
and has an area of 15,036 square miles. The 
upper districts are mountainous and thickly 
wooded. Fine timber, dye-woods, and drugs are the 
products here, whilst the alluvial plains near the 
coast yield cotton, sugar, rice, and tropical fruits. 
There are no manufactures. The city stands on 
the shore of L. Manguaba. It is now insignificant, 
and Maceio is the capital. 

Alais, a French town in the Department of the 
Gard, on the right bank of the Gardon and at the 
base of theCevennes Mountains, 25 miles N.N.W. of 
Nimes on the Paris, Lyons, and Mediterranean Rail¬ 
way. Once the stronghold of French Protestantism, 
it was captured in 1629 by Louis XIII., and 
Louis XIV. built a fortress there. It is now the 
centre of a busy mining district. Iron, zinc, lead, 
and manganese are smelted there ; coal is plentiful; 
silk, ribbons, glass, and vitriol are manufactured. 
There are cold mineral springs that attract visitors. 

Alajuela, a city in Costa Rica, Central America, 
about midway between the E. and W. coasts in 
10° 5' N. lat. It does a considerable trade with 
the coast, and produces some sugar. 

Alamos, Los, a town of the province of Sinaloa, 
Mexico, standing in a barren plain, but surrounded 
by silver mines. 

Aland Xslands, 300 in number, form an archi¬ 
pelago at the mouth of the Gulf of Bothnia. Only 
80 are inhabited, the rest being barren rocks of 
granite, outliers in fact of the ridge that runs along 
the coast of T inland. The inhabitants, numbering 
16,000, are of Swedish origin, but since 1809 have 
been under Russian rule." They are hardy and 
industrious raising crops enough to satisfy their 
needs, rearing cattle and making butter and cheese 
for exportation, catching and curing quantities of 
fish. Aland, the chief of the group, is 18 miles by 
14 miles. The fortress of Bomarsund, destroyed in 
the Russian war 1854, is on one of these islets. 

Alarcon, Hernando de, a Spanish explorer who 
in 1540 completely surveyed the coast of California 
and discovered that it was a peninsula. 

Alarcon y Mendosa, Juan Ruiz de, a dis¬ 
tinguished Spanish dramatist, born in Mexico some 
time befoie 1600. In 1628 received a government 
post in Madrid and began publishing his comedies. 
His haughty contempt for the public and for his 







Alaric. 


( 65 ) 


Alb. 


literary contemporaries led to his neglect, though 
his works were freely pillaged by other playwrights. 
After his death, which some assign to 1639, his 
merits were acknowledged. Corneille borrowed for 
Lc Menteur from his play entitled Suspicious Truth , 
and some of his pieces are still acted, as, for instance, 
Walls have Ears, Trial of Husbands, and The 
IT eaver of Segovia. 

Alaric I., King of the Visigoths, born about 350 
A.d. Until the death of Theodosius he served that 
sovereign as commander of the subjected Goths, but 
revolted (395) against Arcadius, invaded Greece and 
took several cities, including Corinth. Checked by 
Stilicho, he made peace and once more entered the 
imperial service. In 402 he broke loose again and 
was defeated by Stilicho at Pollentia and Verona in 
Italy. On the death of the Roman general Alaric 
renewed his invasion, and, meeting with little resist¬ 
ance from the emperor, Honorius, marched to the 
gates of Rome, and was only prevented from enter¬ 
ing the city by payment of a large ransom in 408. 
Honorius, who had retired to Ravenna, refused to 
fulfil the conditions of peace, and Alaric some 
months later seized Ostia, deposed Honorius, and set 
up Attalus in his stead. However, Honorius had 
to be restored, and broke faith with Alaric by incit¬ 
ing Sacusto attack the Goths treacherously. There¬ 
upon Alaric took and pillaged Rome, 410, sparing the 
churches and public monuments, and endeavouring 
to moderate the fury of his followers. He next 
marched S. to invade Sicily, but died at Cosenza 
before the end of the year. His treasures were 
said to have been secretly buried in a river-bed 
along with their master. 

Alaric II., a king of the Visigoths in Spain, 
who succeeded his father Euric about 484. His 
dominions reached as far as the Rhone and Loire. 
An Arian himself, he was very tolerant of orthodox 
Catholicism. His endeavours to live at peace with 
the Franks were frustrated by Clovis, who desired 
to annex the Gothic provinces of France. On 
religious pretexts war was declared and Alaric 
was defeated near Poitiers and killed by the hand 
of Clovis himself, 507. 

Alarm, or Alaeum (Ital. all 'arme, to arms), 
either a call to arms by means of a trumpet, as in 
Shakespeare’s historical plays, or a mechanical 
contrivance, generally in the form of an attach¬ 
ment to a clock, which awakens sleepers at any 
particular hour they may desire. 

Ala-Shehr, a city in the pashalic of Anatolia, 
Asiatic Turkey, 77 miles E. of Smyrna. It is on 
the site of Philadelphia, one of the Seven Churches 
of Asia, and until 1390 it offered a stubborn resist¬ 
ance to the Turks. A Greek archbishop is estab¬ 
lished there. 

Alaska, a territory of the United States, to which 
it was ceded by Russia in 1867 for a payment of 
$7,200,000. It comprises not merely the peninsula 
that bears the name but a vast tract 1,100 miles long 
and 800 miles wide, with an area of 514,700 square 
miles. A line drawn N. from Mount St, Elias along 
the 141° W. long, to the Arctic Ocean would cutoff 
the territory from the continent of N. America, 

5 


but in addition to this there is a narrow strip some 
50 miles in breadth that extends down the Pacific 
Coast to British Columbia. The coast-line is not 
less than 7,860 miles, and there are innumerable 
islands. The principal river, the Yukon or Kwich- 
pak, rises in British America, receives the Porcupine 
and other large tributaries and empties an enormous 
body of water into the sea near Norton Sound. The 
Copper river, the Suschitna, the Mischagak, etc., 
fall into the Pacific, and the Colville into the Arctic 
Ocean. The mountain range that runs all along 
the Pacific shore is prolonged into Alaska, and 
besides Mount St. Elias (14,970 ft.) has several 
other active volcanoes. The wealth of the country 
consists in fur-bearing animals, timber, and fish, 
for it is too cold and wet for agriculture. There 
are probably mineral resources, especially coal and 
iron. Sitka in the island of that name, lat. 57° 3' N. 
(average temperature 42° Fa hr.), is the seat of 
government, which is purely military. Other settler 
ments are Fort Nicholas on Cook’s Inlet, and Fort 
St, Michael on Norton Sound. 

Ala Tau, a name borne by three distinct 
mountains or ranges (1) in Ufa, to E. of Russia in 
Europe ; (2) in Persia, N.W. of Meshed; (3) in Asiatic 
Russia to the S.E. of Lake Balkash, and in the 
neighbourhood of Lake Issik-Korel—separating the 
province of Semirayachentsk from Chinese Tartary. 
This range is itself subdivided into several parts, 
as Ala Tau Dzungar, Ala Tau Koungei. 

Alatyr, a town and river in the province of 
Simbirsk, European Russia, on the confluence of 
the rivers Sara and Alatyr. It has an extensive 
commerce in grain. 

Alava, Don Miguel Ricaedo d\ a Spanish 
general and politician, born in 1771. He was first 
in the navy. When Joseph Bonaparte usurped 
the Spanish throne from Ferdinand VII. he ac¬ 
cepted him as king, but in 1811 joined the party 
of independence. Ferdinand on being restored 
imprisoned him, but subsequently set him free 
and made him ambassador to the Hague. In 
the revolution of 1820 he was a member of tl.e 
Cortes, and later on President. He negotiated 
with the French for the return of Ferdinand; but, 
when that was effected, found himself compelled 
to fly to England. He took up the cause of Maria 
Christina and in 1834 was appointed ambassador 
to London, being transferred to Paris next year. 
After the insurrection of La Granja he retired to 
France, and died at Bareges in 1843. 

Alava, one of the Basque provinces in Spain, 
having Navarre to the E. and Burgos and Logrono 
to the W. and S.W. Its area is about 1,200 miles. 
The Ebro, the Zadora, and the Ayuda skirt its 
W. borders. The country is very mountainous, 
with fertile valleys. There are large forests and 
an abundance of iron, copper, lead, and marble. 
The capital is Vittoria. 

Alb, the name given to a long vestment of 
white linen worn by officiating priests,in the Roman 
Catholic Church. It reaches to the feet, and has 
sleeves which reach to the wrist. It was used 









Alba. 


( C6 ) 


Alban. 


formerly by those who had been newly baptised, 
whence the first Sunday after Easter, when they 
wore it, was called Dominica in albis. 

Alba, the ancient Alba Pompeia, a city in N. 
Italy on the Tanaro river, 30 miles S.E. of Turin. 
It has a cathedral and a bishop. A large trade in 
cattle is carried on here. 

Albacete, a province of Spain, with an area of 
5,971 square miles, comprising the N.W. portion of 
the old kingdom of Murcia. The chief town, 
Albacete, is situated on the railway from Madrid 
to Alicante. Where it is not mountainous, the 
country is tolerably fertile, and produces cereals, 
fruit, wine, saifron, and honey. The bulls of the 
province are famous, and its horses are largely 
used by the Spanish cavalry. The town of 
Albacete is noted for the manufacture of cutlery. 

Albacore, a sailors’ name for species of the 
genus Thynnus met with in the Pacific Ocean, 
where ships cruising slowly are often attended by 
myriads of these fish.' [Bonito.] 

Alba Longa, mod. Albano, a very ancient 
city of Latium, situated 15 miles S.E. of Rome, 
near the Alban lake and mountain. The Vergilian 
legend makes Ascanius the founder, and associates 
the name with the discovery of a white sow; the 
root of the word, however, is alb, “ white.” Four¬ 
teen mythical kings were said to have reigned here. 
Tullus Hostilius destroyed the city, and removed 
its inhabitants to Rome, where, according to tradi¬ 
tion, they founded several patrician families. 

Alban, St., the first martyr of Britain, lived in 
the third century. He was converted to Chris¬ 
tianity, and suffered as a martyr in 283 or perhaps 
later. St. Albans (q.v.) is supposed to be either 
his birthplace or the scene of his death. 

Albani, Madame Emma, a well-known singer, 
born about 1847, of French Canadian descent, her 
family name being La Jeunesse. She made her debut 
at Albany, U.S. A., whence, perhaps, she took her pro¬ 
fessional name. Her first appearance at the Italian 
Opera, Covent Garden, was in 1872, since which 
date she has been one of the most popular artistes 
on the operatic stage. She married, in 1878, Mr. 
Gye, of the Royal Italian Opera. 

Albania, a province of European Turkey, ex¬ 
tending along the coast of the Adriatic and Ionian 
Seas from Montenegro in the N. to Greece in the 
S., and extending 100 miles inland at its broadest 
part, and 30 miles at its narrowest. The country is 
mountainous and thickly wooded, affording plenty 
of sport. Scutari, on the lake of that name, is the 
chief town. Dulcigno, a port of some consequence, 
was ceded to Montenegro under the Berlin Treaty 
of 1878. The Albanians are commonly regarded as 
the only surviving descendants of the northern divi¬ 
sion of the Thraco-Hellenic Aryans, who at the dawn 
of history are found in exclusive possession of the 
Balkan Peninsula. They call themselves Shkipefar , 
i.e. “ Rock ” or “ Hill Men,” a term synonymous with 
Albanian, which itself, through the Byzantine Ar- 
banitce, again reappears in the corrupt form Arnaut , 


their common Turkish designation. The Albanians 
are the only European Aryans who still largely 
retain the tribal form of organisation, their three 
main divisions being—(1) the (iliegs , in Upper 
Albania southwards to river Shkumbi, with chief 
tribes Mirdites, Pulati, Klementi, and Hotti; (2) 
the Toshks of Central Albania, with chief tribes 
Liapes, Kheimariots, Khamides, and Suliots; (3) 
the Hellenised Ejnrots, of the vilayet Yanina, with 
no tribes. Though somewhat Slavonised about the 
Montenegro frontier, the Ghegs are the purest re¬ 
presentatives of the old West Thracian (Illyrian) 
stock. They number about 600,000, of whom 
400,000 are Mohammedans, 150,000 Roman Catholics 
of the Latin rite, and 50,000 Orthodox Greeks. The 
Toshks have been variously affected by Slav, Turk, 
and Hellenic influences. They number about 800,000, 
of whom 600,000 are Mohammedans, and 200,000 Or¬ 
thodox Greek. The Epirots are nearly all Greek, 
both in religion and language. The Albanian 
language, which must be regarded as a survival of 
the old Thraco-Illyrian, is remotely allied to the 
Greek, and is spoken in two distinct varieties, Glieg 
and Toshk, differing one from the other as much 
as High from Low German. The Albanians are 
physically a fine race, with long head, oval face, 
rather high cheek bones, long thin nose, small hazel 
or blue eyes, light brown hair, broad chest, tall 
shapely figures, except in some of the central 
districts, where the type has been debased ap¬ 
parently by contact with the Ugrian Bulgarians in 
the eighth and ninth centuries. They are still in 
the barbaric state, with little knowledge of letters, 
none of the higher arts and sciences ; but the war¬ 
like virtues are sedulously cultivated, and for 
physical courage they are unsurpassed by any 
people, ancient or modern. 

Alban Lake, The, a lake occupying the hollow 
of an extinct volcanic crater a little to the N.E. of 
the town of Albano and about 14 miles S.E. of Rome. 



The lake itself, which is about 7 miles in circum¬ 
ference, and the surrounding country possess great 
natural beauty. A tunnel cut through the rocks in 
obedience to an oracle at the time when the 







Albany. 


( 67 ) 


Alberoni. 


Romans were laying siege to Yeii (396 b.c.) keeps 
the water always at a height of 920 feet above sea- 
level. Mons Albanus (Monte Cavo) rears itself to 
the height of 3,000 feet on the E. side of the 
lake. 

Albany, the ancient name for the Highlands of 
Scotland, and still used as the title of a\lukedom. 
It is the Gaelic form of Albion ; the title was first 
used in 1398, when the brother of Robert III., then 
the regent of Scotland, was created Duke of Albany. 

Albany, Louisa Maria Caroline, Countess 
of, born in 1753, of the family of the reigning 
princes of Stolberg-Geldern. In 1772 she married 
Prince Charles Edward Stuart, the Young Pre¬ 
tender. For eight years, owing to disparity of 
age and tastes, they lived a wretched life, and in 
1780 the unhappy wife left her husband. She had 
before this met in Florence the young poet, Alfieri, 
and she joined him in Switzerland. In 1803, 
Alfieri, worn out with unremitting labour, died at 
the early age of fifty-four. The countess erected 
to his memory a handsome monument by Canova 
in the church of Santa Croce, at Florence, where 
twenty years later (in 1824) she was laid by his 
side. 

Albany, the legislative capital of the State of 
New York, United States of America, situated on 
the W. bank of the Hudson river, 142 miles N. of 
New York city. Originally founded by the Dutch 
in 1612, it is one of the oldest settlements in the 
States. The British took possession of it in 1664, 
and Charles II. granted the colony to the Duke of 
York and Albany, from whom the chief town 
derived its name. As a centre of trade with the 
lakes and the Western States Albany has become 
wealthy and popular. Large quantities of timber, 
flour, and other produce are exported, and manu¬ 
facturing industries have grown up. The Capitol, a 
fine building in the Renaissance style, is adorned 
by a fresco, the work of the late William Hunt. 
There is a city hall in marble with a gilded dome, 
besides a university, and many public schools. 

Albatross, the popular name of Diomedea, a 
genus of Petrels with ten species (distinguished 
from the rest of the family by having the hind toe 
rudimentary, and the tubular nostril one on each 
side of the upper mandible). They range over the 
Pacific Ocean and the Southern seas generally, but are 
most abundant between 30° and 60° S. lat., the home 
of the common or wandering albatross (D. exulans ), 
the largest and strongest of all sea-birds ; length of 
body, about 4 ft.; weight, 15 to 25 lbs.; wing ex¬ 
panse. 12 to 15 ft. When first hatched the albatross 
is white, the young birds are dusky, and the adults 
again white, with transverse bands of black or 
brown on the back, wings darker than the rest of 
the body, bill yellowish pink. It is often met with 
at a great distance from land, and, from the 
numbers seen round the Cape of Good Hope, it is 
called by sailors the Cape Sheep. It feeds vora¬ 
ciously on fish and small marine animals and any 
refuse or carrion floating on the waves. When 
food is abundant, it gorges to such an extent that 
it is unable to rise, and sits motionless on the 


waves, but on the approach of danger it disgorges 
the undigested food, and, so lightened, takes to 
flight. All the species are very strong on the wing. 
Towards the end of June albatrosses appear in great 
numbers in Behring Sea and adjacent waters. The 



ALBATROSS. 


Kamchadales take them with baited hooks, and use 
their entrails when inflated as floats for nets, and 
make various domestic articles and tobacco pipes 
from the wing-bones. Albatrosses nest on solitary 
islands like Tristan da Cunha, forming a rough nest 
of grass and leaves, and laying one white egg, 4 to 
5 in. long. 

Albay, the capital of the province of the same 
name in the Island of Luzon, the chief of the 
Philippine group. The town enjoys a large trade. 

Albemarle, Arnold van Keppel, Earl of, 
born in Guelderland, 1669, and created a joeer by 
William III., whom he accompanied to England in 
1688. In his influence with the king he was a rival 
to Portland, and served his master with equal 
courage and fidelity. He was employed about 
court in various capacities, and, surviving the king, 
he showed in the war of the Spanish Succession 
(1702-12) considerable military ability. He died 
in 1718. [Aumale.] 

Albemarle, Duke of. [Monk.] 

Albemarle Sound, on the E. coast of N. 
America, lat. 36° 10' N. The Roanoke and Notto¬ 
way rivers flow into it. The name is also borne by 
a town in Stanley county, North Carolina. 

Alberoni, Giulio, Cardinal, born in a 
humble station at Piacenza in 1664. Having 
entered the Church he went to Rome, and there 
attached himself to the Duke of Yendome, who 
took him to Paris and then to Madrid. At the 
latter court he was appointed agent for Parma, 
entered into all the intrigues of the palace, and 
procured the marriage of Philip Y. with Elizabeth 
of Parma. Under her patronage he rose .to be 
Cardinal, and Prime Minister in. 1715. Yigorous, 
ambitious, unscrupulous, he did his best to restore 
Spain to her ancient grandeur. In prosecution of 
this design he seized Sardinia, then in Austrian 














Albert 


( 68 ) 


Albigenses. 


hands, supported the Pretender, urged the claims 
of Philip against the Duke of Orleans as Regent of 
France, and ultimately provoked the formation of 
the Quadruple Alliance, which procured his dis¬ 
missal. Returning to Italy with great wealth he 
aspired to the Papacy, but spent the last years of 
his life in his native town, where he died in 1752, 
leaving a handsome sum to endow the college there 
which is still named after him. 

Albert I. (Albrecht), Duke of Austria, son 
cf Rudolph of Hapsburg, founder of the famous 
dynasty, born in 1248. He succeeded his father 
in 1291 and endeavoured to usurp the Imperial 
crown, which the electors ultimately conferred on 
him, after deposing Adolphus of Nassau. How¬ 
ever, the Pope never ratified their choice. By his 
cruelty and greed he provoked his Swiss subjects 
to revolt and to form a confederation. Whilst 
endeavouring to crush this movement he was mur¬ 
dered by his nephew John, whom he had deprived 
of his rights in Suabia. 

Albert, Margrave of Brandenburg and first 
Duke of Prussia, born in 1490 and educated 
for the Church. Preferring a military life, he 
marched with the emperor into Italy, and was at 
the siege of Pavia. He then joined the Teutonic 
Order and was chosen Grand Master (1511). He 
came un ler Luther’s influence, adopted the reformed 
doctrines, and received the duchy of Prussia as a 
fief from Poland in 1525. He founded the University 
of Konigsberg. He died of the plague in 1568. 

Albert, Prince of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and 
Consort of Queen Victoria, born at Rosenau, near 
Coburg, in 1819, the second son of Duke Ernest I. 



THE ALBERT MEMORIAL, HYDE PARK. 


In 1836 he first visited England and saw his 
cousin, Princess Victoria, for whom he at once 
conceived a warm attachment. The marriage 
took place in 1840 to the great satisfaction of 
the nation, and the subsequent conduct of the 
Prince in the difficult position assigned to him 
fully justified the most favourable anticipations. 
Studiously keeping aloof from party politics, and 
never allowing his personal influence to show itself 


in affairs of State, he found a wide field for the 
exercise of his abilities in other spheres. He was 
a Field-Marshal, and received many other distinc¬ 
tions, occupying the Chairmanship of the Council of 
the Great Exhibition of 1851. Innumerable projects 
connected with science, art, education, and charity 
received his active support. Agriculture especially 
engaged his attention. When in 1861 his life was 
suddenly extinguished by an attack of typhoid 
fever, the outburst of public sympathy with the 
Queen was unparalleled. In Hyde Park, at Frognal, 
and in hundreds of towns throughout the kingdom 
monuments have been erected to his memory. 

Albert Edward. [Wales, Prince of.] 

Albert Nyanza (the Little Luta Nzige of 
Speke), a lake in Central Africa between 2° 45' N. 
and 2° S. lat., 80 miles W. of Victoria Nyanza. It 
is 2,720, feet above sea-level, and is about 140 miles 
long from N. to S., by 40 broad, being bounded on 
the W. by the Blue Mountains and on the E. by 
high cliffs. The White Nile, entering it on the W. 
side, runs from its N. extremity. It was actually 
discovered in 1864 by Sir Samuel and Lady Baker, 
though its existence was mentioned by natives to 
Speke and Grant. 

Albertus Magnus, born of noble parents at 
Lauingen, in Suabia, about 1193. After studying 
Aristotle at Padua he became a Dominican, and 
was sent by that Order to Cologne and other cities 
in Germany as theological lecturer. In 1245 he 
took his doctor's degree in Paris and taught there 
for some time. He was made provincial of his 
Order in 1254, and defended it against the attacks 
of the University of Paris, controverting also the 
errors of Averroes. For three years (1260-63) he 
held the bishopric of Ratisbon. His later years 
were spent in preaching throughout Bavaria or in 
retirement, almost his last task being the defence 
of the orthodoxy of Thomas Aquinas. In his 
private character he was modest, pious, and up¬ 
right, though his devotion to astronomy, astrology, 
and chemistry caused him to be regarded as a ma¬ 
gician. His voluminous works show a profound 
knowledge of Aristotle, whose system he en¬ 
deavoured to reconcile with the doctrines of the 
Church. He died in 1280. 

Albi, the capital of the department of the Tarn 
in France, situated 41 miles N.E. of Toulouse. It 
is a town of great antiquity, giving its name to the 
Albigenses. An archbishop has his seat there, and 
the cathedral, a splendid specimen of 13th century 
Gothic, contains the'fine reliquary of St. Clair, the 
first bishop. 

Albigenses, a term popularly given to a sect 
of Manichaeans (q.v.), which sprang up in the south 
of France at the end of the twelfth century. It 
was from the town of Albi, where a council was 
held against them, that their name was derived. 
The principal heresies of which they were accused 
were a belief in dualism, the rejection of the Old 
Testament and the sacraments, and the doctrine that 
marriage and the use of ritual in Divine service 
were sinful. The accession of Innocent III. to the 












Albino 


( GO ) 


Albuminuria 


papal throne was the signal for the commencement 
of the persecution of the Albigenses, which con¬ 
tinued with more or less rigour and cruelty until 
1229, when a peace was concluded. This 
“crusade,” as it was termed, was characterised by 
“ atrocities remarkable even for a religious war,” 
and the well-known saying of the Legate Arnold, 
“ Slay all, God will know His own ! ” will serve to 
indicate the temper of the persecutors. Simon de 
Montfort, the father of the more celebrated English 
patriot, was the leader of the crusade, under the 
Pope’s legates, and it was not until after the 
massacre of thousands of victims, and the devasta¬ 
tion of some of the most fertile valleys of southern 
France, that peace was made. The Inquisition 
was then at liberty to work its will upon the 
hapless fanatics, with the result that by the middle 
of the thirteenth century the Albigenses had ceased 
to exist. 

Albino, an animal in which there is a defi¬ 
ciency or absence of the pigment which is normally 
present in the skin, iris, and choroid coat of the eye. 
Thus the skin and hair are white, the iris appears 
pink from the colour of the blood in it being unob¬ 
scured by pigment, and a characteristic change 
may be noted in the choroid on examination with 
the ophthalmoscope. The white rabbit with pink 
eyes is a familiar object, and examples of a similar 
peculiarity are not very uncommon in man. Indeed, 
“white negroes” were supposed by the early 
travellers to be a distinct race. The defect, when 
present, exists from birth. Owing to the deficiency 
of pigment, the retina is unusually sensitive to light, 
and this constitutes one of the greatest troubles in 
albinoism, as seen in the human subject; there is 
also not infrequently present actual defect of 
vision. 

Albion, the ancient name for England, derived 
from, the Latin alius , white, the term having 
reference to the white cliffs of Dover and the neigh¬ 
bouring coast. It is the same word as Albany (q.v.). 

Alboin, one of the most famous of the barbarian 
kings that assisted in the disintegration of the 
Roman Empire. He succeeded his father Alduin 
as chief of the Longobards or Lombards about 553. 
He completed the defeat of the Gepidas of Servia 
and Slavonia, killed Cunimund, their king, and 
married Rosamund, his daughter. He then pushed 
on into Italy about 5(>8, and overran the greater 
part of the northern plains. At Verona in an orgie 
he produced a cup made out of Cunimund’s skull 
for Rosamund to drink out of. She was so enraged 
that she induced two of his officers to kill him 
when asleep, 573. 

Albuera, a small village in the province of 
Badajoz, Spain, the scene of one of the severest en¬ 
gagements of the Peninsular war, in 1811, in which 
Marshal Beresford gave battle to Marshal Soult, 
advancing to the relief of Bada joz. I he British, 
by their indomitable courage and. sheer strength, 
drove the French down the slopes with a loss of 
9,000 men. 

Albumen, a term used in botany as a convenient 
name for the reserve nutriment in a seed external 


to the embryo, whether it be within the embryo-sac 
(endosperm) or outside it (perisperm). If no such 
store exists in the ripe seed it is exalbum inous-; but, 
if present, as in almost all monocotyledons, it may 
vary considerably in amount or in texture. In the 
vegetable ivory ( Pliytelephas ) it is very hard ; in 
the coffee it is horny ; in the poppy, it is oily ; and 
in corn, it is mealy. Though it may contain aleu- 
rone (q.v.), its composition is largely non-nitro¬ 
genous, and it is in no respect identical with true 
albumin, deriving its name simply from the analogy 
of its position and use to the seedling with that of 
the “ white ” of an egg to the chick. 

Albumin (C 72 H n2 N 13 S0 22 .—Lieberkuhn), the 
essential constituent of white of egg and blood 
serum. It is usually prepared from white of egg, 
where it exists in the form of albuminate of sodium. 
As thus obtained it forms a yellowish, translucent 
solid (sp. gr. 1-26), which swells in water, dissolving 
with difficulty. It is, however, freely soluble in 
presence of an alkaline salt. The aqueous solution 
of albumin possesses the characteristic property of 
coagulating , or passing into an insoluble modifica¬ 
tion, if heated beyond a temperature of 60° C. 
Albumin exhibits a feeble acid reaction, and com¬ 
bines readily with alkalis to form albuminates. It 
is insoluble in alcohol and ether. Its coagulating 
property is utilised for the clarification of wines, 
syrups, etc., and also for the fixation of colours in 
calico printing. 

Albuminoids, or Protein Compounds, a class 
of bodies which are particularly associated with 
the living activity of plants and animals. Albumin 
and fibrin in blood; casein in milk; syntonin in 
muscle ; and vitellin in yolk of egg, are important 
examples of a series of substances which ai'e so 
similar in their ultimate chemical composition as to 
suggest (Gerhardt) that they all contain an identical 
principle, which by its capability of assuming varied 
forms of aggregation or of associating itself with 
mineral substances, is able to give rise to many 
apparently diverse bodies. 

Albuminuria, the presence of albumen in 
the urine. This condition is met with occasionally 
in healthy individuals as the result of a meal con¬ 
sisting of some highly albuminous substance, such 
as eggs, but is very common in disease. Blood 
and pus or matter, when they occur in the urine, 
necessarily imply the presence of albuminuria, a& 
these substances contain albumen. The con¬ 
ditions then existing are denominated haematuria 
and pyuria respectively. Again, in heart disease, 
bronchitis, and emphysema (q.v.), and other con¬ 
ditions involving congestion of the kidney, the urine 
contains albumen. In many of the specific fevers 
and occasionally in pregnancy the same condition 
obtains. Lastly, inflammation of the kidney or 
nephritis, and the various chronic forms of kidney 
affection which are included in the designation 
Bright’s disease (q.v.), are accompanied by albu¬ 
minuria. Nephritis is not uncommonly met with 
after scarlet fever, coming on as a rule, when 
it does occur, during the third week of that 
disease, at a period therefore when convalescence 












Albuquerque. 


( 70 ) 


Alchemy. 


may seem well-nigh established. Moreover, such 
nephritis is not confined to the severe cases of 
scarlatina; hence the importance of careful ex¬ 
amination of the urine after all attacks of that 
disease. At the commencement of such albu¬ 
minuria and in most forms of acute nephritis much 
can be done for the patient, but if the affection 
be allowed to develop unrecognised, permanent 
damage to the kidney results. The presence of 
albumen in urine is usually recognised by the 
coagulation which is occasioned on the addition of 
nitric acid or the application of heat. 

Albuquerque, Alfonso d\ the illustrious 
Portuguese admiral, born near Lisbon in 1453. He 
served in Africa first, but in 1503 sailed to the 
East and established a fort at Cochin. In 1506 he 
took part in another expedition under Tristan da 
Cunha, captured the rich island of Ormuz in the 
Persian Gulf, superseded Almeida as Viceroy of 
the Indies, annexed Goa and subdued Malacca 
(1508-12). His next feat was to make an unsuccess¬ 
ful attack on Aden, and to enter the Red Sea with 
the first European fleet that ever penetrated into 
those waters. After completing the reduction of 
Ormuz he returned to Goa to find that court 
intrigues had deprived him of his office. He died 
at sea broken-hearted (1515), and his body was 
brought back for burial to Goa, where his tomb is 
still an object of veneration even to Hindus. 

Alcaeus, a lyric poet of Lesbos, flourished about 
600 B.c. He appears to have actively assisted 
the nobles of the island in their struggle against 
the tyrants, and, having been banished, he ended 
his life in unknown exile. Of his ten books of odes 
—political, military, religious, and amatory—but 
a few fragments have come down to us. He 
wrote in the iEolian dialect, and the fiery vigour of 
his verses meets with high pi'aise from Horace 
(Oden. 13), who adopted several of his measures, 
notably the Alcaic stanza. 

Alcala de Guadaira, a town in Andalusia, 
Spain, on the river Guadaira, 7 miles E. of Seville, 
which it supplies with bread. 

Alcala de Henares, the Roman Complutum, 
a town on the river Henares, 17 miles E.N.E. of 
Madrid, Spain. It was rebuilt by the Moors in 1083, 
and became in 1510 the seat of a great university 
founded by Cardinal Ximenes, who was buried in 
the fine chapel of the College of St. Ildefonso. The 
Complutensian Polyglot Bible was published there, 
but in 1836 the university was removed to Madrid. 
The town is now chiefly celebrated for its mili¬ 
tary academy and powder factory. 

Alcala la Real, a town of Spain, 16 miles 
S.W. of Jaen. Alphonso XT. of Leon captured it in 
person in 1340. Sebastiani, in command of the 
French, defeated the Spaniards here in 1810. 
Some trade is carried on in wine and wool. 

Alcalde, the Spanish title for the mayor of a 
town, a judge, magistrate, or justice of the peace. 
In the latter sense it is also used in Portugal. 

Alcamo, a town in Sicily, 22 miles E. of Trapani 
in the Gulf of Castellamare. The place contains a 


castle and some churches and monasteries, and is 
surrounded by a rich wine-growing country. 

Alcantara (Arab, the bridge), a town in the 
province of Caceres, Spain, situated on the steep 
bank of the Tagus. It was known as Narbo 
Ciesarea to the Romans, who built in honour of 
Trajan, 104 A.D., the superb granite bridge, 670 feet 



BRIDGE OF ALCANTARA. 


long and 210 feet high, that spans the river. This 
noble structure was partially destroyed by the 
English in 1800, and again in the Carlist War of 
1836. The Spaniards, too supine to restore it, now 
use a ferry. The Knights of Alcantara , an Order 
founded for resistance to the Moors in 1156, derived 
their name from the defence of the town in 1213. 
For nearly six centuries they maintained their posi¬ 
tion as a religious body, but since 1833 have existed 
only in a civil capacity. 

Alcestis, the daughter of Pelias and Anaxitia, 
married Admetus (q.v.). She died for her husband, 
but was brought back from Hades by Heracles. 
Her story furnished a theme to Euripides, and in 
later times to Robert Browning, who dealt with it 
in Balaust'wns Adventure. 

Alchemy (Arab, al-ldmia, a hybrid combination 
of Arab, al, the; and Greek, cherneia = chumeia, 
a mingling; O. French, alquemie ), the pretended 
science which aimed at the transmutation of metals 
by means of the philosopher’s stone, at the pro¬ 
duction of an elixir vitce or panacea for bodily ills, 
and at the discovery of an alkahest or universal 
solvent. As these results were in the main to be 
attained by a knowledge of the intimate constitu¬ 
tion of substances, alchemy laid the foundation of 
modern chemistry. It was in Alexandria towards 
the beginning of the third century that the theories 
of Greek metaphysicians, the mystic precepts of t he 
Kabbala and of Eastern enthusiasts, and the super¬ 
natural claims of various religions became fused 
into a vague yet distinct system, the author of 



















Alchemy. 


( 71 ) 


Alcmsson. 


which was reputed to be Hermes Trismegistus, a 
fabulous Egyptian king. The professors of this 
secret art adopted from the first an experimental 
as opposed to a rationalistic method of dealing 
with nature, and undoubtedly stumbled upon some 
valuable discoveries, such as sulphuric and hydro¬ 
chloric acids, oxygen gas, and certain properties 
of mercury. Many centuries, however, elapsed 
before the scientific fruits of their labours could 
be garnered. Zosimus, Alexander of Aphrodisia, 
Nemesius, the pseudo-Diogenes, and pseudo-Plato 
are the chief names of this new school, which 
linked itself on to astrology by associating the 
planets with the metals, and borrowed from specula¬ 
tive ontology the idea of four elements and four 
humours. From Alexandria the germs of transcen¬ 
dental physics were imported into Arabia and 
carried by the Arabs into Spain. Gebir, Avicenna, 
Rhazes, and Mohammed-ben-Zakaria, flourishing 
with many others from the eighth to the tenth cen¬ 
turies, spread “ the science of the key ” amongst 
European speculators, and added several new items, 
such as aquafortis , sal ammoniac, distillation, and 
the cupellation of metals to the alchemists’ repertory. 
About the middle of the twelfth century the dream 
of commanding the inmost secrets of nature had 
taken a strong hold on the imagination of Europe, 
and the search for gold, hitherto a subordinate part 
of the alchemistic scheme, became a wide-spread 
curse. Side by side with Albert.us Magnus, Roger 
Bacon, Thomas Aquinas, Raymond Lully, Basil Valen¬ 
tine, Bernard of Treves (all of whom see), and other 
honourable investigators, there sprang up a host of 
impostors and lunatics actuated by greed for untold 
wealth, or more often by the prospect of duping 
rich patrons. Like our King John and Philip the 
Fair of France, Pope John XXII. and Alphonso X. 
of Leon and Castile dabbled in the art. But the 
fear of an excessive production of the precious 
metals, the supposed recourse to unhallowed 
practices, and the heretical tendencies of many 
adepts led everywhere to severe restrictive measures. 
In England, for example, a statute was in force 
against seekers after the philosopher’s stone from 
1404 to 1689. Persecution brought about the for¬ 
mation of secret societies, such as the Rosicrucians, 
and induced those engaged in such pursuits to 
wrap up their statements in a jargon still more 
unintelligible, if possible, than that used by their 
predecessors. Paracelsus (1493-1541, q.v.) the mad 
genius, stands on the border line between visions of 
the past and the progressive insight of the present. 
"Without making any very definite scientific advance, 
he hit by intuition on certain principles that have 
since been verified, and he drew inquirers from the 
base and useless pursuit of gold into the more 
worthy ambition to relieve human suffering. He 
thus became the father of Van Helmont and of 
Stahl, and perhaps, we might also say, of Boyle 
and Bernard Palissy, whilst Francis Bacon may be 
classed as one of his family though not by direct 
descent. From them the torch of true knowledge 
was handed down to Priestly, Lavoisier, and Schule, 
and so on to the great chemical masters of the last 
and the present century. As a matter of fact, we 
have inherited little from the alchemists save their 


terminology, which still meets us at every turn in 
such words as alcohol, alkali, amalgam, arsenic, 
potash, laudanum, crucible, matter, affinity, pre¬ 
cipitate, and distillation. 

Alcibiades, the brilliant but erratic and un¬ 
principled Athenian soldier and statesman, was 
born about 450 B.c. His father, Cleinias, claimed 
to be the descendant of Ajax, and his mother 
sprang from the family of the Alcmaeonidm. Having 
lost his father at the battle of Coronea, he was 
educated by his kinsman, Pericles ; but his wealth 
and personal beauty, combined with the influence 
of the Sophists, aggravated the natural defects of 
his character. At Potidasa, Delium, and elsewhere, 
he gave proof of dauntless courage. Socrates, how¬ 
ever, whose life he saved in the latter of these 
actions, failed to exercise any permanent control 
over his habits. His success in the national games, 
his lavish expenditure on public services, and his 
skill in dealing with his fellow men, won for him 
immense popularity. His first act as a politician 
was to bring about an alliance between Athens, 
Argos, and Mantinea (420 B.c.). His next venture 
was the disastrous Sicilian expedition, of which he 
was appointed joint commander with Nicias and 
Lamachus. From this he was early recalled 
(415 B.C.), to answer a charge of being concerned 
in that mysterious offence, “ the mutilation of the 
Hermse.” Rather than face his accusers he escaped 
to Sparta, betrayed the plans of the Athenians, 
helped to organise the force which Gylippus led 
into Sicily, and planned the invasion of Attica. He 
then went over to Asia Minor, and induced many 
Athenian colonies to revolt. The Spartans, mis¬ 
trusting him, decreed his death, upon which he 
sought refuge with Tissaphernes, and induced the 
Athenians to believe that he could command the 
aid of the satrap in their struggle against the 
Lacedaemonians. Peisander negotiated his return, 
and "he joined the force under Thrasybulus, off 
Samos, as a general. Several victories were gained, 
and he came back to Athens in triumph (407 B.c.). 
He soon after failed at Andros and Notium, lost 
his prestige, and had to fly to the Thracian Cher- 
sonnese. When Sparta, at the battle of iEgospo- 
tami, gained the supremacy of Greece, he found 
shelter at the court of Pharnabazus, in Phrygia, 
and was there slain (404 B.C.) in a raid upon his 
house, the reason for which has never been made 
clear. 

Alcira, an ancient walled town built on an 
island in the river Xucar, in the province of Va¬ 
lencia, Spain. It was named Algesira by the 
Arabs. Silk, rice, and oranges are the chief pro¬ 
ducts. 

Alcmseon, the legendary son of Amphiaraus 
and Eriphyle, who killed his mother because she 
betrayed her husband into the fatal expedition 
against Thebes. Pursued by the Furies, he obtained 
purification at the hands of Phegeus of Arcadia, 
and married Alphesiboea, his preserver’s daughter. 
He abandoned her for Callirrhoe, daughter of 
Achelous ; but his first wife’s brethren punished 
his fickleness with death, being themselves killed 
subsequently by Callirrhoe’s sons.—This personage 






Aleman. 


( 72 ) 


Alenin. 


w<« • 


must not be confounded with Alcmreon, the de¬ 
scendant of Nestor, and founder of the family of 
the Alcmasonidfe at Athens; nor with Alcmueon, 
the Pythagorean philosopher of Crotona (500 B.C.), 
who was the first dissector of animals for scientific 
purposes. 

Aleman, a very early Greek poet, born at Sardis, 
in Lydia, about 670 B.C. He became a citizen of 
Sparta, and composed in* the Doric dialect six 
books of lyrical pieces. 

Alcohol, C. 2 HgO(C 2 H.HO), or Ethylic Alcohol, 
the spirituous principle of wines and beers. It 
occurs in nature as a result of the fermentation of 
saccharine liquids. An aqueous solution of alcohol 
is obtained by the distillation of such liquids which 
have undergone the process of fermentation, and it 
may be rendered stronger by repeated distillations ; 
but the last 9 per cent, of water cannot in this way 
be removed, except by the aid of some such de¬ 
hydrating agent as chloride of calcium or car¬ 
bonate of potassium. Pure alcohol or Absolute 
Alcohol is a colourless, refractive, mobile liquid 
which is soluble in water in all proportions. It has 
never been frozen, and is therefore of great value 
in very cold countries in thermometers, where it 
takes the place of mercury. Eau dc Cologne (q.v.) 
is made by flavoui'ing alcohol with a kind of oil. 
13.P. 78° C., S. G. = ‘79. All spirituous liquors con¬ 
tain alcohol, and it is this that forms the in¬ 
toxicating element in brandy, whisky, etc. The 
estimation of the quantity of alcohol present in 
spirituous liquors is termed Alcoholometry , and is an 
important operation in connection with the re¬ 
venue. The term Alcohol is now applied to any 
one of a series of substances containing carbon-, 
hydrogen, and oxygen, and similar in their con¬ 
stitutional type to common alcohol. [Ex., Methyl 
Alcohol or Wood Spirit, CH 3 HO ; Glycerin, C 3 H 5 
(HO) 3 , etc.] Some of the more complex forms of 
alcohol have the property of existing in isomeric 
modifications (Isomerism), which are termed 
primary, secondary, and tertiary alcohols, and 
differ from each other both in the relative arrange¬ 
ment of atoms in the molecule, and also in their 
products of oxidation. 

Alcoholism. As the result of the abuse of 
stimulants certain affections are met with, parti¬ 
cularly cirrhosis of the liver (q.v.), gout (q.v.), and 
nervous disorders, of which the chief are delirium 
tremens and some forms of insanity. Apart from 
all this, habitual drinkers suffer from loss of 
appetite, with furred tongue and other digestive 
troubles, from nausea and sickness, particularly in 
the morning ; the eyes may be watery, eruptions 
may appear on the nose and face, the limbs and 
tongue are tremulous; sleeplessness, vacillation of 
character, and loss of memory occur. In such 
persons, as the result of worry, overstrain, an actual 
debauch, or some bodily injury, an attack of 
delirium tremens may develop. As the name 
indicates, delirium and muscular tremor are pro¬ 
nounced symptoms in this affection. The tem¬ 
perature is somewhat raised, the pulse quickened, 
large and soft, the tongue covered with a creamy 


fur, the skin usually very moist ; there is complete 
loss of appetite, and sleeplessness is a most dis¬ 
tressing symptom. The form the delirium takes is 
not uncharacteristic; it is accompanied by hallu¬ 
cinations, i.e. the patient smells smells, hears 
noises, sees objects of various kinds, sparks, vermin 
crawling a*bout his bed, and the like. He talks 
much, is full of suspicions, imagines that policemen 
are searching for him, or that he is tormented by 
evil spirits. In the early stage of the affection he 
can be recalled to himself, but between this con¬ 
dition and absolute mania every gradation may 
occur. The disease usually terminates fa'vourably 
at the end of four or five days, the patient falling 
into a refreshing sleep, but only as a rule for him 
to recur to his drinking habits, with a resulting 
relapse of delirium tremens which may at length 
prove fatal. The treatment of alcoholism is rather 
a question of moral influence than of drugs; in 
actual delirium tremens, however, much can be 
done for the patient. Many remedies have had 
their advocates from time to time, of which digi¬ 
talis and narcotics have enjoyed most favour. The 
indications for treatment are, however, difficult to 
understand, and the condition is, of course, one 
which eminently calls for skilled treatment. 

Alcott, Louisa May, an American writer, 
born at Germantown, Pennsylvania, in 1838, her 
father having been a well-known author on educa¬ 
tional subjects. Miss Alcott devoted herself to 
literature from an early age, and in 1855 published 
some Fairy Tales. During the War of Secession 
she busied herself with nursing the wounded, and 
later on wrote her Hospital Sketches. Most of her 
works, such as Little Women, Little Men, and Good 
Wires, are addressed to the young. Of all her 
sketches, An Old-fashioned Girl is, perhaps, the 
best known in this country. She died in 1888. 

Alcove, a term of Spanish origin, signifying 
a portion of a chamber shut off from the rest by a 
curtain or balustrade, usually containing a bed 
or seats. 

Alcoy, a town in the province of Valencia, 
Spain, situated on a river of the same name, about 
24 miles N. of the city of Valencia. The manu¬ 
facture of fine cloth, paper, soap, and cigarettes 
thrives here, and there is a considerable trade in 
wheat, silk, and oil. 

Alcudia, a fortified port in the island of 
Majorca, opposite to Minorca.—Several towns in 
Spain bear the name also, and one of these— 
Alcudia de Carlet, in Valencia—was the duchy 
of Godov, “ Prince of Peace ” (q.v.). 

Alenin, or Alcuinus Flaccus Albinus, born 
at York about 753 A.D., and educated by Bede, 
obtained a high reputation for learning. Appointed 
Abbot of Canterbury in 782, he received an invita¬ 
tion from Charlemagne to undertake the intellectual 
regeneration of his empire. Alcuin accordingly 
became attached to the imperial court at Aix-la- 
Chapelle. He established schools, libraries, and 
other educational institutions, besides lecturing 
in person at Paris and elsewhere. His knowledge 







Alcyonaria. 


( 73 ) 


Alder. 


appears to have been wide and various, embracing 
Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and all the theological and 
philosophical learning of his day. Among other 
rich benefices conferred on him was the Abbey of 
St. Martin at Tours, where he died in 804. 

Alcyonaria, or Octocoralla, that division of 
the Anthozoa (q.v.) characterised by the possession 
of fringed tentacles and by having the Mesenteries 
or Septa arranged in multiples of eight. An account 
of the structure of a typical member of this order is 
given under Alcyonium. The Alcyonaria are always 
colonial, though simple ones have been described. 
The principal families are the Alcyonid.e, Tubi- 
porid,^, Axifera, and Pennatulid^, including 
the “ dead men’s fingers,” the organ-pipe corals, the 
gorgonias, and the “ reel coral ” (Corallium). 

Alcyonella, one of the best known of the few 
genera of fresh-water Bryozoa, belonging to the 
order Phylactoliema. 

Alcyonidium, a common British genus of 
Ctenostomata, a division of Bryozoa. It is some¬ 
times popularly known as Pipe Weed or Pudding 
Weed. 

Alcyonium digitatum, the commonest of 
the British Alcyonaria, affording a very in¬ 
structive example of the general structure of that 
group. It lives just below the low tide line, attached 



ALCYONII’M DIGITATUM. 

a, With the polvpes extruded ; b, A single polype fully 
extruf d; c, A polype in the act of protruding itself; 
D, Spi ules. 

to stones and shells, and growing as greyish or red¬ 
dish masses, from the lobed or digitate shape of which 
it has acquired the popular name of “ dead men’s 
fingers.” These masses, which may attain a height 
of ten inches, are really colonies, and. when living, 
one of the individual “polypes” may be seen rising 
from each of the white starlike spots studded over 
the surface. Each polype is crowned by a circle 
of eight fringed tentacles, in the centre of which is 


the mouth, leading to a digestive chamber (stomo- 
dteum). This is open below to the body cavity, 
and is held in place by eight membranes known as 
mesenteries. The only skeletal structure present 
is a series of bony spicules scattered through the 
tissues. 

Aldborough, or Aldeburgh, a market town 
in Suffolk, situated on the river Aide, close to the 
sea, and 95 miles distant'from London by the Great 
Eastern Railway. It possesses some coasting trade, 
and many of its inhabitants are engaged in fishing. 
The place is much resorted to in summer for sea¬ 
bathing. The poet Crabbe was born here in 1754. 

Aldebaran, a fixed star of the first magnitude, 
constituting the eye of the constellation Taurus. It 
is found by drawing a line to the right through the 
belt of Orion. 

Aldehyde, C 2 H 4 0(= CH 3 CHO), a product of 
the oxidation of ordinary alcohol, may be ob¬ 
tained by distilling alcohol in a retort with bi¬ 
chromate of potassium. It forms a colourless, 
volatile liquid which is readily miscible with water, 
and is an excellent solvent for such substances 
as iodine, sulphur, and phosphorus. B.P. 21 3 C. 
S.G. ’78. Easily oxidised, even by atmospheric 
exposure, to acetic acid. As in the case of 
alcohol, the term Aldehyde is now used, in a 
general sense, to signify any substance which is 
derived from a primary alcohol by the removal of 
two atoms of hydrogen from the molecule. 

Alder, the English name of the small genus 
Alnus, shrubs or trees belonging, with the birches, 
to the order Betulacecr, native to the North 
Temperate and Arctic zones and to the Andes 
into Chili. They are characterised by the scales 



of the female catkin becoming woody, so as 
to form a permanent fir-cone-like structure. Our 
one British species, A. glutinosa, has roundish, 
short-stalked leaves, with wedge-shaped base and 
slightly-toothed margin, hairy and glutinous when 
young, dark green and glossy when older. It may 
reach seventy feet in height and nine in girth, but 
seldom exceeds forty in height, and is commonly 
treated as coppice. It grows well by water, its 
roots binding together the banks. The bark of the 



























Alderman. 


( 74 ) 


Aldrovandi. 


shoots (which are generally somewhat triangular in 
section, as is also their pith) is used in tanning and 
dyeing leather red, brown, yellow, or, with cop¬ 
peras, black. The wood is durable under water, 
.and is said by Virgil to have been the first wood 
used by man for boats. It was used for piles at 
Ravenna and for the Rialto at Venice, and is still 
so employed in Holland. It is also used for 
herring-barrels, for sabots and turnery generally, 
and, of late, for paper-making; but its chief use 
is for gunpowder-charcoal. For this purpose shoots 
live or six years old, or about four inches across, 
are employed. 

Alderman, the name given by the Saxons to 
the “comes,” or count, who under the Franks had 
•entrusted to him the government of the shire. 
Aldermen are in most corporations the chief officers 
after the mayor, and take precedence of the town 
•councillors or burgesses, from whom the aldermen are 
usually chosen. Their duties and privileges consider¬ 
ably varied in different boroughs before the passing 
of the Municipal Corporation Act, 1835. The number 
of councillors in each borough varies from twelve 
to forty-eight. One fourth of the municipal council 
-consists of aldermen and three-fourths of council¬ 
lors. The Corporation of London was not included 
in the Municipal Corporation Act, and the old 
system remains there in full force. In Scotland 
there is no such title, the officers of corresponding 
rank being termed “ bailies.” The term alderman 
has recently acquired a particular significance. By 
the Local Government Act, 1888, county aldermen 
hold a very important position in carrying out the 
administrative business of each county. [County 
Councils.] 

Alderney (Fr. Aurigny ; Lat. Iiidund), one of 
the Channel Islands, a dependency of Guernsey, 
attached to Great Britain since the Conquest, and 
separated from Cape La Hague by the dangerous 
Race of Alderney, 7 miles broad. Beyond it lie the 
Caskets, small outliers of the group. The island is 
not more than 3 or 4 miles in length, by about 
2 miles in breadth. The coast is rocky, but the 
•central parts abound in excellent pastures, and the 
breed of cows is famous. The internal government 
is conducted by a judge and si n jurats, assisted by 
twelve doitzeniers. The town of Alderney contains 
a 12th century church. The island is fortified; 
but the construction of a breakwater with a view 
to the establishment of a naval station has been 
abandoned. 

Aldershot, a small town in Hants 34 miles 
from London on the London and South-Western and 
South-Eastern Railways. The spot was selected 
by Lord Hardinge as suitable for a camp where 
practical instruction in field manoeuvres could be 
given to the officers and men of the three arms of 
our service. The country is open, undulating, and 
healthy, covered here and there with fir woods, and 
intersected by the Basingstoke Canal; strategically 
the position is of value as affording protection to 
the Metropolis. The suggestion was not carried 
out until 1855, and the first occupants of the new 
lines were two battalions of the Guards and seven 


of embodied militia. On the return of the army 
from the Crimea, a considerable force of cavalry, 
artillery, and infantry took up quarters here. The 
accommodation for troops consists of wooden huts 
and permanent barracks which make up the North 
and South Camps. There is also a pavilion for the 
use of the Queen. A brigade of three regiments of 
cavalry, eight or ten batteries of artillery, twelve 
battalions of infantry, with a full complement of 
Royal Engineers, Commissariat, and Army Service 
Corps, make up the garrison, the whole being under 
the command of a Lieutenant-General. Reviews 
and sham-fights are of constant occurrence during 
the spring and summer. 

Aldhelm, an English bishop and saint of the 
7th century; he became a monk, and ultimately 
Abbot of Malmesbury, and devoted his wealth to the 
Church. He is said to have built the first organ in 
England. He died in 709. 


Aldine Editions, editions chiefly 
of the Classics, which emanated from 
the press of Aldus Manutius, a cele¬ 
brated printer who lived in Venice 
in the sixteenth century. These edi¬ 
tions, which all bore his device of an 
anchor and dolphin entwined, were of 
Angular beauty, and as remarkable 
for the correctness of the texts as for 
clearness of the printing. Aldus was 
the first to make printing a fine art, 
and his editions have become a proverb for excel¬ 
lence and beauty. An English printer, named 
Pickering, issued similar editions of the Classics, 
remarkable for their beauty, which w'ere known 
as the English Aldines. 



IMPRINT 
OF ALDINE 
EDITIONS. 


Aldred, or Ealred, a monk of Winchester, 
who rose to be Abbot of Tavistock, and Bishop of 
Worcester, with which office he desired to combine 
in 1060 the Archbishopric of York, but the Pope 
objected. Aldred, accompanied by Tosti, Earl of 
Northumberland, visited Rome, and on undertaking 
to resign Worcester received his pall. On the death 
of Edward the Confessor he transferred his allegiance 
to Harold, and, when Harold was slain, at once 
attached himself to William, whom he crowned at 
Westminster. Soon after the capture of York by 
William (1069), he died of weariness and disap¬ 
pointment at the failure of his hopes. ■ 

Aldrich, Henry, D.D., a scholar of Westminster, 
and ultimately a canon and dean of Christchurch, Ox¬ 
ford, born in 1647. He built Peckwater Quadrangle 
at Christchurch, All Saints’ Church, and Trinity 
Chapel, Oxford; and, besides composing church 
services and anthems, he wrote “ Hark the bonny 
Christ Church Bells.” His most serious legacy to 
future generations was the famous treatise on Logic. 
He died in 1710. 


Aldrovandi, the name of a gifted family of 
Bologna. Ulysse, born 1522, died 1607, was a 
distinguished professor of natural history. He 
formed with great zeal and industry a vast collec¬ 
tion, and began a treatise on a colossal scale. His 
work was completed after his death. Giuseppe, 
a decorative painter of high repute, flourished 






Ale. 


( 75 ) 


Aleutian. 


towards the end of the 18th century. Tommaso, 
son of the last, painted the council chamber at 
Genoa, and died in 1736. Pompeo Agostino, a 
cousin and contemporary, was a well-known engraver 
and oil-painter in Rome, where he died in 1739. 

Ale, a well-known intoxicating liquor, made by 
infusing malt in hot water, fermenting the liquid, 
and adding a bitter, usually hops. [Brewing.] 
Porter has a greater proportion of roasted malt; 
beer is usually used of weak ale, and is a more 
general term. In some districts, however, it is 
beer which is the strong, and ale the weak liquor. 

Alectoromorphge, a group of Birds in Huxley’s 
classification made to include the families— 
Turnickke (Hemipodes), Phasiankhe (Fowls and 
Fowl-like Birds), Pteroclidac (Sand Grouse), Mega- 
podikke (Mound Birds), and the Crackke (Curas- 
sows), these corresponding to the order Gallime or 
Rasores (without the pigeons and Tinamons). In 
1868 the group was restricted, and divided into 
Alectoropodes (containing the Phasiankhe), and 
Peristeropodes (the Mound Birds and Curassows). 

Aleman, Louis, born at Bugey, 1390. In 1422, 
being then Archbishop of Arles, he was sent by 
Pope Martin V. to Sienna to negotiate the removal 
thither of the Council of Pavia. For this service 
he received the cardinal’s hat, and in 1431 stoutly 
opposed the claim to papal supremacy put forward 
by Eugenius IV. For this, and for his share in the 
election of the Anti-pope Felix V., he was excom¬ 
municated. However, he persuaded Felix to re¬ 
sign, and was restored to his dignities by Nicolas V., 
who sent him as legate into Germany. He died in 
1452, and was canonised in 1527. 

Alemanni, a confederacy of German tribes 
which existed in the third century, and was a 
source of much annoyance to Rome. Clovis finally 
broke up their power in 496. The name still exists 
in the French name for the Germans, Allemands. 

Alembert. [D’Alembert.] 

Alembic, an apparatus for distillation which 
w r as much in vogue in the earlier days of chemistry. 
It consists of a retort with a movable head of 
peculiar shape attached to a receiver. 

Alemtejo, a province of Portugal, with an 
area of 9,416 square miles. It is well-watered, and 
diversified with hill and dale. Its chief town is 
Evora. 

Alencon, the capital of the department of 
the Orne, France, situated on the north bank of 
the river Sarthe, 105 miles from Paris. The Gothic 
cathedral of Notre Dame dates from the sixteenth 
century. Linen, straw hats, hosiery, etc., are made 
here, but the most famous manufacture is th q point 
d'Alenqon, though few lacemakers are now to be 
found in the place. 

Alencon. The counts and dukes who derived 
their title from the town are too numerous for 
separate description. Francois, Due d’Alengon, 
and later Due d’Anjou, brother of Charles IX., 
Francis II., and Henry III., the most remarkable 
possessor of the title, was born in 1554. He 


professed sympathy with the Huguenots, probably 
because he was a suitor for the hand of Eliza¬ 
beth of England, but he took part nevertheless 
in the siege of La Rochelle. In 1581 he visited 
England, and very nearly ensnared the affections 
of the virgin Queen. Another object of his am¬ 
bition was the crown of the Netherlands. He 
assisted the Confederate States in their revolt 
against the Duke of Parma, but his schemes became 
too apparent to the sturdy Netherlander, and he 
was forced to return to France, where he died 
in 1584 of premature decay. 

Aleppo or Haleb, the capital of the Turkish 
vilayet of the same name in Northern Syria, is 
situated on the river Koeik about seventy miles 
from the Port of Scanderoon on the Mediterranean. 
Known to the ancients as Bergen, Aleppo from very 
early times has been the chief emporium of the 
caravan trade with India, Persia, and Armenia. It 
is now a station on the Indo-European telegraph 
line and consuls of most of the Powers reside there. 
It may possibly become in the future the starting 
point of a railway to India. The city is well built 
of white stone, and is surrounded by a strong wall. 
A newly-erected citadel also protects it. The chief 
manufacture is cloth, but silk, cotton, shawls, and 
gold and silver thread are amongst its industries. 

Aleppo Boil, Aleppo Bouton, a disease in 
which boils are developed on the face or extremities 
which run a very chronic course, and ultimately 
leave, in the majority of cases, very obvious scars. 
The affection is met with in India, Asia Minor, and 
other parts of the East. 

Alesia, now Alise, Cote d’Or, France, was in 
Roman times a strong city, the capital of the Man- 
dubii, who called it Urbium Mater. Vercingetorix 
was besieged here in 52 B.C. The town was utterly 
destroyed by the Normans A.d. 864. 

Alessandria, a province and city of Italy, 
formerly part of Piedmont. The province embraces 
more than 1,500 square miles, with a population of 
about 730,000. The soil is fertile, producing cereals, 
flax, and fruits. The silkworm also is largely culti¬ 
vated. The town, situated on the Tanaro river, 45 
miles S.E. of Turin, was founded by the Lombards in 
1168, and presently changed its first name Csesarea 
to that which it now bears in honour of Pope 
Alexander III. It is the seat of a bishopric, con¬ 
tains a cathedral, and is strongly fortified. The 
battlefield of Marengo is two miles distant. 

Aleurone, a substance present in many seeds, 
in the cotyledons, or in the endosperm, either as 
minute granules, as in the pea, or, in the case of oily 
seeds, in larger roundish or angular bodies. They 
are similar in composition to protoplasm, and are 
sometimes termed “ protein-grains,” their function 
being apparently that of a reserve supply of nitro¬ 
genous food for the embryo. They sometimes con¬ 
tain a crystalloid, and almost invariably a globoid, 
or globular mass of a double phosphate of calcium 
and magnesium, soluble in acetic acid. 

Aleutian, The. or Aleutan Islands (Russ. 
Aleut , rock), a chain of islets stretching over the 






Ale wife. 


( 76 ) 


Alexander. 


North Pacific Ocean from Kamptchatka t© Alaska. 
Their number exceeds lot), Behring s Island, Copper 
Island, Attoo, Oonimak, and Oonalashka being the 
most important. The two former still belong to 
Russia, but all the others were ceded to the United 
States with Alaska in 1867. The soil is volcanic, and 
eruptions still occur in some of the group. The 
inhabitants subsist mainly by fishing, and export 
quantities of skins. It has been conjectured that 
the first colonists of the New World may have found 
their way from Asia by means of these stepping 
stones. The group is sometimes known as the 
Catherine Archipelago, from having been explored 
in 1760 by the order of Catherine II. of Russia. 

Alewife ( Clupea mattan'occa), the Gaspereau of 
the French Canadians, an important food-fish of 
the herring family, common on the Atlantic shore 
of North America, where it ascends into fresh 
water in early spring to spawn. Large quanti¬ 
ties are taken in small-meshed seine nets, salted, 
and exported to the West Indies. 

Alexander the Great, King of Macedon, was 
born at Pella 856 B.C., being the son of Philip II. 
and Olympias. He was educated partly by Lysi- 
machus, partly by Aristotle, and succeeded to the 
throne in his twentieth year. Some of the subject 
states were then in revolt. He at once reduced 
Thrace and Thebes, thus overawing the others. He 
was now free to concentrate his forces against 
Darius Codomanus, King of Persia, and in 334 
crossed the Hellespont with 30,000 foot, and 5,000 
horse. His first great victory was at the Granicus 
river, near Mount Ida, and Sardis, Ephesus, 
Miletus, with nearly all the important cities in 
Asia Minor, fell into his hands. He suffered from 
a severe fever in Cilicia and was warned that his 
physician, Philip, was bribed to poison him, but he 
showed the letter to Philip, followed his advice, and 
recovered. Next year he met the army of Darius, 
500,000 strong, on the Issus river, and won an over¬ 
whelming victory, capturing the Persian sovereign, 
whom he treated with great magnanimity. Syria 
and Phoenicia were now overrun ; Damascus was 
occupied; Tyre and Gaza were reduced to ashes, 
and Alexander entered Jerusalem. Thence he 
passed into Egypt, which was easily subdued, and 
the foundation of Alexandria left his name stamped 
for ever on the country. There is a story that he 
visited the Oracle of Jupiter Ammon in Libya, and 
was declared by the priest to be a son of that deity. 
From Egypt Alexander returned to Phoenicia, 
crossed the Euphrates and Tigris, and met Darius 
on the plain of Arbela, where he finally crushed the 
power of Persia. Babylon, Susa, and Persepolis 
fell into his hands with all their vast treasures 
(331). Having reduced Persia, he now directed his 
steps towards the north, and in 329 b.c. overthrew 
the Scythians on the banks of the Jaxartes, and 
penetrated into India, crossing the Indus near 
Attock. On the banks of the Hydaspes river (Ee- 
hut) he defeated a native prince called Porus, but 
afterwards treated him as a friend and ally. 
Marching on to the Acesines (Chenab), he crossed 
the barren plain between that river and the 
Hydraotes (Ravee), and there overcame a second 


Porus, all of whose territory he handed over to the 
first conquered prince. The Hyphasis (Sutlej ?) 
formed the limit of his progress, for his soldiers re¬ 
fused to proceed farther. He returned by way of the 
Indus, which he descended in boats, and by the Per¬ 
sian Gulf to Babylon. About a year was now spent, 
partly in re-organising his vast empire, which had 
suffered through his prolonged absence, partly in 
planning new conquests, partly in the dissipations 
to which he was too prone. In 323, just as he was 
about setting forth on an expedition to the West, a 
fever seized him at the close of a banquet, and in a 
few days he died. His body was enclosed in a gold 
sarcophagus and preserved at Alexandria. Of his 
four wives Roxana alone bore him issue—a post¬ 
humous son, who was murdered in his childhood by 
Cassander. He designated no successor, and his 
dominions were divided amongst his generals, 
between whom long and bloody wars ensued. 
Alexander’s character offers strange moral and 
intellectual contrasts. As a soldier Hannibal and 
Napoleon are his only compeers, and in actual 
achievements he surpassed them both. Many 
passages in his life testify to a lofty generosity and 
a spontaneous benevolence worthy of the best days 
of chivalry, yet he ordered the murder of his 
faithful lieutenant Parmenio and killed his friend 
Clytus with his own hand. His love of learning 
and his taste for art were undoubtedly genuine, and 
he could practise the sternest self-denial, yet he 
cut short his career by shameless intoxication. No 
one was keener to detect and despise the servile 
flattery of his court, but this did not prevent his 
accepting divine honours and even insisting on 
them. Deservedly, perhaps, the more sublime 
features of his strangely-blended nature have taken 
the strongest hold of the imagination of mankind, 
and Alexander stands forth as the greatest hero of 
the ancient world. 

Alexander Nevskoi, a saint of the Greek 
Church, who in life was a grand-duke of Russia. 
He defeated a combination of the Danes, Swedes, 
and Teutonic knights in a great battle on the banks 
of the Neva, and from this fact he got his name. 
He died in 1263, and a fine monastery with a noble 
church in St. Petersburg, the works respectively 
of Peter the Great and the Empress Catherine, 
mark the site of his victory and enshrine the bones 
of the canonised warrior. 

Alexander I., Paulovitch, Czar of Russia, 
was born in 1777, and educated by his grandmother, 
Catherine II., one of his instructors being La 
Harpe, a Swiss republican. He married Louisa 
Maria of Baden, but separated from her. After the 
assassination of his father, the weak-minded Paul, 
he was next in succession, and was probably a party 
to the murder which opened his way to tire throne 
in 1801. The young sovereign began his career with 
many enlightened reforms, encouraging education, 
abolishing torture and other judicial abuses, and lib¬ 
erating the press. At the same time he adhered 
to the hereditary policy of national aggrandisement. 
He procured the cession of Georgia, and then joined 
the coalition of England, Austria, and Sweden 
against France. The Battle of Austerlitz (1805) 







Alexander. 


( " ) 


Alexander. 


broke up this alliance, and Alexander, after briefly 
dallying with Prussia during the Jena campaign, 
came to terms with Napoleon at Tilsit, receiving 
a strip of German territory as his reward. Pur¬ 
suing the same policy he adopted the “ con¬ 
tinental system,” attacked Sweden for importing 
British goods, and annexed Finland to Russia. In 
1809 the treaty of Vienna brought the Czar a fresh 
accession of territory in the shape of Eastern 
Galicia, which Austria had to yield. The en¬ 
couragement given by France to Polish malcontents 
severed the friendship that had lasted five years, 
and in March, 1812, Alexander declared war. 
Then followed the terrible Russian campaign, and, 
whatever sentiments may have been previously 
inspired by the Czar’s ambition and treachery, 
his stubborn courage and resolution certainly broke 
Napoleon’s record of triumph. During the final 
years of the great European struggle Russia was 
loyal to the allied Powers, and when the Congress of 
Vienna rearranged the map of Europe, the Grand 
Duchy of Warsaw fell to Alexander's share. He 
was also the moving spirit in the Holy Alliance, a 
confederacy to suppress European reforms. Troubles 
in Poland, religious melancholy, and dread of revolu¬ 
tion darkened the rest of his reign. He died in 1825 
of an intermittent fever contracted in a visit to the 
Crimea, leaving the crown to his brother Nicholas. 

Alexander II., Nicolaevitch, Czar of Russia, 
son of Nicholas, and nephew of Alexander I., was 
born in 1818. He displayed in early life a fond¬ 
ness for the arts of peace rather than for those of 
war, and his inclinations seemed to turn towards 
conciliatory reforms and intellectual progress. 
Coming to the throne in 1855, just at the crisis 
of the Crimean War, he was constrained at first 
to adopt the military policy that Nicholas be¬ 
queathed to him. A few months later the course 
of events made the conclusion of peace inevitable. 
He then began to devote his energies to internal 
improvements; railways were constructed with 
foreign capital throughout Russia ; the navy was 
strengthened, and the mercantile marine consider¬ 
ably developed; arts and manufactures of every 
kind met with encouragement; and, most impor¬ 
tant of all, in 1861 23,000,000 serfs were emanci¬ 
pated, whilst four years later elective councils were 
established in all the provinces. Even towards 
Poland some degree of liberal sympathy was ex¬ 
tended, though the revolutionary outbreak in 1861 
was put down with great severity. A spirit of 
anarchy had now begun to show itself in certain 
sections of Russian society, spreading from the 
native aristocracy through the students and the 
literary classes, and ending with the poor in the 
large towns. The Czar started a reactionary 
system, and rather aggravated than crushed the 
evil. In 186G Karakozoff, a student and a Nihilist, 
fired at the sovereign, and almost every day re¬ 
vealed new plots and fresh ramifications of con¬ 
spiracy. But these internal troubles did not check 
the progress of Imperial aggrandisement. Under 
Kaufmann, Lomakine, Skobelef, and other able 
generals, Turkestan, Bokhara, Samarcand and 
Khiva were successively conquered and all Central 


Asia w r as brought under Russian influence. The 
reduction of the Caucasus was completed, and 
the trans-Caucasian provinces were subjected to 
t horough organisation. In 1871 Gortschakoff, at the 
Conference of London, caused the clauses exclud¬ 
ing Russian fleets from the Black Sea to be struck 
out of the Treaty of 1856. Turkey was invaded in 
1877, and a bloody war restored to Russia the 
portion of Bessarabia which she had ceded to 
Moldavia in 1856. Nihilism, however, pervaded the 
country, and became bolder day by day. In 1881, 
whilst driving in the streets of * his capital, the 
Czar was killed by a bomb thrown by a Nihilist, 
Grenevitsky, who perished also in the explosion. 
He was succeeded by his son, Alexander III. 

Alexander II., King of Scotland, born in 
1198, succeeded his father, William the Lion, in 
1214. He espoused the cause of the Barons against 
King John, who invaded the border counties. 
Alexander retaliated and ultimately joined Louis 
of France in his expedition against the king. For 
that he was excommunicated, but after John’s 
death he made peace with the Pope and also with 
Henry III., marrying his sister Joan. In 1234 dis¬ 
putes as to the claim of homage from Scotland, and 
as to the ownership of the three border counties, 
estranged the two sovereigns, but these differences 
were arranged. Another rupture took place in 
1244, owing to the punishment by Alexander of one 
Bissett for supposed complicity in the murder of 
the Earl of Athol. Hostilities, however, were 
avoided in this case also. Alexander had many 
difficulties with his Scotch subjects, and in 1249 was 
engaged in an attempt to reduce the lord of Argyll, 
when he died. 

Alexander III., son of the preceding, born in 
1241, was but eight years old at the time of his 
father’s death. At the age of ten he was wedded to 
Margaret, daughter of Henry III., and some years of 
his minority were spent in struggles between the 
Scotch and English factions for control of the royal 
pair. In 1263 Haco of Norway invaded Scotland, 
and was severely defeated by Alexander at Largs, and 
ultimately all the islands were ceded by the Norse¬ 
men, except Orkney and Shetland. Alexander, 
whose wise and just rule brought his country to 
high prosperity, was killed in 1286 by a fall from 
his horse, leaving only a granddaughter “ The 
Maiden of Norway ” to succeed him. After him no 
Alexander sat on the Scottish throne. 

Alexander III., the successor of Adrian IV. as 
Pope in 1159. The Emperor Frederick I. set up a 
rival, but, supported by England, France, and the 
Roman clergy, Alexander held his own and excom¬ 
municated the Emperor, who had at last to give 
way. Alexander took the part of Thomas A’ Becket 
against Henry II., and canonised him after his 
death. He died in 1181. 

Alexander VI., Rodrigo Lenzuoli, but 
better known by his mother’s name of Borgia, 
born in 1431. Originally an advocate and then a 
soldier, he was advanced to high position in the 
Church by his uncle, Calixtus III. His habits were 
most dissolute, but by intrigue and bribery he 







Alexander. 


( 78 ) 


Alexandrian. 


secured his election to the Papacy in 1492. By his 
alliance with the Sultan Bajazet II. he drew upon 
himself the invasion of Rome by Charles VIII. of 
France, and was forced to ally himself with that 
monarch, who then proceeded to the conquest of 
Naples. Alexander now brought about a combina¬ 
tion of the Emperor Maximilian, Ferdinand of 
Spain, the Republic of Venice, and the Duke of 
Milan, and Charles was speedily driven out of Italy. 
To gain wealth and compass political ends even the 
dagger and poison were freely used, according to 
some accounts, at the Papal Court; and though the 
crimes of the Borgias may be exaggerated, there 
can be no question that the family was markedly 
unscrupulous in an age when much was tolerated. 
The cruel fate of Savonarola (q.v.) silenced the priest¬ 
hood ; the fear of assassination and the hope of a 
share in the plunder kept the laity quiet, whilst for 
some years rapacity and licence ran riot at Rome. 
At last, in 1503, Alexander is said to have drunk 
some poisoned wine prepared by him for a victim. 

Alexander, Severus. [Severus.] 

Alexander, The Right Reverend Michael 
Solomon, D.D., of Jewish origin, born in Posen 
1799, became a rabbi, but was converted to 
Christianity, took a curacy in Ireland, and was in 
1832 appointed professor of Hebrew in King’s 
College, London. When in 1841 the King of Prussia 
proposed to join the English Government in 
appointing a Protestant bishop at Jerusalem, Dr. 
Alexander was selected for the post. The es¬ 
tablishment of the office gave little satisfaction to 
the Church; but Dr. Alexander’s modest and 
amiable character protected him from personal 
attacks. He died suddenly in 1845. 

Alexander, William, Earl of Stirling, was 
knighted by James I., who granted to him Nova 
Scotia for the purpose of colonisation. Later on 
Charles I. offered the dignity of knight-baronet in 
Scotland to any person who helpedthe colony by 
contributions. Ultimately Alexander sold his grant 
to France. In 132(5 he was made Secretary of State 
for Scotland, and in 1631 Judge in the Court of 
Session. His original peerage dated from 1630. 
He aspired to poetry and wrote “ Aurora,” as well 
as some tragedies, and possibly the translation of 
the Psalms ascribed to James I. He died in 1640, 
and a century later the peerage lapsed, though 
frequent attempts have been made to assert claims 
to it. 


that occupied the Alexandrian schools proved 
a soil fertile in doctrines and heresies to trouble 
the early Church. Between theological and politi¬ 
cal contentions the city suffered severely in the 
later years of the Empire, 
till in (540 a.d. it was seized 
by Amru, Omar’s lieutenant, 
who burnt the library and 
destroyed everything per¬ 
ishable that bore witness to 
ancient greatness. Two 
centuries later the Turks 
became masters of Egypt. 

The final ruin of Alexandria 
was completed by the dis¬ 
covery of the Cape route 
to the East at the end of 
the fifteenth century. In 
the Napoleonic era the 
French and English fought 
a severe battle close to its 
walls (1801), and in 1807 
the English occupied the 
place for a few months. 

Mehemet Ali and his dynasty 
were established in Egypt by a Convention held 
there in 1841. A few years later the adoption of 
the overland route to India restored some degree 
of prosperity to the port, and in 1851 a railway to 
Cairo was constructed. A new town sprang up, 
built in European style, and a new harbour was 
opened—both to the east of the ancient city. 
Steamers and trading vessels of all nations fre¬ 
quented the place, which rapidly increased in 
wealth and population. In 1869 the completion of 
the Suez Canal injured irreparably the commerce of 
Alexandria, and the bombardment of the forts by 
the British in 1882 reduced many buildings to ruins. 
Few monuments of antiquity remain. The chief of 
these are the Pillar of Diocletian, known as Pompey’s 
Pillar, which stands to the west of the city, and 
one of the obelisks called Cleopatra’s Needles, the 
other having been removed to London. 



THE ANCIENT PHAROS OF 
ALEXANDRIA. 


Alexandria, the name of a county and its 
capital in Virginia, U.S.A. The town is on the 
west bank of the Potomac, seven miles south of 
Washington. It has a good harbour, accessible to 
vessels of the largest size, and does a large trade in 
corn, flour, and tobacco. The Chesapeake and 
Ohio Canal begins here. 


Alexandria, the former capital of Egypt, was 
founded by Alexander the Great on the" coast of 
the Mediterranean not far from Lake Mareotis, and 
at a distance of 118 miles from Cairo. At the 
death of the conqueror Egypt fell to the share 
of Ptolemaeus Soter, an enlightened ruler, who col¬ 
lected the splendid library, now unhappily destroyed, 
and built the famous Pharos. His successors 
prided themselves on making the city a centre of 
literature and science, as well as of commerce, and 
when in 48 b.C. it fell into Roman hands there was 
no perceptible diminution of its lustre. Christianity 
made one of its first homes there ; and the mixture 
of Greek philosophy with Eastern mysticism 


Alexandrian Ccdex, a manuscript of the 
Greek Bible, written with uncial (capital) letters 
on parchment, now in the British Museum. It was 
presented to Charles I. in 1628 by the patriarch of 
Constantinople. 

Alexandrian Library, the most famous of 
all the libraries of the ancient world, is said to- 
have numbered 700,000 volumes at the most flourish¬ 
ing period of its existence. It was founded bv 
Ptolemy of Egypt (283 B.c.), was burned during- 
the siege of the city by C;esar, and again fired by 
the bigoted Christians in 391 a.d. It" was in 641, 
however, that it was finally destroyed at the taking 
of Alexandria by the Arabs, under Amru. The 






Alexandrian. 


( 79 ) 


Alfonso. 


volumes of paper and parchment were distributed 
as fuel, and were said to have lasted for six 
months. 

Alexandrian Philosophers, the name given 
to that school of philosophers who were desirous of 
reconciling and modifying the several pagan faiths 
in order to raise a barrier against the doctrine of 
Christianity. [Neo-pl atonists.] 

Alexandrine, a kind of verse much used in 
French tragic poetry, consisting of twelve syllables. 
The last line of Pope’s well-known couplet in the 
1Jssay on Criticism furnishes an excellent example:— 

A needless Alexandrine ends the song, 

Which, like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along. 

Alexandropol, a town in the province of 
Erivan, in Georgia, trans-Caucasian Russia. It is 
situated 5,077 feet above the sea level. 

Ale^inatz, a circle or administrative depart¬ 
ment in the kingdom of Servia. It has an area of 
829 square miles. The chief town bears the same 
name. The district produces large crops of tobacco. 

Alexipharmics, antidotes to snake-poison 
(from the Greek alexo , I ward off, pharmakon, 
a drug), a large number of plants, the value of 
which has not yet been scientifically tested. They 
are often called Snake-roots, and include many 
species of the genus Aristolochia. 

Alexius I., a Greek emperor, who was born in 
A.d. 1048, the nephew of Isaac Comnenus. He 
distinguished himself in early life as a soldier, and 
served the reigning Emperor Nicephorus with 
fidelity. In 1081 the jealousies of the imperial 
ministers, and his own popularity with the army, 
led him to revolt against his sovereign, whom he 
deposed, ascending the throne of Constantinople 
himself. During the troublous period of the First 
Crusade, when the Turks were pressing forward 
to the Hellespont, and the barbarian invaders 
threatened the northern and western frontiers of 
the empire, he displayed much skill and courage. 
His severity and avarice, however, wore out the 
affections of all classes, and he was suspected of 
treachery by his Latin allies. He died in 1118, and 
was succeeded by his son John. A favourable 
sketch of his life and character was written by 
Anna Comnena, his favourite daughter. 

Alfalfa, now commonly abbreviated in com¬ 
merce into Alfa, the popular name of a grass which 
furnishes one of the most important of paper 
materials, also commonly called Esparto or Spanish 
grass. It is Macrocliloa (formerly St ip a) tenacis- 
sima and not, as often stated, Lyyeum spartum. 
Introduced by Mr. Thomas Routledge in 1856, it 
came into general use during the American war, 
when t he cotton famine produced a scarcity of rags, 
just when the repeal of the paper duty had increased 
the demand. It is a native of the south of Spain 
and the north of Africa, growing in dry ferruginous 
soil near the sea. It reaches three or four feet in 
height, and its leaves yield 56 per cent, of their 
weight of fibre. The demand exceeds the supply ; 
but the costliness of Alfa is tending to the increased 
use of wood-pulp as a substitute. 


Al-Farabi, an early and distinguished Arabian 
philosopher, who flourished in the beginning of 
the tenth century. Like most of the speculative- 
thinkers of his race, he was a physician, and prac¬ 
tised his art at the court of Seif-Eddaula, in 
Damascus. From the fragments of his works that 
have come down to us, he appears to have had a 
tendency towards asceticism, derived from contact 
with the Neo-Platonic school. Al-Farabi died in 
950 a.d. 

Alfieri, Count Victor, a distinguished Italian 
poet, born at Asti, in Piedmont, in 1749. His family* 
was noble and wealthy; but the loss of his father 
early in life left young Alfieri without control or 
guidance, and he spent his youth in restless wander¬ 
ings and not very creditable adventures. He had 
as a boy revealed certain poetic tastes, which were 
suppressed for many years ; but after his return to 
Turin, in 1772, he wrote a successful traged}^ 
Cleopatra , which was put upon the stage in 1775. 
In 1777 he met at Florence the wife of the Young- 
Pretender [Albany], and at once conceived for 
her a violent affection. They met again in Romo 
three years later, when the countess had left 
her husband. Alfieri wrote in Switzerland four- 
tragedies.; and in 1787 went to Paris, for the pur¬ 
pose of superintending the publication of his 
collected dramas by Didot. At this period he 
composed his two principal prose works, Del Prin¬ 
cipe et Delle Lettere and Della Tiranide. Alfieri, 
though a revolutionary at heart, was disgusted by 
the excesses of the popular party in Paris, and after 
the taking of the Bastille he crossed over with the 
countess to England. They returned in 1791; but 
next year, on the imprisonment of Louis XVI., 
made their way out of France with some difficulty, 
and finally settled in Florence. Alfieri then wrote 
an apology for the French king and a satirical 
poem, Misoyallo, inspired by intense hatred for the 
Republican Government. Henceforward his life 
was devoted to eager study, only interrupted for a 
short time by the French occupation of Italy. He 
abandoned the muse of tragedy for that of comedy, 
and produced six plays before the end. of 1802, 
some of them being political satires. He died on 
October 8, 1803. His tomb in Santa Croce lies be¬ 
tween those of Michael Angelo and Machiavelli. 
Though his literary efforts were somewhat marred 
by want of education and by possession of com¬ 
parative wealth, Alfieri cannot be denied the praise 
of having revolutionised the Italian drama by 
bringing to bear on it the best influences of the 
Greek, the English, and the French stage. 

Alfonso, the name of a great many kings of the 
Asturias, Leon and Castile, of Aragon, of Naples, and 
of Portugal, the most remarkable amongst whom 
were:— Alfonso IIP, “the Great,” who ascended 
the throne of the Asturias in 866, and fought with 
valour and success against the Moors, adding Leon 
and other provinces to his kingdom. Towards the 
end of his reign he had to contend against many 
insurrections, and was defeated by his son Garcias, 
to whom he resigned the crown in 908. He died 
two years later. The famous Church of St. James, 
of Compostella was consecrated in his reign, and 






Alfonso. 


( 80 ) 


Alfred 


he is said to have compiled a portion of the 
Chronicles of the Kings of Spain. —Alfonso VI., 

“ the Valiant,” King of Galicia, Leon, and Castile, 
1066. He wrested from the Mohammedans a large 
part of Spain, including the city of Toledo, which 
he made his capital. A fresh invasion, however, of 
the Almoravides, in 1086, wrecked his hopes. He 
lost the battles of Zelaka and Ucles, his only son 
perishing in the latter engagement, and died of 
grief in 1109. Roderigo Diaz de Bivar, renowned 
as the Cid, flourished in his reign, as also did Henry 
of Burgundy, to whom he gave the title of Count of 
Portugal with his daughter’s hand.— Alfonso III. 
or IX., “the Noble,” succeeded to the kingdom of 
Castile, but not of Leon, in 1158. He married 
Eleanor, daughter of Henry II. of England. Having 
sustained a severe defeat from the Moors at Alanos, 
in 1195, he allied himself with the sovereigns of 
Aragon and Navarre, and completely crushed his 
enemies at Las Navas de Tolosa, 1212. The cele¬ 
brated university, afterwards transferred to Sala¬ 
manca, was founded by him at Palencia. He died 
ia 1214. 

Alfonso I., son of Henry, Count of Portugal, 
and Teresa of Leon and Castile. Born 1094. On com¬ 
ing of age, having defeated his mother and Alfonso 
VIII. of Castile, he made Portugal independent. 
In 1139 he gained an overwhelming victory over 
the Moors at Ourique and was proclaimed king. 
Endeavouring to annex Spanish territory he was 
taken prisoner in 1167, and forced to cede all he had 
conquered. He died at Coimbra in 1185. Tradition 
asserts that he was a man of enormous stature. 

Alfonso X., “ The Wise,” of Leon and Castile, 
came to the throne in 1252. He was invited to 
contest the imperial crown against Rudolph of 
Hapsburg, and, whilst thus engaged, he was driven 
from his own kingdom by a Moorish invasion and 
by the insurrection of his son, Sancho, 1282. Failing 
to recover his position, he died of chagrin at Seville 
in 1284. He was a learned prince, and to him Spain 
owes the code known as the Siete Partidas. He 
also caused the Alphonsine Tables to be drawn up 
for the use of astronomers. His fame chiefly rests, 
however, upon the remark that if he had been 
consulted at the Creation, the universe would have 
been much better than it is. 

Alford, Henry, D.D., Dean of Canterbury, a 
divine and poet, born in 1810. He took a scholar¬ 
ship at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1827, and 
graduated five years later with high honours, 
obtaining a fellowship at Trinity in 1834. In the 
next year he received the vicarage of Wymeswold, 
Leicestershire. In 1835 he brought out two 
volumes of collected poems under the title of 
School of the Heart , and in 1841 he produced 
another volume of poetry, including his Abhot of 
Huclielvaye. In 1841 and 1842 he was Hulsean 
lecturer at Cambridge, and his discourses were 
published shortly afterwards. The first volume of 
his Greek Testament appeared in 1849, and added 
immensely to his reputation for erudite scholarship. 
In 1853 he accepted the incumbency of the Quebec 
chapel. In 1857 Lord Palmerston appointed him 


to the deanery of Canterbury, where he spent his 
remaining years. The last volume of the Greek 
Testament came out in 1861. The Queen's English, 
the Year of Praise, Letters from Abroad, and A 
Commentary on the Old Testament are amongst the 
most serious of his later productions. In The lear 
of Praise and The Children of the Lord s Prayer he 
returned once more to the poetical instincts of his 
early days, and in 1869 he joined his niece in 
writing a novel entitled Netherton-on-Sea. He 
died in 1871. 

Alfred or Alfred, the Great, the youngest 
son of Ethelwulf, King of Wessex. He went to 
Rome, it is said, as a child, and was not onl} 
blessed but anointed by Pope Leo IV. He served 
his brother Ethelred gallantly in the field against 
the Danes, winning at Ashdown in Berkshire 
the battle which is yet commemorated by the 
White Horse. When Ethelred died in 871, he suc¬ 
ceeded to the throne. For a few years there w T as a 
respite from invasion, but in 874 Guthrum appeared 
again in the North, and settled down in East 
Anglia, preparing for a new onslaught. In 876 a 
Danish fleet attacked Wareham, and ultimately 
seized Exeter. They were hemmed in by Alfred 
and surrendered in 877. Next winter, however, 
reinforced by fresh hordes, they set out from 
Chippenham, and, other forces co-operating from 
east and south, completely surrounded Alfred and 
compelled him to take refuge in the Island of 
Athelney among the Somerset marshes. It is to 
this period of exile that the story of the burnt cakes 
belongs. In the course of a few months the king 
had gathered a large enough force, and early in 
the summer he fell upon the Danish camp at 
Eddington near Westbury, inflicting such a loss as 
to compel Guthrum to conclude the Peace of Wed- 
more. Ten years of tranquillity followed. Alfred 
codified the laws of Egbert, Offa, and Ini, tempering 
them with notions of justice derived from the Mosaic 
Scriptures and the Gospel. He established many 
schools, the chief being at Shaftesbury, Athelney, 
and perhaps Oxford. Men of learning and piety 
were invited from France and entrusted with 
educational posts. He himself took in hand the 
translation into the popular tongue of the He Con- 
solatione of Boethius, The History of the World by 
Orosius, Gregory's Pastoral, and Bede’s History of 
the Church, and he introduced into these works not 
a few sensible comments and expositions of his own. 
His works may be regarded as laying the founda¬ 
tion of English prose literature. In 892 war inter¬ 
rupted these peaceful pursuits. Whilst a large 
Danish fleet attacked the Kentish coast at Lympne, 
Hastings made a dash at the Thames. Ethelred, 
Alderman of Mercia, routed the invaders at 
Benfleet and drove them up the valleys of the 
Thames and Severn into Wales, whilst Alfred 
defeated another force at Exeter. In the following 
year Hastings again appeared on the Lea, but 
Alfred drained off the water, left his ships high and 
dry, and forced him to retire from the kingdom. 
Four quiet years ensued, but Alfred’s health gave 
way, and he died in 901 at the age of fifty- 
three. 








Algse. 


( 81 ) 


Algebra. 


Algse, a class of plants of which the best-known 
are the seaweeds, though there are fresh-water 
representatives of almost every subdivision of the 
class. Like ferns, mosses, and fungi they do not 
produce true flowers or seeds, and are, therefore, 
termed Cryptogamia (q.v.) ; but, like fungi and 
unlike ferns and mosses, they present no true 
distinction of stem or axis and leaf or lateral 
appendage, the whole of their structure being- 
cellular, i.e. without any vessels. Algae and fungi 
are, therefore, united as the sub-kingdom Thallo- 
phyta (q.v.). Many of the larger Algae have 
cvlindric stem - like stalks, structures called 
“rhizoids,” resembling roots, and flattened leaf¬ 
like fronds; but these fronds are commonly 
terminal, not lateral, and there is no distinction in 
internal structure, whilst the rhizoids are mere 
organs of attachment, not of food-absorption 
Though entirely cellular, some Algae have a 
thickened epidermal or pseudo-cortical layer ex¬ 
ternally, and the kelp-weed group ( Laminariece ) 
have a zone of tissue ( meristem ) in which growth 
by cell-division occurs, thus increasing their 
diameter much as do some of the higher plants. 
The Algae differ from Fungi in containing the 
green colouring-matter chlorophyll (q.v.), common 
to so many groups of plants. To take this as a fund¬ 
amental distinction seems objectionable, as being 
a physiological rather than a structural character, 
and accordingly in 1874 Sachs endeavoured to 
substitute four structural grades, Protophyta, 
Zyyosporece, Oosporece and Carposporecs (each in¬ 
cluding both algal and fungal forms) based upon 
the methods of reproduction; but the older division 
is now adopted as more natural. The class Algae 
may thus be briefly defined as thallophytic crypto¬ 
gams containing chlorophyll. Living almost 
exclusively in water, either salt, brackish, or fresh, 
or in damp places, Algae have also been termed 
Hydrophyta. In structure they present every 
grade, from a single cell to a filament of elongated 
cells end to end (monosiphonous), several parallel 
filaments (polysiphonous), or the large pseudo- 
stems and leafy fronds already mentioned. Re¬ 
production is effected by simple cell-division; by 
the formation of free-swimming ciliated bodies 
called “zoospores,” or of motionless structures 
produced four together in a fructification or 
“sporangium” and hence termed “tetraspores; ” 
or by sexual “ oospheres ” or egg-cells, fertilised by 
motile ciliated “ anthero'zoids.” Some Alg® secrete 
much carbonate of lime, the Corallines being 
entirely covered with it, and the microscopic 
Diatomace® form silicious skeletons with geo¬ 
metrical markings of great beauty. The chlorophyll 
is frequently accompanied by other colouring 
matters, the blue phycocyan, the brown phyco- 
phaein and the red phycoerythrin, and these afford 
an obvious distinction between four sub-classes 
which have also structural characters. These are 
the unicellular Cyanopliycece, or blue-green Alg®, 
including Chroococcacese, Nostocace®, Oscilla- 
torieae and Scytonemeas; the Chlorophycece, or 
green Alg®, mostly in fresh or shallow water, the 
resting cells of which often turn red, as in the Red 
Snow plant, their chlorophyll being reduced to 

6 


chlororufin, including Siphoneae, Volvocine® (the 
“globe animalcules”), Protococcaceae, Confervoide®, 
Conjugat®, Desmidiace® and Diatomace®; the 



AUiJP.. 


1. Some diatoms; 2. Protococcus ; 3. Spirogyra; 4. Fucus; 
5. Conceptacle of same; 6. Oogonium; 7. Antheridial 
branch ; 8. Oosphere with antherozoids ; 9. Sargr.ssum. 

Pliceopliycece, Me l an op h yeecc , or olive-brown sea¬ 
weeds, all marine, mostly between tide - marks, 
including the kelp-weeds, Laminarie®, and the 
bladder-wracks, Fucacece; and the Ithudop!tycea>, 
Floridece, or red Alg®, mostly from deeper water, 
including the Corallines. Of these groups the 
chief will be described under separate headings. 

Algarotti, Count Feancesco, an eminent 
Italian writer on science and art, born at Venice 
in 1712. He studied at Bologna and Florence 
with much distinction, and then spent some time 
in the best literary society in Paris. His first work 
(1788) Nemtoniasmo per le donne, in which he 
popularised the new philosophy, proved a complete 
success. After a careful inspection of the galleries 
of Italy he wrote Sagyio sopra la Pittura , a critical 
treatise which met with high approval. He also 
published essays in verse on many scientific and 
literary subjects. He died at Pisa in 1764. 

Algarve (sometimes written Algarva or Al- 
garves), the most southerly province of Portugal, 
bounded by the Atlantic to the S. and W., Spain to 
the E., and Alemtejo to the N. The province, which 
has a length of 85 miles and an average breadth of 
20 miles, with an area of 1,865 square miles, is hilly, 
but rich valleys abound, and yield an excellent crop 
of olives, wine, figs, oranges, and almonds, whilst 
on the coast there are valuable fisheries of sardines 
and herrings. The chief towns are Faro and Lagos. 

Algebra, in its extended sense, the science 
of numbers treated symbolically. The symbols 
are used simply for abbreviation. Hence we may 
















Algeciras. 


( 82 ) 


Algeria. 


regard algebra as a universal arithmetic worked in 
a shorthand system. The signs used for certain 
operations are to be regarded as purely arbitrary 
and conventional. It follows that the laws of 
arithmetic must apply to algebra. But in arithmetic 
the only unit employed is -f1, whereas in algebra 
it is found necessary to introduce others. Thus 
Descartes introduced the negative unit — 1, which 
is delined as the quantity that when added to the 
positive unit gives us zero, and which when multi¬ 
plied by itself gives us +1. Since his time the use 
of another unit \/—1 has been found necessary. 
[Equations.] This is defined as the quantity that 
gives us —1 when multiplied by itself. [Imagi¬ 
nary Quantities.] In the science of quaternions 
(q.v.) other units are introduced, with, however, 
perfectly defined characteristics. Besides these 
units it is necessary to have a code of invariable 
laws that shall govern all operations performed 
with them. Thus in arithmetic we have 2 x 3 x 4=r 
3x4x2, that is, any product of any multiples of 
the unit 1 is the same, whatever order we take 
to perform the multiplication. So in algebra we 
have abc — bca — cab. The three chief laws are 
(«) the commutative law. Additions and subtrac¬ 
tions, or multiplications and divisions, may be 
made in any order, (b) The distributive law. 
The multiplication of a sum of terms is the sum 
of the multiplications of each term ; so also 
with division of a sum of terms, (c) The law of 
indices. The product of two powers of a number 
is that number raised to the sum of the powers. 
[Mathematics.] 

Algeciras (Arab. The Island ), a Spanish sea¬ 
port, situated G miles from Gibraltar on the 
opposite side of the bay. It derives its name from 
the islet that closes in one side of the harbour. 
The town was built by the Moors, and captured by 
Alfonso XI. in 1344. Admiral Saumarez defeated 
the combined Spanish and French fleets here in 
1801. A good deal of trade is carried on with the 
coasts of the Mediterranean, and there are some 
local industries, such as the manufacture of coarse 
linen and cotton goods, paper, gloves, sombreros, 
and morocco leather. 

Algeria (Fr„ L'Alr/crie; Sp., Ary el), a North 
African colony of France, between Morocco on the 
west and Tunis and Tripoli on the east, its 
southern boundary extending as far as the French 
“sphere of influence,” fixed by the “understand¬ 
ing ” of 1890 at the northern limits of Bornu and 
Sokoto in the parallel of L. Chad. But the portion 
under civilised government is about 155,000 square 
miles, with a Mediterranean coast-line of 630 miles. 
It is divided into (1) Tell (Arab. Tal), a mountainous 
region with broad valleys or plains, cultivated and 
settled; (2) Sersous or steppes, with brackish 
“ Shotts ” or lakes without outlet; and (3), still 
farther from the sea, the Sahara ;, or oasis-dotted 
desert. The highest point of the Aures, an offshoot 
of the Atlas (q.v.), is Shelliah, 7,Gil feet. For 
purposes of government the colony is divided into 
the departments of Algiers, Oran, and Constantine 
(the capitals of which are the three cities of the 


same name), sending six deputies and three 
senators to the French Chamber. The unsettled 
districts are under military rule, the medium of 
connection between the natives, the Government, 
and the colonists being the Bureaux Arabcs. The 
chief towns are Algiers (q.v.), Oran (GO,000 inhabit¬ 
ants), Constantine (35,000), Bona (20,000), Tlemcen 
(18,000), Mascara (15,000), Philippeville (14,000), 
Mostaganem (12,000), Bougie (6,000), and Setif 
(6,000). The principal rivers are the Shelif, Summan, 
Harrash, Isser, Seybouse, Wad-el-Kebir, Mazafran, 
and Iiummel; but none of them are navigable, 
none form estuaries or great deltas, and the 
smaller ones are in summer almost dry or are lost 
in the sands before they can force a way for them¬ 
selves from the Steppe in which they rise to the 
Mediterranean, into which most of them fall. 

The population comprised in 1881 233,937 French, 
35,665 Jews (since 1871 citizens), 114,320 Spaniards, 
15,402 British (chiefly Maltese or Gibraltarines), 
4,201 Germans, and 22,328 other Europeans. The 
Mohammedans numbered 2,850,8G6 of the total 
3,310,412, and included Kabyles or Berbers—the 
true aborigines largely mixed with the debris of the 
Roman and Vandal colonists, mostly mountaineers, 
and the Arabs or nomad descendants of the 
invader who drove the Berbers into the mountains. 
There are also some negroes, whose forefathers 
arrived as slaves, but the Turks and their progeny 
by native mothers (“ Koolooghis ”) are not now 
recognised as a class distinct from the town Arabs 
or “Moors.” The Jews, who have absorbed a large 
share of the trade and financial business, were in 
Algeria at an early date, though most of them are 
sprung from those driven out of Spain and Portugal. 

The climate is hot in summer and mild in winter. 
Frost and snow are almost unknown, except on the 
high plateaux, and on the loftiest parts of the Tell, 
where the cold is severe, and the snow, which lies 
on the loftiest summits until June, often deep. 
Rain, wind, and cold usually come from the N.W. 
The N.E. blasts are rare and innocuous, and the 
mistral, by the time it reaches Algiers, is robbed of 
its virulence. The sirocco is in winter only a warm 
desert breeze, but in summer it is a fiery blast. 
The average rainfall is about 36 inches, and the 
rainy days in the year 80. June, July, August, and 
September are almost rainless, and the last two 
extremely warm. October and November are 
summer-like months, with occasional heavy rains. 
April and May form the most delightful period of 
the year, and from December to March the weather 
is like that of a fine bright autumn. At Algiers 
the thermometer ranges between 112° in August to 
32° in January, the mean of 13 years being from 
78° in August to 54° in January. 

The Fauna of the eastern portion resembles that 
of Sicily and Sardinia; that of the west is more 
like Spain. The lion, panther, serval, lrymna, 
jackal, golden fox, and genet are still common. 
Moufflons and gazelles are frequent, and the Barbary 
monkey is troublesome in places. The Barbary 
deer is found in the forest of Beni Saleh, anil 
near Ghardimaou. Camels, horses, and sheep are 
numerous; goats and cattle pasture in the up¬ 
lands. The ornithology and ichthyology resemble 









Algiers. 


( 83 ) 


Aigonquins. 


those of Southern Europe, but of the fresh-water 
fish five are peculiar to Algeria. Tortoises, chame¬ 
leons, scorpions, and lizards abound, but of the 
snakes the horned viper of the Sahara and plateaux 
is the only venemous species. Invasions of locusts 
<q.y.) and crickets are frequent and destructive. 

The Flora number about 3,000 species. Most 
European grains, fruits, and vegetables can be 
grown. The fig and orange are staples, the date is 
the harvest of the oases. Vines and tobacco are 
•extensively cultivated. Alfa and esparto grass 
are with corn, cereals, early fruits, and fibres ex¬ 
tensively exported, especially from the high 
plateaux; while the forests yield pine, cork, oak, 
pistachio, carub, myrtle, olive, mastic, etc. In 
.general the flora is that of Southern Europe, and 
like it is in greatest perfection in spring. During 
the hot months it dries up, but roses, violets, and 
geraniums bloom all through the winter. 

I he mineral wealth includes beautiful marbles, 
iron, salt, onyx, lead, copper, calamine, cinnabar, 
smd there are numerous hot springs, some of which, 
like the Hammam Meskoutin, attract the numerous 
invalids who pass the winter in Algeria. 

After being successively under the Romans 
<A.d. 20), Vandals (429), and Arabs (647), with 
periods during which the Spaniards and the Sultan 
of Morocco held portions, most of Algeria fell under 
Turkish control (1520), when Algiers became a 
nest of pirates until 1830, when it was seized by 
the French, who after hostilities and revolts lasting 
till 1881 established their rule throughout the entire 
country. Since then, railways, telegraphs, roads, 
•and other public works have been constructed at 
an enormous cost, the safety of travellers insured, 
and civilisation extensively diffused ; though even 
yet Algeria is, as a colony, only a qualified success. 
-Playfair's Handbook and the Guide Joanne are the 
best route books, but Playfair’s Bibliography 
(R.G.S., 1880), though not complete, contains the 
titles of 4,745 other publications on Algeria. 

Algiers (Fr. Alger; Arab. Al GezcCir , The 
Isles), the capital of the province of that name and 
of the whole French colony of Algeria, is situated 
on the Mediterranean, being built in the form of an 
amphitheatre on the slope of a mountain facing the 
sea, from which the tiers of white houses offer a 
bright and striking picture. Founded by the Arabs 
about A.D. 935, perhaps on the site of the ancient 
Icosium, Algiers under its Deys was for nine 
centuries a nest of pirates, who preyed with im¬ 
partiality on the vessels of all nations trading with 
the Mediterranean. Many attempts were made to 
suppress this abomination. The Spaniards held the 
place from 1510 to 1516. Charles V., Louis XIV., 
Cromwell, by the vigorous hand of Blake, all 
essayed with incomplete success this difficult task. 
In 1816 an English fleet, under Lord Exmouth, 
bombarded the town, and put an end to the enslave¬ 
ment of Christians, but not to the insolent misdeeds 
of the corsairs. In 1830, to avenge an alleged 
breach of international courtesy, Charles X. of 
France sent an expedition which captured the 
place, and the subjugation of the whole country 
was slowly effected. Under the French Algiers has 


greatly improved. The upper town and the suburb 
of Mustapha contain several handsome streets, such 
as the Boulevard de la Republique, and fine squares, 
chief of which is the Place du Gouvernement. An 
Archbishopric has been established, and there are 
law courts of every grade, a university, a museum, 
schools, theatres, and all the other adjuncts of 
I rench civilisation. I he harbour will now accom¬ 
modate 300 merchant vessels and 30 ships of war. 
The fortifications have been immensely strengthened. 
Of late years Algiers with its suburbs has become a 
favourite winter resort for invalids from England 
and elsewhere, those to whom the climate of the 
coast is unfavourable seeking health at Hammam 
R’lrka, 80 miles distant, on the fringe of the desert. 
A railway connects Algiers with Tunis and Con¬ 
stantine on the one side and Oran on the other. 

Algoa Bay, an inlet on the S.E. coast of 
Africa, about 425 miles E. of the Cape of Good 
Hope, and having a breadth of nearly 20 miles. 
The first British emigrants to Cape Colony landed 
here in 1820, and Port Elizabeth, now the chief 
town of the district, was founded in the S.W. angle 
of the bay. 

Algol, a remarkable double-star in the con¬ 
stellation Perseus. In the 10th century it was 
distinctly red, but is now white. It undergoes a 
cycle of changes in its brightness regularly every 
two or three days. The light is constant for the 
greater portion of this period, the star being then 
of the second magnitude. It then begins to 
decrease, and has a minimum brightness, of the 
fourth magnitude, for about twenty minutes, re? 
turning to its original condition in ten hours after 
the variation commenced. 

Aigonquins, one of the great divisions of the 
North American Indians, originally occupying 
nearly the whole region from the Churchill and 
Hudson Bay southwards to North Carolina, and 
stretching from the eastern slopes of the Rocky 
Mountains to Newfoundland. The term Algonquin 
is purely conventional in the sense now used by 
ethnologists. It is a contraction of Algomequin, 
i.e. “ People of the other side,” in contradistinction 
to the Iroquois, who held the south side of the 
Upper St. Lawrence, and who formed an important 
enclave within the Algonquin domain. The group¬ 
ing is linguistic, that is, it comprises all those 
numerous tribes who speak varieties of a now extinct 
stock language, of which there appear to be five 
distinct branches : 1. Powhattan, spoken by all the 
Virginian tribes (Powhattans, Panticoes, Pamunkies, 
Rappahannocks, Accomacs, and others); 2, Abenaki , 
spoken by all the New York, New England, New 
Brunswick, Nova Scotian, Cape Breton, and New¬ 
foundland tribes (Abenakis, Mikmaks, Bothuks, 
Etchemins,Penobscots, Passamaquoddies, Mohicans, 
Winnepesaukies, Narragansets, Pequods, Adiron- 
daks, Manhattans, Sankikani, etc.) ; 3, Fipercinean, 
spoken by all the Labrador, Laurentian, and Hud¬ 
son Bay tribes (Montagnais, Nasquapi, Mistassini, 
Tadousacs, Chippeways or Ojibways, Ottowas, 
Mississaugies, Musconongs, and Kristeneaux or 
Krees); 4, Lennape, spoken by the Lenni-Lennape or 













Alhama. 


( 84 ) 


Alias. 



Delaware tribes ; 5, Illinois, spoken with great 
dialectic diversity by all the western tribes 
(Shawnees, Kikkapoos, Illinois, Miamis, Pottawat- 
tainies, Kaskasias, Mitchigamies, Peorias, Sacs, 
Foxes, Cheyennes, Arapahoes, Blackfeet). The 
Algonquins, and especially the western group, are 
typical redskins, tall, of coppery complexion, with 
long, lank black hair, aquiline nose, high cheek 
bones, massive jaws, and dolichocephalic head. 
Kearly all are now either extinct or removed to 
government reserves, the Blackfeet, some of the 
Krees and Montagnais, and one or two others alone 
still occupying part of their original territories. 


decorative art. The two finest halls in the palace 
are the Court of the Ambassadors and the Court 
of the Lions , the last of which was admirably 
reproduced at the Crystal Palace, Sydenham. The 
Hall of the Abenc.errages is the reputed scene of 
the massacre of that family (a.d. 1484). An earth¬ 
quake in 1821, and a fire in 1890, did much damage 
to the structure. 

Ali (Arab. The sublime), the cousin of Mahomet, 
who gave him his daughter latima in marriage. 
On the death of the prophet, Abu-Bekr, Omar, and 
Othmar all claimed and obtained precedence. 


Alhama (Arab. The Bath'), a town in Granada, 
Spain, of some importance in Moorish times, and 
possessing hot mineral waters, whence its Arabic 
name. Another Alhama exists in the province of 
Murcia, Spain, and is also known for its sulphur 
springs, and there is a third in Aragon. 

Alhambra (Arab. The Bed Castle, with re¬ 
ference to the bricks of which it is built), the 
famous palace and stronghold of the Moorish kings of 
Granada, in Spain, was"founded by Mahommed II. 
about 1273 a.d., but the gorgeous arabesques that 
decorate the interior are ascribed to Yusuf I., who 
died in 1345. Ferdinand of Aragon captured the 
castle in 1492. The buildings occupy the crest of 
a hill that overlooks the city of Granada and com¬ 
mands a glorious view. On a neighbouring height 
stands the Generalife, which was the summer 
residence of the Moorish kings. The Alhambra has 
been carefully preserved as the most noble monu¬ 
ment in existence of Moorish architecture and 


and Ali founded the sect of Shiahs as opposed 
to the Sunnites, the stricter followers of Mahomet. 
In 656 A.d. he was proclaimed Caliph in spite 
of the opposition of the Ommiades, who sup¬ 
ported Amru. He was murdered by a Karigite 
fanatic at Kufa in 661, and the Shiahs yearly com¬ 
memorate his death, to the wrath of the Sunnites. 
His descendants under the name of Fatimites es¬ 
tablished themselves as rulers of Egypt and N. 
Africa at the end of the twelfth century. 

Ali Pasha. [Arslan,] 

Alias, in law, a second name. When a party 
sues or is sued (generally the latter) by two names, 

he is described as A- B- alias C- 

D-. Some fine-drawn arguments were once 

extant as to the possibility of a man having a 
second name. But in modern times, with the 
facilities of wisely amending in judicial proceed¬ 
ings, the name of the individual is less important, 


EXTERIOR VIEW OF THE ALHAMBRA. 





























Alibi. 


( 85 ) 


Alison. 


provided the actual party is before the court. In 
an indictment for murder the name of the de¬ 
ceased is obviously of the vei'y highest importance, 
the whole question turning on the identification as 
well of the murdered as of the murderer. 

Alibi, a defence resorted to where the party 
accused, in order to prove that he could not have 
committed the crime with which he is charged, 
offers evidence that he was in a different place at 
the time the offence was committed. This defence 
is not limited to criminal trials. In Scotland it is 
necessary for the prisoner to give the Crown special 
notice of such a defence, stating where the prisoner 
■was at the time of the commission of the crime. 

Alicante, a province and town in the S.E. of 
Spain. The province was formed in 1834 from parts 
of Valentia and Murcia. It is 73 miles long by C8 
broad, and has an area of 2,090 square miles. The 
northern districts are mountainous and barren, but 
the plains to the south bear heavy crops of wheat, 
maize, barley, flax, sugar, and every kind of fruit. 
Esparto grass is one of the largest and most valuable 
exports. The chief industries are spinning and 
weaving in silk, wool, flax, and cotton, lace-making, 
oil-crushing, and the distillation of spirits. The 
town and port of Alicante is one of the busiest 
commercial centres of Spain, ranking only after 
Cadiz and Barcelona. It is connected with Madrid, 
282 miles distant, by railway. The harbour lies 
at some distance from the town and is protected 
by heavy batteries. A strong castle looks down 
upon it from a height of 400 ft. Alicante was 
occupied by the Moors from 715 to 1258 a.d. 

Alica Maud Mary. [Royal Family.] 

Alien, (A) a child born abroad of a foreign 
father (unless the child’s paternal grandfather was 
a natural born subject), or (b) the child of an alien 
enemy, born in the United Kingdom. At common law 
aliens were subject to very many disqualifications, 
the nature of which will appear from the Statute of 
1844, which greatly relaxed the law in their favour. 
This Act has, along with many others, been re¬ 
pealed by the Naturalisation Act,. 1870, which 
enacts (subject to certain provisos) that real and 
personal property may be acquired or disposed of 
by an alien in the same manner as by a natural- 
born British subject, and that a title to real and 
personal property may be derived from an alien in 
the same manner as from a natural-born British 
subject. The Act also enables naturalised aliens 
to divest themselves of their status in certain cases, 
and enables British born subjects to resign their 
claim to be regarded as such; and while it enables 
British subjects to renounce allegiance to Her 
Majesty, provides for their readmission to British 
nationality, and contains enactments with respect 
to the national status of women and children. 
An alien is disqualified both for the Parliamentary 
and municipal franchise, and also from being a 
member of either House of Parliament or of the 
Privy Council. In France a child born of foreign 
parents is an alien. In the United States children 
born abroad are not aliens provided their fathers are 


citizens. An alien, though not in possession of the 
same political and municipal rights as a citizen, is 
protected as regards person and property. TAl¬ 
legiance.] L 

Alignment, military, the art of adjusting by 
means of a line, or the state of being so adjusted. 

Aligurh, or Aligarh, a district of the Meerut 
Division in the N.W. provinces of British India. It 
comprises the flat country between the Ganges and 
the Jumna, and contains 1,964 square miles. The 
Kali Nacli flows through it, and the chief town is 
Koel. The Fort of Aligurli stands on the Grand 
Trunk road about 50 miles N. of Agra. In the 
Mutiny the troops here rebelled, and thus cut off 
communications between the S.E. and N.W. 


Alima (Kimja), a tributary of the Congo, 
flowing through French territory and joining that 
river on the right bank (lat. 1°50' S., long. 16°50' E.). 
The source is near Ogowe springs, and the stream 
has first a N. and then an E. course. 


Alimentary Canal, the passage the food 
traverses from its entrance 
at the mouth to its final dis¬ 
charge as refuse material of 
no further service in the 
animal economy. It is lined 
throughout by mucous mem¬ 
brane, and comprises, in turn, 
the mouth, fauces, pharynx, 
assophagus or gullet, stomach, 
small intestine (consisting of 
duodenum, jejunum and 
ileum), and large intestine 
(which includes the ciecum, 
colon, sigmoid flexure, and 
rectum), and terminates at 
the anus. For special de¬ 
scriptions of the parts of the 
alimentary canal, the differ¬ 
ent headings referred to 
may be consulted. The total 

length of the digestive tube in man is about thirty 
feet. 



ALIMENTARY CANAL. 

oesophagus ; st, stomach; 
li, large intestine; si, 
small intestine; r, 
rectum. 


Alimony, the proportional part of a husband’s 
income which is granted to a wife during a 
matrimonial suit between them, and also that 
allowance granted her after the suit is over. A 
wife is not entitled to alimony if she elope with 
an adulterer or desert her husband without 
adequate reason. 


Aliquot part of a number, any whole number 
that will divide exactly into it. Thus the aliquot 
parts of 12 are 2, 3, 4 and 6. 


Alison, Sir Archibald, Bart., a political and 
historical writer, born at Kenley in Shropshire, 
of which place his father was vicar, in 1792. During 
his infancy the family returned to Edinburgh, and 
he was educated at the university there and called 
to the Scottish bar. He prospered at first, but when 
the Tories went out in 1830 his chances of promotion 
fell, and he took to literature with great industry. 
Besides contributing largely to Blackwood'$ Maga¬ 
zine and writing a number of volumes on various 











Aliwal. 


( 8G ) 


Alkmaar. 


economical and biographical subjects, he devoted 
himself mainly to the composition of his History of 
Europe from the French Revolution to the Fall of 
Napoleon, a work of immense labour, though in¬ 
accurate, dull, and prejudiced. The first two volumes 
appeared in 1833, and speedily won him the esteem of 
those sections of the public to whom the French 
Revolution was nothing but a hideous nightmare 
and the progress of democracy a fact to be ignored. 
The lack of judgment and candour is still more 
visible in the Continuation , which brings the record 
up to 1852 and was published in 1855. Disraeli 
said that the object of the work was to show that 
“ Providence is always on the side of the Tories.” 
Peel made Alison sheriff of Lanarkshire in 1834, 
and he spent the rest of his life in well-regulated 
toil at Possil House, near Glasgow. In 1845 he was 
elected Lord Rector of Marischal College, Aberdeen, 
and in 1851 Rector of Glasgow University. Lord 
Derby conferred a baronetcy upon him in 1852, and 
he died in 1867, working almost to the very last. 
He married in 1825 Miss Elizabeth Tytler, and left 
several children, of whom General Sir A. Alison is 
the eldest and most distinguished. 

Aliwal, a village on the left bank of the 
Sutlej, 20 miles from Loodiana, in the Punjab, 
Upper India. Here, in 1846, Sir Harry Smith at¬ 
tacked the Sikhs under their sovereign Runjeet 
Singh, and, though their force of men and guns was 
twice as great, defeated them utterly. 

Alizarin (C 14 H 8 0 4 ), a red colouring matter 
obtained from the madder root ( Rubin tinctorum ), 
in which it exists in the form of a glucoside termed 
Ruherythric Acid, a substance which is split up by 
a natural process of fermentation into Alizarin and 
Glucose. Alizarin, identical in chemical composi¬ 
tion with that obtained from the madder root, is now 
prepared artificially from the Anthracene of coal tar. 
It is a red crystalline substance which is little 
acted on by water, but readily dissolved by benzine 
and ether. It acts as a weak acid, forming Aliza- 
rates with metallic bases. Is of great importance 
in dyeing. 

Alkali, a name originally given to the ashes of 
seaweeds ; but now applied to other substances 
which possess the properties which are character¬ 
istic of seaweed ash, and including the compounds 
of the five so-called Alkali metals, Potassium, 
Sodium, Lithium, Rubidium, and Cces’ium, and the 
metallic radicle Ammonium, with Hydrogen and 
Oxygen. Alkalis are marked by great solubility in 
water, the power of neutralising and being neutra¬ 
lised by acids to form salts, the property of redden¬ 
ing blue litmus paper, of precipitating the heavier 
metals from their solutions as oxides, and finally, 
by their general corrosive action on organic bodies. 
The determination of the amount of Alkali in a 
given substance is termed Alkalimetry, and is pre¬ 
cisely analogous in method to that of Acidimetry 
already described. 

Alkaline Earths, the metals Barium, Stron¬ 
tium, and Calcium are known as the metals of the 
alkaline earths. The compounds of these metals 


are somewhat alkaline in their properties ; but are 
distinguished from the true alkalis by their com¬ 
parative insolubility in water. Lime (Oxide of 
Calcium) is the principal alkaline earth which 
occurs in nature. 

Alkaloids, Organic Bases, ox Organic Alkalis, 
a series of bodies of vegetable origin which are 
distinguished both by their similarity in properties 
to the alkalis proper, and also by their toxicological 
importance. They contain, as a rule, Carbon T 
Hydrogen, Oxygen, and Nitrogen; though in some 
cases the oxygen is absent. They have, for the 
most part, a marked alkaline reaction. Many 
of them are exceedingly poisonous. A very large 
number of natural alkaloids have now been dis¬ 
covered. For the most part they are crystalline 
solids which have a pronounced physiological 
action. Many of the most powerful and useful 
drugs are alkaloids; among such are aconitine,, 
atropine, caffeine, morphine, quinine, physostig- 
mine, pilocarpine, and strychnine. Alkaloids act 
as bases, forming salts with acids, thus we have 
sulphate of quinine, citrate of caffeine, hydro- 
chlorate and acetate of morphine, and so on. 

Alkanet, the commercial name of two distinct, 
plants, both used in dyeing. True Alkanet is obtained 
from the Lawsonia incrmis, the macerated leaves of 
which yield a yellow dye. False Alkanet, obtained 



from another plant the Anchnsa tinctoria, is the 
more important of the two ; it furnishes a brilliant 
violet dye, and contains a violet colouring matter 
known as Ancliusin. 

Alkmaar or Alckmaar, a well-built and forti¬ 
fied town in North Holland, of which it is the 
capital. It does the largest cheese trade in the 
Low Countries, besides enjoying a considerable 
share of other business. In 1573 the Spaniards 
laid siege to the place, but were obliged to abandon, 
the attempt after ten years. The Duke of York, 
commanding an Anglo-Russian force, capitulated 
here in 1799 to the French. 

Alkmaar, the Dutch versifier of the satirical 
poem, Reynard the Fox, was in the service of the 







Alkoran. 


( 87 ) 


Allegory. 


Prince Bishop of Utrecht, and of Rene, Duke of 
Lorraine, in the latter part of the 15th century. His 
work was printed at Lubeck in 1498. 

Alkoran. [Koran.] 

Allah, the name of God, used by the Arabs and 
Mohammedans generally. It signifies literally, 
“ The (Being) worthy to be adored.” 

Allahabad (the City of God), also known as 
Akbarabad, a city in theN.W. Provinces of India, 
which gives its name also to a division and a district, 
of both of which it is the capital. Situated at the 
confluence of the Ganges and Jumna rivers, 550 
miles from Calcutta, Allahabad has, from earliest 
times, been of great strategical and commercial 
importance, besides holding the highest place in 
the veneration of the Hindus, many thousands of 
whom come yearly to bathe in the holy waters. 
Now that the railway systems of Eastern and 
Western India converge to this point the city has 
immensely increased in population and consequence. 
The fortress commanding the junction of the rivers 
was founded by Akbar, in 1583, taken by the 
British in 17(15, restored to the Nabob of Oude in 
1771, and finally ceded to England in 1807. It is 
two miles distant from the city, and contains the 
remains of a fine palace built by Akbar. Other 
noteworthy monuments are the Great Mosque and 
the Caravanserai of the Sultan Khossore. The dis¬ 
trict of Allahabad is 85 miles long by 50 broad, 
with an area of 2,833 square miles, and a popula¬ 
tion of about a million and a half. It is well 
watered and luxuriantly productive. 

Allan, Sir Willtam, a Scottish artist, who 
flourished in the early half of the present century. 
Originally apprenticed to a coach painter, he 
entered the Trustees’ Academy, where Wilkie was 
his fellow student. He afterwards worked at the 
Royal Academy, and exhibited in 1803. Not finding 
the appreciation he expected he went to St. Peters¬ 
burg, where he met with ample employment as a 
portrait painter. In his leisure he visited Tartary, 
Turkey, and the Black Sea, returning home in 1814. 
He then painted Knox admonishing Mary Queen of 
Scots, and The Parting of Charles Stuart and Flora 
Macdonald, besides many other pictures, but with¬ 
out attracting favourable notice till Sir Walter 
Scott took him up, and in 1825 The Murder of 
the Regent Murray won him the Associateship of 
the Academy, of which in 1835 he received the 
membership. In 1838 he was chosen president 
of the Scottish Academy, and in 1842 he was 
knighted, and appointed H.M. Limner for Scotland. 
He died in 1850. 

Allantois, one of the foetal membranes present 
in the embryos of reptiles, birds, and mammals. _ It 
commences as an outgrowth from the hinder portion 
of the intestinal canal, which gradually enlarges, 
insinuating itself with its vessels between the 
amniotic folds, until it comes into contact with the 
shell membrane. In birds the allantois undergoes 
considerable development and serves as an aerating 
organ to the growing embryo, which it completely 


envelops. In man and mammals the allantoic ves¬ 
sels are only distributed over part of the outer mem¬ 
brane, that part, namely, where the placenta (q.v.) 
will be formed. The internal part of the allantois 
persists in man as the urachus (q.v.). Of the five 
groups of vertebrate animals, two, namely, fish and 
amphibia, have no allantois. 

Alleghany, or Appalachian Mountains, a 
mountain system that stretches from Cape Gaspe, 
on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, to Alabama, in the 
Gulf of Mexico, a distance of .1,300 miles. It may 
be divided into three sections ; the Northern, from 
Cape Gaspe to New York, includes the Adirondacks, 
the Green and the White Mountains ; the Central, 
from New York to the valley of the New River, 
contains part of the Blue Ridge, the Alleghanies 
proper, and many smaller parallel ranges; the 
Southern, from the New River to the Gulf of 
Mexico, embraces the smaller half of the Blue 
Ridge, the Black, the Smoky, and the Unaka 
Mountains. The system then traverses many states, 
and forms the watershed between the basin of the 
Mississippi and the rivers flowing into the Atlantic. 
The average height of the component ranges is 
under 3,000 feet, but Mount Washington, in New 
Hampshire,- rises to 6,620 feet. Geologically the 
Alleghanies are made up of granite, gneiss, mica, 
clay, slate, and primary limestones. They contain 
valuable mines of coal and iron, and are usually 
wooded to their summits, and intersected by rich ‘ 
valleys. The name Alleghany was adopted by the 
English in the North from the Indians, and means 
“ endless.” 

Alleghany, a river of Pennsylvania, North 
America, which unites with the Monongahela at 
Pittsburg and forms the Ohio. Above Pittsburg 
it is navigable for 200 miles. 

Allegiance, the duty of a subject to his or her 
sovereign. According to the general policy of 
nations a subject may not renounce allegiance even 
by emigration or naturalisation in another country, 
but this general law is in some cases modified by 
statute. The oath of allegiance is the oath which 
every subject may be called upon to take, and which is 
usually taken either upon assuming the higher offices 
of State or judicial and some other offices. In the 
United States the oath is simply of obedience to 
the constitution, and with it is implied, in the case 
of persons applying for naturalisation, the renuncia¬ 
tion of native allegiance to any other sovereign 
power. In England the oath of allegiance is to be 
faithful, and to bear true allegiance to the 
Sovereign. 

Allegory, a discourse which it is not in¬ 
tended should be taken literally, but as conveying 
a meaning other than the one actually expressed. 
Allegories may also be frequently expressed by 
paintings, sculpture, and the like. The most cele¬ 
brated allegories in the English language are un¬ 
doubtedly Spenser’s Faerie Queene and Bunyan’s 
Pilgrim's Progress. An allegory differs but little 
from a parable, or a fable, and is simply a kind of 
extended metaphor. 









Allegretto. 


( 88 ) 


Alligator, 


Allegretto, in music, a tempo livelier and 
brighter than andante (q.v.), but not so quick or 
brilliant as allegro. 

Allegro, a quick measure of time in music, 
which may be modified by additional adjectives, 
such as agitato, moderate, giusto, etc. It is between 
andante and presto. Like andante and adagio it 
may be used as a substantive signifying a parti¬ 
cular movement whose tempo is allegro. 

Alleine, Richard, born in 1611 at Ditcheat, 
Somerset, where his father held preferment, and 
educated at Oxford, was for twenty years rector of 
Batcomb, but was ejected after the Restoration as 
a nonconformist. He died in 1681. Of his many 
religious treatises the best known is entitled 
Vindicice Pietatis. 

Allemande, a slow, solemn air in common 
time; also a dance in triple time, very similar to 
the waltz. 

Allen, Bog of, a name which embraces all the 
bogs of peat and moss E. of the Shannon in King’s 
County and Kildare, Ireland. These extend over 
348,500 acres, and have an average depth of 25 ft. 
The rivers Boyne, Barrow, and Brosna have their 
sources here, and the Grand Canal traverses the 
district. 

Allen, Ethan, one of the earliest champions 
of American independence, born in Connecticut, 
1737. Raising a Vermont corps, he took Ticonderoga 
in 1775, but in the attack on Montreal he was made 
prisoner, carried off to England, and only released 
after the Convention of Saratoga. He spent his re¬ 
maining years in Vermont, where he wrote several 
books. He died in 1789. 

Allen, John, D.D., Archbishop of Dublin, 
educated at Oxford for the priesthood, and in 1515 
sent by Archbishop Warham as his agent to Rome, 
where he resided nine years. For a brief period he 
was Lord Chancellor of Ireland. In 1534, during 
the insurrection of Thomas Fitzgerald, “the Silken 
Lard,” Allen tried to escape from Dublin on board 
ship. He was stranded at Clontarf, seized by the 
rebels, and murdered. 

Allen, Lough, a lake in the province of Con¬ 
naught, Ireland, nine miles from Carrick. It is 
commonly regarded as the source of the Shannon. 

Allen, William, a distinguished chemist and 
a Christian philanthropist, born in 1770, being 
the son of a Spitalfields weaver. He received little 
or no education, but abandoning his father’s trade, 
took a place in the well-known druggist’s house in 
Plough Court, and by sheer industry he became a 
partner. He held the office of lecturer in chemistry 
at Guy’s Hospital for many years, made some im¬ 
portant discoveries, such as the true constitution of 
the diamond, and was elected Fellow of the Royal 
Society. Allen had been reared from his youth in 
the principles of the Society of Friends, and like so 
many of that sect, he devoted his wealth and 
energies to humanitarian objects. The reform of the 
English criminal law, the extinction of slavery, the 
establishment of savings banks, the extension of 


vaccination, were among many interests that claimed 
his attention. He worked personally amongst the 
poor, and even did mission work in ioreign 
countries, persuading the Czar to have the Scrip¬ 
ture taught in Russian schools. For years lie was 
treasurer of the British and Foreign School Society. 
He died in 1843. 

Allentown, a great centre of the iron trade in 
the United States. The town, formerly called 
Northampton, is situated on the W. bank of Lehigh 
river, Pennsylvania. It is calculated that a tenth 
of the iron produced in the States has its source 
there. 

Allerion. a term used in heraldry signifying 
an eagle with expanded wings with their points 
turned downwards and no beak or feet. 

Alleyn, Edward, an actor, born in 1566. He 
founded Dulwich College, which obtained the royal 
charter in 1619. He died in 1626. 

All Fools’ Day, the 1st of April. [April Fool.] 

All-hallows, All-halloween. [All Saints’ 
Day.] 

Allia (now Fiume di Conca), an Italian stream 
rising 11 miles from Rome, and flowing through the 
Sabine plain into the Tiber. Here in 387 b.c. the 
Romans were defeated by the Gauls under Brennus. 

Alliance, a treaty or compact formed between 
independent nations or powers. For particular 
alliances see different headings, Holy Alliance, 
Triple Alliance, etc. 

Allier, a department in the centre of France, 
between Cher and Nievre on the N. and Puy de 
Dome on the S., having an area of 2,821 square 
miles. The country as a rule is undulating and 
fairly wooded, but is traversed by two granite spurs 
from the Cevennes and the Mountains of Auvergne 
respectively. Coal, iron, antimony, marble, lime¬ 
stone, etc., are found. The mineral waters of Vichy 
and Neris are well known. Moulins, the capital, is 
the seat of a bishopric. Allier (Lat. Elarer), the 
river from which the Department is named, rises in 
the Cevennes, Department Lozere, and after tra¬ 
versing Haute Loire, Puy de Dome, and Allier, joins 
the Loire just below Nevers. Its total length is 
200 miles. 

Alligator, a genus of crocodilian reptiles, con¬ 
stituting a family (Alligatoridae), used also for any 
individual of the first section described below. They 
range from the Lower Mississippi and Texas through 
tropical America, with one Chinese species ( A. 
sinensis'). The head is shorter and broader than in 
the true crocodile; the teeth are very unequal, and 
the first and fourth teeth in the lower jaw fit into 
cavities in the upper jaw; the hind legs and feet 
are round, neither fringed nor pectinated at the side, 
and the toes only partially webbed. The genus 
may be divided into three sections—true Alligators, 
Caimans, and Jacares (to which some systematists 
give generic rank, while others combine the Caimans 
and Jacares in a single section). The best known 
species of the first section is the Pike-headed Alli¬ 
gator (A. mississippiensis), from the region of the 
Mississippi. It is from 14 to 15 feet long, of which 








Alligator. 


( 89 ) 


Allotments. 


the head is about one-seventh—greenish-brown 
above, yellow beneath, with alternate bands of these 
colours on the sides ; the snout is broad, flat, and 
rounded in front; the nostrils are separated by a 
bony knob ; the armour of the back is not articulated, 
none on the ventral surface ; eyelids fleshy. The 
Chinese species belongs to* this section, and is 
closely allied to the Pike-headed Alligator, but 
has the bony plate in the eyelid like the Caimans. 
The first notice of the existence of a Chinese 
crocodilian appeared in the Proceedings of the 
Zoological Society, in 1870. Some nine years later 
a stuffed specimen was sent to the Paris Museum; 
and in 1890 two living specimens were received 
and exhibited at the Zoological Gardens, Regent’s 
Park. The Caimans range from Mexico through 
tropical South America; the head is high, angular, 
ancl flat at the sides ; nostrils undivided; eyelids 
strengthened by an internal bony plate; bony 
dorsal and ventral scales articulated; webbing 
between toes rudimentary. The Jacares, with 
numerous species ranging from 2 to 13 feet in 




ALLIGATOR. 

a, Alligator Mississippiusis ; B, Caiman sclerops. 

length, have the same geographical range as the 
caimans, from which they differ little, except in 
having fewer teeth, and the eyelids striated or 
rugose. Their flesh is often eaten. In structure 
and general habits these animals resemble the 
crocodile. They feed principally on fish, but Bates 
describes them as troublesome in the dry season, 
when “ there was always one or two lying in wait 
for anything that might turn up at the edge of the 
water.” Alligator oil is utilised by the Indians for 
burning in lamps, and the skin forms the “ croco¬ 
dile leather ” of commerce. [Crocodile.] 

Alligator Pear. [Avocado Pear.] 

Allingham, William, a poet born in 1828; 
his most celebrated works are Dig and Night 
Songs (1854), and Lawrence Bloomfield in Ireland 
(1814). He died in 1889. 

Alloa, a sea-port in Clackmannan, Scotland, six 
miles below Stirling, on the N. of the Firth of Forth. 

It has a good harbour and capacious docks, iron¬ 
works, glass-houses, distilleries, and weaving mills, j 
“Alloa ale” is famous all over Scotland. \ 


Allobroges, a race of Gauls who dwelt in the 
country between the Rhone and the Lake of Geneva. 
Iheir capital was the town of Vienna. They made 
common cause with Hannibal against Rome, and 
were a constant source of irritation and annoyance 
to the Republic. 

Allodium, a legal term signifying landed 
property for which the owner has to pay no rent or 
service to a superior. Allodial tenure is thus dis¬ 
tinguished from feudal tenure. The only places 
where allodial tenure exists in Britain is in certain 
portions of Orkney, and even about these authorities 
differ. 

Allopathy. [Homceopathy.] 

Allophane, a rare but interesting mineral, 
a hydrated aluminium silicate, Al 2 0 3 Si0 2 + 5 Aq. 
It is not crystalline, but occurs in reniform or 
botryoid masses, white, yellow, red, brown, blue, or 
green in colour, traces of copper and iron oxide 
being present. It is waxy and translucent, and 
breaks with a conchoidal fracture. It is found in 
crevices near the top of the chalk at Charlton 
and Burham in Kent, at Beauvais and at several 
German localities. It is suggested that allophane, 
and the silicate of iron forming the green coating 
of the flints resting on the chalk, have originated 
from the superincumbent clay, or that in the chalk, 
with iron oxide and water, thus :— 

Fe 2 0 3 + Al 2 0 3 .2Si0 2 .2Aq. + 3H 2 0 = 
iron oxide clay water 

Fe. 2 0 3 Si0 2 + Al 2 0 3 Si0 2 .5Aq. 
iron .silicate allophane. 

Allophylian, a term introduced by Prichard 
to denote the peoples of Europe and Asia who are 
neither Aryan nor Semitic, and the languages 
spoken by them. It is sometimes used to include 
all races outside those families, and sometimes 
made an equivalent of Turanian. 

Allotments, small portions of land let out to 
labourers to cultivate in their spare time. They 
are believed to be a valuable means of promoting 
thrift, industry, and sobriety, and therefore the 
Legislature in 1887 endeavoured to encourage the 
extension of the system by passing “ an Act to facili¬ 
tate the provision of allotments for the labouring 
classes,” briefly called the Allotments Act, 1887. 
Previous to this it depended entirely on the land- 
owners whether land should be let out in allot¬ 
ments or not. The labourers would go to the 
landlord and endeavour to get him to let a piece of 
land to them, which he might or might not do, just 
as it pleased him. Now, however, by the Act of 
1887, this perfect freedom is taken from the land¬ 
lords, and if the sanitary authority in any district 
is satisfied that a demand for allotments exists in 
that district, and that such allotments are not pro¬ 
curable voluntarily, they can move the county 
authority to compel landlords to sell or let suitable 
land for this purpose. By the sanitary authority is 
meant the town council in towns, the local board in 
local government areas, and the guardians in rural 
districts. The way for a community to get the 
sanitary authority to act is for six registered parlia¬ 
mentary electors, or resident ratepayers, to sign a 












Allotropy. 


( 90 ) 


Almack’s. 


representation to the sanitary authority that such 
allotments arc required. If the sanitary authority 
be convinced of this, it may then buy or hire avail¬ 
able and suitable land, so long as it does not incur 
expense beyond what it may reasonably hope to 
recover from rents. It may not take land belonging 
to a park, pleasure-ground, or garden, nor can it 
touch the property of a railway or canal company, 
if such property be used in the company's under¬ 
taking. As to the tenants, they are chosen by the 
sanitary authority, and in virtue of their allotments 
have the right of exercising the parliamentary, 
municipal, and other local franchises. They are 
not allowed to sub-let, they may not build on their 
allotments, except sheds, greenhouses, pigsties, and 
such like, and at the expiration of their tenancy 
they may remove such erections, as well as trees, 
bushes, and so on, or else be compensated for these 
things. The maximum size of an allotment is one 
acre, and the rents are fixed at a figure sufficient to 
insure the sanitary authority against loss. 

Allotropy, or Physical Isomerism , the term 
applied to the property possessed by many substances 
of differing in physical attributes, while remaining 
identical in chemical structure. Thus the Allotropy 
of elements is illustrated by the differences of 
crystalline form, colour, etc., which are assumed by 
the same element under different conditions, 
viz. the different varieties of carbon (as charcoal, 
graphite, and diamond), phosphorus, and sulphur. 
The Allotropy of compounds is illustrated by the 
varieties of silica (quartz, agate, and amorphous 
silica), mercuric sulphide (red and black), and so on. 
As a rule, the passage of one allotropic form into 
another is closely connected with change of tempe¬ 
rature. 

Alloway, a parish in Ayrshire, Scotland, 
celebrated as containing the ruins of “ Alloway's 
auld haunted kirk ” that plays so important a part 
in the Tam o' Shantcr of Robert Burns. 

Alloy, originally a mixture of metals in which 
gold or silver formed one of the ingredients. It is 
now applied to any mixture of metals. Many alloys 
melt at lower temperatures than either of the con¬ 
stituent metals. 

All Saints' Bay, a fine inlet, 37 miles long by 
27 broad, on the coast of Brazil about 13 degrees 
S. of equator. The city of Bahia or San Salvador 
is on its E. side. 

All Saints’ Bay, formerly called All-hallows, 
a festival of the Church instituted early in the 
seventh century on the occasion of the transforma¬ 
tion of the Roman Pantheon into a Christian church 
dedicated to the Virgin Mary and all the martyrs. 
It is kept on the 1st of November. 

All Souls’ Bay, the 2nd of November, a 
festival of the Romish Church, held to commemorate 
all the Faithful deceased. It was originated by 
Odilon, Abbot of Cluny, in the eleventh century, 
and at first only carried out by his own order, 
but very soon spread through the whole Church. 

Allspice, or Pimento, the dry berry of Pimenta 
officinalis , Lindl. ( Myrtus Pimenta , or Eugenia 


Pimenta ), a West Indian evergreen tree belong¬ 
ing to the Myrtle family. Great Britain imports 
about 2,000 tons annually of these berries from 
Jamaica, whence she derives her sole supply. They 
yield on distillation about 4 per cent, of a pungent 
aromatic oil, resembling oil of cloves. From an 
allied species, P. acids, oil of bay, or bay-berry oil, 
used in the United States in the manufacture of 
bay rum, is obtained. 

Allston, Washington, a painter and poet, 
born in S. Carolina, 1779, studied under West at 
the Royal Academy of London, and then visited 
Paris and Rome. His picture, Jacob's Vision, at¬ 
tracted much notice. Returning to America, he 
married a sister of Dr. Channing, and revisiting 
England he took the prize at the British Institution, 
the subject being Dead men raised by Elisha's 
bones. He settled down near Cambridge, Massa¬ 
chusetts, where he painted and wrote. Coleridge 
admired his literary productions, which included a 
volume of poems, a romance, and a series of 
lectures. His death occurred in 1843. 

Alluvium, the soil formed by the sediment 
brought down by rivers and spread by their action, 
especially when in flood, over level tracts. Such 
tracts occur mostly in the lower parts of the course 
of a river, and in traversing them its course will be 
comparatively slow, whilst in the approximately 
stagnant and shallow water of floods deposi¬ 
tion will be specially facilitated. Alluvium con¬ 
sists largely of fine-grained loam or brick-earth, 
with river sands and gravels mainly in former 
channels, and even occasionally extensive stretches 
of shingle. It may often contain beds of fresh¬ 
water or estuarine shells, layers of peat or 
lignite, formed from swamp vegetation bordering 
the river, or local accumulations of driftwood from 
such natural rafts as those produced by trees 
blown by wind into the waters of the Mississippi. 
More violent floods, such as those produced by the 
blocking by ice of the mouths of such rivers as 
those that flow northward into the Arctic Ocean, 
may carry coarse gravel and deposit it in consider¬ 
able thicknesses. The deltas of rivers are entirely 
alluvial in origin, the rivers cutting their way in 
numerous channels through the matter which they 
themselves previously deposited. The whole of 
Lower Egypt and of Holland is thus comparatively 
modern alluvium. 

Alma, a small river and village on the W. coast 
of the Crimean Peninsula, Russia, rendered memo¬ 
rable by the victory gained there (Sept, 20, 1854) 
by the allied French, English, and Turkish armies, 
under Marshal St. Arnaud and Lord Raglan, over the 
Russians, commanded by Prince Menschikoff. 

Almack’s (so called from the original proprietor), 
the former name of the suite of assembly rooms 
afterwards known as Willis's Rooms. They are 
situated in King Street, St. James, and were first 
opened in 1770, and were famous until 1840 for the 
very select balls that used to be given there. So 
select indeed was the company, that to be seen at 
Almack’s was regarded as a~ certificate of good 
social standing. 








Almaden. 


( 91 ) 


Almansur. 


Almaden, a town in the province of Ciudad 
Real, Spain., where there exist ancient and produc¬ 
tive mines of quicksilver, the property of the 
Spanish crown, but once rented by the Rothschilds. 
An excellent School of Mines is established here. 

Almagro, Diego d’, born 1475, joined Pizarro, 
in 1525, in his first abortive attempt to penetrate 
into Peru, and afterwards shared with him in the 
conquest of that country, though jealousies had 
long since prevailed between the two leaders. 
Almagro was charged with murdering the Inca, 
Atahualpa. In 1534 he commenced the subjugation 
of Chili. A little later he rescued Pizarro’s brothers 
from the Indians who besieged them at Cuzco, but 
when he was refused entrance into the city stormed 
it himself. Pizarro sent a force which defeated him 
and took him prisoner. After long incarceration 
he was strangled in 1538. His son avenged his 
death by killing Pizarro, but was himself executed 
at Cuzco in 1541. 

Almagro, the capital town of a district in the 
province of Ciudad Real. Spain. It is celebrated 
for the manufacture of lace, and for an annual 
mule-fair. 

Alma Uff ater (literally, the nourishing or foster¬ 
ing mother), a term often applied to the university 
at which one has studied. 

Almanack, or Almanac, properly a calendar 
setting forth the days of the year and their 
recognised divisions, together with notifications of 
astronomical phenomena and of ecclesiastical, 
civil, and other fixtures ; forecasts of future occur¬ 
rences and chronological records of past events 
being often introduced. Later on the original 
purpose was not seldom lost sight of in such publi¬ 
cations, which then became magazines or annuals 
devoted to some particular branch of science, art, 
or information. Thus we have the Almanack dc 
Gotlia, a kind of European peerage, the Musen 
Almanak, a collection of German poetry, and sundry 
well-known compilations that aim at giving almost 
cyclopaedic views of human affairs. The origin of 
the word cannot be satisfactorily traced. At first 
sight it would seem to be made up of “al,” the 
Arabic demonstrative, and some root (Heb. manah ; 
Arab, manay') signifying “ to reckon.” But no such 
compound has been proved to exist in Arabic, 
whilst it is certain that Eusebius in the third 
century used almcnacha, with its modern significa¬ 
tion. Tables or calendars must have been one of 
the first-fruits of primitive civilisation amongst 
many nations, but references to them in ancient 
authors are scanty. Such contrivances were usually 
kept secret by priestly castes in the earlier stages 
of social development. In Rome, for instance, the 
pontifices preserved the fasti a mystery until 300 b.c., 
when Cn. Flavius published them on wooden tablets. 
So long as few men could read or write, cubes of 
stone or wood engraved with lines to note the days 
and with special marks to indicate fasts, festivals, 
changes of the moon, and so forth, amply supplied 
popular needs. The Farnese “ rustic calendars 
and our own “ Clogg Almanacs ” are specimens of 
these rude inventions. Of more elaborate schemes 


we hear nothing until the twelfth century. Roger 
Bacon (1292), Peter de Dacia (1302), Walter de 
Elvenden (1327), and John Somers (1380) were 
the authors of the most celebrated calendars of 
this period, some of which are preserved in the 
libraries of Oxford, Cambridge, and the British 
Museum. They were based for the most part on 
cyclical arrangements of time in accordance with 
lunar movements. The introduction of printing 
naturally stimulated this kind of literary activity. 
Perhaps the earliest printed almanack was that of 
Regiomontanus published at Nuremberg in 1472. 
Pynson’s Kalcndar of Shepardes (1497) was the 
first that appeared in England, and Tybalt’s. 
Prognostications , issued forty years later, won high 
repute. Nearly all of these productions claimed 
the gift of prophecy by virtue of astrological lore 
or occult power. Elizabeth granted a monopoly of 
almanac-printing to the Stationers’ Company, who 
retained this right until 1775, when the judges, 
decided that the concession was ultra vires. In 
the meanwhile a great number of publications had 
issued from the press, chief among them being 
Lilly's Epliemeris (1044), Poor Robin's Almanac 
(1G52), The British Merlin (1G58), The Edinburgh 
Almanac (1G83), Moore's Almanac (1G80 ?), and The 
Lady's Diary (1705). In not a few cases humour 
of the coarsest quality and woodcuts to match 
were mixed up with more wholesome or useful 
matter; but a heavy stamp duty imposed in 1710 
checked for over a century the excessive circulation 
of this class of literature. By far the most valuable 
compilation of them all was The Nautical Almanack 
started by Dr. Neville Maskelyne in 1767, remodelled 
under the auspices of the Royal Society in 1830, 
and continued to this day. Hone’s Every Day 
Booh , published in 182G, was a new departure in 
another direction. The Society for the Diffusion 
of Useful Knowledge awoke in 1828 to the mischief 
that was being done by the diffusion of superstition, 
error, and bad taste under the guise of popular 
information, and brought out The British Almanack 
followed by The Companion to the Almanack. The 
Stationers, still the owners of the majority of the 
copyrights, strove to excel their rivals with The 
English Almanack. In 1834 the stamp duty was 
abolished, and from that date the quantity and 
quality of such periodicals have grown year by year. 
Whitaker's Almanac, published yearly, was started 
in 1869, and has since then gradually been enlarged, 
until it is now a most valuable handbook of useful 
information. 

Almansa, a town of Spain, in the province of 
Albacete, formerly part of the kingdom of Murcia. 
During the war of the Spanish Succession (1707) 
the Earl of Galway was defeated by the Duke of 
Berwick with a French army, close by. The popu¬ 
lation is engaged chiefly in the manufacture of 
cotton fabrics, leather and soap. 

Almansur (Arab. Al-Mansur, The Invincible), 
a title borne by several Mussulman princes. Aboic 
Giafar-Abdaliah Al-Mansur, the second Caliph of 
the Abbassides dynasty, began to reign in 753. He 
had to leave Spain to "the rival dynasty, but he 
gained ground in Persia and Asia, founded Bagdad, 





Al-Mansnr. 


( 92 ) 


Alnwick. 


and made it his capital. He was the first Caliph 
who protected literature and science. He died on 
the way to Mecca, in 775. 

Al-Mansur, Mahommed, a great Moorish war¬ 
rior in Spain at the end of the 10th century. He 
took Leon and Barcelona, drove the Christians 
out of Portugal, entered Galicia, and seized the 
shrine of St. James of Compostella, but was himself 
defeated in turn, and died 997. 

Almeida, Don Francis d’, the first Viceroy of 
the Portuguese possessions in India, 1505. On' his 
way out he took Quiloa and Mombasa, and landing 
on the Malabar coast, established himself as 
Viceroy at Cochin. His son, Lorenzo, in the mean¬ 
time, reduced Ceylon, and later on routed the 
Mohammedans at sea, but was slain in an engage¬ 
ment with Hussein, Admiral of Egypt, and the 
Rajah of Calicut. At this juncture Albuquerque 
was sent out to supersede the elder Almeida, who, 
before yielding up his place, avenged his son’s death 
by completely destroying the united fleets of the 
enemy off Diu. In 1509 he set sail for Europe, and 
landing for water in Saldanhas Bay at the Cape 
was killed by a native spear. 

Almeida, a strong fortress in the province of 
Beira, Portugal, near the Coa river, and 113 miles 
N.E. of Lisbon. In 1808 it was surrendered by the 
French, but Massena recaptured it by a surprise 
in 1810. In 1811, after the hard-fought battle of 
Almeida, Wellington occupied the town again. 

Almeria, a province and capital town in Spain. 
The province, carved out of the kingdom of 
Granada, has an area of 3,300 square miles. Its 
seaboard was once the haunt of pirates. The interior 
is mountainous, but the valleys produce quantities 
of grapes, sugar, and maize, and the uplands past ure 
large herds of cattle. There are mines of copper, 
iron, silver, and mercury. The City of Almeria 
(Portus Magnus or Muryis ) is situated on the 
spacious bay of that name. The streets are narrow, 
displaying many specimens of Moorish architec¬ 
ture, but there are several fine squares. Under the 
Moors Almeria was very rich and important, and 
after the fall of the Caliphate of Cordova was the 
capital of a small kingdom. It passed into Christian 
hands in 1143. The trade is principally in barilla, 
lead, and esparto. 

Almiqui. [Agouta.] 

Almodovar del Campo, a pretty town 20 
miles from Ciudad Real, in the province of New 
Castile, Spain. Its population is employed in agri¬ 
culture, in the manufacture of lace and other tissues. 

Almond, the seed of Amygdalus communis , a 
small tree belonging to the Drupaceous subdivision 
of the rose family, native to North-West Africa, and 
perhaps also of Western Asia. The flowers are 
solitary and generally pink, and appear before the 
lance-shaped leaves, which in the bud are folded in 
halves. The fruit is egg-shaped, downy externally, 
with a tough, fibrous mesocarp, and a wrinkled 
stone. It has long been widely cultivated, and 
many varieties exist, differing in the hardness of the 
stone and in the flavour of the seed. Sweet Almonds 


(A. communis , var. dale is ) include the large thin- 
shelled Jordan (from the French yardin'), the 
Valencia Almond, imported as a dessert fruit from 



almond (Amygdalus communis), (1) fruit and (2) blossom. 

Malaga, and the smaller Barbary and Italian forms. 
The Bitter Almond (var. amara) yields an essential 
oil, employed in confectionery, but dangerous from 
sometimes containing prussic acid. 

Almonds, Oil of, the fixed oil obtained by 
pressure from sweet or bitter almonds. It consists 
mainly of olein (S.G. -918), solidifies at 25° C., 
is fairly soluble in alcohol, and mixes with ether in 
all proportions. An essential oil is also obtainable 
from bitter almonds; it is not present under 
natural conditions, but is produced by the action 
of a nitrogenous ferment called Emulsin on the 
glucoside amygdalin of the almonds; it is used for 
flavouring custards, etc., but is no longer employed 
medicinally. Sweet almonds contain amygdalin, but 
no emulsin, and therefore do not yield a volatile oil. 

Almond-shaped Implements. [Flint 

Implements.] 

Almoner, one who distributes alms; generally a 
religious functionary. Before the Revolution the 
Grand Almoner in France was the highest ecclesi¬ 
astical officer. The Lord High Almoner in England 
(usually a bishop) distributes the royal bounty twice 
a year. 

Almora, the administrative capital of Kumaun, 
a division of the N.W. provinces of British India 
lying at the foot of the Himalayas. The town stands 
5,337 feet above the level of the sea, 85 miles from 
Bareilly. 

Alnwick (pronounced Annick), the county 
town of Northumberland, on the river Alne, from 
which comes its name. The old walls of the town 
can still be traced, and one of the four gates built 
by Hotspur forms the chief entrance. Large sums 
have been spent by the Dukes of Northumberland 
in repairing and enlarging the castle. The town 
ha* a station on the North-Eastern Railway, 














Alee. 


( 93 ) 


Alpes. 


a town hall, corn -exchange, and all the other 
appurtenances of a centre of county business. 

Aloe, a liliaceous genus of about 150 species, 
mostly natives of Africa, Arabia, and adjacent 
islands, with rosettes of pointed, fleshy, radical 
leaves or unbranched stems eight to ten feet high. 



aloe ( A. succotrina), (a) leaf and (b) blossom. 


The bitter resin in the leaves is a valuable purga¬ 
tive. The chief species are A. succotrina of 
Socotra, A. vulgaris, the Barbadoes Aloe, cultivated 
in the West Indies, and A. spicata, Cape Aloe. 

Aloes, a purgative derived from the juice of the 
leaf of certain species of aloe. The active principle 
is the substance aloin. There are several prepara¬ 
tions of aloes in the Pharmacopoeia, of which the 
compound decoction is one of the best known. 
This drug acts mainly on the lower bowel, and con¬ 
sequently many hours elapse before it produces its 
effect. It is said not to cause habitual constipa¬ 
tion, and is, for that reason, in high favour, form¬ 
ing an active ingredient of most purgative pills. 
The so-called dinner pills usually contain aloes. 

Alopecia, baldness. This may exist from 
birth or be due to a variety of causes. One 
of the commonest forms is Alopecia areata, in 
which round shining patches, completely devoid 
of hair, are formed on the scalp. In rare cases 
the affection is universal, every hair in the body 
disappearing. The disease has been ascribed 
to the ravages of a microscopic fungus, but on 
this point authorities differ. Benefit has been said 
to be derived from blistering where the patches 
are localised, but for general baldness little can 
be done in the way of treatment. The innumerable 
specifics of which quacks sing the praises are 
not all harmless. Alopecia must not, of course, be 
confused, as is sometimes done, with ringworm. 

Alora, a town in Andalusia, Spain, 23 miles 
from Malaga by rail. 

Alost (Flem. Aalst), a town in the province of 
E. Flanders. Belgium, on the river Dender, which is 
navigable thus far, and 15 miles from Brussels on 
the railway to Ostend. The Church of St. Martin 
contains some fine pictures by Rubens, and the 


Town Hall is an interesting structure dating from 
the early 13th century. There are now large iron 
factories, and a good trade is done in lace, linen, 
wools, hops, and corn. 

Alpaca ( Auchenia paco), a ruminant of the 
Camel family, living on the Andes from the Equa¬ 
tor to Tierra del Fuego, but most abundant on the 
lofty table-lands of Peru and Chili, where they 
graze in herds throughout the year, and are driven 
to the huts of the Indians to whom they belong only 
at shearing time. Some authorities consider the 
alpaca to be a distinct species, while others regard 
it as the partially domesticated form of the vicuna 



(q.v.). In general appearance it is not unlike a 
large, long-legged, long-necked sheep, with abun¬ 
dant long, soft silky wool, to which the name alpaca 
is also given, as well as to the textile fabric prepared 
therefrom. These animals vary greatly in colour, 
from black to shades of grey approaching dusky 
white, while many are of a yellowish brown. The 
manufacture of alpaca stuffs in England dates 
from 1836, when Mr. (afterwards Sir) Titus Salt 
commenced to weave it. Saltaire is still the prin¬ 
cipal seat of the industry. Since that time, how¬ 
ever, the fabric has so grown in public favour, that 
now more than 2,000,000 lbs. are annually imported 
into Britain. Unsuccessful attempts have been 
made to acclimatise the alpaca in Europe and 
North America; and some years ago a herd was 
imported into Australia with no better result. 

Alp Arslan, or Ax an (Pers. The Brave 
Lion), the second sultan of the Seljuk dynasty in 
Persia, came to the throne in 1063. He added 
Armenia and Georgia to his dominions, defeating 
the Greek Emperor, Romanus Diogenes, in 1071. 
Whilst invading Turkestan he was stabbed by 
Yussuf Rothual, the commandant of a fort on the 
Oxus, and died in 1073. 

Three departments in the S.E. of 
their name from the great mountain 
system of Europe, viz. :—I. Basses-Alpes; II. 
Hautes-Alpes ; III. Alpes Maritimes. 

I. Basses-Alpes is bounded N. by Hautes-Alpes, 
S. by Yar, S.W. by Alpes Maritimes, W. by Yaucluse 


Alpes. 

France tak 








Alphabet, 


( 04 ) 


Alphabet. 


and Bouches du Rhone, E. by Italy, and has an 
area of 2,G80 square miles. The soil is sterile in 
the north, but the pasturages are good, and the 
mountains yield iron, lead, coal, jet, alabaster, and 
marbles. In the south oranges and other fruits 
grow abundantly, truffles are plentiful, and the 
silkworm is cultivated. Digne is the capital. 

II. llautcs-Alpes is bounded E. by Italy, S. by 
Basses-Alps, N. by Savoie and Isere, W. by Drome, 
and has an area of 2,158 square miles. The Cottian 
Alps, rising to an elevation of 14,000 feet, run right 
across the department, rendering the climate very 
severe. Snow lies in some valleys for seven months. 
The soil, too, is barren as a rule, but fruit trees thrive 
towards the south. There are mines of iron, copper, 
lead, and coal, and quarries of valuable stone. Gap 
is the chief town. 

III. Alpes Mar it hues is a newly-formed depart¬ 
ment, having been made up in I860 from the 
territory of Nice ceded by Italy, together with 
Mentone and Roccobruna purchased from Monaco, 
and part of Yar. It is bounded S. by the 
Mediterranean, E. and N. by Italy, W. by Yar and 
Basses-Alpes. Though it is very mountainous, the 
Maritime Alps and their spurs filling all the north 
and centre, the mild climate of the coast district, 
the Riviera, draws invalids and pleasure-seekers 
from colder climates besides favouring the growth 
of oranges, lemons, and other fruits, early veget¬ 
ables, silkworms, etc. The sea, too, yields sardines 
and anchovies, in which a large trade is done. The 
area is 1,482 square miles. Nice is the chief town. 
Mentone, Cannes, Grasse, Yillefranche, and Antibes 
are all thriving and prosperous places. [Alps.] 

Alphabet (from the first two Greek letters 
alpha, a ; beta, /3 ; in their turn derived from the 
♦Semitic aleph, k ; beth, n), a collective name for the 
series of symbols used to express the elementary 
sounds of a language, and serving to form syllables 
and words. [Picture-writing.] The number of 
alphabets known to and catalogued by philologists 
is about 200, but of these only about fifty are now in 
use. The origin of the alphabet is a question which 
has occupied mankind for more than 2,000 years. 
Classic authors testified that the Greeks had 
received the gift of letters from the Phoenicians, 
who had obtained them from the Egyptians. 
Tacitus, in his Annals (xi. 14), is explicit on this 
point. He says :—“ The Egyptians first depicted 
thoughts of the mind by the figures of animals, 
which oldest monuments of human memory are to 
be seen impressed on the rocks, so that they (the 
Egyptians) appear as the inventors of letters, 
which the Phoenician navigators brought thence to 
Greece, obtaining the glory as if they had discovered 
what they only borrowed.” Comparison of the 
alphabets of modern Europe with that of ancient 
Greece made it clear that there was considerable 
resemblance between them ; and no possible doubt 
could exist as to the derivation of the Latin alpha¬ 
bet from the Greek. The difficulty was to account 
for the origin of the Phoenician alphabet, and the 
dissimilarity between the Semitic letters and the 
Egyptian hieroglyphs was so great that men of 
science declined to receive the testimony of classic 


authors, and the problem seemed insoluble. In the 
eighth edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, the 
article “Alphabet” concludes thus:—“Since we are 
unable, either in history or even in imagination, to 
trace the origin of the alphabet, we must ascribe 
it with the Rabbins to the first man Adam . . .. 

or we must admit that it was not a human, but a 
divine invention.” 

Four years later this obscurity was dispelled 
by M. Emmanuel de Rouge in a paper read by him 
before the Academic des Inscriptions at Paris, in 
which, while admitting the futility of endeavouring 
to derive the Phoenician letters from Egyptian 
hieroglyphics, he showed that they were taken 
from an Egyptian hieratic script, so ancient that 
its use had been forgotten long before the Hebrew 
Exodus. This script had been invented by the 
priests, who found the elaborate hieroglyphics too 
troublesome for rapid delineation on papyrus, and 
consequently abbreviated them to a few rapid 
strokes. The chief authority for this hieratic script 
is a manuscript procured at Thebes and presented 
to the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris by M. Prisse 
d’Avennes, and generally known as the “ Papyrus 
Prisse.” It was found in a tomb of the eleventh 
dynasty, and is undoubtedly the oldest book in the 
world. Its evidence is supported by one papyrus 
in the Berlin Museum, and by another in the 
possession of Professor Lepsius. 

From this material, and with the standard 
alphabet of twenty-five characters as accepted by 
Egyptologists as a basis, M. de Rouge has shown 
how twenty-one of them were taken over by the 
Semites, only one new symbol ayiniy) being added. 
There can be no certainty as to the place where or 
the time when this development was effected, 
though it probably originated with a Phoenician 
colony occupying the Delta some 4,000 years ago. 

These conclusions (which are generally accepted 
by those whose studies have qualified them to speak 
on the subject) have supplied an answer to the objec¬ 
tion that the Semitic letters could not have had an 
Egyptian origin, because, for example, the Semitic k 
was called aleph (= an ox), while the hieroglyphic 
■whence it was said to be derived represented an 
eagle. But when the Semites thus “ spoiled the 
Egyptians ” by appropriating the hieratic characters 
they gave them Semitic names, each significant of 
some object more or less closely resembling the 
letter to which it was applied and commencing with 
that letter. The letter 3, yimel (of which the English 
camel is a transliteration and translation), offered 
some difficulty, as it presented no resemblance to 
a camel. Gesenius suggested that the Phoenician 
letter represented the camel's hump, and other 
scholars offered other solutions; but Dr. Taylor 
made the matter clear by placing the sketch of a 
kneeling camel by the side of the hieratic character. 
The resemblance is so close as to remove every ob¬ 
jection ; and the development of the Greek and 
Latin letters from the Phoenician is clear enough. 
The letters figured are the lapidary forms :— 

22* 2 , > r c 

Hieratic. Phoenician, Greek. Latin. 






Alphabet. 


( 95 ) 


Alpheus. 


This acrologic principle, as it is called, is not 
peculiar to the Semites. It occurs in the Russian 
alphabet (borrowed from the Greek in the ninth 
century), and in many others, and is familiar in 
every English nursery in the rime:— 

A was an Archer, who shot at a frog ; 

B was a Butcher, who had a great dog; etc. 

From these twenty-two Semitic letters have been 
developed all the alphabets of the world, those of 
the Semitic family retaining the characteristics of 
the original in being written from right to left and 
in having no true vowels. In the Aryan tongues 
the writing is from left to right (though for some 
time the ancient Greeks wrote from right to left 
and from left to right alternately), and vowels have 
been developed out of the Semitic breaths and 
semi-consonants, so that while Disraeli’s boast, 
“ that the Semites gave the world its alphabet,” is 
literally true, the Aryan race perfected that gift by 
the addition of vowel-signs. 

The tradition that the Greeks derived their 
alphabet from the Phoenicians is established (1) by 
the similarity between the letters in the. oldest 
Greek inscriptions and those in the early Phoenician 
records; (2) by the agreement in the order of the 
letters ; and (3) by the adoption by the Greeks of 
Semitic names for their letters. From the older 
breaths alepli (x), he (n), and ayin (y), were de¬ 
veloped the vowels alpha (a), e-psilon (e), and 
o-micron (o) ; and from the semi-consonant yod (')ancl 
van (i) the vowels iota (t) and u-psilon (o). From 
the original alphabet the Greek has omitted three 
characters : F (the digamma), derived from van (i), 
Q from qoph (p), and -n (sail) from tsadcle (v) ; and 
added five, H from chetli (n), n ( o-meya ) from 
o-micron (o); $ differentiated from 0, X from K, 
and V probably from <i>. By the middle of the 
sixth century B.C. the Greek lapidary alphabet 
(as known from inscriptions) had assumed a definite 
form, to be replaced some three centuries later by 
the rounded capitals now in use, a cursive form 
being employed for correspondence. The small 
letters used in printing Greek books date from 
about the eighth century A.D., and were developed 
from a combination of the round capitals and the 
cursive forms. 

Probably about the ninth century B.C. the 
alphabet was carried from Greece to Italy, where 
it was adopted by the Oscans, the Umbrians, the 
Etruscans, the Faliscans, and the Latins. As Rome 
grew in power the Latin alphabet gradually dis¬ 
placed those of the other Italian races ; it became 
the alphabet of the Empire and its dependencies, 
spread over Western Europe, and has been oarried 
far and wide by colonists till it has become the 
most widely used alphabet of the world, its only 
rival being the Arabic. The Latins retained as a 
mere breathing H, which the Greeks had made a 
vowel, and the letters F and Q, which they 
had discarded. Y was added about the time of 
Cicero to express the sound of the Greek T, and Z 
soon afterwards to write loan-words from the 
Greek. In the time of the early Empire the 
Romans used two forms of letters: capitals for in¬ 
scriptions, from which our own capitals have been 


developed; and cursive forms for business and 
correspondence (chiefly known to us from the 
scribblings, technically called graffiti, on the walls 
of the houses of Pompeii), which were the origin of 
our small letters. From these cursive forms were 
also developed the semi-uncial script used by Irish 
monks in transcribing manuscripts, introduced by 
Alcuin into the School of Charlemagne at Tours, 
and afterwards known as Caroline minuscules. 
From an early form of this script was developed the 
Roman type, while a later and debased form gave 
rise to the Gothic or black letter. 

The alphabet of the early Britons was a modifica¬ 
tion of the Roman, and the parent of that used in 
writing and printing the old Irish language. This 
alphabet, with some changes, was adopted by our 
English forefathers when they conquered the 
country. The symbols p h (called the thorn-letter) 
and D 15 (sometimes called etli) were used indiffer¬ 
ently for the th in thigh and the th in thy, though 
sometimes they were differentiated; the rune j> 
(wen) was used for w, and ce for the sound of a in 
fat. Modern English has discarded these four 
symbols, though one of them (J?) is used uncon¬ 
sciously by those who write and print “ y e ” for 
“the.” The.vowel-sounds, which were numerous, 
were expressed by the use of an accent (') for long 
vowels, and by combinations of vowels. TJ was 
originally used both as a vowel and as a consonant, 
the latter being distinguished chiefly by its occur¬ 
rence between two vowels, of which the latter is 
generally e. They were differentiated before the end 
of the thirteenth century, but the practice of writing 
u for the consonant sound always between two 
vowels, and the rule that v must never end a word, 
have given rise to such anomalies in our pronuncia¬ 
tion as shave (where v represents a primitive f) and 
have ; alive and live, etc. About the same time the 
symbol 3 was used for initial y or guttural h or gli 
when medial, but it w r ent out of use in the fifteenth 
century, chiefly because it was indistinguishable 
from Z, then introduced from the French, and used 
as in Latin to spell foreign words. About the same 
time the symbol J arose from the practice (still 
used in prescriptions) of writing the numbers it, 

viii, xii, with a flourish of the final i thus: ij, 

viij, xij. But J was not generally used till the 
seventeenth century; it does not appear in the 
Shakespeare of 1G23, though it was common in 
1G60. The dot over the i is a survival of an accent 
formerly added when that letter was written next 
to m, n, or u. The wen rune disappeared about 
the end of the thirteenth century, and was re¬ 
placed by two joined v's, and afterwards by w 
(a French symbol), without any change in the 
pronunciation. 

Alpheus (Rom. Alplieus), a river of Peloponnesus 
famed in classic song. Rising in Arcadia, and 
passing through Elis and Achaia, it falls into the 
Ionian Sea; but as part of its course is subterranean, 
strange legends and myths attached themselves to 
this phenomenon. The stream was personified as : 

“ Divine Alplieus, who by secret sluice 
Stole under seas to meet his Aretlmse.” 

Milton, Arcades, 30. 





Alpine. 


( 96 ) 


Alps. 


Arethusa, a nymph, having in vain been trans¬ 
formed by Diana into a Sicilian spring so as to 
escape the pursuit of her lover. 

Alpine Club, an association consisting of Eng¬ 
lish gentlemen, which was formed in 1857-8 for the 
purpose of creating a bond of union between those 
who found pleasure in mountaineering. It was the 
Alps that at first attracted the attention of the 
mountaineers, and hence the name of the club, but 
the members have by no means contented them¬ 
selves with the peaks of Switzerland and Italy. 
Undoubtedly great good has been done by the 
members of the Alpine Club, both in revealing to 
the public many previously unheard of and un¬ 
imagined beauties, and in pointing out at the same 
time the attendant dangers of the art of moun¬ 
taineering, and suggesting the necessary precautions. 
It is, moreover, a significant fact that since the 
foundation of the club the death-rate of accidents 
from mountain climbing has been reduced to a little 
less than four lives per annum. 

Alpine Plants, low-growing perennial herbs, 
or wiry undershrubs, many of which are remark¬ 
able for relatively large and showy flowers, natives 
of the upland pastures of the Alps, Pyrenees, or 
other mountain ranges. Their flowers often melt 
their way through the snow, and many of them are 
pollinated by butterflies, a group of insects reaching 
high altitudes. In cultivation these plants require 
protection from drought, direct sunlight, and often 
from frost, being accustomed to the protection of 
snow. They include many species of Ranunculus, 
Poteniilla, Saxifraga, Hieracium, Campanula, 
Gentiana, Primula, JDianthus, etc. 

Alpnach, a small Swiss town at the foot of 
Mount Pilatus, on an inlet of the Lake of Lucerne, 
Switzerland. To convey timber from the moun¬ 
tain to the water “ the Slide of Alpnach ” was con¬ 
structed, an inclined plane 8 miles long, 

Alps, the name applied to the most important 
mountain chain in Europe. Physically the Alps 
cannot be separated from the Apennines on the 
one hand, from the mountains of Istria, etc., on 
the other. Thus, the limits of the chain itself, as 
well as its subdivisions, are rather arbitrary. It 
may be roughly separated from the Apennines by a 
line joining Turin with Mentone; from the Julian 
Alps by the watershed between the Isonzo and 
the Save. The chain sweeps round the great 
plain of northern Italy, by the head of the 
Adriatic, to the plain of Hungary, and it inoscu¬ 
lates with the mountain region on the eastern 
shore of the Adriatic ; the length measured along 
the watershed being roughly 790 miles, with a 
maximum breadth of about 200 miles. The highest 
peak is Mont Blanc (15,781 ft.), but many peaks ex¬ 
ceed 10,000 ft., even the crest of a range not falling 
below this for a considerable distance. Thus, there 
are many large snowfields and glaciers. The Alps 
occupy part of the territory of the following 
nationalities: Austria, Bavaria, Switzerland, France, 
and Italy. 

Subdivisions. —Geographers differ as to the 
subdivisions of the Alps : the following correspond 


nearly with those adopted by one of the best 
authorities. 

(1) The Maritime Alps. These are divided from 
the Apennines, as stated above, and extend to the 
Col de Longet, south-east of the Yiso. The chain 
here is single, with ramifying valleys, the highest 
peak being the Aiguille de Chambeyron (11,155 ft.). 
(2) The Cottian Alps. From the Col de Longet to 
the Col del Carro (joining the valley of the Arc in 
Savoy with that of the Oreo in Piedmont), and 
limited on the west by the Col de Galibier. The 
chain is now becoming more complicated in 
structure. The highest peak in the Cottian Alps 
is Monte Viso (12,643 ft.). The most important 
road passes are the Mont Genevre (6,102 ft.), and 
the Mont Cenis (6,772 ft.) ; near the latter a railway 
is carried through the range by a tunnel eight 
miles long. (3) The Dauphine Alps. These are 
composed of a great spur extending westward from 
the main range (arbitrarily limited at the Col de 
Galibier, connecting the upper waters of the 
Durance with those of the Arc), and a huge off¬ 
shoot from it towards the south, linked on by the 
Col du Lautarat (6,740 ft.), which is crossed by the 
carriage road from Grenoble to Briainjon. In the 
former section only one peak just overtops 
11,500 ft., in the latter the Pointe des Ecrins is 
13,462 ft., and several exceed 12,000 ft. The struc¬ 
ture of the chain is now becoming yet more com¬ 
plicated, and gives indications of being composed 
of parallel ranges. (4) The Graian Alps include 
the whole chain as far as the Little St. Bernard 
Pass (about 7,200 ft.), together with the great spur 
which runs out eastward and is cut off from the 
Pennine Alps by the valley of the Dora Baltea. Its 
highest peak is the Grand Paradis (13,300 ft.), that 
of the main mass is the Grande Casse (12,780 ft.). 

(5) The Pennine Alps. To these may be assigned 
the district north of the Graians, and on the left 
bank of the Bhone, though by some the western 
part of this is distinguished as the Savoy Alps, 
the eastern limit being the Simplon Pass (6,595 ft.). 
This division includes the most elevated part of 
the chain, from Mont Blanc, with its Aiguilles (or 
adjacent peaks) on the west, to the group of great 
peaks around Monte Rosa (15,217 ft.) on the east. 
Up to the Simplon no carriage road crosses the 
main range, but the Great St. Bernard, a mule track 
(8,131 ft.), has been made famous by its hospice. 

(6) The Bernese Alps run parallel with the Pen- 
nines from the valley of the Rhone to that of the 
Reuss. The range is generally lofty, the highest 
summit being the Finster Aarhorn (1*4,026 ft.) ; one 
of its glaciers, the Gross Aletsch, is the largest in 
the Alps. This range is continued east of the 
Reuss by the (7) North Swiss Alps, an extensive 
but less elevated region, the highest peak, the 
Todi, only attaining 11,887 ft. In like way the 
Pennine Range is continued east of the Simplon 
Pass by the (8) Lepontine Alps, of which the 
Spliigen Pass (6,945 ft.) may be taken as the 
eastern boundary. Here the peaks are lower, the 
highest point, Monte Leone (11,696 ft.), being close 
to the Simplon road. The range is crossed by the 
St. Gothard Pass (6.936 ft.), and pierced by a rail¬ 
way which passes through a tunnel 9^- miles long. 






Alps. 


( 97 ) 


Alps. 


(9) The Rluctian A Ips include the district east of the 
last up to the Yorarlberg Pass (now crossed by a 
railway) on the north ; on the eastern side they are 
limited by the Inn as far as a line joining that 
river with the head waters of the Adige, and then 
by the right bank of that river. The highest peak 
is the Bernina (13,294 ft.). In this division is the 
Stelvio Pass, the highest carriage road in the Alps 
(9,177 ft.). (10) The Vindelican A Ips include the 

northern range from the Lake of Constance to the 
neighbourhood of Vienna, the highest peak being 
the Zug Spitz (9,716 ft.). By some the part east of 
the Inn is called the North Noric Alps. (11) The 
Central Tyrol Alps. These are limited by the 
right bank of the upper Inn, and extend eastward 



THE BERNESE ALPS FROM THE WENGERN ALP. 


schists, etc., of unknown but very great geological 
age. The oldest fossiliferous rocks are of Silurian 
and Devonian age ; they occur in the Eastern 
Alps, between the Northern and Central ntnge. 
Hocks of Carboniferous age are recognised here 
i and there in many parts of the Alps. These prove 
j that a region hilly, if not mountainous, then existed, 
i Permian times saw great volcanic activity in the 
j South Tyrol region. After this came subsidence, 
J and here extensive masses of dolomite were formed. 

In some districts land remained above water till 
j the end of the Trias, but at last the whole men 
i became submerged, and continued to receive sedi¬ 
ment till near the end of the Eocene peiiod. 
Then began a great epoch of mountain-making 


as far as a rather irregular line passing through ! 
Ground and Villach, the highest peak being the 
Gross Glockner, 12,455 ft. They are crossed by the 
Brenner Pass (4,588 ft.) road and railway ; east of 
these are (12) The Styrian Alps. (13) The South 
Tyrol and Venetian Alps extend from the east bank 
of the Adige to the Sexten Thai, the highest peak 
being the Marmolata (11,020 ft.), and are followed 
by (14) The South-eastern Alps. 

In the eastern part of the Alps the chain is 
obviously composed of three ranges, parted by long 
troughs occupied by important rivers, the central 
one being the watershed. This structure becomes 
rather less distinct near the head waters of the : 
Inn. and the watershed appears to cross to the 
southern range. It is, however, more probable 
that the latter disappears by denudation, and the 
Lepontine and Pennine Alps are orographically con¬ 
tinuous with the Central Tyrol Alps. South of 
Mont Blanc the above-named structure exists, but 
is difficult to trace. 

Geoloyy. —The “ foundation stones ” of the Alps 
consist of crystalline rocks—granites, gneisses, j 

7 


The crust of the earth was folded, outlining 
the dominant features of the chain. Rivers, pre¬ 
cursors of those still running, brought down 
sand and gravel and poured it over the lowlands 
or into the sea on either side of the chain. The 
Miocene period, roughly speaking, was closed by 
another epoch of mountain-making. This, in 
Switzerland, raised the pebble-beds in the Rigi and 
the Speer some 6,000 ft. above the sea. It left the 
chain much as it is at present, though vast masses 
of rock have been since removed. After a long 
interval, the climate of Europe, from some un¬ 
known causes, became much colder, the glaciers 
of the Alps increased enormously in size; they 
occupied the mountain valleys, debouched on the 
Italian plain, covered the lowland of Switzerland, 
and welled up on the flanks of the Jura to a 
height of about 2,000 ft. above the lake of Neuf- 
chatel. Here blocks of Alpine rocks remain to 
mark their limit. On the Italian plain the moraines 
(q.v.) are like ranges of hills. Some geologists 
have credited glaciers with the excavation of the 
lake basins ; these, however, are regarded by others 















Alps 


( 38 ) 


Alsace. 


as clue to differential movements in the beds of 
pre-existing valleys. 

The earth-movements have left their mark in 
extraordinary flexures of the rocks, beds being bent 
into S-likc curves or even folded back. Sometimes 
these folds are fractured and one part is thrust 
over another; thus the order of succession is locally 
inverted. By pressure, clays have been converted 
into slates, massive crystalline rocks have become 
foliated, while ancient foliated rocks have received 
a new structure. 

llydroyraphy .—The main rivers, the Mur, the Save 
and the Drave, draining the eastern part of the chain, 
run east towards the Danube, but the Salza, also 
its tributary, turns to the north and cuts through the 
northern range. The south face of the southern 
range is drained by minor rivers flowing to the 
head of the Adriatic, the most important being the 
Piave. Farther west the drainage of the south 
side of the centi’al range is carried through the 
southern range by the Adige or Etscli, its principal 
affluents being parted from the Drave on the east 
and the Inn on the west by comparatively low 
watersheds. The last river rises in the southern 
range on the Maloya Pass (5, ( .)42 ft.), seemingly 
cuts the central range; then, after flowing eastward 
between this and the northern range, severs the 
latter and debouches on the Bavarian plain on its 
way to the Danube. 

The central portion of the Alps is drained by the 
Rhine, the Reuss (its tributary), and the Rhone. 
These rise in the northern face of the Lepontine 
Alps ; the first runs for a considerable distance 
eastward, the third in like manner westward, till 
they turn northward, and run roughly parallel with 
the second. Hence the head waters of these three 
rivers lie in a kind of trough interrupted by the 
Oberalp Pass between the Rhine and the Reuss, and 
the Furka Pass between the Reuss and the Rhone. 
The Aar is fed by the glaciers of the Bernese Alps, 
the Limmat issues from the North Swiss Alps. 

South of Mont Blanc the Isere, Arc, and 
Romanche carry the drainage of the western 
portion of the chain, by zigzagging courses, to 
the Rhone; but parts of the Daupliine and the 
Cottian Alps are drained by the Durance, which 
also ultimately reaches the Rhone. Parts of the 
Maritime Alps discharge their waters direct to the 
Gulf of Lyons by less important streams. West of the 
Adige, all the water from the inner side of the great 
loop of the Alpine chain makes its way to the Po. 

Lakes .—The lakes of the Alps are numerous. 
The most important are those of the Salzkammergut 
and the Konigsee in the North Noric Alps, the 
Lakes of Constance, Zurich, Lucerne, Thun, Brienz, 
and Geneva, wholly or in part, in Switzerland; of 
Garda, Iseo, Como, Lugano, Maggiore, mainly in 
Italy, with those of Annecy and Bom-get in France. 

Climate .—As the Alps extend over about four 
degrees of latitude and the summits vary so much 
in elevation, no general statement can be made. 
The mean temperature of the Swiss Lowland differs 
but little from that of England, the summer being 
rather warmer, the winter rather colder. The 
mean at Berne is 40-9° F., Lucerne 47'5°, Geneva 
49-5°, Montreux 50-9°, the summer temperature at 


Berne being 72° and the winter 31-8°. The mean 
temperature at the St. Bernard is 28-12°. The rain¬ 
fall here is (5*6 ft. per annum. The snow-line varies 
according to locality; 8,000 feet may be taken as 
a rough average. Much snow falls everywhere in 
the winter months. This slips from the great 
slopes of the mountains in the form of avalanches r 
which often are very destructive. Occasionally 
also portions of the steeper glaciers break away. 
The scenery of the Alps is varied and beautiful. 
In the more distant views lakes, pasturage, and 
woodlands form a foreground to snowy masses; in 
the heart of the ranges the traveller is surrounded 
by pine-clad slopes, grand precipices, rushing 
torrents, great glaciers, and snow-clad peaks. The 
Italian lakes are exceptionally lovely. The grandest 
outlooks over crag, snowfield, and glacier are to be 
obtained on the range of Mont Blanc, in the region 
about Monte Rosa, and in the Bernese Oberland. 
In the less frequented regions the Aiguilles of 
Daupliine and the dolomite crags of the S.E. Tyrol 
are remarkably fine. But to appreciate the scenery 
of the Upper Alps their fastnesses must be scaled. 
This of late years has become a favourite pastime, 
so that the Alps have been called “ The playground 
of Europe.” Now not a peak of importance is un¬ 
trodden, and the glacier plains which have been 
traversed may be counted by hundreds. 

Fauna .—The fauna of the Alps obviously depends 
on the climate. In the lower parts it is that of 
Central Europe ; higher up the wolf, lynx, and 
bear are occasionally found, with the hare (Lepus 
rariabilis); the marmot is common near the edge 
of the snows, the chamois is not seldom seen 
among the higher peaks, the steinbock (Cap ra¬ 
il) ex) is rare and appears to be now restricted to 
the Eastern Graians. The most distinctive Alpine 
birds are the lammergeyer (Gypaetus barbatus ), 
the brown eagle, the ptarmigan, the Alpine chough, 
and the Alpine swift. Reptiles do not ascend very 
high. Butterflies of mountain species are common, 
and have been seen fluttering about peaks more 
than 12,000 ft. high. Higher than about 3,500 ft. 
to 5,500 ft. (according to the locality) corn is 
seldom cultivated; the slopes are occupied by 
pastures or great pine woods to between 0,000 and 
7,000 feet, and the former extend yet higher. 
These pastures afford ample food in summer to 
cattle, sheep, and goats, the animals and their 
attendants being sheltered in huts of wood or stone, 
called chalets. 

Alpujarras or Alpuxakras, a branch of the 
Sierra Nevada range in the province of Granada, 
Spain. The mountains reach a height of 7,000 feet 
and are divided by rich and lovely valleys. After 
the reconquest of Spain the Saracens for some 
years found a shelter in this district. 

Alsace-Lorraine ( Elsass- Lot hr inyen'), a pro¬ 
vince of the German Empire, made up of the two 
French provinces, which, with the exception of 
the district of Belfort, were ceded to Germany after 
the war of 1870-71. Alsace , originally part of the 
Frankish kingdom of Austrasia, had been incor¬ 
porated in the German Empire in the 10th century, 
and was gradually united to France by the treaties 








Alsatia. 


( 99 ) 


Altazimuth. 


of Nimeguen, Ratisbon, and Ryswick (1G97). 
It then formed the departments of Hant and Bas 
Rhin. The inhabitants, though Teutonic by blood 
and speech, became more French than the French, 
and in 1871, when the Germans reoccupied the 
territory, 45,000 of them passed over into France. 
The chief town is Strasburg. Lorraine first be¬ 
came a kingdom about 855 under Lothair, from 
whom the name is derived. After it had several 
times changed hands between France and Germany, 
the Emperor Otlio, in 959, divided it into two 
duchies. Basse Lorraine passed into Brabant, but 
Haute Lorraine, the larger portion, was for seven 
centuries governed by hereditary dukes, and proved 
a perpetual bone of contention between the greater 
powers until in 1737 it was bestowed for life on 
Stanislas, the dethroned King of Poland. On his 
decease it became part of France, and with addi¬ 
tions made up four departments—Moselle. Meurthe. 
Meuse, and Vosges. Nancy is the chief town of 
the section retained by France in 1871, and Metz is 
the capital of the ceded moiety. The united German 
province has an area of 5,580 square miles. It lies 
wholly to the west of the Rhine, and, though moun¬ 
tainous in certain districts, is one of the most fertile 
regions in Central Europe, besides possessing 
valuable industries and rich mines. The govern¬ 
ment is conducted by a Statthalter appointed by 
the Emperor, Strasburg being his residence. 
Miilhausen is the seat of the great spinning and 
weaving manufactures. Metz and Thionviile are 
strong fortresses. Altkirch, Colmar, Saarburg, and 
Mezieres are towns of importance. 

Alsatia, the term applied in the seventeenth 
century to Whitefriars, which at that time was a 
debtors’ sanctuary, and consequently became the 
abode of many very questionable characters. (See 
Scott's Fortunes of Nigel.') 

Alsen, an island in the Little Belt, closely 
adjacent to the coast of Schleswig. Until 18G4 it 
belonged to Denmark, but in the Prusso-Danish 
War it was made part of the German province of 
Schleswig-Holstein. It is 20 miles long, and varies 
in breadth from 3 to 12 miles. Sonderburg, the 
capital, possesses an excellent harbour. 

Alster, a tributary that flows from Holstein on 
the N. into the Elbe close to Hamburg. Here it 
forms a lake which is called the Great or Outer 
Alster until it enters the town, when it is known as 
the Inner Aster. 

Altai Mountains (Chin. Ghin-Shan, Gold 
Mountains), one of the greatest mountain systems 
of Asia, stretching 5,000 miles from long. 85° E. to 
the Sea of Okhotsk, and separating the Russian 
Empire from that of China. The collateral branches 
cover a breadth in some parts of 800 to 900 miles. 
The average height does not exceed 5,000 feet, but 
the Russian Altai reaches 12,000. The mountains 
consist of rounded granite masses with no peaks or 
jagged crests. The rivers Obi, Irtish, and Yenesei 
have their sources in these ranges, the mineral 
wealth of which is probably enormous. Gold, silver, 
copper, iron, lead, and various kinds of gems abound 
in them. Forests of hardy trees clothe the lower 
slopes, and the wild sheep has its home here. The 


Altai proper is the portion of the system within 
the province of Tomsk, Siberia. The main ridge is 
the Sailughem, which as it extends south-west is 
known as the West Sajan. The fertile valleys to the 
south are being rapidly colonised ; the chief town 
is Barnaul. 

Altamura, a town in the province of Terra di 
Bari, S. Italy, close to the foot of the Apennines. 
It was built b} r the Emperor Frederic II. on the site 
of the ancient Lupatia. There is a handsome 
cathedral. 

Altar (from the Latin altus, high), an erection 
made for sacrificial purposes, or for some other 
object. Altars were used by the ancient Greeks 


ALTAR. 

(From the Church of St. Elizabeth, Marburg.) 

and Romans, and varied in size, shape, and material. 
Almost all nations have, at some period of their 
existence, made use of altars, the Mohammedans 
being an exception. The Christian Church adopted 
the "use of the word, and in the early Christian 
churches for more than five centuries altars were 
of wood; stone was then introduced, and is now 
universal. A good example of the Gothic altar is 
the altar in the church of St. Elizabeth, at Marburg. 
In the Roman Catholic Church the altar occupies a 
much more important position than in the Church 
of England. (Strictly speaking, indeed, there is no 
altar "in the English Church ; what is generally 
known as the altar being always referred to in the 
Prayer Book as “ the holy table,” the word “ altar ” 
being used only in the coronation service. In 1845 
a judgment of the Court of Arches laid down the 
dictum that no altar might be erected in a church. 

Altazimuth, an astronomical instrument for 
observing the position of a heavenly body. It con¬ 
sists of a telescope capable of adjustment to view 
any point in the celestial hemisphere, and arranged 
with a vertical graduated circle to observe its alti¬ 
tude, i.e. its angle with the horizontal, and with a 

































Altdorfer. 


( 100 ) 


Alumbagh. 


horizontal circle to show its azimuth, i.e. its declina¬ 
tion from the north and south line. 

Altdorfer, Albert, a Bavarian painter and 
engraver, born at Altdorf, 1488, died at Regensburg, 
1588. He is regarded as the best of Albert Diirer’s 
pupils, and one of his masterpieces, The Battle 
of Arhela, is in the Pinacothek at Munich. 

Alten, Karl August, son of a Hanoverian 
Baron, born 17G3. In 1803 he entered the British 
service, and during the. Peninsular War he dis¬ 
tinguished himself highly at Albuera, Salamanca, 
the frontier engagements, and Toulouse. He com¬ 
manded a division at Waterloo, and fought 
admirably at Quatre Bras. He returned to Hanover, 
became Minister of War, and died in 1840'. 

Altenburg, the capital of - the duchy of Saxe- 
Altenburg, Germany, 24 miles south of Leipsic. It 
is an ancient but well-built town, with a cathedral, 
palace, picture-gallery, school of art, library, 
gymnasium, etc. A large trade is done in grain, 
cattle, horses, and books. 

Altenbarg. The Duchy of Saxe-Alten- 
burg, situated between the kingdoms of Prussia 
and Saxony, the principalities of Reuss, Schwartz- 
burg, and Coburg, and the grand duchy of Weimar, 
held by a branch of the Saxe-Gotha family until 
1825, when it became incorporated in the German 
Confederation, and subsequently in the empire. 

Altengaard, a seaport in Finmarken, Norway, 
53 miles from Hammerfest, lat. 09° 55' N. It has a 
consi lerable trade, and is the farthest point north 
at which grain can be cultivated. A meteorological 
and magnetic observatory is established here. 

Alteratives, drugs whose manner of action is 
obscure, but which are of considerable use under 
certain appropriate conditions in effecting improve¬ 
ment of nutrition. Among such are cod-liver oil, 
arsenic, mercury, and the iodides. 

Alternation of Generations. In most 
cases the progeny of an animal resembles in struc¬ 
ture that of the parent; thus, the young of dogs 
are dogs. But with many of the lower animals and 
plants this is not the case ; the parent is succeeded 
by one or more generations totally unlike itself, 
and from these are produced the original parent 
form. Thus, the plant-like colony of a Zoophyte 
such as Campanularia produces buds which are 
detached from the parent, and swim about as 
Jelly-fish; these produce embryos which ulti¬ 
mately grow into the plant-like colonies of the 
first generation. Instances are also found among 
the Aphides, Barnacles, Tape-worms, Mosses, 
Ferns, etc. 

Alto, in music , the name given to the highest 
male voice, called also counter-tenor (now most 
frequently falsetto), and also to the lowest female 
voice, more properly called contralto. It is also 
the name of a clef. The tenor violin (q.v.) is 
known in Italian as the alto viola. 

Alton, a market town in Hampshire, on the river 
Wey, and 1G miles from Winchester on the London 
and South-Western Railway. It has a fine old 
church. “ Alton ale ” is a well-known local product, 
and there are ironworks and paper-factories. 


Altona, a town and port of Germany, on the 
right bank of the Elbe. It is so closely connected 
with Hamburg as to be almost a suburb of that 
city, though it is in Schleswig-Holstein, a different 
province. The town is handsome and prosperous, 
having been founded for 200 years, and fostered by 
the Danes as a rival to the neighbouring port. 
After the war of 18G4 the Germans took possession 
of it. The imports and exports are considerable, 
nor are manufactures wanting, such as sugar, 
starch, velvet, silk, cotton stuffs, tobacco, etc. A 
railway connects Altona with Kiel. 

Altoona, a town in Blair county, Pennsylvania, 
U.S.A., at the foot of the Alleghanies. Works for 
locomotives are established here in connection with 
the Pennsylvania Central Railway. 

Alto relievo, or RILIEVO, sculptured work in 
which the designs project from the backgTound 
more than half their proportion, yet are not wholly 
detached. 

Altorf, or Altdorf, as the name indicates, an 
ancient town, the capital of the Canton of Uri, 
near the south end of the Lake of Lucerne. It is the 
starting-point of the road over the St. Gothard Pass, 
and, until the railway was made, this position gave 
it no little business and importance. There is a very 
large statue of Tell in the market-place. 

Altrincham, a market town in Cheshire, 
8 miles from Manchester, on the Manchester and 
Altrincham Railway, and the Bridgewater Canal. 
Cloths, cottons, yarns, and chemical manures are 
made here, and many market gardens supply Man¬ 
chester with vegetables. 

Altruism, a term opposed to egoism, first used 
by Comte, and adopted by Herbert Spencer, signi¬ 
fying love of others or devotion to others. 

Aludel, earthen vessels, similar in form to 
the ordinary pear-shaped lamp chimneys, which are 
joined together in series for the condensation of 
vapours which issue from retorts. They are espe¬ 
cially useful in the extraction of mercury from its ore. 

Alum, in its general sense a double salt pro¬ 
duced by the combination of the sulphate of an 
alkali metal with the sulphate of a triatomic metal 
of the aluminium group. As a class the alums are 
marked by identity of crystalline form, ready solu¬ 
bility in water, astringent taste, and acid reaction. 
They also contain the same quantity of water of 
crystallisation. The term alum, in its special sense, 
invariably denotes ordinary potash alum, svrnbol 
K 2 So 4 Al 2 (So 4 ) 3 .24Aq. 

Alumbagh, a garden or park surrounding a 
palace and a mosque, 4 miles from Lucknow, in 
the province of Oude, British India. It was the 
property of the Princes of Oude, and in 1857 was 
occupied by the mutineers, who were dislodged by 
Outram, Havelock, and Neill. The British garrison 
held the place against overwhelming odds until 
relieved by Colin Campbell, in 1858. The Alum¬ 
bagh then became of material service to our forces 
in operating against Lucknow and the local chiefs. 





Alumina. 


( 101 ) 


Aniadis. 


Alumina, or Oxule of Aluminium , A1 2 0 3 . 

Many precious stones, as sapphire , ruby, amethyst , 
etc., consist of practically pure alumina in a crys¬ 
talline state. Crystalline alumina is, next to the 
diamond, the hardest of all known substances. 
Alumina, as prepared by a process of precipitation, 
forms a white, amorphous powder, which has a 
great affinity for colouring matters, combining with 
them to form lakes (q. v.). It is hence of great 
importance in dyeing and colour-manufacture. 

Aluminium, a metal which does not occur in 
nature in the free state, but for the most part in 
combination with silica, as a silicate of aluminium, 
in clay and many minerals. As extracted from clay 
by a series of very difficult chemical operations, 
it forms a white metal, very ductile and malleable, 
and susceptible of a high polish. S.G. 2-6. M.P. 
700° C., At. Wt. 27. On account of its lightness 
aluminium is highly valued; it forms excellent 
alloys, and, as it has recently become far cheaper 
than heretofore, has undoubtedly a great future 
before it. 

Alured, or Alfred, an English chronicler of the 
12 th century, who was canon and treasurer of the 
Church of St. John, Beverley, Yorkshire. He wrote 
a summary of the events of English history from 
fabulous times to 1129 A.D., when he is supposed 
to have died. 

Alva, or Alba,Ferdinand Alvarez de Toledo, 
Duke of, the Spanish prime minister and general, 
under Charles V. and Philip II., born in 1508. 
His great military abilities first displayed them¬ 
selves in 1547, when he defeated the Elector of 
Saxony at Miihlberg. He fought with great skill 
and courage against the French in Lorraine, though 
he failed to take Metz, and in 1556 he completely 
crushed the Papal forces in Italy.- Ten years later 
he was appointed Viceroy in the Netherlands for the 
purpose of reducing that country to submission. 
His rule was marked by unparalleled barbarity, 
but by undoubted military talent. The Counts 
Egmont and Horn were the most illustrious of his 
victims, but he is said to have boasted of having 
put to death 18,000 persons judicially, apart from 
those slain in war. In 1573 he was recalled, and 
lived for some time in disgrace through the conduct 
of his son, but in 1581 his services were required 
against Portugal, where he succeeded in driving Don 
Antonio from the throne. He died in 1582. His 
actions and character will be found ably described 
in Motley’s Rise of the Dutch Republic. 

Alvarado, a large river that flows into the 
Gulf of Mexico, 36 miles from Vera Cruz. The 
port at its mouth bears the same name. 

Alvarado, Alfonso d’, a companion of Piz- 
arro, and for some time Captain-General of Peru. 
He opposed Almagro, and pursued the murderers 
of his chief. His death took place in 1553. 

Alvarado, Pedro d’, a Spanish adventurer, 
born in 1495, accompanied Cortes to Mexico in 
1518, and fought valiantly until that kingdom was 
conquered. He then became governor of 
Guatemala and Honduras, and reduced those 


\ 

provinces to order. He was killed by the fall of 
his horse in a skirmish with Indians in 1541. 

Alvarez, Francesco, a Portuguese ecclesi¬ 
astic, born about 1460. He was almoner to King 
Emmanuel, and was sent by him with Rodrigo de 
Lima on a mission to David, King of Ethiopia and 
Abyssinia, 1515. After a detention of six years in 
that country he returned, via India, and wrote the 
first description of it that appeared in Europe. He 
died about 1540. 

Alvarez, Don Jose, an able Spanish sculptor, 
born in 1768. He became court sculptor to Ferdinand 
VII., lived principally at Rome, and died in 1827. 
His masterpiece is a group representing Memnon 
and Antilochus. 

Alwur, or Ulwar, a state and its capital town in 
Rajpootana, under the control of the British Agent 
at Ajmeer. The state is on the E. frontier of Rajpoo¬ 
tana, and not far from the river Jumna. It is 80 
miles from north to south, and 60 miles in breadth. 
The town is poorly built and enclosed within a 
mud wall, 

Amadavat, or Avadavat (Estrclda amandava). 
the Red Waxbill, a finch common throughout India, 
named from Ahmadabad, whence they were formerly 
imported into Europe in great numbers. General 
plumage of female olive-brown; that of the male 
in summer is more or less crimson, but after the 
breeding season he assumes the dusky plumage of 
his mate. The' males are valued for their song, 
and the natives train them to fight like gamecocks. 

Amadeus, the names of several counts and 
dukes of Savoy from whom sprang the kings of 
Sardinia and the present sovereign of Italy. The 
most eminent of this line was Amadeus VIII., who 
succeeded to his father in 1391. He considerably 
increased his dominions, 1 and* was created duke by 
the Emperor Sigismund in 1416. In 1434 he retired 
into a monastery. Five years later he was put for¬ 
ward by the Council of Basle as successor in the 
Papal chair to the deposed Eugenius IV. He 
assumed the title of Felix V., but was not recognised 
by the Church. He died in 1451. 

Aniadis of Gaul, known as ‘The Knight of 
the Lion,” a legendary hero of chivalry, who plays 
the same part in the romantic history of Spain as 
Arthur in that of England and Charlemagne in 
that of France. He was said to be the son of 
Perion, an imaginary French king. Esplandian 
was his son,, and Florisando his nephew. It is 
impossible to assign a date to his career, which is, 
perhaps, a mere reflection of the myth of Arthur. 
His story was first told in Spanish literary prose by 
Garci Ordonnez de Montalvo, a Portuguese, towards 
the beginning of the 15th century, and the scene is 
laid in Scotland. Lobeira is generally regarded as 
being the author of the four books containing the 
original narrative, but they have been assigned to 
Cervantes. Nine other books in Spanish were soon 
added, and eleven more in French carried on the 
tale. The exploits of many other personages bear¬ 
ing the same name are recounted in these supple¬ 
mentary pages, and throughout the -^Middle Ages 







Amadou. 


( 102 ) 


Amasia. 


Amadis supplied a theme for imaginative writers. 
Southey published a condensed translation of the 
early romance. 

Amadou, or German Tinder, consists of slices 
of the fungi Polgporus fovientarius and P. igniarius, 
beaten out with mallets, and used as a styptic, for 
warm underclothing, or, after being boiled in a 
solution of saltpetre, as tinder. 

Amalekites, a race, of warlike, aggressive 
propensities, who much harassed the Israelites in 
their passage into Canaan. They dwelt in the 
peninsula of Sinai, between Palestine and Egypt, 
and were exterminated by Saul and David. 

Amalfi, a port on the N. side of the Gulf of 
Salerno, Italy. In the 9th century it was an in¬ 
dependent republic, governed by its own doges, and 
a place of great commercial importance. The 
inhabitants joined warmly in the Crusades, and 
founded a hospital at Jerusalem, which gave rise 
to the order of the Knights of Malta. In 1135 the 
town was sacked by the Pisans, and soon after was 
annexed to the kingdom of Naples. The maritime 
code of Amalfi, was highly esteemed in the Middle 
Ages, and a celebrated manuscript of the Pandects 
was discovered there. The place is now un¬ 
important save as the seat of an archbishopric, and 
as manufacturing macaroni, silk, and paper. 

Amalgam, an alloy formed by the combina¬ 
tion of mercury with another metal. 

Amalia, Anna, the wife of the Duke of Saxe- 
Weimar, who, losing her husband early, acted as 
regent for her son during some twenty years with 
much ability. Her court was the rendezvous of 
such illustrious men as Goethe, Schiller, Herder, 
and Wieland. Heartbroken at the issue of the 
battle of Jena, she died in 1807. 

Amaltheid^, one of the most important 
families of the Ammonites. It occurs in the 
geological systems of which the Oolites and the 
chalk are the best known rocks. 

Amanita, one of the sub-genera of Agaricus , 
characterised by having white spores and an outer 

covering or volva (velum 
universale) which bursts, 
leaving a torn cup round 
the bulbous base of the 
stalk and flaky scales on 
the top ( pileus) of the 
fungus, generally in addition 
to the inner veil (velum par- 
tiale) below the gills. A. 
muscaria, the Fly Agaric, 
used as a fly-poison, is bright 
scarlet with scattered white 
flakes on its pileus. Some 
species are edible. 

Amaranth, or more 

amaranth. (A. hypo- correctly Amarant {see Mil- 
cho.viriacus.) ton's Paradise Lost , iii. 353), 
(Prince of Wales’-feathers. from the Greek amarantos , 

unwithering, is the name 
of a large order of weedy herbaceous plants, 


mostly growing in dry situations in the tropics, 
having a crowded inflorescence of florets with dry 
membranous floral leaves, often coloured, as in the 
familiar “ cockscomb,” “ love-lies-bleeding,” and 
“ Prince-of-Wales’-feathers.” 

Amara-pura ( City of the Immortals ) is a 
. town on the left bank of the Irawaddy, Burmah, 
between Ava S. and Mandalay N. It was founded 
in 1783, but suffered so severely from fire in 1810 
and earthquake in 1839 that the population is now 
insignificant, and little remains of the city but ruins. 

Amara, Sinha, a Hindoo poet and grammarian, 
who flourished about 50 B.C. His works have 
perished with the exception of a Sanscrit grammar 
and vocabulary known as Amara-Kosha ( Treasury 
of Amara). 

Amari, Michele, an Italian author and 
revolutionary politician, born at Palermo, 1807. 
His father narrowly escaped death as a penalty for 
taking part in Carbonari movements, but the son 
adhered to progressive principles. In 1842 he 
produced a history of the war of the Sicilian 
Vespers, which gave such offence to the Govern¬ 
ment that he was compelled to seek refuge in 
France, where he became an Oriental scholar. At 
the outbreak of revolution in 1848 he returned and 
held office for a year, but on the breakdown of the 
constitution he again escaped to Paris and wrote a 
history of the Mussulmans in Sicily. In 18G0 the 
expulsion of the Bourbons restored him once more 
to his native country, where he became Minister of 
Education and for a time of Foreign Affairs under 
Garibaldi. Many other distinctions were showered 
upon him, and in 1878 he presided over the Con¬ 
gress of Orientalists at Florence. 

Amaryllis, a genus of bulbous monocotyle- 
donous plants, with 
petaloid perianth, 
six stamens burst¬ 
ing inwards, and 
an inferior ovary, 
which gives its 
name to the order 
Am argil i dace a-. 

The group have 
their maximum 
development in 
South Africa. Many 
are cultivated for 
their large showy 
flowers. One of the 
best known is A. 

Belladonna , the so- 
called Belladonna lily, with beautiful pink flowers. 

Amasia or Amasiayaii. a town of Asiatic 
Turkey, built on a hill overlooking the river Yeshil- 
Irmak. It was formerly the capital of the Kings 
of Pontus. It is a somewhat dirty old town, but 
contains a fine mosque erected by Bajazet II. 
(1490), a college founded also by him, a citadel 
standing on a commanding height, and many 
remains of antiquity. Silk, wine, wheat, and salt 
are its chief products. 




Amaryllis. (A. Belladonna.) 
(Showing bulb and flower spike.) 








Amasis. 


( 103 ) 


Amazons. 


Amasis, King of Egypt from 570 to 52G b.c. 
Originally the Prime Minister of Apries, he sup¬ 
planted and killed his master. He appears to have 
exercised his usurped power with wisdom, effecting 
judicious reforms, encouraging intercourse with 
foreigners, and adorning the country with magnifi¬ 
cent structures. He gave the Greeks the port of 
Naucratis in the Delta. 

Amateur, one who follows any profession, 
science, art, or sport for its own sake, as opposed to 
one who follows it from pecuniary motives. 

Amati, an Italian family celebrated in the ltith 
and 17th centuries for hereditary skill in the 
making of violins. They were established at Cre¬ 
mona, and thus their instruments share with others 
the name of Cremonas. [Cremona.] There is some 
little difficulty in distinguishing between the mem¬ 
bers of the family. Andrea and his younger brother 
Nicolo are usually regarded as the first makers, and 
it is said that specimens of their work date back to 
1551. Nicolo had two sons, Antonio and Hieronimo, 
whose products date from 1589 to 1G27, and are 
the Cremonas that come into the market nowadays. 
The best instruments date from 1599 to 1G20. 

Amaurosis (from a Greek word meaning 
•obscure), the term applied in past days to signify 
any form of blindness, the cause of which was un¬ 
known. The invention of the ophthalmoscope, 
however, by means of which the fundus or back of 
the eye can be critically scrutinised by the physician 
or surgeon, has led to great advances being made 
in our knowledge of the causes of blindness. There 
are, however, a few conditions in which the vision 
is very defective, and yet no abnormal appearance 
can be detected in the fundus of the eye. One of 
the commonest of these is met with in cases of 
squint due to hypermetropia (q.v.) ; again, in the 
night blindness of those who have been habitually 
•exposed to strong light, and in some cases of sight- 
failure after railway accidents, little if any change 
can be detected with the ophthalmoscope. After 
exhausting illness, in anannia, and in some forms 
of hysteria, a similar condition obtains. A curious 
form of amaurosis is that known as tobacco 
amaurosis or tobacco amblyopia [Amblyopia], 
the characteristic feature of which is that the 
central part of the field of vision is the first to fail. 
This defect is not uncommonly associated with 
excessive smoking, but possibly other causes are at 
work as well, the subject being up to the present 
time in no very settled state. Finally, amaurosis 
is at times simulated by impostors. The vacant 
gaze of the patient who cannot see is very charac¬ 
teristic. The pupils are dilated, the eyes do not 
converge to fix near objects, but remain as though 
intent on something in the far distance. This 
condition is known as the “ amaurotic stare.” The 
treatment of amaurosis is unsatisfactory. In the 
hypermetropia much can be done if the condition 
has not advanced too far, and some of the tobacco 
cases improve under treatment when smoking is 
discontinued. 

Amazon, or Amazonas, a vast stream formed 
in equatorial S. America by the confluence of 


many rivers, draining an area of some two and a half 
millions of square miles. The name Amazon 
applies strictly to the lower reaches, and is derived, 
not from the fabulous female warriors of the Clas¬ 
sics, but from a native word, aviassona, “boat 
destroyer,” as the spring tides produce a dan¬ 
gerous “ bore ” near the mouth. The middle por¬ 
tion is known to the Portuguese as Rio dos Soli- 
moens, or Orellana, from the explorer who first 
navigated it. The upper waters are called Mara- 
non, that river disputing with the Ucalayi, or 
Upurimac, the claim of being the head-stream. The 
former has its rise in Lake Lauricoeha, Peru, lat. 10° 
30' S., long. 7G° 50' W., and flowing down between the 
Andes and the E. Cordilleras, turns E. at about the 
fifth degree of S. latitude, receives the Ucalayi, 
that starts from near Cuzco, and continues its 
course of some 3,000 miles to the sea. Many huge 
tributaries fall into the central stream, such as the 
Purus (2,000 miles), the Madeira (1,500 miles), the 
Tapajos, and the Xingu, from the S., and the Napo 
(530 miles), the Japura, or Caqueta (1,000 miles), 
the Negro (1,000 miles), and the Trombetas from 
the N. The mouth, which is traversed by the 
Equator, is 50 miles broad, but the delta with its 
islands extends for 200 miles. The influence of 
the tide (Prororoca) is felt 400 miles rip the river, 
which is navigable for 2,000 miles. For most of its 
course it flows through dense forests (selvas'), rich 
in various kinds of timber, but especially in the 
caoutchouc, or indiarubber tree. The waters 
abound in turtle, fish, and caimans, or alligators. 
The estuary was discovered by Pinion in 1500, but 
Francis Orellana was the first to navigate the 
stream from the Rio Napo to the sea in 1540. 

Amazons, a mythic race of female warriors, 
whose exploits form an important part of Greek 
mythology. They were said to inhabit the country 
round the Caucasus, and to have fixed their prin¬ 
cipal seats on the river Thermodon, in the neigh¬ 
bourhood of the modern Trebizond ; and from this 
parent stock came two branches who settled re¬ 
spectively in Scythia and in Africa. They are 
described as hardy, courageous, indefatigable 
women, burning away their right breast so that they 
might be enabled to draw the bow freely, dwelling 
apart from men, and allowing themselves only a 
short temporary intercourse with their neighbours, 
the Gargareans, for the purpose of renewing their 
numbers, bringing up their daughters in their 
own peculiar fashion, and killing their sons or 
sending them back to the land of their fathers. 
The contest between the Greeks and the Amazons 
was said to have begun when Hercules invaded 
their country in the execution of his ninth labour. 
The hero was required by Eurystheus, King of the 
Argives, to bring him the baldric of Hippolyta, the 
Amazonian queen. According to some authorities, 
Theseus took part in this expedition, while others 
say that he led a distinct expedition at a later 
date, to avenge which the Amazons invaded Attica, 
passing round the Black Sea and crossing the 
Cimmerian Bosphorus (now the Strait of Tenikale) 
on the ice. They continued in Attica four months 
and fought several battles, but were at last routed 







Amazon-stone. 


( 101 ) 


Amboise. 


and driven out of Greece. Towards the end of the 
Trojan war they came to the assistance of Priam, 
led by their queen, Penthesileia, who is said to have 
been slain by Achilles. The war with the Amazons 
was often treated by Greek sculptors and painters, 
and apparently formed the subject of the metope 
on the north side of the Parthenon (in fitting prox¬ 
imity to the sculptured representation of the 
struggle between the Centaurs and the Lapithas), 
and certainly that of a relief in the Acropolis. 
The name of this mythic race was formerly said 
to be Greek, and to mean “ breastless”; but in all 
probability this is a folk-etymology, invented to 
account for the myth, and the word is now believed 


becomes electric by friction ; our word “ electricity ” 
( electron , amber) being derived from this charac¬ 
teristic property. 

Amberg, a fortified city of Bavaria, formerly 
the capital of the Upper Palatinate, built on both 
sides of the river Yitz. The houses are mostly of 
wood, but the streets are wide and clean. Besides 
the Gothic town hall, the fine Church of St. Martin, 
and the castle, Amberg boasts of its mint, its 
arsenal, and its hospital. Coal and iron are worked 
in the neighbourhood. 

Ambergris, a waxy substance found near 
the coast in tropical seas, and probably derived 



Amazons. (From the Parthenon.) 


to have come from Africa, in which continent 
female warriors exist to the present day. The 
body-guard of the king of the Behrs, on the White 
Nile, is composed entirely of women, as is a large 
part of the army of the King of Dahomey. 

Amazon-stone, an apple-green variety of 
micrccline (q.v.) (triclinic potash-felspar). 

Ambassador. [Diplomacy, Envoy.] 

Amber, Cape, the northern extremity of the 
Island of Madagascar (lat. 12° S., long. 49° 20' E.). 

Amber, a decayed city in the state of Jaipur, 
Rajputana, India. It has now but few inhabitants, 
and the fine palace is deserted. 

Amber, a fossil resin produced by an extinct 
species of conifer (P'mites succinifer ) ; occurs in 
all parts of the globe ; in Europe is most plentiful 
in North Germany. S.G. D05 to IT ; hardness, 
2 to 2-5. Insoluble in water and alcohol; but 
soluble in fixed oils by the aid of heat, giving rise 
to the most durable varnish known. Amber 


from the intestines of the spermaceti whale. 
S.G. ’8 to ’9; M.P. 62° C. ; soluble in ether and 
essential oils, also partially soluble in alcohol. 
Ambergris is valued for its perfume. 

Ambleside, an old and beautifully placed town 
at the N. end of the Lake Windermere, Westmore¬ 
land. Its prosperity is principally due to the influx 
of tourists, 'but there are mills for woollen manu¬ 
factures. The houses of Wordsworth, Dr. Arnold, and 
Miss Martineau are in the neighbourhood. 

Amblyopia, a condition allied to amaurosis, 
but differing from it in that vision is defective, but 
not absolutely lost. 

Amblyopsis. [Blind-fish.] 

Amblystoma, a genus of Salamanders, with 
twenty-one species, ranging from Canada and 
Oregon to Mexico, chiefly remarkable for the meta¬ 
morphosis of its larval form Axolotl (q.v.). 

Amboise (Lat. Avibacitz), a town on the left 
bank of the Loire, in the department Indre et 
Loire, France. The ancient castle, now only used 
as a state prison, was once the residence of French 



























Amboise. 


( 105 ) 


Amendment. 


kings. Charles VIII. was born and died there. 
The Huguenot conspiracy of Amboise found its 
beginning and end on this spot (15G0). A good 
trade is done in wine, and woollen and steel goods 
are manufactured. 

Amboise, Georges d’, best known as Cardinal 
d’Amboise, born at Chaumont, near Amboise, 
in 14(50. At the early age of 14 he was appointed 
Bishop of Montauban by Louis XI., and subse¬ 
quently became Archbishop of Narbonne, of Rouen, 
and Governor of Normandy. He attached him¬ 
self to the Duke of Orleans, afterwards Louis XII., 
who made him Prime Minister in 1498. He kept 
down taxation, curbed judicial corruption, reformed 
the Church, and had the welfare of the nation at 
heart. Alexander VI. created him Cardinal and 
Papal Legate in France. It is believed he aspired 
to the tiara, and fomented schism to attain his 
ends. He died in 1510, leaving a vast fortune. 

Amboyna, the chief, though not the largest of 
the Molucca or Spice Islands, in the Eastern 
Archipelago (lat. 3° 45' S., long. 128° 15' E.). It is 
32 miles long by 5 or 6 broad, and has an area of 
280 square miles. A narrow isthmus divides the 
island into two halves, Hittoo and Leitimor, the 
capital town, Amboyna, being in the latter. The 
country is hilly, but covered with vegetation. The 
cultivation of cloves forms the principal industry. 
In good years the crop reaches a million pounds in 
weight. Cinnamon, coffee, indigo, and sago are 
also grown. Discovered by the Portuguese in 1515, 
Amboyna was taken by the Dutch in 1G05. The 
English took the island in 170G, and again in 1814, 
but restored it to Holland, to which country it now 
belongs. 

Ambrose, Saint, of Milan, one of the Fathers 
of the Latin Church, born 340 a.d. The son of 
a Prefect of Gaul, and himself holding similar 
office in Liguria and Emilia, he was, for his many 
good qualities, chosen Bishop of Milan in 374. He 
opposed the Arian heretics at the council of 
Aquileia, and he refused to allow the Emperor 
Theodosius to enter his church until he had done 
penance for a massacre at Thessalonica. Chanting 
was borrowed by him from the Pagan rites, and 
•one of the recognised liturgies was his composition. 
The Te Deuvi has been by some ascribed to his 
authorship. He wrote several treatises, e.g. on the 
duties of priests, and on virginity, besides a letter 
to Valentinian against Symmachus, but his works 
are more remarkable for subtlety and fancy 
than for solid merit and good taste. He died in 
397. The great library at Milan bears his name, 
and the Milanese church still employs the Am¬ 
brosian use or liturgy, which some hold to be the 
use upon which that of the English church is 
founded. 

Ambrosia, a term used in Greek mythology to 
denote sometimes the food and sometimes the 
drink of the immortal gods. In Homer and the 
later writers the word is used for the food, and 
nectar for the drink of the dwellers on Olympus, 
but in Sappho and Aleman these meanings are 
reversed. Both ambrosia and nectar were fragrant, 


and are said to have been employed as perfumes 
and unguents. 

Ambulance, properly, a kind of vehicle used 
for conveying sick or wounded persons to the 
hospital. The word is often used, however, to 
designate the medical establishment accompanying 
an army, or the work performed by such an 
establishment. The employment of ambulances 
was not introduced into the army until after the 
Crimean war, when it was recommended by a com¬ 
mission which was appointed in 1857, and which 
effected many improvements. In 1877 an associa¬ 
tion was formed for the training of students out¬ 
side the army, and lectures were given all over the 
country, and classes formed for instruction respect¬ 
ing aids to sufferers from accidents. 

Ambuscade, military , the device of lying 
concealed with the view of surprising or suddenly 
attacking a foe. The ambuscade is seldom em¬ 
ployed in modern warfare. 

Ameer (sometimes spelt. Emir, Amir), a title 
of nobility used in the East. The sovereign of 
Afghanistan is known as the Ameer. 

Amen, a word of Hebrew origin, signifying 
certainly , truly. It is now used in the sense of 
“ So be it,” “ May it be granted,” at the end of 
prayers, imprecations, thanksgivings, etc. 

Amende honorable, in old French law, a 
humiliating punishment inflicted on traitors, parri¬ 
cides, and other offenders. The term is now used in 
England of a public apology for any injury inflicted. 

Amendment, in its legal signification, any 
correction or other alteration in the written or 
printed record of judicial proceedings. In early 
periods of English'history the pleadings between 
the parties were conducted orally at the bar of 
the court by their respective advocates. If any 
mistake occurred it was at once corrected upon 
a suggestion made to the court. When this state 
of things ceased, and written pleadings came into 
use, the same indulgence as to amendments was 
continued, and the power to do this is now much 
extended under the Judicature and Court of Session 
Acts, and the practice consequently improved and 
simplified, both in England and Scotland. There 
is, however, in criminal proceedings, much less 
power as to amendments, and far greater strictness 
is observed in the practice. In the United States 
the alterations made in the constitution are termed 
“amendments.” The Senate has power to amend 
money Bills passed by the House of Representatives, 
but cannot originate same. The term is also 
r pplicable to the Acts of the British Legislature, and 
implies any alteration in a Bill, question, or motion 
before the House of Lords or Commons. Notice of 
moving an amendment need not be given, although 
it usually is. The amendment must be relative to 
the motion or question before the House. Amend¬ 
ments are not usual at the first reading of a Bill. 
The term is lastly applicable to a proposal brought 
forward at a public meeting, modifying the original 
motion or proposition by the introduction of an 
alteration in same, or entirely overturning, the 






Amentaceae. 


( 100 ) 


America. 


original motion. The opinion of the meeting is 
generally taken upon the amendments as they are 
successively made, and lastly upon the original 
motion or proposition. Amendments may be made 
so as totally to alter the nature and effect of the 
proposition, and this is a way of getting rid of a pro¬ 
position, by making it bear a sense not intended by 
the movers, who are thus compelled to abandon it. 

A m pnta.eeae (from the Latin amentum, a 
catkin), the name of a large natural order including 
most of the broad-leaved trees of the north tem¬ 
perate zone, such as willows, poplars, birches, 
alders, oaks, hazels, etc., in which the flowers are 
collected together in catkins. 

Amentum. [Catkin.] 

Amercement, or Amerciament, a pecu¬ 
niary penalty imposed on offenders by Courts of 
Justice, according to the nature of the offence and 
the authority of the court. The term had also 
another practical signification. The plaintiff in an 
action was originally required to appear in court by 
himself, solicitor, or counsel before the jury de¬ 
livered their verdict, that he might be present to 
answer the “ amercement,” to which, by the old 
law, he was liable in case of failure, as a punish¬ 
ment for his false claim, that word signifying that 
he was “ a mercie,” at the mercy of the Crown as 
to the fine to be imposed. The amercement is dis¬ 
used, but an allusion to it may still be traced, for if 
the plaintiff does not appear no verdict is given, 
and the plaintiff is then said to be nonsuited, non 
sequitur clamorem suum. The difference between 
amercements and fines .is that the latter are cer¬ 
tain, and are created by some statute; they can 
only be imposed and assessed by Courts of Record. 
The former are arbitrarily imposed by courts not of 
record, as Courts Leet. 

America, North—United States: Geo¬ 
graphy .—The United States contain over three 
million square miles of almost uniformly arable 
land, diversified by mountains, lakes, and rivers in 
great number, the Mississippi river with its tribu¬ 
taries representing in itself a water basin area of 
more than a million square miles. 

The coast-line from Virginia to the Canadian 
border is indented with many excellent harbours, 
notably Portland in Maine; Newport in Rhode 
Island ; New London in Connecticut; New York, 
and Newport News in Virginia, in which the 
largest ships enter with comfort. The ports of the 
Southern States are many, but as a rule difficult to 
enter, and of comparatively unsatisfactory accom¬ 
modation. The Pacific coast has in San Francisco 
one of the best ports of the world, but very few 
others of consequence. 

The mountain ranges that follow the Pacific 
coast-line may be said roughly to begin at Cape 
Horn, to reach through South America, Central 
America, and Mexico, and after crossing the United 
States along its western border, to continue through 
Canada, not ending until they lose themselves in 
the unexplored recesses of the Arctic. Between 
the eastern and western edge of this range is a 
great enclosed plateau or table-land, formerly 


marked on the maps as the “ Great American 
Desert,” but it has proved to be of great value, not 
only in mineral wealth, but for farming as well. 
This great highland basin receives the waters of 
rivers which rise in the surrounding mountains, and 
gathers it into lakes which have no outlet to the 
sea. Of these the best known is called the Great 
Salt Lake in the Mormon country. 

The range of mountains following the Atlantic 
coast-line reaches only from the State of Alabama, 
near the Gulf of Mexico, to near the mouth of the 
Saint Lawrence river. This range, like that on the 
west, is rich in springs and divides the rivers that 
flow westward to the Mississippi, and those that 
flow eastward to the Atlantic. Though not averag¬ 
ing more than 2,000 feet as against about 10,000 of 
the Rocky Mountains, the eastern range, sometimes 
called Alleghany or Appalachian, produces greater 
and more important streams for purposes of com¬ 
merce and manufacture than those of the Pacific 
coast. 

Fauna, etc .—Nearly all the animals known to the 
temperate zone of Europe thrive in the United 
States ; notably horses, cattle, sheep, dogs, and 
fowl of every kind. The great plains of the west 
are covered with a natural grass which supports 
vast herds of cattle at a nominal expense. It is 
only in the more northerly States that these herds 
require shelter in the winter season. 

The buffalo, as game, is nearly extinct, and the 
same may be said of the elk. The grizzly bear is 
still found in the fastnesses of the Rocky Moun¬ 
tains, and many of his species are common in the 
east as well as the west. The most exciting sport 
in the west to-day is perhaps hunting the Rocky 
Mountain goat, an animal surpassing the chamois 
in courage and power. In the north-eastern sec¬ 
tion, near the Canadian border, the moose is still to 
be found, and red deer and antelope are still abun¬ 
dant in all thinly settled neighbourhoods. 

Snakes are found everywhere, but never intrude 
themselves upon the wayfarer. The rattlesnake 
is one of the most common as well as the most 
dangerous. 

Minerals .— Coal is found in apparently unlimited 
quantity along the eastern range of mountains, 
particularly in Pennsylvania, and close to the coal 
are equally rich deposits of iron. Manufacturing is 
therefore carried on under the greatest natural 
advantages. Along the great lakes are rich copper 
mines, although the great inland basin has not yet 
proved itself particularly rich in mineral. The 
Western or Rocky Mountain range is marvellously 
rich in minerals of all kinds, but notably gold on its 
western sides, and silver on its eastern. For over 
forty years mining for the precious metals has been 
carried on here, and so far there appears to be no 
diminution of the supply. In 1880 the silver mines 
yielded over eight million pounds sterling worth, 
and the gold ones about seven million. 

Railways, Canals, Roads, etc .—Railways were 
introduced in America shortly after their successful 
inception in England, but owing to the very long 
distances to be traversed, the sparseness of the 
population, and the vastly cheaper communication 
by steamboats, the early progress of railway 













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America. 


( 107 ) 


America. 


construction was slow compared with that of 
England. Since 18G0, however, railways have 
increased with feverish rapidity, so that there 
are about 150,000 miles in operation, all owned by 
private companies. 

The canals are of great extent and value, the 
principal one being the “ Erie Canal,” connecting 
the great lakes with tide water on the Hudson 
river near New York, nearly 500 miles. Through 
this canal comes a large share of the corn that goes 
to Europe. 

Climate .—The northern half of the United States 
is colder in winter and hotter in summer than it 
ever is in England 
or even in Central 
Europe. 

The weather is, 
however, very ca¬ 
pricious, and with 
the rapid shifting 
of the wind one 
may be in t he same 
day hot almost to 
desperation, then 
cold to the point 
of needing a tire, 
then hot again, etc. 

The population 
of America has in¬ 
creased very ra¬ 
pidly in the last 
hundred years. 

From less than 
four millions in 
1790 it became 
nearly thirteen mil¬ 
lions in 1830 ; over 
thirty-one millions 
in 1800; over fifty 
millions in 1880; 
and in 1890 no less 
than sixty millions. 

By the census of 
1880 the whites 
represented over 
forty-three millions; the blacks and Indians over 
six millions ; Chinese over 105,000. There are but 
60,000 civilised Indians in the country, against 
about 210,000 who lead savage lives. 

The negroes were first introduced by the English 
as slaves in 1020 in the colony of Virginia, and 
rapidly increased owing partly to the profitable 
character of the planting in which they were utilised, 
and partly owing to the good care taken of them. 
The first census of 1790 enumerated the black slaves 
at 697,897. These in 1800 had increased to nearly 
four millions, in 1890 about seven millions. 

Between 1855 and 1884 there came to America 
nearly three hundred thousand Chinamen, about 
half of whom have since returned after making 
their fortunes. They are not liked as settlers by 
those who feel their competition most keenly, and 
in 1882 Congress passed a bill forbidding their 
coming into the country for the space of ten years. 
The outcry against them was particularly strong in 
the neighbourhood of San Francisco, where they 


congregated in large numbers, and at once com¬ 
peted industrially with whites, who had been 
accustomed to receive wages of unusual magnitude. 
The whites of America are almost exclusively of 
English extraction. 

Political History .—The Dutch, Swedes, Germans, 
Spaniards, and French have all in turn made 
attempts to plant colonies in North America, but all 
have failed to materially modify the overwhelmingly 
English character of the institutions and the lan¬ 
guage. The most important colony was planted on 
the borders of Massachusetts Bay in the year 1020 
by 102 Puritans, the “ Pilgrim Fathers,” from the 

eastern counties, 
w r ho sailed from 
Falmouth in the 
Mayflower. They 
reached the New 
World with no 
knowledge of the 
particular country 
they were come to, 
about two weeks 
before Christmas 
in a winter of ex¬ 
treme severity, and 
immediately or¬ 
ganised themselves 
into a civil com¬ 
munity according 
to the tradition of 
free Englishmen. 

The Mayflower 
returned to Eng¬ 
land to bring more 
Puritans over, and 
this emigration 
continued steadily 
in the same direc¬ 
tion. 

The New Eng¬ 
land colony rapidly 
increased, and the 
English spirit of 
adventure soon 
showed itself in the way new land was acquired 
to the westward as soon as the necessity for 
expansion was felt. From Massachusetts Bay 

adventurous bands penetrated the forests, plant¬ 
ing colonies of Englishmen everywhere, until 
soon they had crossed the Connecticut river 
and reached the Hudson. The Dutch who had 
settled there were easily dispossessed, and New 
York was the name given to what had been 

formerly known as New Amsterdam. From the 
south came also a movement of adventurous 
Englishmen who had gone to Virginia in 1007. 
These were not Puritans, but Cavaliers. They had 
large estates, introduced negro slavery into the 
country, and reproduced something of English 
country life on a large scale, excepting that negroes 
took the place of the usual tenantry. The Quakers 
later made a strong colony in Pennsylvania; the 
English Catholics in Maryland ; and by the middle 
of the eighteenth century the whole Atlantic 
seaboard from Florida, under Spanish rule, to 


6o 


5 ° 


40 


30 




r. Washington 

2. Oregon 

3. Idaho 

4. Montana 

5. Wyoming 
‘ 6. California 

7. Nevada 

8. Utah 

9. Arizona 

10. Colorado 

11. New Mexico 
s i2. Texas 

13. Indian Territory 

14. Kansas 
15 Nebraska 

16. Soutli Dakota 

17. North Dakota 
si8. Minnesota 

19. Iowa 

20. Missouri 

21. Arkansas 33.Georgia 

22. Louisiana 34.S.Carolina" 

23. Mississippi 35.N.Carolina' 

24. Tennessee 36.Virginia 

25. Kentucky 

26. Illinois 

27. Wisconsin 

28. Michigan 

29. Indiana 

30. Ohio 

31. Alabama 

32. Florida 
135 


-Knclisli Wiles 



37. W.Virginia 

38. Pennsylvania 

39. New York 

40. Maine 

41. New England States 

42. Maryland 

43. N ew j ersey 


SOUTH 

AMERICA 


MAP OF NORTH AMERICA, SHOWING THE POLITICAL DIVISIONS. 























































































America. 


( 108 ) 


America. 


Canada, under French, could boast of being one 
English country. 

in 1759 Canada was taken from France after a 
gallant struggle in the course of a seven years’ war 
which concluded in 1753. 

In 1765 the English Ministry attempted to lay 
taxes on the colonies, which they resented as 
unconstitutional, insisting that there should be no 
taxation without representation ; that they were 
Englishmen and not a conquered country ; that 
they had borne heavy burdens for the mother 
country in fighting their country’s battles with the 
French. The Crown insisted, however, and the 
irritation became aggravated from year to year. 
The colonies united to obstruct measures which 
they regarded as illegal. The first blood was 
spilled in 1775. 

The war thus opened lasted until 1783, when the 
last British soldier embarked at New York, and the 
“ United States of America ” was recognised. 

The close of the revolutionary war left the 
country in a painful condition politically, although 
materially she had suffered comparatively little. The 
need of a common government stronger than a 
mere temporary federation was keenly felt, par¬ 
ticularly to make the country appear respectable 
amongst other nations. 

In 1789, after much debate, opposition and amend¬ 
ment, the constitution under which Americans now 
live was brought to perfection and subscribed by 
the majority of States. Washington was elected 
for the term of four years to be President, and on 
the expiration of this term was re-elected for 
another. This was fortunate for the country, as it 
stood in great need of the guidance of a man so 
moderate in his views. 

In 1799 the United States had a naval war with 
the French Republic which lasted two years, and 
which demonstrated once again that New Eng¬ 
landers could build, man, and fight frigates in a 
manner worthy of their ancestry. The French were 
defeated wherever the fighting force was anywhere 
equal. The Napoleonic wars that followed em¬ 
broiled America once more with the mother country 
(1812 to 1815), a war in which both sides fought 
with characteristic courage, and from which neither 
can be said to have derived any particular satis¬ 
faction. 

In 1860 the slavery question, that had been a 
growing source of uneasiness to politicians ever 
since the foundation of the government, came to a 
head, with the attempt on the part of one-half of 
the country to secede from the other. 

The North fought to prevent the dismemberment 
of the Union; she put into the field at one time a 
million of men, and by the year 1865 forced the 
last remnant of the Southern army, numbering not 
more than 30,000 men, to surrender. The war was 
fought to the bitter end, and when the last rebel 
had laid down his arms no pains were spared to 
bury the past and reconcile the South to the new 
order of things. Jefferson Davis, the Southern 
leader, was allowed to go free, as well as all others 
who had taken part in the great conspiracy to over¬ 
turn the government. No Southerner was deprived 
from exercising all legal rights he formerly enjoyed, 


excepting as regarded blacks. Slavery was abolished 
by one stroke of the pen, as a war measure in 1863, 
and after the declaration of peace the country 
would not listen to the idea of reinslaving blacks 
who had fought in defence of the government. 

Apart from slavery the question of Free Trade or 
Protection has had much to do with producing 
irritation bet ween the agricultural and manufactur¬ 
ing sections of the country from the adoption of the 
constitution to the civil war. 

The land acquisitions of the United States have 
been enormous, and secured at a ridiculously small 
price. Napoleon I. ceded the Mississippi Valley in 
1803 ; Spain ceded Florida in 1819 ; Mexico ceded 
California and all her possessions north of the Rio 
Grande in 1847, thus giving the United States all 
the land from the Atlantic to the Pacific between 
Canada and the Gulf of Mexico, and driving the 
Latin races successfully from the country. 

Government .—The constitution of the United 
States is the natural outcome of the doctrines of 
civil liberty and self-government which the Puritan 
Englishmen of the year 1620 brought with them. 
According to this constitution, the President, or 
head of the State, is elected for four years. He has 
frequently been re-elected at the expiration of his 
term of office, but never more than once. He 
appoints the heads of departments, who form his 
cabinet. These do not sit in the House, and are 
responsible only to him, retiring of course upon the 
expiration of his legal term of office. 

Members of Congress, corresponding to the 
English M.P., are elected for two years, are paid, 
meet each year, and exercise powers analogous to 
the House of Commons. The Upper House is com¬ 
posed of two representatives from each of the forty- 
two States, who are not, like the Congressmen, 
elected by the people, but by the local legislatures 
of the respective States. 

Laws must pass both Houses and receive the 
President’s approval—which he very often refuses. 
"When he does so, Congress may introduce the same 
law and pass it in spite of his veto; but this is rarely 
done, for the President does not exercise his highest 
prerogative without giving reasons which satisfy 
the public sentiment of the country if they do not 
that of the Congress. But even if the President 
should allow a bad law to pass, there is another 
constitutional safeguard in the shape of a Supreme 
Court, whose members are selected from the most 
eminent judges, appointed for life and entrusted 
with the task of deciding whether or not laws are 
in conformity with the constitution. 

Religion. — The constitution grants equal rights 
to the adherents of all creeds, and nearly every 
known religion is represented. Roman Catholics 
represent the strongest single sect, the most strongly 
organised and the most aggressive, claiming in 1883 
about seven million adherents. The Protestants 
(all sects included) return about thirty million 
church members or communicants ; the Mormons 
number nearly 180,000 . [Mormons.] 

Education .—But for the blacks in the south and 
the mass of immigrants, the United States wou 1 ' 1 
appear remarkably well educated. In 1860, ho\, 
ever, 13-4 per cent, were unaffile to read, and 17 per 




America. 


( 10J ) 


America. 


cent, unable to write. The most illiterate sections 
of the country are those occupied by the blacks in 
the south, and the ignorant immigrants who crowd 
into the large towns. The best schools are found 
in New England, and wherever the descendants of 
the English Puritans have led the*way into the far 
west. No one in America has any reason for grow¬ 
ing up without education, for the States and local 
communities are generous in providing well 
equipped schools of all grades and free to all. 

Trade and Commerce .—The country has always 
manufactured sufficient for its needs, when forced 
to do so by war; and has even, in the last century, 
exported man} 7 
articles of manu¬ 
facture. Since 
1860, however, the 
government has 
been in the hands 
of protectionists, 
who place taxes 
upon imports so 
that the people 
may be forced to 
buy expensive 
things at home in¬ 
stead of cheap 
things abroad. This 
system has made 
the cost of living- 
very high in Amer¬ 
ica, and has made 
it difficult for 
American manu¬ 
facturers to com¬ 
pete with England 
in neutral markets. 

In 1890 the 
country revolted 
against a more 
than usually Pro¬ 
tectionist Bill, and 
in the elections its 
adherents were 
hopelessly beaten. 

The principal articles of export are cotton, corn, 
tobacco, meat, dairy produce, mineral oil, and 
wood. The manufactured articles exported are 
principally such as excel by displaying inventive 
power, and the result of very elaborate machinery 
—for instance, pistols, rifles, watches, clocks. In 
these the cost of labour is small compared with 
the profits arising from the use of machinery on a 
large scale. 

Military and Naval .—The United States has a 
regular standing army of a trifle over 26,000 men, 
of which 8,000 are cavalry almost constantly 
occupied with the Indians on the Mexican and 
Canadian borders. This small force is intended as 
the skeleton of a vastly larger one in case of war. 
The people, however, distrust militarism, and cherish 
the hope that there may never be another war. 
The armed, equipped, and drilled volunteers of the 
country number less than 100,000, a small number 
for a country whose population capable of bearing 
arms is presumably six and a half millions. 


The United States navy is relatively better 
maintained, and now includes many first-rate 
swift armed cruisers as well as battle-ships. 
The expense of this naval establishment is a trifle 
over four million pounds a year, while that of the 
army, including pensions, is nearly twenty-five 
million pounds. 

Canada and British North America, see 
under these headings. 

South and Central. — Extent , Conjiyuration, 
Islands .—South America, a continent, about eighty- 
six times larger than the United Kingdom, with 
an area of 7,465,000 square miles, and a popula¬ 
tion estimated at 
34,643,500, or four 
inhabitants to the 
square mile. Geo¬ 
graphically, South 
America is a pen¬ 
insula joined to the 
continent of North 
America by the 
isthmus of Central 
America : this lat¬ 
ter region has an 
area of 928,800 
square miles, a 
population estimat¬ 
ed at 14,656,000, 
or about twenty- 
one inhabitants to 
the square mile. 
The outline of 
South America is 
less monotonous 
than those of Aus¬ 
tralia and Africa, 
but is very much 
more so than the 
coasts of North 
America, and, like 
Africa, it tapers 
from its broadest 
part near the equa¬ 
tor to an apex in 
the South Atlantic Ocean. The distance between 
the extreme northern and southern points, Point 
Gallinas (lat. 12° 29' N., and long. 71° 31' W.) and 
Cape Horn (lat. 55° 55' S., and long. 68° 6' W.), that 
is, nearly due north and south, is 4,514 miles. The 
distance between the extreme eastern and western 
points, from Cape San Roque (long. 35° 20' W., and 
lat. 5° 27' S.) to Point Parma (long. 81° 35' W., and 
lat. 4° 50' S.), or nearly due east and west, is 3,058 
miles. The total coast-line is about 15,000 miles, or 
4,000 miles less than that of the much smaller but 
far more varied continent of Europe. The islands of 
the South and Central American regions (excluding 
the West Indies) are comparatively few in number 
and insignificant in size, and consist mainly of the 
Patagonian Archipelago, Terra del Fuego, Falk¬ 
land Islands and Georgia Islands in the southern 
extremity of America; Juan Fernandez, a few 
smaller islets, the Gallapago Islands, and the 
Revillagigedo Islands off the west coast of South 
America, and a few islets along the east coast. 



MAP OF SOUTH AMERICA, SHOWING THE POLITICAL DIVISIONS. 

















America. 


( no ) 


America. 


Physical Features .—In the distribution of the 
elevations and depressions of the surface of South 
America, and in its fluvial systems, there is a 
remarkable analogy when it is compared with 
that of the North American continent, for in both 
continents there are vast plains in the interior, 
with mountain chains in the neighbourhood of 
the coasts, on the east and west borders of the 
continents. The principal features of South and 
North America, which may well compare with each 
other in their respective situations, courses, or 
directions, are the Andes and the Rocky Mountains 
on the west coast; and the Sierras do Mar and 
Mantigueira in Brazil, with the Appalachian or 
Alleghany Mountains in the United States on the 
eastern borders of the continents. The rivers 
Paraguay and Parana are represented by the rivers 
Missouri and Mississippi; the Amazons and its vast 
lowland plains, by the river St. Lawrence and the 
great lakes region ; the pampas lands of Argentina 
compare with the prairies of the United States ;• 
the Lake and Gulf of Maracaibo in the north of 
South America has its representative in Hudson’s 
Bay in the north of North America; and finally, 
the great hollow or depression of the land, which 
extends right through the heart of the continent in 
a northerly direction, from Buenos Ayres by the 
rivers Paraguay, Guapore, Madeira, Negro, and 
Orinoco to the Spanish Main, has its equivalent 
in North America in a somewhat similar course via 
the Mississippi and Missouri, the tributaries of 
the latter to Lake Winnipeg and Nelson river to 
Hudson Bay. 

The prominent feature of South and Central 
America is the vast mountain system of the Andes 
which stretches for four thousand miles through 
the former in one unbroken range from south to 
north along the Pacific coast of the southern 
continent, and onwards in peaks or plateaux through 
the isthmus until it merges into the Rocky Moun¬ 
tains. The summits are higher than any in the 
New World. The broadest parts of the range are 
between the 20th and 25th parallels, where it is 
upwards of 400 miles across. The Andes surpass the 
Himalaya Mountains in length, breadth, and con¬ 
tinuity, but not in elevation. No other region of 
the world contains so great a number of active 
volcanoes as are met with in the Andes. In the 
Patagonian section there are four ; in Chile there 
are a great number of volcanic summits, the most 
notable being Aconcagua, 23,944 feet above the 
sea, the highest mountain in the system and the 
loftiest volcano of the globe. The Bolivian and 
Peruvian Andes contain few active volcanoes, but 
in the Columbian and Equatorial section, im¬ 
mediately to the north and south of the equator, 
volcanoes are numerous, such as Antisana, 
Cotopaxi, and other high summits, which are in a 
frequent state of eruption. The height of the 
perpetual snow-line of the Andes varies from 
15,800 ft. under the equator, to 15,900 to 18,000 ft. 
in Bolivia, and to 14,000 to (5,000 ft. in Chile. There 
are several other minor mountain systems indicated 
on maps of South America, but with the exception 
of the Sierra da Mantigueira or of those in the. 
States of Silo Paulo and Minas Geraes, Brazil, and 


of their ramifications into Bahia and Espirito Santo, 
and also of the central detached group of the Sierra 
dos Pyroneos in Goyaz, all the other map-indicated 
ranges are the scarped bluffs of table-lands sur¬ 
rounding, or bordering on, lower plateaux, which, 
from those lower levels, have the appearance of flat- 
topped mountains. In other cases, the so-called 
sierras or mountains are isolated vestiges of eroded 
table-lands. Brazil, especially, abounds with such 
examples. 

Hydrography .—The drainage of 2,800,000 square 
miles of the South American continent finds its 
exit at the mouth of the Amazons, on the equator, 
and at the mouth of the Rio de la Plata at Buenos 
Ayres, consequently these two fluvial systems com¬ 
bined represent a system larger than any other two 
fluvial systems of the globe. The remaining riverine 
systems of South America, although insignificant in 
comparison to those of the Amazons and Plata, are 
nevertheless amongst the great rivers of the globe, 
and consist of the Rio Sao Francisco, draining the 
Eastern regions of Brazil; the Paranahyba in north¬ 
eastern Brazil, and the Orinoco and Magdalena 
rivers in Venezuela and Columbia, in the north of 
South America. The tropical zones of South 
America, east of the Andes, are generally some of 
the most abundantly watered regions of the globe; 
but the north-east portions of Brazil are occasionally 
subjected to long and devastating droughts, and 
there, the soil being mainly of a light or sandy 
nature, many of the large rivers and all the minor 
streams dry up, and compel the inhabitants (mostly 
stock-raisers) to abandon their herds and seek a 
refuge in the cities of the coast. Another region of 
South America—the desert of Atacama on the 
Pacific coast between 27° and 20° south latitude 
and situated between the Andes and the ocean—is 
a perfectly sterile tract, where a drop of rain never 
falls; it is a region of loose sand and naked 
rocks. The exceptional dryness of this region has, 
however, been the means of preserving intact its 
justly celebrated and valuable deposits of nitrate 
of soda. The northern coast regions of Brazil, on 
the contrary, at times show the greatest rainfall of 
any country on the globe. In Para, in former years, 
it rained almost every day of the year. At S. Louis 
de Maranhao 276 inches have falien in a few weeks. 
At, Demerara six inches of rain have been collected 
within twelve hours, and at Cayenne as many as 
twenty-one inches in a single day. The tropical 
rainy season is, however, confined to a brief period 
with considerable intervals of bright sunshine, and 
occurs in some regions in the summer, in others in 
the winter. South America has few lakes of large 
size. The most important is Lake Titicaca (3,800 
miles in area), 12,847 feet above the sea, and sur¬ 
rounded by some of the loftiest peaks of the Andes. 
Several salt water lakes occur in Argentina. Lake 
Maracaibo is near the shores of the Caribbean Sea, 
and Lagoa dos Patos in the south-east of Brazil is 
separated from the Atlantic Ocean by a long 
narrow strip of land. In the much smaller area of 
Central America lakes are more frequent, for 
instance, Lake Chepala on the Mexican highlands is 
of large size, and the still larger Lake of Nicaragua 
(3,500 square miles) is farther to the southward. 







America. 


( Hi ) 


America. 


and also on high land, and there is also the Lake of 
Managua, or Leon (430 square miles) to the north¬ 
west of Lake Nicaragua. 

Mineralogy .—South and Central America are 
particularly rich in minerals. Diamonds are found 
in Brazil, in the States of Minas Geraes, Matto 
Grosso, Bahia, Sao Paulo and Parana. Gold is 
found in every country of the continent. The 
Andes in Peru, Chile, and the highlands of Mexico 
have long been noted for their wonderful silver 
mines, and the metal has also been found in Brazil. 
Copper exists in Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Mexico, and 
Brazil. Tin has been discovered in Peru and in the 
sands of the Rio Paraopeba, Minas Geraes, Brazil. 
Coal is being mined in Chile and in Brazil. Iron is 
most abundant and rich in quality in Brazil, 
Columbia, Bolivia, Mexico, etc. Lead is found in 
Peru, Mexico, and Bolivia. 

Vegetation— In no part of the world is vegetation 
so varied and luxuriant as in tropical America. 
Botanists have already classified over 20,000 species 
of its flora, amongst which in the Amazons alone 
are over 100 varieties of palms, and 550 of 
orchids. It would therefore be useless to attempt 
to describe it by mentioning a few examples; suffice 
it to say that there is an enormous variety of timber 
for construction of all kinds, textile, oleaginous and 
aromatic plants, gums, resins, dye woods, and 
alimentary roots and medicinal plants. The virgin 
forest of the Amazons, 1,300 miles long by H00 
miles broad, is the largest forest area of the globe, 
and amidst its many wonderful productions no one 
excels in commercial importance the indiarubber 
tree. Seventeen thousand tons of rubber have 
been annually exported from this rich floral region, 
representing a value of between six and seven 
millions sterling, all of which has been obtained 
from the wilds of this vast forest. Coffee is the 
principal cultivated product of Brazil, Venezuela, 
and Mexico, and other Central American States. 

Fauna— For the sportsman, especially the hunter 
of large game, Africa is infinitely preferable to 
South or Central America, where the larger 
animals, few and far between, are only the tapirs, 
the jaguars, pumas, and the camel of the Andes, 
the ilarna, the capvbaras or waterhogs, the large 
ant-eating bears, and the South American ostrich, 
the emu. The forests abound with strange and 
beautiful insects, and occasionally monkeys, but 
otherwise little other animal life is there met with. 
It is in the breezy, sunny, flower-decked plains or 
rolling uplands, or by the river side, that numerous 
birds and quadrupeds and glistening insects and 
snakes are found. The rivers of South and Central 
America are generally well stocked with great 
varieties of fish, and shrimps, prawns, lobsters, and 
other crustaceans are very abundant on the coasts, 
as well as oysters and many other species of 
testaceans, which in some places on the seaboard 
of Brazil are the almost exclusive food of the poor 
inhabitants. 

Population .—The aboriginal inhabitants of South 
and Central America, excepting perhaps those of Peru 
conquered by Pizarro. show strong evidences of a com¬ 
mon origin in some Mongolian race or races. There 
is a more strongly marked distinction between the 


North American Indians and the copper-coloured 
aboriginals of South America in language, habits, 
and customs and physical characteristics, than 
between the Hottentots and Zulus of Africa. The 
South American aboriginal is light copper or olive 
in colour, some are almost white; the hair is coarse, 
black and straight, the stature is below the aver¬ 
age Circassian standard, the head is large, the eyes 
slanting, the face is generally devoid of hair and 
broad with prominent cheek bones, the nostrils are 
wide and the nose often aquiline, the neck is short, 
the shoulders broad and chest deep, the hips are 
narrow, the arms long, the hands and feet small 
and delicate, especially the hands. The aboriginals 
of South America are divided into two great families, 
the Guarany and the Tupy, but the difference is 
mainly one of dialect and location. The Guaranies 
occupied the southern regions and the Tupies the 
northern and central regions of South America, 
spreading into Central America and the West 
Indies. These two stocks have been subdivided 
into an infinite number of distinct tribes, each one 
speaking a different dialect from the others, and 
somewhat differing from each other in habits and 
customs. The population of South and Central 
America consists of Whites, Indians, Negroes, and a 
mixture of Indian and Negro, Indian and Spaniard, 
Indian and Portuguese, Negro and Spaniard or 
Portuguese, and the result is the ringing of the 
changes of one such mixture with another, known 
collectively as Mestizoes (half-castes), such as 
Ladinos, Zambos, Mulattos, Quadroons, Octoroons, 
and various other subdivisions with different names 
according to their various degrees of descent. In 
Mexico alone, the number of known Indian tongues 
number 51 distinct languages, and 09 dialects, to 
which are added 02 idioms now extinct. 



Area in 
square miles. 

Population, 

Pop. per 
sq. mile. 

Brazil - 

. 

3,200,STS 

14,002,000 

4-36 

Argentina 

- 

1,125,080 

4,046,700 

3'60 

Bolivia - 

- 

772,54S 

j 2,300,300 

1 1,000,000- 

2-97 ) 
1-29 r 

Venezuela 

- 

032,605 

2,234,380 

2,951,300 

3'53 

Columbia 

. 

504,773 

5-84 

Peiu 

- 

463,747 

j 2,621,800 
\ 350,000* 

5-65 l 
0'75 y 

Chile - 

- 

203,970 

2,660 000 

9'07 

Ecuador 

- 

118,030 

1,004,650 

8-47 

British Guiana 

- 

100,000 

278,500 

2*55 

Paraguay 

- 

91,070 

( 329,650 

l 130,000* 

3-58) 
1-32 a 

Uruguay 

- 

72,110 

651,000 

9-03 

Dutch Guiana 

- 

40,060 

57,000 

l“2l 

French Guiana 

* 

24,750 

20,500 

0-85 

Totals for South ) 
America- -j 

7,405,217 

34,643,480 

4-00 

Mexico - 


751,700 

11,490,800 

15-28 

Nicaragua 


49,500 

400,000 

8-08 

Guatemala 


46,S00 

1,427,100 

3 05 

Honduras 


40,000 

432,000 

9-39 

Costa Rica 


20,000 

213,800 

16-90 i 

British Honduras - 


7,502 

27,450 

3-63 

S. Salvador - 


7,225 

604,500 

91-97 

Totals for Central)_ 
America - - ) 

92S,7S7 

14,055,650 

21-18 


* Indian tribes in the interior. 




























American. 


( H2 ) 


Americanisms. 


History, Political Constitution, Religions, etc .— 
The Spaniards and Portuguese were the discoverers 
of South and Central America. The former under 
Christopher Columbus first sighted the Guianas in 
1458, and again under Vasco Nunez, in 1504. Vene¬ 
zuela was discovered by Columbus in 1498, and 
Mexico by him also in 1519; Peru by Pizarro in 1524, 
and Argentina by Juan Dias de Solis in 1513. Cape 
St. Augustine in North Brazil was first sighted 
by Vicente Yunez Pinzon, a former companion of 
Columbus, and the Portuguese, Pedro Alvarez 
Cabral, completed further discoveries of that coun¬ 
try at the close of the fifteenth century. The whole 
region of South and Central America thus became 
colonised by the Spanish and Portuguese, the latter 
retaining Brazil and losing Uruguay. At various 
periods, the English, French, and Dutch contended 
with the Spaniards and Portuguese for the posses¬ 
sion of various regions in Argentina, Uruguay, 
Brazil, the Guianas, and Venezuela. The Dutch 
especially for many years occupied a large portion 
of N.E. Brazil, and the French at one time occupied 
Rio de Janeiro. The English now only possess 
British Guiana and British Honduras ; the French 
hold French Guiana, and the Dutch, Dutch Guiana. 
For about 300 years the crown of Spain controlled 
the destinies of the Spanish colonies, until, one and 
all, taking advantage of the French invasion of the 
mother country, they succeeded in obtaining their 
independence ; Mexico became independent in 1822, 
and in 1836 Texas fell to the United States. 
Argentina was the first to fight for its liberty, 
which it gained in 1810. Columbia followed in 
1817, Chile in 1813, Peru in 1821, Venezuela in 1819, 
Bolivia in 1824, and the smaller states of Central 
America in about sinfilar epochs. The whole of these 
separate nations of Spanish speaking peoples adopted 
republican government. On the other hand, the 
Portuguese in Brazil, on separating from the mother 
country, maintained a monarchical regime until 
1889, when the Emperor Dom Pedro II. was de¬ 
posed by a military insurrection, and a republic 
proclaimed and confirmed by the people in 1890. 

With the exception of British Guiana and British 
Honduras, the national religion of the whole of the 
nations of South and Central America is that of the 
Roman Catholic Church. 

Climate .—The climate of the vast region of South 
and Central America varies from the Arctic cold of 
Cape Horn, Patagonia, and the perpetual snows of 
the summits of the Andes to the sweltering heat of 
the summer of the tropical lowlands. Collectively, 
however, the north coast of South America and the 
coast-line of Central America are undoubtedly ex¬ 
tremely hot and unhealthy regions. The equatorial 
regions do not show so high a temperature as do 
India, New York, or even London at times ; the tem¬ 
perature is equable throughout the year, 75° to 90°. 

American Indians. [Indians.] 

Americanisms, words or phrases that have 
originated in America or that possess a different 
meaning from what they do in proper English. Of 
the many thousands of Americanisms derived from 
these various sources, the following may be taken 
as specimens :— 


Account, in the phrase “no account men,” meaning men 
of straw. 

Admire at, wonder at. 

Approbate, to approve of. 

Back down, to yield. 

Bad, in the sense of not feeling well. 

Baggage, luggage. 

Bee, as applied to such institutions as the spelling bee, 
ploughing bee, quilting bee, etc. 

Bee-line, as the crow flies. 

Being as, since or because. 

Bet, in the phrase “ you bet,” meaning a strong affirmative. 
Bettirment, improvement. 

Big, fine. 

Biscuit, a hot roll. 

Blizzard, a poser. 

Bloomer, in the phrase “ bloomer costume,” the name of 
the American lady that introduced it. 

Bogus (from Borghese), a clever forger. 

Bonanza, a profitable project. 

Boss, a master or leader. 

Bottom, in the phrase, “ bottom dollar,” taken from the gamb¬ 
ling miners— the bottom dollar in a pile being the last one. 
Boom, to push into prominence. 1 
Brainy, intellectual. 

Bugs, insects generally. 

Bully, in the phrase “ bully for you,” meaning “ welldoneyou.” 
Bunkum, bombastic talk about nothing. 

Bureau, office. 

CaTion, a ravine. 

Carpet-bagger, in politics, an adopter of other men’s ideas. 
Cars, railway carriages. 

Caucus, a political organisation. 

Checkers, the game of draughts. 

Chores, odd jobs. 

Chunk, a lump of anything; a chunky man is a thick-set man. 
Clearing, an oj>en space cleared of trees. 

Clever, amiable. 

Conductor, a railway guard. 

Corduroy road, a road laid with logs. 

Corn, Indian corn or maize. 

Corner, buying up more of an article than there is in existence. 
Crank, an eccentric person. 

To crayfish, in politics, is to rat. 

Creek, a stream. 

Cunning, pretty. 

Deadheads, jieople that go to places of amusement and 
travel for nothing. 

Depot, railway station. 

Diggings, the place one works at or lives in. 

Donate, to subscribe. 

Drummer, a commercial traveller. 

Elevator, a lift. 

Eye-opener, something startling. 

Fall, autumn. 

Fence-riding, the position of one who takes no side in a 
dispute but is ready to jump into the party likely to win. 
Figure on, rely on. 

Filibuster, an expedition of adventurers. 

Fix, to do anything whatever; even a lady loosening her 
hair would say she was fixing it. 

Fixing has a similarly wide meaning and may be anything. 
Fizzle, to fail. 

Flummox, in the sense of to yield. 

Foreign, as applied to the English, who do not when speaking 
of foreigners include Americans. 

Fraud, in the sense of a sell. 

Friends, relatives. 

Frump, to insult. 

Good, in such an expression as “I feel good,” meaning “I 
feel well.” 

Gerrymander, to split up constituencies so as to render the 
votes of the party in a majority ineffective. 

Gin mill, a gin palace. 

Gospel shop, where the gospel is preached. 

Loafer, an idler. 
locate, to place. 

Log rolling, applied freely to politicians who get assistance 
for their measures, repaying this assistance with similar assist¬ 
ance to their friends’ measures. 

I .umber, timber. 

Maam, “les, ma’am ” “No, ma’am,” are continually in the 
mouths of Americans when conversing with ladies, just as 
“ ^ es > s fi> “No, sir,” and often “siree” are freely used in 
addressing their equals and companions 





Amersfoort. 


( 113 ) 


Amiens. 


Operate, to work. 

Pants, trousers. 

Placer, a good gold find, now generally a good thing. 

Pretty, very. 

Prospecting, examining. [barn, etc. 

A raising, the putting up of the framework of a house or 

Ranch, a cattle farm. 

Right, meaning just, e.g. “right here” is “just here.” 

Rooster, a cock. 

Run, in such phrases as “to run a hotel,” to manage. 

Saloon, a drinking bar. 

Sick, ill. 

Skedaddle, to run away. 

Smart, clever. 

Smile, a drink. 

Stakes, in the expression, “ they pulled up their stakes,” 
meaning they left. 

Stampede ; to make tracks, to depart. 

Store, shop. 

To he up a tree, to he in a difficulty. 

Ugly, bad-tempered. 

Valise, handbag. 

IFire, a telegram. 

There are certain phrases also, from the fre¬ 
quency and peculiarity of their use by Americans, 
that may be mentioned. These are “ I guess," “ I 
reckon ,” “ I calculate .” The American guesses, 
reckons, and calculates, when he really means to 
affirm. Another phrase, “ Is that so ? ” is the 
American way of expressing surprise, and is often 
reduced to simply “ So-o-o ? ” said in an interroga¬ 
tive tone of voice. 

Amersfoort, a town in the province of Utrecht 
Holland, on the river Eem. It was once fortified, 
but the fortifications have been converted into 
public promenades, the gates only remaining. There 
is some trade in corn, tobacco, and herrings. 
Dimity, woollen goods, brandy, and glassware are 
made here. 

Amersham, a town on the river Colne in 
Buckinghamshire. The Great Western Railway 
has a station here. The making of wooden chairs, 
lace, straw-plaits, and sacking are the chief indus¬ 
tries. The poet Waller was born in the parish. 

Amesbury, or Ambresbury, a small town in 
the county of Wilts, on the River Avon, 9 miles 
from Salisbury. The town is connected with the 
Arthurian legends, and the remains of a remarkable 
Roman camp and of the Abbey exist close by. 
There is, too, a fine mansion built by Inigo Jones for 
the Queensberry family, and an interesting church. 
Ambresbury Banks is also the name of the re¬ 
mains of an old British camp near’Epping Forest. 

Anietabolic, a term applied to those insects 
in which the larva resembles the adult, and the life 
history cannot be sharply divided into the stages 
larva (caterpillar), pupa (chrysalis), and imago 
(perfect insect); in other words, they do not under¬ 
go metamorphosis (q.v.). The earwigs are a well- 
known example. 

Amethyst, a violet variety of quartz (SiOo), 
coloured by a trace of manganese-peroxide, sup¬ 
posed by the ancients to be a charm against drunken¬ 
ness. It occurs in Scotland, but is largely obtained 
from Brazil. The more valuable oriental amethyst 
is the similarly-coloured variety of sapphire (A1 2 0 3 ). 
Amhara, Amharic Language. [Abyssinia.] 

Amherst, Jeffrey, Baron Amherst, was born 
at Riverhead, Kent, in 1717. Entering the army in 

8 


1731, he became aide-de-camp to General Ligonier, 
and served at Dettingen and Fontenoy. He was 
sent as Major-General to America in 1758, and con¬ 
ducted the siege of Louisburg. On his return home 
in 1763 he was appointed Governor of Virginia. 
He became Governor of Jersey in 1770, and six years 
later was created a baron. In 1795 he was raised 
to the rank of Field-Marshal, and died in 1797. 

Amherst, William Pitt, Earl Amherst, of 
Montreal, Kent, nephew of the foregoing, whom he 
succeeded in the barony, was born in 1773. After 
holding several court appointments he was sent out 
to China in 1816 to effect a commercial treaty with 
that empire. His reception at Pekin was so dis¬ 
couraging that he returned immediately. He was 
Governor-General of India from 1823 to 1828, and 
was created an earl in 1826. He died in 1857. 

Amianthus. [Asbestos.] 

Amice, an oblong piece of linen worn over the 
cassock and under the alb, stole, and chasuble. It 
is still worn abroad by Roman Catholic priests. 

Amide, or Amine, in chemistry, a substance 
which is derived from ammonia by replacing one 
of its hydrogen atoms by a monovalent acid radical. 
[Ex. acetamide NC 2 H 3 OH. : .] The amides are usually 
solid substances, with characteristic melting points, 
neutral to litmus, but combine readily with acids. 

Amiens (Lat. Amhiani), formerly the capital of 
Picardy and now the chief town of the department 
of the Somme, France, stands on the banks of the 



VIEW IN AMIENS. 


river Somme about 40 miles from Boulogne. The 
Northern Railway of France has a large junction 
and works here. It is an ancient city, occupying 
the site of the Roman Somarobriva. Joining the 
League in 1588, it was reduced in 155)2, and 5 years 
after was captured by the Spanish to be retaken im¬ 
mediately by Henry IV. The famous 'Treaty of 
Amiens was signed here in 1802. The older quarters 
are dirty and cramped, being intersected by canals ; 
the new part is well laid out and handsomely built. 
The glory of the city is the magnificent Gothic 
cathedral (1220-1288), the proportions of which are 










Amines. 


( 114 ) 


Ammonius 


most effective, the length of the nave being 442 feet 
and its height 140 feet, whilst the spire is 420 feet 
high. The Hotel de Ville is a fine building, and 
there are a valuable library, a museum, a high court, 
a college, and a bishop's palace. Many industries 
are carried on, the principal being cotton spinning 
and weaving, the manufacture of cotton-velvets, 
kerseymeres, woollen and linen fabrics, and leather. 

Amines. [Amide.] 

Amiot, Joseph, a French Jesuit missionary, 
born in 1718, who went out to China in 1740, and 
spent over 50 years in Pekin, dying there in 1794. 
He wrote many instructive works on the language, 
manners, and arts of the Chinese, including a Life 
of Confucius. 

Amirante Islands, a group lying about 300 
miles N.N.E. of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean, 
almost connected with the Seychelles, and depen¬ 
dent, like them, on the Government of Mauritius. 
They were ceded to England in 1814. The islands 
are small, averaging from 1| to 2^ miles in length, 
and not rising more than 25 feet above sea level. 

Amlwch, a small seaport town in the I. of 
Anglesea, N. Wales, 15 miles from Beaumaris, on the 
Chester and Holyhead Kail way. It has a fair harbour. 
Extensive copper mines are worked in its vicinity. 

Ammianus Marcellinus, a Latinised Greek, 
who, after serving as a soldier under Constantine 
and Julian, settled in Rome, and wrote his great 
work Rerum Gestavum Libri XXXI., covering the 
period from Nerva's accession to the death of Valens 
(96-378 A.D.). Only 18 books are extant. Gibbon 
praises the author for accuracy, and his modera¬ 
tion in dealing with the development of Christianity 
is remarkable. He died about 390. 

Ammocete, the larval form of the small 
Lampern ( Retro my zon branchialis ), formerly made 
a separate genus ( Ammocoetes ). [Lamprey, 
Fishes.] 

Ammon (Phcen. The hidden deity), the name 
of the chief god of the Egyptians, identified by the 
Greeks with Zeus, and by the Romans with Jupiter. 
He was personified in Egyptian art as a human being 
with a ram’s head, but sometimes the body of a 
beast of prey is substituted for the human element. 
Thebes seems to have been the original centre of 
his worship, but his great temple and oracle were 
in the Libyan oasis of Siwah, which Alexander 
visited when he caused himself to be proclaimed 
the son of Jupiter Ammon. 

Ammon, the son of Lot and progenitor of the 
Ammonites that dwelt on the confines of Manasseh, 
and for so many generations waged war with the 
Israelites until exterminated by Joab. 

Ammonia, or Volatile Alkali (NH 3 ). 
Although ammonia does not exist in nature in tlie 
free state, ammoniacal salts are widely distributed 
in the soil, and also occur in the atmosphere; they 
are characteristic products of the decomposition of 
organic substances containing nitrogen. Ammonia 
itself is a gaseous substance best prepared by 
heating ammonium chloride (sal ammoniac) with 


slaked lime, and collecting the product over 
mercury. It is a gas with a very pungent odour, 
which may be liquefied at 40° C. at the ordinary 
pressure of the atmosphere ; by the rapid evapora¬ 
tion of this liquid ammonia may be still further 
obtained in white crystals. Ammonia is extremely 
soluble in water. It combines with acids to form 
ammoniacal salts, which, as a rule, are colourless 
and very soluble; the most important are the 
chloride and carbonate. In medicine it is used as 
an antacid and a stimulant. 

Ammoniacum, a gum-resin exuding from 
Dorema Ammoniacum, and I). Aucheri, perennial, 
umbelliferous plants, natives of Irak, in Persia, 
whence the gum is shipped, via Bombay. It is 
reddish yellow, opalescent and slightly foetid, and 
is used as a substitute for the allied assafoetida, in 
plasters for tumours, and as an expectorant. African 
ammoniacum, used for fumigation, is obtained from 
Ferula tingitana, a native of Morocco. It is said 
to be anti-spasmodic in its action, but is chiefly 
used to check secretion in chronic bronchitis. In 
the form of a plaster it is also employed externally 
to relieve inflamed joints. 

Ammonites, a group of fossil molluscs, 
related to the living Pearly Nautilus, being, 
like it, tetrabranehiate ceplialopods. Ammonites 
differ from Nautilus in having the chambers of their 
shells divided by foliated partitions, and in having 
the siphuncle, or tube passing through the chambers, 
lateral instead of central. The genus is confined to 
Secondary rocks, being first found in the Trias, 
and dying out in the Chalk. The species number 
several hundreds, and some of them reach a 
diameter of over three feet. As many of the species 
lasted but a very short time, and are fairly abundant, 
they have been used by geologists to divide the 
Secondary rocks into “ zones.” The name is derived 
from the resemblance of the shells to the ram’s 
horns with which Jupiter Ammon was represented. 

Ammonium (NH 4 ), the metal which is supposed 
to exist in ammoniacal salts; its existence being 
extremely probable in theory, and extremely diffi¬ 
cult to prove in practice. Under conditions of tem¬ 
perature and pressure which do not obtain in our 
planet, there is little doubt that ammonium tvould 
be easily obtainable in the metallic state, and 
further might be incapable of resolution into 
NH ;J +H. The existence of the ammonium com¬ 
pounds furnishes a strong argument in favour of 
the assumption that all metals are really complex 
in structure. Just as at lower temperatures and 
higher pressures we can conceive of ammonium as 
• an irresolvable metal, so at higher temperatures 
and reduced pressures we can conceive of ordinary 
metals assuming the hypothetical condition now 
presented by the ammonium radicle. Alchemists 
in believing that all metals could be transmuted 
into gold wei'e perhaps not, in the essence of 
the thing, such idle dreamers as they are commonly 
supposed. 

Ammonius, nicknamed Saccas because he was 
originally a porter at Alexandria, took to the study 
of philosophy, established an academy, and became 





Ammunition. 


( ) 


Amoy. 


the founder of the Neo-Platonic school in which 
the systems of Plato and Aristotle meet in combina¬ 
tion with some elements of Christian theology. 
Origen, Longinus, and Plotinus were among his 
hearers. It is said that he was a Christian by 
birth, but it is a matter of dispute whether he pro¬ 
fessed the faith himself. He died in 243 a.d. at an 
advanced age. 

Ammunition, formerly military stores in 
.general. The term is now confined to powder, 
shot, shells, etc., for firearms. 

Amnesty, an act of oblivion passed after a 
political disturbance. Its effect is to so condone 
all offences committed against the State during the 
disturbance, that they can never be charged against 
the offending parties. 

Amnion, one of the foetal membranes, which, 
like the allantois (q.v.), is met with in the embryos 
of reptiles, birds, and mammals ; these three groups 
of vertebrate animals being sometimes classed to¬ 
gether as Amniota, as distinguished from fish and 
amphibia, in which no amnion is developed. The 
structure is formed by the growth of two folds, which 
arch over the embryo and finally unite in such a way 
that they constitute a double membrane enclosing it. 
The outer of these membranes is known as the false, 
and the inner as the true amnion, while between 
the latter and the embryo is left a space known as the 
amniotic cavity, which is filled by the amniotic 
fluid. The amniotic fluid is of low specific gravity 
and contains a small amount of albumen (q.v.) and 
■of urea (q.v.). Sometimes rupture of the mem¬ 
branes does not occur in the ordinary way, and 
they are borne down in front of the child’s head, 
and this constitutes what is known as a caul, 
around which phenomenon a perfect fabric of 
superstition has been woven by the imaginative. 

Amoeba. The amoeba is a minute unicellular 
animalcule which lives in ponds, crawling over mud 
or submerged leaves. It is rarely more than one- 
fiftieth of an inch in diameter. When examined 
tinder the microscope it is seen to be a small 



AlICEBA. 


(a, showing the pseudopodia ; b, in the resting condition.) 



ec, ectosarc; p, pseudopodium ; cv, one of the contractile 
vacuoles ; en, endosarc ; n, endoplast; /, undigested food. 


particle of jelly-like protoplasm, continually chang¬ 
ing its shape by throwing out processes named 
pseudopodia (Fig. A) ; hence it is sometimes called 
the “ Protean animalcule.” It consists of an outer 
clear layer known as 'the ectosarc, enclosing a more 
fluid granular mass—the endosarc. In the latter are 
included an endoplast or li nucleus,” a spherical 
oi‘ disc-shaped granular body, a contractile 


vacuole, which alternately expands and contracts, 
and fragments of undigested food. The amoeba is the 
best introduction to the study of biology, as it shows 
the phenomena of life in one of its simplest forms ; 
thus the amoeba has no special organs of sense, 
locomotion, reproduction, or nutrition. It moves 
by a mere flow of the body, it takes its food at any 
point, and similarly ejects any innutritions par¬ 
ticles ; it reproduces its kind by dividing into two, 
each half growing again to a full-sized amoeba ; it 
is therefore to a certain extent immortal, as death 
does not enter into the ordinary course of its 
existence. The amoeba belongs to the class Rhizo- 
poda of the sub-kingdom Protozoa. 

Amcsbosporidia, a sub-class of the Sporozoa, 
including an abnormal genus Ophryocystis, which 
is parasitic in a family of beetles. 

Amol, or Amul, a city on the river Heraz, in the 
province of Mazanderan, Persia, 12 miles from the 
Caspian Sea. There are remains of the tomb of 
King* Seyed Quam-u-deen (1378), and of a palace 
of Shah Abbas. The town contains cannon foun¬ 
dries and iron works. 

Amorites, a Canaanitish tribe overthrown by 
Joshua ; their kings were Sihon and Og (q.v.). 

Amoroso, in music , tenderly, with feeling. 

Amorphous (Greek, without form), a term 
used in mineralogy and chemistry to indicate those 
substances which have no regular structure or are 
without crystallisation, as, for example, native 
minium. 

Amorphozoa, a term often applied to the 
group of sponges. 

Amory, Thomas, an eccentric writer who was 
born in 1691, and spent most of his life in the 
solitude of his house at Westminster. In 1755 he 
produced a curious work of fiction called Memoirs 
of Several Ladies of Great Britain, interspersed- 
with Literary Refections, etc., and a few years 
later appeared The TJfe of John Bunclc, Esq. His 
writings are tinged with Unitarianism. He lived 
till 1788. 

Amory, Thomas, a Presbyterian divine, born in 
1700. His scholarship was considerable, and until 
1759 he held a professorship of classics and philo¬ 
sophy in the Dissenting Theological Academy at 
Taunton. Coming to London he was appointed 
pastor of the Old Jewry Chapel. He died in 1774. 

Amos, the fourth of the Minor Prophets, a 
shepherd of Tekoah near Bethlehem. He was a. 
contemporary of Isaiah and Hosea in their earlier 
days, and during his life Israel, having recovered 
from Hazael’s invasion, was fairly prosperous, but 
in the luxury, avarice, and idolatry of his generation 
Amos saw signs of coming trouble. Syria, Tyre, 
the Philistines, and all the neighbouring states 
share his denunciations with Israel and Judah. 

Amoy, a port in the province of Fo-Kien, China, 
situated on an island opposite Formosa. It is 
commanded by a strong citadel on the hills to the 







Ampelopsis. ( 116 ) Amphipoda. 


landward, and possesses an excellent harbour. In 
1841 it was captured by the British and was included 
in the five open ports by the treaty of Nankin. In 
1853 the Taepings occupied the town and retained 
it for nearly two years. The tea trade forms the 
chief commerce of Amoy, but there are local indus¬ 
tries, such as porcelain, paper, grass-cloth, umbrellas. 

Ampelopsis. [Virginian Creeper.] 

Ampdre, Andre Marie, the eminent French 
physicist, born in 1775. He early showed great 
mathematical abilities, and in 1802 wrote a treatise 
on the doctrine of chances as exemplified in 
gambling. In 1805 he obtained a post in a 
Bolytechnic school, and in 1820 he was appointed 
professor of physics in the College of France, and 
devoted most of the rest of his life to the investi¬ 
gation of electrical and magnetic phenomena. He 
suggested the electric telegraph in 1822, and in 
1820 published his theory of electro-dynamics based • 
on the discovery of the mutual attraction and 
repulsion of currents. He may be regarded as 
having first distinguished kinematics from dynamics, 
lie died in 1836 at Marseilles, and his name has 
been perpetuated as a measure of electricity. 

Amphiaraus, the semi-divine soothsayer of 
legendary Greece, was the son of O'ideus (or perhaps 
of Phoebus) and Hypermnestra. He contended with 
Adrastus for the throne of Argus, but came to terms 
with him and married his sister Eriphyle. He took 
part in the chase of the Calydonian boar, and in 
the Argonautic Expedition, but tried to shirk the 
war of the Seven against Thebes, knowing it would 
be fatal to him Eriphyle betrayed him, so he 
went to his doom, enjoining his son Alcmicon to 
avenge him. After his death he received divine 
honours at Oropios in Attica. [Adrastus and 
Alcmason.] 

Amphibia, a term used by Linnasus to include 
reptiles, the modern class Amphibia, and some 
fishes; Cuvier adopted the term, but reduced the 
group by leaving out the fishes. It is now taken to 
include animals between the class Pisces (fishes) 
on the one hand, and the class Reptilia (reptiles) 
on the other, and was united by Huxley with the 
former class in his division Ichthjmpsida (q.v.). 
The amphibia include four orders : Urodela (newts 
and salamanders), Anura (frogs and toads), Pero- 
mela (limbless snake-like forms), and the extinct 
Labyrinthodonta (see these words). The Amphi¬ 
bian embryo is never furnished with an amnion, 
and the urinary bladder is the only representative 
of the allantois ; gills are developed and persist for 
a longer or shorter period; but true lungs are 
always found in the adult. The limbs when 
present are arranged as in the higher vertebrates, 
and terminate typically in five digits ; when 
median fins occur they are never furnished with 
fin-rays. 

Amphibole. [Hornblende.] 

Amphictyon, a mythical Greek hero, to 
whom is assigned the establishment of the famous 
Amphictyonic Council that met twice a year at 
Thermopylae and Delphi alternately to settle matters 


in dispute between the different states. In early 
times only 12 delegates composed this body, but as 
many as 30 took part in the deliberations before 
the final extinction of Greek independence. r lhe 
institution undoubtedly had its origin in a desire to 
preserve the peace during great religious festivals 
and to protect the common shrines of Hellas. Out 
of this beginning grew something like a system of 
international law. The decisions of thp council 
were several times enforced by arms, and the wars 
that ensued are known as “ Sacred Wars.” Philip 
of Macedon made one of them a pretext for entering 
the assembly, and exercising a powerful influence 
over Greek affairs. 

Amphidiscs, the variety of spicules (skeletal 
structures) characteristic of the fresh-water sponge 
(, Spongilla ). 

Amphimorphse, a group of birds in Huxley’s 
classification, corresponding to the Phoenicopteridae 
of older systems. 

Am.ph.ion, twin brother to Zethus and son of 
Antiope and Zeus. Exposed on Mount Cytheron, the 
two children were rescued by a shepherd. Amphion 
invented the lyre ; he attacked Lycus, his putative 
father, seized Thebes, and reigned there conjointly 
with his brother. Somewhat inconsistently he is 
reputed to have built Thebes by the simple process 
of coaxing the stones into position by the notes of 
his lyre. It was probably another Amphion who 
married Niobe. 

Amphioxus. The Amphioxus or Lancelet is a 
small worm or fish-like animal about two inches 
long, which lives half buried in the sand banks of 



AMPHIOXUS. 


the Mediterranean, round the Channel Islands, 
etc. It belongs to the phylum Chordata, and is of 
great interest, owing to the light it throws on the 
evolution of the vertebrata. It has neither skull, 
jaws, limbs, brain, heart, nor kidney. The possession, 
however, of a cartilaginous rod (the notochord), 
homologous (q.v.) to the vertebral column of the 
vertebrates, shows that it is most nearly allied to this 
group. The nervous cord immediately overlies the 
notochord, and is specialised in places to serve as 
organs of sight and smell. It has affinities with 
the Ascidians, which it connects with the verte¬ 
brate division of the chordata. 

Amphipoda, an order of the sessile-eyed Crus¬ 
tacea or Arthrostraca, including the fresh-water 
shrimp ( Gammarus ), the sandhopper ( Talitrus). and 
the whale-louse ( Cyamus ). As in all typical Crus¬ 
tacea, the body consists of three regions, head, thorax, 
and abdomen, divided into segments, each of which 
bears a pair of limbs. In this order there are six 
or seven segments in the thorax, the middle segment 
of the body; upon the limbs attached to this region 
are borne three pairs of small, soft, sac-like struc¬ 
tures, by which the blood is aerated; these are 













Amphipolis. 


( 117 ) Ampthill. 


known as “vesicles.” The abdomen, or hinder- 
most region of the body, may be rudimentary as 
in the sub-order L^emodipoda, or it may consist of 
seven segments with seven pairs of appendages, 
of which the first three pairs are adapted for 
swimming. 

Amphipolis, a town at the mouth of the 
river Strymon in Thrace. Originally founded by 
Athenian colonists, it became one of the frontier 
towns of Macedonia. It was taken by the Spartans 
in the Peloponnesian War (422 B.C.), and Philip 
seized the town in 358 B.c. The modern name is 
Jeni Keui. 

Amphisbaena, a mythic serpent of Libya, 
fabled to have two heads, and to be able to move 
backwards or forwards with equal facility. The 
idea lingered on till recent times, and Tennyson 
aptly embodies the popular notion of this fabulous 
animal when he speaks of 

“Two vipers of one breed-an amphisbaena, 

Each end a sting.” 

The name is now applied to a genus of limbless 
lizards, with thirteen species, from Spain, Northern 
Africa, Asia Minor, South America, and the West 
Indies. They are from 18 to 24 inches long, and 
of nearly uniform thickness ; the head is small, and 
there is scarcely any perceptible tail. They burrow 
in soft earth, and live on insects and worms. 

Amphitheatre, an oval building, generally of 
very large dimensions, in which the Romans used 
to hold their public exhibitions. These buildings 



AMPHITHEATRE AT ARLES. 


were at first made of wood, but in the time of 
Augustus stone was employed ; they were open to 
the sky, but an awning or velarium could be drawn 
across the top in case of rain or of excessive heat. 
The place where the actual show took place wms 
termed the arena , and was in the centre ; the 
gallery immediately surrounding the arena was 
known as the podium , and was reserved for the 
emperor, senators, and persons of very high rank; 
the next fourteen tiers of seats w r ere cushioned and 
were reserved for the equites ; the remainder of the 
seats were of stone, and w r ere open to all. The 
Colosseum at Rome (612 feet long, 515 broad, and 
160 feet high) is the best known example of this 


sort of structure still remaining; this is said to 
have contained 87,000 people. Many other 
examples, however, yet exist: at Cirencester and 
Dorchester, in England ; at Arles and Nimes in 
France, while the one at Verona, in Italy, is one of 
the finest examples. 

Amphitrite, the mythical daughter of 
Oceanus and Tethys, or of Nereus and Doris, who 
was induced by the skilful pleading of a dolphin to 
cast aside her vows of virginity and marry Neptune. 

Amphitryon, King of Tiryns, in Argolis, son 
of Alcaaus assisted Electryon of Mycense against 
the Teleboii, and was honoured with the hand of 
Alcmene. Whilst he was leading the Thebans 
against the JEtolians, Zeus assumed his form and 
his conjugal rights, with the result that Heracles 
and Iphicles were born. Hence his name has become 
a household word in connection with hospitality. 
On his return he found Zeus entertaining a party, 
and when he claimed his position as master of the 
house the guests supported the giver of the feast. 
Moliere adopted the story in one of his plays, whence 
the expression, “ Le veritable Amphitryon et l’Am- 
phitryon chez qui l'on dine.” 

Amphiuma, a genus of Urodela in which the 
gills do not persist through life, from the southern 
United States. They are slender eel-like creatures, 
with four rudimentary feet, inhabiting the ditches 
of rice-fields, and feeding on small fish, fresh-water 
molluscs, and insects. Some forms have two, and 
others have three digits, and from this character two 
species have been distinguished, but as the number 
of digits sometimes varies in the same individual, 
the distinction is of little importance. 

Amphora, a two-handled vessel, generally 
made of clay, used among the Greeks and Romans 
for holding wine, oil, or the ashes of the dead. 
The Roman amphora contained about six English 
gallons, the Greek holding nearly nine. 

Amplexicaul (from the Latin ainplexus , em¬ 
braced, caulits, stem), a term applied to stalkless 
leaves, the basal lobes of which project on either 
side of the stem overlapping one another on the 
side opposite to that from which the leaf springs. 

Amplitude, in astronomy, the distance of a 
heavenly body from the east or west points, at the 
instant of its rising or setting. The amplitude of 
a star is always the same ; but that of the sun 
varies from zero at the equinoxes (q.v.) to a maxi¬ 
mum at midsummer and midwinter. In oscillatory 
motion of a particle, the amplitude of vibration is 
the greatest distance of the particle from its mean 
position. 

Ampthill (Ametulle), a market town of Bed¬ 
fordshire, 8 miles from Bedford, on the London 
and North-Western and Midland Railways. Straw 
plaiting and lace making are the chief local indus¬ 
tries. Ampthill House is near the town. 

Ampthill, Odo William Leopold Russell, 
Baron, grandson of the 6th Duke of Bedford, was 
born in 1829. He entered the diplomatic service 
in 1849, and after working at Vienna and Paris, and 
in the Foreign Office at home, he became attache 
















Ampul. 


( H8 ) 


Amsterdam. 


.at Constantinople during the Crimean war, under 
Lord Stratford de Redcliffe. In 1858 he was sent 
to Rome as Secretary of Legation, and he subse¬ 
quently remained there on special service till 1870, 
his chief, duty being to act as intermediary between 
the British Government and the Vatican. In 1870 
he was recalled to take up the post of Assistant- 
Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office. Next year 
he became ambassador at Berlin, and held that 
position till his death in 1884. With Lords 
Beaconsfield and Salisbury he represented Eng¬ 
land at the Berlin Congress of 1878. In 1881 he 
received a peerage. 

Ampul, a nearly globular vessel, a glass or 
earthenware flask narrowing towards the mouth, 
used among the Romans to hold unguents, per¬ 
fumes, etc. Such vials were also used later for 
ecclesiastical purposes, such as holding the oil for 
consecration or coronation, containing the relics 
of saints. The Ampulla is the sacred vessel con¬ 
taining the oil used in the coronation service. 

Amputation, the operation of removing a dis¬ 
eased or injured part of the body. In performing 
an amputation it is essential that the loss of blood 
should be reduced to a minimum, and that suitable 
“ haps ” should be cut from the healthy skin and 
tissues, wherewith to cover the bones and secure a 
satisfactory stump. With the ancients amputation 
was rarely practised, as it was a most serious 
undertaking, their methods of checking the bleeding 
being crude, and limited to the use of hot irons and 
various styptics. In the modern operation the 
main artery supplying the part to be removed is 
compressed, either by means of the finger or with 
a tourniquet (q.v.), the flaps are then cut, the bone 
sawn through, and the bleeding vessels are then 
rapidly secured with artery forceps, and either 
tied or twisted, the flaps being finally sewn together, 
and a suitable dressing applied. Thus the 
haemorrhage is but slight in amount, and even 
amputation at the hip joint, where the arteries 
involved are of large size, has become a practicable 
operation. Occasionally the circular is preferred to 
the flap method. Here the amputation knife is passed 
circularly round the limb, the skin having been 
previously drawn up as far as possible, so that it and 
the muscles may be “ cut long,” and so secure a 
covering for the bone. Whereas in the more usual 
form of operation the limb is transfixed with the 
knife and flaps are cut. In amputating at various 
points a certain definite routine is frequently 
observed. Thus, Syme's amputation through the 
ankle joint, Seale's amputation through the leg, 
and Chopart’s and Lisfranc’s through the foot, are 
favourite modes of operating in those particular 
situations. Previous to the days of anaesthetics 
rapidity was of essential importance in performing 
amputation. Nowadays, however, this is happily 
not a matter of such moment. Again, modern 
surgery, with its improved methods of treating 
operation wounds, secures much better results than 
was the case in earlier days. 

Amraoti(Oomrawattee), the name of one of the 
Hyderabad assigned districts and of its capital city. 


Its area is about 2,5G0 square miles. Karinja, 
Baduera, and Kolapoor are places of some impor¬ 
tance within the district. Amraoti, the town, forms 
the headquarters of the Commissioner of the pro¬ 
vince. 

Amrita, the beverage of the gods of Hindu 
mythology ; applied also in Tibet to a celestial tree 
bearing ambrosial fruit. 

Amritsar, a division, district, and city of the 
Punjaub, British India. The Division is made up 
of the Amritsar, Sialkot, and Gurdaspur districts. 
Its boundaries are the Himalayas to the N.E., the 
Chenab river to the N.W., the Bias river to the 
S.E., and the districts of Lahore and Gujranwale 
to the S.W. The District has an area of 1574r 
square miles of level plain, depending on irrigation 
for water. The products are wheat, barley, millet, 
rice, and other cereals. Shawls resembling those 
of Kashmir are the principal manufacture. The 
City (Amrita Saras, Fountain of Immortality) 
takes its name and origin from the reservoir made 
there in 1581. The circumference of the city is 8 
miles, but there are large suburbs. Its position 
on the Punjaub Railway makes Amritsar a great 
centre of trade, not only for the province, but for 
the transit of goods to Central Asia, 

Amrooah, or Amroha, an ancient Mussulman 
town in the N.W. provinces of India, 23 miles N.W. 
of Moradabad. 

Amrn, Ben-al-as, a celebrated Arab warrior, 
born about 600 A.d. He was at first a vehement- 
opponent of Mahomet, but x^esently became one 
of his most ardent disciples. His military achieve¬ 
ments, under the Caliph Omar, included the con¬ 
quest of Syria, Egypt, Nubia, and Libya as far as 
Tripolis. He reduced Alexandria in 642, Othman, 
Omar’s successor, deprived Amru of his governor¬ 
ship in Egypt, whereupon the latter espoused the 
cause of Mohavia, whom he placed on the throne. 
He died in 663. 

Amsterdam {The dam of the Avistel), the 
capital of Holland, situated on the Amstel river, 
where it falls into the Y, an inlet of the Zuyder 
Zee. The city is built upon piles driven into a. 
marsh, and is intersected by many canals spanned 
by no less than 300 bridges. The river separates 
the old from the new town. In the 12th 
century Amsterdam was a mere fishing village. At 
the end of the 14th century fortifications, now con¬ 
verted into promenades, were raised on the land 
side. The Spaniards held the place until 1578, and it 
was only after asserting its independence that the 
port began to prosper rapidly. In 1787 it was 
taken by the Russians, and for some years after 
1795 it was subject to France. Its recognition as 
capital of the kingdom of Holland dates from 1808. 
Though no longer on the same scale as in the palmy 
days of Dutch supremacy in the East and West 
Indies, the trade of Amsterdam is still very great. 
The Helder and Wyk Canals give it ready com¬ 
munication with the sea, while the docks and 
basins provide room for a large number of vessels. 
Among the fine buildings that adorn the town are 
the Stadt-house (1648), the Exchange (1634), the 





Amulet 


( ) 


Anableps. 


old and the new churches, the East and West India 
Houses, and the once famous Bank. Besides its 
commerce with all quarters of the globe, amounting 



VIEW IN AMSTERDAM. 


to about half a million of tons yearly, Amsterdam 
has many industries, such as shipbuilding, chemical 
products, the weaving of damasks, velvets, and 
carpets, and above all the cutting of diamonds and 
precious stones. Spinoza was a native of Amster¬ 
dam, and Rembrandt made his home there. 

Amulet, a charm—usually an inscribed stone or 
piece of metal—worn on the person as a protection 
against witchcraft or disease. Amulets are prob¬ 
ably of Oriental origin, and are common in the 
East to the present day. In England in the 
seventeenth century the name was given to any 
object worn’or carried for the prevention or cure of 
sickness. Burton says that “ they are not alto¬ 
gether to be rejected. Peony doth cure epilepsy ; 
precious stones, most diseases ; a wolfs dung borne 
with one helps the colic; a spider, an ague,” 
though he is of opinion that “ medicines which 
consist of words, characters, spells, and charms, 
can do no good at all, but out of a strong conceit, 
or devil’s policy* who is the first founder and 
teacher of them.” The carrying a cramp-bone in 
the pocket is a familiar example of the use of the 
amulet. 

Amur or Amoor (Mantchu, Sar/haUen ; Chinese, 
Helcny Kianf /), a great river of eastern Asia, which 
at its rise in Mongolia is known as the Argoun. 
Flowing N.E. the Argoun forms the boundary be¬ 
tween Russia and China. On reaching Ust Strelka 
(lat. 53° 18' N., long. 121° 24' E.) it is joined by the 
Shilka, coming from the Trans-Baikal province of 
Siberia, and the united streams bear the name 
Amur, taking a course S.E. to the confluence of the 
Sangari, and thence N.E. to the Sea of Okhotsk, 
opposite the upper end of the 1. of Saghalien. The 


city of Nikoliaievsk is at its mouth, and for the last 
400 miles the river is wholly in Russian territory. 
The total length amounts to at least 2,500 miles. 

Amygdaloid (from the Greek a/niugclalus , an 
almoncl) a geological term applied to lavas in 
which bubbles of gas, escaping from near the 
surface of the stream, have left cavities which have 
been drawn out into an elliptical form in the direc¬ 
tion of the flow of the viscous mass, and after the 
consolidation of the rock have been filled in by 
percolation with mineral matter. The minerals 
thus filling up the cavities are termed amygdnles, as, 
being often calcite or some other light-coloured 
substance, they resemble almonds in almond-toffee. 
The zeolite group commonly occur as amygdules. 

Amyl (C 5 H n ), a radical which enters into the 
composition of many chemical compounds, being 
generally found in the form of anujlic alcohol or 
fusel oil (q.v.). Diamyl (i.e. two molecules of 
amyl) is a colourless liquid ; a single molecule has 
never been obtained. 

Amyl Nitrite, a valuable drug obtained from 
amyl alcohol. When inhaled it reduces blood- 
pressure, producing flushing of the face, throbbing 
of the arteries of the neck, a sense of fulness in 
the head, with giddiness, and increase in the 
pulse rate. Its chief use is in cases of angina 
pectoris, in attacks of which disease it affords 
almost instantaneous relief. It is often prescribed 
in the form of glass capsules, each containing a 
few drops of the drug. These ’ are crushed in a 
handkerchief and inhaled by the patient when the 
seizure occurs. 

Amyloid Disease, a form of disease in which 
a peculiar substance is found in the kidneys, liver, 
spleen, intestines, and other parts of the body, the 
deposition of which leads to serious interference 
with nutrition, and among other special symptoms 
to dropsy and obstinate diarrhoea. One of the chief 
exciting causes of amyloid disease appears to be 
long continued suppuration ; it was not uncommonly 
met with years ago as the result of the formation 
of matter in the chest cavity in children, but im¬ 
proved methods of treatment have fortunately 
almost expunged this class of cases from the 
records of disease. The amyloid substance is by 
some regarded as new material deposited from the 
blood, by others it is considered as a product of 
i tissue degeneration. It was first studied by Virchow, 
j who named it amyloid, as he regarded it as allied to 
i starch ( amylum ). It is now known however to be 
closely related to albumen in chemical composition. 

Anabaptists. [Baptists.] 

Anabasis («■ 0 oin d u l } )' the r - ame given to 
Xenophon’s famous account of the expedition of 
Cyrus the younger against his brother Artaxerxes, 
and the retreat of the 10,000 Greek allies. The 
term is also applied by Arrian to his account of 
Alexander's campaigns. 

Anableps, a genus of Cyprinodonts, with three 
species, from tropical America. They are the 
largest fish of the family, being about a foot in 
length, and are remarkable from the position and 
























Anabolism. 


( 120 ) 


Anaerobiosis. 


structure of the eyes. The cornea is crossed by a 
dark horizontal stripe of the conjunctiva, dividing 
it into an upper and a lower portion, and the iris 
is perforated by two pupils. According to Dr. 
Gunther, this fish is frequently observed to swim 
with half of its head out of the water, in which 
position it can see as well as when below the 
surface. 

Anabolism (from the Greek ana , up, bole, 
throwing), a term applied in physiology to those 
processes of metabolism, or change of food-sub¬ 
stances, which consist in the building up of com¬ 
paratively simple chemical compounds, such as the 
inorganic substances water and carbon-dioxide 
taken in by plants, into more complex organic com¬ 
pounds. It is sometimes termed constructive 
metabolism. 

Anacantllini, an order of fishes in which the 
vertical and ventral fins have no spinous rays, and 
the ventral fins when present are either jugular or 
thoracic. It contains the cod and its allies, and 
the flatfish. 

Anacharis. [Elodea.] 

Anacliarsis, a Scythian philosopher of the 
Gth century B.C., who was reported to have visited 
Athens and won the friendship of Solon. Return¬ 
ing to his native land he was put to death by his 
own brother for attempting to introduce the 
Athenian code. His wise and witty sayings were 
recorded by Lreluis, and also by Plutarch. The 
Anarcharsis, who appears as the hero of the Abbe 
Barthelemy’s famous romance, is represented as 
being a descendant of the sage. 

Anachronism, the placing of an event or 
custom at a wrong chronological date. A cele¬ 
brated anachronism is the incident of iEneas and 
Dido in Virgil’s JEnsid, as iEneas must have lived 
some two hundred years before the building of Car¬ 
thage. Anachronisms are frequent in Shakespeare. 

Anacoluthon (Greek, not following), a term in 
Rhetoric or grammar signifying want of sequence ; 
it is frequent in colloquial speech, and is sometimes 
met with in poetry. 

Anaconda (Eunectes murinus'), a gigantic con¬ 
stricting snake from South America, of aquatic 
habits, whence it is also called the water-serpent. 
It. is found in the rivers and swamps of Guiana and 



head of anaconda (Eunectes murinus). 


Brazil, and preys chiefly on birds and small mam¬ 
mals. The anaconda is ovoviviparous—that is, the 
eggs are hatched within the body of the female— 
and there are distinct traces of hind-limbs. It 


sometimes attains a length of thirty feet; colour 
rich brown, with two rows of large round black 
spots along the back, and a series of light golden- 
yellow rings edged with black on each side. 

Anacreon, the Greek lyric poet, is said to have 
been a descendant of Codrus, King of Athens, and 
to have been born at Teos in Ionia about 562 b.c. 
Polycrates, tyrant of Samos, invited him to his 
court, and there he spent much of his life amidst 
the pleasures of love and wine, which form the only 
themes of his graceful and spirited odes. According 
to legend he died at the age of 85 from the lodg¬ 
ment of a grape-stone in his windpipe. He has 
given his name to a school of poetry, and it must 
be admitted that few of his followers have adorned 
sensuality with so light and delicate a touch. 

Anadyomene (Greek, rising out of), the epithet 
applied to Aphrodite, who was supposed to have 
been born of the sea foam. The celebrated picture 
by Apelles, Aphrodite Anadgomene, was placed in 
the temple of iEsculapius at Cos, and afterwards 
in the temple of Venus at Rome. 

Anadyr, or Anadir, a river of Siberia, in the 
province of Primorsk, N. of Kamtchatka. Rising 
in Lake Ivatchno, it flows for 600 miles to the N.E., 
and discharges itself into the Gulf of Anadyr, an 
inlet of Behring Sea. 

Anaemia, or Bloodlessness, the condition 
in which the blood contains less than the proper 
amount of solid constituents. There is in particular 
a deficiency of red blood corpuscles. [Blood.] 
Poverty of blood may result from various forms of 
disease, thus copious bleeding will produce a 
temporary anaemia, and any bad habit of body may 
be accompanied by poorness of blood. The term 
anaemia, however, is usually applied to those con¬ 
ditions in which the small amount of the solid 
constituents of the blood seems to be the primary 
source of trouble, and of this disease there are two 
varieties. The one occurs mainly in young girls, 
and is known as green sickness or chlorosis (q.v.) ; 
the other, which is very much more rarely met with, 
is “ progressive pernicious anaemia.” The most 
noticeable symptom of anaemia is pallor, the 
poorness of blood revealing itself in the waxy 
look of the face, and particularly in the loss of the 
natural colour of the lips and cheeks ; other dis¬ 
tressing features of the disease are breathlessness, 
palpitation, headache, and general debility. The 
treatment of anaemia is in most cases eminently 
satisfactory—fresh air, good food, and the ad¬ 
ministration of iron are usually followed by a speedy 
recovery ; indeed, the beneficial effects of medicine 
in suitable cases sometimes appear well-nigh 
miraculous ; unfortunately but little can be done 
for true pernicious anasmia ; the disease is, however, 
excessively uncommon. 

Anaerobiosis, life without air, a physiological 
term for the life of certain fungi, such as the Bac¬ 
teria (Schizophyta ), and yeast (Saccharomyces), 
which grow most freely when not i'n contact with 
atmospheric oxygen. Their normal vital action 
shows itself in fermentative and putrefactive 








Anaesthesia. 


( 121 ) 


Analysis. 


processes, in which organic compounds are rapidly 
decomposed, and carbonic acid gas is given off. 

Anaesthesia (Greek a , privative aisthesis, 
sensation) is a condition of insensibility to pain. 
It may be either local or general. A simple 
example of local anaesthesia is afforded by incised 
wounds involving nerve-trunks. Thus, if the nerves 
of the fore-arm be divided all sensation is lost in 
the parts which they supply. The operation of 
dividing nerves is sometimes resorted to in cases of 
persistent neuralgia, in order to sever the connection 
between the diseased portion of the nerve and the 
brain. Certain drugs, too, act as local anaesthetics. 
Cocaine, which has been introduced of late years, 
has been tried in dentistry, and has found an ex¬ 
tensive application in eye surgery. The patient’s 
eye, after being properly prepared by dropping a 
solution of the drug upon it, becomes quite in¬ 
sensitive ; foreign bodies may be removed from the 
cornea, nay, even cutting operations may be per¬ 
formed without causing any pain. Again, ether 
spray is sometimes employed in producing local 
anaesthesia. In the condition of general anaesthesia 
a state of insensibility to all external impressions 
is produced. It is in conferring this boon upon 
mankind by the discovery of the anaesthetic pro¬ 
perties of chloroform and ether that the medical 
art has achieved its greatest triumph. Surgical 
operations are now performed without causing pain 
to the patient, and, moreover, they can be methodi¬ 
cally conducted, there being no need for the hurry 
which was so desirable when every touch of the 
knife meant agony to the sufferer. Various means 
of producing anassthesia were practised by the 
ancients. The Chinese employed a kind of hemp, 
the Greeks and Romans mandragora. These “ drowsy 
syrups of the East,” however, are only interesting 
from an historical point of view, the introduction 
of satisfactory anaesthetics being only accomplished 
in the present century. In 1800 nitrous oxide gas 
was inhaled by Sir Humphry Davy, who recom¬ 
mended its use, and it is now largely employed by* 
dentists. In 1846 Dr. Morton, of Boston, employed 
sulphuric ether, and in 1847 Sir J. Simpson dis¬ 
covered chloroform, and these two drugs still hold 
the field against all competitors. Ether is, per¬ 
haps, the safer of the two, as chloroform depresses 
the heart’s action, still the latter is better suited 
for certain cases; children and old people in par¬ 
ticular bear it well, and ether, as it irritates the 
respiratory passages, is unsuitable in those who are 
the subjects of bronchitis. Moreover the danger 
attendant on the administration of anaesthetics in 
competent hands is exceedingly small. Very 
occasionally a death occurs while a patient is under 
their influence, but in most of these exceptional 
cases it is open to doubt whether it is the anaes¬ 
thetic which is at fault. When operations are 
undertaken as a forlorn hope in desperate cases, it 
is unfair to attribute their want of success to the 
use of chloroform. In recent years the anaesthesia 
of the hypnotic state has been much talked of, and 
it is claimed by some that hypnotism will be used 
in the future in surgical practice. But few people, 
however, can be rendered anaesthetic by this means, 


and in them the remedy would seem to be more 
productive of harm than benefit. 

Anagram, the letters of any word or sentence 
so transposed as to make another word or sentence. 
Thus, Florence Nightingale may be transformed 
into “ Flit on, cheering angel.” Anagrams were at 
one time very much in vogue. 

Anahuac (Mex. Near the water), the Aztec 
name for the whole kingdom, but now restricted to 
the great central plain, of Mexico, which has an 
average height of 6,000 feet above the level of the 
sea, and extends over some 550,000 square miles 
—three-fifths of the entire state. The numerous 
lakes gave rise to the name. 

Analcime (Greek, analkis, weak) a hydrous 
silicate of aluminium and sodium, crystallising in 
trapezohedra, belonging to the cubic system. It is 
one of the zeolite group (so-called because they 
froth up before the blow-pipe), is white, exhibits 
weak electrical characters when rubbed or heated, 
and occurs as an amygdule (q.v.). 

Analgesics, remedies which relieve pain. 
[Anodyne.] 

Analogous, organs which perform the same 
function ; e.g. the wing of a bird and that of an 
insect are said to be analogous. The term is used 
in contradistinction to homologous, in which the 
organs are built on the same plan : thus the wing 
of a bird and the arm of a man are homologous, 
being composed of the same fundamental elements, 
though greatly modified to perform different func¬ 
tions. Similarly, the hairs of a man, and the 
feathers of a bird, the quills of a porcupine, and 
the horn of a rhinoceros are all homologous ; the 
last is only analogous with the horns of cattle and 
deer, as their structure is totally different. 

Analogy, the similitude of relations between 
one thing and another. In Logie the term signifies 
resemblance of any kind on which an agreement, 
which cannot be founded on induction, may be 
based. “ Analogical reasoning . . . may be 

reduced to the following formula:—Two things 
resemble each other in one or more respects; a 
certain proposition is true of the one, therefore it 
is true of the other.” Analogical reasoning, though 
sometimes very effective, is often apt to lead the 
reasoner astray, as it is difficult to find a very 
exact analogy. The appellation of England as 
“The Mother Country,” signifies that there is an 
analogy between the relations of England and her 
colonies and those of a mother and her children. 

Analysis, Chemical. The operations which 
are necessary to ascertain the chemical structure of 
substances come under the head of chemical analy¬ 
sis. If we require to know only what substances 
are present, irrespective of quantity, the analysis is 
called qualitative. Thus, to prove the atmosphere 
consisted of nitrogen and oxygen a qualitative 
analysis alone would be necessary. If, however, 
we further require to know how much nitrogen and 
how much oxygen, a quantitative analysis is re¬ 
quisite. 

Quantitative analysis is usually subdivided into 






Analysis. 


( 122 ) 


Anastatic 


Gravimetric and Volumetric; gravimetric, or 
weight-analysis, being characterised by the nse of 
the balance ; and volumetric analysis by the use of 
graduated vessels for the careful observation of 
volumes. 

Analysis is also termed Inorganic or Organic, 
according to the nature of the substance under 
inquiry; and organic analysis is furthermore 
itself divided into Ultimate and Proximate , accord¬ 
ing as we attempt to discover the ultimate elements 
which are present, or those groups of elements 
which are known as proximate principles. 

In the case of complex organic substances an 
ultimate analysis is often quite useless. With 
blood, for instance, it would be meaningless to 
ascertain how much carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen 
were present; it is first necessary, by the methods 
of proximate analysis, to split the blood up into 
albumin, fibrin, fat, haemoglobin, mineral salts, etc. 
We may then apply the methods of ultimate ana¬ 
lysis to these isolated individual substances if we 
will. 

Analysis, Mathematical. [Mathematics.] 
Analyst, Public. [Adulteration.] 

An am, or Annam. a country, sometimes called 
an empire, which occupies the E. portion of the 
peninsula that forms the S.E. extremity of Asia, 
lying between lat. 9° 40' and lat. 23 u N. China 
bounds it on the N. and Siam on the W. It is 
made up of the provinces of Tonquin to the N., 
Cochin China to the S.E., and Cambodia to the 
S.W. ; Laos being sometimes included. The French 
have a footing in these territories at Tonquin in the 
north, and in Cochin China at the southern ex¬ 
tremity. A range of mountains runs along the 
coast, and the river Mekong or Cambodia holds a 
parallel course. The area is 106,000 square miles. 
The soil is rich on the whole and well watered, pro¬ 
ducing sugar, pepper, teak, sandalwood, cotton, and 
silk. The mineral wealth is very large. Various 
independent sovereignties have existed and still 
exist within this area; but China claimed a suze¬ 
rainty over all. The French in 1795 began a policy 
of interference, chiefly on missionary grounds, 
which led ultimately to their occupation of Cochin 
China in 1860-2. France, by the treaty of Hue in 
1884, practically obtained a protectorate over the 
whole country, which was recognised by China in 
the treaty of Tien-Tsin, 1885. The Anamcse, 
that is, the civilised inhabitants of Tonquin and 
Cochin China, as distinguished from the Moi, 
or wild tribes of the Uplands, form a distinct 
branch of the Indo-Chinese family. They are 
traditionally descended from the Giao-chi of 
Tonquin mentioned in the early Chinese records, 
and still possess the physical peculiarity of a 
distended great toe characteristic of that race. 
Otherwise they are of a pronounced Mongoloid 
type, with broad flat features, high cheek 
bones, small nose, coarse, black and lank hair, 
rather small oblique eyes, colour varying from 
a dirty whitish yellow to chocolate, broad bony 
figures, low stature, averaging about five feet four 


inches. The moral character is generally described 
as disagreeable, harsh, unsympathetic, grasping, 
untruthful, and cruel, yet gentle towards their 
children, and treating the women with kindness 
and deference. They are nominally Buddhists, but 
less religious even than the Chinese, and the 
lettered classes are mostly sceptics. Yet the early 
Catholic missionaries were more successful in 
this region than in any other part of East Asia. 
Before the persecutions of the eighteenth and 
nineteenth centuries the Christian communities 
numbered nearly half a million, and since the 
French protectorate conversions have again becomo 
frequent. Christianity is professed by nearly all 
the Franco-Anamese half-breeds, who are a hardy 
race already acclimatised, of much lighter com¬ 
plexion and finer features than the pure natives. 
The language, which closely resembles Chinese, 
belongs like it to the isolating, or so-called “ mono¬ 
syllabic ” type of speech, and is spoken in six tones 
with considerable uniformity throughout Tonquin 
and Cochin China. It is written with ideographs 
(each symbol representing not a sound but an idea) 
based on the Chinese system, but with numerous 
modifications and additions. The so-called quoc- 
ngu, or Roman orthography, introduced by the 
Portuguese, is now adopted in the native schools of 
French Cochin China. In the south-east extremity 
of the peninsula there still survives a remnant of 
the semi-civilised Cham nation, who show Malay 
affinities, and who formerly ruled over a large part 
of Indo-China. 

Ananchytes. [Eciiinocorys.] 

Ananchytidse, a family of sea urchins, 
species of which are mostly found in the Cretaceous 
rocks, but a few occur in later deposits, and some 
in the deeper seas of the present day. 

Ananiev, or Ananjeff. a town in the province 
of Kherson, .South Russia, about 100 miles due N. 
of Odessa. 

Anarchism. [Socialism.] 

Anarthropoda, an old zoological group, in¬ 
cluding all the worms which are composed, of a 
number of similar segments. 

Anas, a Linnman genus equivalent to the modern 
family Anatidse, containing the ducks, geese, and 
swans (see these words). 

Anasarca. [Dropsy.] 

Anastasius I., an officer of the palace in 
the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Zeno, whose 
widow he married and thus obtained the throne, 491, 
in preference to Longinus. Pious and just at first, 
he soon signalised himself by his fanatical support of 
the Eutychian heretics, and by his partiality for the 
Blue faction. Wars against the Persians and the 
Goths occupied much of his attention, and he built 
the wall that bore his name from the Propontis to 
the Euxine. He is said to have abolished the com¬ 
bats between men and beasts in the circus. He 
died in 518 at the age of 88. 

Anastatic printing, a method of reproduc¬ 
ing drawings, engravings, or any printed matter, 










Anatase. 


( 123 ) 


Ancelot. 


invented by Wood in 1841. The printed matter is 
first moistened with dilute phosphoric acid, which 
corrodes all blanks but does not affect the printed 
portion. The sheet is then transferred to a zinc 
plate, which takes a facsimile of the printed 
portion in reverse order. Gum and ink are then 
applied, then the acid and again ink, when an im¬ 
pression may be taken as clear as the original. 

Anatase, an oxide of titanium (TiOo), being 
one of three minerals having this composition. 
From one of these, brookite, it differs in crystal¬ 
lising in the pyramidal system ; from the other, 
rutile, in being softer, lighter, bluish, and slightly 
different in form. 

Anathema (from the Greek signifying some¬ 
th hu; set up), the declaring of any things or persons 
to be accursed. The term is thus used several times 
in the New Testament, and later came to signify 
the excommunication and denunciation of an 
offender. 

Anatinidse, a family of bivalved mollusca; ex¬ 
cepting one genus it is not found earlier than the 
Trias. 

Anatomy, the science which deals with the 
structure of organised bodies. The etymological 
signification of the word is “ a cutting up,” and it 
is by dissection that the relations of different parts 
to one another are displayed. With the perfection 
of the microscope a new branch of the subject has 
been developed, namely, minute anatomy or histo¬ 
logy (q.v.). Anatomy may be concerned with the 
structure of the animals or the vegetable kingdom, 
though it is usually in connection with the 
former that the term is applied. In comparative 
anatomy the different forms of structure met with 
in the animal kingdom are studied. The informa¬ 
tion possessed by the ancients with regard to the 
anatomy of the human body was very meagre, for 
the very sufficient reason that they practised no 
systematic dissections. Hippocrates, the father of 
medicine, seems to have had but little acquaintance 
with the subject. Aristotle studied the structure of 
animals, but the human body was apparently never 
dissected with the view of studying its anatomy 
until some 300 years before the Christian era. The 
works of the earliest writers on the subject, Hero- 
philus and Erasistratus, have not however been 
preserved, and the earliest writings displaying any 
accurate knowledge of human anatomy, which 
have come down to posterity, are those of Galen, who 
lived in the second century after Christ. But little 
further progress was then made until the sixteenth 
century, when we meet with ardent students of the 
subject like Vesalius, Eustachius, and Fallopius, 
but the credit of the greatest of anatomical dis¬ 
coveries is due to an Englishman, William Harvey, 
who in 1(119 announced his discovery of the circu¬ 
lation of the blood. From this time to the present 
day a steady advance in knowledge has been made. 
Willis elucidated the structure of the nervous 
system, Leeuwenhoeck and Malpighi applied the 
microscope to the study of minute structures, and 
Morgagni instituted the science of morbid 
anatomy. The wonderful industry of the brothers 


William and John Hunter in the eighteenth 
century produced great results, and the magnifi¬ 
cent collection of anatomical specimens pre¬ 
pared by the latter forms the nucleus of the 
College of Surgeons’ museum. Comparative 
anatomy has made immense' strides during the 
present century, the great sciences of palaeontology 
and embryology have been developed in connection 
with it, and it has thrown much light on questions 
of physiology and pathology. The anatomy of the 
structures of which the human body is composed 
will be described under their several headings. 

Anatropous (bent back),, a term in botany 
applied to the ovule when, as in the majority of 
fiowering plants, it is inverted by the more rapid 
growth of one side, so as to bring the micropyle, or 
opening in its structural apex, near to its base of 
attachment, and so facilitate the entrance of the 
pollen tube, which commonly grows along the 
moist \ lacenta. 

Anaxagoras, a distinguished Greek philoso¬ 
pher of the Ionic school, who was born at Clazomenai 
about 500 B.C., and died at Lampsacus in 428 b.c. 
He established himself at Athens and counted 
amongst his pupils there Pericles, Euripides, 
Archelaus, and possibly Socrates. Carrying for¬ 
ward the speculations of Thales, Heraclitus, and 
Empedocles as to the physical origin and constitu¬ 
tion of the universe, he seems to have held that 
the combinations of material elements necessary to 
form all existing substances must have required the 
operation of a Supreme Intelligence. He is also 
said to have believed the sun to be a mass of 
burning matter from which the other heavenly 
bodies derive light and heat, and to have known 
how to calculate eclipses. The Athenians, alarmed 
at his views, condemned him to death, but owing 
to the influence of Pericles he was allowed to go 
into exile. 

Anaximander, an Ionian philosopher, born at 
Miletus about 610 B.C. According to Aristotle he 
conceived the physical substratum of things to be 
a chaotic mixture of elements out of which the 
definite and individual forms were evolved by 
mechanical processes. His astronomical theories 
and observations are interesting. He discovered 
the obliquity of the ecliptic ; taught that the moon 
shone with light borrowed from the sun; believed 
in the cylindrical form of the earth ; and invented 
charts and sundials. He died about 547 b.c. 

Anaximenes I., of Miletus, a disciple of 
Anaximander, who flourished about the time of his 
master’s death. He regarded air as the ultimate 
element from which all existences spring, and 
maintained that the sun and earth were discs in 
form. 

Anaximenes II., of Lampsacus, a pupil of 
Diogenes the Cynic, and subsequently a teacher of 
Alexander the Great, whom he accompanied in his 
expeditions, and whose history he wrote. 

Ancelot, Jacques Aksene Francois, a French 
dramatist, was born at Havre in 1794, and held a 
small official post. In 1819 he made a great hit 






Ancestor. 


( 124 ) 


Ancillon. 


with a tragedy entitled Louis IX., which was 
followed by Fiesco and Le Roi Faineant. After 
1330 he devoted his talents to comedy, producing 
Le Regent, Madame L)u Larry, Maria Padilla, and 
many other popular pieces, besides novels and 
poems. lie was elected to the Academy in 1841, 
and died in 1854. 

Ancestor Worship, a form of Animism 
(q.v.) arising from the belief that as the soul ex¬ 
ercises power over the body during life, so after 
death it retains its activity and power and the 
characteristics which distinguished it in this 
world—the souls of good men becoming good 
spirits, and those of bad men evil spirits or 
demons. In some cases, as among the Zulus, the 
idea is carried back from one ghostly ancestor to 
another more remote, till the most remote—in 
other words, the first man—is reached, and erected 
into a supreme deity. Ancestor worship has a wide 
range in time and space, and survives to an appre¬ 
ciable extent even among cultured nations. [Hagio- 
latry, Manes worship.] Among races of the 
low culture it is practically universal; in China it 
is the dominant form of faith, and the Hindoos 
look to their divine ancestors for protection and 
favour. With regard to the practical effect of 
ancestor worship, Tylor considers that it “ en¬ 
courages good morals; for the ancestor who, when 
living, took care that his family should do right by 
one another, does not cease the kindly rule when 
he becomes a divine ghost, powerful to favour or 
punish.” [Totem.] 

Anchor, an instrument for preventing a ship 
or any other vessel from drifting, by mooring it to 
the bottom of the sea or river. It was invented in 
very early times, and consisted at first of large 
stones, or bags of sand, or heavily-weighted logs of 
wood. Later on the Jluke or tooth was introduced, 
and ultimately the number was increased to two. 
The anchor in use at the present day consists of a 
long shank or bar of iron, which at its lower ex¬ 
tremity branches out into two arms, at the end of 
which are the flukes mentioned above. At the 
upper extremity of the shank is the stock of wood 
fixed crosswise, and above that is an iron ring to 
which the chain or rope is attached. The action 
of the anchor is somewhat as follows :—The lower 
extremity of the shank is the first to strike ground, 
and this falls over so that one end of the stock or 
cross-beam rests also on the ground, thus, with the 
motion of the vessel, causing one or other of the 
flukes to enter the ground. The Jiube itself is 
divided into the Made, the palm, and the bill. 
Large vessels have more than one anchor, the 
number varying with the size and service of the 
vessel. The men-of-war of the largest size carry 
no less than eight anchors, the best and small 
bowers, the two sheets, the two kedges, the stream, 
and the stern. Various improvements in the 
details of construction have been made from time 
to time by Rodgers, Lennox, Trotman, Porter, and 
Martin. 

Anchorage, a place suitable for anchoring a 
vessel; the term also signifies duty or toll paid for 
permission to anchor at a port. 


Anchorite. [Hermit.] 

Anchovy, the genus Engraulis, belonging to 
the herring family with forty-three species, from 
temperate and tropical seas. The common anchovy 
(F. encrasicholus ) is a Mediterranean fish, rarely 
wandering northwards, from four to six inches 
long, with the upper jaw projecting beyond the 
lower, short anal fin, and the tail deeply forked ; 



ANCHOVY. 

(Engraulis encrasicholus). 

greenisli-blue above, silvery white below. The 
anchovy fisheries of the Mediterranean are of con¬ 
siderable importance ; the fish are taken at night 
when they approach the shore to spawn, cleansed, 
salted, and packed in barrels for exportation. Dr. 
Gunther says that “ lucrative fisheries might be 
established in Tasmania, where this species occurs, 
and Chile, China, Japan, and California possess 
anchovies by no means inferior to the Mediterranean 
species.” 

Anchovy Pear ( Grias canliflora'), a West 
Indian tree belonging to the myrtle family. It bears 
leaves two to four feet long, and a foot across, large 
white flowers, and a fleshy fruit resembling the 
mango in taste. The fruit is pickled when unripe. 
The plant is commonly grown in hothouses. In 
the hilly districts of Jamaica it attains a consider¬ 
able height. 

Anchusa. [Alkanet.] 

Anchylosis, the condition of impaired 
mobility of a joint, caused by disease, involving the 
articular surfaces. Anchylosis may be fibrous or 
bony. In the former condition fibrous cords, the 
result of inflammation, bind together the joint sur¬ 
faces. These “ adhesions ” are, in suitable cases, 
“broken down”by the surgeon so as to restore the 
movement of the joint, in true bony anchylosis 
there is absolute rigidity of the affected limb. 
This, however, provided the anchylosis has become 
established with the limb “ in good position,” is 
sometimes regarded as a result to be aimed at in 
certain forms of disease. 

Anchylostoma, or Sclerostoma duodenale, a 
small worm, about half an inch long, which some¬ 
times occurs in the human small intestine. It is 
unknown in England, but is not unfrequently 
met with in hot climates, particularly in Egypt. 

Ancillon, Frederic, born in Berlin in 1766. 
He was appointed professor of history in the 
Military Academy, and was entrusted with the 
education of the Cr twn Prince, afterwards Frederic 
William IV. In 1831 he became Minister of Foreign 
Affairs. His great work, Tableau des Revolutions 
du Systeme Politique cn Europe depun le X'Vine 
Sii’cle, gives a masterly resume of the principles of 
statesmanship up to the outbreak of the French 
Revolution. He died in 1837. 






Ancona. 


( 125 ) 


Andaman. 


Ancona (Lat. Ancona , Gk. a corner or 
elbow), a very ancient port on the east coast of 
Italy, built on a point of land projecting into the 
Gulf of \ enice, and about 125 miles north of Home. 
Originally colonised from Syracuse, it was taken by 
the Romans in 268 B.C., and became a great naval 
and commercial station, being specially celebrated 
for purple dye. Trajan built a mole there in 107 
A.D., and upon it stands a beautiful marble arch to 
his memory. In the middle ages Ancona was occu¬ 
pied by Saracens, Lombards, Greeks, and Germans, 
and was for a time a free republic. It then came 
under papal rule. The cathedral (St. Cyriac) dates 
from the tenth century. Clement XII. built the new 
mole, also surmounted by an arch. Taken in 1797 by 
the French, it was recaptured by the Austrians, and 
in 1814 restored to the pope. The French occupied 
the place again from 1832 to 1838. In I860 the 
city and the province, to which it gives a name, 
were ranged in the kingdom of Italy. Ancona has 
always been a busy city, exporting and importing a 
large proportion of the goods produced or consumed 
in Italy, and manufacturing leather, paper, candles, 
silk, and verdigris. Latterly its importance was 
temporarily increased, as the English Peninsular 
and Oriental Steamship Company made it the 
starting point of their mail route to the East. 

Ancon Sheep, a breed of sheep, descended 
from a ram-lamb with a long back and short 
crooked legs, born in Massachusetts in 1791. As 
these sheep could not leap over fences it was 
thought that they would be valuable, but they 
have been supplanted by merinos, and thus exter¬ 
minated. They were remarkable for separating 
themselves from the rest of the flock when folded, 
and for transmitting their peculiar characteristics. 
They were also called Otter Sheep. 

Ancre, Concino Concini, Baron de Lussigny, 
Marquis d’, an Italian who accompanied Mary de 
Medici to France on her marriage with Henry IV. 
(1600), and was given a marquisate and other dis¬ 
tinctions by Louis XIII. His influence over the 
young king and his reckless prodigality roused the 
jealousy of the French nobles. Concini was assas¬ 
sinated (1617), his wife burned as a witch, and his 
son disennobled. Ancre (dept. Somme) whence he 
took his title was changed into Albert. 

Ancrum Moor, 5£ miles from Jedburgh, in 
Roxburghshire, witnessed the defeat in 1544 of an 
English force of 5,000 men by the Scots under the 
Earl of Angus, and Scott of Buccleuch. 

Ancus Martins, fourth king of Rome, grand¬ 
son of Numa Pompilius, and successor to Tullus 
Hostilius. He defeated the Latins, Sabines, 
Venetians, and other neighbouring people, extend¬ 
ing his territories to the coast, where he founded 
Ostia. By him the Aventine and Janiculum were 
enclosed in the walls of Rome, the Sublician bridge 
was built, and the Aqua Martia brought into the 
city. Supposed date 638—614 B.c. 

Andalusia, an ancient division of Spain com¬ 
prising parts of the classical Lusitania and Brntica, 


being bounded on the W. by Portugal and Estrema- 
dura, on the N. by New Castile, and on the 
E. by Murcia and La Mancha, on the S. by the 
Mediterranean. - Seville is the capital. The Car¬ 
thaginians settled here in the 4th century 
B.c., and were driven out in 205 B.c., by the 
Romans, who in turn gave way to the Vandals. 
The name is supposed to be a corruption of Van- 
dalitia. The Visigoths, in 429 A.D., succeeded the 
Vandals; and the Arabs, in 711, made this 
district their headquarters in Spain, establishing 
the Caliphate of Cordova. In 1236 Ferdinand III. 
recovered Seville, but for two centuries later 
the Mohammedan invaders held their ground, 
and the population still contains a large infusion 
of Moorish blood. The country is very diversified. 
To the N. the range of the Sierra Morena cuts 
it off from New Castile; and the Sierra Nevada, 
reaching an elevation of nearly 12,000 feet, 
traverses the southern portion. The lowlands of 
the coast are warm and richly productive. An¬ 
dalusia is now divided into the provinces of 
Cadiz, Seville, Jaen, Grenada, Huelva, Cordova, 
Almeria, and Malaga. The chief towns bear the 
same names. The vegetable products are grain, 
olives, oranges, figs, cotton, and sugar. The 
mountains yield all varieties of metallic ore. The 
horses are famous throughout Spain, as are also 
the bulls bred for the national sport. It has an 
area of 33,340 square miles. 

Andalusite, a silicate of aluminium crystallis¬ 
ing in large rhombic prisms, often of a white colour, 
and occurring in slates and schists. 

Andaman Islands, a group of six large and 
many smaller islands, divided by Duncan Passage, 
in the Bay of Bengal (lat. 10° to 14° N., long. 95° 
E.). They were discovered by Peyraud, in 1607, 
and occupied by the English in 1791, but subse¬ 
quently abandoned. In 1857, during the mutiny, 
they were adopted as a penal settlement, and are 
still used for that purpose. Port Blair on 
the south island is the seat of government. Lord 
Mayo, Governor-General of India, was assas¬ 
sinated there by a convict in 1872. Area 3,000 
square miles. The Andamanese islanders, often 
wrongly called “ Mincopies,” have lately been 
carefully studied by Mr. E. H. Man, in a series of 
papers contributed to the Journal of the Anthropo¬ 
logical Institute (1882-3). They are a homo¬ 
geneous people, everywhere presenting the same 
uniform Negrito type—short stature (4 ft. 8 in. to 
5 ft.), short woolly black hair, growing in spiral 
tufts, very dark, almost black, complexion, softened 
or undeveloped negro features—and generally 
resembling the other Negrito groups of the Malay 
Peninsula (Semangs), and Philippine Islands 
(Aetas). But the language, of which there are 
two distinct branches, and seven or eight marked 
dialects, is entirely distinct from any other known 
form of speech, though in its morphology offering 
certain analogies both to the Dravidian of India 
and to the Australian family. They occupy a very 
low social state, living almost entirely by the 
chase and fishing, in small isolated groups of 50 
to 80 persons, who wear scarcely any clothing, and 





Andante. 


( 126 ) 


Andersson. 


form both permanent and temporary encampments 
of wood huts, varying in size and durability. They 
have terms only for the first two numerals, though 
able to count by means of the fingers up to ten. 
Otherwise their natural intelligence is considerable ; 
they are kind to their women and children, and the 
cruel, ferocious character formerly attributed to 
them is shown by Mr. Man to be based on mis¬ 
understandings between the natives and strangers 
landing on their shores. Since the British occupa¬ 
tion and the establishment of penal settlements in 
the archipelago, the Andamanese have been brought 
more and more into contact with other people, and 
persons of mixed breed are now often seen in the 
vicinity of Port Blair. But the pure aborigines 
appear to be dying out. One large tribe some 
years ago numbering about 1,000 is now reduced 
to little over 300, and the whole indigenous popula¬ 
tion appears to fall below 4,000. 

Andante, in music , a term used to indicate a 
somewhat slow measure of time. It is the measure 
of time between larghetto and allegretto ; the term 
is frequently modified, as andante con vioto, an¬ 
dante sostenuto , etc. Like allegro, and adagio, it 
is often used as the name of a movement or piece 
of music. 

Andelys, Ises, a town in the department of 
Eure, France, 27 miles south of Rouen. It is 
divided by the high road into Great and Little 
Andelys, the former on the Gambon river, the latter 
on the Seine. It contains a fine collegiate church, 
with good painted glass. Considerable cotton fac¬ 
tories are established here, and the manufacture of 

artificial pearls and leather goods is also carried on. 
« 

Andermatt, or Wisern, a village in the 
canton of Uri, Switzerland, about, 4 miles north 
of the St. Gothard Pass, where the road meets that 
coming from Hospenthal and the Furca Pass. Near 
it the Reuss river is crossed by the Devil’s Bridge. 
The St. Gothard Railway has considerably damaged 
the trade of the village. 

Andernach., an ancient town situated between 
Coblentz and Bonn, on the left bank of the Rhine, 
in Rhenish Prussia. It was once a Roman fort, and 
then the residence of the Merovingian kings. The 
Emperor Charles I. was defeated here by his 
nephew, Louis of Saxony, in 87(5. The ruins of the 
castle of the Archbishop of Cologne and traces of 
the old wall and gates still exist. The volcanic soil 
of the neighbourhood gives a supply of millstone 
grit and of hydraulic cements, in which a good 
trade is done. 

Andersen, Hans Christian, the celebrated 
Danish writer of romances and fairy tales, born 
at Odense in the Isle of Funen in 1805. His 
father, a poor cobbler, gave him but a slender 
education, and meant him to be a tailor. The boy, 
however, was resolved to go on the stage, and made 
his way to Copenhagen, where his good voice 
secured him an engagement at the Theatre Royal. 
This he lost when his voice broke, and he was not 
only rescued from destitution but was put in the 
way of getting an education by a benevolent 
official. His first book, A Journey on Foot to 


Auiagcr, appeared in 1828, and for some years he 
was engaged in travelling. The Impro v i sat ore, 
Only a Fiddler, Fantasies and Delights , a collec¬ 
tion of poems, and The Mulatto, a drama, followed 
at short intervals. The imaginative works, for 
which he is best known in England, began with a 
series containing the Ugly Duckling, in 1835, and 
his masterpiece, A Picture Book without Pictures, 
was published in 1840. Many of these quaint, 
simple, touching little fables have won a world-wide 
fame. The royal family of Denmark honoured 
him with their esteem and friendship, but literary 
jealousies made him spend much of his life abroad. 
In Sweden and In Spain are records of travel at 
this period. His own story is charmingly told in 
The Romance of my Life. Returning to Copen¬ 
hagen he saw his seventieth birthday kept as a 
national festival, and died soon afterwards, in 1875. 

Anderson, John, born 1726, one of the 
earliest promoters of scientific education for work¬ 
ing men, and the founder of the Andersonian Uni¬ 
versity in Glasgow. He was professor at first of 
Eastern languages, and afterwards of natural 
philosophy in that university, and wrote an excel¬ 
lent treatise on Physics. 'Sympathising with the 
National Convention of France, he hit upon the 
device of conveying news from that country to 
Germany by means of small gas balloons. He died 
in 1796. 

Anderson, Sir George William, K.C.B., a 
distinguished Indian civilian, born in London 
in 1791. Under Elphinstone he drew up the well- 
known Bombay Code of 1827, became member of 
council in that presidency, and acted for a year 
(1841-2) as Governor. In 1849 he was made 
Governor of Mauritius, but was soon after trans¬ 
ferred to Ceylon. His health gave way, and he 
retired in 1855. His death occurred two years later. 

Anderson, Elizabeth Garrett, M.D., the 
champion of the right of women to practise medicine, 
born in 1837. Under some difficulties she com¬ 
pleted her medical studies at the Universities of St. 
Andrews and Edinburgh, and at the Middlesex and 
London Hospitals. The Licentiate of the Apothe¬ 
caries Society of London was granted her in 1865, 
and in 1870 she received the degree of M.D. at Paris. 
As medical attendant to St. Mary’s Dispensary and 
Physician to the East London Hospital for Children, 
she did excellent work. In 1871 she married a 
gentleman named Anderson, and has since then 
carried on a considerable private practice in London, 
writing, too, a number of papers on professional 
subjects. 

Andersson, Carl Johann, the African ex¬ 
plorer, born at Elfden, Sweden, in 1827. He ac¬ 
companied Francis Galton to Africa, and remain¬ 
ing there pushed on alone to lake Ngami, of which 
he wrote an account (1855). Subsequently he ex¬ 
plored the Okavango river, which formed the 
subject of another book in 1861. He then settled 
at Cape 1 own as an ivory trader, but died of 
dysentery in 1867 whilst travelling in the Ovaku- 
ambi country. 





Andes. 


( 127 ) 


Andrassy. 


Andes, The, a vast mountain system that forms 
the backbone of South America, and extends for 4, ISO 
miles from Cape Pi lares in the Straits of Magellan 
to the Isthmus of Panama. The width of the range 
varies from 40 to 350 miles, and its average elevation 
is 12,000 feet. As it passes from one country to 
another the chain is divided into the Andes of 
Patagonia, Chili, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, and New 
Granada. The loftiest peaks are:— 


Aconcagua (Chilian Andes) 

- 23,044 

Gualatieri (Bolivian Andes) - 

- 22,000, 

Chimborazo (Ecuador) 

- 20,517 

Sorata (Bolivian) 

- 21,200 

Illimani (Bolivian) - 

- 21,150 

Chiquibamba (Bolivian) - 

- 21,000 

Arequipa (Peruvian) 

* - " lbj3l 


Except the Himalayas, no mountains in the world 
can vie with these altitudes. Lofty table-lands, 
such as those of Assuay, Titicaca, Pasca, Quito, 
Bogota, and Cuzco, are a remarkable feature of 
the range. On the western side, owing to the steep 
declivity towards the neighbouring sea, there are 
no important rivers, but eastwards the Amazon, 



ANDES : VIEW OF CHIMBORAZO. 


La Plata, Orinoko, Maddalena, and other large 
streams flow down from this mighty watershed. 
The basins of the Orinoko, Amazon, and La Plata 
are separated by transverse offshoots from the 
magistral range. These are called the “ Cor¬ 
dilleras/’ The Andes are essentially volcanic, and 
contain some fifty active volcanoes, whilst earth¬ 
quakes are of frequent occurrence along the axis of 
the range. The geological structure accordingly 
displays granite, greenstones, porphyries, and other 
igneous rocks, flanked here and there by meta- 
morphic schists and pakcozoic strata, whilst the 
western slopes especially are covered with lava, 
scorim, and other recent volcanic products. Metal¬ 
liferous veins are abundant, and of every variety. 
The silver mines of Peru have for centuries been 
famous, but the mineral wealth of the. range has 
hardly as yet been explored. Many valuable 
chemical deposits are also found. Some geographers 
regard the Andes as being an extension of the 
mountain system of North America, but this view is 


probably incorrect. Much of our knowledge of the 
range is due to the exertions of Humboldt, but even 
now comparatively little is ascertained with perfect 
accuracy. 

Andesine, soda and lime felspar, one of the 
plagioclase (q.v.) group, containing equal propor¬ 
tions of soda and lime. This mineral forms, with 
hornblende, the rock known as andesite, from its 
occurrence in the Andes. 

Andesite, a name applied by Von Buch to certain 
lavas in the Andes, consisting of plagioclase felspar, 
generally either andesine or oligoclase (q.v.), with 
hornblende, with or without quartz, and gener¬ 
ally with some magnetite. They are of Tertiary 
age, and are well represented in Hungary. 

Andiron, or Fire-dog, a name given to an 
article of furniture, formerly used to prop up wood 
whilst it was being burnt in the fire. Andirons 
were frequently of very beautiful design. 

Andorra, or Andoree, a small semi-independ¬ 
ent state occupying a valley on the south slope of 
the Pyrenees between Catalonia in Spain and Ariegc 
in France. Its area is about 175 square miles. The 
principal means of subsistence is shepherding, but 
a certain amount of iron is extracted from mines. 
The chief town Andorra is on the Embalire river. 
The primitive Andorrans helped Charlemagne in 
a battle against the Moors (790), and received in 
return the privileges of a free state, certain imperial 
rights being reserved. These rights were transferred 
to the Bishop of Frgel. Henry IV., as Comte de 
Foix, annexed Andorra to France, but in 1790 its 
modified independence, subject to French protec¬ 
torate, was fully recognised. The government is 
conducted by a Syndic, appointed for life, and 
twenty-four elective consuls. There is a militia 
000 strong. 

Andover, a market town of Hampshire, on the 
Ande, 12 miles N.W. of Winchester ; formerly a 
parliamentary borough, it now gives its name to an 
electoral division of the county. The trade is 
chiefly in malt and agricultural produce, but some 
silk is manufactured. The London and South 
Western Railway has a junction here. 

Andover, a town in Massachusetts, which con¬ 
tains the famous Theological Seminary (founded 
1807). Two academies also flourish there. 

Andrassy, Julius, Count, born in 1823 at 
Zemplin in Hungary, represented Zemplin in the 
Diet (1847) ; took part in the revolution of 1848, 
and on its failure lived in France and in England 
until 1857. He then returned and was once more 
elected to the Diet, where he strongly supported 
Deak, especially in the unification of the empire, 
1867. He largely brought about the alliance be¬ 
tween Austria, Germany, and Russia, and in 1876 
made every effort to avert the Russo-Turkish war. 
At the Berlin Conference in 1878 he acted with 
Prince Bismarck, and obtained the provinces of 
Bosnia and Herzegovina for Austria. In 1879, feel¬ 
ing incapable of holding ground against opposition. 


















Andre. 


( 128 ) 


Andrieux. 


he resigned in favour of Baron Haymerle. He died 
in 1890. 

Andre, John, born in London 1751. His 
family originally came from Geneva. Beginning 
life as a clerk, he entered the army, served with 
distinction in the American War of Independence, 
and became major and adjutant-general. Sir H. 
Clinton having a high opinion of his abilities em¬ 
ployed him in ticklish negotiations with General 
Benedict Arnold, who proposed to surrender West 
Point to the British. In August, 1780, Andre, 
having crossed the Hudson in uniform to confer 
with Arnold, was foolishly induced to return in 
plain clothes. He was taken by the American out¬ 
posts, and the papers found on him revealed his 
designs. Tried by court martial, he was condemned 
to death as a spy. His personal innocence and 
courage won him universal sympathy, but Wash¬ 
ington would not spare his life. He was executed 
in the same year. A monument in Westminster 
Abbey preserves his fame. 

Andrea da Pisa, or Pisano, a sculptor 
and architect, born in 1270. He was employed 
to carry out Giotto's designs for the fagade of 
Santa Maria del Fiore at Florence, where he also 
constructed fortifications, and made the bronze 
gates that are now at the side entrance of the 
Baptistery. Some of the decorations of St. Mark 
at Venice are his work, as are those of the 
Baptistery of Pistoja. He died in 1345, leaving 
a son, Nino, who was as distinguished as his 
father. 

Andrea di Castagno, a Tuscan painter, born 
in 1405. He was a pupil of Masaccio, and did 
the frescoes on the walls of the Podesta at 
Florence. On his deathbed (1480) he confessed 
that he murdered Domenico Veneziano after obtain¬ 
ing his secret of working in oil colours. 

Andreossi, Antoine Francois, Count, a 
Frenchman of Italian extraction, born in 1761. 
He took part in the French Revolution, and then 
served as an engineer and officer of artillery under 
Napoleon at the siege of Mant ua and in the Egyptian 
expedition. He was appointed ambassador at 
Vienna and Constantinople, retiring in 1814. During 
the Hundred Days he joined his old master again, 
and was created a peer of France. After Waterloo 
he spent his life in writing memoirs and scientific 
works, dying in 1828. 

Andrew, Saint, apostle and martyr, a brother 
of Simon Peter, a native of Bethsaida, in Galilee. 
Originally a disciple of John the Baptist, he heard 
the testimony of his master to Christ (John i. 
35-40), and followed the true Messiah, soon 
after bringing his brother with him. Andrew is 
seldom mentioned in the Gospel narrative. He 
concurred with Philip in introducing to our 
Lord certain Greeks (John xii. 22), and he was one 
of the four to whom the prophecy was given respect¬ 
ing the fate of the Temple. According to tradition, 
he laboured after Christ’s resurrection in spreading 
the truth over Asia Minor, Scythia., and Thrace, and 
was himself crucified at Patras, in Achaia, by order 


of iEgeus, on that particular form of cross (X) that 
bears his name. His martyrdom is commemorated 
by the Church on November 30. It is uncertain 
why St. Andrew was adopted as the patron saint 
of Scotland, but legend attributes the fact to the 
miraculous appearance of this cross in the sky 
before the defeat of Athelstane by the Piets and 
Scots. 

Andrew I., the Magyar King of Hungary, 
son of Ladislas the Bald. He came to the throne 
in 1046, after the defeat of Peter, and promised his 
subjects to abjure Christianity. As he did not keep 
his word, a revolt followed, and he is said to have 
been killed by his brother Bala in 1059. 

Andrewes, Lancelot, Bishop of Winchester, 
was born in 1555. He received his education at 
Merchant Taylors’ School and at Cambridge, and 
was ordained in 1580. He was made Vicar of St. 
Giles, Cripplegate, and chaplain to Queen Elizabeth, 
and then became Prebendary of St. Paul’s, and of 
Southwell, and master of Pembroke Hall, Cam¬ 
bridge. James I. employed him to confute, in a 
work entitled Tortura Torti, the attacks of Bellar- 
mine on royal supremacy. Plis reward was the 
Deanery of the Chapel Royal, and of Westminster, 
and presently he was appointed successively Bishop 
of Chichester, Ely, and Winchester. He was one 
of the translators of the Bible, being especially 
charged with the Pentateuch and part of the 
historical books. As a preacher he enjoyed a de¬ 
servedly high reputation, and his devotional works 
and theological treatises still find appreciative 
readers. He died in 1626, and was buried in St. 
Saviour's Church, Southwark, where his monument 
and effigy may yet be seen. 

Andrews, St., a town in the county of Fife, 
40 miles from Edinburgh, on the east coast of Scot¬ 
land, overlooking the bay of the same name from 
the summit of a steep cliff. It was made a royal 
burgh in 1140, and Bruce held his first parliament 
here in 1309. The university was founded in 1411 
by Bishop Wardlaw, and is the oldest in Scotland. 
Cardinal Beaton was assassinated in the castle 
(1546), the ruins of which remain ; and the walls, 
of the cathedral, wrecked by Protestants under 
John Knox, in 1559, add picturesque beauty to the 
town. The see, which lapsed in 1689, was reinsti¬ 
tuted in 1844. The Madras School is a noble 
foundation, originating in a bequest of Dr. Bell for 
the free instruction of the poor. St. Andrews is a 
great resort of golf-players from every part of the 
kingdom, and sea-bathing attracts many summer 
visitors. The port is dangerous, and there are few 
industries save fishing and sail-cloth making. 

Andria, a town in the Terra is Bari, Italy, said 
to derive its name from the caverns (antra) that sur¬ 
round it. It is the seat of a bishopric, and has a 
fine cathedral, founded in the eleventh century. The 
neighbourhood produces large quantities of almonds. 

Andrieux, Francois Guillaume Jean Stan¬ 
islas, born in 1159. As a member of the Council 
of Five Hundred (1798) he acted with moderation 
and independence. In 1802 he was ousted bv 
Napoleon from the Tribunat. He now devoted 




Androcles. 


Aneurin. 


( 129 ) 


himself wholly to literature, and in 1829 he was 
chosen perpetual secretary of the Academy, and he 
died in harness four years later. Among his sixteen 
pla} N Les Ltouvdis, Le Tresor, and La Comedienne 
aie the best known. His stories in prose and verse 
met with much success. 

Androcles, or Androcles, a slave, the hero 
o a somewhat. mythical story, which says that, 
escaping fiom his master, he took refuge in a cave, 
where he met a lion, and extracted a thorn from 
the animal s foot. He was afterwards captured and 
tin own into the arena at Rome as a prey to the 
wild beasts. The particular lion that was to devour 
him turned out to be his old acquaintance. In¬ 
stead of bloodshed there ensued mutual caresses, 
and Androcles was set free. Aulus Gellius is our 
only authority for this story. 

Andromache, daughter of Eetion and wife of 
Hector, the Trojan hero. Her parting with her 
husband when he went forth to meet his fate is the 
most touching passage in Homer's Iliad (bk. vi.). 
After Hector's death and the murder of her son 
Astyanax, she became the slave of Pyrrhus, who 
took her to Epirus and married her, but presently 
gave up both his wife and his kingdom to Helenus. 
a son of Priam. Both Euripides and Racine made 
her sad career the subject of tragic dramas. 

Andromeda, daughter of Cepheus, Kino- of 
-(Ethiopia, and of Cassiopeia. The latter ^dis¬ 
puted the palm of beauty with the Nereids, and 
thus provoked Poseidon, who sent a sea-monster to 
de\astate the realms of Cepheus. Andromeda was 
chained to a rock as a propitiatory victim, but Perseus 
slew the brute, rescued the princess, and was 
rewarded with her hand. Andromeda after death 
was, like her mother, enrolled amongst the con¬ 
stellations. 

Andronicus, Livius, a Tarentine Greek, who 
was brought to Rome and manumitted by Livius 
Sal mat or. He wrote the earliest Latin comedies of 
which we have any knowledge, and is reported to 
have translated the Odyssey. Nothing remains of 
his works but a few lines. Date, about 240 b.c. 

Andronicus I., Comnenus, the last of his 
family that reigned at Constantinople. Being ap¬ 
pointed guardian of Alexis II. he killed his ward 
and usurped the throne, 1183 a.d. Plis subjects 
were soon disgusted with his crimes and excesses, 
and in 1185 put him to death. 

Andronicus ofCyrrhus, a Greek astronomer, 
who is said to have built the Temple of the Winds, 
at Athens, about 100 b.c., and to have invented 
weathercocks. 

Andros (modern Andro ), the most northern 
island of the Cyclades in the Greek Archipelago. 
It is 25 miles long by 10 broad, and though 
mountainous has fertile valleys producing corn, 
fruit, wine and silk. The capital is a port on the 
S.E. bearing the same name. 

Andujar, a town in the province of Jaen, Spain, 
on the right bank of the Guadalquivir. The con¬ 
vention of Baylen was signed here in 1808 ; and in 

9 


18-0 the Due d’Angouleme, commanding the French 
force sent to help Ferdinand VII., issued hence a 
famous but fruitless decree. 

Anemometer, an instrument for measuring 
the velocity or pressure of the wind. Robinson’s 
anemometer, which is the form usually employed at 
meteorological stations, consists of two horizontal 
arms crossing each other at right angles, to the 
ends of which are fixed hemispherical metal shells, 
so arranged that when the whole is supported on 
a pivot at the centre, the action of the wind will 
produce rotation, which is directly proportional to 
the wind velocity. Osier’s anemometer registers 
wind pressure thus : A pencil, moved by "clock- 
woik across a sheet of paper, is made to diverge 
correspondingly with the pressure of the wind on a 
metal plate, acting through metal springs on the 
pencil. 

Anemone, a genus comprising about seventy 
species of Ranunculaceous plants, native of cold 



and temperate regions. They are perennial herbs- 
with divided radical leaves. The whole plant is- 
very acrid. The name signifies wind flower, and 
several species are garden favourites. 

Anemone, Sea. [Actinia.] 

Anemophilous, a botanical term signifying 
pollinated by wind, applied to such plants as hazel, 
pines, plantains, and grasses, in which the pollen is 
usually very abundant, small-grained, and smooth, 
and is carried by wind, often on to a plumose 
stigma. This is facilitated in some cases by the 
flowers being produced before the leaves, or by 
lateral air bladders on the pollen grain. 

Aneroid Barometer, a barometer which 
does not contain a liquid, but has a vacuum box 
nearly empty of air, and constructed for elasticity 
of corrugated metal, which is acted upon by the 
atmospheric pressure. 

Aneurin, an ancient British bard, whose birth 
is fixed in 510 a.d. He was a chief amongst the 
Olodinian tribe, and escaped with only three others, 
after the battle of Cattraeth, to the court of Arthur, 
where he became the friend of Taliesin. He wrote 
a poem on the battle, and this, with his Odes of 
the Months, is all that is extant of his compositions. 
Some identify him with the historian Gildas. 














Aneurism. 


( 1-0 ) 


Angelo. 


Aneurism, or Aneurysm, a swelling or dilata¬ 
tion developed in connection with an artery, either 
as the result of injury or from degeneration of the 
arterial coats. The most characteristic phenomenon 
presented by an aneurismal tumour is its expansile 
pulsation in correspondence with the heart beat. 
Aneurisms may give rise to distressing symptoms by 
reason of the pressure they exert upon neighbouring 
structures ; and again, they may gradually increase 
in size, and finally rupture, leading to the pointing out 
of blood, either on the surface of the body or inter¬ 
nally. A not uncommon seat of aneurism is the pop¬ 
liteal artery in the ham, and the main arterial trunk 
of the body; the t horacic aorta is also, unfortunately, 
at times involved. 1 f t he aneurism be in an accessible 
situation, the plan of treatment usually adopted is to 
cause the dilatation or sac to become filled up by 
the deposit of fibrin from the blood, either by tying 
or compressing the artery somewhere between the 
heart and the seat of disease. This is, of course, 
a matter of impossibility in the case of aneurisms 
of the aorta. Even in them, however, a cure is 
sometimes effected by means of drugs, or the adop¬ 
tion of what is known as TuSnell's treatment, the 
main features of which are absolute rest and 
restriction of diet, particularly as regards fluids. 

Angakok, Angekok, an Eskimo wizard who 
professes to act as a medium of communication 
between the supernatural powers and mankind. 
The angakoks claim to derive their knowledge of 
future events, treatment of disease, etc., from a 
familiar spii'it who is summoned by beating a 
drum. 

Angel (from the Greek, meaning messenger ), 
in the Bible, a being of a different nature from that 
of men (being superior in power), and one whom 
God employs as His messenger to lxian. According 
to Scripture, many angels, originally pure, fell from 
their allegiance to God, and were so transformed 
that they used all their power for evil instead of 
for good. Angels are usually represented in the 
form of human beings, though usually with some 
distinguishing sign, such as a halo of brightness or 
wings. 

Alltel, an old English coin, first introduced 
into England by Edward IV. in 11(55. It was of 


ANGEL OF THE TIME OF CHARLES I. 

gold, and represented on one side the conflict 
between Michael and the Dragon. The last angel 
struck in England was in Charles I.'s l’eign. The 
value of the coin varied from Gs. 8d. to 10s. at 
different periods. 


Angel-fish ( Rhina squatina), a viviparous fish 
belonging to the sharks, constituting a family, and 
ranging over tropical and temperate seas from 
Britain to California and Australia. It approaches 
the rays in form and habits ; the length does not 
seem to exceed five feet; sandy-grey above, white 
beneath ; head and body depressed ; pectoral fins 
large, with the basal part prolonged forward (from 



ANGEL-FISH (Rkilin Sqmtilia). 


the fancied resemblance of these fins to wings, the 
popular name is derived); immediately behind 
these are the broad ventral fins ; two dorsal fins on 
the tail. It is abundant in European watei’S, con¬ 
cealing itself in sandy bottom, and preying on the 
flat-fish. Its flesh is sometimes used for food, but 
is coarse, and has an ammoniacal smell. The 
rough skin is used for polishing purposes, and to 
make a kind of shagreen. 

Angelica, a genus of umbelliferous plants. 
The leaf stalks of A. Arch angelica are candied 
as a sweetmeat, and the seeds ai'e one of the in¬ 
gredients of the liqueur chartreuse. 

Angelica, Oil of, an essential oil obtained 
from the seeds of the Angelica, archangelica,; it con¬ 
tains a terpene (C 1o Hj 6 ). B.P. 175° C. S.G. \S33. 

Angelico, Era Giovanni, da Fiesole. a cele¬ 
brated Italian painter, was born at Mui'gello, in 
1387. He joined the Dominican order of monks at 
Fiesole, and dedicated his artistic talent to the 
service of religion, never taking his brush in hand 
without prayer. Having covered with frescoes the 
walls of his monastery, he was called to Rome by 
Nicholas V. to decorate the chapel of the Vatican. 
His pictures are remai'kable for delicacy and 
finish ; the heads of his saints and angels being in¬ 
spired with superhuman grace and beauty. Two of 
his finest works. The Marriage of the Virgin and 
1 he Coronation oj the Virgin, are amongst the most 
valued treasures of the Florentine gallery. An ex¬ 
cellent example. The Resurrection, is to be seen in 
the National Gallery, London. He died in 1455 at 
Rome. 

Angelo, Michael, Buonaeotti (sometimes 
written Michelangelo), who stands in the fore¬ 
front of Italian ai’tists as painter, sculptox*, and 



























Angelus. 


( 131 ) 


Angler-fish. 


<11 chitect, was born of a good Tuscan family in 
1474. In childhood the bent of his genius showed 
itself, and he was early apprenticed to Ghirlandajo, 
w horn he soon surpassed. However, under the 
encouragement of Lorenzo de Medici he turned his 
attention to. sculpture—for oil painting he always 
had a certain contempt—and worked for several 
years in the Medici Palace. In 149(5 he visited 
Home and produced his Sleeping Cupid and the 
Piet a that still stands in St. Peter's. Returning to 
Florence (1501) he carved the colossal David, and 
in 1505 designed the cartoon of the Surprise of 
Pisan Soldiers while Bathing to match a decoration 
by Leonardo da Vinci in the Council Hall of 
1 lorence. He settled in Rome in 1508 with a view 
to making a mausoleum for Pope Julius II. It was 
then that he painted the ceiling of the Sistine 
chapel, his masterpiece in that branch of art, whilst 
heexecuted the statue of Moses forthe tomb of Julius 
—perhaps his noblest work in sculpture. From 
1513 to 1525 he appears to have lived in Florence 
engaged on the Laurentian library, the Medici 
chapel, and the mausoleum of the family, where his 
famous figures A iff lit and Morning .are to be seen. 
At the request of Clement VII. he began in 1533 
the great fresco of The Last Judgment on the altar 
wall of the Sistine chapel, and he was appointed by 
Paul III. to the complete charge of the Vatican. 
In 1547 he became architect of St. Peter’s, designed 
but did not complete the dome, and spent the 
remainder of his days in rebuilding and improving 
that splendid structure. He died in 1564, and was 
buried in Santa Croce at Florence. He never 
married, but the story of his love for Vittoria 
Colonna is well known. In addition to his other 
great talents Michael Angelo possessed in no small 
degree the gift of poetry. 

Angelus, the name given to a bell which in 
Catholic districts is rung three times a day to 
invite people to repeat the prayer known as the 
Angelus. It gives the title to a picture by Millet. 

Angelus, Silesius, a German poet and theo¬ 
logian, born at Breslau in 1624. Originally a Pro¬ 
testant, and physician to the Duke of Wurtemberg, 
he embraced Romanism, and entered the priest¬ 
hood. He died in 1677. 

Angermann, a river of Sweden which rises in 
the Kiolen Mountains (lat. 65° 59' N., long. 15° E.) 
and flows S.E. into the Gulf of Bothnia, having 
Hernoesand at its mouth. A province of Norland 
takes its name from the river. 

Angers (anc. Andecavia , Andes , or Juliomagus). 
a very ancient city of France, 160 miles S.\V. of 
Paris, on the river Maine, which divides it into 
two. Formerly the capital of Anjou and now of 
the department of Maine-et-Loire, Angers was an 
important place in Roman times, possessing an 
amphitheatre, the ruins of which still exist. It is 
the seat of a bishopric, and before the Revolution 
had a famous university and also a military school, 
where the Earl of Chatham and the Duke of 
Wellington were students. The cathedral, dedi¬ 
cated to St. Maurice, dates from 1225. There are 
slate quarries in the neighbourhood which employ 
over 3,000 men, and camlets, serges, hats, and leather 


goods are among the staple manufactures. A large 
trade is done in corn, wine, and agricultural 
products. David, the sculptor, was born here. 

Angina, a term derived from a Greek word 
meaning to strangle. Angina was used by the 
ancients to signify an inflammation of the throat or 
air passages attended by difficulty of breathing or 
swallowing. It is still used at times in this sense, 
as in the expression angina faucium, which is some¬ 
times used in speaking of quinsy. The most 
common use of the word is, however, that which 
obtains in angina pectoris. Angina pectoris was 
the name given by Heberden to a peculiar form of 
neuralgia, in which pain occurs in the heart region, 
extending at times to the left shoulder and even down 
the left arm. The attacks come on quite suddenty, 
the patient appearing to be in extreme distress, and 
suffering the most acute agony. The subjects of an¬ 
gina are usually over fifty years of age, and are much 
more frequently men than women. The duration of 
the seizure is from a few seconds »o several hours, 
and death may terminate the attack. Angina has 
been attributed to a cramp of the muscle of the 
heart, or to a spasm of the muscles of the small 
arteries. Much relief is at times afforded during the 
attacks by the inhalation of nitrite of amyl. 

Angiosperm (Greek, aggeion , a vessel, or closed 
receptacle), a botanical term applied to all those 
flowering plants in which the seeds are enclosed 
by the carpels in an ovary, as opposed to the 
gymnosperms, or naked-seeded plants. The Angio- 
spermia form the larger and higher division of the 
sub-kingdom Phanerogam ia. 

Angle between two lines, the amount of 
rotation required to bring a line from one position 
to the other, regard being taken of the “ sense” or 
direction which the bounding lines are understood 
to possess. If two lines are parallel and drawn in the 
same sense no rotation is necessary, hence the angle 



between them is zero. Angles are measured in ( a ) 
Sexagesimal measure. A complete rotat ion is called 
four right angles. 

1 right angle = 00 degrees (°). 

1 degree = 60 miixites ('). 

1 minute = 60 seconds ("). 

(h) Centesimal measure. 

1 right angle = 100 grades (gr.). 

1 grade = 100 French minutes (). 

1 Fr. min. = 100 French seconds ("). 

(c) Circular measure. By the ratio of the circular 
arc subtended by the angle to the radius of the 
arc, a ratio found to be constant for any ratio if 
the angle is constant. 

Angler-fish ( Lopldus ), a genus of Pediculati 
(in which the carpal bones are prolonged, so as to 
form a sort of arm terminating in the pectoral fin), 










Anglesea. 


( 132 ) 


Anglo-Saxon. 


called also fishing-frog, frog-fish, or sea-devil 
(from its ugliness and voracity). There are four 
species, identical in habits. One (L. piscatorins) 
is British, which attains a length of five feet, and 
specimens of three feet are common. The head is 
very broad, and the body tapers rapidly to the tail; 
the pectoral and ventral fins are articulated so that 



AKGLER-FISH. 


the fish can walk on the bottom of the sea, where it 
generally hides in sand or seaweed. Round the 
Head and body are numerous appendages like short 
fronds of algm, and there are three long filaments 
on the head, the anterior one being movable in all 
directions. The angler uses the appendage as a 
bait, attracting other fishes, which when sufficiently 
near are swallowed at a gulp. 

Anglesea, or Anglesey {The Island of the 
English'), an island and county on the north-west 
coast of Wales, separated from the mainland by the 
Menai Strait, which is, however, now crossed by 
the tubular and suspension bridges. The island is 
21 miles long and 19 broad ; its area being 193,511 
acres. The soil is fertile, the surface flat, and the 
climate mild. The copper mines, which were at 
one time very considerable, were discovered in 
1708; the island yields also lead, ochre, and a little 
silver. The principal towns are Beaumaris, the 
capital, Holyhead, and Amlwch. The agricultural 
products are wheat, barley, oats, rye, and potatoes; 
cattle and sheep are raised to a large extent. 

The Roman name for the island was Mona, and 
the remains of a Roman camp still exist at Holy- 
head. This latter town is a place of importance, 
as it forms the point of departure of the boats for 
Ireland. The suspension-bridge is a magnificent 
structure, 580 ft. from pier to pier, and 100 ft. 
above high-water mark. Anglesey returns one 
member to Parliament. 

Anglesey, Henry William Paget, 1st Mar¬ 
quis of, the eldest son of the first Earl of Uxbridge, 
born in 1768. He entered the army early, and in 
1793 raised a regiment among his father’s tenantry, 
which later on became the 80th foot. As lieutenant- 
colonel of this corps he did excellent service in 
Holland (1794) and in the Peninsula (1809). In 
1812 he succeeded to the earldom. At Waterloo he 
led the final charge, and lost a leg from a wound 
in the knee. He was created a marquis, and was 


also honoured with the Grand Cross of the Bath. 
He became Master-General of Ordnance in 1827, 
and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1828, but was 
forced to resign because he favoured Catholic 
Emancipation. He died in 1854. 

Anglesite, named from Anglesey, is the sul¬ 
phate of lead (PbS0 4 ), crystallising in rhombic 
prisms, white, adamantine, soluble, and more than 
six times the weight of water. It results from the 
oxidation of galena (PbS), and when abundant, as 
in Australia, is a valuable ore of lead. 

Anglia, East, the kingdom founded by the 
Angles, a German tribe who crossed over from their 
native Angeln in the 6th century, and with their kins¬ 
men, the Saxons and Jutes, established themselves 
in East Anglia, Northumbria, and Mercia. Norfolk 
and Suffolk now occupy the district. 

Anglican, belonging to the Church of England, 
or the Protestant episcopal churches in Scotland, 
Ireland, or the colonies. The term is used of the 
High Church section of the Church of England. 

Angling. [Fishing.] 

Anglo-Catholic, a term formerly used in much 
the same sense as Anglican (q.v.). 

Anglo-Israelite Theory, the view that the 
English people are descendants of the lost ten Tribes, 
recently made prominent by the writings of Edward 
Hine and Philo-Israel; but hopelessly at variance 
with linguistics, ethnology, and historical evidence. 

Anglomania, the desire among people of 
another race to imitate English manners, customs, 
or institutions. Germany, France, and the United 
States have all been affected with Anglomania at 
various times and in varying degrees. 

Anglo-Saxon, originally a substantival term 
used only in the plural as a collective name for the 
Saxon invaders of Britain as distinct from the 
Saxons on the continent of Europe. It appeared 
first in a Latin form, and the earliest example of 
its use which has come down to us dates from the 
eighth century. From the ninth to the eleventh 
centuries inclusive the name was sometimes applied 
to the whole body of Teutonic invaders, and occurs, 
though very rarely, in old native documents, and 
somewhat more commonly in Latin ones. But it 
was always a term of formal description, and never 
employed by the people, who, when they did not 
speak of themselves as Angles, Jutes , and Saxons 
respectively, called themselves English. Saxon 
was the word used by the displaced Celts to denote 
any of the Teutonic invaders, and it had been used 
by the Romans in an almost identical sense cen¬ 
turies before. Freeman asserts that the opposi¬ 
tion between Norman and Anglo-Saxon, com¬ 
monly made by modern writers, is not found in 
contemporary documents. At the Conquest the 
native race was called English by the Norman in¬ 
vaders, while down to the 12th century Saxon 
and Anglo-Saxon were applied indifferently by the 
Latin chroniclers to the English of the period 
before Senlac as distinct from the nation formed 
by the union of the English arid the Normans. 

The term then fell into disuse till it was revived 





















Anglo-Saxon. 


( 133 ) 


Angouleme. 


in the lGtli century by Camden to denote the 
English Saxons and the Old English tongue in its 
inflected stage. This use continued till early in 
the second half of the 19th century, when a 
vigorous attempt was made—notably by Palgrave, 
Freeman, and Green—to banish the term and to 
substitute for it what they considered to be 
the correct expression— English. Freeman says: 
“ Our tongue has always been called English as far 
back as we can go; so that it is better to call it 
English at all times, and, when needful, to distin¬ 
guish the older form as Old English , than to talk, 
as many people do, about Saxon or Anglo-Saxon , 
which makes people fancy that one language has 
been changed for another.” Despite this weight of 
authority, the name Anglo-Saxon is firmly fixed in 
the language. Professor Skeat is of opinion that it 
should be retained as being generally understood. 
■“Besides, it has a special technical sense—the old 
Southern dialect of Wessex. It does not in the 
least follow that the people of ancient England, or 
■even of the South of it, ought to be called Anglo- 
Saxons. They should be called English '’ 

But it is of little consequence which name is used 
in speaking of the language prior to 1100, for the 
literary remains which have come down to us from 
before this date are almost all in the Southern or 
Wessex dialect, to which the name Anglo-Saxon is 
specially applied, so that the dispute is one about 
names, rather than things. The examples which 
we possess of the Mercian or Midland dialect are 
chiefly in the form of glosses on Latin texts, while 
those of the Northumbrian or Northern dialect are 
similar glosses, and a few fragments of poetry. As 
the subject will be fully, treated under English 
Language and Literature, it will be sufficient to 
say that the English of the first period was a highly 
inflected language, having grammatical gender, 
•declension of nouns, adjectives, and pronouns, 
these last with a dual number expressive of two 
and no more, the plural being reserved for more 
than two. Of late years the study of Anglo-Saxon 
has greatly increased among English-speaking 
peoples, though some of the best books on the 
subject have been written by Germans, and in the 
German language. The example given below is from 
an Anglo-Saxon version of St. Matthew (xiii. 3-5) of 
the tenth century, quoted by Prof. Skeat in his 
Principles of English Etymology , with his literal 
rendering :— 


Soblice fit 

eode 

se 

sredere 

his 

sped 

to 

sawenne. 

JSoothly out 

want 

the 

sower 

his 

seed 

to 

sow. 

And ba 

ba 

he 

seow, 

sume 

hig 

feollon 

A ml when 

that 

lie 

sowed, 

some 

they 

fell 


wib 

weg, and 

fuglas 

comun and teton 

with ( 

= by the ) way, and 

fowls 

came 

and ate 

ba. 

Soblice 

sume 

feollon 

on 

stgenihte, 

■them. 

Sootldy 

some 

fell 

on 

stony-ground, 

pfr 

hit npefde 

micle 

eor-ban 

and 

hrredlice up 

•where 

it had-not 

much 

earth, 

and 

quickly up 


sprungon, for bam be hig nsefdon Dere eorban 
sprang, /or that that they had-not of-the earth 

dypan. 

depth. 


Angola, a country on the west coast of Africa, 
extending from Cape Lopez de Gonsalvo to St. 
Felipe de Benguela, but the name is now restricted 
to the portion of Lower Guinea between the Congo 
and Benguela, which is under the rule of the Portu¬ 
guese, whose explorer, Diego Cano, discovered the 
coast in 1484. The native name for the district is 
Bongo. Near the sea the land is flat and barren, 
but the interior is mountainous with rich and well- 
watered valleys, the chief rivers being the Kwango, 
Cuanza, Bengar, and Danea. Owing to elevation 
and the prevalence of the trade winds the climate is 
fairly healthy Gum, wax, ivory, sugar, millet, 
rice, yarns, mandioc, and fruits are the chief pro¬ 
duce, and considerable mineral wealth must exist. 
The capital is St. Paul de Loando, built 1578. 

Angora (anc. Ancyra , Turk. Inkhirc ), an ancient 
inland city of Anatolia, Asiatic Turkey, situated on 
a river known in early times as the Sangarius, now 
Sakaria, and giving its name to a village. Greek ansi 
Roman remains abound in the neighbourhood, and 
the ruins exist of the splendid marble temple built 
in honour of Augustus. An inscription, purporting 
to be his testament, was found engraved on the 
columns. It was the seat of an early Christian 
Church, founded perhaps by St. Paul, and councils 
were held there in 314 and 358. Tamerlane defeated 
Bajazet near this spot (1402) and imprisoned him in 
an iron cage. The Turks have had possession of 
Angora since 141(5. The chief trade of the place 
consists of the fine wool or outer coat of the Angora 
goat. Cats and rabbits having the same long siikv 
fur are named from the town. 

Angora Goat. [Goat.] 

Angostura, the capital of the province of 
Guyana, Venezuela, S. America (also known as 
Ciudad Bolivar). It is situated on the right bank of 
the Orinoko, about 240 miles from its mouth. In 1819 
a congress was held here under Bolivar, by which 
New Grenada and Venezuela were united to form 
Columbia. Sugar, cocoa, cotton, hides, and bark 
are largely exported. 

Angostura Bark, the bark of Galipea Cas¬ 
par ia, a member of the order Butacece , native to 
Venezuela, containing an alkaloid, angostnrine, em¬ 
ployed in cases of dysentery. 

Angostura Bitters, a tonic containing an- 
gostura bark, canella, and other aromatics. 

Angouleme (anc. Inculisma), a very old city 
of France, now the capital of the department of 
Charente, and situated on the river of that name. 
In communication with the sea, and on the main line 
from Paris to Bordeaux, Angouleme is an important 
centre of trade. The chief local manufactures are 
serges, earthenware, paper, and gunpowder. The 
Cathedral dates from 1120. Amongst the distin¬ 
guished natives were Balzac, Ravaillac, and 
General Montalembert. The count y or duchy of 
Angouleme is almost coterminous with the province 
of Angoumois. The first Count of Angouleme and 
Perigord was created in 86(5. The male line ended 
in 1181, when the fief went by marriage to the 
De Lusignans. At the end of the 14th century 






( 134 ) 


Angouleme. 


Animal Heat. 


was conferred on Louis, Duke of Orleans, from whom 
sprang Francis I., and the house of Valois-Angou- 
lerne. It was then made a duchy, and was held by 
members of the royal family till 1(550, after which 
the title ceased to have territorial value. 

Angouleme, Louis Antoine de Bourbon, 
Due d’, the eldest son of the Comte d’Artois 
(Charles X.), born in 1775. During the period 
of the emigration he married Marie Therese, 
daughter of Louis XVI., called by Napoleon “ the 
only man in the family.” Returning to France in 
1814 he vainly opposed the movements of Napoleon 
on his escape from Elba, and was taken prisoner by 
Grouchy, but released. In 1823 he led an army into 
Spain for the support of Ferdinand VII., and suc¬ 
ceeded in re-establishing the royal authority, and is¬ 
sued the decree of Andujar, though intrigues counter¬ 
acted the full effect of ins policy. After the revolu¬ 
tion of 1830 he made over his rights to the Due de 
Bordeaux, and assuming the title of Comte de 
Marnes, lived in retirement until 1844. 

Angra, the chief town of the Azores, on the 
Island of Terceira, in possession of Portugal. The 
port is a small arsenal and is well fortified. There 
is some trade in wine, flax, cheese, fruit, etc. 

Angra-Pequena, a German settlement on the 
coast of Namaqua Land, south-west Africa, to the 
north of the Orange river, which is the boundary of 
Cape Colony. The German claims extend about 
150 miles from the Orange river without any precise 
limitation inland. The colony is now known as 
Lnderitz Land, from the name of the adventurer 
who, in 1883, purchased the soil from a native 
chief. 

Angstrom, Anders Jonas, a Swedish physicist 
who was born in 1814, and, after holding several 
minor appointments in the University of Upsala, 
became professor of physics in 1858. He wrote on 
heat, magnetism and optics, but his most valuable 
contributions to science relate to the spectroscope. 
In the PechercJica sur le Spectre Solairc (1869) he 
carried forward Kirchhoff’s great discovery, and he 
investigated the spectra of gaseous substances. 

Anguilla, or Snake Island, is one of the 
British West Indian Islands, in the Leeward group. 
It has an area of 35 square miles. The name is 
derived from its sinuous shape. There is a good 
harbour. 

Anguillulidae, a family of nematode worms. 
They are rarely parasitic, but usually live on plants, 
in water or damp earth. They are also common 
in fermenting or putrefying matter; thus, An- 
guxllulci aceti or “vinegar eels” occur in cheap 
vinegar that has gone bad; A. glutinis in sour 
paste, etc. 

Anguineum, a Druidical charm or amulet. 

Anhalt, a German duchy, surrounded and split 
up by Prussian Saxony. The Hartz Mountains 
push into its western districts, but the rest is flat 
and woody, and watered by the Elbe and Saale. 
The four towns of Dessau, Bornberg, Kothen, and 
Zerbst supply names to the divisions of the duchy, 


Anhalt-Dessau being the chief. Woollen goods, 
pottery, and hardware are manufactured, but the 
country is almost entirely agricultural. Area, 869 
square miles. 

Anhydride, an oxide which combines with 
water to form an acid. Anhydrides may therefore 
be regarded as acids deprived of water, the latter 
being essential for the exhibition of those proper¬ 
ties which are characteristic of acids. Thus, a 
solution of an anhydride in ether, or some other 
non-aqueous solvent, is not capable of reddening 
litmus paper [Ex. Sulphuric anhydride, which 
combines with water to form sulphuric acid 
(SO.-f H 20 = H 2 SO 4 )]. 

Anhydrite, or Karstenite, the anhydrous 
sulphate of lime (CaS0 4 ), so called in contradis¬ 
tinction to gypsum, the hydrous sulphate (CaS0 4 -j- 
2HoO). Like most anhydrous sulphates, anhydrite 
crystallises in the prismatic system. It is much 
harder and slightly heavier than gypsum, is white 
and translucent, and occurs in beds associated with 
gypsum and rock salt. 

Ani. [Savannah Blackbird.] 

Anidrosis, the condition of deficient excretion 
of sweat. 

Aniline, or Phenylamine (C 6 H 7 N = C ( .H 5 NH.,). 
First isolated in 182(5 by Unverdorben, who pre¬ 
pared it from indigo. Its preparation from the dis¬ 
tillation products of coal and its resources as a 
colouring matter were of much later discovery. 
Within the last t wenty years aniline has acquired an 
immense importance in the dyeing industry, which 
it has completely revolutionised. Aniline is usually 
prepared by reducing nitro-benzine with ferrous 
acetate; it is a colourless and transparent oily 
liquid. B.P. 182 3 C., S.G. 1-028; slightly soluble 
in water, but dissolves in all proportions in alcohol, 
ether, and most organic solvents. Combines with 
acids to form salts. The discovery of the first 
aniline colour, Ani line-Purple or Manve, w r as made 
by Perkin in 185(5; and Pomniline or Magenta, 
was isolated by Hofmann two years later. Since 
then, by treating aniline with various reagents 
a wonderful range of colours has been obtained of 
every conceivable hue. 

Animal Heat, the heat produced in animal 
bodies as the result of the processes of chemical 
decomposition which take place in them. The 
oxygen absorbed by the lungs in combining with 
certain elements, and again, the food in undergoing 
certain changes within the body, are mainly account¬ 
able for the heat evolved. In some animals, which 
are therefore called warm-blooded, the temperature 
of the body only varies within very narrow limits. 
Thus the body temperature in man, whether he dwell 
at the equator or in the arctic regions, never deviates 
in health far from the standard, which is 98*6° F. 
It is usually somewhat higher in the afternoon, and 
falls to its lowest point in the early morning; again, 
it rises a little after food or exercise. Cold-blooded 
animals, however, do not possess this power of main¬ 
taining a constant body temperature. Indeed, their 
temperature differs but little from that of the 




































. 



































ANIMAL KINGDOM.—I. 

1 Amoeba. 2 Foraminifera. 3 Hydra. 4 Coral. 5 Jelly-fish. 6 Star-fisli. 7 Nereis. 8 Crab. 9 Scorpion. 10 Butterfly. 
11 Lamp-shell. 12 Ascidian. 13 Salpa. 14 Whelk. 15 Cuttle-fish. 1G Ampliioxus. 17 Lamprey. 18 Mcnobranclius 
lateralis. 19 Tadpoles. 20 Frog. 




























Animal Kingdom. 


( 135 ) 


Animal Magnetism. 


medium, whether air or water, in which they live. 
Roughly speaking, among vertebrates mammals 
and birds belong to the class of warm-blooded, and 
fish, reptiles, and amphibia to that of cold-blooded 
animals. The regulation of the body heat in those 
animals whose temperature remains constant is 
largely effected by variations in the amount of heat 
given out. Thus in a warm atmosphere the 
capillaries of the skin are dilated, and much heat 
is lost by perspiration, while the exposure to cold 
air produces a diminution of the blood supply to the 
skin and a consequent diminution in loss of heat. 
But a second factor which is concerned in main¬ 
taining a constancy of temperature is variation in 
the amount of heat produced. The parts of the 
body in which chemical changes resulting in heat 
production are most active are the muscles, the 
liver, and the brain. The kind of food again has an 
influence in this matter. Rats are eminently heat 
giving foods, and it is noteworthy that much fat is 
consumed by dwellers in cold or temperate regions, 
while it is avoided as an article of diet in tropical 
countries. t 

Animal Kingdom, a term of comparatively 
recent introduction, the exact extent of which it is 
impossible to define, and for which it would be 
well to substitute the term “ organic kingdom ”— 
embracing all organisms, animal or vegetable, as 
distinct from the inorganic world. The Linmean 
aphorism, “ Stones grow ; plants grow and live ; 
animals grow, live, and feel,” is ambiguous ; for, as 
Professor Huxley points out, “the word grorv, as 
applied to stones Qi.c. minerals), denotes a totally 
different process from what is called growth in 
plants and animals.” The growth of minerals is 
effected purely by the external addition of new 
matter, as may be observed in crystals ; the growth 
of the other two is the result of a process of mole¬ 
cular intussusception—the interposition of new 
molecules between those already existing—to such 
an extent that the process of reconstruction is more 
rapid than that of disintegration. Then the chemi¬ 
cal constitution of living matter, which, in its 
primary unmodified state, is known as protoplasm 
(q.v.), distinguishes it absolutely from all other 
kinds of things, and the present state of knowledge 
furnishes us with no link between the living and 
the not-living. Moreover, an individual living body 
is constantly changing its substance by waste and 
reconstruction, and its size and form undergo con¬ 
tinual modifications, ending in decay and death ; 
while the perpetuation of the species is secured by 
the detachment of portions that tend to run through 
the same cycle as the parent form. Thus it is 
easy to distinguish animals and plants from in¬ 
organic bodies. One of the results of modern 
biology is the conviction that there is essential 
unity between all living organisms; and traced 
down to their lowest terms the series of plant 
forms gradually lose more and more of their dis¬ 
tinctive features, while the series of animal forms 
part with more and more of their distinctive animal 
characters, and the two converge to a common 
term. Professor Jeffrey Bell thus enumerates the 
points of differences between animals and plants :— 


1. The form of an animal is oblong and rounded ; that of a 
plant diffuse and arborescent. 

2. An animal requires albuminoid foods; a plant lives on 
carbonic and mineral salts. 

3. In all but the lowest animals there is a distinct mouth ; 
plants take in food by the porous tissues. 

4. Some of the waste products of an animal always contain 
nitrogen ; the secretions of a plant are noil-nitrogenous. 

5. Animals are locomotive ; plants are lixed. 

6. The wall of an animal cell is derived directly from the 
cell protoplasm ; the cell-wall of plants is formed by cellulose. 

To nearly all these statements, however, ex¬ 
ceptions may be found. 

1. Polyps are arborescent or diffuse; cacti and fungi are not. 

2. Fungi appear to require a more complex compound than 
carbonic acid and mineral salts. 

4. Though plants do not give off nitrogenous excreta, their 
protoplasm is capable of forming them. 

5. Polyps and many of the stalked Echinodermata are fixed : 
Volvox (q.v.) is locomotive. 

6. The Cilio-flagellata have cellulose in the cell-wall, while 
some of the lowest plants have their protoplasm naked. 

This list—imperfect as it is—will serve to show 
the broad general characteristics of animals and 
plants ; but it must be borne in mind that sen¬ 
sibility appears not to be an exclusive animal 
characteristic [Sensitive-plant], and that some 
(the sun-dews and Venus’s fly-trap) have the power 
to absorb and digest animal matter. [Insectivor¬ 
ous Plants.] For forms which stand as it were 
upon the border of these two groups of organisms, 
it has been proposed by Hiickel to erect a third 
group, Protista (q.v.). The classification adopted 
in this book is as follows :— 

Sub-Kingdom I.—Protozoa. 

, II.—Metazoa. 

(a) Ccelenterata. 

(ft) Coelomata. 

1. Echinodermata. 

2. Vermes. 

3. Arthropoda. 

4. Moljuscoida. 

5. Mollusca. 

6. Chordata. 

Under these heads smaller groups will be dealt 
with, and animals will be treated under their pop¬ 
ular names. [Biology, Evolution, Geograph¬ 
ical Distribution, Morphology, Zoology.] 

Animal Magnetism, Hypnotism, Mesmer¬ 
ism, Electro-biology, Odylism, names given to a 
group of phenomena which are at present but little 
understood, and which have unfortunately received 
much more attention from those who have sought 
to employ them as a means of imposing upon the 
ignorant and credulous, than from earnest men 
studying the subject in a scientific spirit. 

The title Animal Magnetism is a bad one, and 
was derived from the fanciful supposition that one 
person could influence the actions of another by 
means of a certain mysterious influence which was 
compared to that of a magnet; it is now, however, 
known that the phenomena are due to perverted 
action on the part of the subject, and not to any 
magnetic or mesmeric force emanating from the 
operator. 

Of course, cures have been ascribed from time 
immemorial to supernatural agencies, the crowds 
who flocked to be “ touched ” for king’s evil repre¬ 
senting a survival of such notions to quite recent 
times ; it was onl}’, however, rather more than a 





Animal Magnetism. 


( 13G ) 


Animal Worship. 


century ago that the question assumed its modern 
form. Frederick Anton Mesmer, who was born in 
1733, and who studied medicine at Vienna, was the 
originator of the notion of a magnetic fluid, or in¬ 
fluence, by means of which lie declared himself 
capable of producing the magnetic state in others, 
a process which resulted in their being cured of any 
form of disease from which they might happen to 
suffer. 

His treatment of patients in Paris excited much 
controversy, and for a time crowds flocked to him 
to be magnetised. About thirty people at a time 
were seated around what was called the “ baquet ” 
or trough, the surroundings being full of mystery, 
a dim light, strange odours, and the sounds of 
music being employed, while Mesmer himself 
walked about attired like a magician. Such was 
the attention directed to the supposed miraculous 
cures effected, that the French Government ap¬ 
pointed a commission of inquiry to investigate the 
results. In an elaborate report which was drawn 
up by this body, some of the effects claimed to 
have been produced were admitted, but they were 
attributed to the working of a highly wrought 
imagination in susceptible subjects, rather than to 
any magnetic influence. 

No more light was thrown upon the question 
until Braid, a Manchester surgeon, commenced to 
study the subject in 1841. This observer showed 
that the mesmeric sleep could be produced by in¬ 
ducing exhaustion of the retina and eye muscles by 
causing the subject to gaze in a constrained position 
at some bright object. He employed his method 
in several forms of disease, and published a series 
of observations on the use of hypnotism as a curative 
agent. His work was a great advance on that of 
previous experimenters, as he did not attempt to 
throw any halo of mystery around what he did. 

Heidenhain of Breslau, Charcot at the Salpetriere 
in Paris, and Liebault of Nancy are the most 
recent serious workers in the same field, all these 
observers of course denying that there is any mar¬ 
vellous element in the phenomena of hypnotism. 
The ordinary phenomena witnessed in the hypnotic 
state are as follows:—The condition is produced 
usually by prolonged gazing at a bright object, 
some observers attaching importance to the 
“passes” made with the operator’s hands. After a 
time a kind of sleep is induced, which differs from 
ordinary sleep in that the subject will respond to 
“ suggestions ” made by t he operator. Thus he may 
be made to drink castor oil under the impression 
that it is a refreshing beverage, and to perform 
many other anomalous actions, for the most part of 
an exceedingly useless nature. In spite of the 
trivial character of many of the experiments—and 
the practice of hypnotism seems to be inevitably 
associated with an element of practical joking— 
there can be no doubt that in suitable subjects 
these phenomena of suggestion are occasionally 
genuine. 

It is claimed that by suggesting to a paralysed 
man that he can walk, or by suggesting to a drunk¬ 
ard that he should avoid alcohol, and the like, much 
good may be done ; it is needless, however, to 
observe that no organic disease was ever cured by 


hypnotism ; the patient’s trouble must be one of 
moral weakness, or his disease of a hysterical, or 
to use less objectionable terms, neuromimetic or. 
functional character, for him to obtain any benefit 
from suggestion. Again, the marvel, if marvel 
there be, lies in the patient and not in any 
mysterious influence exerted by the operator; and 
moreover the existence of cures of this description 
is no new thing. Moral influence wrought the cure 
of functional disease long before Mesmer ever con¬ 
ceived the idea of magnetic influence. 

A curious class of phenomena observed in the 
hypnotic state are the rigidities of body and the 
way in which muscles will maintain a condition of 
contraction impossible in the ordinary conscious 
condition. Again, certain abnormalities of sensa¬ 
tion may be present: anesthesia is common, colour 
blindness may occur, and so on. All these pheno¬ 
mena are familiar enough apart from hypnotism, 
nevertheless some interest attaches to their mode 
of development and to the changes which can be 
rung upon them in suitable subjects. 

Charcot’s followers have gone so far as to describe 
three different states of hypnotism: lethargy, cata¬ 
lepsy, and artificial somnambulism ; hitherto, how¬ 
ever, this classification has not been accepted by 
other observers. 

It may be taken for granted that most people 
can be hypnotised, provided they submit themselves 
to the extremely exhausting process described by 
Braid. After a time the hypnotic state comes, it 
is said, to be quite readily assumed, and in a small 
proportion of people this may be the case from the 
first; particularly does this seem to hold in France.. 
The net result of experiments hitherto made seems 
to be, however, that in submitting to the process a 
very undesirable susceptibility may be induced, and 
the benefits claimed to accrue from suggestions 
made in the hypnotic state cannot be said to rest 
on any secure foundation of well-ascertained fact. 

Animal Mounds. [Mounds.] 

Animal Worship, or adoration paid by man 
to any of the lower animals, probably arose from 
the want of distinction in the savage mind between 
the soul of a human being and that of a brute, and 
was strengthened by the later doctrine of metem¬ 
psychosis. It is a distinct stage in religious de¬ 
velopment, and its different forms may be con¬ 
veniently grouped under three heads: (1) The 
beast was worshipped as being possessed of greater 
power, skill, or cunning than its worshippers, and 
propitiated by offerings and ceremonies as, for 
example, by Kamtchadales, who worshipped the 
bears and wolves that could devour them and the 
whales that could overturn their boats; (2) the 
beast was regarded as the incarnation of some 
deity or spirit—this form prevails extensively in 
India, where, says Tylor, “ the sacred cow is not 
merely to be spared, she is a deity worshipped in 
annual ceremony, daily perambulated and bowed to 
by the pious Hindu, who offers her fresh grass and 
flowers” [Avatar] ; and (3) it was raised to the 
rank of a tribal ancestor, and all animals of the 
same kind were thenceforward deemed sacred, as 
was the case in ancient Egypt, where many of the 











Map showing' the 

DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS 



40 Fran? Joseph I/? 80 




Range \th& 

^ Music q 0 jc , 

\ Ringed^ hemitting 

\ and ^rntine 
in Gr&t 


New Siberia 


Bat fin 
Bay 


Melville 

-^SouudL 


Wrangell^ 


7 an d 


° r tl ern Li 


i m it 


(Arctic .Circle 


O 71 


Wolf ■ 


m of P, 


rmo* 


Iceland. / 


TJudsonsP 


?d,Deef 


Okhotsk 
4 K Sea 


Codfish and 


Herri ng^s 

\ o 


Boar 


e, Musk Rat 


y^r-, Newfoundland 


S t a’q 


A'^er 


Racoon 


Cana/y 


Mon keys 

• • • • • ■ 


Hawaii 


Corals and- Holoihu’r i se 


Ppjopota 


MalcUve R 


Equator 


trciTapaggs l 3 . t 


>mithorhyru 


Koala: 

ssurn^ 


>ic of Capncjorn 


Kqnparoos 

! \fom.bat Opo 

A jU S T R A 


Wlon/c ( 


2 La n A 


Crozet I s 


r Edward I s 


Falkland I s 


Bouvet 


S- Georgia 


EdwA Weller 


London. Cassell & Company Limited . 






































































































































































. . 






























1 

f 

. ■ ' ■ 

, 



















V 












































\ 









































Anime. 


( 137 ) 


Ankarstrom. 


deities were represented wholly or partially under 
the forms of sacred animals; and the local cha¬ 
racter of these sacred beasts is shown by the fact 
that some of those worshipped and mummified after 
death in one district were killed and eaten with 
impunity in other places. [Serpent-worship, 
Totemism.] 

Anime, a copalline or varnish resin of agreeable 
odour used in perfumery. It is pale brown, trans¬ 
parent, brittle, insoluble in water but soluble in 
alcohol. In Zanzibar it is obtained from Tracky- 
lobium Hornemannianum, in Brazil from T. vuirti- 
anuni and Hymencea (Jourbaril, in West Africa 
from Guibortia copall if era, and in Siberia from 
an Idea. 

Animism, a term introduced in the eighteenth 
century by Stahl, a. German physician, who taught 
that all the phenomena of physical life are con¬ 
trolled by an immaterial anima, which was only a 
reproduction of a classical theory ; it soon fell into 
disuse, but has recently been revived by Dr. Tylor 
to denote the doctrine of spiritual beings, which 
embodies the very essence of spiritualistic, as op¬ 
posed to materialistic philosophy. Accepting 
“belief in spiritual beings” as the narrowest 
definition of religion possible, he holds that there 
is no evidence of races entirely without religion, 
though it would be in the highest degree unwise to 
consider such belief instinctive or innate. ’The 
origin of animism appears to be found in the en¬ 
deavours of savage races to solve the problems of 
life and death, health and disease, sleep and dreams, 
trances and visions, by the identification of soul 
and vital principle and the conception of the soul 
as a thin substantial human image, corresponding 
in appearance to the body it animates. This con¬ 
ception has never been lost: so Homer described 
the shade of Patroclus appearing to Achilles; so 
Samuel came, “an old man covered with a mantle,” 
when called up by the witch at En-dor; Shake¬ 
speare made the ghost in Hamlet revisit Elsinore 
“ in the same figure, like the king that’s dead,” and 
such is the popular conception of a ghost at the 
present day. But since the lower animals and in¬ 
animate objects appear in dreams, it follows—if 
the deduction with regard to the human soul be 
sound—that they too have something of the same 
nature, and both animal-souls and object-souls come 
into prominence in the rite of funeral sacrifice 
(q.v.). From this conception of the human soul 
transition to the conception of a future life was 
easy ; and since it was believed that men retained 
after death the dispositions which distinguished 
them and the positions they held during life, the 
spirit world was pictured as peopled by beings of 
different ranks, unequal in power, and friendly or 
hostile to man. The doctrine of object-soul paved 
t he way for nature-worship, or a form of dualism 
(or contest between beneficent and malevolent 
powers) ; while the idea of the continuity of human 
life led to belief in a Supreme Deity, either as a 
nature-god, or as the soul of the world (as the 
Manitou of the Red Indians), and so a kind of 
monotheism was established. 


Anio, or Anienus, the classical name of the 
Teverone. Rising in the Apennines it forms the 
boundary between the Sabine country and Latium. 
At Tibur (Tivoli) it descends the valley in a lovely 
cataract (Hor. UdJ), and joins the Tiber about four 
miles above Rome. 

Anise (Pimpinella Anisum), an umbelliferous 
plant native to the Levant and long cultivated in 
Europe for its aromatic fruits, which are known as 
aniseed. On distillation these fruits yield oil of 
anise, which is also obtained from fennel, tarragon, 
and star-anise. The latter plant is entirely distinct 
from the true anise, being the genus Illicium of the 
order Magnoliacete, and having star-shaped fruits. 
Aniseed is carminative, but is largely employed in 
liqueurs. 

Anisopleura, the larger sub-class of the gas¬ 
tropoda (q.v.). The name implies that the symmetry 
of the larva is not retained. 

Anisopoda (f.e. “ feet not all similar ”), a sub¬ 
class of Isopoda, including those in which the 
body resembles that of the Amphipoda , and in 
which the appendages on the abdomen (the hind¬ 
most section of the body) do not serve as branckice 
(breathing organs). Tanais, one of the “ Slaters,” 
is the commonest genus. 

Anjou (Lat. Andecavi), an ancient province of 
France, lying between Normandy, Poitou, Maine, 
Brittany, and Touraine. It is now divided into the 
departments of Maine-et-Loire, Mayenne, Sarthe, 
and Indre-et-Loire. Charles the Bald made it a 
county and conferred it on a Breton named 
Tertule, about the end of the ninth century. From 
him descended Geoffrey of Anjou, who married 
Matilda, daughter of Henry I., and widow of the 
Emperor Henry V., and became father of Henry 
II., the founder of the Plantagenet or Angevin 
dynasty in England. Anjou belonged to England 
until 1203, when Philip Augustus wrested it from 
John. In 1290 the land came to the crown of 
France by marriage, and was made a duchy. It 
was not finally attached to France until 1482, 
since which the dukedom has been held by several 
princes of the blood, e.y. by Francis [Alen<^on], 
by Henry III., and by Philip V. of Spain. 

Anjou, Charles, Comte d’, fourth son of 
Louis VIII. of France, born about 1220. In 1264 
Pope Urban IV. invited him to lead the Guelph 
faction, and to assume the crown of Naples and 
Sicily. He did so by defeating and killing Manfred 
and Conradin. The Spanish soon after destroyed 
Charles’s fleet off Messina, and Pedro of Aragon 
claimed Sicily. Charles challenged his rival to 
single combat, but died at Foggia in 1285. 

Anjou, Francis de France, Duke of. 
[Alen^on.] 

Ankarstrom, Johann Jakob, a Swede of 
good family, born in 1761, who, after serving in the 
royal guard, conspired with Count Horn and others 
against the despotism of Gustavus III. On the 
night of March 15, 1792, he shot the king at a 
masked ball. He was pilloried, scourged, had his 
hand cut off, and was finally beheaded. 







Anker. 


( 138 ) 


Anne. 


Anker, a liquid measure equal to about 10^ 
imperial gallons, used in Holland. 

Anklam, the capital of the province of the 
same name in Pomerania, North Germany, is 
situated on the Peene river, just as it flows into 
the Frisclie Haf, and is connected by railway with 
Stettin about 50 miles distant. It lias a fair 
amount of trade, and manufactures woollen and 
linen goods. 

Ankle Clonus. The condition of rapidly re¬ 
peated flexion and extension of the foot at the 
ankle joint, which can be produced in certain forms 
of disease by a sudden flexion of the foot on the 
leg. It is not present in health, and its existence 
may be taken to indicate disease in the spinal cord. 

Ankobar, the capital of the Shoa kingdom, in 
Abyssinia, North-east Africa. The town stands on 
a mountain over 8,000 ft. high, and just on the 
south-east borders of Abyssinia. 

Ankylosis. [Anchylosis.] 

Anna. There are three female characters con¬ 
nected with Biblical history who bore this name. 
1. Anna, the wife of Tobit (Job i. 1). 2. Anna, 

daughter of Phanuel of the tribe of Asher, a 
prophetess, who recognised the Messiah when He 
was presented by the Virgin in the Temple (Luke 
ii. 30, 37). 3. The mother of the Virgin Mary, wife 

of Joachim of the tribe of Judah; but neither 
she nor her husband is mentioned in the Bible. 

Anna Comnena, daughter of Alexis Comnenus 
I., Emperor of the East, was born in 1083. Having 
failed to place her husband Nicephorus on the 
t hrone, she spent her life in composing the Alexiad, 
a life of her father, which is still extant. She died 
in 1148. 

Anna Ivanovna, Empress of Russia, the 
daughter of the Czar Ivan, the brother of Peter 
the Great, was born in 1G93. After the death of 
her first husband, the Duke of Courland, she be¬ 
stowed her affections and her hand on an adventurer 
Joan Biren. Ascending the throne in 1730 on the 
deposition of Peter II., she reigned with some 
ability, endeavouring to civilise her subjects. 
Biren, however, exercised a pernicious influence 
over her policy. The famous palace of ice on the 
Neva was a freak of this sovereign, who died in 
1740. 

Annals, the record of historical events arranged 
chronologically, and divided into periods containing 
one or more years. The Romans used to keep such 
records, which were known as Annales Pontijicum, 
the Pontifex Maximus being the compiler; these 
were all destroyed at the sacking of Rome. Later, 
the term was used in a broader sense for any 
historical narrative chronologically arranged, and 
the term is thus applied to the Annals of Tacitus. 

Annam. [Anam.] 

Annapolis, (1) the capital of the State of 
Maryland, U.S. A., situated on t he north bank of the 
Severn, near Chesapeake Bay, 30 miles from Balti¬ 
more. It was originally founded in 1G49, and was 
called Providence, but on receiving a charter from 


Queen Anne in 1708 adopted its present name. 
Besides handsome Government buildings there is 
the United States Naval College. (2) A town in 
the British colony of Nova Scotia. It was the 
first French settlement in that peninsula (1G04), 
and then bore the name of Port Royal. During 
the occupation by the British in the seventeenth 
century it was the seat of Government, but it never 
prospered, and Halifax was subsequently chosen as 
the capital. It has a good harbour, which is rather 
difficult of access. 

Annatto. [Annotto.] 

Anne, Queen of England, second daughter of 
James II. by his first wife, Ann Hyde, daughter 
of Clarendon, the historian, born in 1GG4. Both 
she and her elder sister Mary were brought up as 
Protestants. In 1G83 she married Prince George of 
Denmark, a mere nonentity, but a well-meaning, 
inoffensive person. About the same period she 
came under the influence of Sarah Jennings and 
her husband. Lord Churchill, afterwards the famous 
Duke of Marlborough. By them she was induced 
to desert her father and to consent to the settle¬ 
ment. of the crown upon William of Orange and her 
sister Mary, with a “ contingent remainder” to her¬ 
self. She now lived for several years in retirement, 
hating William and not being very fond of her 
sister. In 1700 she lost her only surviving child, 
the Duke of Gloucester (she had borne sixteen 
others, all of whom had died in infancy), and look¬ 
ing upon this as a judgment, wrote a most penitent, 
letter to her exiled father. Ini 702 she ascended the 
throne, and her reign has justly been regarded as 
one of the most glorious periods of English history, 
though personally she contributed but little to this 
grand result. Marlborough by his splendid victories 
on the Continent crushed the power of France, and, 
in spite of the Tories, brought the Wars of the Suc¬ 
cession to a satisfactory termination; the Union 
with Scotland was effected on a firm and lasting 
basis ; under the fostering patronage of statesmen a 
new literary era dawned, and the lines of that party 
government which has been fraught with many 
benefits to the country were distinctly laid down. 
Upon one public question alone does Anne appear 
to have felt strongly. She inherited enough of her 
father's nature to sympathise strongly with ad¬ 
vanced High Church principles, and her zeal for 
the Establishment was so great that she alienated 
part of her income to establish “Queen Anne's 
Bounty ” for increasing the value of small livings. 
With less wisdom she allowed Harley and Boling- 
broke to drag her into the Sacheverell controversy 
and to use this absurd Jacobite reaction as a means 
for frustrating the great task that Marlborough had 
in hand. She was the last sovereign who “touched 
for the King’s Evil” (q.v.), and Johnson has left it 
on record that he himself was so touched when 
a child. After the death of her husband in 1708 
Anne shook off the personal influence of the 
Churchills, and yielded more and more to the 
advice of Mrs. Masliam, once a dependent of the 
duchess, but now bedchamber woman to the Queen, 
and a tool of Harley. In 1710 the Tories, profiting 
by their intrigues, were put into office, overtures 








Anne of Austria. 


( 139 ) 


Annuity. 


for peace were made to France, and the treaty 
of Utrecht followed in 1713. Negotiations were 
secretly begun with a view to a Jacobite restora¬ 
tion, but in July, 1714, Anne's health broke down 
through an attack of dropsy complicated with 
apoplectic symptoms. She died on August 1, but 
the Duke of Shrewsbury adroitly stepped in, got 
from his dying mistress the appointment of Lord 
Treasurer, and was thus enabled to save the Pro¬ 
testant succession. The reign of Anne was remark¬ 
able for the number of illustrious literary men who 
flourished then, Addison, Steele, Pope, Johnson, 
and many others, all belonging to this period. 

Anne of Austria, the daughter of Philip II. 
of Spain, married in 1615 to Louis XIII. of 
France. Cardinal Richelieu, the all-powerful 
Minister, became her bitter enemy owing, it was 
whispered, to unrequited affection, and the Duke of 
Buckingham, who openly showed his admiration for 
her, was more gently rebuffed. At the king's death 
she became Regent, with Cardinal Mazarin for her 
adviser. Their policy provoked the war of the 
Fronde, in which the queen and the cardinal 
triumphed over the nobility and wealthy classes. 
She died in 1666. 

Anne of Brittany, the only daughter of 
Francis II., Duke of Brittany, born at Nantes 
in 1476, and at the age of five betrothed to the 
ill-starred heir of Edward IV. of England. After 
his death Louis of Orleans fell in love with her, but 
she was engaged to Maximilian of Austria. How¬ 
ever, this marriage never took place, for Anne was 
compelled, in 1491, to give her hand to Charles VIII. 
of France, in order that her duchy might be added 
to his kingdom. He died, and her old lover suc¬ 
ceeding as Louis XII., divorced' his wife, and led 
Anne to the altar. She lived till 1514. 

Anne of Cleves, the second daughter of 
John III., Duke of Cleves, born in 1516. Henry 
VIII. of England, fascinated by her portrait, painted 
by Holbein, made her an offer of marriage. On 
her arrival he was bitterly disappointed to find 
that she was pitted with small-pox, and was at no 
pains to conceal his disgust. However, the cere¬ 
mony took place in 1540, and the queen's gentleness 
and forbearance won every heart except that of 
her husband. Henry divorced her in six months, 
and she spent the rest of her life in retirement, 
dying at Chelsea Palace in 1577. 

Anne of Warwick, the first Princess of 
Wales and the last Plantagenet queen, a daughter of 
Nevill, Earl of Warwick, “ the king-maker,” born at 
Warwick Castle in 1454. However, Anne, in 1470, 
married at Angers, Edward of Lancaster. After 
his defeat at Tewkesbury, and his cruel murder, she 
remained for some time in hiding disguised as a 
servant. Both Clarence and Richard were suitors 
for her hand. The latter discovered her, and in 
1473 forced her to marry him in spite of her undis¬ 
guised aversion. On the birth of her son Edward 
her married life was happier, but when, in 14«4, 
the young Prince came to an untimely end, her 
heart was broken. She died in 1485, perhaps of 
poison. 


Annealing, the process of first heating to a 
high temperature, and then slowly cooling a metal 
or glass in order to temper it. Glass which has not 
undergone the process of annealing is exceedingly 
brittle, but when annealed is capable of resisting 
change of temperature and a certain amount of 
pressure. 

Annecy, a lake and chief town in the depart¬ 
ment of Haute Savoie, France, 22 miles south of 
Geneva. The lake stands 1,426 feet above the sea 
level. The town, which until 1860 belonged to Pied¬ 
mont, contains a cathedral, a college, an episcopal 
palace, and the old castle of the Counts of Geneva. 
St. Francis of Sales was bishop here. Printed 
calicoes, yarns, silks, and steel wares are the chief 
manufactures. 

Annelida, a class of worms that included the 
CHiETOPODA (the “bristle-footed” worms) and 
Hirudinea (Leeches), The association of these 
two groups into one class has been abandoned ; the 
term Annelid is, however, often retained in an 
indefinite sense. 

Annonay, a town in the department of Ardeche, 
France, situated at the confluence of the rivers 
Dianne and Cance. which flow into the Rhone, south 
of St. Etienne. The Gothic church is of the four¬ 
teenth century. There are paper factories, tanneries, 
woollen and cotton mills. 

Annotto, Anatto, or Arnotto. The red sub¬ 
stance imported under this name consists of the 
aggregated seed pellicles of H\xa Orellana. 4 ho 
colouring matter is best extracted by alcohol, as 
it is not very soluble in water. Used in dyeing, 
and for colouring cheese and varnishes. 

Annual, a botanical term applied to such plants 
as complete their life-cycle from the germination ot 
the seed to the ripening of seed by the seedling 
plant and the death of that plant in a single season, 
as opposed to biennials and perennials. Annuals 
seldom form any woody tissue, are mostly small, 
and frequently complete their life within a few 
weeks, several generations being produced within 
the year. The name is also applied to publications 
which appear once a year, generally at Christmas 
time. 

Annuity, a term signifying in its general sense 
any fixed sum of money which is payable yearly or 
in aiven portions at stated periods of the year. It 
may be determinable on the occurrence of a par¬ 
ticular event, as the death of the grantor or grantee, 
or it may be perpetual or for a term of years. An 
annuity is usually created by the present payment 
of a certain sum as a consideration, and the rules 
and principles by which to estimate its value have 
been the subject of careful investigation. The 
present value of a perpetual annuity is a sum 
that will yield an interest equal to the annuity and 
payable at the same periods, and an annuity of this 
kind, payable quarterly, will be of greater value than 
one of like amount payable annually, because the 
annuitant has the advantage of interest on the 
quarterly payments. 







Annuity 


( HO ) 


Anodonta Cygnea. 


The simple term annuity is commonly understood 
to mean a life annuity. The holder of an annuity 
of any kind is termed an “ annuitant.” 

The value of a life annuity depends upon the 
manner in which it is presumed a large number of 
persons similarly situated with the proposed annui¬ 
tant would die off successively. Various tables of 
these “decrements of life,” as they are called, have 
been constructed from observations made among 
different classes of lives. Some make the mortality 
greater than others, and, of course, tables which 
give a large mortality give the value of the annuity 
smaller than those which suppose men to live 
longer. Those who buy annuities would therefore 
be glad to be rated according to tables of high 
mortality, or low expectation of life, while those 
who sell them would prefer receiving the price 
indicated by tables which give a lower rate of 
mortality. 

In assurances the reverse is the case ; the shorter 
the time which a man is supposed to live the more 
must he pay the office, that the latter may at his 
death haveaccumulated enough to pay his executors. 
Under the old Annuity Acts deeds granting 
annuities for lives by way of the repayment of 
money lent required to be enrolled in Chancery, 
but now, under the statute of 1854 and 1855, they 
require to be merely registered with the Registrar 
of Judgments at the central office of the Courts of 
Justice. Annuities or rent charges given by will 
are excepted from the operation of this Act. 
Annuities may also be regarded as legacies pay¬ 
able, not in mass at one time, but by instalments 
•every year, or aliquot part of a year, therefore the 
word legacies in general comprises annuities; 

The value of an annuity on the longest of two 
lives, that is, which is to be payable as long as either 
of the two shall be alive to receive if, is found by 
adding together the values of the annuity on the 
two lives separately considered, and subtracting 
the value of the annuity on the joint lives. For the 
above species of annuity puts the office and the 
parties in precisely the same situation as if an 
annuity were granted to each party separately, but 
on condition that one of the annuities should be 
returned to the office so long as both were alive, 
that is, during their joint lives. The value of an 
annuity which is not to be payable t ill either one or 
other of two persons is dead, and which is to con¬ 
tinue during the life of the survivor, is found as in 
the last case, only subtracting twice the value of the 
joint annuity instead of that value itself. Conse¬ 
quently the value in this case is less than in the 
last, by the value of an annuity on t he joint lives. 

Sometimes an annuity is payable only out of 
income, and sometimes it is a charge on the corpus 
itself of the estate, in which latter case the annui¬ 
tant may, if the income is insufficient, require a sale 
of a sufficient part of the corpus, and will even be 
-entitled to a prospective order for the necessary 
•successive future sales. An indefinite trust to 
receive rents for payment of an annuity is a charge 
of the annuity upon the corpus, and a direction to 
purchase an annuity for A entitles A to have the 
purchase money paid over to him or her, although 
the testator may have directed the contrary ; and if 


the intended annuitant be dead his personal repre¬ 
sentatives will be entitled to the purchase money 
although the purchase money is to consist of the 
proceeds of land sold. [Apportionment.] 

Annulet, in Architecture , a narrow flat mould¬ 
ing, which commonly encircles a column. In 
Heraldry , a ring on an escutcheon. 

Annulosa, a term once used in classification, 
for a group including the worms, and the arthro¬ 
pods (the jointed limbed invertebrates). 

Annulus, one of the rings or segments of which 
the body of most worms is composed. 

Annunciation, the announcing to the Virgin 
Mary that she was about to be the mother of Christ. 
The 25th of March (also known as Ladj-day) is the 
day on which the churches celebrate the Annuncia¬ 
tion. The Annunciation has formed the subject of 
some of the very finest paintings in Christian art, 
and indeed was so frequently chosen as a theme 
that an annunciation now frequently means a 
picture whose subject is the Annunciation. 

Annus deliberandi (a year for deliherat- 
iny), in the law of Scotland, the term of a year 
immediately following the period of the death of the 
proprietor of heritable property, allowed to the heir 
to make up his mind whether he will accept the 
succession with the burden of his predecessor's 
debts. The term of a year has lately been reduced 
to six months. 

Anoa, a genus of bovine ruminants, with one 
species, A. dejiressicornis, a small straight-horned 
wild bull, peculiar to the Celebes, anatomically 
allied to the buffaloes, and somewhat resembling 
the bovine antelopes of Africa. 

Anodonta Cygnea, the large freslr-water 
mussel, affords a good type of the structure of the 
bivalved mollusca. Its shell consists of two equal 
valves, which articulate on a hinge line, the liga¬ 
ment of which keeps them open when the animal 



ANODONTA CYCNEA. 


is dead. In a dissection the foot and gills are 
the parts that first attract attention by their size ; 
the former is a triangular muscular orgaw, by which 
the animal crawls into the mud in which it is usually 
half buried. The gills are a pair of flaps com¬ 
posed of many lamellae, or thin plates. The mouth is 
just above the foot, below the anterior of the two 








Anodyne. 


C 141 ) 


Anselm. 


strong muscles by which the shell is closed ; from 
the mouth passes an oesophagus, which leads to a 
stomach, and this to the intestine ; the anus is at the 
posterior or narrower end of the shell. The water 
that aerates the gills circulates through two tubes, 
which form a siphon ; both openings of this are at 
the posterior end of the shell. The heart is a three- 
chambered organ just below the hinge line, and 
over a renal organ. The nervous system consists 
of three centres or ganglia united by nerve-cords. 
Pearls are sometimes formed in the shell from the 
innermost layer. Fisheries for them have been 
worked in England since the time of the Romans. 

Anodyne, a remedy employed to dull the 
excitability of nerves, and to relieve pain. Among 
anodynes producing a local effect may be mentioned 
the application of cold, as by ice bags, or of warmth, 
as by poultices and fomentations. General anodynes 
include such drugs as opium, chloral, and hyos- 
cyamus (q.v.). 

Anointing, a very ancient custom of pouring 
oil upon a person's body. The Greeks and Romans 
used to anoint themselves after their baths, and 
the Jews attached a sacred significance to the 
custom. It is still in use in the Catholic Church, 
and also in the Coronation service of the English 
Church. 

Anomalistic Year, a year of 365 days 6 
hours 13 minutes 49-3 seconds, thus exceeding the 
sidereal year by 4 minutes 39‘7 seconds. This is 
owing to the fact that the earth takes 4 minutes 
397 seconds in travelling from perihelion (or point 
nearest the sun) to perihelion, because the longer 
axis of the earth’s ellipse makes an annual advance 
of IPS seconds. 

Anomaluridse. [Flying Squirrels.] 

Anomaly, an astronomical term connected with 
planetary motion, possessing three distinct applica¬ 
tions: (1) the true anomaly of a planet at any 
instant is the angle its radius vector has swept out 
during the time since its last perihelion, or position 
of least distance from the sun; (2) the mean 
anomaly is the angle the radius vector would have 
traversed during this time, had the planet moved 
with its average speed instead of varying its rate 
of motion at different parts of the orbit; (3) the 
excentric anomaly , the angle subtended at the 
centre of the orbit, by the corresponding arc of the 
auxiliary circle. [Ellipse, Equation of Time, 
Year.] 

Anorniidae, or “thorny oysters," a family of 
molluscs ranging from the Devonian period (q.v.) 
to the present time. 

Anomura, a division of the Decapoda ( Crus¬ 
tacea with 10 pairs of limbs), including the Hermit 
Crabs, and other forms in which the abdomen is 
soft and unprotected ; most of the members of the 
group are now included with the Macrura (q.v.). 
[Hermit Crab.] 

Anoplura. [Lice.] 


Anorexia, loss of appetite. Anorexia nervosa 
is the name given to a rare form of disease, affecting 
as a rule young girls, in which refusal of food, 
wasting and obstinate vomiting, are the main 
symptoms, and in which no structural disease is 
discoverable. 

Anorthic (from the Greek an, not, orthos , 
straight), the name of one of the six systems of 
crystals, also sometimes called triclinic , as the 
crystals belonging to it have no two sides at right 
angles, but are inclined to the surface on which 
they may be placed in any one of three possible 
positions. They are not divisible by any plane of 
symmetry. The felspars crystallising in this system 
are, for a similar reason, termed playioclase. 

Anorthite, lime-felspar, the heaviest of the 
group, containing least silica (only 43 per cent.). 
It crystallises in the anorthic system and is found 
in Vesuvian lavas, but is not very frequent. 

Anosmia, absence of the sense of smell. 

Anquetil, Louis Pierre, a French historian, 
who was born in 1723, and became a priest. He 
was director of the Academy at Rheirns, and of the 
college at Senlis, prior of the Abbey of St. Loe, 
and vicar of La Villette, near Paris. Imprisoned 
in the Reign of Terror, he regained his liberty, and 
found employment in the French Foreign Office. He 
wrote many historical works, and died in 1808. 

Anquetil-Duperron, Abraham Hyacinthe, 

brother of the foregoing, was born in 1731. Wishing 
to study Oriental languages, he enlisted in 1754 as 
a private in a regiment destined for India. He 
received his discharge and remained in the East 
for eight years. On his return to France he refused 
Government employment, and in independent 
poverty set about publishing the results of his 
labours, the chief of which were a translation of 
the Zend Avesta, and a version in Latin of a Persian 
translation of the Vedas. His knowledge, however, 
of Oriental dialects was very imperfect, and his 
works have now but little value. He died in 1805. 

Ansdell, Richard, R.A., animal and landscape 
painter, was born in 1815 at Liverpool. He made 
his debut at the Royal Academy Exhibition in 1840. 
For several years he exhibited principally Spanish 
subjects. He received a gold medal at the Paris 
Exhibition of 1855, and in 1861 he was elected 
A.R.A., becoming a full Academician in 1870. He 
died in 1885. 

Anselm, Saint, of Canterbury, was of Lombard 
family and born at Aosta 1033. From boyhood he 
had a desire to become a monk, and having left 
home became a pupil of Lanfranc at Bee in Nor¬ 
mandy, assumed the cowl at the age of twenty- 
seven, and became first prior and then abbot of that 
foundation. His intellect was always engaged in 
theological speculations, but this did not interfere 
with his active duties, his ascetic habits, or his 
affectionate and kindly attention to those under his 
charge. In several visits to England he won the 
confidence of William I. and of the clergy, and some 
time after Lanfranc's death William II. appointed 






Anseres. 


( 142 ) 


Antarctic Sea. 


him to the see of Canterbury. Then began a 
struggle between the royal and ecclesiastical 
authority which ended in Anselm's going to Rome 
and remaining abroad until William’s death. Henry 
I. invited him to return and proposed to reinvest 
him, but both Pope and Archbishop denied the 
royal right of investiture, and after Anselm had 
visited Rome again in 1103 the king gave way. The 
prelate now returned and set about the reform of 
the Church and of the monastic establishments. 
At the Synod of Westminster, 1102, the celibacy of 
the clergy was insisted upon. His many writings 
put him at the head of the scholastic theologians. 
They include Dialor/vs de Vcritate , Monolof/ium, 
Proslorjion, Dc Fide Trinitatis, and Cur Deus Homo, 
besides many devotional treatises. In philosophy 
he was one of the chief upholders of the “ Realist ” 
doctrine, that the “ Essences ” or “ essential nature ” 
of genera and species exist independently of the in¬ 
dividual objects, and have existed from all eternity 
in the Divine Mind. 

Anseres. [Natatores.] 

Ansgar, or Anscharius, “ The Apostle of the 
North,” was a Benedictine monk of the ninth 
century. Leaving his native country Picardy, he 
first settled in Westphalia, and subsequently 
travelled as a missionary over Denmark and Sweden, 
converting many. He was appointed Archbishop 
of Hamburg, and also of Bremen, and papal legate 
amongst the nations bordering on the Baltic. He 
died in 864, and was canonised. 

Anson, George, Lord, Baron of Soberton, born 
in 1697 of a good Staffordshire family, entered the 
navy and was speedily promoted through the in¬ 
fluence of his uncle, Lord Mansfield. In 1724 as 
post-captain lie commanded a man-of-war off 
South Carolina, where he acquired land and gave 
his name to a county. In 1740 he was sent to 
counteract Spanish influence in the Pacific, but was 
not more than moderately successful, though he 
took the Manilla galleon. As vice-admiral in 1747 
he defeated a French fleet off Cape Finisterre, 
capturing L' Invincible and La (Loire. For this he 
received a peerage. In 1751 he was made First 
Lord of the Admiralty, and held the office till close 
upon his death in 1762. His ability was undoubted, 
and was only equalled by his humanity, courtesy, 
and warmth of heart. 

Anspach, or Ansbach, the capital of the circle 
of Middle Franconia, Bavaria, South Germany, 
pleasantly situated on the Rezat 25 miles south¬ 
west of Nuremberg. It was formerly the chief 
town of the margravate of Anspach-Bayreuth, and 
the castle of the Margraves, a branch of the 
Hohenzollern family, still exists there. Besides 
several good churches and a gymnasium, Anspach 
possesses a picture gallery. The manufactures are 
silk and cotton fabrics, gold lace, furniture, 
earthenware, tobacco, white lead and cutlery. 

Ansted, David Thomas, born in 1814, held for 
some years the secretaryship of the Geological 
Society, and the professorship of that science at 


King's College, the Military College, Addiscombe, 
and the Civil Engineering College. In later years 
he made a large income as consulting geologist. 
The distinction of F.R.S. was conferred on him, but 
except writing a few popular books on geological 
subjects, he did little for the advancement of science. 
He died in 1880. 

Anstruther, Eastern and Western, two royal 
and parliamentary burghs in the county of Fife, 
Scotland, situated on the Firth of Forth, 13 miles 
from Cupar. Conjointly with other burghs they 
return one member to Parliament. 

Antacids, drugs employed to counteract 
excessive acidity. The chief direct antacids are 
the carbonates and bicarbonates of sodium and 
potassium; they are used to lessen the acidity 
of the stomach. Remote antacids, such as the 
tartrates and citrates of sodium and potassium, are 
employed to diminish the acidity of the urine. 

AntSBUS, the legendary son of Neptune and 
Terra,—Sea and Land. According to classical 
mythology he was a giant who made his home in 
Libya and massacred all who came within his 
reach. Hercules undertook to exterminate the 
monster, but each time that he struck him to earth 
new vigour was imparted by his mother. The hero, 
therefore, lifted his foe in air and strangled him. 

Antalcidas, a Spartan general, who, in com¬ 
mand of the fleet, forced the Athenians to submit 
to his own terms. He then negotiated with 
Artaxerxes of Persia, and in 387 B.c. concluded 
a treaty by which the Greek cities in Asia were 
surrendered to the king in return for his help in sub¬ 
jugating Greece. This act brought upon him such 
odium that he fled to Persia, but, being repudiated 
by Artaxerxes, returned to Greece and died, ac¬ 
cording to Plutarch, of voluntary starvation. 

Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar, 
situated on a hill 5,000 ft. above the sea level. 
Despite its exposed position it makes much pro¬ 
gress towards civilisation. 

Antara, or Antar, an Arabian warrior and 
poet of the sixth century a.d. His marvellous 
adventures in pursuit of the hand of his cousin 
Abla, and his death by assassination, form the sub¬ 
ject of a romance, which is a kind of Arabian Iliad. 

Antarctic Sea, or Southern Ocean, corre¬ 
sponds to the Arctic Ocean which surrounds the 
North Pole, but its limits are less accurately 
defined as it verges imperceptibly into the Pacific, 
Atlantic, and Indian Oceans. It is boisterous, 
foggy, difficult of approach, and beset with ice 
which extends 10° nearer to the equator than that of 
the northern seas. Magellan was the first to tra¬ 
verse it in 1520. The Dutchman De Gheritk saw 
land in 1600, probably New South Shetland. 
Wallis and Carteret in 176(5. and Cook in 1773-4 
made further explorations. Kerguelen in 1772 dis¬ 
covered the island that bears his name. In 1831 
Captain John Biscoe, commanding an expedition 
fitted out by Messrs. Enderby, discovered land in lat. 
65° 57' S., long. 47° 20' E.. extending E. and W. for 
200 miles, and he named it Enderby Land. In the 






Anteaters. 


( 143 ) 


Antedon. 


following year he found Graham’s Land, lat. 67° V S., 
long. 71° 48' W. Further expeditions led to the dis¬ 
covery of Balleny Islands and Sabrina Land in 
nearly the same latitude. In 1840 Admiral d’Urville 
on behalf of the French, and Commodore Wilkes 
on behalf of the Americans, made valuable explora¬ 
tions, and in 1841 Sir J. C. Koss in the Erebus and 
Terror reached Victoria Land, found two active 
volcanoes which he named after his vessels, and 
got as far south as lat. 78° IT. It remains to be 
ascertained whether land or water encircles the 
South Pole, and as no important commercial route 
can possibly be opened out in this direction, it is 
doubtful whether any serious attempt will ever be 
made to set this question at rest. A South Polar 
expedition, however, was recently projected. 

Anteaters (Myrmecophagido ’),a family of Eden¬ 
tate mammals, confined to the wooded parts of the 
mesotropical region. They are clothed with hair ; 
quite toothless ; mouth tubular, with a small aper¬ 
ture, through which the long vermiform tongue, 
covered with a viscid secretion, is protruded in 



the great anteater (Hyrmccoptragci jubata). 


feeding ; the third digit of the fore limbs is greatly 
developed, and armed with a sti'ong claw. There 
are three genera: (1) Myrmecophaga, with a single 
species (AT. jubata), the great anteater, or ant-bear, 
widely distributed in the swamps of Central and 
South America. In length it is about four feet, 
exclusive of the tail, which is about as much 
more, and fringed with long hair; general colour, 
dark grey, with a broad black band edged with 
white passing from the chest backwards across the 
shoulders to the loins. When the animal stands 
still it is higher at the shoulders than behind, and 
it rests on the sides of the fore feet, where there is 
a callous pad, the claws being bent inwards and 
upwards. This species is wholly terrestrial, and 
feeds almost entirely on ants, to procure which it 
breaks open their dwellings with the powerful 
claws of the fore feet, and draws them rapidly into 
its mouth with its flexible tongue. (2) Tamandua, 
from Guatemala, ranging through South America 
from Ecuador to Paraguay. There is one well- 
defined species (T. tetradactyla ), but as individuals 
vary greatly in coloration, Professor Flower thinks 
it possible there may be more. This form is ar¬ 
boreal, about half the size of the great anteater, 


the head is shorter, the . tail prehensile, and 
covered with scales on the under side and termi¬ 
nal part. The general colour is yellowish-white, 
with a broad band on the side. (3) Cyclothurus, 
with one species (C. didactyhis), the little, or two¬ 
toed, anteater, also arboreal. It is about the 
size of a squirrel, yellowish in colour, but little is 
known of its habits. The name anteater is given 
in Australia to a small marsupial Myrmecobius fas - 
ciatus, about the size of a squirrel; the fur is 
chestnut-red, marked on the hinder part of the back 
with broad white transverse bands. [Aaedvaek, 
./Echidna, Pangolin.] 

Antecedent, in Grammar , the word preceding 
a relative pronoun, to which the relative points 
back. In Logic , the proposition or statement upon 
which another depends. In Mathematics ( pi.), the 
first and third terms in a series of four proportionals. 

Antediluvian (lit. before the deluge'), the 
term used of anything that happened or existed 
before the Flood ; also of anything very antiquated 
and old-fashioned. 

Antedon. Though not a good representative 
of the Crinoidea (q.v.), A. bifida is usually selected 
for study, as the only easily procurable species of 
the class. In its larval or “ Pentacrinus ” stage it 
is fixed by a short jointed stem, as in the typical 



Crinoids, but it soon becomes detached from this, 
and is free-swimming for the rest of its existence. 
The adult antedon consists of a disc, giving off ten 
arms fringed with pinnules (small branches of the 
arms), and bearing below a number of short pro¬ 
cesses known as cirri. The mouth and anus both 
open in the upper surface of the disc ; the former is 
central; the alimentary canal consists of a single 
coil. The nervous, water-vascular and blood-vascular 
systems (for descriptions see Crinoidea) each con¬ 
sist mainly of a ring round the mouth from which a 
branch runs up each arm; from the blood-vascular 
ring a vessel runs down to a “ chambered organ ” 
placed at the bottom of the cavity of the disc; 
round this is a second nervous centre giving off 
cords through the arms. The communication of the 
water-vascular system with the exterior is effected 
through a large number of pores, scattered over the 
body, instead of being collected into one plate as 
in the sea urchins. The skeleton is composed 








Antelope. 


( 144 ) 


Anthelion. 


of a central plate bearing the cirri, which is sur¬ 
rounded by two ring’s of five plates (basals and 
radials), of which the outer bears ten arms; the 
arms are composed of many small joints. Antcdon 
bifida is fairly common in many places round the 
English coast. Its popular name is the “ Rosy 
Feather Star,” and it is often known as A. rosacea. 

Antelope, a term of wide signification, denoting 
any species of the Linnaean genus Antilope, now 
broken up into several distinct genera, and some¬ 
times grouped into a family ( Antilopidce ), but more 
generally placed with the sheep, goats, and oxen 
in the family Bovidrc, equivalent to the Caricornia , 
or hollow-horned division of the Ruminants (q.v.), 
in which the horns are permanent, and consist of thin 
sheaths surrounding bony processes of the skull 
(known as horn-cores), almost solid in the antelopes, 
while in the other members of the group they are 
occupied with cells. Horns are often present in 
antelopes of both sexes, and are generally round, 
or annulated, never exhibiting the prominent angles 
and ridges which distinguish those of the sheep 
and goats, but in their particular forms and 
curvatures they differ greatly in different genera. 
Antelopes are characterised by their graceful, deer¬ 
like forms, their long and slender legs, generally 
with supplementary hoofs behind the true hoofs ; 
tail usually short, hair short and smooth, and ordin¬ 
arily of equal length all over the body, though in 
some cases there is a long bristly mane on the neck 
and shoulders, and in others the hair is long and 
shaggy, as in the waterbuck, while forms from 
cold mountainous regions bear wool mixed with long 
coarse hair. [Rocky Mountain Sheep.] Tear- 
pits, or lachrymal sinuses, are generally present, as in 
the deer (q.v.), thus differentiating the antelopes 
from oxen, sheep, and goats, in which these organs are 
never found, and with which the antelopes are most 
likely to be confounded. [Argali.] Another 
characteristic is the possession of inguinal pores— 
deep folds of the skin opening inwards in the groin, 
and secreting a glutinous substance resembling 
ear-wax ; a beard or dewlap is rarely present. These 
animals differ greatly in size, an eland bull ..stand¬ 
ing six feet at the shoulder, while the guevei is only 
some eight or nine inches ; but nearly all peaceable, 
even timid animals, remarkable for fleetness and 
agility. Generally speaking they are gregarious ; 
some species, however, reside in pairs or small 
families consisting of an old male, and one or more 
females, with the young of the two preceding 
years. They place sentinels to warn them of the 
approach of danger while feeding or reposing, and 
their sight and smell are so acute that only by the 
exercise of the greatest caution can the hunter ap- 
proacn within gunshot. The habitat of the dif¬ 
ferent genera and species differs widely in 
character. Some frequent dry, sandy deserts, feed¬ 
ing on the stunted acacias and bulbous plants of 
such regions ; some prefer open stony plains, where 
the grass, though parched, is still sufficient for 
their subsistence; some inhabit lofty mountain 
ranges and leap from crag to crag like wild goats, 
while others are found in the deep recesses 
of tropical forests. Africa, particularly the 


southern region, is their peculiar home. In that 
continent are found the Eland, the Koodoo, the 
Addax, the Oryx, the Gnu, the Bubaline antelopes, 
the Hartebeest, the Springbok, the Steinbok, the 



ANTELOrES. 

1, Water Buck ; 2, Harnessed Antelope ; 3, Hippotragus 
4, Addax ; 5, Hartebeest; (5, Koodoo. 


Gazelle, the Nakong, and many others which will be 
found described under their popular names. Asia, 
has some fifteen species, including the Nylghau, the 
Sasin, often called “ the Antelope,” the Dzeren, the 
Chikara, etc.; Europe has two species, the Chamois 
and the Saiga (which extends into Asia) ; and 
America two, the Prong-horn and the Rocky Moun¬ 
tain Sheep. 

Antennae, the organs of touch and hearing of 
insects, myriapods, and crustaceans, placed in 
nearly the same position as the horns of ruminants. 
They vary considerably in their form, and the 
number of joints they possess. 

Antequera (anc. Antccaria ), a city in Anda¬ 
lusia, Spain, about 28 miles inland from Malaga. It 
was taken from the Moors 1410, by Ferdinand 
of Castile, but the old Moorish castle still exists. 
There are marble quarries in the vicinity, and 
manufactories of silk and woollen tissues, paper, 
morocco leather, etc. 

Anthela. a variety of the inflorescence known 
as a cyme (q.v.), in which numerous lateral flower¬ 
ing branches spring from each axis that ends in 
a flower, and overtop the axis that bears them, as 
in many rushes and in the meadowsweet. 

Anthelion, a luminous ring seen by a spectator 
as encircling the shadow of his head thrown upon 
a cloud or fog opposite to the sun. It is seen in 
alpine or polar regions, and is due to the diffraction 
of light (q.v.). 






Anthelmintics. 


( 145 ) 


Anthrax. 


Anthelmintics, remedies employed to de¬ 
stroy and expel from the body certain parasites 
which at times infest the intestines. Tape-worms, 
round-worms, and thread-worms are the varieties of 
such parasites most commonly met with. The chief 
drug used to expel tape-worms is the liquid extract of 
male fern. Turpentine and pomegranate root are 
also sometimes employed. Santonin has acquired a 
reputation for the expulsion of round-worms, while 
thread-worms are best destroyed by the use of local 
injections of infusion of quassia or alum. The use 
of any of these remedies should not, however, be 
lightly undertaken, and on no account except under 
professional advice. 

Anthem (a form of Antiphon), in Music , a 
musical composition set to the words of a psalm 
or other sacred words, and sung as a part of the 
service in a church. In the Church of England the 
anthem follows after the third collect. The intro¬ 
duction of the anthem as part of the church service 
dates from the reign of Elizabeth. The number of 
English composers who have excelled in anthem¬ 
writing is very large, including Tallis, Byrd, Purcell, 
Boyce, Attwood, Greene, Gibbons, Goss, etc. 

Anther, that portion of the stamen of a flower¬ 
ing plant that contains the pollen. It may be 
compared to the blade of a leaf and to the 
microsporangium in lower plants. The typical 
anther is oblong, divided perpendicularly into two 
lobes, with a midrib or connective. The lobes 
commonly split longitudinally, and discharge the 
pollen from the loculus, or chamber within. This 
cavity results from the fusion of two primitive 
pollen-sacs. Anthers are usually yellow. 

Antheridinm, an organ of various form and 
position in different groups of cryptogamic plants, 
analogous to the anther in flowering plants. In most 
cases it bursts and discharges minute protoplasmic 
bodies, furnished with cilia, which are known as 
antherozoids. These swim about in water and ulti¬ 
mately fertilise the germ-cell. They thus represent 
the contents of the pollen-tube in flowering plants. 

Anthology (Greek, collection of flowers'), a 
collection of selected passages of prose or poetry— 
usually of separate short poems. The Greeli 
Antholof/y is an ancient collection of the latter 
type, containing most of the poems of the Greek 
epigrammatists, of whom Meleager and Agathias 
are the best known. 

Anthomedusae, one of the two groups of 
Ckaspedote Medusae (q.v.), including the small 
bell-shaped jelly-fish, provided with eye spots; 
they are stages in the life history of Gvmnoblastic 
Hydrozoa (q.v.), i.e. they bear the eggs which grow 
into the plant-like colonies which produce a second 
generation of the free jelly-fish. [Jelly-Fish.] 

Anthon, Charles, LL.D., the well-known 
American scholar, was born in 1797. He began 
active life as a barrister, but his taste for scholar¬ 
ship led to his eventual appointment as Classical 
Professor at Columbia College, New York. His 
popular editions of the Classics served for many 

10 


years to lighten the labours of schoolboys, and are 
still in use. He died in 1867. 

Anthoxanthum, named from their yellow ;.n- 
thers, a small genus of meadow grasses, natives ot 
Northern Europe and Asia. Their 
flowers have only two stamens, but 
they are chiefly noticeable for their 
fragrance, to which much of that of 
new-mown hay is due. This is pro¬ 
duced by the presence of a substance 
known as coumarin. 

Anthozoa, a sub-class of the 
Coelenterata, including those in which 
the digestive chamber is partially 
separated from the general body 
cavity, and in which the reproduc¬ 
tive elements are shed into the body 
cavity, and thence pass out through 
the mouth. The group is divided 
into two orders—the Alcyonaria 
and the Zoantharia. [Actinia.] 

Anthracene, or Anthracin 
(G 4 H 10 ), occurs in coal tar. It is a 
white crystalline substance with a 
blue fluorescence; is insoluble in 
water, and but slightly soluble in 
alcohol, ether, and benzine, M.P, 

213° C.; B.P. 360° C. 

Anthracite, an extremely non-bituminous coal, 
containing 90 to 95 per cent, of carbon. It has a sub- 
metallic lustre, is sometimes iridescent, has a con- 
choidal fracture, is harder and heavier than ordinary 
coal, and does not soil the fingers. It ignites with 
difficulty, but burns with an intense heat and with¬ 
out smoke. It occurs where coal-seams have been 
contorted, as in South Wales and Kilkenny 

Anthracomarti, an order of Arachnida, 
found only in the Palaeozoic rocks. The type genus 
Anthracomartus occurs in the coaL measures of 
Europe and America. 

Anthracoscorpii, a subdivision of the Scor¬ 
pions, limited to the Palaeozoic. Palceophonus from 
the Silurian rocks of Scotland and Sweden, and 
Eoscorpius from the coal measures, are the best 
known genera. The members of this group differ 
from the remainder of the Scorpions (Neoscorpii) 
in that the eye tubercles on the upper surface arc 
on or close to the anterior margin of the body. 

Anthracosia, a genus of bivalved mollusca 
common in the coal measures and Permian rocks; 
it probably indicates that the rocks and coal seams 
in which it occurs were formed under brackish 
water. 

Anthrax, a word sometimes used as synony¬ 
mous with carbuncle, its etymological signification, 
a live coal, rendering it an apt description of the 
pain and other phenomena attendant upon certain 
local inflammations. Recent observations have, 
however, conclusively shown that the splenic fever 
of cattle, and what is known as woolsorter's disease 
in man, are closely-related diseases; both being, 
in fact, due to the invasion of the body by a 



AXTTTOXAN 
THUM, WITH 
I’LOWtK. 








Anthropoid Apes. 


( 14G ) 


Anthropology. 


living organism of microscopic size, which possesses 
the power of excessively rapid multiplication under 
suitable conditions; and anthrax is now by universal 
consent the name given to the disease produced 
by this organism. In man the disease is commonly 
acquired by inoculation of a scratch or other 
abraded surface from the skins of animals which 
have died of anthrax ; inflammation is set up at the 
seat of injury, and what used to be called a 
malignant pustule is produced. Sometimes, how¬ 
ever, there is no skin lesion discoverable, and to 
this class of cases the term internal anthrax is 
applied. 

Splenic fever in cattle is a disease of much 
more frequent occurrence than human anthrax. It 
is so called from the great enlargement of the 
spleen which is observed in animals dying from 
the disease. Horses, cattle, and sheep are all 
affected, and such is the loss occasioned by an 
epidemic, that a system of protective inoculation, 
devised by Pasteur, has been largely adopted 
in France. 

Great interest attaches to the micro-organism 
which is the cause of the disease, the bacillus an- 
thracis as it is called. It afforded the first example 
of an epidemic disease being proved to be caused 
by a bacterial parasite. The anthrax bacilli are 
very minute, 200,000 of them arranged end to end 
would only form a line of about three feet in length ; 
each bacillus is about five times as long as it is 
broad. The blood of animals dying of anthrax 
teems with these minute rods, a single drop may 
contain millions of them, each rod being capable 
of vegetating in a suitable soil. The bacilli them¬ 
selves are readily destroyed by certain agents, but 
unfortunately they possess the power of forming 
spores, minute egg-shaped bodies, which offer much 
greater resistance to mechanical injury, drying, 
heat, and chemical agents. These spores may 
retain their vitality for months and form a ready 
means of setting up further infection. 

The treatment of human anthrax consists in 
early removal of the infected tissue, while in some 
cases the injection of carbolic acid has been at¬ 
tended with success. 

Anthropoid Apes, a collective name for the 
gorilla, the chimpanzee, the orang, and the gibbon 
(see these words), from their outward resemblance to 
the human form, their semi-erect mode of pro¬ 
gression, and their close anatomical relationship to 
man. [Ape.] Of these four the gorilla most 
nearly approaches man in the structure of the 
feet and hands [ Quadeumana] ; the chimpanzee 
in the form of the skull, the orang has the most 
highly-developed brain, and the gibbon the most 
man-iike chest. With regard to the connection 
between man and this group, Huxley has stated 
that the lowest apes are farther removed from 
the higher forms than these are from man. The 
external resemblance is especially striking when 
young human and anthropoid forms are compared ; 
and it is an important fact that in every respect 
the young anthropoid stands nearer to the human 
child than the adult anthropoid does to the adult 
man. The evolutionary view as to the common 


origin of anthropoids and man cannot be better 
stated than by Tylor :—“ No competent anatomist 
who has examined the bodily structure of these 
apes considers it possible that man can be descended 
from any of them, but according to the doctrine of 
descent they appear as the nearest existing offshoots 



HL’MAN AND ANTHROPOID SKULLS. 

1, Man; 2, Gibbon; 3, Chimpanzee; 4, Orang; 5, Gorilla. 

from the same primitive stock whence man also 
came.” But it must be borne in mind that palaeon¬ 
tology throws no light on the question of “ primitive 
stock ” or “ common ancestor,” for the oldest known 
fossil anthropoid seems to be closely refitted to 
existing species. [Deyopitheous.] 

Anthropology, according to its strict mean¬ 
ing, is the science of man in the widest sense ; but 
the term is usually taken as the equivalent of the 
German Culturgeschielite or Cultunvissenschaft , i.c. 
the history or science of civilisation, and in that 
sense it is dealt with here. Leaving the antiquity 
of man to geology, his physical nature, structure, 
and functions to zoology, anatomy, and physiology, 
and the question of races to ethnology, anthropo¬ 
logy is concerned with man as a social being, and 
endeavours to trace his development from savagery 
to the culture of the present day. With regard to 
the origin of man, it is sufficient to state that the 
view of most anthropologists is that of Darwin, 
while the orthodox view of creation is stoutly 
maintained by Quatrefages and others. The first 
subject matter of anthropology dates from qua¬ 
ternary times, when indubitable traces appear of 
man as a hunter and fisherman, associated with the 
tools he used and the bones of the animals on 
which he fed. By this time he had learnt how to 
produce fire from flint-sparks or by the fire-drill, 
and had made some progress in the arts, as his 
drawings and carvings testify. Starting from this 
solid foundation, anthropology endeavours to bridge 
the gulf which separates quaternary man from his 
fellows of the nineteenth century, not merely by 














Anthropometry. 


( 147 ) 


Antigone. 


tracing, but by endeavouring to account for, de¬ 
velopment in every branch of culture. It will thus 
be seen that anthropology covers a wide field ; and 
its importance cannot be better expressed than in 
the following words of Dr. Tylor:—“The study of 
man and of civilisation is not only a matter of 
scientific interest, but at once passes into the 
practical business of life. We have in it the means 
of understanding our own lives and our place in 
the world, vaguely and imperfectly, it is true, but at 
any rate more clearly than any former generation.” 

Anthropometry, the scientific measurement 
of the human body and its parts, including ob¬ 
servations on the colour of the hair, eyes and 
complexion, etc. The relative brain-power of 
different races has long been approximately gauged 
by filling the brain-case with shot or seed and 
measuring the contents. Anthropologists, espe¬ 
cially on the Continent, have now adopted a series 
of measurements as a basis of race-classification. 
This system has also been successfully used in 
France as a means of identification of criminals. 
The work of Galton in connection with the subject 
is well known. 

Anthropomorphism, the attributing of 
human form to God. This is frequently done in 
Scripture, w'here we read of “the eye” or “the 
arm ” of the Lord. Nearly all nations have a 
similar idea, but by some Christian and other 
philosophers the practice has been severely con¬ 
demned. The earliest case in history of this censure 
is in the fragments of the Greek philosopher Xeno¬ 
phanes (circa 530 b.c.). [Anthropomorphism.] 

Anthropophagy. [Cannibalism.] 
Antiaris. [Upas Tree.] 

Antibes (anc. Antipolis), a town and port in 
the department of Alpes-Maritimes, France. It 
was founded about 340 b.c. on a peninsula opposite 
Nice, whence its name. The Arabs destroyed the 
place, but under Francis I. and Henry IV. it was 
strongly fortified. It successfully resisted the 
Imperial forces in 174P>, and is still maintained as 
a place of arms. The Antilles' Leri Ion, which served 
the Pope during the French occupation of Rome, 
was recruited here. 

Antichlor, any substance used for removing 
the last traces of chlorine from a material which 
has been bleached by chloride of lime. Hyposul¬ 
phite of soda ( Sodium phio snip hate') is now most 
commonly employed. Sulphide of calcium and 
stannous chloride have, among other substances, 
been used as antichlors. 

Antichrist, the name given by St. John to a 
personal opponent of Christ, and who has been 
identified with the enemies of Christianity referred 
to by early prophets. The idea contained in St. 
John’s title is that of “ one who set himself up 
instead of Christ.” Various individuals at various 
times have been named as the Antichrist referred 
to, notably Nero, Mahomet, and Napoleon I. 

Anti-climax. [Bathos.] 

Anticlinal, Anticline, or Saddle-back, a 
geological term, applying to an upward fold in rocks 


by which the beds have been made to dip in op¬ 
posite directions from a central elevated axis. 
Becoming fractured under the strain along this 
axis the rocks may be denuded back from it in two 



parallel lines of escarpment forming an anticlinal 
valley or valley of elevation , such as that of the 
Weald of Surrey, Sussex, and Kent. 

Anti-Corn Law League, an association 
formed in 1838 for the purpose of procuring the 
abolition of the Corn Laws, which imposed a tax 
upon corn. It attained its object in 184(5, and 
accordingly ceased to exist. 

Anticosti, or Assumption Island, lies in the 
Atlantic Ocean opposite the mouth of the St. 
Lawrence, and belongs to England. It was dis¬ 
covered in 1531 by Jacques Cartier, and is 135 miles 
long by 40 broad in its widest part, with an area 
of 3,500 square miles. The interior is mountainous, 
but well wooded. The soil is said to be fertile, and 
some years ago an attempt was made to attract 
colonists. The coast is deficient in harbours. 

Anticyra, an ancient town of Phocis, on the 
Corinthian Gulf. It was celebrated for its helle¬ 
bore, which was supposed to cure insanity, hence 
the proverb Naviyet Antieyravi (“ Let him sail to 
Anticyra ”), which was said of anyone acting fool¬ 
ishly. 

Antidotes, remedies employed to counteract 
the ill effects of poisons. It is a matter of the 
first importance in most cases to get rid of as much 
as possible of the poison by means of emetics or the 
stomach pump, which means, of course, the speedy 
procuring of skilled assistance. Still, certain sub¬ 
stances do possess a distinct value as antidotes 
against particular poisons. Thus, where an acid 
has been swallowed, carbonate of soda, chalk, or 
magnesia are of value; in the case of poisoning 
by alkalies, vinegar, lemon-juice, or other dilute 
acids are indicated. Oxalic acid, salts of lemon, 
or salts of sorrel, should be treated with chalk or 
whiting. Tartar-emetic with tannic or gallic acid. 
The antidote for arsenic is freshly precipitated 
oxide of iron; for carbolic acid, saccharated 
solution of lime. Lastly, if a poisonous metallic 
salt has been swallowed, white of egg may be freely 
administered. 

Antigone, the daughter, in Greek legend, of 
GEdipus, King of Thebes, to whom she served as a 
guide and protectress when he was blind and 
exiled. Disobeying the commands of Creon, she 
gave the rites of burial to the corpse of her brother 
Polynices, and was condemned to a living tomb, 
her lover Hajmon, Croon's son, killing himself on the 









Antigonus. 


( 148 ) 


Antioch. 


spot where she died. Antigone was the subject of 
dramas by Sophocles and Euripides, and has been 
handed down from age to age as a pattern of 
maidenly courage and sisterly love. 

Antigonus, (1) surnamed “ The Cyclops,” from 
having but one eye, a Macedonian general under 
Alexander. At the death of his master he took 
Pamphylia, Lycia, and Phrygia Major as his share 
of the empire. In conjunction with his son 
Demetrius Poliorcetes he entered the league against 
Perdiccas, attacked Eumeues and Ptolemy, con¬ 
quered all Asia Minor and Syria, and called him¬ 
self King of Asia. He died in 301 B.C., at the age 
of eighty-four, from a wound received at Ipsus, 
where he was defeated by the united forces of 
Seleucus, Lysimachus, Cassander, and Ptolemy. (2) 
Gonatas (from Gonni, his birthplace), son of 
Demetrius Poliorcetes and grandson of preceding, 
who came to the throne of Macedon in 278 B.C. He 
refused to join Pyrrhus against Carthage, and was 
driven from his dominions by that prince. Eventu¬ 
ally he was restored, and defeated his conqueror near 
Argos. He died in 242 B.C., in the seventy-seventh year 
of his age. (3) King of the Jews, son of Cristobulus 
II. and last of the Asmonean dynasty. When 
Pompey took Jerusalem he carried this prince to 
Rome.* The Romans refused to give him his father's 
crown, so he called in the aid of the Parthians, and 
in 40 b.c. began to reign. Mark Antony was then 
sent to re-establish Herod, and Jerusalem yielded 
.37 b.c. Antigonus was executed at Antioch. 

Antigua, one of the British Leeward Islands in 
the West Indies (lat. 17° 7 N., long. 61° 50' W.). It was 
discovered by Columbus in 1493, and was colonised 
by the English under Lord Willoughby in 1032. 
The French ravaged it in 1600, and like most of 
the West Indian islands it has occasionally changed 
hands. St. John, its capital, is the seat of govern¬ 
ment for the Leeward Islands and also of the 
bishopric. Falmouth and Parham are other towns 
of importance. The country is mountainous, and 
rather deficient in water. There is a good harbour, 
affording a station for the Royal Mail Packets. 
Produce: sugar, rice, arrowroot, tobacco, and rum. 

Antilegomena, those books of the New Testa¬ 
ment not at first admitted into the canon. [Bible.] 

Antilles, an archipelago in the Atlantic, com¬ 
posed of islands that extend in a curve from the 
Gulf of Florida to the Gulf of Maracaibo, embracing 
in their midst the Caribbean Sea. The term, how¬ 
ever, does not apply to the Bahamas. The Greater 
Antilles include Cuba, Jamaica, Hayti, and Porto 
Rico, and the islands west and south-west of these 
are called the Lesser Antilles. These latter are 
divided, according to the prevailing trade wind, 
into the Leeward Islands to the north, and the 
Windward Islands or Caribbees to the south. But 
this classification is somewhat vague, the Greater 
Antilles and the islands off the coast of Venezuela 
being sometimes grouped with the Leeward Islands, 
whilst the Virgin Islands, west of Porto Rico, are 
looked on as distinct. The total area of the Antilles 
is about 90,000 square miles. They are divided as 
follows between various European Powers. Great 
Britain : Jamaica, Tortola, Anegada, Antigua, St. 


Christopher, Montserrat. Nevis, Barbuda, Anguilla, 
Dominica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Grenada, the 
Grenadines, Barbados, Tobago, and Trinidad. 
France : Gaudeloupe, Martinique, Marie Galante, 
Desirade, Petite Terre, Les-Saintes, and part of 
St. Martin. Spain : Cuba, Porto Rico, Pinos, and 
Vicque. Denmark: Santa Cruz, St. Thomas, St. 
John. Dutch : Curagoa, St. Eustace, and part of 
St. Martin. Sweden : St Bartholomew. As a general 
rule the islands are fertile, producing sugar, cocoa, 
coffee, drugs, fruits, timber, etc., and possess a 
warm climate tempered by winds from the sea. 
These winds at certain seasons take the form of 
hurricanes, or cyclones, that are destructive alike 
on shore and at sea. These islands are fairly healthy 
considering their tropical position, but are liable to 
occasional visitations of yellow fever. Each of the 
principal members of the groups will be found 
described under its own name. Columbus, after dis¬ 
covering the Bahamas, came upon Cuba, which he 
took to be Antilla, an imaginary island placed by the 
early geographers west of the Azores. Hence the 
name Antilles. 

Antimonite, Stibnite, or Grey Antimony 
ore, the sulphide of antimony (Sb 2 S ;j ), is the 
chief ore of antimony. It occurs generally in veins, 
has a lead-grey colour, metallic and sometimes 
iridescent lustre, often a fibrous or columnar struc¬ 
ture, and is soft and extremely fusible. It is worked 
at Felsobanva and elsewhere in Hungary, in Borneo, 
Nevada, and New Brunswick. Very large crystals 
are obtained from Japan. It has long been used by 
women in the East to darken the eyelids. 

Antimony (Sb = 120), a metal first discovered 
in the fifteenth century. It usually occurs in nature 
as sulphide or trioxide. Commercial antimony is 
invariably prepared from the sulphide, and may be 
very conveniently extracted by fusing this dre with 
metallic iron. The removal of arsenic, which is 
apt to be associated with antimony, is of great 
importance where the latter is required for pre¬ 
paring medicines. Antimony is a bluish-white, 
brittle, and very crystalline metal; S.G. 0 7; M.P. 
425° C. It is not acted on by air at ordinary tem¬ 
peratures, but rapidly oxidises when melted, forming 
the trioxide (Sb 2 0 3 ). Antimony is used in the pre¬ 
paration of alloys (Ex. type metal) and also in 
medicine—chiefly in the form of “tartar-emetic” 
(C 4 H 4 K.Sb0 6 ). 

Antinomians, those who hold that a Christian 
is not bound to observe the moral law, as Chris¬ 
tianity is opposed to law. The doctrine was strongly 
upheld by John Agricola (q.v.) in the 10th century. 

Antinous, (1) a character in the Odyssey of 
Homer, who paid court to Penelope. (2) A hand¬ 
some Bithynian youth, the favourite of the Emperor 
Hadrian, who built Antinoopolis to his memory near 
the spot where he was drowned in the Nile, 122 A.D. 
Many statues and medals handed down his features 
to posterity, so that he became regarded as a type 
of youthful beauty. 

Antioch, (classic Antioehia ad Daphnen, from 
its proximity to the grove and temple of Apollo ; 
Turk., Antakieli ), a city on the river Orontes, in 










Antiochus. 


( 149 ) 


Antipathy. 


Syria (in Turkey), 57 miles from Aleppo. Founded 
by Antigonus I. 300 b.c., it was completed by Se- 
leucus, and named after his father, Antiochus. It 



THE WALLS OF ANTIOCH. 


prospered exceedingly, and when taken by the 
Romans (64 B.c.) it had 700,000 inhabitants, and 
was called the “ Queen of the East,” being the 
capital of Syria. The name “Christian” first came 
into use here, and it was the birthplace of St. Luke 
and St. John Chrysostom. During the first eight 
centuries of the Church numerous councils were 
held at Antioch, and it became a patriarchate with 
widely extended authority in the East. Earthquakes 
devastated the city during the first five centuries 
A.D., but Justinian repaired it in 529 and called it 
Theopolis. After this the Persians twice captured 
and sacked it, and an earthquake in 588 destroyed 
60,000 people. It fell into the hands of the 
Saracens in 638, and was held by them till Godfrey 
of Boulogne retook it after a bloody siege in 1098. 
The Sultan of Egypt annexed it finally to Turkey 
in 1268, and except during the brief occupa¬ 
tion by Ibrahim Pasha in 1832, it has belonged to 
the Porte ever since. The shocks of earthquake 
were repeated in 1822 and 1872. Traces of the 
ancient walls exist, and modern Antioch occupies 
a mere corner in the vast enclosure. There are 
ruins of a great aqueduct, and of a fortress built by 
the Crusaders. Silk is the chief product, but 
earthenware, leather goods, and goat’s wool tissues 
are made. Many other Antiochs w T ere more or less 
famous in antiquity, e.(j. Antioch in Pisidia or 
Caasarea (Acts xiii. 14), Antiochia ad Cragum, 
Antiochia ad Taurum (Mod. Ain-Tab'), Antiochia 
Mygdonke (Mod. Nisibia), and Antiochia Margiana. 

Antiochus, the name of many kings of Syria of 
the Seleucian dynasty, the chief of them being:— 

Antiochus I., Soter (Saviour), so called be¬ 
cause he saved his country from an irruption of the 
Gauls about 270 b.c. 


Antiochus III., the Great, who succeeded in 225 
B.C., and carried his victorious arms as far as India. 
The free cities of Greece being threatened by him 
applied to Rome for aid, and the two Scipios took the 
field against him, while Hannibal sought refuge at 
his court. Being defeated at Thermopylae (191) and 
Magnesia (190) he accepted a humiliating peace, 
and in 186 was killed whilst attempting to pillage 
a temple at Elymais. 

Antiochus IV., Epiphanes (Illustrious), con¬ 
quered Egypt (2 Macc. iv. 5), and on his way home 
determined to crush the rebellious Jews (171 b.c.). 
Entering Jerusalem, he is said to have killed 80,000 
and sold or carried off an equal number of inhabi¬ 
tants. He also robbed the temple. Three years 
later he sent Apollonius (2 Ma.cc. v. 24, 25) with 
orders to sweep away the whole population, or con¬ 
vert it to Greek Paganism. Judas Maccabeus 
successfully resisted this attempt, and recaptured 
the Temple. Antiochus died in 164 b.c. 

Antiochus XIII., known in Roman history as 
Asiaticus, the last of the line. He was installed 
by Lucullus on the throne from which his father had 
been driven by Tigranes, but in 64 b.c. Pompey 
stripped him of his dominions, and made Syria a 
Roman province. 

Antipaedo Baptists. [Baptists.] 

Antiparos (classic Oliaros), an island in the 
Greek Archipelago, between Paros and Siphanto. 
It is about 10 miles in circumference, and has but 
few inhabitants. There exists here a remarkable 
stalactite grotto, 300 feet square and 80 feet high. 

Antipatar, a Macedonian general and adminis¬ 
trator, who served faithfully under Philip, and was 
left by Alexander in charge of home affairs during 
his absence in Asia, and resumed power after the 
death of the king. The Greeks, roused by Demos¬ 
thenes to assert their independence, attacked and 
besieged him in Lamia, but he conquered them at 
Cranon, and subverted their democratic constitu¬ 
tions (b.c. 322). He died in 320. 

Antipater, or Antipas, an Idumaean, w T ho 
won the good offices of Julius Caasar, and obtained 
from him the government of Jerusalem for his eldest 
son Phasael, and that of Galilee for his younger 
son, afterwards known as Herod the Great. He 
was poisoned by Malichus in 43 B.C. [For his 
grandson see Herod Antipas.] 

Antipatharia, the “ black corals,” is an order 
of the Zoantharia (q.v.). They are colonial 
animals, and form great plant-like growths; these 
consist of a central horny axis, attached by its base 
during life to the rocks or sea bottom on which it 
lives. This axis is covered by a fleshy layer (known 
as the coenosarc), and in this the polypes (the 
separate individuals of the colony) are embedded. 

Antipathy, a dislike of certain individuals or 
things, sometimes accompanied by great agitation 
or fainting, and usually attributable to physical 
causes or mental association. Thus many people 
have a great dislike to cats, whilst others cannot 
bear to hear anyone munching a raw apple. 












Antipericdics. 


( 150 ) 


Anticeptic. 


Antiperiodics, drugs employed as remedies 
in certain forms of disease which recur periodically. 
The best example of an antiperiodic drug is that 
of quinine, which is so invaluable in the treatment 
of the recurring paroxysms of ague. 

Antiphlogistic Treatment, that adopted 
with a view to reducing inflammation or fever ; 
the term was more commonly used in the days of 
blood-letting than it is now. 

Antiphon, the celebrated sophist, orator, and 
politician, was a native of Attica, and established 
himself in 430 B.C. at Athens, where he instructed 
Thucydides, who speaks of him with honour. He 
assisted in setting up the tyranny of the Four 
Hundred, and on its collapse (411 b.c.) he was put 
to death. 

Antiphonal Singing (from the Greek, anti, 
against; phone , the voice), the practice of chanting 
the Psalms verse by verse alternately. This custom 
is of very great antiquity, being used in David s 
time. 

Antipodes (from the Greek anti, opposite, 
and podes, feet), a geographical term used to 
describe the relative positions of any two points on 
the surface of the globe so situated that a line 
drawn from the one to the other through the earth’s 
centre forms a true diameter. The North Pole, for 
instance, is antipodal to the South Pole, and a 
small island in the Pacific (lat. 49° 32' S., long. 
178° E.) is antipodal to London. Such places have 
the same climate so far as that depends on latitude 
alone, but their hours and seasons are completely 
reversed. When it is midday at the one it is mid¬ 
night at the other, and the midwinter of one coin¬ 
cides with the midsummer of the other. In a vague 
manner Australia and New Zealand are spoken of 
as our antipodes. 

Antipyretics, remedies employed to reduce 
the temperature of the body in cases of fever. 
Quinine is the best example of an antipyretic 
drug ; its chief use is in the treatment of ague, but 
it is also of value in other forms of fever. Again, 
salicylate of soda has a marked antipyretic action 
in cases of acute rheumatism. One of the most 
reliable means of reducing fever is the use of cold 
sponging or the cold bath. 

Antipyrin, a drug prepared from coal-tar, and 
recently introduced for some of the same purposes as 
quinine. It is a febrifuge but not an antiperiodic. 

Antiquary, one who is devoted to the study 
of relics of antiquity, such as inscriptions, books, 
coins, manuscripts, etc. The Society of Antiquaries 
of London was incorporated in 1751, that of Scot¬ 
land in 1780. 

Antique. [Sculpture.] 

Antiquity of Man. Though, geologically 
speaking, man’s appearance on the earth is but 
recent, various lines of evidence, historical, socio¬ 
logical, geological, and archaeological, all point to 
an antiquity of the human race that when esti¬ 
mated in years can only be called immense. While 
Chinese and Chaldsean records probably carry back 
authentic history beyond 2,000 b.c., Egyptian 


hieroglyphics go back to at least 3,000 years before 
our era. The science of language, in indicating 
the derivation of whole families of languages, such 
as those of Europe and India, from a common stock, 
also involves a great draft upon the bank of time. 
Bricks and pottery are found below sixty feet of 
Nile mud, which probably only accumulates at the 
rate of a few inches in the century, and rude stone 
weapons, belonging apparently to some pre-Aryan 
race, are present throughout India. In Switzerland 
pile-dwellings .are found in the mud of the lakes 
in which, below remains belonging to the period 
of Roman dominion or iron age, implements of 
bronze and of polished stone occur at successively 
greater depths. In Denmark, in addition to ex¬ 
tremely ancient mounds of shells and bones known 
as Ijdhken-mdddinf/ (“kitchen midden”), successive 
layers of the peat are characterised by the beech, 
the chief tree of the country in Roman times as 
now, associated with iron implements, by oak 
associated with bronze, and by pine associated with 
polished stone or neolithic weapons. This points 
to the lapse of long periods marked by changes 
in climate. In England, France, and Belgium 
human bones and implements have in numerous 
cases been found in caverns under thick layers of 
stalagmite associated with the bones of animals 
either locally or altogether extinct, such as the 
wolf, hyaena, bear, horse, reindeer, and mammoth. 
These remains date backwards from a pre-Roman 
iron age, through the ages of bronze and polished 
stone, when a Mongolian race prevailed in north¬ 
west Europe, through a period of chipped flint 
implements known as the reindeer period, from 
the abundance of reindeer bones, to the paleo¬ 
lithic age, or period of the most ancient and 
rudest known chipped tools. Lastly, in the gravels 
and brick-earths of the rivers of the same area a 
similar succession is traceable, human implements 
occurring not only in association with mammoth, 
musk-ox and other animal remains, indicating cold 
conditions, but also under ice-borne detritus that 
marks at least the close of the glacial period. 
Though not as yet precisely estimable in years, these 
indications point to an antiquity which must at 
least be expressed in tens of thousands of years. 

Antisana, a volcanic mountain near Quito in 
Ecuador, South America, having an elevation of 
19,132 feet. A village bearing the same name 
stands on its flanks at the height of 13,500 feet, 
and is the highest inhabited place in the w T orld. 

Antiseptic, a substance used for preventing 
or arresting the spontaneous decomposition (fer¬ 
mentation or putrefaction) of animal and vegetable 
material. The kind of antiseptic which is required 
varies a good deal with the nature of the materials, 
each substance having—more or less—its own 
most fitting antiseptic. 

The best known antiseptics are—(1) mineral acids, 
(2) common salt, (3) sugar, (4) spices, (5) ordinary 
alcohol, (6) some of the higher alcohols, especially 
phenol and phymol. (7) perchloride of mercury 
(corrosive sublimate). Perchloride of mercury has 
the reputation of being by far the most effective 
antiseptic ; but is, unfortunately, a violent poison. 









Antispasmodics. 


( 151 ) 


Antonolli. 


Antiseptic drugs are those which arrest putrefac¬ 
tive changes. Such changes are now known to be 
due to the growth of micro - organisms, which 
flourish luxuriantly in dead animal or vegetable 
matter. Antiseptics destroy the micro-organisms, 
and so prevent decomposition from taking place. 
Thus, anything which is inimical to the life of bac¬ 
teria will have an antiseptic action. Some bacteria 
cannot live without a free supply of air ; use is 
made of this fact in the preservation of tinned 
meats. Again, for the growth of micro-organisms 
an adequate supply of moisture is necessary, and 
this explains the readiness with which substances 
can be preserved when kept perfectly dry. 

The modern treatment of wounds by antiseptic 
dressings presents one of the most important ap¬ 
plications of these substances. The surface of a 
wound affords abundant scope for the development 
of bacteria, and in days gone by such development 
was of far too common occurrence, wounds be¬ 
coming foul and assuming a sloughing and 
gangrenous appearance. The surgeon of to-day, 
however, by the adoption of the most scrupulous 
cleanliness, and the use of antiseptic dressings, 
prevents the growth of bacteria in the wound, and 
thus ensures much more rapid healing and largely 
diminishes the danger to life. 

Again, antiseptics are largely employed in dis¬ 
infection. Many, if not all the infectious diseases, 
are due to bacteria, and hence the importance 
of destroying such germs by disinfecting rooms, 
bedding, clothing, and the like. 

Antiseptics are sometimes given internally to 
fever-stricken patients, but here their use is a 
limited one, for, unfortunately, those substances 
which act most powerfully upon germs have, as a 
rule, a poisonous action upon the human body 
likewise. 

Antispasmodics, remedies employed to relieve 
spasm. Muscular cramps, for example, are removed 
by friction, and the pain of colic is lessened by the 
application of warmth to the abdomen. Among 
drugs which have an antispasmodic action, the 
chief are assafcetida, valerian, bromide of pot¬ 
assium, arsenic, hemlock, and stramonium. 

Antisthenes, an Athenian philosopher of the 
fourth century b.c. He was a pupil of Socrates, for 
whom he deserted the sophist Gorgias. He is said 
to have avenged his master’s execution by compass¬ 
ing the death of Melitus and the banishment of 
Anytus. The Cynic school was founded by him, and 
he insisted that virtue was the only thing worth 
pursuing. According to tradition, Socrates declared 
that his pride showed itself through the holes in his 
raiment. 

Antithesis (from the Greek anti, against, and 
thesis , placing), a mode of expressing contrast of 
ideas by the juxtaposition of the words that express 
them. Macaulay’s works afford numerous examples. 

Antinm, an ancient city of Latium, the birth¬ 
place of Caligula and Nero. 

Antlers, the bony weapons of offence and 
defence on the heads of deer, as distinguished 
from the horns of other ruminants. These weapons, 


which, as a general rule, are shed at the close of 
the rutting season, and renewed in the following 
spring, are outgrowths from the frontal bones, 
covered at first with a soft integument known as 
“ velvet,” which dries up and peels off when the 
antler is formed. Antlers are the distinguishing 
ornament of the males, except in the Reindeer 
(Cervus taranclus'), the female of which carries 
them in form resembling, but smaller than, those 
of the male, and in the Chinese Deer (Hydropotes 
inermis'), in both sexes of which they are wanting. 
Each antler consists of a main stem or beam, and 
usually of one or more branches or tines. In the 
spring of the year after birth the beam only is 
developed, but in the next year the renewed beam 
throws out a branch—the brow-tine, to which the 
name antler was formerly confined. In the fourth 
year other tines are developed above the brow-tine, 
and so on, the antlers in many deer increasing in 
complexity after each successive fall, till more than 
sixty tines have been counted on the head of a red 
deer. In the fallow deer the beam is palmated or 
flattened out, as it was also in the extinct Irish Elk. 
Deer in which the permanent condition of the 
antlers was the same as that of deer of the third 
and fourth years described above, have been found 
in Miocene and Pliocene strata respectively—a fact 
worth noting in support of the theory that the 
history of the evolution of the individual is the 
history of the evolution of the race. 

Ant-lions, M yrmelecntid.e, a family of N eur- 

OPTERA. 

Antofagasta, a seaport town and district in 
the nitrate region of northern Chili, taken from 
Bolivia after the war of 1879. 

Antommarchi, Francesco, a physician of 
Corsican birth, but educated at Florence, who was 
selected in 1820 to attend Napoleon at St. Helena. 
He remained with him till his death, and refused 
to sign the report drawn up by the English surgeons. 
On his return to Europe he wrote Les Derniers 
Moments de Napoleon , and settled in Poland. He 
left Europe for America later, and died in 1838 or 
a few years later. 

Antonelli, Giacomo, Cardinal, born at the 
village of Sonnino on the Pontine Marshes in 
1806. His father was apparently a timber merchant, 
but the name and family are ancient. Having 
received his education at the Grand Seminary at 
Rome and entered the priesthood, he was taken up 
by Pope Gregory XVI., and held several state offices. 
In 1847 he was created Cardinal by Pius IX. At 
first he seemed disposed to join the Liberal party, 
but soon changing his views he resigned office and 
retired with the Pope to Gaeta, where he took part 
in the negotiations that resulted in the re-occupa¬ 
tion of the Vatican (1850). Thenceforward he 
acted as Foreign Minister to the Holy See until his 
death, opposing to the best of his power the uni¬ 
fication of Italy and all other progressive measures. 
He raised a force to resist Garibaldi s attempt on 
Rome in 1867. The expulsion of the Austrians 
destroyed his chief hopes; the withdrawal of 
the French in 1870 shattered them still further, 





Antonello da Messina. 


( 152 ) 


Antonins. 


and the abortive result of Arnim’s mission left 
nothing for him but a policy of sullen protest. 
He died in 187(5, leaving his vast fortune to be the 
subject of a cause ccl'cbre between his acknowledged 
heirs and his reputed daughter, Countess Lam- 
bertini. 

Antonello da Messina, an Italian painter, 
born in 1414. Happening to see a work in oil 
colours by Van Eyck, he went to Bruges to learn 
that artist's method, and returning to Italy in 1445 
communicated the secret to Domenico Yeneziano. 
In the latter part of his life he imitated so closely 
the style of his Flemish master that their works 
are not easily distinguished. He died in 1496. 

Antoninus, a name borne by several Roman 
Emperors :— 

1. Antoninus Pius, whose other names were 
Titus Aurelius Fulvius Boionius Arrius, was born 
at Nemansus (Nimes) in 86 A.d. He was educated 
by his maternal grandfather, Arrius, a trusted 
friend of Nerva. The young Antoninus, who 
possessed considerable abilities and a high 
character, strengthened by Stoic principles, served 
with distinction under Nerva, Trajan, and Hadrian, 
the latter adopting him as successor into the purple 
a few weeks before his death in 138. Antoninus 
reigned for twenty-three years over the vast Roman 
Empire, which during all .that period enjoyed 
almost unbroken peace. He was distinguished for 
his equity, moderation, and simplicity of habits. 
Under him Christianity was allowed to develop 
without interference ; the reform of Roman law 
was steadily carried out, and great public works 
were undertaken. His wife, Faustina, notorious 
for her profligacy, received from him more considera¬ 
tion and honour than she deserved. At her death 
she was deified and an institution for the education 
of destitute or orphan girls was raised to her 
memory. During this reign Lollius Urbicus built 
the wall of Antonine from the Firth of Forth to the 
Firth of Clyde as a barrier against the Keltic tribes 
of the North. Antoninus died at Lorium in 161. 

2. Antoninus, Marcus iELius Aurelius 
Yerus, was born in 121 B.C., being the grandson of 
Annius Yerus, and a member of a most distinguished 
family. Hadrian early marked him out for high 
place, and when he chose Antoninus as his heir, 
made him adopt Aurelius as his successor. The 
latter surpassed his adoptive father in virtue, and 
approached very nearly to the Christian standard, 
though he is credited on somewhat doubtful 
evidence with having permitted the persecution of 
the followers of Christ. His Meditations, which 
consist of notes made in his diary for his guidance 
in the affairs of life, testify to his sweet and noble 
character, his freedom from worldliness, his sense 
of duty, and his appreciation of the littleness of 
human things. He married Faustina, the younger, 
whose depravity rivalled that of her mother, and 
she was treated with no less leniency. Marcus 
Aurelius had a stormy reign. In his first year war 
broke out in Parthia and in Germany, and was 
threatening in Britain, whilst a devastating flood 
brought destitution in Rome, and was followed by 
a fearful pestilence. The Emperor was assiduous 


in relieving distress, in reforming laws, and in con¬ 
trolling their administration, whilst exercising keen 
vigilance in foreign and military affairs. To avoid 
excessive taxation he sold his imperial treasures. 
After defeating the Quadi and Marcomanni in 169, 
he visited the eastern provinces and returning to 
Rome received a triumph in 177, the famous column 
being erected in his honour. Fresh troubles broke 
out in Germany in 178, and Marcus, proceeding 
thither, defeated the barbarians, but worn out with 
fatigue and disease died in 180 either at Sirmium 
or Vienna. 

For the other Antonines see Commodus, Cara- 
CALLA, and Heliogabalus. 

Antoninus, Wall of, a turf entrenchment, 
about 20 feet high, with an outer ditch, raised in 
140 A.D. by Lollius Urbicus, the Roman Legate in 
Britain. It started from Douglas Castle, on the 
Clyde, and ran to Caer Ridden Kirk, on the Forth, 
a distance of some 36 miles. Though always known 
bv the name of Antoninus, this work, in point of fact, 
did but serve to connect the series of forts con¬ 
structed by Agricola sixty years before. The line 
may now be traced in parts, and is called locally 
Grime’s Dyke, or Graham’s Dyke, Grim being the 
appellation of the devil. 

Antonius, the name of a Roman gens, patrician 
and plebeian, to which belonged the following dis¬ 
tinguished personages:— 

1. Marcus Antonius, a famous orator, born b.c. 
143, whose eloquence was highly praised by Cicero. 
He served in Asia and Cilicia, was Consul in 99, 
took the part of Sylla in the civil wars, and was 
put to death by Marius and Cinna in 87 B.C. His 
treatise, De Ratione Dicendi, has perished. 

2. Caius Antonius, Hybrida, son of the above, 
served under Sylla against Mithridates, and appears 
to have been a mere brigand. Though his con¬ 
duct was overlooked by Lucullus it brought upon 
him expulsion from the Senate. 

3. Marcus Antonius (Mark Antony), the trium¬ 
vir, was the son of M. Antonius Creticus, and 
grandson of the orator. Born in 83 B.c., he spent a 
dissipated youth. Then taking seriously to military 
matters he served with success in Egypt, in Gaul 
under Ctesar, and at the Battle of Pharsalia 
(44 b.c.). Caesar rewarded him with various offices, 
and made him his colleague in the consulship. After 
the murder of his protector Antony, very popular 
with the soldiers and the people, obviously aimed 
at supreme power. The patriots, Brutus and 
Cassius, took up the cause of Octavius. Antony 
besieged Decimus Brutus in Mertina. Here he was 
defeated, but the consuls being slain Octavius was 
left in sole command, and he, deserting his allies, 
united with Antony and Lepidus to form the second 
Triumvirate. Bloody proscriptions terrified Italy 
for some months, Cicero being one of the most 
illustrious victims. Then followed the defeat and 
death of Brutus and Cassius at Philippi, in 42 B.C., 
and Antony went into Cilicia, where he met the 
beautiful Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, and last of the 
Ptolemies. He was ensnared by her charms, as 
Pompey and Ctesar had been before him, and 
he gave up all care for public affairs to pursue a 






Antony. 


( 153 ) 


Antwerp. 


life of pleasure at Alexandria. His wife, Fulvia, 
stirred up Octavius against him, but they were soon 
reconciled. Fulvia died, and Antony cemented the 
reconciliation by marrying Octavia, his colleague's 
sister. But his infatuation for Cleopatra drew him 
again to Egypt, and Octavius, being incensed, 
took up arms in earnest. The naval battle of 
Actium ensued (30 b.c.), and Antony, defeated, is 
said to have ended his life by falling upon his 
sword. Shakespeare, in his Julius ■ Ccesar and 
Antony and Cleopatra , has powerfully depicted two 
phases of his character. 

Antony, St., (1) of Thebes, called the Great. 
He was born about 250 A.D., and early embraced a 
religious life. Selling all his possessions, he retired 
into the desert where he remained for twenty years. 
To this period are assigned the various legends of 
his temptations by the devil, and the story of his 
preaching to the fishes. In 305 he founded a 
monastery, and in 356 he died at an advanced age. 
(2) Of Padua, a Franciscan monk born 1195, and 
an ardent supporter of his order. He died in 1231, 
and was canonised in the succeeding year. 

Antraigues, Emanuel Louis Henri 
Delaunay, Comte d’, a French author, born in 
1765. He wrote in 1788 a Memoire sur les fit at s 
GeneraMix, which aided the revolutionary movement. 
However, on. being elected Deputy he changed his 
views, upheld the royalist cause, and was exiled 
in 1790. After the Treaty of Tilsit he revealed 
to Canning’s Government the existence of the 
famous secret clauses. His Italian servant informed 
Napoleon of this act, and then, fearing consequences, 
murdered the count and his wife in London (1812). 

Antrim, a, county in the province of Ulster, 
Ireland, bounded north and east by the sea, south 
by Belfast Lough and the river Lagan, west by 
Lough Neagh and the counties Down and London¬ 
derry. It is about 54 miles long by 28 broad, and 
has an area of 1,191 square miles. Towards the east 
bogs and mountains prevail, rendering some 120,000 
acres sterile, but about two-thirds of the soil is 
arable. The prosperity of the county depends, how¬ 
ever, on the manufacture of linens,which is carried on 
at Belfast, Lisburn, Larne, Ballymena, Ballymoney, 
Carrickfergus, and Antrim. There are large iron¬ 
works, too, and the fisheries are good, whilst the 
inland districts supply large quantities of butter. 
The masses of columnar basalt, known as The 
Giants Causeway , form a remarkable natural feature, 
and the county is rich in Celtic antiquities. The 
inhabitants are mainly Protestant colonists from 
England and Scotland. Antrim town is at the 
north extremity of Lough Neagh, 13 miles north¬ 
west of Belfast. 

Ants, or Formicid^e, are a family of Hymen- 
optera. They live in communities composed of 
three different sexes, viz. males, females, and 
neuters. The males and females are both winged, 
but are found only for a short period every year, 
as after pairing the males die, and the females lose 
their wings. The neuters, of one or more classes, 
are wingless; they are produced from underfed 
female larvae, and the ants regulate the proportions 
of females and neuters by varying the food supply 


to the larvae. The neuters do the whole work of 
the community. The males are stingless. The 
queens are fertile females. Like most social 
animals they are remarkably intelligent, and it is 
now generally admitted that many of their opera¬ 
tions are controlled by reason and not by instinct. 
Thus some ants, e.g. Atta , store up grain for the 
winter, and prevent its germination by gnawing the 
radicle; others, e.g. Eciton, the foraging ant, 
make organised attacks on the nests of other 
ants, remove the larvas to their own, and make the 
young into slaves; others again, as Hypoelinea , 
keep aphides for the sake of their milk ; and some 
South American ants make tunnels under wide 
rivers. The “ White Ants,” or Termites , are not true 
ants, but belong to the Neuroptera. 

Ant-thrushes ( Pitt idee ), a family of beauti¬ 
fully coloured thrush-like birds, most abundant in 
the Malay Archipelago, attaining their maximum 
of beauty and variety in Borneo and Sumatra. 

Antwerp (Fr. Anvers'), the chief town of the 
province of the same name in Belgium, was founded 
in the seventh century A.D., on the right bank of 



ANTWERP CATHEDRAL. (FrOVl tile PlClCC Verte.) 


the river Scheldt, about 50 miles from the sea. 
The numerous canals greatly facilitate the shipping 
and unshipping of goods which pass to and from 
every quarter of the globe, and steam communi¬ 
cation exists with all foreign countries. The cathe¬ 
dral is one of the finest Gothic buildings in North 
Europe, and contains three masterpieces of Rubens. 
It has six aisles, and is 500 feet long by 250 feet 
broad. In the church of St. James the painter him¬ 
self is buried. The Hotel de Ville, the Hotel of the 
Hanseatic League, and the old house of Plantins the 

















Antwerp Blue. 


( 151 ) 


Apatite. 


printers are interesting architectural monuments. 
Perhaps the best thing that Antwerp possesses is its 
noble picture gallery, thoroughly illustrating the de¬ 
velopment of Dutch and Flemish art. For three or 
four centuries after its foundation Antwerp, though 
prosperous, suffered from the Normans, from fires 
and from plagues, and never stood out as one of the 
first ports of Europe till the 12th century. A little 
later it joined the Hanseatic League, and from that 
date until the closing of the Scheldt in 1(548, it grew 
steadily in wealth and population, though the 
Spanish armies twice captured it. On one of 
these occasions (157(5) what was known as “the 
Spanish Fury” raged with such disastrous effect 
that the traces of it can be clearly distinguished 
to this day. In 1792 the city passed into French 
hands, and Napoleon did all he could to make it a 
rival port to London. In 1814 Antwerp was sur¬ 
rendered by the Treaty of Paris, a previous attempt 
to take it having failed. It was then assigned to 
Holland. When Belgium claimed its independence 
in 1830 Antwerp was held by the Dutch garrison, 
and had to be reduced by bombardment in 1832. 
Since that date it has belonged to Belgium. 

Antwerp Blue, a mineral pigment prepared 
by precipitating Prussian blue in combination with 
alumina. It is therefore essentially a diluted variety 
of Prussian blue. 


Anuhis, or Anebo, one of the deities of ancient 
Egypt, son of Osiris and Isis. He is represented 
with a jackal’s head on a human body. His func¬ 
tions were similar to those of Hermes or Mercury, 
viz. to conduct souls into the unknown world, and 
to preside over the change from day to night. 

Anwari, a Persian poet, who flourished in the 
twelfth century. The Sultan Sandjar, last of the 
Seljukian dynasty, was his patron, and his composi¬ 
tions were satirical, amatory, and elegiac. 


Aorist, the tense of the Greek verb which 
corresponds to the English simple past. 



Aorta, the main arterial trunk of the body. It 
rises from the left ventricle of the heart, and 
after forming an arch across the chest, descends 

in front of the verte¬ 
bral column until it 
reaches the level of 
the fourth lumbar 
vertebra, where it 
divides into the two 
common iliac arte¬ 
ries. It gives off 
branches in its 
course, which supply 
the head, neck, arms, 
and trunk, while the 
iliacs, its terminal 
divisions, supply the 
pelvis and lower 
limbs. [Blood¬ 
vessels.] At the 
junction of the aorta 
and left ventricle are 
the aortic or semi¬ 
lunar valves, which 


AORTA. 

a. Arch of aorta ; h, thoracic aorta ; 
c, coronary arteries. 


only allow of the passage of blood from the 
ventricle into the aorta, and prevent a flow in the 
opposite direction from occurring. Just above the 
aortic valves are the coronary arteries, by means of 
which the heart itself is supplied with arterial blood. 
The aorta is subject to various diseases,, notably to 
aneurism (q.v.) and atheroma (q.v.). 

Aosta (classic Augusta Pretoria), a town in the 
province of Turin, Italy, situated in a lovely Alpine 
valley on the left bank of the river Dora Baltea, 
and .nearly 2,000 feet above sea level, at the point 
where the descents from the Great and Little St. 
Bernard unite. The remains of an amphitheatre 
and a triumphal arch, with other traces of Roman 
occupation, still exist. St. Bernard was archdeacon 
here, and Anselm of Canterbury was a native of 
this place. The valley is fertile and produces rice, 
cheese, and hemp, but the inhabitants are terribly 
afflicted with goitre and cretinism. There are 
mineral springs in the neighbourhood. The district, 
formerly a duchy, bears the same name as the town. 

Aoudad (Oris tragelaphus'), a wild sheep of 
North Africa, inhabiting the lofty woods of the 
Atlas range. It stands about three feet high at the 
shoulder, is reddish brown in colour, with a heavy 
fringe of hair reaching from the neck to just about 
the hoofs ; horns about two feet long. Called also 
the Barbary Sheep. 

Apaches, a North American Indian nation, the 
most bloodthirsty of all Indian tribes, southern¬ 
most branch of the Athabascan family, from whom 
they are separated by a space of nearly 1,000 miles. 
The Apaches are ferocious nomads who roam over 
the region between the Rio Pecos and the Colorado 
desert, east and west, and from Utah, through 
Arizona, New Mexico, and West Texas, southwards 
to the Mexican States of Chihuahua and Sonora. 
But in recent years the area of their depredations 
lias been steadily diminished, and the time seems 
approaching when all will have been driven across 
the United States frontier into North Mexico. They 
are divided into numerous tribal groups or clans, 
commonly known by such Spanish names as Tontos, 
Llaneros, etc. But the collective national name is 
Shis Inday, “men of the wood,” the word Inday 
being the same as Tinney, “ men,” applied generally 
to the Athabascan family. Like all the Tinney 
languages Apache is extremely harsh, full of 
unpronounceable gutt urals, grunts, and other sounds 
resembling the Hottentot clicks. A few Apaches 
have abandoned the nomad state, and are now 
settled with some Kiowas and Comanches in the 
south-west corner of Indian territory between the 
Washita and Red River. Detailed descriptions of 
the Apaches are given by Ross Browne ( Adventures 
in the Apache Country . Washington, 18(59) and by 
C. Cremony (Life among the Apaches, San Francisco, 
1869). 

Apatill, a town in Hungary, on the left bunk of 
the Danube, 125 miles due south of Pestli, and near 
the point where the river turns east. There are 
silk and cloth factories and large dye-works. 

Apatite (so-called from the Greek apate , 
deception, from having been formerly mistaken 









Apatura. 


( 155 ) 


Aphasia. 


for emerald), a phosphate of lime with a chloride 
and fluoride (3Ca :J P 2 O y -|-Ca(Cl,F) 2 ). It is usually 
green, a translucent variety being known as as- 
paray us-stone. It crystallises in hexagonal prisms, 
commonly occurring in needles in igneous rocks; 
and it is five in Von Mohs’ scale of hardness. When 
abundant it is valuable as a source of super¬ 
phosphate for manure. 

Apatura, a genus of butterflies with iridescent 
wings. The Purple Emperor (A. Iris') is a common 
English species. 

Ape. Popularly this term is applied to any 
tailless monkey; zoologically it is used for any 
individual of the middle group of the Primates 
(q.v.), thus excluding man in the ascending, and 
the Lemurs, or half-apes, in the descending scale. 
According to this definition the apes consist of two 
families:—1. Simiidse, with three sub-families—(1) 
Simiime (the Anthropoid apes), (2) Semnopithecina; 
(Slender apes), and (3) Cynopithecinae (Baboons), all 
from the Old World. 2. Cebkhe, with five sub¬ 
families—(1) Cebinaj (Spider monkeys, Woolly 
monkeys, and Sapajous), (2) Mvcetinai (Howlers), 
(3) Pithecinm (Sakis), (4) Nyctipithecime (Night 
apes), and (5) Hapalinse (Marmosets), all from the 
New World. Some authorities exclude the anthro¬ 
poid apes from their definition. 

Apeldoora., a town in the province of Guelder- 
land, Holland, on a tributary of the Yssel, 17 miles 
north of Arnheim. Loo, the country house of 
William of Orange, is close by. Apeldoorn has 
large paper-mills. 

Apelles, the most famous of Greek painters, 
was the contemporary and friend of Alexander the 
Great, of whom he is said to have painted several 
portraits. He was probably a native of Colophon, 
though some consider that the island of Cos, where 
he lived and died, was also his birthplace. His 
great but unfinished work, Venus Anadynnenc 
(rising from the sea), was bought by Augustus from 
the people of Cos and placed in the temple of 
Cassar. Though a man of pleasure, he was very 
industrious, and, according to Pliny, gave rise to 
the proverb “ Nulla dies sine line;!,” whilst “ Ne 
sutor ultra crepidam.” the Latin version of his reply 
to the cobbler who criticised the legs as well as the 
shoes of one of his figures, is no less widely known. 
There is a tradition that a picture in the Louvre, 
copied from a Roman fresco, Nuptice Aldobrandinfe, 
hands down some faint reflection of this master's 
style. 

Ape-msn, a term used to translate Hackel’s 
Pithecanthropi, his name for a group which he 
assumes to have been intermediate between the 
anthropoid apes and man, and the immediate 
ancestors of the latter. 

Apennines (Kelt. Pen , summit), the name 
given to the whole mountain system of Italy, which 
extends from the Maritime Alps, near Genoa, to Cape 
Spartivento, a length of some 800 miles, and re¬ 
appears again under another name in Sicily. The 
average height of the chain is about 4,000 feet, but 
it sinks below that in the north, whilst in the 


Abruzzi it rises to 7,000 feet. The highest peaks 
are Monte Corno (9,593), Monte Cornaro (8,960), and 
Monte Velino (7,910). The Apennines are divided 
into three sections:—1. The Northern, terminating 
at Monte Cornaro. 2. The Central, reaching as 
far as Monte Velino, and throwing out lateral 
ranges into Tuscany and Roumania. 3. The Southern, 
which includes Monte Corno and Vesuvius, and 
bifurcates near Acerenza, stretching one limb 
towards Reggio and the other towards Otranto. 
Unlike the Alps or the Pyrenees, this range displays 
swelling undulations, unbroken by bare rocks or 
jagged peaks except in the loftier regions. It pre¬ 
sents the same geological features genet ally as the 
Alps. The main axis shows Secondary formations 
from the trias to the upper chalk, while the minor 
ranges are composed of Tertiary strata, Eocene, 
Miocene, and Pliocene beds being well developed, 
especially in the north. Volcanic action, ancient 
or recent, is everywhere to be recognised, in crater 
lakes, such as those of Albano and Nervi, in Solfa- 
tara and other chemical deposits, in marble 
quarries, in caves and grottos and mineral springs, 
and in the periodical eruptions of Vesuvius and 
Etna. The southern tributaries of the Po, the 
Arno, the Tiber, and the Volturno, take their rise in 
this watershed. 

Aperients. [Purgatives.] 

Ape’s Hill, a promontory on the coast of 
Morocco, opposite to Gibraltar. It was one of the 
classical “ Pillars of Hercules,” Calpe, or Gibraltar, 
being the other. 

Apetalous (without petals), a descriptive term 
in botany applicable to many flowering plants 
besides the large series known as Apetalce or Incom¬ 
plete ?, which includes, among others, the great 
groups of the Amentacece (q.v.), and the JJrticacece 
or nettle family. 

Aphaniptera, an order of insects with the 
wings reduced to mere scales; the mouth is suc¬ 
torial and the metamorphosis complete. The flea 
(Pulex irritans) is a fairly well-known member of 
this order. None are known fossil. 

Aphasia, the loss of power of speech, arising 
not. from a lack of ideas, nor from any defect in 
the muscles of the larynx, tongue, etc., but from 
an interference with the functions of the so- 
called speech centre in the brain. This centre 
is situated in the lower and hinder portion of 
the frontal lobe of the brain on the left side; it 
is known as Broca’s centre, being named after the 
man who first insisted upon the relation of 
this part of the brain to speech. It is a well 
established fact that the left side of the brain is 
associated with movements of the right side of the 
body, and consequently interference with the 
speech centre is commonly accompanied by 
paralysis of the right arm and leg. The most 
common cause of aphasia is some interference with 
the circulation of blood through the middle 
cerebral artery which supplies Broca’s centre; 
either by rupture of the vessel, or by its becoming 
acclouded by disease. Thus aphasia is a common 
symptom in'apoplexy (q.v.), being then associated 







Aphelion. 


( 156 ) 


with right hemiplegia (q.v.). Aphasia may be 
partially recovered from, either by the re-establish¬ 
ment of the functions of Broca’s centre, or, in other 
cases where that part of the brain is irreparably 
damaged, it is supposed that the corresponding 
portion of brain on the right side is capable of 
taking on the functions of a centre for speech. 

Aphelion, the point in the orbit of a planet 
which is farthest away from the sun ; opposed to 
the perihelion, the point nearest the sun. 

Aphides, the plant lice, a family of Hymex- 
OPTERA (q.v.). They are minute in size, but occur 
in such enormous numbers as to do serious injury 
to the plants on which they live; their numbers 
are kept in check mainly by the lady-birds. They 
secrete a milky juice, to obtain which they are kept 
captive and milked by ants. They are hemimeta¬ 
bolic, i.e. they undergo only a partial metamor¬ 
phosis. They are of interest biologically as one of 



aphides (Siphonophora Millefolii). 

1. Winged male. 2. Winged viviparous female. 
3. Wingless viviparous female. 


the type cases of that alternation of sexual and 
asexual methods of reproduction known as parthe¬ 
nogenesis ; during the summer the Aphides are 
sexless and they reproduce asexually, but in the 
autumn a generation of males and females is pro¬ 
duced ; these copulate and lay eggs, which in the 
following spring are hatched into the asexual forms. 
The type genus is Arms. 

Aphis-lions, the Hemerobiidm, a family of 
Neuroptera. 

Aphonia, loss of voice. 

Aphorism, a short pithy saying in which a 
maxim or principle is expressed very tersely. 
Familiar examples are, “ A soft answer turneth 
away wrath,” “ More haste, less speed.” 

Aphrocallistes, one of the few surviving 
genera of Hexactinellida, i.e. sponges of which 
the skeleton is composed of six rayed siliceous 
spicules ; it is a deep sea dweller. It is a close 
ally of the “ Venus’s flower-basket ” (q.v.). 

Aphrodita, the sea-mouse, an annelid of the 
order Errantia, common round the English coast; 


Apis. 


it is covered by a dense felt of interlacing setae or 
bristles, which renders it iridescent. 

Aphrodite (from the Greek aphros, foam), 
the goddess of love among the Greeks; she was 
fabled to have sprung from the sea-foam, and thus 
obtained her name. She is supposed to have 
been identifled with the Phoenician Astarte and 
the Roman Venus, although the original Greek 
conception of Aphrodite was much purer than the 
later Venus of Rome. 

Aphthae, a name applied to the small white 
patches which are sometimes seen on the tongue, 
lips, and cheeks, and which are now known to be 
due to the growth of a fungus, the O'ulium albicans. 
Aphthae are not uncommon in suckling children. 
[Thrush.] In adults they are rarely seen, and 
only in conditions of extreme exhaustion produced 
by such diseases as typhoid fever or consumption. 

Apiary. [Bee-Hive.] 

Apical Cell, a large cell at the apex, or grow¬ 
ing point, of the axis (q.v.) in cryptogamic plants, 
from the repeated subdivision of the basal portion 
of which the axis grows. In flowering plants it 
is replaced by a group of small thin-walled cells. 

Apical System, the system of plates found in 
the Echinozoa, regarded as homologous with the 
basals and radials of the Crinoidea. They are 
usually ten in number, and arranged in a double 
circle, in the centre of which the anus opens (as 
in the common Sea Urchin). The plates of the 
inner circle are known as the costals or basals, and 
the outer the radials. 

Apicius. By a curious coincidence three Roman 
gourmands claim this name. The first lived in the 
days of Sylla, the second under Augustus and 
Tiberius, the third under Trajan. The second (M. 
Glabrius) is the most celebrated. Having spent 
about a million on good living, and finding he had 
only £80,000 left, he committed suicide rather than 
face moderate fare. The treatise Be Re Culinarid , 
bearing the name of Coelius Apicius, may be the 
work of the last of the three. 

Apidae, the family of Hymenoptera comprising 
the Bees (q.v.). 

Apiocriniis, the Pear Encrinite, the typical 
genus of the Apiocrinid.e, a family of Crinoidea 
(q.v.), which lived in the geological periods of 
which the oolites and the chalk are the best-known 
examples. 

Apion, an Alexandrian grammarian of the first 
century, who wrote a commentary on Homer and 
taught rhetoric in Rome. He was employed to 
plead before Caligula in favour of depriving the 
Jews of their privileges in Alexandria (A.D. 39). 
Josephus refuted his misrepresentations in a well- 
known work. 

Apis, the sacred bull of Egypt, the seat of 
whose worship was at Memphis. This deity was 
not a mere abstraction, but took concrete form 
as a black bull bearing a white square on the 








( 157 ) 


Apollinaris. 


Apis. 


brow, the figure of an eagle on the flank, and a 
scarabseus under the tongue. After twenty-five 
years the animal was solemnly drowned in the 
Nile, and embalmed, and a period of mourning 
ensued till a properly-marked successor was found. 
It is said that Osiris took the shape of a bull and 
was harnessed to the plough. Probably the cult 



APIS. 


may have originated in the primitive rites of an agri¬ 
cultural people, and possibly there may be some 
connection between the Egyptian and the Brah- 
minical veneration for the bovine species. The 
Golden Calf of the Israelites was undoubtedly a 
reminiscence of Egyptian customs. 

Apis, the genus of social bees, which includes 
the honey bee (A. mellijica). [Bee.] 

Aplysia, the Sea Hare, a slug-like gastropod 
(q.v.) with a thin transparent internal shell. It 
lives among seaweed below the low-tide line. It is 
the type of the family Aplvsiadge, which belongs to 
the Opisthobranchiate (q.v.) group of the Aplysiadse, 
a family of Gastropods, as the breathing organs 
(branchiae) are situated behind the heart. 

Apneumona, a sub-order of Apoda (Holo- 
thuria), including those without respiratory trees, 
Cuvierian organs, and radial water vessels. An 
explanation in the terms is given under Holo- 
thurians. 

Apnoea, in its strict use a diminution of the 
extent of the respiratory movements or their tem¬ 
porary complete cessation brought about by 
saturating the blood with oxygen. Apnoea is, how¬ 
ever, used by some as though it were synonymous 
with Dyspnoea (q.v.). 

Apocalypse (Greek, unveiling), a name very 
frequently applied to the Revelation of St. John, 
the last book of the New Testament Scriptures. 

Apocarpous, having the carpels distinct, a 
term applicable, for example, to the fruit of the 


family Ranunculacece and of many Rosaccoe, such 
as the bramble ( Rubus ), in which each carpel 
resembles a plum in miniature, 
and the strawberry, in which the 
dry, one-seeded carpels are scat¬ 
tered over a fleshy outgrowth. 

Apocrypha (Greek, secret), the 
name given to those books of the 
Old Testament which are found in 
the Septuagint or Greek Testament, 
but not in the Hebrew. They are 
as follows :—The Third and Fourth 
Books of Esdras ; Book of Tobit; 

Book of Judith; rest of the Book 
of Esther; Book of Wisdom ; Jesus, the Son of 
Sirach ; Baruch the Prophet; Song of the Three 
Children ; Story of Susanna, of Bel and the Dragon ; 
Prayer of Manasses ; First and Second Books of 
Maccabees. The name probably means that their 
date or authorship is obscure. Hence the term 
“ apocryphal ” is often applied to spurious literature. 



APOCARPOUS. 

(Fruit of bramble.) 


Apoda, (1) a sub-order of Cirripedia (the bar¬ 
nacles and their allies), in which the shield (or 
more strictly the carapace) is reduced to two 
threads, and there are no cirri or appendages. It 
includes the genus Proteolepas. (2) The order of 
Holothuroidea including those without tube feet. 


Apodemata, the internal ridges which mark 
the line of junction of two plates in the carapace 
or shell of a crustacean, hence it is often possible 
to determine that a particular area has been 
formed by the union of two or more parts origin¬ 
ally distinct, by finding these structures. 

Apodictic, iri Logic, that proposition whose 
contradictory is inconceivable. 

Apogamy, the omission of the oophore stage, 
or sexual generation, in alternation of generations, 
as when some ferns abnormally produce a new 
fern-plant (or sporopliore) by direct growth from 
the prothallus (the first result of germination) with¬ 
out the usual formation of archegonia and their 
fertilisation by antherozoids (q.v.). In the mush¬ 
room and its allies ( Hymenomycetes ) apogamy may 
have become normal, the spawn (or mycelium) 
giving rise directly to the mushroom (or sporopliore) 
and no sexual organs being formed. 

Apogee, the point in the earth’s elliptical orbit 
at the greatest distance from the sun. The term 
is also applied to the corresponding point in the 
moon’s orbit round the earth. 


Apolda, a town in the grand duchy of Weimar, 
Germany, is situated on the river Ilm, nine 
miles east of the town of Weimar. The railway 
between that place and Berlin passes through it. 
There are hot mineral springs, and large factories 
for the weaving of cloth and hosiery. 

Apollinaris, Sidonjus, was born at Lyons in 
430 a.d. He married a daughter of Avitus, after¬ 
wards Emperor of Rome. Having entered the 
Church he became Bishop of Clermont, and wrote 
several theological works, dying in 484. 





Apollinaris. 


( 158 ) 


Apoplexy. 


Apollinaris, or Apolltxarius, of Alexandria, 
was a learned Christian of the fourth century. 
Both he and his son were excommunicated for 
associating with heathen scholars, but they were 
pardoned, and the son was subsequently Bishop of 
Laodicea. When the Emperor Julian forbade (362) 
the reading of the classics, they turned the greater 
portion of the Scriptures into verse or Platonic 
dialogues. Only a few fragments of their work are 
extant. 

Apollinaris Water, a mineral water con¬ 
taining carbonate of soda, found in the Ahr valley 
in the Rhine province. It is much used as a table 
beverage. A church near by, dedicated to St. 
Apollinaris, suggested the name. 

Apollo, or Phcbus, was, in classical mythology, 
the son of Zeus, or Jupiter, and Latona. Originally 
a personification of the sun, he assumed in course 
of time more complicated functions, presiding over 
music, poetry, eloquence, and medicine, besides 
exercising the divine gift of prophecy. Shepherds, 
too, and founders of cities were under his special 
care. He had the title Pythias, because by his 
shafts he freed his mother from the attacks of the 
Python. His appearance, as conceived by painters 
and sculptors, was that of a man in the prime of 
beauty, tall, beardless, exquisitely proportioned, 
and carrying either a bow or a lyre. Parnassus and 
Tempe were among his favourite haunts, but Delphi 
was his true home, and his oracle there commanded 
for many centuries the veneration of the world. He 
had temples also in Delos, Claros, Tenedos, and 
Patara, and the Colossus at Rhodes was dedicated 
to him. Artemis was his twin sister. In the early 
religion of Rome there can be found no trace of 
this divinity, but his worship was early introduced 
from Greece, and became strongly rooted in the 
national customs. The famous statue in the Belve¬ 
dere of the Vatican, though not of the best period 
of art, has furnished the popular idea of the god to 
later generations. 

Apollodorus, (1) a famous Greek painter who 
flourished at Athens, about 408 B.C., and was a con¬ 
temporary of Zeuxis. (2) A learned grammarian of 
Alexandria, in the second century b.C. He was a 
pupil of Aristarchus. (3) A great architect, born 
at Damascus in 60 A.D. He built for Trajan the 
stone bridge over the Danube, and the column in 
the Forum, besides other splendid works. He is 
said to have been put to death by Hadrian in 130. 

Apollonius, (1) of Rhodes, a Greek poet, who 
was born at Alexandria or Naucratis, about 276 
B.C. He is reputed to have been first the pupil and 
afterwards the rival of Callimachus, who caused his 
exile to Rhodes. After the death of his enemy he 
returned to Egypt, and was made guardian of the 
great library of Alexandria. Only one of his works 
has come down to us, viz. the Argonautiea , an epic 
in four books, from which Virgil borrowed. He 
died about 186. (2) Of Tvana, in Cappadocia, a 

philosopher of the first Christian century, who 
seems to have combined mysticism and magic with 
the cult of virtue. His birth in 4 B.C. was alleged 
to have been attended by miraculous signs. He 
studied at Tarsus and iEge, adopting the moral and 


religious principles of Pythagoras for his guidance. 
He then seems to have travelled as a teacher over the 
greater part of the known world, visiting India and 
^Ethiopia, and going to Rome in Nero's time to see 
“ what sort of a beast a tyrant was.” He enjoyed 
the esteem of Vespasian and Titus, but was charged 
with conspiracy against Domitian. He was taken 
to Rome, refuted his accusers, and returned by 
magical means. Afterwards he prophesied the 
emperor's assassination. He died about 96 a.d. 

Apollos, an Alexandrian Jew, who, after ac¬ 
quiring a thorough knowledge of the Old Testament 
(Acts xviii. 24), came under the influence of John 
the Baptist's teaching, and about the middle of the 
first century embraced Christianity at Ephesus. 
He then received fuller instruction from Aquila 
and Priscilla. At Corinth, where he watered the 
seed sown by Paul, his popularity was so great that 
his followers appear to have sought to establish a 
sect of their own (1 Cor. iii. 4-7). ApolloS, disgusted, 
left Corinth, and probably gave full information to 
Paul, who generously wished him to return. He is 
thought by many to be the author of the Epistle to 
the Hebrews. 

Apollyon (Greek, destroyer ), a name given to 
the king of the army of locusts, and the angel of 
the bottomless pit in Rev. ix. 11, where the Hebrew 
equivalent is stated to be Abaddon. The adoption 
by Bunyan, in the Pilgrim's Progress, of this title 
for the enemy of man, has made it yet more 
familiar to English readers. 

Apologetics, that branch of Christian theology 
which treats of the establishment and defence of 
Christianity. 

Apologue, a story or fable in which some 
moral precept is impressed upon the hearer. It 
differs from a parable, in that the latter is confined 
to incidents which have some probability, whereas 
an apologue is absolutely unlimited. 

Apology, originally, the defence made by any¬ 
one against an accusation ; in this sense it is used 
by Plato in the “ Apology of Socrates.” Later, the 
term was used by Christian writers much in the 
same meaning, for a defence of Christianity against 
all opponents. Now, however, the word has quite 
a' different meaning, and signifies admission of a 
fault, for which a slight humiliation is due. 

Apophis (Apap, an Egyptian word, signifying 
a, giant), the great serpent which the ancient 
Egyptians took as a type or personification of evil, 
and which Horus is represented as having destroyed. 
From this myth the Greeks borrowed the story of 
the destruction of the Python by Apollo, and of the 
wars between the giants and the gods. 

Apophthegm, a terse, concise maxim, rather 
more practical than an aphorism (q.v.). 

Apophyllite, a hydrated silicate of calcium 
and potassium, named from its flaking before the 
blow-pipe. Large white crystalline masses of this 
mineral are found at Poonah and Ahmednagar, in 
India. 

Apoplexy, a word the meaning of which it is 
not easy to define; it is used in varying senses by 








Aporosa. 


C 159 ) 


Apcstolic Succession. 


different authorities, and much confusion has in 
consequence resulted. In its original use it de¬ 
noted simply a “ stunning” or “ stupor ” produced 
by internal disease. The old physicians recognised 
a form of seizure in which disablement of body, 
mind, or both suddenly supervened, usually in per¬ 
sons who had passed the prime of life, and alto¬ 
gether apart from injury, poisoning, epilepsy, or 
other known causes of such a condition. To this 
class of cases the term “ stroke,” “ apoplectic stroke,” 
or simply “ apoplexy ” was applied. It was subse- 
tpiently discovered that one of the commonest 
causes of such a seizure was the rupture of an 
artery within the brain, leading to effusion of 
blood into the cerebral substance. Hence apo¬ 
plexy came to signify an extravasation of blood, 
and by an unfortunate extension of its meaning 
(in defiance of the etymology of the word) if was 
applied indiscriminately to any such extravasation, 
in whatever part of the body it might occur. 
Thus arose the terms cerebral apoplexy, pulmonary 
apoplexy, and the like. 

In cerebral apoplexy the symptoms are very 
variable, differing according to the part of the 
brain which is affected. There is usually sudden 
loss of consciousness, accompanied by hemiplegia 
(or paralysis of one side of the body). The state 
of stupor may become more and more pronounced, 
with stertorous breathing, and may end in death ; 
or recovery of consciousness may take place, 
though in that event loss of power of movement, 
loss of speech or some other defect usually re¬ 
mains. [Aphasia, Hemiplegia.] 

Rupture of a cerebral artery is due to degenera¬ 
tion of the arterial coats ; it is particularly liable 
to occur in the subjects of the disease known as 
chronic interstitial nephritis (q.v.). The old notions 
that stout, short-necked persons are especially 
Table to apoplexy rests on no secure foundation. 

A patient who has had one apoplectic attack is 
always liable to another. Popular,pathology says 
that the third “ stroke ” is always fatal; this is, 
however, by no means necessarily the case. The 
treatment of a fit of apoplexy consists in securing 
absolute rest with the head raised. The applica¬ 
tion of cold, the administration of purgatives, and 
in some cases blood-letting are also of service. 

Aporosa ('without pores), the sub-order of 
Madreporaria, in which the walls of the skeleton 
are solid instead of being porous. It includes the 
most highly developed of existing corals. [Coral.] 

Aporrhais, the spout shell, a genus of Gastro¬ 
poda, of which one species, A. pes-pelecani, is 
common round the English coast. 

Apospory, the omission of the sporophore (or 
non-sexual) stage in alternation of generations, 
which is at present only known to occur abnorm¬ 
ally in some ferns, in which a rudimentary pro- 
thallus (q.v.), bearing archegonia, is borne on the 
back of the frond, in place of the usual sporangia. 
[Apogamy.] 

Apostate (Greek, one who stands away from), 
one who abandons the religion he has formerly 
professed ; frequently used of those who abandoned 


Christianity from unworthy motives, such as fear 
of persecution or desire of gain. The Emperor 
Julian, however, to whom the epithet was applied, 
abjured Christianity from purely conscientious 
motives. 

A posteriori (Lat., from that which is after), 
in Loyic, an argument which reasons backwards 
from effects to causes, or from particular facts 
to general laws. Thus the term is commonly applied 
to Induction as contrasted with Deduction. [A 
PRIORI.] 

Apostle (Greek, one sent forth'), the name 
given by Christ to twelve of His disciples, whom He 
designated as His messengers. They were named 
Simon Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bar¬ 
tholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James the Less, 
Simon the Canaanite, Jude, and Judas Iscariot. 
St. Paul and Barnabas were afterwards spoken of as 
apostles. The lists vary slightly in the different 
Gospels. 

Apostles’ Creed, the common formula of 
Christian belief commencing, “ I believe in God, 
the Father Almighty.” It was for some time 
attributed to the Apostles, but modern criticism 
shows it to be of later authorship. 

Apostle Spoons, spoons having at the end of 
each handle the carved figure of an Apostle. They 
are frequently given as christening presents. 

Apostolic Brethren, the name given to 
various sects which professed to live after the 
manner of the Apostles. The most notable was 
founded by Segarelli of Parma in 1260. In 1300 
Segarelli was executed, and was succeeded by 
Dolcino, who, however, after a desperate resistance 
was taken by Bishop Raynerius, and was burnt in 
1307. The doctrines of the Brethren were re¬ 
nunciation of marriage, property, and all worldly 
ties, and denunciation of papacy and the corruption 
of the Church. 

Apostolic Canons, eighty-five ecclesiastical 
rules, erroneously ascribed to Clemens Romanus 
(q.v.). They afford valuable insight into the 
discipline of the Oriental churches of the second 
and third centuries. 

Apostolic Churches, churches established 
by the Apostles; specially applied to those of 
Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. The 
term is also claimed by the Roman Catholic Church 
and the Church of England. 

Apostolic Constitutions, a collection of 
rules for the Church, attributed, like the Apostolic 
Canons (q.v.), to Clemens Romanus. 

Apostolic Fathers, Clemens, Barnabas, Poly¬ 
carp. Ignatius, and Hennas : so called because they 
actually came into contact with the Apostles 
during their life-time. 

Apostolic Succession, the theory of the 
unbroken succession of bishops and episcopally 
ordained clergy from the Apostles themselves 
down to the present day. The Roman Catholics, 






Apostrophe. 


( 160 ) 


Appeal. 


and many members of the Church of England 
believe that such succession is absolutely essential 
to any pastoral office. 

Apostrophe (Greek, a turning away), in 
Rhetoric, a figure of speech in which the speaker 
breaks off from his address to the audience and 
makes an appeal to some individual either present 
or absent, or to some thing animate or inanimate. 
This form of oratory is frequently used by the 
poets. The term is also used to designate the 
mark (’) for one or more letters omitted, as tlio' for 
though, ’twas for it was, and especially in the 
possessive case where an e is dropped out, as 
“ Lord's ” for “ Lordes .” 

Apothecary, a term applied until compara¬ 
tively recently to a member of the inferior branch 
of the medical profession. In IGOfi the apothe¬ 
caries of London were, together with the grocers, 
incorporated by James I.; but in 1G17 they were 
freed from this combination. At this time they 
were allowed to dispense and sell medicines, but 
not to prescribe: this injunction was removed in 
1703, while in 1815 an Act was passed giving the 
Society of Apothecaries the privilege of licensing 
and examining all such medical men as dispensed 
drugs in England and Wales. Later legislation, 
however, has amended this law in several respects, 
apprenticeship, which was formerly essential to the 
would-be practising apothecary, no longer being 
necessary. 

Apothecium, the fructification in one divi¬ 
sion of the fungi, consisting of an open cup or disc 
lined with hairs ( paraphyses ) and spore-cases. The 
Lichens belong here. 

Apotheosis, the deification of a mortal, either 
by ascribing to him divine ancestry or by actual 
enrolment among the gods, though these two 
cjnditions are often found together, as in the 
case of Romulus :— 

“ Born from a god, himself to godhead born, 

His sire already signs him for the skies. 

And makes his seat amidst the deities.” 

Under the first head fall the demigods of classic 
mythology [Heroes, Hero-children], and the 
sacred sovereigns of ancient Peru, China, and 
Japan, the fancied descendants of the Sun or 
Moon. The best instances of the latter form are 
historical. In Egypt the Pharaohs and the Ptolemies 
were venerated, and Alexander claimed to be a son 
of the Zeus who, clothed with a ram's skin, showed 
himself to Herakles. Suetonius tells how Julius 
Cresar was deified after death, not merely by a 
formal decree, but “ by the firm belief of the com¬ 
mon people;” and how, when the body of Augustus 
was burning, “ a man of praetorian rank swore that 
he had seen the shade of the emperor ascending 
up into heaven.” Thus the custom was introduced 
that on the decease of every emperor the Senate 
should place him in the number of the gods, and 
the ceremonies of his deification were blended with 
those of his funeral. There are two noteworthy 
developments of apotheosis: (1) Hagiolatry (q.v.) 
as practised in the Roman, Greek, and African 
Churches (with the curious modification of it in the 


cult of the Positivists) (q.v.); and (2) the belief that 
“ Divinity doth hedge a king,” and to this belief, in 
its turn, are due the doctrines of passive obedience 
and “ the right divine of kings to govern wrong.” 
The term is used figuratively to signify excessive 
honour paid to any distinguished person, or the 
personification of a principle or idea. 

Appalachians. [Alleghanies.] 

Appalachicola, (1) a river that flows for seventy 
miles through the State of Florida, U.S.A., and 
falls into St. George’s Sound in the Gulf of Mexico. 
It receives one or two considerable tributaries. 
(2) A seaport at the mouth of this river. 

Appanage, or Apanage, originally the pro¬ 
vision of lands or feudal superiorities assigned by 
the kings of France for the maintenance of their 
younger sons, now used for the allowance assigned 
to the prince of a reigning house for a proper 
maintenance out of the public chest. 

Apparent, in astronomy and general physics, 
a term applied in contra-distinction to real. ' The 
apparent motions of the stars are due to the real 
motions of the earth, diurnal and annual. The 
apparent position of a star differs from its real 
position in the heavens by reason of the aberration 
of light. Apparent noon is at the instant the sun is 
crossing the meridian. The meaning attached to true 
noon (q.v.) is a convention. The apparent magnitude 
of a heavenly body is the angle subtended by a 
diameter at the observer’s eye, and depends on the 
distance of the body as well as on its real magni¬ 
tude. The apparent magnitude of the moon is 
much greater than that of Jupiter, though the real 
magnitude is much less. Other such distinctions 
will be noted elsewhere. 

Apparitions, a general term embracing all 
visible spiritual appearances — of supernatural 
beings (angels, demons, fairies), of doubles of the 
living (fetches, wraiths), or of the ghosts of the 
dead. This definition marks off apparitions—which 
are said to be objective—from hallucinations, which 
are admittedly subjective, and in many cases the 
result of physical disease. The belief in apparitions 
is widely spread, and references to it occur in the 
earliest literature of the human race. The litera¬ 
ture of apparitions is a noteworthy instance of the 
survival of the belief of the lower races far into civil¬ 
ised times. For a ghost always appears dressed, 
sometimes—as in the case of" Hamlet’s father— 
armed. Every one who has read or heard a ghost- 
story knows how the garments of ghosts rustle"; they 
used to drag clanking chains, but these went out 
with Mrs. Radclifife and “ Monk ” Lewis. In Black¬ 
wood's Magazine for July, 1890, is a short story in 
which the ghost is a “ tall lady dressed in black.” 
Those who claim that apparitions are objective 
may be fairly asked on what other theory than that 
of survival can such an idea of a revenant be ac¬ 
counted for. The modern theory of apparitions is 
that they are purely subjective. 

Appeal. In its most general sense an appeal 
is a proceeding taken to rectify or revise a supposed 




Appeal. 


( 161 ) 


Appian. 


erroneous decision of a Court by submitting the 
question to a higher Court, hence termed the Court 
of Appeal. The term, therefore, includes, in addi¬ 
tion to proceedings specifically so-called, the “cases” 
stated for the opinion of the Queen's Bench Divi¬ 
sion, the Court for Crown Cases Reserved, etc., 
under various statutes and proceedings in error. 
[Error.] 

In the Supreme Court of Judicature every appeal 
from a judgment or order of the High Court to the 
Court of Appeal is brought on by a single motion 
in the Court of Appeal asking that the judgment or 
order complained of may be reversed, discharged, or 
varied. In the Common Law Divisions an appeal 
lies from the Judge in Chambers to the Divisional 
Court, and thence to the Court of Appeal, while in 
the Chancery Division the Judge in Chambers may 
either direct the matter to be argued before him in 
Court (after which an appeal lies to the Court of 
Appeal), or he may give leave to appeal direct to the 
Court of Appeal. 

Appeals to the House of Lords also lie from any 
order or judgment either of the Court of Appeal or 
of any of the Scottish or Irish Courts. They are 
brought by petition, which is lodged by the appel¬ 
lant at the Parliament Office, and presented to the 
House at its next meeting by the Lord Chancellor 
or Clerk of the Parliaments, after which an order 
requiring the respondent to lodge his printed case 
is issued and served on him. If he intends to con¬ 
test the appeal he enters an appearance, and the 
appellant gives security for costs. Each party then 
lodges a printed case stating the facts and reasons 
in their favour, and an appendix is also prepared 
containing printed copies of the documents and 
other evidence used in the Court below. The 
Appellate Jurisdiction Act, 1876, provides that an 
appeal of this kind shall not be heard and deter¬ 
mined unless there be present not less than three 
“ Lords of Appeal,” that is to say, three of the fol¬ 
lowing persons :—The Lord Chancellor, the Lords 
of Appeal in Ordinary, and such Peers as have held 
“ high judicial office,” viz. the office of Lord Chan¬ 
cellor of Great Britain or Ireland, or of paid Judge 
of the Judicial Committee, or of Judge of the High 
Court of Justice, or of the Court of Appeal, or of 
the Superior Courts of Law and Equity in England 
as they existed before the constitution of the High 
Court of Justice, or of one of the Superior Courts 
of Law and Equity at Dublin, or of the Court of 
Session in Scotland. One year (instead of five 
years, as formerly) is the time limited for an 
appeal. 

As to the County Courts, which now transact so 
much of the civil business of the country, the Judge 
may, after he has given his decision, accede to an 
application for a new trial on such terms as he 
thinks reasonable. Also, if either party is dissatis¬ 
fied with the Judge’s decision in point of law or 
equity, or upon the admission or rejection of any 
evidence, he may appeal to the High Court in the 
manner prescribed by the rules. This appeal lies 
to a Divisional Court of the High Court of Justice. 

In appeals to the Privy Council, which lie from 
an Indian or Colonial Court, and in ecclesiastical 
matters, also in matters of Admiralty and lunacy, 

11 


leave to appeal has in most instances to be obtained 
either trorn the Court below or from the Judicial 
Committee, and security given for the costs of the 
appeal. 

^ As to criminal matters, there is at present no 
Court of Criminal Appeal strictly so termed. 
“ Crown Cases reserved ” have been mentioned. 
The establishment of a Court of Criminal Appeal 
has been of late much advocated for obvious 
reasons* As a general rule, no appeal lies for 
costs. 

Appendicularia, a genus of free-swimming 
Tunlcata (or “ Sea Squirts ”) (order Copelaths), 
in which the tail is retained through life. A.Jiag- 
ellina is the common British species. 

Appendix vermiformis, a small blind 
passage which opens out of the human large 
intestine just below the ileo-csecal valve ; it is three 
or four inches long, and sometimes gives rise to 
trouble from the impaction in it of a foreign body. 

Appenzell, a small canton of Switzerland, 
lying wholly within the confines of the larger canton 
of St. Gall. Its area of 152 square miles is divided 
into two districts, the inner and outer Rhoden ; the 
former is agricultural and Catholic, the latter is 
Protestant, and manufactures linen and cotton 
goods, embroideries, and dyes. The south of the 
canton is mountainous, M. Sentis (8,220 ft.) being 
the highest peak. The chief towns are Appenzell, 
Trogen, Gais, and Herisau. Appenzell, the capital, 
is on the left bank of the river Sittem. 

Apperley, Charles James, born in 1777, after 
being educated at Rugby, and serving in the army, 
settled down as a fox-hunting farmer, subsequently 
migrating to France in reduced circumstances. 
Under the norn de plume of “ Nimrod ” he wrote 
for the Sporting Magazine , and was the author of 
several books which were widely popular. He died 
in 1843. 

Appert, Benjamin Nicholas Marie, born 
at Paris in 1797, the originator of a scheme of 
mutual instruction that brought about very remark¬ 
able results in the French Army and in the prisons 
of that country. He managed a reformatory in the 
department of Moselle from 1841 to 1844, and made 
in 1846 a tour of Belgium, Germany, Prussia, and 
Austria, with a view to establishing his system, 
afterwards publishing his observations. 

Appetite, generally the desire for food, al¬ 
though the term is applied in a wider sense to any 
desire of the body or the mind. The loss of 
appetite (in the more restricted meaning) is termed 
anorexia (q.v.), depraved appetite is called pira 
(q.v.), and insatiable appetite, bulinsia (q.v.). 

Appian, an Alexandrian Greek, who wrote in 
his own language a valuable history of Rome. It 
is comprised in 24 books, which follow no chrono¬ 
logical order, but deal with the history of each 
nation conquered by Rome until its conquest, and 
of the Roman civil wars which preceded the down¬ 
fall of the Republic ; and sum up the statements of 
earlier authors whose works are lost. He was 







Appiani. 


( 162 ) 


Appointment. 


contemporary with Trajan, Adrian, and Antoninus 
Pius, the latter of whom made him procurator of 
the empire. 

Appiani, a modern Italian painter of merit, 
born near Milan in 1754. He showed early in 
life great talent for fresco painting, and was com¬ 
missioned to adorn the cupola of Santa Maria di 
San Celso at Milan. This he did with such success 
as to earn the title of the Modern Raphael. He 
executed many works for public buildings, and at¬ 
tracted the attention of Napoleon, who conferred 
on him high distinctions. He died in 1818. 

Appian Way (Lat. Via Applet), one of the 
oldest and most famous of Roman highways. 
It was laid down by Appius Claudius Caucus in 



312 B.c. as far as Capua; Julius Caasar carried it 
farther, and Augustus completed it to Brundusium, 
the whole length being 350 miles. Horace made 
his well-known journey along it (Sat.-pass), and 
Statius describes it as Regina Yiarum. The re¬ 
mains may still be traced, especially near Terra- 
•cina, and part of it has been restored. 

Appius Claudius, the name of a great patri¬ 
cian family of ancient Rome, almost always dis¬ 
tinguished for hostility to the plebs. The chief 
members were as follows :— 

1. Appius Claudius Sabinus Regillensis, 
the founder of the family, a Sabine, who came to 
Rome about 400 b.c., and was admitted, with his 
followers, into the Claudia gens. He was consul 
In 482 b.c., and two of his sons attained the same 
honour. 

2. Appius Claudius Crassinus, the Decemvir, 
and the would-be seducer of Virginia, held the con¬ 
sulship in 451 B.c. 

3. Appius Claudius Caucus, the Censor in 312 
B.C., constructed the great, Aqueduct and the 
Appian Way. He defeated the Samnites in two 
campaigns. When old and blind he dissuaded the 
Senate from concluding a disgraceful peace with 
Pyrrhus. 


Apple, the fruit of the Pgrus Malus, a small 
tree belonging to the tribe Pomacecc of the order 
Rosacea-. The apple-tree is wild in Europe and 
Western Asia, and has been cultivated from pre¬ 
historic times, about 2,000 varieties being now 
recognised. It can be grown up to 65° N. lat., 
farther north than any other fruit tree, but not 
within the tropics. Hereford and Devon are noted 
counties for apples, cider being there largely brewed 
from this fruit, while Kent is celebrated for table 
apples ; but we also import enormous quantities of 
apples from the United States, New Brunswick, etc. 
The apple is distinguished from the allied pear not 
only by flavour but also by a total absence of gritty 
particles in its flesh, by the situation of the “ core,” 
or carpellary portion, near its base, and by the at¬ 
tachment of the stalk in a hollow or “ umbilicus.” 

Apple of Sodom. [Solanum.] 

Appleby, the capital of Westmoreland, stands 
on the left bank of the river Eden. The ancient 
castle defended by Lady Pembroke against the 
Parliamentary troops has now passed by inheritance 
to the Earls of Thanet. The church of St. Lawrence, 
founded in 1177, is an interesting structure. 

Appleton, a city of Wisconsin, U.S. A., situated 
on the Grand Chute Rapids of the Fox river. 

Appleton, Charles Edward Cutts Birch. 
born in 1841. He graduated at Oxford in 1863, 
and became fellow and lecturer at St. John's 
College. He wrote in favour of the “ endowment 
of research.” In 1869 he established the Academy , 
as a monthly periodical to be devoted to literature, 
art, and science under their highest aspects. He 
edited the paper till his death, which occurred in 
1879. His Life and Literary Relics were published 
in 1881. 


Appleton, D., born in 1785, the founder of the 
great American publishing firm of that name. He 
died in 1849, leaving the business to his three sons, 
the last of whom died in 1878. The greatest 
achievement of the firm was The JVew American 
Cyclopaedia, issued in 16 vols. 

Appogia-tnra, in Mnsic, a term signifying the 
delaying a note of a melody by the introduction 
of a note before it. It is generally written in a 
smaller type than the notes of the melody, with or 
without a stroke across the stem. The following 
phrase from Beethoven's Adelaide furnishes an 
example:— 



___ 

—4—&- p>——— 

Appointment, the act of designating a person 
to an office or as a trustee, or to take an interest 
in property under a power of appointment. An 




















Appomattox 


( 163 ) 


Appropriation. 


appointment, to one or more of the objects of a 
particular power to the exclusion of the others is 
called an Exclusive Appointment. Every deed which 
creates a trust and nominates trustees should con¬ 
tain a power to appoint new ones, and this power 
should be comprehensive and provide for all usual 
contingencies. Such a power must be strictly 
exercised. In the absence of a power to appoint 
new trustees the Chancery Division of the High 
Court of Justice has jurisdiction to nominate them 
under divers statutes. 

Appomattox, a river flowing east into the 
James river, Virginia-, U.S.A., and giving its name 
to a county in the centre of the State. It has an 
area of 326 square miles. Appomattox Courthouse, 
a village in the county, witnessed the surrender 
{1865) of General Lee with the army of Northern 
Virginia to General Grant. 

Apportionment, a division of a whole into 
parts (usually unequal) proportioned to the rights 
•of more claimants than one. It is either (1) ap¬ 
portionment, in respect of time, or (2) apportion¬ 
ment in respect of estate. When the interest of a 
tenant for life, or other person having a determin¬ 
able estate, ceases, his successor cannot as the next 
accruer of income claim the whole as from the 
last payment, but an apportionment between the 
representatives of the deceased tenant for life 
and the person succeeding in remainder is 
directed. And now the Apportionment Act, 
1S70, provides that all rents, annuities, dividends, 
and other periodical payments in the nature 
of income shall, like interest on money lent, be 
considered as accruing from day to day, and shall 
be apportionable in respect of time accordingly. 
As to apportionment in respect of estate, it is 
provided that where the reversion upon a lease is 
severed and the rent is legally apportioned, the 
assignee of each part of the reversion shall in 
respect of the apportioned rent allotted to him be 
entitled to the benefit of all conditions of re-entry 
for one year’s rent, and the Conveyancing Act, 1881, 
applies this principle to conditions generally. 

Apposition, in Grammar, the placing together 
without a conjunction of two nouns which are in the 
same case. Thus, in the sentence, “John the man 
did this,” the nouns “John” and “ man” are in ap¬ 
position with each other and the second explains 
the first. 

Appraisement. A writ or commission of ap¬ 
praisement is one commanding the persons to whom 
it is directed to ascertain and return (that is, report) 
the value of certain property, as where goods are 
forfeited to the crown. Appraisers are persons 
employed to value goods, repairs, labour, etc.; they 
are required to take out an annual licence. Accord¬ 
ing to an old statute, appraisers valuing goods too 
highly were compelled to take them at their own 
valuation. By the Law of Distress Amendment 
Act, 1888, goods need not in general now be ap¬ 
praised before sale, but are to be appraised only if 
the tenant or other owner of the goods in writing 
requires such appraisement to be made. [Distress.] 

Apprehension. [Arrest.] 


Apprentice, a species of servant. An ap¬ 
prentice is bound by indenture usually for a term 
of years to serve his master, who on his part 
agrees to maintain and instruct him during such 
period. This binding is generally to persons of 
trade in order to learn their art and mystery. 
And by a provision w r hich remained in force until 
modern times, it was in general required that every 
person who could exercise a trade in England must 
have previously served as apprentice to it for seven 
years. But later, all enactments, customs, and 
bye-laws which had the effect of prohibiting trades 
and occupations to persons who had not served 
therein as apprentices were abolished. It is, how¬ 
ever, to be observed that in the City of London the 
customs and bye-laws on this subject remain as 
before. Apprentices are usually infants bound out 
by their friends, though their own consent 
(testified by their executing the indentures) is 
essential to the validity of the transaction. But 
there is a class called Parish Apprentices , w r ho are 
bound under different conditions, for the children 
of parents unable to maintain them may be ap¬ 
prenticed till the age of twenty-one to such persons 
as shall be thought fitting to receive them by the 
guardians or overseers of the parish, and this with¬ 
out their own consent or becoming parties to the 
indentures; and the persons selected as their 
masters were formerly also compellable to take 
them. But the reception of a parish apprentice is 
no longer made compulsory. The Employers and 
Workmen Act, 1875, provides that any dispute 
between an apprentice to whom such statute 
applies and his master, arising out of or in¬ 
cidental to their relations as such, may be heard 
and determined by a Court of Summary Juris¬ 
diction, and that such Court shall have the 
same powers as if the dispute was between an 
employer and a workman, and moreover may 
make an order directing the apprentice to perform 
his duties; on the other hand, the Court (if it thinks 
fit) may rescind the instrument of apprenticeship 
and require the whole or any part of the premium 
paid on the binding of the apprentice to be re¬ 
funded; and if the apprentice shall disobey an order 
made that he is to perform his duties, the Court 
may cause him to be imprisoned for a period not 
exceeding fourteen days. In Scotland the system 
of apprenticeship has never had the same import¬ 
ance as it has had in England. 

Approaches, Military, the works erected by 
an army for its protection while it is moving forward 
to attack any post. Counter approaches are the 
trenches made by the besieged against besiegers. 

Approbate, or Reprobate a term employed 
to designate a person who takes advantage of 
one part, of a deed and rejects the rest. Scottish 
law—the maxim runs, “Qui approbate non repro¬ 
bat.” One who approbates cannot reprobate. A 
similar doctrine obtains in English law, and it is 
termed “ election.” 

Appropriation, in the primary sense of the 
word, the making a thing the property of a person. 
Thus to appropriate a thing which is publici juris, 








Approver. 


( 164 ) 


A priori. 


is to obtain a right to the exclusive enjoyment of 
it, so that the appropriator becomes the owner. 
Where a person is entitled to goods or moneys 
which form part of a larger quantity and are not 
distinguished, and afterwards the goods or moneys 
to which he is entitled are separated from the rest 
and set apart for him, they are said to be appro¬ 
priated. Thus if A sell to B 1,000 bricks to be 
selected and taken away by B from a certain stack, 
then as soon as B has selected and taken away 
1,000 bricks, they are appropriated to him, and the 
sale which was before executory is then complete. 
In ecclesiastical law appropriation is where a 
benefice is perpetually annexed to a spiritual cor¬ 
poration, either aggregate or sole, as the patron of 
the living. In such a case the cure of souls is 
generally given to a clerk who from being in effect 
the deputy of the appropriator or patron is called 
the vicar. In the British Legislature, the term 
applies to grants by Parliament which should only 
be expended for the objects specified. 2. The act 
of one who “ appropriates ” a payment—on account 
—to one of two debts, where the other would, if not 
paid, be barred by statute. The law does this in 
favour of the debtor where he has omitted to “ ap¬ 
propriate.” 

Approver, an accomplice in crime who 
accuses others of the same offence, and is admitted 
as a witness at the discretion of the Court to give 
evidence against his companions in guilt. He is 
vulgarly called “ Queen’s Evidence.” His testimony 
must necessarily be of an unsatisfactory nature, 
and the practice is for judges to leave it to juries, 
with the direction not to believe it unless corrobo¬ 
rated in some material particular by independent 
untainted testimony. If he fails to give full in¬ 
formation, or equivocates, he may be proceeded 
against and punished on his own confession. The 
same practice prevails in Scotland, the term applic¬ 
able to approver being “ Socius criminis,” but the 
practice so far differs from that in England that 
absolute protection is accorded to the “ Socius ” 
after proper warning that what he says cannot be 
used against him. Also a term applied to bailiffs of 
lords in their franchises, and sheriffs were called 
the King’s Approvers in an act of Edward III. 

Approximation, a mathematical calculation 
that is not absolutely correct, but sufficiently near 
for certain practical purposes. Thus the circum¬ 
ference of a circle of unit diameter is approximately 
2 t 3 ; the exact number cannot be expressed with a 
finite number of figures, and the importance of a 
useful approximation is obvious. Too high a 
degree of accuracy is needless in practical calcula¬ 
tion, and involves waste of labour. Hence the 
practical utility of abridged methods of multiplica¬ 
tion and division, of logarithmic and trigonometrical 
tables, which all involve approximations. 

Apraxin, the name of a distinguished Russian 
family. 1. Theodore Matvayevitch, born in 1671, 
as a boy became a favourite of Peter the Great. As 
a naval officer he contributed appreciably to the 
glory of the Czar by organising the navy; defeating 
the Swedes, and taking the Aland Islands. He fell 


into temporary disgrace for peculation, but was 
soon restored to favour and office as high admiral, 
privy councillor, and senator. He died in 1728. 

2. Stephan, Theodorovitch, Count, son of the pre¬ 
ceding, born in 1702. As field-marshal he took 
chief command of the army intended to act against 
Frederic the Great. After capturing Memel, he 
defeated the Prussians at Gross-Jagenclorf (1757), 
but, failing to profit by the victory, was charged 
with treason, recalled, and died during the investi¬ 
gation of the affair in 1758. 

Apricot, the fruit of Primus Arvieniaca, a small 
tree belonging to the sub-order Drupacece of the 
order Rosacece, believed to be a native of Armenia, 
but common throughout the lower mountains of 
Asia, and cultivated in Europe and North America, 
though it seldom ripens well in England. It differs 
from the plum and the cherry in its downy skin or 



apricot (showing leaf, flower and fruit). 


epiearp , and from peaches and almonds in its 
smooth stone or endocarp. In a dried state apricots 
form an important article of food in the East. 
Britain imports large quantities in syrup from Cali¬ 
fornia. The liqueur noyeau is prepared from the 
kernels, i.e. the seeds. 

April, the name of the fourth month of the 
year. There is a very wide-spread custom of play¬ 
ing little tricks or practical jokes upon people on 
the 1st of April; this generally takes the form of 
sending the “ April fool”(as the victim is called) 
on a bootless errand. In Scotland the term used is 
“gowk,” and he is usually made to carry a letter 
which bears the injunction, “ Send the gowk another 
mile.” The custom is said to be connected with the 
sending of Christ from Annas to Caiaphas, and 
from Pilate to Herod—the miracle-play (where this 
was represented) taking place in April; but the 
practice is found to exist among Hindoos, and is 
probably connected with the licence of the Spring 
Festival. The word April is held by some to be 
derived from the Latin aperire , to open, because 
the buds open in that month. 

A priori {from that which is before'), in 
Loyic, a method of reasoning from a general prin¬ 
ciple to a particular cause or effect. Mathematical 






Apse. 


( 165 ) 


Apteryx. 


proofs are a pr ior i, and, the data being hypothetical, 
the reasoning is quite trustworthy. In other cases, 
however, a priori reasoning is very apt to be falla- 
•cious. “ A priori Knowledge ” is a term applied by 
Kant and others to knowledge alleged to be in¬ 
volved in the structure of the mind itself, and not 
derived from, but only suggested by, experience : 
e.fj. the knowledge that 2x2 = 4, or that every 
change has a cause. [A posteriori.] 

Apse, in Architecture , a semicircular or poly¬ 
gonal recess in any building. In early churches it 
is always found at the east end of the choir or 



APSE, (interior OF DALMENV CHCRC'H.) 

(From a Photograph by A. A. Inglis, Edinburgh.) 


chancel. It has its origin in the magistrates’ seat 
in the Roman Basilica. Many apses remain in 
churches, notable ones being the Apostles’ Church, 
Cologne, and the church at Dalmenv in Scotland. 

Apsheron, a peninsula that runs into the 
Caspian Sea from the west, and terminates in Cape 
Apsheron, which is the extreme point of the 
Caucasian range. The whole peninsula abounds in 
mineral oils, naphtha, and inflammable gases. The 
soil yields also madder, saffron, and salt. 

Apsides, the two extreme points in the orbit of 
a planet or satellite at the greatest and least 
distances from the centre of attraction. 

Aptychus, the name of one of the plates of 
which a pair closed the mouth of the shells of Am¬ 
monites. 

Aptera, the wingless insects. There are four 
such orders, viz. Anoplura (Lice) ; Mallophaga 
(Bird-lice); Collembola (Spring-tails), and 
Thysanura. They are not now regarded as 
closely allied. [Apterygogenea.] 

Apterygogenea, a division of insects, includ¬ 
ing those which never possessed wings, viz. the 
Collembola (q.v.) and Thysanura (q.v.). The 
other wingless insects have lost these appendages. 
The name"implies the absence of wings both in the 
present forms and their ancestors. 


Apteryx, a genus of Ratite birds, constituting 
a family ( Apterygidce ), with four species (or per¬ 
haps two species, each consisting of two races), all 
from New Zealand. These birds, called by the 
Maoris “ Kiwi,” or “ Kiwi-Kiwi,” from their cry, 
have the merest rudiments of wings, and these are 
so hidden that they appear to be altogether wanting ; 
the plumage is much more like hair than feathers, 
and there is no aftershaft. [Feather.] The North 
Island Kiwi (A. mantelli ) and the large Grey Kiwi 
(.4. liaasti ) are represented in the South Island by 
A. australis and the Little Grey Kiwi (A. oweni). 
As is evident from the popular names, the plumage 
of two of these species is grey ; that of the North 
Island Kiwi is rufous brown, and that of A. australis 
sandy or greyish brown. The smaller species are 
about the size of a domestic fowl, but the Large 
Grey Kiwi is about two feet in height. The form 
of the body is not unlike that of the penguin, set 
on short stout legs, with three toes in front, and a 
short one behind raised above the level of the rest. 
The neck is short and thick, and the head is fur¬ 
nished with a long smooth, slender bill, having the 
nostrils at the tip. The bill is driven into the ground 



apteryx ( Apteryx australis). 


in search of worms, which constitute the principal 
food of these birds. Little is known of their habits 
in a state of nature beyond the fact that they live 
in pairs and pass the day in holes in the ground or 
at the foot of trees, coming out in the twilight to 
feed. They run with great rapidity, and if attacked 
endeavour to escape, but if hard pressed they raise 
the foot and strike downwards with considerable 
force, thus using the sharp and powerful claws as 
weapons of defence. Many living specimens have 
been brought to Europe, and they bear confinement 
fairly well. The North Island Kiwi in the Zoologi¬ 
cal Gardens, Regent’s Park, laid two eggs, dispro¬ 
portionately large for the size of the bird, which 
were incubated for some time, but without results. 











































Apuleius. 


( 1G6 ) 


Aqua viva. 


Apuleius, Lucius, born at Madauras in Af¬ 
rica in 125 a.d. or perhaps a little earlier. He 
studied at Athens, where he acquired a strong 
predilection for Platonism. Going to Pome he 
practised with success as an advocate. On his 
return to Africa he captivated and married a rich 
widow. This led to his being charged with sorcery, 
but his eloquent defence, preserved in the Apologia, 
secured an acquittal. His great work, the Meta- 
■morphosis , better known as the Golden Ass, contains 
the romance of Psyche besides other amusing stories 
that have been adopted by Cervantes, Le Sage, and 
Boccacio. Among his more serious productions 
are treatises on the life and doctrine of Plato, on 
the God of Socrates, and on the World. Though 
his style is inflated and full of barbarisms, he dis¬ 
plays much versatility, humour, and intelligence. 

Apulia (mod. Puglia), a name which is now 
somewhat vaguely applied to the country that ex¬ 
tends along the east coast of Italy from above the 
promontory of Gargano to the river Bradano in the 
Gulf of Taranto, thus including the ancient 
Calabria. In classical times Apulia or Appulia 
(sometimes called Japygia) was a province bounded 
south by Calabria and east by Sammium and 
Lucania. It was divided by the river Anfidus into 
Daunia north and Peucetia south, the latter corre¬ 
sponding to the Puglia of modern times. The 
primitive inhabitants were regarded as Oscans, but 
the country was colonised by Greeks from Arcadia. 
The Apulians struggled against Rome till 317 B.C., 
and were of doubtful faith in the Punic and Social 
wars. They were so severely treated by the 
Romans that to this day the country has never re¬ 
covered its ancient prosperity. 

Apurimac, or Tambo, a river of South 
America, which, rising near Caylloma in Peru and 
receiving several large affluents, after a course of 
600 miles, joins the Ucayli, one of the head-streams 
of the Amazon, near the ninth parallel of south 
latitude. It is also known as the Catongo, and Ene. 

Apus, one of the best known of the Phyllo- 
PODA (q.v.). It has a shield-like carapace or shell, 

and sixty pairs of feet, 
all but one of which are 
foliaceous and respira¬ 
tor//. The members of 
the genus are gregarious 
in pools and ditches. 

Aquafortis, com¬ 
mercial nitric acid. 
Usually both weak and 
impure. 

Aqua-marine, a 

pale-blue variety of the 
emerald. 

Aqua Regia, a 

mixture of nitric and 
hydrochloric acids, which obtained its title from 
the property it possesses of dissolving gold. 

Aquarium, a tank or receptacle in which 
aquatic animals and plants are kept as nearly as 


possible under natural conditions, for scientific- 
purposes. In 1790 Sir John Dalyell formed a col¬ 
lection of living marine animals which he kept in 
tanks .and glass jars, changing the water once, and 
sometimes twice a day. But such tanks w r ere not 
aquaria. The first to apprehend the true prin¬ 
ciple on which an aquarium should be maintained 
was Dr. Ward (the inventor of the Wardian case) 
who endeavoured to reproduce in his tanks the 
actual conditions of life in a pond. He introduced 
plants to absorb the carbon dioxide given off by the 
animals, and to aerate the water. Gosse followed,, 
and his book on the subject, Kingsley's Glaucus , 
and the writings of the Rev. J. G. Wood did much 
to make aquaria popular. In 1852 the Zoological 
Society of London erected a house for marine 
aquaria—the first official recognition of their scien¬ 
tific value. They are distinguished as marine r 
fresh/rater, and microscopic, according to the forms 
of life kept in them. For the first two the tanks 
may be of almost any shape; the worst is the glass 
globe, in which one often sees unfortunate gold fish 
imprisoned, without a spray of weed to shelter them 
from the glare of the sun. The best is an oblong- 
tank, of which the width should be greater than 
the depth, to expose as large a surface as possible 
to the action of the atmosphere. Microscopic 
aquaria for the cultivation of minute organisms 
may be maintained in any small glass vessel. Some 
observers use zoophyte-troughs; and infusoria are 
generally bred in tes!>tubes containing water in 
which hay, straw, etc., is infused. The beginner may 
easily gain from books sufficient information to start 
with; he will soon acquire experience and find friends 
ready and even eager to help him. It will, however, 
greatly enhance his pleasure if he has some definite 
object in view, say the working out of the life- 
history of some animal or plant, and in this way lie- 
may make some solid contribution to the sum of 
scientific knowledge. Aquaria are part of the equip¬ 
ment of every zoological station (q.v.); the name 
aquarium is often used to denote a place of enter¬ 
tainment in which the scientific meaning of the 
word is quite secondary or altogether lost sight of. 

Aquarius ( water-bearer ), the eleventh sign of 
the zodiac (q.v.). 

Aquarius, Matthias, a monk of the Order of 
St. Dominic, who wrote on the Aristotelian and 
scholastic philosophy and was professor of theology 
at Turin, Milan, Venice, Naples, and Rome. He 
died at Naples in 1591. 

Aquatint, a method of engraving by which a. 
result similar to water-colour drawing is obtained. 

Aqua Tofana (so called from a woman named 
Tofana, who lived in the 17th century, and was said 
to have poisoned 600 people with this liquid), a pre¬ 
paration in which arsenic is the principal agent. 

Aqua Vitae ( mater of life), the name applied 
to spirits, more especially spirits of the first distil¬ 
lation. The same idea is seen in the terms ivliiske/j , 
usquebaugh, and eau de vie. 

Aquaviva, or Acquaviva, Claudius, a mem¬ 
ber of a distinguished Neapolitan family, who 



Al’t’S. 







Aqueduct. 


( 167 ) 


Aquileja. 


was born in 1542, and became in 1581 General of 
the Order of Jesuits. He drew up the Ratio Studi- 
orum for their guidance, and he took an active 
interest in the Molinist controversy. His death 
took place in 1015. 

Aqueduct, strictly speaking, any channel by 
which water is conveyed from one place to another; 
the term is usually limited however to signify those 
structures which convey water to large cities, 
generally from some distant place. Aqueducts 
were largely in use among the Romans, no fewer than 
20, indeed, supplying Rome itself. The remains of the 


| 

; who with his wife rriscilla was driven out of Rome 
by the edict of Claudius, and then resided at Corinth. 
Being tent-makers like Paul, he and his wife enter¬ 
tained the apostle, and afterwards accompanied him 
to Ephesus (Acts xviii. 18), where they remained. 

2. A Greek of Sinope alleged to be a relative of 
Hadrian, who employed him to build the city 
jEolia Capitolina on the site of Jerusalem. Here he 
became a convert to Christianity, but was expelled 
from the Church for practising astrology. He then 
turned Jew, and translated the Old Testament 

I into Greek. 

3. Caspar, whose German name Adler (eagle) 



LOcn KATRINE aqueduct. ( From, a Photograph by Messrs. Annan & Sons, Glasgow.) 


Roman aqueducts prove that in this particular form 
of work the Romans had no equal, and some of their 
magnificent structures are still in use to-day, while 
all over the Continent traces are to be found of such 
works. Amongst the more celebrated of the aque¬ 
ducts of antiquity (apart from those which supplied 
Rome itself) are those at Nimes (the Pont du Gard, 
180 ft. high), Segovia, Taragona. Mayence, and 
Lyons. Of modern aqueducts the Croton aqueduct, 
which supplies New York with water, is about 40 
miles long, while Glasgow is supplied from Loch 
Katrine by a channel 35 miles in length. In 1886 
works were commenced for an aqueduct to bring 
water from LakeThirlmere to Manchester, a distance 
of 100 miles. Liverpool is similarly supplied from 
Lake Veynywy in Wales. 

Aqueous Humour, the fluid between the 
cornea (q.v.) of the eye and the crystalline lens. 

Aquila. 1. A Jew born at Pontus in Asia Minor, 


was Latinised for literary purposes, was born at 
Augsburg in 1488 and entered the Church. He 
threw himself with ardour into Luther’s movement, 
became a great friend of the reformer, aiding him 
in the translation of the Bible. In 1550 he was ap¬ 
pointed dean of Schmalkald, but ultimately re¬ 
turned to Saalfeld and died there in 1560. 

Aquila, the capital of the province of Abruzzo 
Ulteriore II. (also called Aquila), 5G miles north¬ 
east of Rome, on the river Aterno, a well-built 
and prettily-situated town, founded by the 
Emperor Frederick II. on the ruins of Amiternum, 
the birthplace of Sallust. The chief articles of 
trade are paper, linen, wax, and saffron. The pro¬ 
vince has an area of 2,509 square miles. 

Aquileja, or Aglar (Lat. Aquileia ), an ancient 
town of Italy, situated at the head of the Adriatic 
about 22 miles west of Trieste. Colonised by Rome 
in 180 b.c., it rose to be one of the chief cities of 





















Aquinas 


( 168 ) 


Arabia. 


the Empire with 130,000 inhabitants. Several 
councils of the Church were held here, and its 
bishops claimed the title of patriarch. Aquileja is 
now a mere village. 

Aquinas, or d’Aquino, Thomas, born about 
1227 a.d., entered the Dominican Order at the age 
of twenty, and after studying at Cologne and Paris 
graduated as Doct or of Theology in 1257. He spent 
his life in the service of his Order, and refused eccle¬ 
siastical promotion though revered and consulted by 
the Pope and by his kinsman, Louis IX. He com¬ 
bined the highest intellectual culture of his times 
with such remarkable piety and sweetness of temper 
as to earn the title of “ The Angelic Doctor.” In 
1323 he was canonised, and his authority has come 
to be recognised as paramount in the Homan 
Church, though his theological opponent, Duns 
Scotus, of the Franciscan Order, for many years 
had a large following. The views of Aquinas are 
summed up in his great work entitled Swuma 
Theologies. Aquinas spent his last years at Naples, 
and died in 1274 at the monastery of Fossanova, 
near Terracina, on his way to the Council of Lyons. 

Aquitaine (Lat. Aquitania ), the ancient name 
of that portion of Gaul that is comprised between 
the Pyrenees and the Garonne. After conquering 
the country, Cmsar extended the limits of Aquitania 
to the river Loire, and Augustus added to it the 
territories of the Bituriges Cubi (afterwards Berry 
and Bourbonnais). Clovis in the next century an¬ 
nexed it to the kingdom of the Franks. In G28 it 
was for a short time a kingdom in itself, but was 
reduced to a duchy till 768, when Charlemagne again 
erected it into a dependent sovereignty. In 877 
Aquitaine once more became a duchy and the name 
was corrupted into Guyenne. In 1137 Eleonora, 
daughter of the last duke, married Louis VII. of 
France and brought Guyenne and Gascony as her 
dowry. On her marriage with Henry II. the duchy 
became an appanage of the English crown, and was 
retained until 1453. 

Arabesque, in Architecture, a style of orna¬ 
ment in which men, animals, plants, or mathe¬ 
matical figures, are represented in fanciful arrange¬ 
ment. There are three varieties of Arabesque—the 
Roman, the Arabian, and the Christian. 

Arabgir, or Arabkir (anc. Anahrace ), a town 
in the vilayet of Sivas, Turkey in Asia, 150 miles 
S.S.W. of Trebizond, and on the caravan route to 
Aleppo. Silk and cotton goods are manufactured 
there. 

Arabi, Ahmed, Pasha, the son of the Sheikh 
of a village in the Nile Delta, was born in 1839, and 
claims descent from the Prophet. He passed from 
the military school at Cairo into the Egyptian army, 
and after serving in Abyssinia and the Soudan had 
attained the rank of full colonel in 1879, when 
Tewfik became Khedive. In January, 1881, he 
headed a military demonstration in favour of 
military reform, and was arrested by Riaz Pasha, 
but forcibly released by the troops. His position 
grew daily stronger as head of the National 
party, and in September he took the lead in a 
second demonstration, demanding the removal of 


Riaz, the increase of the army, and the grant of a 
liberal constitution. The Khedive yielded. Arabi 
was named Under-Secretary for War (January, 
1882), and soon after Minister of War, with the 
title of field-marshal, whilst the Sultan conferred 
on him the order of the Mejidieh. From the 
bombardment of Alexandria (July 11th) to the 
battle of Tel-el-Kebir (September 13) he directed 
as Commander-in-chief all the operations for the 
defence of Egypt; but, misconstruing the attitude 
of England and the Powers, or unwilling to im¬ 
pede the traffic of the world, he left the Suez 
Canal open. Sir Garnet Wolseley promptly took 
advantage of this omission, and in a few days the 
revolutionary movement was crushed. Arabi sur¬ 
rendered to General Drury Lowe at Cairo im¬ 
mediately after the action of September 13, and 
was brought to trial. Before the completion of 
the case he agreed to plead guilty, and to accept 
perpetual exile in Ceylon, whither he was conveyed 
with five of his chief accomplices. 


Arabia ( Jezirat-al-Arab of the inhabitants, 
Arahistan of the Turks and Persians), the south¬ 
west peninsula of Asia, shaped like an irregular 



parallelogram (almost a triangle), extending between 
long. 32° 30' to 60° E., and lat. 12° 4F to 34° N. The 
Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, and the Persian Gulf 
bound it wholly or partially on three sides. The 
Gulf of Suez separates it from Africa; but there are 
no recognised lines between it and Asiatic Turkey. 
Altogether, it is about 1,800 miles in length, and 
about 600 in breadth, with an area of 1,219,000 square 
miles, and a population estimated at not much above 
5,000,000, though no census has been taken, and 
much of the Dahna or desert has never been explored. 
The old divisions of “ Arabia Petraea,” the region 
around Petra, in the N.W., “ A. Felix,” along" the 
W. and S.W. coasts, and “A. Deserta,” in the 
















































Arabia. 


( 169 ) 


Arabia. 


interior, are unknown to the inhabitants, who speak 
of the different areas under the following names:— 
(1) Sinai,-the peninsula between the Gulfs of Suez 
and Akaba, a mass of naked rocks and craggy pre¬ 
cipices, cut into by long narrow defiles and sandy 
valleys, in which dwarf acacias, tamarisks, euphor¬ 
bias, and thorny shrubs are the only vegetation, if 
a few date palms, and a little grass in favoured 
places are excepted. (2) The Hedjaz, and (3) Yemen 
along the shores of the Red Sea, and for some inde¬ 
finite distance into the interior, divided into the 
Tehama or low country (in which are the ports of 
Djidda, Y'embo, Mokha, and Loheiha), and the 


smaller plateau of Shomer is also intersected by 
mountains, and in this region, the coast towns, the 
holy cities (Mecca and Medina, which subsist by 
the pilgrims), and the oasis of Jauf (60 miles by 
10 broad), are found the greater number of the settled 
inhabitants of Arabia. The mean height of the 
highlands is 3,000 to 4,000 ft. ; but several peaks 
rise to close on 7,000 ft., their seaward sides being 
steeper than their inland slopes. Points of the 
interior table land, which falls to the E. and N., 
are said to attain an elevation of even 8,000 ft., but 
vast tracts are still unknown. In brief, Arabia as 
a whole is not a fertile or a wooded land, much of it 



GROUP OF ARABS. 


more mountainous district on the landward side, j 
The Hedjaz is for the most part barren, stony in the 
north, and sandy to the east and south, with a few 
brackish wells, and some streams which dry up in 
summer. The roads are mere camel tracks made by 
pilgrims to Mecca, the holy city surrounded by the 
Haram or sacred territory, and Medina (of which 
the port is Mokha), in the vicinity of which and at 
Kholeys, N. of Mecca (of which Djidda is the 
port), there is some cultivation possible owing to 
the presence of springs; drought causes sterility 
elsewhere. Yemen is better watered, and has in 
consequence several rich valleys. (4) Hadramaut, 
along the southern coast, sterile, sanely, and stony. 
(5) Oman, the S.E. end of the peninsula, in which 
is the harbour of Muscat, mountainous, hot, but in 
parts very fertile, and with manufactures of silk, 
cotton and arms. (6) El Hasa, along the Persian 
Gulf, flatfish and fertile ; and (7) Nejd, the 
central plateau, the highest point of which is 
Djebel Toweyk. with many settled valleys, through 
which streams flow in the rainy season. The 


being rolling sands, or barren mountain slopes (on 
the sides which face the sea), with valleys better 
watered and plateaux which afford fair pasturage 
for the wandering Arabs. Roughly, according to 
Palgrave, a third of the country is coast ring and 
mountains, partly barren, partly either cultivated or 
susceptible of tillage, a third of central plateau toler¬ 
ably fertile, and a third desert circle, intervening 
with only one gap between the first and second. 

The climate , as a rule, is warm, but dry and 
healthy, though the hot winds called “ Khamsin ” 
in the northern desert, and “ Simoon ” in the east¬ 
ern districts are very trying even to the natives. 
The middle part of the country being included in 
the rainless regions of the Old World, and in the belt 
of greatest heat, is extremely torrid during the dry 
months. But it is not actually without rain, some 
falling in S. Arabia during the cold season in Yemen 
from June till September, and sometimes dur¬ 
ing winter. In Oman, showers may be expected 
three or four times a month, from October till May, 
but at Aden « the rains ” last only from November 






















Arabia. 


( no ) 


Arabia. 


till February or March. The south coast is best 
supplied ; the interior deserts are often unmoistened 
for many months or even years at a stretch, and 
then by torrents which are over in a few hours. 
But radiation and evaporation being rapid, consider¬ 
able cold is experienced at night, and the hills ai'e not 
unfrequently white with snow, while on the interior 
table lands the winters are comparatively rigorous. 
Yet the shores of the Red Sea are at times so hot 
that Europeans sicken, and children die, while at 
Muscat (in Oman), when the temperature is 100° in 
the shade, the Arabs sleep naked on the flat roofs of 
their houses and are watered like plants, a habit 
which may account for the prevalence of muscular 
rheumatism. The chief danger to health is from 
the sudden alternation from extreme heat to cold 
consequent on the change of wind. 

The products of Arabia are cereals—wheat or 
barley in small quantities, millet, rice, and pulse; 
beans, melons, gourds, cucumbers, cabbages, cumin 
and the like, two crops a year being common in 
certain places; coffee, cotton, sugar, tobacco, in¬ 
digo, gum Arabic, balm, various drugs and resins, 
tamarinds, lavender, frankincense, myrrh, etc., and 
above all dates, on which the Arabs mainly depend 
for food. Horses, camels, oxen, sheep, goats, and 
asses are the domestic animals; the Arab horses, 
the Oman camels, and the Mahrali dromedaries, 
still maintaining their ancient reputation. The 
wild ass roams the plains, and though the lion 
seems now extinct, the panther, hysena, ounce, 
wolf, fox, wild boar, apes, antelopes, ibex, and 
other large quadrupeds are common. The ostrich 
is chased for its feathers ; peacocks and parrots 
are found in Nejd, Hasa, Oman, and the southern 
provinces, and many of the Arabs train hawks for 
the purpose of falconry. With the exception of 
lizards, reptiles are comparatively rare, and only 
two vipers are deadly ; but scorpions are plentiful, 
centipedes annoyingly frequent, white ants as 
troublesome as in southern India, and vast swarms 
of locusts destructive to the crops, though they are 
freely eaten by the Arabs. Minerals of any value 
are scarce. Some precious stones are met with ; 
lead and silver are mined in the Oman mountains ; 
cinnabar and sulphur occur, rock salt is common, 
petroleum may not unlikely be found in quantity, 
but no gold is at present unearthed in Arabia. The 
pearl fisheries of the Persian Gulf are a source of 
considerable profit. Agriculture is, however, at a 
low stage, and with the exception of leather dress¬ 
ing, the weaving of coarse fabrics, iron work of a 
rude description, gold and silver work of a finer 
quality, and (in Oman) woollen weaving, silk and 
gold embroidery, filigree, sword cutlery, etc., there 
are few manufactures of importance. Trade, in 
like manner, is rudimentary. Camels and sheep, 
hair and wool, coffee, dates, horses, rice, and pearls 
sum up the exports, their relative importance being 
indicated by the order in which they are named. 
White cotton cloth, Indian prints, sugar, hardware, 
arms, ammunition, and a few trinkets are the prin¬ 
cipal imports. 

The population is made up of Arabs, and on the 
coast a number of Jews and Turks. But the interior 
tribes are quite unmixed with alien stocks, and still 


keep up the patriarchal form of government, each 
tribe being ruled by a Sheik or Shereef (descendant 
of the Prophet), or an Elder. With the exception 
of the Joctanides (the ancient Himyarites), who 
speak a dialect of their own, and hold the south 
coast, Arabic is the universal language of the people. 

Politically, Hedjaz, El Hasa, and Yemen are 
vilayets of Turkey. Egypt claims the Sinai Penin¬ 
sula, and the old Land of Median, stretching south¬ 
ward from the Gulf of Akaba. The Sultan of 
Oman is independent, though in alliance with and 
under English control. Nejd, the seat of the once 
important Wahabee empire (q.v.), is also left to it¬ 
self. The Emir of Shomer (capital, Hail) pays 
tribute to the Shereef of Mecca, who is appointed 
by the Sultan of Turkey; and England, besides 
occupying Aden and the island of Perim at the 
mouth of the Red Sea, owns the Kuria Muria islands 
on the south coast, and exercises great influence 
in Hadramaut (split into numerous little states or 
principalities), and a protectorate over the coast 
tribes from Perim to Ras Sais. But the interior 
nomads are practically their own masters, and ex¬ 
cept in the Turkish provinces the reins of govern¬ 
ment are held very loosely. Until the rise of Islam 
Arabia had little history, but under Mohammed and 
Iiis successors the country was welded into one 
sovereignty, and the people, inspired by the fanati¬ 
cism of a common creed, issued forth as conquerors 
and colonists, whose empire became one of the great¬ 
est in the world’s history. [Moors, Caliphs, etc.] 
In the sixteenth century the Turks subdued Yemen, 
but were expelled in the seventeenth century. 
During these two centuries Oman was under the 
Portuguese, who held Muscat and other places on 
the coast from 1508 to 1659. The Dutch and the 
Persians also essayed a footing, and in 1760, 
Mohamed-ibn-Abd-el-Wahab of Nejd founded the 
Wahabee empire, which lasted until, in 1812-18, it 
was shattered by Mohammed Ali, Viceroy of Egypt, 
though it soon again recovered itself, Oman, how¬ 
ever, remaining independent. But since that date 
this monarchy has so fallen in pieces that with the 
exception of Nejd (capital, Riad; pop., about 
500.000) no portion of Arabia is included in the 
Wahabee dominions. All the rest of its provinces 
have quietly reasserted their independence, or 
gravitated under the Turkish sway, Yemen and the 
Hedjaz having been restored by Egypt in 1841, 
after Mohammed Ali’s discomfiture. 

Ethnologicallv the inhabitants of Arabia belong 
exclusively to the Semitic family, of which they 
form by far the largest and most important division. 
In fact, with the exception of the Jews and Abys- 
sinians, all other divisions (Syrians, Phoenicians, 
Chaldmans, Assyrians, Samaritans, Himyarites) have 
been altogether assimilated in speech, and mostly in 
religion, to the Arabs, the language and precepts of 
the Koran being now dominant throughout the 
whole of the Arabian peninsula, Syria, and Meso¬ 
potamia—that is, the primeval home and historic 
domain of the Semitic peoples. Physically also a 
great fusion of allied races has taken place, resulting 
in a distinct sub-Semitic Arab type, which prevails 
with considerable uniformity throughout the Arab¬ 
speaking lands, and which is characterised by a long 





( 171 ) 


Arago. 


Arabian Nights. 


oval face, aquiline nose, receding chin, moderately 
high forehead, small mouth and ears, dolichocephalic 
head, black eyes and hair, fair complexion but easily 
bronzed in the sun, middle height, averaging y-50 
feet. With the spread of Islam the Arabs have 
passed in large numbers into north Africa. Here 
t he race has become perfectly acclimatised as far as 
the Chad basin, and has mainly preserved its type, 
language, and religion intact. In Asia Arab settle¬ 
ments have been founded as far east as Turkestan 
and parts of India and the Eastern Archipelago; 
but here they have generally become absorbed in 
the surrounding populations, many of whom claim 
Arab descent, though preserving of the race nothing 
but the Mohammedan religion. Even in Arabia 
itself especially, the continuous inflow of African 
slaves has made itself felt in the decidedly dark 
colour and heavy features of many communities, 
especially in Yemen, Oman, and Hedjaz. The people 
of Arabia are generally supposed to be all Bedouins 
—that is, nomad pastors, living under tents and 
wandering with their flocks and herds from oasis to 
oasis. But this description is applicable chiefly to 
the tribes of the steppes on the Nejd plateau. 
Elsewhere, and especially in Yemen, they form 
agricultural and even urban communities engaged 
in trade and numerous industries, these various 
pursuits depending not on race, but on the con¬ 
ditions of the environment. The Arabic language 
is by far the richest in grammatical forms, in 
wealth of words and expressions, and in literary 
monuments of all the Semitic tongues. Its position 
in this family seems to lie somewhere between the 
old Assyrian and Hebrew. Compared with the 
Aryan languages it has undergone but slight change 
since the seventh century, when it was first reduced 
to written form. 

Arabian Nights, or The Thousand and 
One Nights, a very celebrated collection of tales 
of great antiquity, although as we know them at 
present they probably do not date back farther 
than the middle of the fifteenth century. The col¬ 
lection was first introduced into Europe by Galland, 
who made a translation into French, published in 
1704. There is one connecting story in the Arabian 
Nights which forms the thread which binds the 
whole together. A Persian monarch had made a 
vow that he w'ould marry a fresh bride each day 
and execute her the following morning. The 
daughter of his grand vizier obtained permission to 
become the king’s wife and succeeded in abolishing 
the custom in the following manner: at daybreak 
she commenced telling to her sister, who slept in 
her room, a story, and broke off at a very interest¬ 
ing point. The king deferred her execution for a 
day in order that he might hear the conclusion of 
the tale, and this occurred from day to day for one 
thousand nights, when the king allowed her to live. 

Arabic, Gum, obtained from several species of 
Acacia , especially Acacia arabica. The best comes 
from Arabia ; but inferior varieties are obtained from 
Senegal. Gum Arabic consists essentially of a combi¬ 
nation of Arabicacid with lime, magnesia,and potash. 

Arable I«and, land which is cultivated by 
the plough. The term is applied to such land, as 


opposed to pastuie land, meadow-land, moorland, 
common-land, wood or moor. 

Aracari, the native names of toucans of the 
genus Pteroglossus, ranging from Nicaragua to 
South Brazil, differing from the true toucans in 
being of smaller size, and of more brilliant and 
variegated plumage. [Toucan]. 

Arachnida, a class of Artiiropoda, the mem¬ 
bers of which breathe by tracheae, a series of air- 
tubes running through the body; they have eight 
legs, no jointed limbs on the abdomen, nor antenna?; 
the head and thorax may be united. Many authors 
include the Trilobites, Limulus (King-Crab), 
etc. (for which see Arthrogastra). The class is 
sometimes, united with the Crustacea as the Acerata. 
As here defined, the class includes seven orders, viz. 
Linguatulida (worm-like parasites), Acarina 
(ticks), Tardigrada (water-bears), Araneida 
(spiders), Phalangid.e (harvest-men), Pedipalpi, 

SCORPIONID^E, PSEUDOSCORPIONIDHS and SOLI- 
fuges. Representatives of the class occur first in 
the Silurian period. 

Arad, (1) a county and chief town in Hungary. 
The latter is situated on the right bank of the 
river Maros, 145 miles from Pestli and GO miles 
from Szegedin. It is the see of a Greek bishop, 
and possesses a citadel, which was in 1849 captured 
by the revolutionary party, and made their head¬ 
quarters. There is a large trade in corn, and a 
cattle-market that stands third in Hungary. The 
chief manufacture is tobacco. This town is called 
Old Arad in contradistinction to New Arad, founded 
in 17G3 on the other side of the river. The county 
has an area of 2,490 square miles. It is famous for 
its wine. (2) The name of one of the 31 royal 
cities conquered by Joshua (Josh. xii. 14), now 
known as Tell’ Arad. 

Arago, Francois Jean Dominique, an illus¬ 
trious French physicist, born in 1786. Entering 
the Ecole Polytechnique at the age of 17, he was 
three years later appointed assistant to Biot for the 
purpose of verifying the measurement of the earth. 
In 1809 he received a professorship in his former 
school, became director of the Observatory, and in 
1830 was elected perpetual secretary of the 
Academy of Sciences. From 1831 to 1848 he took 
an active interest in politics as a moderate but 
earnest Republican, and in the latter year was 
appointed a member of the Provisional Government, 
and marched with the troops against the barricades, 
after which he retired in disgust from public affairs. 
Arago’s contributions to science were varied and 
brilliant. He finally established the undulatory 
theory of light; extended our knowledge of the 
phenomena of polarisation ; advanced considerably 
the researches of Oersted and Ampere into the rela¬ 
tions between magnetism and electricity; discovered 
rotary magnetism, for which he was awarded the 
Copley medal of the British Royal Society, and 
introduced many improvements in the construction 
of astronomical instruments. His skill in popu¬ 
larising scientific ideas was almost unrivalled. 
Strangely enough, he left behind him no great 
literary record of his achievements, though he 







Aragon. 


( 172 ) 


Arany. 


contributed freely to the learned periodicals of his 
day, and founded, with Gay-Lussac, the Annalcs de 
Physique et de Chhuie. Arago refused to recognise 
the government established by the Coup d'Etat of 
1852, and Louis Napoleon honourably respected his 
consistency. Broken in health, he went to his native 
Py renees in the vain hope of recovery, but returning 
to Paris, died in 1853 and received a public funeral. 

Aragon, sometimes called Arragonia, now a 
captaincy-general of Spain, is bounded on the north 
by the Pyrenees, west by Navarre and Castile, south 
by Valencia, and east by Catalonia. It contains 
three provinces, viz. Huesca, Teruel, and Saragossa, 
and its chief town is Saragossa. The river Ebro, 
flowing south-east, cuts it into two nearly equal 
parts. The upper half includes some of the highest 
summits of the Pyrenees, and mountains covered 
with forests skirt and indent the country on 
almost every side. In the centre there are stony 
and sandy plains, though water is abundantly sup¬ 
plied by the Ebro, the Guadalaviar, the Tagus, the 
Xucar, the Gallego, and the Aragon. It has an area 
of 17,97(5 square miles. The products are fruit, 
grain, saffron, hemp, flax, and sheep are reared in 
large numbers. The mineral wealth is great, but 
not exploited. Little is manufactured except 
coarse woollens, cordage, leather, wine, oil, and 
soda. Aragon was a part of the Roman Hispania 
Tarraconensis, and was wrested from Carthage 
about 200 b.c. The Goths succeeded the Romans 
in 470 A.D., and were expelled by the Moors in 714. 
The kings of Navarre, recovering the territory, 
made it into a dependent country, and so it re¬ 
mained till 1035. For the next four centuries 
Aragon was a separate kingdom, but in 1479 Ferdi¬ 
nand came to the throne, and having married 
Isabella of Castile united the two realms. 

Aragonite, carbonate of lime (CaC0 3 ) crystal¬ 
lising in the prismatic system, and rather harder 
and heavier than the more common form calcite. 
Aragonite often occurs in twin-crystals forming 
short hexagonal prisms with grooved sides or six- 
rayed stars, or in a coral-like stalactitic form known 
as flos ferri from being associated with iron ores. 
Like calcite, it effervesces freely with acid ; but it 
is deposited from hot solutions. 

Araguaya, or Grande, a river of Brazil, 
which takes its rise in the Sierra Seidda, and flows 
into the Tocantins river near the 5th parallel of 
south latitude. During its course of a thousand 
miles it receives the waters of the Claro Diamantino, 
Vermelho, Goyaz, and Aixas on the right, and of 
the Rio das Mortes, Fasto, and Aquiqui on the left. 

Aral Sea, or Lake, The, lies 150 miles east of 
the Caspian Sea in Western Asia, being separated 
from the latter by the plateau of Ust-Ust. Its 
length from north to south is 2G5 miles, and its 
greatest breadth 145 miles. The Syr-Daria (Jax- 
artes) and the Amu-Daria (Oxus) flow into it, 
but there is no visible outlet, and it is supposed that 
evaporation keeps the water, which is brackish, at 
its mean level, or even slightly diminishes its 
volume. The depth is 37 fathoms to the west, but 
only 15 fathoms in the centre. Winds from the 


N.E. make navigation dangerous, and in winter the 
northern portion is ice-bound. There are many 
islands on its surface, and at one of the largest of 
them to the south the Russians keep a small flotilla. 
It. is known to Persian geographers as the Sea of 
Khuwenizm, and tradition asserts that it has twice 
been dryland owing to the diversion of the Jax- 
artes and Oxus to the Caspian Sea, which is 117 ft. 
lower in level. 

Aralia, a genus of plants containing the 
ivy (q.v.). 

Aram, Eugene, an English criminal of the 
eighteenth centuiy, to whose career Thomas Hoods 
ballad and Bulwer Lytton’s novel have lent more 
romantic interest than the facts would warrant. 
Aram was born in 1704. He educated himself 
to such a point as to be able to act as an usher 
in various schools. While acting in this capacity 
at King’s Lynn he was arrested, in 1753, for the 
murder at Knaresborough, fourteen years previously, 
of one Clark. Aram was convicted in spite of his 
clever defence. He was executed at York, 1759. 

Aramaic Language, the language spoken in 
Palestine by the Jews in the time of Christ. It was 
closely allied to Hebrew and Phoenician. [Chaldee.] 

Aran, The Valley of, one of the highest of the 
Pyrenean valleys, lies within the province of Lerida, 
Spain. The Noguere and the Garonne have their 
sources here. 

Aran Islands, The, three in number, form a 
natural breakwater across Galway Bay on the west 
coast of Ireland. The largest, Aranmore or Mish- 
more, is 8 miles long by 3 miles broad. The other 
two are named Nishman and Inisheer. The total 
area of the group is 11,287 acres. They contain 
many interesting relics of antiquity, towers, altars, 
and holy wells, to which pilgrimages are made. 

Aranda, Don Pedro Pablo Abarca de Bolea, 
Count of, born in 1719. He was at first a soldier, 
but taking later in life to politics held the presi¬ 
dency of the Council of Castile (17GG). He ban¬ 
ished the Jesuits, put down brigandage, and cur¬ 
tailed the powers of the Inquisition. From 1773 to 
1787 he served as Ambassador to France. From 
1792 he became the Prime Minister of Charles IV., 
but was supplanted by Godoy, and died in 1798. 

Araneidse. [Spiders.] 

Aranjuez, a town in the province of Toledo, 
Spain, on the Tagus, about 28 miles from Madrid, 
with which it is now connected by railway. After 
1552 it was for a long while the residence of the 
Spanish Court in the early summer. In 1772 a 
treaty was made at Aranjuez between Spain and 
France against England, and in 1808 the insurrec¬ 
tion broke out at this spot that led to the French 
invasion of Spain and the Peninsular war. A severe 
visitation of cholera occurred in 1884. The local 
breed of horses and mules is highly esteemed. 

Arany, Janos, a Hungarian poet, was the son 
of a peasant. Born in 1819, he was destined for 
the Church, but was appointed in 1840 notary at 
Szalonta. A satire on the Lost Constitution in 





Arapahoes. 


( ) 


Araucaria. 


1843, and a trilogy on a purely Hungarian subject 
—Toldi —in 1847, brought him suddenly into 
popular favour. His later works hardly maintained 
his reputation. He received a professorship of 
literature at Nagy Koros, edited a paper at Pesth, 
and was elected to the Academy of Hungary. He 
died in 18< c 2. 

Arapahoes, a North American tribe, identified 
by some with the Gros Ventres of the early French 
writers; they are a chief member of the western 
division of the Algonquin family, although classed 
by some ethnologists with the Dakotas. Their 
original domain lay towards the western verge of 
the prairies between the South Platte and 
Arkansas rivers, within the limits of Colorado ; 
but in this State their memory survives only in 
“ Arapata” county named from them. A few have 
moved north and still lead a nomad life in the 
territory of Montana; but most of them have been 
removed with their Cheyenne allies to a reserve in 
the northern part of Indian territory north of 
the Canadian river. In 1820 they were estimated 
at 10,000; but since then they have been reduced 
to less than half that number. Physically they 
are a fine race, typical “ Prairie Indians,” tall, of 
coppery complexion, high cheek bones, massive jaws, 
large nose, and very long, straight black hair. Their 
language is a very marked variety of the Algonquin, 
from which it diverges greatly, the differences 
being apparently due to Dakota influences. The 
national name, which means “ tattooed,” is variously 
written, Arapaho, Arrapaho, Rapaho, etc. The best 
accounts of this nation are given by W. Blackmore 
in The North American Indians , and by Fisher in 
The Arapahoes , Kiowas, and Comanches. 

Arapunga, the native South American name 
of a species of Bell Bird (q.v.). 

Ararat, a mountain in Western Asia (lat. 39° 42' 
N., long. 44° 35' E.), which tradition identifies as the 
spot where the Ark stopped (Gen. viii. 4). Situated 
on the confines of Russian Armenia, Turkey, and 
Persia, it is known to the Armenians as Masts 
Leusar or Mountain of the Ark; to the Persians 
as Kuh-i-Nuh, or Noah’s Mountain; and to the 
Turks as Akh-dagh or Steep Mountain. It is of 
volcanic origin and rises in two cones. Akh-Dagh 
(Greater Ararat), the higher of the two, has an 
elevation of 17,112 feet, surpassing all other peaks 
of Western Asia, The other, Allah Dahr (Lesser 
Ararat), is 13,085 feet high. In 1840 a terrible 
earthquake altered the shape of the mountain, de¬ 
stroying also the village of Argusi at its foot and 
the monastery of St. James on its flank. It was a 
local superstition that no living creature could 
scale the snow-clad summit, but Dr. Parrot per¬ 
formed the feat in 1829, and since then several 
mountaineers have made the ascent, amongst them 
Professor Bryce, who described his journey in a 
book published in 1877. 

Aras (classic Araxes'), a river of Armenia, which 
takes its rise in Mount Tekdagh,some twenty miles 
south of Erzeroum, and flowing north-east for 700 
miles through Erivan and Chirvan, joins the Kur, 
and empties itself into the Caspian Sea. 


Aratus, (1) of Sicyon in Greece, who united 
his native city with the Acluean League, a federa¬ 
tion of those of the Greek States of the Pelopon¬ 
nesus. He was elected General or President of the 
League in 245 b.c. (2) a Greek poet, who was born 
in Cilicia about 300 b.c., and flourished at the 
court of Antigonus Gonatas, King of Macedon. He 
wrote two didactic poems on astronomy, entitled 
Diosemeia and Phainomena, which Cicero trans¬ 
lated and from which Virgil largely borrowed. He 
is quoted by St. Paul in his address on Mars’ Hill 
(Acts xvii. 28). 

Araucania, a republican confederation in 
South America, lying south of Chili, and bounded 
by the rivers Biobio and Valdivia. The territory 
is about 180 miles long by 150 broad, with an area of 
some 25,000 square miles. In 1773 their independ¬ 
ence was recognised, and their four states, governed 
by hereditary chiefs, form a feudal union free from 
European influence, though nominally protected by 
Chili. The breeding of cattle and vicunas is the chief 
industry. The port of Arauco is situated in a bay of 
the same name to the north, and half way down the 
coast is the important commercial city of Valdivia. 

The Aravcanians were renowned for their valour 
and highly-organised political system, which en¬ 
abled them successfully to resist all attempts of 
the Spaniards to subdue them. But in the northern 
provinces many have been merged with the whites 
in a common Chilian nationality, constituting the 
most orderly and flourishing of all the Hispano- 
American commonwealths. The pure Araucanian 
race, whose territory extends from t he Bio-bio south¬ 
wards to the Valdivia (Callecalle), with a total area 
of about 25,000 square miles, still number from 
70,000 to 80,000, of whom as many as 16,000 are 
reckoned as capable of bearing arms. The collec¬ 
tive national name is Moluchc , i.e. “ warriors,” and 
they form three separate geographical groups, 
known as Picunehc, Puelclic, and Huilliche, i.e . 
“People of the North,” “East,” and “ South ” re¬ 
spectively. They are a stout, vigorous race, of 
short stature (5T ft. to 5 - 2 ft.), with full round 
features, prominent cheek bones, large nose, broad 
at base, straight black eyes, long black hair, coppery 
or olive-brown complexion. The language is soft 
and euphonious, abounding in vowels and open syl¬ 
lables, but extremely difficult owing to its highly 
polysynthetic character. In this respect it is a 
typical American language, rivalling the Aztec, 
Miztec, or Kree in the extraordinary length of its 
words. The Araucanians, whose numerous tribes 
are governed by hereditary chiefs or nobles, are the 
Manichreans of the New World, their religious sys¬ 
tem being based on the theory of a good and evil 
principle ( Apo and Pillan) contending for supre¬ 
macy over men and the universe. Apo, being 
capable of naught but good, receives no worship, but 
Pillan, source of all evil, is propitiated by all sorts 
of offerings and sacrifices, formerly including human 
victims. Polygamy is universal; but the first wife 
is the most respected, though the women generally 
are treated as little better than slaves and drudges. 

Araucaria, a genus of cone-bearing trees, now 
mainly confined to the southern hemisphere, but 








Arbela. 


( 174 ) 


Arboriculture. 


abundant in a fossil state in the secondary rocks of 
Europe. They are evergreens with whorled branches 
and flat, stiff, pointed leaves arranged in a close 
spiral. They bear cones, the scales of which each 
bear a single edible seed and are deciduous. The 





ARAUCARIA (COKE). 


chief species are A. imbricata , the Monkey-puzzle 
or Chilian pine, A. Brasiliensis , A. Bidtvillii, the 
Moreton Bay or Bunya-bunya pine, and A. cxcelsa, 
the Norfolk Island pine. 

Arbela (mod. Erbil ), a small town in Asiatic 
Turkey (formerly Assyria) about 40 miles east of 
Mosul (the ancient Nineveh). The battle in which 
Alexander the Great finally overthrew Darius 
(331 B.c.) takes its name from this place, but was 
in fact fought on the plain of Gaugamela, fifty miles 
to the westward. 

Arbitration, the decision of a case or matter 
in dispute by a person not a judge in a court of 
law, but a private individual chosen by the parties. 
Very frequently more than one arbitrator is 
chosen, and should they disagree as to their decision 
(which is called their “award”) a third person 
known as the umpire is called in. The awards of 
arbitrators or umpires are held to be binding and 
cannot be dissolved or transgressed except by con¬ 
sent of the court or of a judge. This method of 
settling disputes is frequently employed by persons 
who wish to avoid the delay and expense of legal 
proceedings ; and questions of law, breaches of con¬ 
tract, disputes between workmen and employers, are 
all very often referred to arbitration. All felonies 
and offences which are of a public nature, however, 
cannot be referred to arbitration, it being deemed 
advisable that they should be punished and tried in 
a public court. There has lately been manifested 
a tendency towards International Arbitration, i.e. 
settling disputes between nations by means of 
arbitration instead of by war. The most notable 
instance of this was the reference of the dispute 
between England and the United States concerning 
the Alabaoia (q.v.) to the Geneva tribunal. 

Arboretum, a place planted with trees which 
are cultivated for scientific purposes. 

Arboriculture, though etymologically in¬ 
cluding everything relating to the culture of trees, 
may, as opposed to sylviculture, be limited to the 
management of trees artificially planted in nurseries 
and plantations, and, as opposed to certain branches 


of horticulture and landscape gardening, be further 
restricted to the cultivation of timber and other 
trees for purposes of profit. In the selection of a 
site for a plantation and of the trees suitable for 
the same, consideration must be paid to the effects 
of climate and soil, the physiological requirements 
and peculiarities of the various species, and the 
market for the produce. An insular climate, moist 
and free from frost, is suitable for many broad¬ 
leaved evergreens; a continental one with hot 
summers and cold winters produces well-matured 
timber from broad-leaved deciduous trees; and 
conifers (needle-leaved trees, mostly evergreen) 
as a class will grow well and to full size, speaking 
generally, in higher latitudes than other trees. 
Though trees will not grow in a rainless tract, their 
presence will render any rainfall more uniform and 
apparently slightly increase the amount. Birch, 
Scots, Austrian and cluster pine will flourish in very 
dry, sandy soil, and other species, such as the beech 
and holly, prefer a warm soil, i.e. one with thorough 
drainage ; but oak, elm, larch, and spruce do better 
in colder, less permeable soils, such as loams or 
clays, so long as they do not actually retain stag¬ 
nant water. The deciduous cypress (Taxodium 
distichum) and many poplars, willows, and alders 
will flourish in actually swampy ground. It may 
be remembered that the fine timber of the 
Baltic provinces, though matured by extreme 
winter cold, grows for months at a time in some 
depth of standing water. A rich soil, like a moist 
climate, though conducive to rapidity of growth, 
produces spongy, less durable timber. The Oregon 
pine grows more rapidly in Scotland than in the 
Kocky Mountains; but the wood formed is not as 
valuable. Of European timbers the strongest and 
most durable is oak; but the conifers being far 
more rapid in growth yield -a quicker return to 
capital invested in planting. In poor soil the 
Scots fir is, therefore, much grown in Britain ; but 
in slightly better soil the more durable and yet 
quicker growing larch is preferred. Possibly the 
Oregon pine may prove a formidable rival to both. 
Nothing was done in England in the way of tree- 
planting before the 16th century, and although 
Evelyn’s Sylra had an undoubtedly beneficial effect 
in kindling a taste for arboriculture, it was not until 
the 18th century, when large plantations were made, 
that any serious attention was given to the subject. 

To secure even results it is better to form a 
plantation by planting trees than by sowing. This 
involves the maintenance of nurseries. Nurseries 
should be on high ground, but little exposed to 
frost, with a friable soil, free from stones, well- 
drained and containing vegetable matter, but un¬ 
manured. Both climate and soil, though such as 
to secure germination of seeds, should, to furnish 
hardy trees, be inferior to those of the plantation. 
Timber trees are mostly raised from seed, and this 
should be collected when well ripened. Fleshy 
fruits, such as holly and hawthorn, may be kept 
till the second spring, and those of most other 
trees until the spring immediately following their 
ripening. Poplar and willow are commonly raised 
from cuttings ; but if grown from seed it should 
be sown directly it is ripe. In the spring of their 







Arbor -vitas. 


( 175 ) 


Area. 


second year it is usual to cut off the tap-roots of 
most young trees with a spade so as to force them 
to send out lateral roots and to facilitate trans¬ 
plantation. Nursery plants should be transplanted 
every two years. Conifers may be planted out 
before they are four years old ; broad-leaved trees 
at four, six, eight or ten years of age. On steep or 
stony hillsides sowing may be the only method of 
planting possible ; but elsewhere the ground should 
be prepared beforehand, drained if necessary and 
freed from weeds. In planting largish trees it is 
well to prepare a pit for each before the winter 
preceding planting. In all cases weeds should 
constantly be removed until the branches of the 
trees fairly overshadow the ground. Trees should 
be planted from four feet apart (2,722 per acre) in 
the case of conifers, to six feet (1,210 per acre) or 
even farther. To accelerate the upward growth of 
the trees “ nurses,” such as quick-growing ever¬ 
green firs, are often planted between broad-leaved 
trees protecting them from wind and drought and 
checking weeds. In from seven to ten years the 
branches of these nurses will touch the more 
valuable trees, and periodical thinning should then 
be at once commenced. The thinnings will in this 
way be of some value as poles, etc., from the first. 
In thinning, any weak, malformed or unhealthy 
trees should be removed ; but it is important, if 
long timber is desired, that the trees be not too 
much thinned, or side branches will be produced 
rather than length of stem. The rule should be 
to thin sufficiently to prevent interlacing of branches 
until the next rotation. For particulars concern¬ 
ing Fruit-trees and Fruit-growing, see under 
these headings. 

Arbor vitaB ( tree of life), the popular name 
of the various cultivated species of the genera 
Thuja and Biota , coniferous evergreen trees 
belonging to the cypress tribe. Their leaves are 
minute and are arranged imbricatelv on vertically- 
flattened branches, which are apt to be mistaken 
for leaves. The whole plant is resinous, and, when 
bruised, aromatic. The two chief species are 
Thuja occidental!s from eastern North America, 
and Biota orientalis from China and Japan, neither 
of which grow to timber size in Britain. The group 
is abundantly represented in a fossil state in the 
Secondary rocks. 

Arbroath, or Aberbrothock, or Aberbroth- 
wick, a seaport and royal burgh in the county of 
Forfar, Scotland, 17 miles north-east of Dundee, at 
the mouth of the little river Brothock, whence its 
name is derived. The Bell Rock Lighthouse is 
about 12 miles to the south-east, and the Abbey 
famous in connection therewith now forms a 
picturesque ruin near the town. Cardinal Beaton 
was the last of its mitred Abbots. In conjunction 
with Montrose, Forfar, Brechin, and Bervie, Ar¬ 
broath returns a member to Parliament. Flax¬ 
spinning, jute-spinning, and the manufacture of 
sail-cloth are the chief industries, and the port 
does a trade of some 40.000 tons per annum. It is 
commemorated in The Antiquary as “ Fairport.” 

Arbuthnot, John, M.D., a physician and liter¬ 
ary man, who lived in the centre of the highest 


intellectual society of the reigns of Anne, George I. 
and George II., the son of a Scottish Episcopalian 
clergyman ; he was born probably in 1G75. After 
taking the degree of M.D. at Aberdeen he came 
to London, and for some time supported himself by 
teaching mathematics. He wrote some papers on 
the subject which attracted some notice, and being 
accidentally called in to attend Prince George of 
Denmark in 1702, he was some years later appointed 
physician to Queen Anne. About this time he 
must have come into contact with Swift, both of 
them working as pamphleteers and satirists for 
Oxford and Bolingbroke. His friendship with Pope, 
Gay, Parnell, Atterbury, and Congreve, soon followed. 
The death of Anne deprived him for a while of 
home and income, and just at this interval probably 
he and his friends started the Scriblerus Club, out 
of which grew other literary projects. In the 
meantime his medical practice grew, and he was 
appointed censor of the Royal College of Physicians. 
His health became somewhat infirm and in 1735 he 
died of asthma. The Memoirs of Martinas Scrib¬ 
lerus were perhaps wholly his. His letters show 
his wit, kindliness, and unaffected piety. 

Arbutus, a small genus of shrubs belonging to 
the Heath tribe, natives of northern temperate 
regions, usually evergreen, and broaddeaved. The 
globose or subcampanulate, white or pink corolla, re¬ 
sembling that of the lily-of-the-valley, is deciduous, 
and the five-chambered, many-seeded ovary forms 
a berry-like fruit. A south-European species, A. 
TJnedo , the Strawberry-tree, grows perhaps indi¬ 
genously at Killarney. The scarlet, strawberry¬ 
like fruit is edible. 

Arc, a continuous curve joining any two points. 
It is longer than the straight line joining them, 
which is called the chord. The length of a circular 
arc is proportional to the angle subtended at the 
centre, and to the radius of the arc. [Circular 
Measure.] 

Arc, Electric, obtained by sending a sufficiently 
strong electric current from one carbon pencil to 
another. To start the action, as the extremely 
high resistance of the air space between the points 
would prevent the passage of the current, the 
carbon points must be made to touch and then be 
gradually drawn apart. A little of the carbon is 
volatilised, and so forms a conducting medium 
between the poles. Its electrical resistance is so con¬ 
siderable, however, that the temperature becomes 
very high, the carbon poles are rendered white hot, 
and an intensely brilliant light is emitted. Gold 
and platinum are readily vaporised, and diamond 
converted into black amorphous carbon, by the 
great heat of the arc. In arc lamps there are 
mechanical or other arrangements for regulating 
the distance between the two carbons, so that the 
light may not fluctuate as the pencils are burnt away. 
[Electric Lighting, Incandescent Lamps.] 

Area, the Ark-sliell, a genus of Lamelle- 
branchiata (q.v.), of which several species occur 
on the English coasts. It is the type genus of the 
Arcadre, a family which has existed since the Low 
Silurian period. 






Arcachon. 


( 176 ) 


Arch. 


Arcachon, a fishing village and health resort 
in the department of the Gironde, France, about 
30 miles west-south-west of Bordeaux, with which 
it is connected by rail, and on a large, almost land¬ 
locked, basin that serves as a harbour and a site 
for numerous oyster-beds. The dry, sandy soil of 
the Landes, the mild climate, and the vast extent 
of pine forests have caused Arcachon to be fre¬ 
quented by consumptive patients in winter, whilst 
visitors from the large towns of the south flock 
thither in summer for sea-bathing. There are 
several good hotels, a casino, and all the other 
attractions of a French watering-place. 

Arcade, a series of arches upheld by pillars or 
columns, either open or closed by masonry behind. 
A more modern use of the term applies it to any 
gallery or passage lined with shops, as the Bur¬ 
lington or Lowther Arcades. The term is again 
applied to the row of arches or piers dividing the 
aisles of a church from the nave. 

Arcadia, one of the ancient divisions of the 
Peloponnesus, in Greece, occupying the centre of 
the peninsula, surrounded by mountains, rugged, but 
interspersed with rich pastures, and possessing a 
cold climate. It was the home of the Pelasgi, and 
that primitive race was never much disturbed there 
by Dorian immigration. Until Gtl8 B.c. the country 
was parcelled out amongst a number of small 
republics. Then a federation was established, and 
Megalopolis was built as its centre. The Arcadians 
joined the Achasan League in 228 B.C., and eighty 
years later became incorporated in the Roman 
province of Achaia. The inhabitants retained a 
simplicity of manners that commended them to 
the classical poets, and Arcadia has passed into 
later literature as the ideal abode of such shepherds 
and shepherdesses as Florian sang and Watteau 
painted. Another aspect of Arcadian character 
indicates that a considerable amount of shrewd 
knavery and dense stupidity was occasionally 
mingled with its rustic virtues. 

Arcadius, the first Emperor of the East, was 
born in Spain a.d. 383. At the death of his father 
Theodosius in 395 the Empire was divided, Honorius 
taking the western half with Rome as its capital, 
and Arcadius ruling the Eastern portion from Con¬ 
stantinople. His dominions extended from the 
Adriatic to the river Tigris, and from Scythia to 
Ethiopia. The young prince was too weak to 
assert his authority and gave way in everything to 
his ministers, or to his wife. He died despised and 
detested in 408. 

Arcellina, the group of Amceb^e (q.v.) in 
which the soft body is protected by a shell of sand 
grains or chitin. 

Arcesilaus, a Greek philosopher, born in 
.<Eolia about 318 b.c. He was a pupil of Polemon, 
and after travels in Greece and Persia established 
himself at Athens, where he founded the new or 
middle Academy, a school which opposed the 
Stoics with a kind of modified Platonism, and in¬ 
culcated the doctrine of acatalepsia or the im¬ 
possibility of ascertaining truth by means of the 
senses. He died in 241 b.c. 


Arcestidse, a family of Ammonites with a 
long body chamber; it ranges in time from the 
period represented in England by the Coal-measures 
to that of the New Red Sandstone. 

Arch, a constructional feature employed to 
span openings or cover over space, and built with 
stones or bricks, so arranged as to exercise mutual 
pressure, and thereby to support a superstructure. 
Arches are of several forms, the simplest of which 
are the semicircular {a) and the segmental ( b ), both 



of which are struck from one centre. These forms 
are found in early Egyptian architecture, and the 
semicircular arch is a characteristic feature of the 
Assyrian, Etruscan, Roman, Byzantine, and Roman¬ 
esque styles. 

The pointed arch is struck from two centres, the 
two curves meeting in a point at the top (c). When 


the centres coincide with the sides of the arch, it 
is called equilateral ( d ). When they are without 
the curve, the arch is called lancet (e). 

The pointed arch is a stronger form than the 
semicircular, and its earliest example is found in 
the vaulted drains at Nimroud in Assyria. It is a 
characteristic feature of the Gothic or Pointed 
styles, and is supposed to have been derived from 
Saracenic examples in Syria and Egypt, where it 
was employed as early as the eighth and ninth 
centuries. In the fifteenth century, in English 
Gothic, an arch was employedwhich is struck from 
four centres, and is known as the four-centred or 
Tudor arch (/). About the same period was used 
a four-centred arch called the ogee (#), and of 


which two of the centres are within the curve, 
and two above it. This arch is characteristic of 
late French Gothic architecture known as “flam¬ 
boyant;” it is found occasionally in English archi¬ 
tecture, and is a well-known feature of Venetian 
Gothic. In French flamboyant architecture of late 
fifteenth century work there is found also a three- 
centred arch. 

The horseshoe arch (//) is a semicircular arch, 
the curve of which is carried down below the 
centre. This arch is characteristic of Moorish 
work in Spain, Morocco, and Tunis. In Saracenic 



















Arch. 


( H7 ) 


Archangel. 


architecture in Egypt and Syria the arches are 
sometimes horseshoe and pointed. The earliest 
example known of the horseshoe arch is found in 
Persia. 

Besides these arches there are others of a more 
decorative form called foiled arches: they are 
known as trefoil (J) and cinquefoil (A*), according 
to the number of the foils; the junction of two foils, 
viz. the point where they meet, is called a cusp. 
Sometimes a complete opening is formed with foils, 



the distinguishing terms being as before, trefoil (7), 
quatrefoil (in'), cinquefoil (n), sexfoil (<>). Foiled 
arches are found in Western Europe employed-from 
the thirteenth century to the fifteenth century. 
They were also characteristic features of the Moorish 
style, being found in the Great Mosque at Cordova, 
and in the Alhambra. 

An ordinary arch is built on what is called a 
centre, framed in timber to support the stones of 
the arch until they are all in position. The blocks 
of a true arch are of a wedge-shaped form, and 

are called arch-stones or 
voussoirs. The lowest 
block, a a , on which the 
arch rests is called the 
springer, and its upper 
surface is known as the 
skew-back. The top¬ 
most stone is called the 
keystone (b), and is the 
last inserted. In true Gothic arches there is no 
keystone, the junction of the two sides being a 
vertical line. 

The inner surface of the arch (c) is called the 
soffit or intrados, the outer or upper surface the 
extrados. That portion of the arch which lies 
between the springer and the keystone is called 
the haunches. The portion of wall above the arch 
on each side is called the spandril. 



Arch, Triumphal, an arch erected in honour 
of some individual, or in commemoration of some 
triumph. The practice of erecting such arches was 
common among the Romans. 

Archaean (from the Greek, arche, the begin¬ 
ning), the name given to the oldest known rocks, 
which from their prevailing character are also 
termed the Crystalline Schists. They contain no 
certain traces of organic life, and it is doubtful 
whether they originated as crystalline precipitates 
from a primitive heated nebulous atmosphere, or 
have been ordinary sediments strongly meta¬ 
morphosed. 

12 


Archaeocidaridae, a family of Palaeozoic Sea 
Urchins, of which Archaeocidaris is the type ; it 
occurs in the Carboniferous (q.v.) and Permian 
systems (q.v.). 

Archaeocyathus, a genus of Cambrian 
sponges, once supposed to have affinities with the 
Foraminifera (q.v.). 

Archaeologic. [Palaeolithic.] 

Archaeology, (Gk. a discourse upon rchat is 
ancient ), the science which treats of antiquity ; 
the science by which we acquire knowledge of 
ancient times by studying the relics and traditions 
of those times. Archaeology is divided into various 
branches. For instance, that particular branch 
which is connected with written books is termed 
Bibliography (q.v.) ; while that which investi¬ 
gates written manuscripts is known as Palaeo¬ 
graphy (q.v.). The prehistoric period of mankind is 
divided by archaeologists into various ages, the Stone 
age (which is again subdivided into the Palaeolithic 
and the Neolithic ages), the Bronze age, and the 
Iron age, information concerning which will be 
found under the separate headings. There are a 
great many societies in existence which profess the 
study of archaeology, the best known and oldest 
established being the Society of Antiquaries of 
London and of Scotland. Further information 
respecting particular objects of archaeological re¬ 
search may be found under such headings as 
Arrow - Heads, Flint Implements, Lake- 
Dwellings, Spindle-Whorls, Stone-Whorls, 
etc. etc. 

Archaeopteryx (from the Greek archaios , an¬ 
cient ; pteryx , a wing), the oldest known fossil 1 ird, 
is found in the lithographic limestone of Solenhofen 
in Bavaria, which is of the age of our Kimmeridge 
Clay. It was about the size of a rook: like all 
known Secondary birds, it was furnished with true 
teeth ; and like the unhatched ostrich, it had claws 
on its wings; but, unlike all other birds, its tail 
was prolonged in a lizard-like manner with a pair 
of feathers from each caudal vertebra. It is, there¬ 
fore, the type of a distinct order, the Saururce. The 
head is preserved in the Berlin Museum, and a fair 
specimen of the rest of the body in the British 
Museum. 

Archangel, a seaport town on the Dwina, near 
its mouth in the White Sea, on the northern coast of 
Russia. The province, which bears the same name, 
has an area of 331,500 square miles. The town has 
an extensive commerce for six months of the year, 
during the remaining six it is blocked with ice. It 
exports chiefly grain, flax, linseed, pitch and mats, 
while its imports comprise fish, tea, coffee, and oil. 
Before the foundation of St. Petersburg, Archangel 
was Russia’s only port. It possesses a fine gymna¬ 
sium, bazaar, ecclesiastical school, a marine hospital, 
and a school of navigation. 

Archangel, a chief angel, an angel of superior 
rank ; the archangels were supposed by the Jewish 
fathers to be seven in number, Gabriel, Michael, 
Uriel, Raphael, Chamuel, Jophiel, and Zadkiel. 











Archasteridae. 


( 178 ) 


Archery. 


Archasteridee, a family of Starfish ranging 
from the Jurassic to the present. 

Archbishop, a chief bishop. The office is of 
considerable antiquity in the annals of Christianity, 
and in England dates back to 597 A.d. In the 
English Church there are two Archbishops, the one 
of Canterbury, styled the Primate of all England, 
the other of York, called Primate of England. The 
Archbishop of Canterbury, whose office is the more 
important of the two, ranks immediately after 
princes of the royal blood, and before all other 
subjects ; he has the privilege of crowning the 
Sovereign, is ex officio a member of the Privy Coun¬ 
cil, and besides his episcopal duties is practically 
the medium of communication between the Church 
and the Ministers. The Archbishop of York ranks 
after the Lord Chancellor as a prince, and has the 
privilege of crowning the Queen Consort. He is 
also a member of the Privy Council, and has juris¬ 
diction over the Archbishopric of York. An arch¬ 
bishop may be appealed to from any decisions of 
the bishops within his diocese, over whom it is his 
function to exercise supervision. The Archbishop 
of Canterbury is moreover empowered to grant 
degrees. There are two Archbishops of the Church of 
England in Ireland, of Armagh (Primate of All Ire¬ 
land), and of Dublin (Primate of Ireland) ; there 
are none in Scotland. In the Roman Catholic 
Church there is only one Archbishop for England, 
viz. the Archbishop of Westminster ; while there 
are two for Scotland of the sees of St. Andrew’s with 
Edinburgh, and Glasgow, and no less than four for 
Ireland, viz. of Armagh, Dublin, Cashel, and Tuam. 

Archdeacon, literally, a chief deacon. The 
term, however, is applied in the English Church to 
a functionary next in rank to a bishop, having juris¬ 
diction over his archdeaconry, which forms a part 
(formerly in some cases the whole) of the diocese. 
Archdeacons may hold a court from which appeal 
can be made to the bishop. 

Archegonium, an organ in the sexual stage of 
the higher cryptogamic plants (q.v.) containing the 
germ-cell. In gymnosperms (or naked - seeded 
plants) it is represented by the corjjusculum (q.v.), 
and in angiosperms (or plants whose seeds are en¬ 
closed in an ovary) by the synergidcc (q.v.). 

Archelaus, (1) a Greek philosopher of the fifth 
century B.C. Being a disciple of Anaxagoras, he 
held most of the physical theories of his master, 
and is said to have had an idea of the sphericity of 
t he earth. In morals he taught that custom made 
the only distinction between right and wrong. (2) 
The natural son of Perdiccas, King of Macedonia. 
He killed the legitimate heirs and usurped the 
throne about 413 B.C. In spite of this he is stated 
to have been a wise and liberal monarch, encour¬ 
aging the arts of civilisation. Euripides was 
a guest at his court. He was assassinated by 
Cratseus in 399. (3) A general of Mithridates the 

Great, who was at first successful against the 
Romans, but being afterwards defeated by Sylla 
fell into disgrace and fled to Rome b.c. 81. (4) Son 

of Herod the Great, who disputed the succession 
with Herod Antipas, and was seated on the throne 


as ethnarch by Augustus, A.D. 1. His reign was 
marked by oppression and bloodshed. It is said 
that he slew three thousand Jews because they re¬ 
monstrated against his bringing a Roman standard 
into the temple during the Passover. At the 
prayer of his subjects he was deposed in 7 A.D. and 
banished to Vienne in Gaul, where he died. 

Archenteron, the central cavity found in the 
embryos of most animals (stage Blastula) : it is 
formed by the segments into which the egg or ovum 
divides, arranging themselves as a hollow sphere. 
[Body Cavity.] 

Archer Fish, a popular name for Toxotes 
jaculator, of the Acanthopterygian family Squami- 
pennes, from its singular habit of ejecting a tiny 
stream of water from its mouth over insects at rest 
on plants near, or flying above the surface, and so 
causing them to fall in, when they become an easy 
prey. It is six or seven inches in length, ranging 
from the East Indies to the north coast of 
Australia. The Malays keep it in captivity and 
place insects near it, in order to witness this. 



archer-fish (Toxotes jaculator ). 


curious habit. The same act is erroneously at¬ 
tributed to Chel-mo restrains , a fish of the same 
family and nearly the same habitat. Dr. Gunther 
says that the long tube into which its snout is pro¬ 
duced “ rather enables it to draw from holes and 
crevices animals which it could not otherwise 
reach.” 

Archer’s Dart ( Agrotis valligera), an English 
moth, the larva of which feeds on the roots of grass. 

Archery, the art of shooting with a bow and 
arrows. Archery is mentioned in Genesis, and fre¬ 
quently referred to both in the Iliad and the Odyssey , 
in the latter of which books much is made of the bow 
of Ulysses. In Egypt and Assyria, too, traces are 
found which indicate the great age of this art. The 
English seem to have excelled in the art, and, accord¬ 
ing to the histories, the victories of Crecv, Poictiers, 
and Agincourt were in great part, if not wholly, due 
to the valiant English bowmen. The introduction of 
fire-arms naturally caused the decay in the art of 
archery, and after its abandonment as a military art, 
took its place as a recreation. In this capacity it 
enjoyed a long popularity, and is still in high favour 
with a number of devotees. Several societies of 
archers exist both in England and in Scotland, 
among the oldest established being The Royal 
Toxophilite Society, the Royal Company of Archers, 
and the Woodmen of Arden. [Bow.] 





Arches Court. 


( 179 ) 


Archimedes* Screw. 


Arches Court, a Court of Appeal belonging 
to the Archbishop of Canterbury, the judge of 
which is called the Dean of the Arches, because 
his court was anciently held in the Church of St. 
Mary-le-Bow (Sancta Maria de arcubus). Provi¬ 
sion was made for the appointment of a new Eccle¬ 
siastical Judge (who was appointed soon after the 
passing of the “ Public Worship Regulation Act,” 
1874), it being enacted that whenever a vacancy 
should occur in the office of Official Principal 
of the Arches Court of Canterbury, the judge 
should become ex-officio such official Principal, 
and all proceedings thereafter taken before the 
Judge in relation to matters arising within the 
province of Canterbury should be deemed to be 
taken in the Arches Court of Canterbury. In the 
province of York the analogous office is termed 
“ The Chancery Court.” 

Archiannelida, an order of Annelida, in¬ 
cluding the families Histriodrilidae and Polygor- 
diidae ; they all are marine and their characters are 
very primitive. Thus the nervous system is retained 
as two threads on the sides of the body, instead 
of passing inwards and downwards, forming a 
double chain on the under or ventral side. The 
nephridia, or organs of excretion, are simple. The 
division of the body into “segments” or rings is 
feebly marked; most of these segments are alike, 
but the first segment (prostomium, i.e. before the 
mouth) is small, and the second (peristomium, i.e. 
around the mouth, which is situated in this 
segment) large. The head cavities are true 
Archicceles (q.v.). For explanation of terms, 
etc., see Nereis. 

Archichsetopoda, an order of Ch.etopoda (or 
bristle-bearing worms), which contains Saccocirrus, 
a small worm from the Mediterranean and Black 
Sea. In the position of the nervous system and the 
proportions of the two first segments of the body it 
agrees with the Archiannelida. It differs, how¬ 
ever, in the presence of bristles, etc. 

Archiccele, a body cavity or a Coelome (q.v.), 
which is part of the Blastoccele, i.e. of the 
original body cavity of the larva: such are the head 
cavities of Archiannelida, the body cavity of Roti- 
PERA (q.v.). 

Archil, or Orchil, a purple dye obtained from 
lichens. The colouring matter of Archil is soluble 
in water and alcohol, but has no reputation for 
durability. 

Archilochus, of Paros, a famous lyric poet of 
Greece, flourished at the beginning of the seventh 
century b.c. Urged by poverty, he is said to have 
left his native place, and settled with a colony at 
Thasos, but his vein of sarcasm made him so 
offensive that he had to migrate once more. Little 
is known of his subsequent career, but tradition 
reports that, he was killed in a war between the 
Parians and Naxians, and buried by the sea-shore. 
His verses—chiefly iambic—breathed, we are told, 
the bitterness of his spirit, and attacked friend 
and foe alike. His Hymn to Hercules won the 
prize at Olympia. The few fragments handed 


down to us give no idea of his genius, and scarcely 
confirm adverse criticisms. They reveal rather a 
manly, vigorous nature, influenced by theistic 
fatalism. 

Archimandrite (Gk. ruler of the fold) the title 
of the highest order of superiors of convents in the 
Greek Church. 

Archimedes, of Syracuse, the father of 
natural philosophy, and by far the greatest mathe¬ 
matician and engineer of antiquity, was born 
about 287 b.c. He was, according to Plutarch, a 
relative of King Hiero, and he certainly received 
the patronage and support of that sovereign. He 
is said to have visited Alexandria in order to hear 
Euclid, and to have begun his practical career by 
draining Egyptian marshes and embanking the 
Nile. The fragments of his works yet extant 
show extraordinary mathematical ability, dealing 
with such subjects as the relations between the 
volumes of a sphere and a cylinder; the measure¬ 
ment of the area of a circle ; the ratio of the cir¬ 
cumference to the diameter; the application of 
conic sections to solid geometry ; the quadrature 
of the parabola ; the centre of gravity of planes; 
and the equilibrium of floating bodies. The prin¬ 
ciple of the lever was so thoroughly appreciated 
by him that he is reported to have exclaimed, 
“ Give me a lever of sufficient length, and a point 
to rest it on, and I will move the earth.” When the 
Romans under Marcellus besieged Syracuse in 
212 B.c., he exerted himself actively to contrive 
means for its defence, and set fire to the hostile 
fleet by a combination of mirrors and burning 
glasses. He was killed during the assault on the 
town, though Marcellus had given special orders 
that he was to be spared. 

Archimedes’ Principle, in Hydrostatics, the 
principle that a fluid exerts a resultant upward force 
on any body immersed in it, exactly equal to the 
weight of the fluid displaced by the body. If, there¬ 
fore, the weight of the body be less than that of the 
fluid displaced, there will be a tendency for it to 
move upwards, as in the case of a balloon. If equal 
to the weight of fluid displaced, the body will remain 
at rest in any position within the fluid. But if 
greater, the body will tend to sink. [Specific 
Gravity and Hydrostatics.] 

Archimedes’ Screw, a mechanical con¬ 
trivance for elevating water, named after its in¬ 
ventor. In its simplest form, this is a hollow 
spiral placed in an oblique position with its lower 



ARCHIMEDES’ SCREW. 


end in water. When rotated about its axis, water 
enters at this end, and is lifted up by the screw 
















Archinulidae. 


( 180 ) 


Architecture. 


action. If the rotation were reversed, the water 
would be lowered again. 

Archinulidae, a family of Carboniferous Chilo- 
gnatha (Centipedes). Archiolus and Xylobius are 
the two principal genera. 

Archipelago (Gk. the chief sea), the term 
originally applied only to the sea lying between 
Greece and Asia Minor, but now extended to any 
other sea resembling it in having a number of 
islands. The name is also given to the islands 
themselves. The islands in the Grecian Archipelago 
are divided into two groups: the Cyclades, contain¬ 
ing Delos, Paros, Tenos, Andros, Naxos, Melos, and 
others, and the Sporades, of which the principal 
islands are Samos, Lesbos, Patmos, Cos, Lemnos, 
Rhodes, Chios, Samothrace, and Icaria. Other well- 
known archipelagoes are the Malayan, the Pata¬ 
gonian, and the Marquesas. 

Architecture, the art of design in building. 
It is the term given to that quality of thought, of 
arrangement, and of design in a building which 
distinguishes it from ordinary construction. Archi¬ 
tecture is both a science and an art: a science in 
that it has to deal with materials of various kinds, 
and to utilise them in the best way, taking into 
consideration their durability, hardness, tenacity, 
endurance, and other qualities, all of which are 
defined by the natural laws of science. Further, it 
requires a knowledge of mathematics, of mechanics, 
and of the laws relating to heating and ventilation, 
etc. Architecture is also an art in that it calls for 
the exercise of imagination, of judgment, and of 
taste in the design and construction of buildings of 
various kinds, which must not only be conveniently 
arranged for several purposes, but should show a 
sense of order, regularity, symmetry or balance, 
of fitness, good proportion, study of mass and out¬ 
line, a sense of stability and durability beyond the 
mere scientific requirements, a character or style 
suggesting the destination of the building, and in 
short all those characteristics which constitute a 
sense of beauty of form, whether the building be of 
the simplest kind or of a monumental character. 

Architecture is regarded as a creative art in op¬ 
position to painting and sculpture, which are 
imitative arts. This is only partially true, for 
whilst its elements are more purely original than 
those of the other arts, in its second phase it is to a 
certain extent imitative of its original types. Thus 
the first ordinary requirements of mankind having- 
been met by constructions of the simplest kind, 
such as mud huts built with crude or unburnt bricks, 
or wigwams constructed with branches of trees 
consolidated and protected by mud coverings, the 
features of these created forms—created because 
they do not exist in nature—have been afterwards 
copied as an element of decoration in a more lasting 
and a more durable material. 

Thus the early temples and tombs of Egypt 
suggest by their form and in their decoration the 
crude brick huts of the earliest erections. The 
temples of the Greeks and the tombs of the 
Lyrians betray throughout the wooden prototypes 
of an earlier civilisation. In both these cases it is 
not difficult to trace the origin of their forms and 


decoration ; the task, however, becomes more com¬ 
plicated when, in addition to the simpler forms first 
created as above stated, we have to deal with the 
influence of other pre-existing styles, an influence 
exerted by constant migrations of races, bringing 
with them in some cases a new and a foreign 
method of building, and in others a recollection, 
more or less vague perhaps, of forms unknown in 
their new settlements. 

The styles of architecture therefore, as they are 
now known, have been formed by a gradual growth 
of elements, sometimes based on simple created 
forms, sometimes copies more or less varied of pre¬ 
ceding styles. There are some styles, such as the 
Egyptian and the Assyrian, which are purely 
original, uninfluenced by one another or by any 
preceding styles. There are others, like the Persian, 
the Greek, and the Roman, which have been 
developed according to requirements, race, and 
religion, and which contain in their earlier and 
more primitive forms the decorative and some¬ 
times the constructive elements of the Egyptian 
and the Assyrian ; the Greek again borrowing from 
the Persian, and the Roman from the Greek. 

This system of copying, or of attempting to copy, 
has been the chief characteristic of the first or 
archaic period of every style, and it exists more or 
less down to the present day, with this important 
and wide distinction, however, that since the revival 
of letters and the publication of illustrations of 
ancient buildings a new element has crept in, and 
the traditional style of a country has been passed 
over in favour of one of exotic growth, which, for 
the moment, at all events, has enlisted the sym¬ 
pathies of the learned, and has become a fashion, to 
be set aside again and again in favour of some still 
more modern discovery. Thus, in the fifteenth 
century in Italy there took place a revival in favour 
of the ancient architecture of the Roman Empire, 
with such modifications and developments as be¬ 
came requisite to meet the new demands of civilisa¬ 
tion. A century later the influence of those who 
were known as the Italian masters (for hereafter 
the style was known by the name of the man, and 
not of the country or period) spread to other 
European countries, and in England is found in 
the works of Inigo Jones, of Sir Christopher 
Wren and of his followers, and still later by Sir 
Robert Chambers. Again, in this century there 
have been three distinct modern revivals : (a) the 
Greek, owing its origin first to the works of the 
Dilettanti Society and to their publications of the 
temples of the Greeks, and secondly to the revela¬ 
tion to the artistic world caused by the bringing 
over of the Elgin marbles; (b) the Gothic revival, 
owing its origin partially to a religious move¬ 
ment in England, and partially to an archaeological 
and historical interest in favour of ancient 
English architecture ; and (c) a semi-Classic re¬ 
vival known popularly as ‘-Queen Anne,” in which 
there has been a return to the decorative elements 
of Classic art based, however, on a free interpreta¬ 
tion of their usage, and no longer bound by the 
principles of Italian architecture. 

The influences of race and of religion, which to a 
certain extent may be taken together, have always 











■» 





























EARLY ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 


























































































Architecture. 


( 181 ) 


Architecture. 


been leading factors in the type of building created. 
In the Egyptian and Greek styles, for instance, the 
principal buildings have been those of a religious 
nature, whether in the forms of temples or tombs. 
With the Assyrian, the Persian, and the Roman 
styles, palaces, or buildings akin to them, by the 
extent and number of those, the remains of which 
have been traced, would seem to have been more in 
accord with the requirements of the people. In 
the creation and development of the earlier styles, 
however, there is another element which has been 
paramount in deciding the nature of their forms and 
of their construction, and this element is the nature 
of the material obtainable in the country itself. 

The great problem of all ages has been to seek 
for the simplest, most economical, and most durable 
method of covering over space. On the solution of 
this problem may be said to depend the origin, 
growth, and development of all architectural styles. 
If we may judge by the representations carved on 
the earliest rock tombs of Egypt, the method of 
construction adopted by the Egyptians in their 
primitive state (and in humble dwellings it is still 
traditionally carried on down to the present day) 
was to roof over their houses or huts with palm- 
tree trunks, covering them with a layer of earth or 
mud to keep out the intense heat of a tropical sun. 
Owing, however, to the proximity of two ranges of 
hills, the Arabian and Libyan ranges, to the banks 
of the Nile, and the facility of transport which that 
river afforded, the Egyptian builder had at his dis¬ 
posal good stone of various qualities ; and already 
prior to from 3,000 to 4,000 years B.C. he had learnt 
how to quarry, work, and transport large masses of 
stone which took the place, firstly of the crude brick 
walls hitherto employed, and secondly afforded a 
more lasting and more durable covering to their 
temples than palm-tree trunks could give. If the 
halls or chambers he desired to cover over were too 
wide to allow of single slabs of stone covering them, 
by adopt ing rows of piers or columns carrying beams 
of stone he could obtain additional support and 
increase the space covered over to any extent. The 
adoption of a circular or polygonal column would 
interfere less with the space occupied than the 
square pier, and in this way columnar architecture 
was first created. The technical term given to this 
construction is trabeated, from trabes, a beam, 
and the styles in which are columns carrying beams, 
either of stone or wood, on their upper mouldings or 
capitals, are known as the trabeated styles. The 
Egyptian, the Persian, and the Greek styles belong 
to this class. When, however, we come to the 
Assyrian style, we find ourselves in presence of 
another combination created in the flat alluvial 
lands of Mesopotamia ; on the banks of the Tigris 
and of the Euphrates there was no stone at its 
disposition, or even timber of sufficient size 
and strength. The Assyrian builder was obliged 
therefore to cover over his hall and gateways by 
the use of the arch or vault. It is still a matter of 
dispute as to whether the large halls could have 
been covered in this way; as, however, no traces 
of columns or piers have been found, or, what 
is more important, of the foundations necessary 
to carry such features, there is absolutely no 


alternative but the vault. The principle of the arch 
[Arch] was known long before the erection of the 
Assyrian palaces ; vaults in stone are found in the 
vicinity of the Pyramids, and there exists down tothe 
present day, behind the Ramesseum at Thebes, the 
vaulted granaries of Rameses II., built some four to 
five centuries before the earliest Assyrian palace 
(Nimroud) yet excavated. The drains of this palace 
were properly constructed with voussoirs [Arch, 
Construction], and in the palace at Khorsabad 
great gateways have been found, spanned by arches 
of regular construction, showing that their builders 
were not only acquainted with the principles, but 
knew howto build them in a thoroughly scientific 
way. To this system of construction the term arc¬ 
uated, from iirrvs , a bow, is given, and the Assyrian, 
the Etruscan, the principal buildings of the Roman 
and the Saracenic styles, only to quote the earlier 
types, all are arcuated styles. The Roman architect 
borrowed the trabeated style from the Greeks, and 
reproduced it in his own way, as a constructional 
form, in the temples ; as a decorative form, in the 
great amphitheatres. He adopted the arcuated style 
of the Etruscans and developed it in the great 
thermal or baths, and (for the constructive part) 
the vaulting of the passages and openings of the 
amphitheatres. In the earlier basilicas the trabe¬ 
ated style was always employed, the central halls 
or nave being covered with timber roofs. In the 
basilica commenced by Maxentius and finished by 
Constantine, the arcuated style is adopted, the type 
of building produced being that which was em¬ 
ployed for the great central hall, the tepidarium of 
the Roman thermas or baths. 

Constantine, when he transferred the capital to 
Byzantium (now Constantinople) would seem at first 
to have employed the basilica plan for the churches 
which he erected there and throughout Syria, that 
being the simplest and most economical method of 
covering over a large space; and except that the 
columns dividing the nave from the aisles might 
have carried arches instead of beams, the style 
was virtually a trabeated one, because a ceiling with 
trussed beams formed the roof. Constantine seems, 
however, to have foreseen the necessities of adopt¬ 
ing a more permanent and incombustible method 
of roofing over space, but it was reserved for one of 
his successors, Justinian, to create a new style by 
the adoption of the dome or pendentive ; the 
Church of St. Sophia, at Constantinople, being the 
masterpiece of the Byzantine, the next arcuated 
style developed. From this period (seventh century) 
onwards the arcuated style has always prevailed, 
and the Saracenic style (based on the Byzantine, 
but introducing two new forms of arch, the horse¬ 
shoe and the pointed), the Romanesque style, as 
developed in Lombardy, on the borders of the Rhine, 
in various parts of France, and in England (where it is 
known as Saxon and Norman), are all various growths 
of the arcuated style. In the middle of the twelfth 
century, in France, the pointed arch, erected in the 
East, was introduced, both into the arch and vault, 
and revolutionised the methods of building, produc¬ 
ing what is known as the Gothic or Pointed style, 
which lasted (at all events in France, Germany, 
Spain, and England) till the close of the fifteenth 






Architeutliis. 


( 182 ) 


Arctic Sea. 


century. Since then the trabeated style has again 
been occasionally employed, but the economy of 
arcuated construction, except when iron girders are 
employed, leads to its being almost universally 
adopted. 

It will be seen, therefore, that trabeation depended 
mainly on tlie employment of large masses of stone 
and of beams of wood ; arcuation could be adopted 
with materials of small dimension. In this sense 
the use of the material brick has not been without 
its influence in those countries where stone was not 
to be had ; and throughout the North of Germany 
and in Holland during four or five centuries brick 
has led to a variety of new forms, sometimes, how¬ 
ever, attempted copies of stone construction. For 
the last two centuries in England it has been 
generally made use of, and within the last twenty 
years has come again to the fore, and its adoption 
in conjunction with terra-cotta, both employed as 
genuine building materials, not to be hidden beneath 
cement or stucco, has led to what might almost be 
called a new development of style. 

Architeutliis, one of the largest of living 
Cuttlefish: it occurs especially in the North Atlantic. 

Architrave, in Architecture , the lowest part of 
the entablature (q.v.) of an order, resting imme¬ 
diately upon the capital itself. The term is also 
sometimes applied to the vertical and horizontal 
mouldings round a door-frame. 

Archivolt, in Architecture, the mouldings which 
are carried round a classic arch. 

Archon (Gk. a ruler), the name given to the 
magistrates who succeeded the kings in Athens. 
Originally the office was held for life and was here¬ 
ditary, but later this was abolished and the tenure 
of the office limited to ten years, and later still to 
one year ; the number of archons was then nine, 
the chief archon being called Arclion Eponymos, 
who gave his name to the year ; the second was 
styled Archon Basileus, who filled the office of high- 
priest ; the third was called Polemarchos , who acted 
as leader in war. The remaining six were known 
as Thesmothetrc, or law-makers. 

Archytas, of Tarentum, an eminent Greek 
philosopher, mathematician, soldier and statesman 
of the fifth century b.c. He is reported to have 
led his fellow-citizens seven times in battle and 
always with success. According to Diogenes 
Laertius he was a friend and instructor of Plato, 
and two letters that passed between them are pre¬ 
served. A follower of Pythagoras, he made an 
enormous advance by applying the inductive 
method to physical science, and in practical 
mechanics he is credited with having invented the 
screw and the pulley, and with having constructed 
a flying pigeon and other automata. The fragments 
which we possess of his works show that his mind 
was engaged in various and diverse speculations— 
moral, mental, logical, mathematical, and physical. 

Arcis-Sur-Aube, a town in the department 
of Aube, France, about 18 miles north of Troyes on 
the left bank of the river Aube. Danton was born 
here. A severe battle was fought close by in 1814 


between Napoleon and the Austro-Russian army 
under Schwartzenberg. The chief manufactures 
are yarn and cotton stockings. 

Arcos de la Frontera, a town, and formerly 

a duchy, in the province of Andalusia, Spain, on 
the river Guadalete, 30 miles from Cadiz. Thread, 
ropes, and leather are the principal manufactures, 
and it is the first place in which leather-dressing 
was practised in Andalusia. There are several 
other towns named Arcos in Spain and Portugal. 

Arcot, North and South, are two maritime 
districts in the Madras presidency, British India. 
Their united area amounts to 9,925 square miles. 
The country was ceded to the East India Company 
in 1801 by Azimul-Omrah, the Nabob of the Car¬ 
natic. The interior is mountainous and thickly 
wooded. The rivers Palar and Coleroon give but a 
scanty supply of water in dry seasons, and large 
tanks have been constructed. Rice and the usual 
cereals are produced, and in North Arcot cotton 
cloth is manufactured. 

Arcot, the chief town of the above province, is 
on the river Palar, 65 miles from Madras by railway. 
It was the residence of the nabobs of the Carnatic, 
and contains a palace and other monuments. Clive 
captured the fort in 1751 with a force of only 500 
men, and this was his first military achievement. 

Arctia, the Tiger Moth. 

Arctic Expeditions, voyages of discovery 
which have been made towards the North Pole and 
in the Arctic regions. Voyages similarly made to 
the South Pole are termed Antarctic expeditions, 
while both these kinds come under the head of Polar 
Expeditions. As there is a much greater surface of 
land in the Arctic regions than in the Antarctic, 
the temperature is consequently higher in the 
regions of the North Pole, and has therefore proved 
a greater attraction to explorers. The first genuine 
voyage of discovery made to the Arctic regions was 
made in 1603 by one Stephen Bennett, who was 
followed vei*y shortly (1607) by the famous Hudson 
(q.v.), who reached the latitude of 81° 30' before he 
was compelled to retire. Various minor expeditions 
followed this, but it was not until 1773 that Captain 
Phipps, commanding an important expedition, fitted 
out for scientific purposes alone, succeeded in reach¬ 
ing lat. 80-' 48'. Captain Cook, Scoresby (who pene¬ 
trated to 81° 30'), Buchan, Franklin, Clavering, and 
others, all made unsuccessful attempts, but in 
1827 Captain Parry passed beyond the latitude 
reached by Hudson, and succeeded in getting as far 
as 82° 40'. In 1845 Sir John Franklin (q.v.) started 
on an expedition to discover a north-west passage 
and never returned, for an account of his death in 
1847 was found and brought home by M’Clintock 
in 1859. Sir G. Nares succeeded in attaining the 
highest latitude yet reached, viz. 83° 20', ini876. 
[Arctic Sea.] 

Arctic Sea, The, is the name given to the 
great body of water that lies within the Arctic 
Circle, i.e. N. of 66° 30' N. lat. In common parlance 
the term is extended to such portions of the ocean 





Arctisca. 


( 183 ) 


Ardrossan. 


as are under the same physical conditions as those 
actually inside the circle. The region immediately 
surrounding the Pole has not yet been explored. 
Sir George Nares in 1870 reached 83° 20' 22" N., 
the highest latitude as yet attained. His investiga¬ 
tions confirm the existence of a vast Polar Basin, 
having an area of one-and-a-half million square 
miles, to which geographers give the name of the 
Palasocrystic Sea (or sea of ancient ice). From the 
end of September to the beginning of May no sun 
is visible in this desolate expanse, and though the 
heat in summer breaks up the vast covering of ice 
into fields and fioes which partly escape into 
.southern seas, the seven months of winter more 
than make up for this loss. No trace of life was 
met with by Nares beyond 82° 20', but strangely 
enough up to that point coal and fossil trees at¬ 
tested the former existence of immense forests. So 
far as we know, Franz Joseph Land, discovered bv 
the Austrian Expedition in 1872, is the only land 
within the Palaeocrystic Sea, and the chief en¬ 
trances to it are by Behring Strait, Smith Sound, 
and Jones Sound at the extremity of Baffin Bay; 
the channel between Greenland and Spitzbergen; 
and that between Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla, into 
which the Gulf Stream penetrates. Cold currents 
appear to flow downward from the Pole through 
most of these passages. Numbers of islands form a 
-characteristic feature of this portion of the earth’s 
surface, ranging from the size of Greenland to mere 
specks in the sea. The sole inhabitants within the 
-circle are the Esquimaux, and it is only in summer that 
they appear above (50° N. lat. The white bear, the 
musk-ox, hares, foxes, ptarmigan, and a few aquatic 
birds constitute the fauna of the lower latitudes, 
and the sea abounds in seals, walruses, whales, and 
fish of many kinds. 

Arctisca. [Tardigbada.] 

Arctogaea, a primary zoological division of the 
land surface of the earth proposed by Prof. Huxley 
in 1868. It is equivalent to the Nearctic, Pale- 
arctic, Ethiopian, and Oriental regions of Mr. 
Sclater. [Notog^ea.] 

Arctoidea, a section of fissiped Carnivora, 
■containing the families Mustelidas (Weasel-like, 
Otter-like, and Badger-like forms), Procyonidas 
.(the Raccoon and its allies), Ailuri das (the 
Panda), and Ursid^e (Bears). 

Arcturus, a Bootes, the chief star in the 
■constellation Bootes. It is of the first magnitude, 
and at an approximate distance of 3,000 billion 
miles. The amount of heat received from Arcturus 
has been roughly estimated by direct experiment, 
it being found to equal that of a 3-inch cube of 
boiling water at a distance of about 400 yards. 

Arcus Senilis, the opaque zone which 
develops with advancing age at the outer part of 
the cornea. It appears earlier and becomes more 
marked in some persons than in others, and being 
■due to a process of degeneration has been supposed 
to serve as an index of the degree of degenerative 
processes existing in other parts of the body. It 
is by no means to be relied on in this particular. 


Ardabel, or Ardebil, a town of Persia, in the 
province of Azerbijan, on the river Karasu, a 
tributary of the Aras, about 40 miles from the 
Caspian Sea. The tomb of Shah Ismael Sufi, 
founder of the Sufi dynasty, stands in the town. 

Ardeche, a department in the south-east of 
France, separated by the Rhone from Drome on the 
east, bounded by Lozere and Haute Loire and Loire 
on the west, and by Gard on the south. It has an 
area of 2,134 square miles. The country is moun¬ 
tainous, being nearly traversed by the Cevennes, 
and marked by ancient volcanoes, the chief of 
which is Mont Mezenc. The products are wine, 
chestnuts, olives, silk, and cattle. Leather, wool¬ 
lens, silks, and cottons are manufactured. Privas 
is the capital. 

Ardennes (Kelt, forest ), Arduenna Sylva , a, 
vast tract of rugged woodland lying on the con¬ 
fines of France, Belgium, and Rhenish Prussia. In 
Roman times it was far more extensive. At present 
the French portion, lying within the department 
to which it gives its name, covers some 600 square 
miles. The department of Ardennes is bounded 
north by Luxembourg, west by the department of 
Aisne, south by that of Marne, and east by that 
of Meuse. It has an extreme length of 63 miles and 
its breadth is 60 miles, the area being 2,021 square 
miles. The soil is fertile in the south-west, but 
woods, limestone rocks and chalk prevail in other 
parts. The chief rivers are the Meuse and the Aisne 
with their affluents. Corn is grown in abundance, 
and numbers of horses, cattle, and sheep are raised, 
but cider and beer take the place of wine. Iron is 
worked in the district, where 150 mines are said 
to exist, and there are stone, slate, and marble 
quarries, factories for cloth and woollen goods, 
and glass-works. Mezieres, Rathel, Rocroy, and 
Sedan are the chief towns. 

Ardglass, a town in County Down, Ireland, 
at the head of a small bay, 8 miles south of the 
entrance to Strangford Lough. After the Conquest 
it became a place of some importance, as is shown 
by the ruins of five Norman castles in its vicinity. 
The harbour is good, being accessible to vessels of 
500 tons at all states of the tide. 

Arditi, Luigi, a musician and composer, born 
in Italy 1822, educated at the Conservatoire of 
Milan. In 1839 he appeared as a violinist, and in 
1841 he produced an opera I Briganti with fair 
success. In 1857 he came to London, and for twenty 
years was conductor at Her Majesty’s Theatre. 

Ardnamurchan, a promontory, cape, and 
village in the north of Argyleshire, Scotland. It is 
the most westerly point in the mainland of Great 
Britain, and is capped by a lighthouse built in 1849. 

Ardoch., in Perthshire, twelve miles N.N.E. of 
Sterling, celebrated for a Roman camp, the best 
preserved in Britain. 

Ardrossan, a seaport of Ayrshire, Scotland, 
16 miles north from Ayr, and 21 south-west from 
Glasgow. The harbour with its docks is one of 
the best on the west coast. Iron foundries and 






Ardwick. 


( 184 ) 


Arequipa. 


ship-building yards are established here, and there 
is a considerable trade in coal and iron. Steamers 
run to Ireland and elsewhere. Many people visit 
the place for bathing in the summer. On a hill 
stand the remains of an old castle taken by Wallace 
in 1297 from the English. 

Ardwick, a town and chapelry of Lancashire, 
one mile from Manchester on the line to Sheffield. 

Are, the legal unit of French land measure, a 
square of which the side is ten metres. 100 ares 
make a lectare, the unit in customary use (slightly 
under two and a half acres). [Metric System.] 

Area, in Geometry, amount of surface. For the 
calculation of areas we have the science of men¬ 
suration. The determination of the area of a 
plane surface bounded by straight lines may be 
effected by elementary methods. In the case of areas 
with curved boundaries the method of quadratures 
in the integral calculus is generally necessary. 

Areca, a genus of palms, the chief species in 
which, A. Catechu, is a native of the East Indies, 
where its small, pear-shaped seeds are largely 



chewed with lime and the leaves of the Betel 
Pepper under the name of Betel-nut. It is used 
in medicine and in making tooth powder. 

Arecibo, a seaport on the north coast of Porto 
Rico, West Indies. It is 45 miles from San Juan, 
the capital. 

Arena (Lat. sand), that portion of the Roman 
amphitheatre (q.v.) in which the combats took place. 
It was covered with sand to absorb the blood of the 
victims. 

Arends, Leopold, born in 1817 at Wilna in 
Russia. He invented a system of stenography that 
is widely used on the Continent, and he also wrote 
dramas and works on natural history and music. 
He died in 1882. 


Arenenberg, a castle in the canton of 
Thurgau, Switzerland, on the south-west shore of 
lake Constance. It was here that the Queen 
Hortense, daughter of Josephine, wife of Louis 
Bonaparte, King of Holland, and mother of 
Napoleon III., under the title of Duchesse de St. 
Leu, spent the last years of her life in retirement 
after her divorce from her husband and her ex¬ 
pulsion from Paris by the Bourbons. 

Arenicola, the lob-worm, a marine worm much 
used for bait: it lives in mud banks all round the 
English coasts. 

Arenicolites, fossil worms supposed to have 
affinities with Arenicola (q.v.). 

Areola, (1) the smooth area around tubercles 
which support the spines of Sea Urchins : (2) the 
areas into which insects’ wings are divided by the 
nervures. 

Areolar Tissue, a tissue composed of white 
and yellow fibres diffused throughout the whole 
body and serving as a connection between the 
various organs and parts of organs. It is also 
known as connective tissue. 

Areopagitica, a work by Milton described as 
a “ speech for the liberty of unlicensed printing.” 
It is so called from the Areopagitica of Isocrates 
(q.v.), an appeal to the Areopagus. 

Areopagus, or Areiopagus (Gk. Hill of Ares 
or Mars'), an eminence to the west of the Acropolis 
of Athens. Here was held the most ancient and 
powerful court of justice and deliberative council 
that existed in Greece. It was believed to have 
been established in 1507 B.C., or perhaps earlier. 
Orestes, according to JEschylus, was tried before it 
for the murder of his mother. Solon in 594 B.c. 
enlarged its jurisdiction, which extended to 
questions of politics, morals, and religion. It was 
composed of the retiring archons, who sat for life. 
Pericles in 458 limited its powers, which were too 
aristocratic for toleration in the growing democracy. 
Still it claimed for many years longer the veneration 
of the people, and, if we may believe Isocrates, ex¬ 
ercised a paternal despotism over the lives and 
manners of citizens. Paul pleaded and preached 
before the Areopagites in 52 a.d. (Acts xvii.). It is 
last mentioned in history about 380 A.D. 

Arequipa, a province, provincial capital, and 
volcano in Peru. The former extends along the coast 
from lat. 15° to 17° 20' S. It produces silver, alpaca 
wool, sugar, wine, brandy, and chemicals. The city 
is the third largest in Peru. It was founded by 
Pizarro in 1536, and stands at the foot of Arequipa 
Mountain, about 30 miles inland from the port of 
Islay, and is connected by railway with Mollendo, 
the line extending across the Andes at a height of 
14,600 feet to Puno and Lake Titicaca. Earth¬ 
quakes have frequently devastated the place, but 
it has been rebuilt well and solidly, and has a. 
university, college, public library, and cathedral. 
Woollen and cotton fabrics, gold and silver tissues 
are manufactured, and there is a considerable 
trade in exports and imports. 







Ares. 


( 185 ) 


Argand Lamp. 


Ares, the Greek God of War, corresponding to 
the Roman Mars. He was the son of Zeus and 
Here, cruel, and bloodthirsty in character, and not 
beloved either by gods or men. Thrace and 
Scythia were his favourite haunts, and possibly 
his worship was introduced thence, for he plays no 
conspicuous part in the legends of Hellas, nor does 
he anywhere seem to be mixed up with local 
traditions. There was a temple to him at Athens, 
and in Sparta, as in Scythia, it is said that human 
sacrifices were offered in his honour. He figures in 
the Iliad as a combatant, and was wounded by 
Diomed. [Mars.] 

Aretaeus, a Greek physician, who flourished in 
Cappadocia either in the first or second century, 
A.D. It is said that he discovered the blistering 
properties of cantharides. He wrote a treatise, 
still extant, on the causes, symptoms, and cure of 
chronic and acute diseases, and therein he reveals, 
according to competent critics, quite as much 
ability as Hippocrates possessed. 

Arethusa, a nymph of Elis, who was unfor¬ 
tunate enough to excite the amorous ardour of the 
river-god Alphaeus. Pursued by her admirer, she 
prayed to Artemis and was changed into a fountain. 
Plunging into the earth, she came up again in 
Ortygia, an island off Syracuse. Cicero tells us 
that in his day the spring was clear, abundant, and 
full of fish. It has been brackish since an earth¬ 
quake in the 17th century—an indication that it 
is really supplied by a subaqueous conduit from the 
mainland. [Alph^eus.] 

Aretino, Pietro, born in 1492. He soon dis¬ 
covered a talent for pungent and ribald versification, 
and had to quit his native city, and go to Rome, 
where he secured the patronage of Leo X. and 
Clement VII., wrote some religious books, and very 
nearly obtained a cardinal’s hat. Some obscene 
sonnets, written to match certain pictures by Giulio 
Romano, caused his expulsion from the Holy City. 
He next betook himself to Florence, where he re¬ 
mained under the protection of Giovanni de Medici 
till 1537. His last abode was Venice. There he 
died in 1557 from the effects of an uncontrollable 
fit of laughter. He called himself “ The Divine,” 
and his admirers styled him “The Scourge of 
Princes,” the fact being that his talent for libel 
enabled him to extort blackmail from men in high 
position ; or to act as a literary bravo for the best 
paymaster. Pie left no works that would indicate 
the least spontaneous wit, but his licentious vein 
has attracted readers and imitators. 

Arezzo (classic Arretium ), an ancient town of 
Tuscany, Italy, on the confluence of the Chiano and 
the Arno, 38 miles south-east of Florence. It was 
one of the wealthiest and most populous of the 
twelve cities of Etruria, and became a Roman 
colony in 30 B.c. The ruins of an amphitheatre 
still remain. After a long struggle it submitted to 
the Florentines in 1531. Many eminent men were 
born here; amongst them Michael Angelo, Petrarch, 
Guido and Vasari. It was formerly celebrated for 
the manufacture of Etruscan vases. 


Argala, an Anglo-Indian word used as the 
specific name of the Adjutant, and sometimes as a 
popular name for that bird and the Marabou Stork. 

Argali (Oois ammon), called also the Ammon, 
a large wild sheep, ranging from Siberia to the 
more elevated regions of the Himalayas. An adult 
male has been known to stand four feet at the 
shoulder, and the animal has a most stately appear¬ 
ance from the erect carriage of the head. The 
horns of the male are terrible weapons, being some¬ 
times as much as four feet long, and twenty-two 
inches in circumference at the base, forming a 


ARGALI. 

single sweep of nearly four-fifths of a circle, the 
points turning slightly outwards, and ending 
bluntly. The general colour is dark brown above, 
paler beneath, with a whitish disc on the rump ; 
there is a kind of mane, white in the male, dark 
brown in the female, and the tail is a mere stump. 
In the female the horns do not exceed twenty- 
two inches. The white-breasted Argali ( Ovisj)oli) r 
or Marco Polo’s sheep, from the Pamir Plateau, 
Central Asia, is a closely allied species ; a pair of 
its horns in the Natural History Museum, South 
Kensington, measures fifty-six inches from tip to 
tip; while each horn measures sixty-four inches 
along the curves, and describes more than a circle 
and a quarter when viewed from the side. [Sheep.] 
The Bighorn or Rocky 
Mountain Sheep (q.v.), 
is often called the 
American Argali, but 
the name is misleading, 
as the animal is a true 
antelope. [Aoudad.] 

Argand Lamp, 

named after the in¬ 
ventor, a contrivance 
involving a special form 
of burner to render the 
incandescent surface a 
double one, and so in¬ 
crease the intensity of 

the emitted light. The arrangement was initially 
employed for oil-burning lamps, and consisted of a 














































Argaum. 


( 186 ) 


Argentine Republic. 


hollow cylindrical wick, a current of air required 
for the combustion of the inner surface passing up 
the middle. A glass cylinder was used as a 
chimney, to increase the draught and to steady the 
flame. In gas-burning lamps the burner itself is in 
the form of a hollow ring, the air coming up the 
central space as in the previous case. 

Argaum, a village in Berar, India, near which, 
in 180.1, Wellington (then General Wellesley) gained 
a victory over the Mahrattas. 

Argelander, Friedrich Wilhelm August, 
a celebrated astronomer, born at Memel in 1709. 
He superintended the observatory at Abo, Finland, 
from 1823 to 1828, when it was burnt down, and 
he erected another at Helsingfors. In 1837 he was 
appointed professor of astronomy at Bonn, and 
died in 1875. He published a celestial atlas, and 
fixed the position of 22,000 stars. His later years 
were devoted to observing the varying brilliancy 
and magnitude of the stars, and to proving that 
the entire solar system is moving through space. 

Argensola, the name of two Spanish writers. 
Lupercio Leonardo, the elder brother, born in 
1565, became secretary to the ex-Empress, Maria 
of Austria, and Historiographer Royal, produced 
several tragedies and lyric poems, and died in 
1613. Bartolomeo Leonardo, born in 1566, 
entered the Church. He succeeded his brother as 
Historiographer and died in 1631. 

Argenteuil, a town 6 miles N.W. of Paris, in 
the department of Seine-et-Oise. In its nunnery 
the famous Heloise became abbess. 

Argentine Republic, a State of South 
America which occupies the southern part of the 
continent excepting the western slope of the Andes 
Cordillera and some lands of the southernmost 
extremity that belong to Chili. It is bounded on 
the north by the republics of Bolivia, Paraguay 
and Brazil, and on the east by those of Brazil and 
Uruguay. Its sea coast is very extensive. The 
total area of the country amounts to over 1,200,000 
square miles. 

The greater part of the country is composed of 
a large plain, the Pampa; but there are some 
mountain groups that are directly connected with 
the great Chilian or Bolivian cordillera, or that 
may be considered as isolated prolongations of the 
great orographical system of the continent. The 
Tertiary formation is prevalent. Extending through 
all the Argentinian plain a thick layer of clay is 
found, called the Pampean formation. In certain 
parts this clay is mingled with lime, and this com¬ 
pound is known as Fosca, and is excellent for 
manufacturing hydraulic lime. Embedded in this 
formation a great quantity of interesting fossil 
skeletons of extinct species of mammalia have been 
discovered. 

The rivers of the northern provinces are small: 
torrential in the rainy season, but quite dried up 
in the dry season. The great fluvial system of the 
Plata is very important for its extent and its 
ramifications; its more noted streams are the 
Pitcomayo (unexplored for the most part), that 
penetrates into the heart of the continent in 


Bolivia; the Bermejo, which crosses De Chaco, 
the Salado, the Dulce, and the Parana and Uruguay, 
the sources of which are in Brazil, and both of 
which are increased by various tributaries. The 
Plata, properly speaking, is only the vent or dis¬ 
charge of this enormous system. 

The greater part of the Republic is situated in 
the temperate zone of the south. The northern 
provinces are in the tropical zone, and the soil 
here yields all the produce natural to it. The 
Chaco is a very dry, hot wilderness, of which the 
colonisation was comparatively recently begun : it 
is covered, as are the northern provinces, with 
large and valuable forests. The central portion, the 
Pampa, together with the lands on the rivers, is 
excellent for the breeding of every sort of cattle, 
and for the cultivation of cereals. The Patagonian 
lands of the south are dreary deserts, but accord¬ 
ing to explorers they are full of fertile oases. 

The aboriginal race of the country has been 
greatly reduced in its numbers on account of war 
and of absorption into the invading European race. 
Not more than some thousands of representatives 
of the African race are to be found now in the 
Republic. The population is mainly formed by the 
Creoles, who are descendants of the Spanish 
conquerors, who have intermingled afterwards 
with the immigrants from Europe, Italians princi¬ 
pally. They are a handsome and strong race, 
vivacious, progressive, and very hospitable. They 
assimilate quickly all modern ideas and practices, 
and if they are rather inclined to speculation, they 
are also patriotic, and jealous of the good name of 
their country. The population numbers about four 
millions. The immigration is, however, very great, 
and influxes of Italians and Spaniards have some¬ 
times added a quarter of a million annually. 

Buenos Aires is a fine capital with half a 
million inhabitants. La Plata, the capital of the 
province of Buenos Aires, and Rosario are other 
important towns, and the towns of the interior are 
less active, but they have advanced greatly in a 
very short space of time. The country has already 
many railway lines (in 1890, 5,735 miles) mainly 
constructed by British capital, and is becoming 
colonised with prodigious rapidity. 

Solis discovered the river Plate in 1516. The 
first settlement, which was immediately destroyed 
by the savages, was made by Sebastian Cabot 
thirteen years afterwards. The first settlement 
of Buenos Aires took place in 1535; this was 
also destroyed by the Indians, and the second 
settlement of the city in its present place was 
made by Juan de Garay in 1580. In this first 
period of conquest the Spaniards founded many 
cities: Santiago del Estero, Tucuman, Santa Fe, 
Cordoba, San Juan, Salta, and others. These con¬ 
querors were military adventurers, violent and 
greedy, who divided the lands and the enslaved 
natives among themselves. The Jesuits, who had 
by this time arrived on the scene, founded rural 
colonies. Some order was established in those 
settlements, at first exposed to the attacks of many 
sea-pirates, by a governor called Gongora. At last, 
with the growth of a settled native population of 
Spanish origin, domestic practices and social virtues 







Argentite. 


C 187 ) 


Argos. 


arose, and these were developed by the creation of 
the vice-royalty of La Plata, the expulsion of the 
Jesuits, and the nomination of certain good men to 
the government of the country by King^Charles III. 
of Spain. 

During the Napoleonic w?rs an English military 
expedition suddenly appeared before Puenos Aires, 
landed and entered the town. The Spanish viceroy, 
Sobremonte. fled to the interior of the country ; but 
the natives fought well, and the English troops had 
to surrender. Another English expedition, com¬ 
manded by General Whitelock, was also defeated by 
the citizens and militia of Buenos Aires. These 
victories gave the Creoles an indication of their 
strength, and as the imbecility and abuse of the 
Spanish authorities were unbearable, the people of 
Buenos Aires, in 1810, solemnly declared their poli¬ 
tical liberty, and, after deposing the Spanish viceroy, 
Cisneros, constituted an independent government. 
All the country was in favour of the Independence, 
and the Argentine soldiers had to tight the Spanish 
armies in Chili, Bolivia and Uruguay. Eivadavia, 
the first president, was a patriot and able organiser ; 
in his administration a war took place with Brazil 
on account of the disputed possession of the Banda 
Oriental, in which the Argentinian arms were vic¬ 
torious both on land and sea. 

Great disturbances, which led to terrible civil 
wars, broke out among the provinces, and great 
anarchy reigned throughout the whole country, 
until the despot Rosas silenced the country under 
his bloody rule. After twenty-three years of un¬ 
limited power, he was defeated in the battle of 
Caseros by Urquiza (1852). 

With the fall of Rosas the old strife between the 
provinces was kindled again, but in the battle of 
Pavon, won by General Mitre (18G1), the factions 
were destroyed. General Mitre was then elected 
President of the Republic, which was reconstructed 
on firm foundations by his wise and honest policy. 
During Mitre’s administration a successful war was 
carried on by the allied forces of the Argentine 
and Uruguayan republics and the Brazilian empire, 
against the tyrant Lopes, of Paraguay. 

Sarmienti, who followed Mitre in the presidency, 
was an energetic statesman, but was the first who 
introduced the practice of naming his successor, a 
practice which corrupted the political body. After 
Sarmienti, Avellaneda was named president, and 
after them came General Roca. Juarez Celman 
succeeded Roca, but was overthrown in June, 1890, 
by a revolution which delivered the country from a 
shameful regime of nepotism and public plunder. 

Argentite (Ag 2 S), or Silver Glance, silver 
sulphide, is one of the commonest ores of the 
metal. It is of a blackish lead-grey, and generally 
massive, though occurring in cubes and in dendritic 
forms. It is metallic, soft, sectile, soluble in dilute 
nitric acid and readily fusible, and has a specific 
gravity of 7'2 to 7’3. 

Argillaceous, from the Latin argilld , clay, 
is a term descriptive of those rocks, clays, slates, 
loams, marls, or sandstones, which contain any 
considerable percentage of clay. 


Argiro-Kostro. or Argyro-Castron (Turk. 
Ergeri), a town in the province of Avlona, Albania, 
on the left bank of the river Vajutza. It was, 
until 1814, when depopulated by the plague, a place 
of some importance. A particular kind of fine snuff 
is made here. 

Argol, the commercial name for the crude tar¬ 
trate of potash deposited in wine casks. 

Argolis, a region occupying a peninsula on the 
east coast of the Greek Peloponnesus, and including 
the states of Argos, Troezen, Epidaurus, and 
Hermione, with the towns also of Myceme, Tiryns, 
and Nauplia. Inachus, the legendary son of Oceanus 
and Tethys, is the first ruler of this district that 
we hear of. Danaus coming from Egypt seized the 
throne, which subsequently passed to Acrisius, whose 
grandson, Perseus, founded Myceme. The Herac- 
leids, banished from Argolis by Eurystheus, the 
occupant of the throne of Perseus, went to Athens. 
Atreus, son of Pelops, coming from Elis, succeeded 
Eurystheus at Myceme, and founded the Pelopid 
dynasty, which held sway till 1190 B.C., when the 
Heracleids were restored by the help of the Dorians. 
In 820, after the death of Eratus,the monarchy came 
to an end, and an oligarchy took its place. The 
power of Argos declined as that of Sparta rose, and 
early in the fifth century b.c. the country was more 
or less subject to Lacedaemon. [Argos.] In 233 
B.c. Argolis joined the Achaean League, and a cen¬ 
tury later was conquered by the Romans. It passed 
from the Greek emperors to the Turks, and only re¬ 
covered independence in 1825. 

Argonauta, the paper Nautilus, the only living 
two-gilled Cephalopod (q.v.) provided with an ex¬ 
ternal shell; ■ this is present only in the female, and 
is secreted by two of the arms. It lives in the 
Chinese seas, and is extinct in the Mediterranean. 
It was once fabled to use its arms as sails. It is 
the type of the Argonautidae. 

Argonauts, The (from their ship Argo), in 
Grecian mythology, a band of heroes who under 
the leadership of Jason sailed to Colchis to fetch a 
golden fleece which was guarded by a dragon which 
never slept. With the assistance of Medea, daugh¬ 
ter of Aeetes, the King of Colchis, Jason succeeded 
in obtaining the prize, for which he had to undergo 
many perilous adventures. In all of these he 
triumphed through Medea’s aid, and finally escaped, 
taking her with him as his bride. For the further 
adventures of Jason and Medea see those headings. 

Argos, the chief town of the state that gave 
its name to Argolis, and to the Greeks generally, 
and was for many years supreme in the Pelopon¬ 
nesus, still exists on the river Nacho (Inachus), 
about five miles from Nauplia. From the earliest 
historical period Argos appears struggling vainly 
against Sparta for the headship of Greece. Pros¬ 
trated by a disastrous war with its rival in 496-5 
b.c., it played no part in resisting Xerxes. In 461 
it entered into an alliance with Athens, and in 416 
the democracy asserted itself, and formed a league 
with Athens, Corinth, and Thebes against Sparta. 
Internal party struggles raged for some years, though 
after the Peace of Antalcidas Sparta exercised but 







Arguelles. 


( 188 ) 


Argyll. 


little influence over the Peloponnesus. From this date 
the history of Argos merges into that of Argolis. 

Arguelles, Augustine, a Spanish politician, 
born in 1776. He took an active part as a Liberal 
in the rising against the French in 1809, and drew 
up the Constitution of 1812. Ferdinand, on his 
restoration, sent this patriot to the galleys. The 
revolution of 1820 set him at liberty, and made him 
minister and president of the Cortes. In 1823 he 
had to fly from Spain, but returned in 1834, and 
was guardian to Queen Isabella until she attained 
her majority in 1843. He died the next year. The 
probity, capacity, moderation, and eloquence of 
Arguelles won him high esteem and the exaggerated 
epithet of divino.” 

Argument, in Logic, an expression in which 
something is deduced from something else which is 
laid down or granted. The term is frequently used 
to s'gnify the theme of a discussion or narrative, but 
more generally of the discussion itself. Various 
arguments have their distinctive names, such as 
argument-inn ad hominem [AdHominem], ad baculi¬ 
nn m (in which recourse is had to physical force), etc. 

Argus, the hundred-eyed monster of classical 
mythology, set by jealous Here (Juno) to watch 
over Io even after her transformation into a cow. 
Hermes (Mercury), at the instigation of the 
amorous Zeus (Jupiter), killed this creature, and 
earned the title of Argeiphontes. Here transferred 
his hundred eyes to the peacock’s tail. His name 
has become a synonym for restless vigilance. 



Argus Pheasant (Argus gigantevs), a beau¬ 
tiful Oriental game-bird belonging to that division 
of the pheasant family which contains the peafowl 
and other birds with elongated tails and ocelli ('or 
eye-like markings) on the plumage. The bill is 
straight, except at the extremity, where it is curved ; 

nostrils in the middle 
of the upper mandible ; 
head, cheeks, and neck 
nearly naked ; legs 
long, slender, and with¬ 
out spurs; tail of 
twelve feathers, in the 
male the two middle 
ones are enormously 
developed and the 
secondary quills are 
much longer than the 
primaries. The plu¬ 
mage is of various 
shades of brown, and 
the beautifully marked 
secondaries and the 
display of the male 
bird before the hen 
are thus described by 
Darwin (Descent of 
Man, chap, xiii.) : 
“ Each [feather] is or¬ 
namented with a row of from twenty to twenty- 
three ocelli, above an inch in diameter. These 
feathers are also elegantly marked with oblique 
stripes and rows of spots of a dark colour like 


ARGUS PHEASANT. 


those on the skin of a tiger and leopard com¬ 
bined. These beautiful ornaments are hidden 
until the male shows himself off before the female. 
He then erects his tail and expands his wing- 
feathers into a great, almost upright circular fan 
or shield, which is carried in front of the body. 
The neck and head arc held on one side, so that they 
are concealed by the fan ; but the bird, in order to 
see the female, before whom he is displaying him¬ 
self, sometimes pushes his head between two of the 
long wing-feathers.” It is probable that the male 
can also peep at the female on one side, beyond the 
margin of the fan. Darwin considered these mar¬ 
vellous markings, which he calls ball-and-socket 
ornaments,” and from which the genus is named 
[Argus], to have been developed by sexual selec¬ 
tion. But beauty has been gained at the expense of 
usefulness, for the extraordinary development of 
the secondary feathers has almost deprived the 
bird of the power of flight. The Argus pheasant is 
a native of Sumatra and Malacca, and is said to 
range into China. There is another species, Gray’s 
Argus QA.grayi), of which little is known, confined 
to Borneo. 

Argyle, or Argyll, the name of a large county 
on the west coast of Scotland, comprising a con¬ 
siderable tract of the mainland, together with a 
number of the Hebrides or Western Isles. The 
total area is 3,255 square miles. The long indented 
coast-line affords great facilities for fishing, and 
many inhabitants live by this industry. Much of 
the surface is occupied by mountains and moorland, 
which provide picturesque scenery and abundant 
sport. The loftiest summits are Ben Cruachan 
(3,689 ft.), Ben More (3,172 ft.), Ben Ima (3,318 ft.), 
and Buchael Etive (3,345 ft.). The fresh-water lakes, 
of which Loch Awe is the largest, cover 25,000 acres. 
The rivers are small, the chief being the Orchy and 
the Aire. Among the islands included in the county 
are Iona, Staffa, Mull, Islay, Jura, Colonsay, Lis- 
more, Tiree, Coll, Gigha, Mack, Rum, and Canna. 
Inverary, the capital, is on Loch Fyne, and other 
important towns are Campbeltown, Dunoon, Tober¬ 
mory, and Oban. The rearing of cattle and sheep 
and the distilling of whisky are the most profitable 
of the local industries. Agriculture succeeds in the 
south, but there are no valuable manufactures. 
Gaelic is still the language of the native population 
in the north and in the islands. Argyleshire re¬ 
turns one member to Parliament. 

Argyll, the Earls, Marquises, and Dukes of, 
have belonged to the Campbell family or clan, 
which first came into prominence in the twelfth cen- 
tury, and has since produced several distinguished 
public characters. The first, patent of their nobility 
in Scotland dates from 1445, and the earldom was 
created in 1453. 

1. Archibald Campbell, 8th Earl and 1st 
Marquis (1(541), was born in 1598. He was a 
zealous Covenanter, took up arms against Charles I., 
commanded the force sent against Montrose in 
1644, but was unsuccessful. Though unwilling to 
aid in lestoring the royal cause, he seems to have 
t aken no part in handing over the king’s person to 







Argyll. 


( 189 ) 


Ariege. 


Parliament, and the execution of Charles disgusted 
him and his party. In 1651 he crowned Charles II. 
at Scone, but the defeats that ensued shook his 
somewhat wavering loyalty, and he submitted sul¬ 
lenly to Cromwell. He sat in Richard Cromwell’s 
Parliament, and intrigued for the return of the 
Stuarts. However, no sooner was Charles II. re¬ 
stored than he threw Argyll, whom he always 
hated, into the Tower. After a trial before the Scot¬ 
tish Parliament, in which all forms and principles 
of law and justice were set at naught, the aged 
peer was condemned. He met his death firmly and 
nobly on May 27, 1661. 

2. Archibald Campbell, his son, 9th Earl, 
fought as Lord Lome for Charles II. until long after 
all hope was extinguished. He surrendered to 
Monk in 1657, and was imprisoned until the Resto¬ 
ration. Charles then gave him back his estates 
and his earldom, and saved his life when treason¬ 
able charges were brought - against him. For 
twenty years Argyll gave support to the Govern¬ 
ment, and even connived at the oppression of the 
Covenanters. In 1681, however, he refused to sub¬ 
scribe to the Duke of York's celebrated test of 
passive obedience, and was condemned to death. 
He escaped to Holland. In 1685 he attempted a 
descent on the coast of Scotland in combination 
with Monmouth’s rising. He was captured, taken 
to Edinburgh, and executed (June 30, 1685) on the 
strength of his former sentence. 

3. John Campbell, 2nd Duke, and also Duke 
of Greenwich, grandson of the above, born 1678, 
succeeded 1703. He was created an English peer 
in 1705 for having promoted the Union, and in 1710 
was made K.G. He served with great distinction 
under Marlborough in all the battles in Flanders, 
and was appointed Commander-in-Chief in Spain 
1710, but, disappointed at the treachery of the 
ministry, he returned, denounced their conduct in 
Parliament, and was deprived of office. In 1714 he 
upset Bolingbroke’s scheme for bringing back the 
Stuarts on the death of Anne, and next year he 
defeated Mar at Sheriffmuir. His clemency to the 
Jacobites gave offence, and he was again driven 
out of place, to be restored in 1719 as Steward of 
the Household and Duke of Greenwich. During 
Walpole’s ministry he virtually governed Scotland, 
and did so with wisdom and moderation, dying in 
1743. 

4. George John Douglas Campbell, 8 h Duke 
of Argyll, was born in 1824. As Marquis cf Lome he 
took an active interest in the discussion that led t o the 
severance of the Free Kirk from the Presbyterian 
Church of Scotland, but though he favoured the 
abolition of lay patronage, and sympathised in 
many ways with the movement, he declined to 
follow Dr. Chalmers and abandon the establish¬ 
ment. Succeeding to the dukedom in 1847, he 
published next year Presbyter// Examined. In 
politics he was a Whig, and in 1851 took office as 
Lord Privy Seal under the Earl of Aberdeen, con¬ 
tinuing in office under Lord Palmerston, but be¬ 
coming in 1856 Postmaster-General. He again 
served in 1859 under Palmerston, and from 1868 to 
1874 sat in Mr. Gladstone's Cabinet as Secretary of 


State for “India. In 1875 he warmly supported the 
Conservative scheme for transferring patronage in 
the Scotch Ghurch to congregations, and two years 
later he wrote a paper for the Cobden Club on the 
relations of landlord and tenant. In 1880 he was 
once more entrusted with the Privy Seal, but re¬ 
signed owing to his objection to the Irish Land 
Bill. He afterwards published one or two papers 
on the land question especially directed against 
Mr. George’s theories. Having always felt a strong 
interest in the progress of Darwin’s views and the 
growth of Agnosticism, he had, in 1866, written 
The Reign of Lam, an able vindication of Theism. 
This he followed up in 1884 with The Unity of 
Nature , conceived in the same spirit; and a smaller 
work, Primeval Man , was devoted to an examina¬ 
tion of recent hypotheses as to the origin of the 
human race. He has also pronounced himself 
strongly against Irish Home Rule, and has shown 
an increasing sympathy with Conservatism. He 
married in 1844 a daughter of the Duke of Suther¬ 
land. She died in 1878, and he contracted a second 
marriage in 1881 with a daughter of Dr. Claughton, 
Bishop of St. Albans. 

Argy ria, the condition produced by the pro¬ 
longed administration of nitrate of silver as a 
medicine. The skin acquires a leaden hue, which 
is very characteristic, and the silver becomes de¬ 
posited in all the tissues. 

Argfyronetid.se, the family of spiders which 
includes the common water spider, Argyroneta 
aquatica. 

Argyropulos, John, one of the leaders in 
the revival of Greek learning, was born at Con¬ 
stantinople early in the fifteenth century, and came 
to Italy in 1434. There under the protection of the 
Medici he taught Greek and philosophy, translating 
some of Aristotle’s works. He died at Rome in 
1489. 

Ariadne, in Greek mythology, was the daughter 
of Minos and Pasiphae. When Theseus came to 
Crete to destroy the Minotaur, she fell in love with 
the hero and gave him the clue of wool that guided 
him safely out of the labyrinth. She accompanied 
him to Naxos, where he abandoned her. Dionysus 
(Bacchus) took pity on her, married her, and after 
death changed her into a constellation. Her adven¬ 
tures have been the theme of many poets and 
painters. It is probable that her story typifies the 
return of Spring. 

Ariano (classic Equotutiens ?~) a town in the 
province of Avellino, Italy, 38 miles N.E. of Naples. 
It stands on a hill 2,500 feet high, is the see of a 
bishop, and does some trade in wine and butter. 

Arica, a seaport in the south of Peru, conveniently 
situated as an outlet for the trade of Bolivia. Its 
exports are copper ore, wool, silver, nitrate, etc. A 
railway connects the town with Tacca. The 
climate is unhealthy and earthquakes are frequent. 

Ariege, L’, a department of France on the 
Spanish frontier. It derives its name from a tribu¬ 
tary of the Garonne in which a little gold has been 
found. The area is 1,890 square miles. Mountains, 






Ariel. 


c 100) 


Aristides. 


forests, and lakes abound, and the mineral products 
include iron, marble, and alabaster. Foix is the 
chief town. 

Ariel, in Shakespeare’s Tempest , one of the 
spirits of the air, where, liberated from the tyranny 
of Sycorax and Caliban, he gratefully and loyally 
serves Prospero for sixteen years as a benign super¬ 
natural agency. Pope in The Rape of the Loch 
makes use of the same conception. Milton ( Para¬ 
dise Lost , vi. 371) introduces us to a fallen angel of 
this name. Isaiah (xxix. 1-7) used the word in 
speaking of Jerusalem, and in this sense it has 
been explained to mean either “ lion of God ” or 
“ hearth of God.” 

Aries, the Ram, the first of the signs of the 
Zodiac (q.v.). The first point of Aries is that spot 
where the sun appears to stand at the vernal 
equinox. The constellation of Aries is, owing to 
the precession of the equinoxes, no longer within 
the limits of the sign Aries. 

Aril, a fleshy outgrowth from the surface of a 
seed produced after fertilisation, and often red or 
otherwise coloured so as to attract birds. Mace is 
an aril round the seed of the nutmeg. 

Arinos, a river of Brazil, South America, which 
rises in the Sierra Diamantino, and flowing N.W. 
joins the Jurusua or Tapajos, a tributary of the 
Amazon. 

Arion, the “land sole,” a well known genus of 
slugs. 

Arion, a legendary musician of Greece, supposed 
to have been born at Methymna in Lesbos some 
time in the seventh century b.C. He invented the 
dithyrambic metre. On his voyage from Italy the 
crew of the vessel conspired to rob and kill him, 
but granted him leave to play once more before he 
died. At the end of his performance he jumped 
overboard, and was picked up and carried to 
Tsenarus by an admiring dolphin. The lute and 
the dolphin were placed among the constellations. 

Ariosto, Ludovico, the illustrious Italian poet, 
born at Reggio in Lombardy in 1474, his father 
being governor of that place. The family migrated 
to Ferrara, and the poet received some scanty 
patronage from Cardinal D’Este and Alfonso Duke 
of Ferrara, and was occasionally employed in 
diplomatic and other business, but his life was 
spent almost in poverty. His grand work, the 
Orlando Furioso , was published in its first shape in 
1515-16, and was the result of ten years’ labour. 
The plot professes to give the story of the madness . 
of one of Charlemagne’s paladins—Roland or 
Orlando—who, at the time that his liege lord was 
defeating Agramant the Moor, beneath the walls of 
Paris, fell in love with the fair but heathen princess 
of Cathay, Angelica, and was driven out of his 
senses by her marriage with Medoro. His wits 
were not absolutely lost, but merely shut up for 
three months in the moon. Astolpho visited that 
satellite in Elijah’s chariot, and received from St. 
John the missing portion of Orlando’s intellect 
securely stored in an urn. Orlando was then 
bound hand and foot, and, the urn being opened 


\mder his nose, his reason returned to its seat. 
The happier loves of Roger and Bradamante 
supply another long episode, and several minor 
actions are deftly interwoven with the main fabric 
of the poem. In felicity of language and perfect 
mastery of the octosyllabic metre, Ariosto is 
superior to Tasso. He did not complete his work 
until 1532, but in the meantime he composed 
several dramatic pieces, sonnets, canzonets, and 
Latin lyrics. His death occurred in 1533, and a 
monument was raised to his memory at Ferrara, in 
the new church o'f St. Benedetto, whither his body 
was removed forty years later. Titian preserved 
the poet's form and features in a remarkable portrait. 

Ariovistus, the chief of the Suevi (Swabians), 
entered Gaul at the invitation of the Sequani about 
63 b.C. to help that tribe against the flEdui, whom 
he defeated. He was so well pleased with the 
country that he settled down and began to become 
troublesome to his allies. Julius C<esar came to- 
their rescue, overthrew Ariovistus at Vesontio- 
(Besangon) b.c. 58, and drove him back across the 
Rhine. 

Aristaeus, son of Apollo and the water-nymph 
Cyrene, and father of Actason. He received divine 
honours for teaching men how to tend cattle and 
keep bees. On the death of his son he is said to> 
have wandered over many lands and to have been 
initiated by Bacchus into his mysteries in Thrace. 
Virgil ( Georgies , bk. iv.) gives a long account of the 
strange process, learnt by him from Proteus, for 
producing bees by spontaneous generation. 

Aristarchus, (1) of Samos, a Greek astronomer, 
who flourished about 280 B.C. He is credited 
with having suspected that the earth turned on 
its axis and revolved round the sun. A short- 
treatise of his on the size and distance of the sun 
and moon is extant. 

(2) Of Samothrace, the famous Homeric critic, 
whose edition of the Iliad and Odyssey has been 
the basis of all other editions, was born about 
158 B.C. He went to Alexandria as a youth, and. 
acted as tutor to the sons of Ptolemasus Philometor. 
His revision of Homer has been charged with un¬ 
due severity, and it is said that he arbitrarily altered 
and struck out many verses. On this point it is 
difficult to form an opinion. Aristarchus exercised 
his faculties upon the works of Pindar, Aratus, 
Archilochus, and other poets. It is said that he 
went to Rome, and that he died in Cyprus about 
88 b.c. 

Aristides, surnamed “ The Just,” one of the 
noblest figures in Greek history, was born of 
aristocratic Athenian parentage, probably about- 
560 B.C. He supported the aristocratic party and 
was therefore politically opposed to Themistocles. 
At Marathon (490 B.c.) both these rivals fought side 
by side at the head of their respective tribes, and 
according to Plutarch it was by the advice of 
Aristides that the sole command was given to- 
Miltiades. Being appointed archon in the following 
year he showed such integrity as to win his cele¬ 
brated title. When the tide of democracy set in 
Aristides was relegated to honourable exile by the 







Aristippus 


( 191 ) 


Aristotle. 


process of ostracism, and it is told how one citizen 
voted for his removal simply through weariness of 
hearing him called “ the Just.” He returned be¬ 
fore the battle of Salamis (480), and showed his 
generous spirit by passing at night through the 
-Persian fleet to hold a council of war with his rival. 
At Plattea (479) he commanded the Athenian 
contingent, and was chosen to conduct subsequent 
operations against Persia and to manage the joint 
fund of the Greek states. These duties he dis¬ 
charged so admirably that not a murmur of com¬ 
plaint was raised against him. When he died in 
468 he received a public funeral, and a grant was 
made to his children, whom he left in poverty. 

Aristippus, the founder of the Cyrenaic school 
of Greek philosophy, was born at Cyrene about 
424 it.c. He came to Athens and was a disciple of 
(Socrates, but he wrought out for himself a moral 
system widely different from that of his master. 
According to him pleasure is the supreme good 
and the end of all action. His doctrine has been 
styled Hedonism, from the Greek lie-done , pleasure. 
Nor did he leave it a matter of doubt whether he 
meant bodily or intellectual enjoyment to be the 
source of happiness, for he betook himself to the 
luxurious court of Dionysius of Syracuse and 
practised what he preached. It is but fair to add 
that his opinions are a matter of tradition, for he 
wrote nothing, and left to his daughter, Arete, and 
his grandson, Aristippus the Younger, the elucida¬ 
tion of his principles. He is believed to have died 
in 356 B.c. 

Aristobulus. Several personages bearing this 
name played their parts in later Jewish history. 

1. Aristobulus I., known as Philhellen, suc¬ 
ceeded his father, John Hyrcanus, as high priest 
in 105 B.C., and having thrown into prison his 
mother, who assumed the duties of government, 
took the title of king. He marched against the 
Itureans, and forced them to judaise. He died 
after an oppressive reign of twelve months. 

2. Aristobulus II., second son of Alexander 
Janmeus, who deposed his brother Hyrcanus, the 
high priest (70 B.C.), and raised himself to the 
throne. Attacked by the Arabs, he invoked the 
aid of the Romans, and endeavoured to obtain 
recognition of his title, but having provoked 
Pompey he was besieged in Jerusalem, taken to 
Rome in triumph, and detained there for eight 
years. He then escaped and took up arms once 
more, only to be defeated and sent back to Rome in 
fetters. Some seven years later Julius Caesar released 
him with the idea of employing him against the 
Pompeians in Syria, but he was poisoned by that 
party before he could make a start. 

3. Aristobulus III., grandson of Hyrcanus II. 
and brother of Mariamne, Herod’s wife, was, through 
the influence of his mother and his sister with Antony 
and Cleopatra, made high priest at the age of seven¬ 
teen. Herod, though forced to consent to the ap¬ 
pointment, resolved to be revenged. He visited his 
mother-in-law near Jericho, where Aristobulus was 
staying, and, taking him to bathe, had him drowned 
in the Jordan, B.c. 34. Thus ended the Asmonean 
dynasty. 


Aristocracy {government bg the best), a form 
of government in which the power was in the 
hands of the most wealthy or most nobly-born ; the 
term is also frequently applied to the nobles them¬ 
selves. 

Aristolochia, a genus of woody climbers, 
giving their name to an order, with cordate leaves 
and large hooded or trumpet-like flowers often 
brown or dingy in colour and carrion-scented, 
chiefly natives of the tropics. They are bitter and 
stimulant, and are almost universally held to be 
antidotes to snake-bite. 

Aristophanes, the great comic dramatist of 
Athens, was born about 444 B.c. His opponents 
maintained that he was not by birth an Athenian 
citizen, but probably without good reason. It is 
rumoured that he studied under the Sophist 
Prodicus, but this is doubtful. He certainly at¬ 
tached himself to the old aristocratic and conserva¬ 
tive party, and his talents were employed in 
satirising the democratic influences that he con¬ 
ceived to be undermining the Athenian constitution 
and character. Not that Aristophanes limited his 
sarcasm to the field of politics; the religious and 
judicial systems, the education imparted by Sophists, 
the tragic drama, the habits of the men and 
women of the day, all provided marks for the shafts 
of his keen wit. Reckless humour, often degenerat¬ 
ing into wild buffoonery and utter coarseness, gives 
the key-note to his dramas, but his play of fancy is 
marvellous. He occasionally utters wise and noble 
sentiments, and his Attic style found an admirer in 
so strict a judge as Plato. Whether he aimed 
honestly at social and political reform is a matter 
of doubt. The persons who incurred the severest 
chastisement at his hands were Socrates in The 
Clouds, Euripides in the Aehanians, 'The Frogs, and 
The Thesmophoriazusce, and Cleon in The Knights , 
His first play appeared in 427 b.c., and he is said 
to have written fifty-four in all, eleven of which 
have come down to us. He died in 380, eight years, 
after a law had been passed to check the licence of 
the stage in presenting real characters for public 
derision. 

Aristotle, the founder of that Peripatetic 
School of Philosophy in Greece which has had so 
wide an influence over human thought, was born 
in 384 b.c. at Stagira, Macedonia. Hence he is 
called “ The Stagirite.” His father was physician 
to the Macedonian court, but died when Aristotle 
was seventeen. Left an orphan, the youth -went to. 
Athens, and, after following for many years the 
teaching of Plato and other Socratic philosophers, 
set up a school of his own. After Plato's death 
(348) he spent some years in Mysia, but was in¬ 
vited in 343 to undertake the education of Philips- 
heir, the future Alexander the Great. He was 
handsomely treated both by father and son, and 
in 335 returned to Athens, where the Lyceum was 
assigned to him as a school. Here he taught for 
thirteen years, delivering his lectures as he walked 
up and down the shady colonnades—a habit that 
gave the name “ Peripatetic ” to his doctrine. In 
332, pursued by jealous foes with charges of impiety. 







Aristotle’s Lantern. 


( 1^2 ) 


Arras. 


and having lost Alexander, whose friendship for 
him had cooled even before death, Aristotle fled 
from Athens and took refuge at Chalcis and died 
there within the year. In personal appearance the 
great philosopher was thin and slightly built. He 
had small eyes, a shaven face, and a feminine 
voice, and always showed great care for his dress. 
He left a son, Nicomachus, and a daughter, Pythias, 
both of whom he dearly loved. 

As a speculative thinker, Aristotle is distinguished 
for range no less than power. Though much that 
he wrote has been lost, we have from him profound 
and original treatises on Metaphysics, Psychology, 
Logic (the Organon), Physics, Natural History, 
Meteorology, Moral and Political Science (the 
Ethics and Politics ), Rhetoric and Poetry. Within 
the limits of these pages it is impossible even to 
give an intelligible outline of his principles, but 
there is scarcely one of these works that might not 
serve as the basis of a great reputation. For the 
Natural History and Politics Alexander is reported 
to have employed a host of men in collecting 
materials and information, but the organising of 
this chaotic mass was a task that demanded super¬ 
human industry and incredible genius. In 1891 a 
work was published which was announced to be 
from the pen of Aristotle, which consisted of a 
brief record of the rise and growth of the constitu¬ 
tions of Athens. But all this was but a small part 
of what he achieved. The principles which he laid 
down, the terms that he employed, the methods he 
pursued in Psychology, Ontology, and Logic, have 
not only shaped the whole tenour of the Christian 
theology, and provided a foundation for numberless 
sects and schools of philosophy, but they have 
so permeated the daily lives of men that it is 
scarcely possible to frame a sentence that is 
wholly unflavoured by Aristotle. If in Ethics his 
doctrine of “the mean’’ scarcely commends itself as 
a satisfactory explanation of the difference between 
right and wrong, yet his theory of the formation of 
habit, his conception of that happiness which is the 
chief good, and his description of typical characters 
are masterpieces, while his attempt to reduce 
morals and politics to the certainty of science has 
served as a starting point for all subsequent 
inquiry. 

Aristotle’s Lantern, the jaw apparatus of 
Sea Urchins, as in the common English species 
<\Echinus esculentus ) ; it is of five sectors, each of 
which consists of four pieces, a triangular pyramid 
or alveolus, perforated by a long keeled tooth. 
Above is a curved piece, the compass or radius, and 
along the upper junction of two pyramids is the 
rotula or brace. 

Aristoxenns, a Greek philosopher and musi¬ 
cian, born at Tarentum in Italy, about 350 B.C. Of 
the 453 works that he is said to have written, only 
one. The Elements of Harmony , has come down 
to us. Harmony, as understood by him, applied 
only to a succession, not to a combination of 
sounds, and was connected with that wider idea of 
symmetry which music was supposed to symbolise. 
He invented a scale in many respects similar 
to the modern diatonic scale. Perhaps the most 


remarkable of his views was that which he held as 
to the distinction of tones by the ear instead of by 
mathematical process as Pythagoras had proposed. 

Arithmetic, the science of numbers. The 
systematic representation of numbers is termed 
notation. With a bad system of notation, such as 
that of the Greeks and Romans, arithmetical 
processes were laborious, and the progress of the 
science very slow. It was not till the introduction 
of the decimal system of notation in the tenth 
century that arithmetic began to develop much, 
though there had been writers on the subject from 
the time of Euclid. The elementary operations in 
arithmetic are addition and subtraction, converse 
processes that in the extension of the science in 
algebra are regarded as identical; and the .other 
two converse processes, multiplication and division. 
The theory of numbers supplies us with different 
modes of operating. Thus ordinary multiplication 
is effected by a method of continued addition, and 
division by subtraction; but these may also be 
effected by logarithms (q.v.). The various subjects 
to which arithmetical rules are applied, are noticed 
separately. 

Arithmetical Mean, or Average, of two or 
more numbers, the n -th part of their sum, where 
n is the number taken. Thus the A.M. of three 
numbers is one-third their sum. 

Arithmetical Progression, a series tf 
numbers each one of which differs from the pre¬ 
ceding by a constant amount. Thus 2, 5, 8, 
11 .... or 3, 2|, If .... , the differences in the 
two cases being 3 ,and — f respectively. The sum 
of such a series is the average term (the mean of 
first and last) multiplied by the number of terms. 

Arius, the founder of Arianism, was of African 
descent. It is supposed that he was a pupil of 
Lucian of Antioch. In 313 he was ordained 
presbyter at Alexandria with the charge of a church 
at Baucalis. His doctrine, briefly summed up. was 
this—that the Son was not uncreated or unbegotten, 
but was called into existence by God, and admitted 
to a participation in the Divine nature ; that the 
Son has a beginning, but that the Father has no 
beginning. He conceived this to be the original 
teaching of the Church, and regarded the opposite 
opinion as new and heretical. Alexander, Bishop 
of Alexandria, denounced the doctrine, though 
Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea, regarded it as con¬ 
sistent with orthodoxy. A fierce dissension arose 
and the Emperor Constantine summoned the 
Council of Nicaea (a.d. 325) to settle the point. 
Athanasius strongly opposed Arius, who was ex¬ 
communicated, a new creed being drawn up to 
meet the difficulty. Meanwhile, the heresy gained 
ground, and Constantine recalling Arius, heard 
his explanations, and caused him to be restored by 
a synod at Jerusalem. Athanasius, then Bishop of 
Alexandria, was in exile at Treves (a.d. 333), but 
Alexander, Bishop of Constantinople, refused to 
readmit Arius to the Church. Arius died in 336. It 
is thought that he was poisoned. Of his book Thalica 
we have only a few fragments preserved in the 
writings of Athanasius, but some of his letters are 










Arizona. 


( 1^3 ) 


Arles. 


extant, and sufficiently record his opinions. Arian- 
ism existed within the pale of the Church until the 
Second Council of Constantinople in 381, and was 
held by a distinct sect until 950. 

Arizona, a territory of the United States of 
America, bounded north by Utah, east by New 
Mexico, south by Mexico, and west by California 
and Nevada. It comprises a tract of land ceded 
to the States as part of New Mexico in 1848 ; while 
the S. part was purchased from Mexico 1854: but 
it was not organised as a separate territory till 1863. 
The area is 113,916 square miles, a large proportion 
of the population consisting of Indians. Much of 
the surface is occupied by a barren plateau, 11,000 
feet above the sea level, through which the Colorado 
river passes in a stupendous gorge, or “ canon,” 300 
miles long, and from 3,000 to 6,000 feet deep. 
South of this lies the valley of the Little Colorado 



VIEW OF THE GRAND CANON, ARIZONA. 


or Flax river, and farther south still the fertile 
district about the Mogallon mountains, whilst near 
the Mexican frontier is the basin of the Gila river 
with its tributaries. Gold, silver, and copper 
mining yield nearly a million and a half sterling 
per annum, yet the resources of the country are 
but half developed. Abundance of timber is pro¬ 
duced, and grapes, figs, oranges, tobacco, and every 
variety of cereals grow well in the lower lands. 
Prescott in Yavapai county is the capital, Arizona 
city and Tucson are growing towns. 

Arjish, a town in Turkish Armenia, on the 
north shore of Lake Van, to an arm of which as 
well as to a river it gives its name. 

Ark, a chest, coffer, or other receptacle; 
specially, the term applied in the Old Testament 
to (1) the chest which contained the covenant or 
tables of the law ; over it were the mercy-seat and 
the two cherubim; (2) the large boat or floating 
vessel in which Noah took refuge during the 

13 


Deluge ; (3) the vessel made of bulrushes in which 
Moses was laid when an infant. 

Arkansas, one of the United States of 
America, deriving its name from a tribe of Indians 
who were the primitive occupants. It is bounded 
north by Missouri, east by Tennessee and Missis¬ 
sippi, south by Louisiana, and west by Indian 
territory. The district was first colonised by 
France in 1685, then ceded to Spain, restored 
presently to France, and finally in 1803 sold with 
Louisiana to the United States. It was organised 
as a territory in 1819, and erected into a state in 1836. 
Its area is 52,198 square miles. The Arkansas river, 
nearly 2,200 miles long, waters much of -it, and 
there are also the Mississippi, Red, White, and 
Washita rivers. The soil in the central portion is 
very rich, and the surface charmingly undulating 
and wooded. Towards the east marshes prevail, 
and the western parts are mountainous. Until 
recently the state was devoted to agricultural and 
pastoral industries, producing all kinds of corn, 
rice, sugar, cotton, potatoes, and tobacco, and 
rearing numberless cattle ; now the mineral wealth, 
consisting of silver, coal, zinc, and iron, is being 
rapidly developed. Little Rock is the seat of 
government, Arkansas, Batesville, Columbia, and 
Fulton being places of importance. 

Arkansas River. [Arkansas.] 

Arklow, a seaport in the county Wicklow, Ire¬ 
land, on the Avoca river, close to the sea, and 
twelve miles from Wicklow. The railway from 
Dublin to Wexford passes through. The lower 
town is the fishermen’s quarter, the inhabitants 
being mostly engaged in the herring and oyster 
fisheries. The old castle now in ruins was 
destroyed by Cromwell in 1649, and a sharp 
encounter between the United Irishmen and the 
British troops took place near the town in 1798. 

Arkwright, Sir Richard, Knt., was born at 
Preston in 1732. He started in life as a barber, 
but, in conjunction with Kay, a clockmaker at 
Warrington, invented, about 1768, a machine for 
carding cotton, so as to adapt it for being dealt 
with by the spinning jenny of Hargreaves. The 
two inventions revolutionised the manufacture of 
cotton goods. He patented his spinning-frame in 
1769, and entering into partnership with My. 
Smalley, started in business at Preston. This 
attempt was unsuccessful, so he moved to 
Nottingham, where he employed horse-power to 
work his machinery. A little later he combined 
with two capitalists, Mr. Strutt and Mr. Need, to 
start a mill at Cromforcl, near Matlock, using the 
water of the Derwent for motive power. Here in 
the course of twenty years he amassed a large 
fortune, though his patent was set aside by the 
Court of King’s Bench in 1789; and here he died 
in 1792, after receiving the honour of knighthood, 
not so much for his inventive genius as for a loyal 
address to George III. 

Arles, on the Rhone, a city in the department 
of Bouclies du Rhone, France; about 46 miles north¬ 
west of Marseilles. Constantine was so delighted 












Arlington. 


( 194 ) 


Armadillo. 


with the spot that he built a palace there, and 
gave the town the name of Constantia. The 
ruins of the vast amphitheatre and of many other 
Homan works show its prosperity at that period. 
Under the Merovingians it became capital of Pro¬ 
vence, and from 933 to 1032 was capital of the 
Burgundian kingdom of Arles. For a brief space 
it took the form of a Republic, but ultimately 
became part of Provence. Many ecclesiastical 
councils were held here. The cathedral of St. 
Trophimus has a fine portico ; the Town Hall dates 
from Louis XIV.; and there are all the usual 
public institutions, with a school of navigation. A 
canal connects Arles with the Mediterranean, and 
the railway from Paris to Marseilles has a station 
there. There are factories for making silks, serge, 
railway carriages, etc., and a great trade is carried 
on in oil, wine, fruit, and other produce. 

Arlington, Henry Bennet, Earl of, was 
born in ILLS. He served for Charles I. during the 
Civil War, and was knighted in 1658. He shared 
the exile of Charles II., and was employed in Italy 
and Spain. Returning at the Restoration he was 
created a baron, and was deeply immersed in all 
the intrigues that followed that event. In 1670 he 
was the foremost member of the Cabal Ministry. 
In 1672 he was promoted to an earldom, received 
the Garter, and subsequently held the office of 
Lord Chamberlain. He was not a favourite of 
James II., nor did he take any prominent part in 
affairs for a few years before his death, which 
occurred in 1685. 

Arm, Anatomy of. The arm is divided into the 
upper arm, the fore-arm, wrist, and hand. The 
bone of the upper arm is called the humerus; its 
head or upper extremity articulates with the 
scapula, forming the shoulder-joint; the lower 
extremity of the humerus articulates with the 
radius and ulna, the two bones which form the 
framework of the fore-arm. In the neighbourhood 
of the wrist are the eight carpal bones, then follow 
the five metacarpal bones, corresponding to the 
four fingers and thumb ; and finally the phalanges 
complete the series of bones of the upper extremity. 
To each finger there are three phalangeal bones, 
but the thumb has only two. Movement at the 
shoulder-joint is very free, and dislocation of the 
shoulder is, in correspondence with this fact, one 
of the most common forms of dislocation. The 
rounded prominence of the shoulder is mainly 
formed by the deltoid muscle, the action of which 
is to raise the arm ; the anterior fold of the arm- 
pit is formed by the pectoralis major muscle, which 
draws the arm across the chest. The fore-arm is 
bent or flexed on the upper arm by means of the 
biceps. The elbow is a true hinge joint, only permit¬ 
ting of movements of flexion and extension, forming 
thus a marked contrast to the shoulder. The rota¬ 
tion of the radius upon the ulna permits of the 
rotation of the hand upon the fore-arm, or of prona¬ 
tion and supination, as it is called; the position 
of pronation being that in which the palm is down¬ 
wards, while in supination the back of the hand 
faces downwards. In addition to this the hand 
can be flexed or extended by movement at the 


wrist joint. The main artery of the arm is the 
axillary or brachial, as it is called, after reaching 
the lower fold of the axilla (armpit). The brachial 
divides into the radial and ulnar arteries ; the radial 
artery at the wrist lies quite super¬ 
ficially, and pulsation in it being 
so readily felt, it is the vessel 
always examined in observing the 
arterial pulse. In the days of 
bleeding, the vein which was com¬ 
monly operated upon was the 
■medium basilic, which lies just in 
front of the elbow. The nerves of 
the arm come from the spinal 
cord, and are grouped together, 
forming what is called the brachial 
plexus before they divide into 
special trunks. Finally, three 
great branches, the musculo-spinal, 
median and ulnar nerves are 
formed, as well as other smaller 
ones. The ulnar nerve lies just 
underneath the skin, behind the 
lower and inner process or condyle 
of the humerus, and pressure there 
causes the well-known tingling in 
the course of distribution of that bones of the arm. 
nerve. The arm is well supplied 
with lymphatic vessels, which convey the lymph 
upwards and finally empty it into the great veins. 

Armada (literally an armed force), the name- 
given to the Spanish fleet sent in 1588 by Philip II. 
to achieve the conquest of England. It was termed 
by the Spaniards the “ Invincible ” Armada, and 
consisted of 130 war-vessels, with 30 smaller ships,, 
containing nearly 20,000 marines, besides sailors 
and slaves. It was under the command of the 
Duke of Medina-Sidonia, who was to act in concert 
with the land force of the Prince of Parma in 
Flanders. The Armada was attacked by the 
English as it sailed up the Channel, and suffered 
such severe loss that it was decided to abandon 
the enterprise ; the fleet was, however, almost en¬ 
tirely destroyed by storms off the Orknej's and the 
north coasts of Scotland and Ireland. 

Armadillo (a Spanish word referring to their 
defensive covering), the popular name of any 
animal of the Edentate family Dasypodidas, con¬ 
fined to tropical and temperate South America,, 
with the exception of the Peba (q.v.), found as far 
north as Texas. They are burrowing animals, fur¬ 
nished with strong claws fitted for digging, and 
well-developed collar-bones. They vary greatly in 
size, the largest being more than three feet and the- 
smallest about ten inches in length, from the snout 
to the insertion of the tail. The teeth are simple 
molars, in one case as many as twenty-five on each 
side in each jaw. These teeth are not in a con¬ 
tinuous row, but have spaces between them so that 
those of the upper and lower jaw interlock when 
the mouth is shut. In one species only there are 
teeth on the pre-maxillary bone, corresponding to 
the incisors of higher mammals. The upper sur¬ 
face of the body is covered with a coat of mail of 














Armageddon. 


( 195 ) 


Armenia. 


hard bony plates or shields, united at their edges. 
In the most perfectly armoured there are four dis¬ 
tinct shields—one covering the head, another the 
back of the neck, a third on the fore-part of the 
back, and the fourth covering the rump. Between 
the third and fourth shields, bands—from three to 
thirteen in number—occur. These bands are mov¬ 
able on each other, and allow the rest of the 
armour to accommodate itself to the body, so that 
most of the animals can roll themselves into a ball 
like the hedgehog, presenting no vulnerable part to 
an enemy. The tail may be protected by incom¬ 
plete bony rings and scales, and some of the latter 



armadillo ( Dasypus gigcis). 


are scattered over the limbs and under surface. 
The head is long and broad at the neck, which 
is short; and the body is long, round, and low. 
The Armadillos are mostly nocturnal timid ani¬ 
mals, capable of burrowing rapidly, and some of 
them able to run with considerable speed. They 
have a strong sense of smell and hearing, and feed 
on vegetables, fruit, insects, worms, and, in some 
cases, carrion. [Glyptodon.] 

Armageddon, the name given in the Apoca¬ 
lypse to the battlefield of the “ great clay of God,” 
where the final conflict between good and evil is to 
be fought. 

Armagh, a county and its chief town in the 
province of Ulster, Ireland. The county is bounded 
north by Lough Neagh, east by Down, west by 
Monaghan and Tyrone, and south by Louth. Its area 
is 512 square miles. The surface is diversified, being 
traversed by the Slieve Gullion and Newry Mountains, 
but half of it is good arable land, and a third is 
suitable for pasture. The rivers Bann, Blackwater, 
Callan, Tona, and their tributaries water the 
country well. Armagh , the chief town, stands on 
a hill above the river Callan, 33 miles from Belfast. 
From the fifth to the ninth century it was the 
metropolis of Ireland, and remains so still in an 
ecclesiastical sense, being the seat of the Protestant 
primate. It has also a Roman Catholic bishopric. 
A large market is held here, at which unbleached 


linen is sold in great quantities. The Great North¬ 
ern Railway of Ireland has a station at Armagh. 

Armature, in electrical engineering, the term 
applied to a very important part of the modern 
dynamo or motor, on the construction of which the 
efficiency of the machine largely depends. The 
theory of the armature is explained in the article 
Dynamo-electric Machinery. It consists essen¬ 
tially of an arrangement of coils of wire or metallic 
riband so wound as to aim at producing a great 



difference of potential in the circuit, when rotated 
at a definite rate in the magnetic field. The coils 
are wound on some sort of soft iron core, inasmuch 
as this increases the intensity of the magnetic field. 



gramme’s core. 


Siemens introduced in 1856 a core of H-shape, 
shuttle-wound; Gramme invented in 1870 a ring- 
shaped iron core, the wire being wound round this 
in a particular way. Modifications of these two 
are the chief forms of core used at present. To wind 
the wire in such a way as to give a great number 
of coils, and to pack them in the most intense part 
of the magnetic field, affords much scope to the 
inventor. Hence the methods of winding are very 
numerous. 

Armenia, a district of western Asia, lying 
between Georgia and Mingrelia N., the mountains 
of Kurdistan S., the Caspian Sea E., and the river 
Euphrates W. Its precise extent has been variously 
fixed at different epochs, but the inhabitants have 
from time immemorial possessed distinctive racial 
characteristics, though within historical memory 
they have seldom been politically independent. We 
first hear of Armenia as subject to the Mecles, and 
it followed the fate of Media until reduced to a 
Roman province in 106 a.d. At the disruption of 
the Empire, for a short period an attempt was made 
to set up a native dynasty, but the Seljukian Turks 

























Armenia. 


( 196. ) 


Arminius. 


seized the country in the eleventh century, and ulti¬ 
mately it was divided between Turkey and Persia, 
Russia obtaining a share later on. The Turkish 
portion constitutes the province of Erzeroum, the 
Persian that, of Azerbijan, and Russia claims the 
government of Erivan, the limits of which have 
been frequently extended. The chief Turkish towns 
are Erzeroum, Kars, and Van. Urumiyah is the 
only important place in Persian Armenia, whilst 
Russia holds Erivan, Akhalzikh, Echmiadzin, 
Ordubad, and Alexandropol. Armenia occupies a 
plateau intersected by lofty mountains, of which 
Ararat is the central and highest peak. The rivers 
Euphrates, Tigris, Aras, and Kur rise within its 
borders. The "climate is t emperate and even severe 
in winter on the higher levels. In the valleys and 
plains the soil is fertile, producing all kinds of 
cereals, cotton, hemp, tobacco, and raw silk. The 
chief wealth of the country, however, lies in its 
mineral resources, hardly as yet developed. 
Naphtha is now exported in increasing quantities, 
bitumen, sulphur, nitre, and other volcanic products 
abound, and the mountains yield gold, silver, cop¬ 
per, lead, iron, and valuable marbles. The Arme¬ 
nians embraced Christianity at the end of the third 
century, and established a church which has retained 
its individuality to the present day, differing from 
other forms of Christianity in supporting hereditary 
priesthood, and adhering fo the doctrines of 
Eut.yches and the Monophysites. They have four 
patriarchs, the chief of whom has his abode at 
Echmiadzin, and their religion is exercised under 
Russian protection. The Armenians rival the Jews 
in their ubiquitous pursuit of commerce. They are 
to be found flourishing all over the world. Ar¬ 
menia is calculated to have an area of about 90,000 
square miles. The Armenians, who call themselves 
Haikan , from Haig, mythical founder of the race, 
are a distinct branch of the Caucasic stock, inter¬ 
mediate : ;in physical type between the Aryan and 
Semitic divisions, but on account of their language 
usually classed as Aryans. They are tall and 
well made, though inclining to obesity, with dolicho¬ 
cephalic head, large black eyes deeply set in the 
orbits, long oval face, large aquiline nose, hair nor¬ 
mally black, altogether with a somewhat Jewisli cast 
of countenance. Though the bulk of the people still 
occupy their native land, many are scattered, like 
the Jews, in more or less numerous communities 
over a wide area extending from Great Britain to 
India; and like them they everywhere show the 
same preference for trade over other pursuits, and 
the same tenacious adherence to the national speech, 
religion, and usages. The Armenian language holds 
a middle position between the Iranic and Slavic 
branches of the Aryan stock, and probably represents 
an independent branch formerly diffused'throughout 
Asia Minor and the West Iranian highlands. It is 
written in a peculiar character derived from the 
Syriac through the Pahlavi (F. Lenormant) and 
attributed to Mesrob, Apostle of the Armenians 
early in the fourth century. Since that time the 
language has been cultivated chiefly under Hellenic 
influences, and possesses numerous literary remains, 
especially historical and theological. The old ec¬ 
clesiastical language is now represented by two 


modern varieties, the eastern current in Armenia 
and thence eastwards to India, the western spoken 
by the Armenian communities in Turkey, Crimea, 
and Europe generally. Since the sixth century the 
Armenian Church professes Eutychian doctrines, 
and forms one of the six distinct “ rites; it is 
administered by a regular hierarchy with numerous 
bishops and four patriarchs, of whom the chief 
resides at Erivan. Many are “ Umates,” that is, 
recognise the supremacy of the Roman pontiff, 
while retaining their national liturgy. The Ar¬ 
menian nation numbers about 2,000,000, of whom 
820,000 are in Russia, 750,000 in Turkey in Asia, 
250,000 in Turkey in Europe ; 150,000 in Persia; 
50,000 elsewhere. 

Armentieres, a town in the department of 
the Nord, France, about nine miles N.W. of Lille 
on the river Lys. There are considerable manufac¬ 
tures of linen, cotton, sugar, spirits, etc. 

Arinfelt, Gustav Mauritz, Baron, born in 
1757, a Flemish nobleman, who was appointed 
by Gustavus III. of Sweden in 1788 to command 
one of the divisions of the army put in the field 
against Russia. In 1792, on the death of the king, 
he was made governor of Stockholm and member 
of the regency. Accused of conspiracy he fled to 
Russia, but returned in 1799, and held various 
posts till 1810, when he was suspected of poisoning 
the Prince of Augustenburg. He again found an 
asylum in Russia, where he was loaded with honours. 
He died at Tzarskoe-Selo in 1814. 

Armida, a character in Tasso’s Jerusalem De¬ 
livered. She was a lovely enchantress who be¬ 
witched Rinaldo, and made him pass his days with 
her in voluptuous ease. A talisman was sent by 
his comrades to break the spell. Armida, frantic 
at his departure, set fire to her palace, and rushed 
off to commit suicide, but Rinaldo, following, pro¬ 
mised to save her, and endeavoured to persuade 
her to become a Christian. 

Armillary Sphere, an astronomical instru¬ 
ment employed to illustrate the chief lines of 
reference in the celestial sphere, and to exhibit the 
apparent motions of the heavenly bodies as seen by 
an observer at the centre. It was much employed 
by the ancient astronomers, and Tycho Brahe used 
a modification thereof to make actual measure¬ 
ments ; but the instrument is now rarely used, its 
place being generally supplied by the celestial 
globe (q.v.). 

Arminius (Teut. Hermann ), the German hero 
who freed his country from the Roman yoke, 
born about 16 b.c. He was the son of Sigimer, 
Chief of the Cherusci, and served in the Roman 
army. When Quintilius Varus, the legate in 
Germany, had stirred up the hatred of the tribes 
by his oppression, Arminius took the lead in a 
desperate conspiracy. He persuaded Varus, in 
A.d. 9, to march against the insurgents into the 
country between the Weser and the Ems, but 
harassed him on the way until his forces were ex¬ 
hausted. Then falling upon the legions in a defile 
between Wiedenbruck and Detmold, he slaughtered 











Arminius. 


( 197 ) 


Armorial Bearings. 


them to a man. Germanicus was sent to punish 
him, but failed in his mission. Arminius was killed 
in 21 A.d. by his own kinfolk during some tribal 
dispute. A colossal statue of him was set up near 
Detmold in 1875. 

Arminius, Jacobus (Germ. Hermannsen ), 
the founder of the Arminian school or sect, was 
born at Yssel, Holland, in 15(50. He studied at 
Utrecht, Marburg, Leyden, and Geneva, having at 
the latter place the rigid Calvinist, Theodore Beza, 
for his instructor. He returned to Holland with a 
high reputation for learning, and was appointed in 
1588 one of the city preachers at Amsterdam. 
Calvinists were then divided by the disputes between 
Supralapsarians, or strict Calvinists, who believed 
that the scheme of redemption and election was 
ordained from the Creation, and Sublapsarians or 
Remonstrants, who held that it only came into 
existence after Adam’s fall. Arminius was engaged 
to refute this latter view, but was gradually con¬ 
verted to it. In 1603 he was appointed Professor 
of Theology at Leyden, and his orthodoxy was at 
once called into question by one of his colleagues, 
Gomar. The controversy agitated the whole Church, 
and was still raging when Arminius died in 1609. 
The Synod of Dortin 1619 condemned the doctrine 
of the Remonstrants as savouring of Pelagianism 
and tending towards Romanism. Two hundred 
clergy left the Dutch Calvinistic Church in con¬ 
sequence of this decision. 

Armistice, a cessation of hostilities for a 
stipulated time by agreement between the two 
belligerent parties, which differs from a peace in 
that the latter implies no intention of further 
hostilities, while an armistice indicates an intended 
continuation of warfare. 

Armitage, Edward, R.A., an English painter 
of frescoes and historical subjects, born in 1817. 
He was a pupil of Paul Delaroche. In 1842 he 
exhibited in the Salon his first picture— Prome¬ 
theus Bound. In 1843-45-47 he took prizes for 
cartoons at Westminster Hall. After a sojourn in 
Rome he went to the seat of war in the Crimea 
and produced The Heavy Cavalry Cliarye at Balah- 
lava, and The Stand of the Guards at Inhermann. 
In 1867 Mr. Armitage was elected A.R.A., and in 
1872 R.A. He was appointed professor and lecturer 
on painting to the Royal Academy in 1875. 

Armorial Bearings. Though strictly speak¬ 
ing this is a far more correct and a more compre¬ 
hensive term, it is frequently used to denote what 
is popularly understood by the word arms, or by 
coat-of-arms. The greater or less antiquity of 
armorial bearings has occasioned much dispute, but 
it would be safe to say that the actually primeval 
state and origin of heraldic insignia is to be found 
in the totemism of half-civilised tribes. The badges 
of the Scottish clans still existing, and the family 
badges which prior to the reign of Elizabeth were 
of such very common usage in England, point more 
clearly to this than do the armorial bearings of 
the present day, which are supposed to be the out¬ 
ward and visible sign of the gentility of the bearer, 


either by birth or patent. ACschylus in his poems 
affords us evidence that even in his day the shields of 
the warriors bore emblematical designs or devices, 
and Virgil likewise. On the other hand it is held 
that such designs, and those upon the banners, 
were either meaningless ornament and decoration, 
or only regulated by the fancy of the artist or the 
requirements of the shape of the shield. And 
though they may have been used for the purposes 
of identification and distinction, certain is it that 
they had but small resemblance to and but little in 
common with the earliest examples of coats-of-arms 
as we now understand them. The various arms 
ascribed to the different Saxon kings and to the 
earlier Welsh princes, upon which argument is often 
based, there can be but little doubt are the inven¬ 
tions of a later date; and the late J. R. Planche, 
Esq., Somerset Herald, maintained, and his theory 
is very generally accepted, that there is no con¬ 
temporary or reliable evidence of properly heraldic 
armorial bearings prior to the twelfth century, 
during which, however, they became hereditary, 
and their use very general. At first mention is 
only made of devises or coynoissances, but as their 
most frequent use was upon the standards and 
shields of the warriors, these devices were soon 
termed arms , and from being embroidered upon 
the surcoat of silk worn over the hauberk or coat 
of mail, the designation of coat-of-arms, by which 
they are now known, is derived. The armorial 
bearings of a commoner at the present day consist 
of the escutcheon and the cliarye upon it, which 
together constitute the coat-of-arms proper; this is 
surmounted by the helmet, and 'pendent from this 
last is the Lambrequin. A few very old families 
possess no crest, but in the large majority of cases 
either a coronet , a chapeau , or a wreath (usually 
this last, another name for which is the torse') is 
placed upon the lambrequin, and on this is the 
crest. Crests were of later adoption than coats-of- 
arms, and mottoes are comparatively a redent inno¬ 
vation. These, unlike the arms and crest, which 
are most strictly hereditary, can be assumed and 
changed at will. Though it is a form of emblazon¬ 
ing rather falling into disuse, the whole may be 
displayed upon a mantle, which, with the helmet, 
will vary according to the rank of the bearer. 
Some baronets and a few others have been granted 
the right to bear supporters. These are the figures 
placed one on either side of and outside the 
escutcheon, and are otherwise one of the distin¬ 
guishing marks of a peer, who also carries the 
coronet of his degree. Knights, other than knights 
bachelors, encircle their shield with the motto and 
the collar, and pendent from this the badge of the 
order to which they belong. Women are not 
allowed to make use of a crest or of a motto, and 
may only bear the arms to which they are entitled 
upon a lozenge, though a peeress will surmount this 
by her coronet, and will use supporters. The 
colours of the livery and of the carriages of a 
family should be regulated by their coat-of-arms, 
though this rule is too often disregarded. Owing 
to the advertisements of bogus heraldic offices, of 
late years armorial bearings have been largely 
assumed most unwarrantably, and thereby brought 






Armour. 


( 198 ) 


Armour. 


into some disrepute: and no one has any right 
whatsoever to assume or in any manner display 
such insignia, unless clear male descent has been 
proved from some person who has received a grant 
of arms, or to whom arms have been allowed and 
recorded by the Heralds College (otherwise known 
as the College of Arms) in England, the Lyon Office 
in Scotland, or the Ulster Office in Ireland, the 
officials of which are the only authorities what¬ 
soever upon such matters. Everyone using armo¬ 
rial bearings in England and Scotland (Ireland is 
exempt) is required to pay an annual licence of one 
guinea, or of double that amount if the said 
armorial bearings are painted upon or in any way 
affixed to a carriage. 


Armour, garments of various materials, used 
to protect the body against missiles or cutting and 
stabbing weapons. There is no trace of armour 
among the early stone-using peoples, though it is 
probable that the value of hides or skins was early 
recognised as being difficult to pierce. Worsaae 
suggests that the first helmets were simply the 
head skins of beasts mounted on a wooden frame¬ 
work ; and the term “ cuirass,” probably derived 
from the word cuir, points to the use of leather for 
body armour. In Assyrian sculptures the helmet 
is pointed and seems formed of metal, the body alone 
being covered by a close jacket of twisted cords or 
possibly metal mail. The Greeks of the Homeric 
age wore crested helmets, and greaves made of a 
“pewter-like metal” guarded the leg, the body 
being protected by a shield covering it from neck to 
ankle. When cuirasses were introduced is doubtful, 
but they appear later on, when the whole of the 



GREEK AND ROMAN ARMOUR. 


armour was of bronze, and the shield had decreased 
in size. The thighs were covered with strips of 
leather in one or more layers pendent from the edge 
of the cuirass, which was sometimes moulded to the 
shape of the body. The Persians and many other 
Asiatics used tunics of quilted linen, as the 
Chinese until recently employed dresses of quilted 
cotton most difficult to penetrate ; and in many 
cases on these were sewn metal scales overlapping 


each other. The armour of the Homan soldier 
consisted of back and breast pieces of laminated 
metal, supported over the shoulders by metal 
straps ; but those of higher rank wore a cuirass 
similar to the Greek and much ornamented. Both 
forms left the arms and legs bare, the tunic cover¬ 
ing the former and hanging below the leather 
strips pendent from the cuirass, which protected 
the lower part of the body and thighs. The legs 



ANGLO-SAXON AND MIDDLE-AGES ARMOUR. 


were undefended. The scale armour, “ lorica 
squamata,” originally of leather only, had event¬ 
ually scales of steel, or even metal chains, sewn 
on the leather tunic. The “ Velites,” or light 
troops, wore only the quilted coat. The helmet 
was less lofty than the Greek and resembled a 
closely fitting skull cap with cheek pieces ; but the 
centurions and officers seem to have had this sur¬ 
mounted with feathers. The shields were mostly rect¬ 
angular, richly decorated, and made of wood and 
leather. The northern races seem to have long 
been without any defensive armour but the circular 
shield or “war board” of wood or leather, strength¬ 
ened by cross bars of iron springing from a central 
boss or “umbo” of the same metal, though in the 
Say as chain mail is rarely referred to. Usually the 
head dress was of leather on a metal framework, 
and as time went on they adopted the padded 
coats, scaled or mailed (from the British word 
“ mael ” or iron) tunics, and other armour similar 
to those worn by the nations with whom they came 
in contact. As a rule the legs were left bare or 
covered with “leg bands” of cloth or leather. 

Both the Anglo-Saxons and early Normans of the 
time of the Conquest were practically dressed alike, 
with close-fitting steel helmets, having a vertical 
bar or “nasal” in front, and with usually a long 
surtout of leather, having short sleeves and reaching 
below the thigh, covered with either circular or 
lozenge-shaped (mascled) scales, or rings of iron. 
The shields were long and pointed at the base, 
with occasionally rude figures painted on them. 
The long mailed shirt or hauberk soon became 
shorter and was made of interwoven rings of steel 
(chain mail), with a hood of the same material, 


















Armour. 


( 199 ) 


Army. 


over which fitted the iron helm, now without a 
“nasal;” and by the thirteenth century the 
armourer’s craft had so far improved that the mail 
coat had sleeves covering the arm and hand, and the 
legs were throughout similarly protected. Instead of 
the small open iron cap, a large helmet, or heaume, 
which nearly reached the shoulders and had a 
closed visor, was substituted about the time of 
Henry II. This, the period of “ chain mail,” 
lasted until the reign of John, and was followed by 
that of “ mixed armour ” of plate and mail. First 
the iron cap that covered the mail hood replaced it 
altogether, the neck being protected by a strip of 
mail depending from the helmet. This was the 
cam ail. Then over the knees, elbows, and 
shoulders were strapped plates of iron to strengthen 
these parts, followed by arm, thigh, and leg guards, 
and the helmet still open became more conical in 
form. Finally mail ceased more and more to be 
worn, except as a small skirt or apron in front of 
the lower part of the body, and the whole body 
was encased in steel; while the helmet was closed 
with a visor through which the knight could see 
and which could be raised if he chose. For 
mounted knights the leg armour of course only pro¬ 
tected the front part of the legs. This, the period 
of plate armour, terminated practically in the reign 
of Henry VIII. The shield at first was small, tri¬ 
angular, and suspended at the neck of the warrior ; 
but it soon fell into disuse. The parts of the 
armour were named:—Head, helmet , helm, salade, 
or bassinet; neck, gorget ; shoulders, pauldrons ; 
arms (upper) brassats, (lower) vambraces; elbows, 
condieves ; hands, gauntlets; body, corslet or hau¬ 
berk (breast plate and back piece); loins (front), 
tasses, (rear) garde de reins ; thighs, chausses or 
cuisses; knees, poleyns or genouilli'eres; ankles, 
jainbes ; and feet, sollerets. The latter shared the 
general change in the fashion of dress, being pointed 
in the reign of Edward IV., and broad with square 
toes in that of Henry VII. and VIII. Similarly the 
cuirass frequently altered its shape, and was in the 
last mentioned reigns globose. In some cases it 
resembled the long doublet, and was called the 
“ peascod-bellied ” corslet. The rapid improvement 
in firearms that occurred as the sixteenth century 
advanced led to the rapid diminution in the amount 
of armour worn. Helmets became more open as 
the need for personal direction arose; greaves and 
sollerets went first, long boots taking their place; 
the tasses were replaced by cuissarts or thigh pieces 
from the hips to the knees ; pauldrons , gauntlets , 
and arm-pieces gradually disappeared as it became 
necessary to thicken the defensive cuirass against 
musket balls ; the foot soldiers wore only the open 
morion with a buff coat. By Charles II.’s time only 
the breast plate and back piece, with an open 
helmet, having at first a triple bar and later a 
single bar in front to guard the face, remained ; 
and when James II. reigned the latter also dis¬ 
appeared. The legs were covered with enormously 
thick and heavy jack boots, and the head with a 
feathered hat. When William III. came to the 
throne only a large gorget of steel was worn round 
the neck, and this gradually diminished until it 
became merely an ornament or badge of office, 


made of brass and suspended by a riband in front 
of the collar. It was in use in the English army 
till some years after the Peninsular War. The 
modern cuirass is merely an ornament and is value¬ 
less against bullets. Michel’s Brigade of Cuirassiers 
charging the Eleventh German Corps armed with the 
needle gun was practically destroyed. For rough 
chronological remembrance it may be taken that 
the twelfth century was Lhat of ringed mail; the 
thirteenth of true chain mail; the fourteenth of 
mixed mail and plate; the fifteenth, plate-armour ; 
the sixteenth, fluted and globular plate-armour ; 
and the seventeenth, half-armour. 

Armourer, one who makes arms or who keeps 
them in repair. In the British army each troop of 
cavalry and each company of infantry has its 
armourer. 

Armour-plates. [Ironclads.] 

Arms. [Sword, Lance, Guns, Shield, etc.] 

Armstrong, John, a Scotch doctor and poet 
of the Georgian era, was born in 1709. He was a 
friend of Thomson, and taking him for a model, 
wrote verses on The Art of Preserving Health , and 
being appointed a military surgeon, was sent out to 
the war in Germany. In a poem addressed to his 
patron, John Wilkes, he offended Churchill, who 
resented the affront. He is referred to in Thomson’s 
Castle of Indolence (c. i. st. 60), and he contributed 
the closing lines to that canto. He died in 1779. 

Armstrong, William George, Baron, born 
in 1810 at Newcastle-on-Tyne, where his father was a 
merchant and alderman. His first invention, the hy¬ 
draulic accumulator, was followed by the hydraulic 
crane, and in 1846 his hydro-electric machine caused 
his election to the Royal Society. He now estab¬ 
lished the Elswick Works, and turned his attention 
to the improvement of heavy ordnance. With great 
perseverance he got the Armstrong gun adopted by 
Government, and presented his patents to the 
country, receiving knighthood and official recogni¬ 
tion as his immediate reward. After several 
thousands of Armstrong’s weapons had been sup¬ 
plied to the services, it was found that for use in 
the field and for penetration at short ranges the 
old muzzle-loading guns were safer and more 
effective. Armstrong, thereupon, left the service 
of the Crown, and returned to Elswick, where he 
continued to make guns and other heavy products 
of engineering art for any one who chose to buy 
them. The works at Elswick now cover forty 
acres, employ 3,000 artisans, and give a handsome 
profit to all concerned. In 1863, as President of 
the British Association, Sir W. Armstrong delivered 
an address on the limit of the coal supply, which 
led to the appointment of a Royal Commission. 
Besides the distinction of C.B., he has received an 
honorary degree, both at Oxford and Cambridge, 
and many foreign orders and decorations, and in 
1887 he was raised to the peerage. 

Army, a collection of men armed, drilled, and 
organised as a military machine, for fighting pur¬ 
poses. Its rudest form is that which obtained in 









Army. 


Army. 


( 200 ) 


the early history of every nation, when all the able- 
bodied males of a tribe bore arms and fought offen¬ 
sively or defensively under a chosen chief. This 
prevailed when nomad or simple agrarian life was 
the rule, but later on, as civilisation became more 
complex, and commercial enterprise increased, they 
divided naturally into fighters and workers. The 
essential difference between these two conditions 
is that, in the latter case, the armed men are 
specially organised and trained, and their military 
service is more or less continuous. 

Among the more ancient races, Egypt provided 
the first organised army, which was supported at a 
cost of one-third the revenue, and was divided into 
infantry, cavalry, and charioteers. It was practi¬ 
cally a militia, liable to prolonged embodiment for 
such expeditions as the invasion of India by Sesos- 
tris, the success of which depended on its excellent 
organisation. 

Greece followed next in importance, every free 
man, with a few exceptions, serving from 18 to (50 
years of age, but it was still practically not a 
standing army but a very experienced militia. 
There were only two “Arms;” cavalry provided by 
the wealthier classes, and infantry by those of a 
lower degree, the latter being classed in four groups, 
depending on the amount of armour worn. 

There were the Ho pitted, forming the bulk of the 
heavy column called the phalanx (from 2,000 to 
4,000 strong), and the number of whom gave the 
numerical strength in a battle, the other troops fre¬ 
quently not being counted. The Peltastai, the Psiloi 
or skirmishers (usually slaves), and the Ggmnetas or 
irregulars, who were frequently foreigners. Philip 
of Macedon adopted the same system, but kept the 
men permanently embodied, thus creating the first 
standing army. His infantry were heavy, light, 
and irregular; he introduced heavy and light 
cavalry. The Macedonian phalanx contained 1,600 
heavy infantry, armed with 24-feet pikes, and ar¬ 
ranged in 16 ranks, together with the same number 
of cavalry and irregular troops, thus resembling in 
number a modern army corps. Organisation, drill, 
and discipline all improved, and regular prepara¬ 
tions were made for recruiting and reinforcing a 
field army. Greece seems to have furnished the 
first mercenary soldiers, as for example Xeno¬ 
phon’s 10,000 Greeks in the army of Cyrus the 
Persian. In the Roman army the service was from 
17 to 46 years of age, and at first compulsory; no 
one being entitled to take office until he had served 
ten years in the infantry or five in the cavalry. 
The conscripts were chosen by lot, divided into 
classes according to wealth, and after taking a 
military oath, were embodied in legions of about 
4,500 men, formed somewhat like the phalanx, but 
in three lines. These were arranged with, first, the 
Ilastati, medium infantry, next the heavily armed 
Principes and Triarii, and lastly the Velites or 
light troops, with a small force of cavalry. The 
legion was divided into ten maniples or companies, 
each with two centurions and two ensigns, and the 
velites were equally divided among the 80 mani¬ 
ples. Later on, allies or Soc-ii were added, and the 
legion, now about (5,000 strong, was divided (by Gaius 
Marius, about 100 b.c.) into ten cohorts, resembling 


a weak modern division. Though at first a militia, 
as time advanced it became permanent and was 
paid. Drill and discipline were rigorous; and 
books such as that of Vegetius show that with them 
began the art of ?var, as distinguished from mere 
personal bravery in battle. 

But with the fall of the Roman Empire this art 
fell also. Gauls and Goths fought as clans under 
chiefs, and this system gradually crystallised into 
the feudal system, which began by the natural 
assembly of the boldest youths round the best or 
most popular leaders, and gradually developed 
until, both with leader and followers, the chief¬ 
taincy and service became hereditary. The riches 
of the chief furnished the arms and armour, for 
which the retainer paid in service, and the money 
was provided by the more peaceful classes, whom 
he professed to protect from others to plunder them 
himself. Armies in those days were militia with a 
warlike training, the retainers serving for periods 
of from twenty days to three months, when the 
army was disbanded. As the evils of feudalism be¬ 
came more pronounced, many of these disbanded 
men, or others who had lost their all in the interne¬ 
cine struggles such a system infallibly produced, be¬ 
came mercenaries in the service of foreign powers, 
as “ Dugald Dalgetty ” or “ Quentin Durward ” did. 
The armies had little or no organisation or drill, 
and were composed of the knights and men-at-arms 
or cavalry furnished by the upper classes, and the 
vassals or infantry provided by the serfs and 
peasants. The arms of the knight were sword, 
lance and dagger ; of the infantry, the pike or bill, 
and the bow and swords. Increase in wealth and 
the upgrowth of a powerful middle class, through 
the extension of trade, led to a greater use of mer¬ 
cenaries ; the giving charters and freedom to cities 
was naturally followed by the formation of a per¬ 
manent militia for their defence, and these soon 
surpassed in military value the less orderly follow¬ 
ing of the feudal chiefs ; lastly, the Swiss infantry 
showed at Granson and Nancy that the days of 
mail-clad cavalry were passing away, and with the 
advent of gunpowder, which led to the disuse of 
the cumbrous body armour, the value of the knight 
as a fighting machine passed away too. 

The beginning of standing armies in Europe 
dates back to 1445, when Charles VII. of France 
formed for permanent service and regular pay the 
“ compagnies d’ordonnance,” each of which con¬ 
tained 100 men-at-arms, with their attendants, and 
therefore numbered 9,000 cavalry, to which were 
added, in 1448, 16,000 infantry, called “ franc- 
archers.” Even then this army was not so much 
national as foreign and mercenary ; but the marked 
improvement in the drill, discipline, and organisa¬ 
tion of men thus regularly paid and subsisted, 
led to a higher training of the force, and to a 
revival of the art of war. For in the sixteenth 
century the infantry were formed into definite 
fighting units called battaglia, whence the modern 
teim battalion comes. The true tactical employ¬ 
ment of cavalry as an arm, auxiliary to the in¬ 
fantry, began to be understood, and though the 
battaglia were at first composed of about equal 
numbers of pikemen and musketeers, or “ shot,” the 









Army. ( 201 ) Army. 


rapid improvement in firearms soon led to the 
abolition of the pike altogether, and to the arma¬ 
ment of the whole body with muskets furnished 
with the bayonet. This, the “plug-bayonet,” a 
dagger fitting into the muzzle of the gun, soon de¬ 
veloped into the socketed bayonet; and the inven¬ 
tion of flint locks in place of the match, with the 
substitution of iron for wooden ramrods, at length 
produced the “Brown Bess,” so called from the 
colour of the barrel, which, until long after 
aterloo, was the weapon of the infantry soldier 
throughout the world. Discipline further im¬ 
proved and was methodised by the introduction of 
“Articles of War ” for the government of troops in 
the field, by Ferdinand I. of Spain, Francis I. of 
France, and Charles V. They were curious in their 
details and severe in their punishments. In the 
“ Articles and Military Lawes to be observed in the 
Warres,” whereby the “ King of Sweden governed 
his army,” the first clause states that “No Com¬ 
mander, nor private Souldier, whatsoever, shall use 
any kind of Idolatry, Witchcraft or Inchanting of 
Armes, whereby God is dishonoured, upon pain of 
death.” Artillery improved with the musket, and, 
better mounted and better made, both in bronze 
and iron, it became more mobile ; and with better 
powder and more carefully cast shot its range and 
accuracy increased. The tactical use of the arm, 
however, did not advance until the end of the eigh¬ 
teenth century; guns were not till then massed, and 
were attached singly to battalions and even cavalry 
squadrons. The effect of firearms at that time 
was not great, except at very close quarters. The 
field gun ranged 1,500 to 2,000 yards, the “ Brown 
Bess ” was good at 150 yards. Even as late as 1829 
an old drill book introduces the following answer : 
“ If a man do not strike the target at forty yards, I 
decrease the distance to thirty yards, and so on till 
he hits it.” On these facts depend the formation 
and even composition of the armies of those days. 
The density of the masses diminished by degrees. 
The battalions of Maurice of Nassau, each built up 
of 250 pikes and 250 shot, and deployed in ranks ten 
deep, had, by the seventeenth century, been reduced 
to four ranks all armed with firearms. Eugene 
and Marlborough, Conde and Turenne improved 
the administration of the armies by the formation 
of brigades and divisions; while to Frederick the 
Great is due the further reduction to three ranks, 
which obtained in Prussia till recently and in the 
English army until the Peninsular War, the intro¬ 
duction of horse artillery to work with cavalry, and 
a definite and concise drill-book. But for long 
years the peace strength of standing armies was 
very small. Forces raised by voluntary enlistment 
for a war were disbanded when it ceased. Though 
organised in battalions, the troops were often raised 
by contract, and were often built up of independent 
companies carrying each its own colour. A sur¬ 
vival of this principle, which applied both to 
cavalry and infantry, is seen in colours carried by 
each squadron of the Life and Horse Guards. Both 
companies and battaylia were far stronger then than 
now. The former have diminished from GOO to 120 
of the British, and 250 of the German army; the 
latter from many thousands have fallen to two 


battalions of British and three battalions of Germany, 
each of which numbers 1,000 men. The number of 
companies in a battalion has remained practically 
unchanged. In Britain there are still six to eight or 
ten, and in Prussia the number has only fallen from 
five in Frederick’s reign to four now. The French 
Kevolution caused a complete change in the art of 
war. Divisions, with a proportion of the three 
“ Arms,” infantry, cavalry and artillery, appeared in 
1792 ; army corps in 1804. The Germans and Eng¬ 
lish fought in line, the French in column ; but the 
use of skirmishers to cover the deployment of both 
became universal as time went on. The most 
marked result of the Napoleonic wars was the birth 
of the present system which obtains throughout all 
Europe, except in Great Britain. The French 
formed armies by conscription under the “ law of 
1798,” whereby all able-bodied men were bound to 
serve from their 20th to their 25th year. After 
the crushing defeat of Jena the Prussians were 
compelled, by the treaty of Tilsit, to maintain an 
army of only 43,000 men permanently embodied, 
but Scharnhorst evaded this by introducing a sys¬ 
tem of very short service in the ranks, and thus 
having behind the annual armed strength of the 
country a great body of trained men, who, when 
recalled to the colours, increased it at once to three 
times its nominal numerical value. This system of 
short service and reserves has spread broadcast, 
and has once more made armies “ national.” Only 
by its means can the vast armies of modern times 
be kept up. Napoleon’s effort to keep Prussia in 
subjection after 1805 resulted in the commence¬ 
ment of a system that led to his own defeat at 
Waterloo, and the equally crushing defeat of his 
descendant at Sedan. England alone, of all the 
European powers, still holds the system of volun¬ 
tary enlistment; all other nations have accepted 
the evil of conscription. Her army has grown and 
kept pace with those of the Continent, though in a 
different way, owing to the authority of Parliament 
over it. The first clause of the Army Annual Act, 
which fixes the exact number of men to be paid in 
the army, commences, “ Whereas the raising or 
keeping a standing army within the United King¬ 
dom of Great Britain and Ireland in time of peace, 
unless it be with the consent of Parliament, is 
against law.” 

It only differs from the preamble of the “ Mutiny 
Act ” which it replaced, by the omission of the words 
“ and for the protection of the balance of power in 
Europe.” The tenacious insistence that the army 
is that of the Parliament and not of the sovereign 
dates far back. Cromwell’s army was at the end a 
standing army (this was the commencement of a 
standing army in England), being permanently paid 
and embodied, but was disbanded at the Restoration. 
Charles II. was allowed 3,000 men for “guards and 
garrison,” composed of the Yeomen of the Guard, 
the Gentlemen-at-Arms, Monk’s Regiment (after¬ 
wards the Coldstream Guards), the two Regiments 
of Life, and one of Foot Guards. These had by 
the end of the reign increased to 1G,500 men, by 
the addition of three regiments of foot, but the 
militia was then, as it is now, the constitutional 
army of the state, to which all owe service by 








Arndt. 


Army. ( 202 ) 


ballot, which is even now not abandoned but only in 
abeyance. It was only when the first Mutiny Act 
was passed by Parliament in 1089, giving officers the 
right to punish for the offences of mutiny and de¬ 
sertion, that a standing army was reluctantly ac¬ 
knowledged to be a necessity. It was raised by 
voluntary enlistment, at first for life or for a cam¬ 
paign, then in 1847 for continuous short service of 
ten years, then in 1866 for twelve years, and in 1870 
to a limited engagement of twelve years, of which 
three should be passed with the colours and the 
remainder with the reserve. In the last century 
regiments were raised by contract, the contractors 
receiving the nomination of officers to whom they 
sold the commissions. This laid the foundation of 
the system of purchase, abolished in 1871. At that 
date a commission for an ensign cost £450, and for 
a lieutenant-colonel of the Life Guards £7,250 ; 
but in addition a variable sum of “ over-regulation ” 
money was paid. There are, therefore, still three 
plans of forming an army in the world, of which the 
militia system is illustrated in America and in 
Switzerland; conscription in Germany, France, and 
elsewhere; and voluntary enlistment, as in England ; 
but in all European countries the recruits, however 
selected, pass a small portion of their enlistment 
time only with the colours, and a larger portion 
with the reserve. In Switzerland the army is cheap, 
costing about £5 per head for an assumed effective 
of about 100,000 men. Men are liable to serve from 
20 to 44, serving a period varying from five to 
fourteen years in the “ Elite” (representing the per¬ 
manent force), a further period in the reserve, and 
up to 44 in the landwehr. America recruits a 
standing army of 30,000 for five years’ service by 
voluntary enlistment, each State furnishing and 
controlling in addition its own militia; but the 
civil war of 1864 showed its power of expansion 
when the Northern States provided 2,656,053 men, 
and those of the Southern Confederacy 1,100,000 
men. Great Britain maintains a native army in 
India, officered chiefly by Europeans; a small co¬ 
lonial force, a regular army of about 149,000 men, 
with a reserve of 57,000 (exclusive of about 68,000 
in India), a militia force of 140,000, and a third 
line of Yeomanry and Volunteers numbering some 
260,000 men. It lias no fixed organisation into 
divisions or corps, though nominally the latter con¬ 
sists of three divisions, 84 guns, corps troops, and 
a cavalry brigade. These are practically more or 
less improvised in time of war. Germany affords 
the most complete type of a continental army. 
The conscripts, who are selected by ballot for the 
annual draft, serve three years with the army, four 
years with the reserve, and five in the landwehr. 
They are strictly localised. There are four com¬ 
panies to each battalion, three of the latter to a 
regiment; two of these form a brigade, two brigades 
compose a division, and two divisions an army corps 
(of about 36,000 men all told), to which are at¬ 
tached 84 guns. The cavalry are administered in 
brigades attached to the corps in peace, and as in¬ 
dependent divisions with horse artillery in war. 
The staffs are kept up and appointed in peace, and 
the organisation is so complete that in twelve days 
the armed strength of Germany, numbering some 


2,200,000 men, is ready to march anywhere, com¬ 
plete in every necessary of equipment, food, and 
transport. Finally, the introduction of breech¬ 
loading firearms has dissolved the old close forma¬ 
tion of the Napoleonic era, and fighting in loose or 
open order has taken the place of the line and 
columnar formations of Waterloo and Austerlitz. 

Arnatto, the red pulp which covers the seeds 
of the South-American tree Bixa Orellana , used as 
a yellow or orange dye for silks, and for staining 
Dutch cheese and butter. 

Arnaud, Henri, a pastor of the Vaudois, who 
turned soldier to rescue his co-religionists from the 
tyranny of the Count of Savoy. He wrote a history 
of his adventures. William III. offered him an 
asylum in England, but he went with his exiled 
flock to Schomberg, where he died in 1721 at the 
age of sixty. 

Arnauld. 1. Antoine, a member of a family 
in Auvergne, France, distinguished for piety and 
intellectual ability, was born in 1612. He was at¬ 
tracted to Jansenism, and wrote an enormous 
number of volumes in defence of his views and in 
opposition to Calvinism. He was forced to leave 
Paris and spent his last years at Brussels, dying 
in 1694. 

2. Jacqueline Marie Angelique, sister of the 
above, was abbess-coadjutrix of the Port lloyal at 
the early age of eleven. She found the Cistercian 
rules set at naught daily by the nuns under her 
charge. She soon showed herself to be an ardent 
and capable reformer, and after a long struggle 
reduced the various houses under her charge to 
perfect order. “ The Mere Angelique,” as she was 
named, combined with her great force of character 
a temper of perfect sweetness. Like her brother 
she was a Jansenist, and suffered for her opinions 
in her old age, when the Jesuits broke up the Port 
Royal convents and left her in want and desolation. 
She died in 1661. Her sister and her niece were 
also distinguished members of the same Order. 
[Saint Arnaud.] 

Arndt, (1) Ernst Moritz, a German patriot, 
poet, and historian, was born in 1769. He was 
destined for the Church, but in 1S06 was appointed 
professor of history at Greifswald. He was one 
of the most earnest opponents of the “ Napoleonic 
idea,” and his book, The Spirit of the Time , made 
it necessary for him to fly after the battle of Jena. 
He returned in 1810, but on the renewal of war 
withdrew to Russia. There now flowed from his 
pen a series of soul-stirring tracts rousing Germany 
to resistance, and his songs were even more powerful 
than his prose writings. The most famous of them, 
Was ist des Deutschen Vaterland ? is as popular 
to-day as it was seventy years ago. After the con¬ 
clusion of peace Arndt was appointed to the chair 
of history at Bonn, but his out-spoken liberalism 
gave offence, and he was forbidden to lecture 
though he received his salary. In 1840 his lips 
were unsealed, and in 1848-9 he was sent as a 
deputy to the National Assembly at Frankfort, 
but resigned with the rest of the Constitutional 









Arne. 


( 203 ) 


Arnobius. 


party. He continued lecturing and writing till lie 
was past eighty, and died in 1800. 

2. Johann, a Lutheran divine, born at Ballen- 
stadt in 1555. He was ordained, and ministered in 
various places, but his opposition to the lifeless, 
doctrinal, argumentative Christianity of the day 
brought him many enemies, and forced him to 
abandon more than one cure. His book on True 
Christianity produced, however, a reaction in 
favour of a religion of the heart, and he seems to 
have passed his last days in peace as general super¬ 
intendent at Zell, where he died in 1621. His 
influence is still felt in Germany. 

Arne, Thomas Augustine, a celebrated Eng¬ 
lish musician, born in 1710. He went to Eton, 
where his taste for music was repressed, and 
he was articled to a solicitor on leaving school. 
Nevertheless he contrived in his leisure to acquire 
such a knowledge of the art that in 1732 his father 
gave way and allowed him to take his own course. 
His first work, an opera entitled Rosamond , was 
composed for the appearance of his sister, after¬ 
wards Mrs. Cibber, and during upwards of forty 
years he produced a succession of pieces in 
every style, from songs for Vauxhall to sonatas and 
oratorios, such as Abel and Judith. His operas 
were highly populai', and Artaxerxes, the first 
attempt to apply Italian methods to English com¬ 
positions, held the stage for eighty years. His 
fame rests on none of his more ambitious efforts, 

but on the air 
of Rule Britannia, 
introduced into 
the Masque of Al¬ 
fred, on his setting 
of the Shakespear¬ 
ian lyrics, Where 
the Bee Suchs , 
Blow, Blow, thou 
Wintry Wind, etc., 
and on his sweet 
and tuneful glees. 
He died in 1778. 

Arnee, the na¬ 
tive name of a 
very large variety 
of the Indian 
buffalo, standing 
nearly six feet at 
the shoulder,bulky 
in proportion, and 
with horns up¬ 
wards of six feet 
in length. This 
race occurs wild 
in the Indian Is¬ 
lands and in Far¬ 
ther India, but has also been domesticated as a 
beast of burden. [Buffalo.] 

Arnhem, or Arnheim, the capital of the pro¬ 
vince of Guelderland, Holland, situated on the right 
bank of the Rhine, about 50 miles from Amsterdam. 
It was formerly the residence of the Counts and 
Dukes of Guelderland (Egmont), whose tombs may 
be seen in the church of St. Eusebius. In 1672 


Louis XIY. took it. It was recaptured in 1813 by 
the Prussians. The old fortifications are still main¬ 
tained. Being a connecting point between the 
Dutch and German railway systems it has a large 
transit business, and cottons, woollens, paper, and 
tobacco are manufactured. 

Arnica, a genus of plants belonging to the 
order Compositce ., the tincture of one species of 
which, A. montana ,, a native of Central Europe, 
has a powerful action in exciting the circulation 
beneath the skin without blistering, and is, therefore, 
useful for bruises. Internally it is an acrid 
narcotic. The flower is a dark golden yellow, and 
blossoms from about June to August. 

Arnim, (1) Ludwig Achim von, a German 
poet and novelist, born in 1781. He began life 
as a doctor, but soon adopted letters as a profession. 
His stories are gloomy and fantastic, like those of 
Hoffmann, the best known being Countess Dolores, 
Isabella of Egypt, and The Winter Garden (a col¬ 
lection of sketches). He published a number of 
popular songs and a few dramas, dying in 1831. 

(2) Harry Karl Edouard, Count von, born in 
1844. He entered the Prussian diplomatic service, 
and after holding several minor posts was sent, in 
1864, as Ambassador to Rome, where he remained 
until Pius IX. was deprived of his temporal power 
in 1870. During the famous (Ecumenical Council 
he supported Dr. Dollinger and the Old Catholics, 
and opposed the doctrine of Papal Infallibility. In 
1871 he was sent to Paris, and is said to have foiled 
Bismarck’s policy. In 1874 he was recalled, and prac¬ 
tically banished to Constantinople; but before he 
had started thither the anonymous publication of 
his correspondence with Dr. Dollinger and his des¬ 
patches from Rome gave so much annoyance that 
he was detained. He was then charged with having 
carried away from the Paris Embassy important 
State papers relating to the Papal succession. He 
was tried for this offence and condemned to three 
months’ imprisonment, and on his appeal the 
sentence was raised to nine months. Later Arnim 
was again brought to trial, and condemned, in his 
absence, to five years’ penal servitude. Though he 
made some attempts at a reconciliation, he never 
returned to Germany, and died in Switzerland in 
1881. 

Arno (classic Arnus), a river of Italy, which, 
rising in Monte Falterona, in the Apennines, flows 
first south, then north, then west, and, after a 
course of 180 miles, enters the Mediterranean by an 
artificial channel eight miles below Pisa. It has 
one tributary, the Elsa. The valley of the Arno is 
one of the most beautiful and fertile in Italy, but 
in winter the stream becomes a dangerous and 
swollen torrent. Florence occupies a charming 
position on both banks about 50 miles from the sea. 

Arnobius, (1) The Elder, an African convert 
to Christianity, born in Numidia about the middle 
of the third century. He wrote a Latin treatise in 
support of his new faith (Disputationurn adversus 
Gentes, libri rii.). Lactantius was his pupil. 

2. The Younger, was a Gallic bishop or pres¬ 
byter, who flourished at Marseilles about 460 A.D. 












Arnold. 


( 204 ) 


Arnold. 


He wrote a commentary on the Psalms which is 
tinged with Pelagianism, and this fact has induced 
some to believe that he was the author of an anony¬ 
mous treatise entitled Prcedest hiatus . 

Arnold, (1) of Brescia, a religious reformer of 
the twelfth century. He was a pupil of Abelard, and 
returning to Italy as a monk began to denounce 
the corruptions of the Church and the greed of 
ecclesiastics. Though condemned by Innocent II. 
and the Lateran Councils in 1139, he was so 
strongly supported that from 1144 to 1154 he held 
possession of Rome, drove out the popes, and estab¬ 
lished a republic. Adrian IV., assisted by Barba- 
rossa, forced him to fly into Tuscany, where he was 
captured and put to death. 

(2) Of Winkelried, a Swiss hero, who at the 
battle of Sempach in 1389 rushed upon the spears 
of an impenetrable Austrian phalanx, and by thus 
sacrificing his life opened a passage for his country¬ 
men. The result was a total rout of the Austrians 
with fearful slaughter. This story, however, rests 
on late evidence, and there has been much contro¬ 
versy in Switzerland and Germany since 18G0 as to 
its truth. 

(3) Gottfried, an earnest, active, but somewhat 
harsh and gloomy religious reformer, who strove, 
like Arndt, Spener, and Francke, to infuse new life 
into the effete orthodoxy of German Protestantism. 
He was born in 1605, and held a variety of posts, 
never retaining any for long owing to his pietism and 
his temper. In 1704 he was appointed royal his¬ 
toriographer by Frederick I., and was subsequently 
made pastor and inspector of Perleberg, where he 
died in 1713. He wrote a Church History, which was 
severely handled by Mosheim. 

(4) Benedict, an American general, born in 
1741 in a humble station. He twice enlisted in the 
British army, and twice deserted. When the 
Revolution broke out he was in business at New- 
liaven. After the battle of Lexington he raised a 
volunteer corps, was appointed colonel, served 
under Allen at Ticonderoga and Montgomery in 
the march to Quebec, and after rather a stormy 
career got the governorship of Philadelphia. His 
recklessness and perhaps dishonesty caused him to 
be reprimanded, whereupon he entertained the idea 
of going over to the enemy. Washington, who valued 
him for his pluck and dash, gave him the command 
at West Point; and Sir Henry Clinton sent Major 
Andre to negotiate for the surrender of the fortress. 
Andre was caught on his way back to^ the British 
lines, and was executed. [Andre.] Arnold 
escaped, joined the British army, fought for some 
years against his former comrades, and died in 
England in 1801. 

(5) Matthew, poet, critic, theologian, and 
educationalist, the eldest son of Dr. Arnold 
(q.v.), born at Laleham, near Staines, on the 
24th December. 1822. Educated at Winchester, 
Rugby, and Balliol College, Oxford, he carried off 
the Newdigate prize for English verse in 1843, 
graduated in honours in 1844, and was elected 
Fellow of Oriel in 1845. In 1851 he was appointed 
Lay Inspector of Schools under the Committee of 
Council on Education, an office which he served 


for nearly thirty-five years, resigning in 1886. 
During this period he did the cause of education 
signal service, especially by his investigations into 
Continental education, of which some of the results 
were given to the public in 1868 under the title 
The Schools and Universities of the Continent. 
His public career as a poet began with the appear¬ 
ance in 1843 of his Newdigate poem, Cromwell. 
In 1848 The Strayed Reveller was sent to the 
press as the work of “ A,” followed in 1853 by 
Empedocles and other Poems, published anony¬ 
mously. Here his poetical life ended, save for a 
few casual effusions for the magazines. If he 
produced too little to rank as a great poet, his 
work was of a very choice order, and his fame as a 
poet is still growing. As a critic his career may be 
dated from 1857, when he was elected Professor of 
Poetry at Oxford. His lectures On Translating 
Homer appeared in 1861 ; his Essays on Criti¬ 
cism in 1865; and his Study of Celtic Litera¬ 
ture in 1868 ; a second series of Critical Essays 
being published posthumously in 1888, edited by 
Lord Coleridge. His primacy among the critics of 
his day was undisputed. While working from 
fixed principles, he was always catholic and 
sympathetic ; and to him more than to anyone else 
is due the more genial spirit which has come 
over English criticism. His very considerable 
work as a theologian, which showed him to be a 
thinker of quite uncommon originality, with pro¬ 
found ethical insight, is represented by St. Paul 
and Protestantism (1871), Literature and Dogma 
(1873), God and the Bible (1875), and Last Essays 
on Church and State (1877) ; his contributions to 
political and social criticism by Culture and Anarchy 
(1870), and Irish Essays and Others (1882). He 
died quite suddenly on April 15tli, 1888. 

(6) Samuel, Mus.D., an English musician, bom 
in 1740, came early under the influence of Handel. 
He was director of music at Covent Garden and 
the Haymarket, organist of the Chapel Royal and 
Westminster Abbey. He wrote several operas, of 
which The Maid of the Mill was the most popular, 
and a number of oratorios, amongst them The 
Prodigal Son, not to mention a profusion of songs, 
services, sonatas, concertos, etc. None of his pro¬ 
ductions, however, show any great talent, and his 
edition of Handel’s works did him little credit. 
Early in the century he built the Lyceum Theatre 
as a home for English opera, but died in 1802 
before it was opened. He was buried with great 
solemnity in Westminster Abbey. 

(7) Thomas, D.D., was born at East Cowes, 
where his father was collector of customs, in 1795. 
He went from Winchester to Oxford, and after a 
brilliant career at the university married and 
settled at Laleham near Staines in 1819, supporting 
himself by private tuition. Though ordained 
deacon, his scruples as to signing the Thirty-Nine 
Articles prevented his taking priest's orders till 
1828, when he was appointed head-master of Rugby 
School. It was there that the work of his life was 
done, and that work wrought a complete revolution 
in English education. It is not easy to explain 
briefly the way in which this was effected. Perhaps 

| the most powerful agency that Arnold employed 









Arnold. 


( 205 ) 


Arracan. 


was the cultivation of a sense of honour as the 
basis of discipline. But his own personal in¬ 
fluence, and his incessant care and sympathy for 
boys, account in a large measure for his success, 
and the standard which he set asserted itself 
gradually in all the public schools. His religious 
views were characterised by breadth combined 
with genuine and cheerful piety. In politics he 
passed from Toryism to such pronounced Liberalism 
as destroyed his chances of Church preferment. 
He wrote his Roman History, his valuable edition of 
Thucydides, his Commentary on the New Testa¬ 
ment, and a treatise on Church and State which 
was to serve as the foundation for a greater work. 
In 1841 he was appointed Regius Professor of 
Modern History at Oxford, and his lectures in the 
following year opened with an able discussion of 
the philosophy of history. In June, 1842, he was 
seized with angina pectoris, and died in a few 
hours on the eve of his forty-seventh birthday. 
His Life and Correspondence, edited by the late 
Dean Stanley, furnishes a sympathetic record of 
his labours and achievements. 

(8) T. K., the educationalist, born 1800, was a 
country rector. In 1838 he issued his Greeli Prose, 
and in 1839 a companion volume on Latin Prose 
Composition. He died in 1853. 

Arnott, Dr. Neil, a physician and man of 
science, was born at Arbroath in 1788. In 1811 
having completed his medical education he began 
to practise in London. Though he soon got a fair 
business, he devoted himself to physics and 
mechanics, lecturing as early as 1813, and hitting 
upon new inventions year after year. In 1827 
appeared the first edition of his Physics, which at 
once took its place as a standard work. He was 
appointed to the Senate of the newly created 
London University, and busied himself in planning 
the medical and scientific examinations. In 1838 
he was made physician extraordinary to the Queen, 
and F.R.S., and in that year he published his work 
on Warminy and Ventilation , a subject to which 
henceforth he gave great attention. He won for 
his hygienic inventions a gold medal at the Paris 
Exhibition (1855), and for his smokeless stove the 
Rumford Medal of the Royal Society. He died in 
1874. 

Arnsberg, a district in the province of West¬ 
phalia, Germany, with its chief town. The latter 
is built on a height near the river Ruhr, and was 
the capital of the ancient duchy, and a member of 
the Hanseatic League. A new quarter has sprung 
up during the present century. There are works 
for turning out railway plant, and for making shot, 
white lead, cloths, etc. 

Aromatic Series, in Chemistry. All sub¬ 
stances whose molecules contain a benzine nucleus 
are classed in the aromatic series ; they are parti¬ 
cularly rich in carbon. The name was given to the 
group on account of the number of substances 
possessing an aromatic odour (balsams, gum-resins, 
etc.), which belong to it. 

Aromatic Vinegar, a strong perfume, fre¬ 
quently used as an excitant and disinfectant. It 


is made by adding to strong acetic acid a variety 
of aromatic oils. 

Aroostook, a river of North America, which 
rises in the State of Maine, and joins the river St. 
John at Hopkins. W. D. Howells, the novelist, has 
made the name familiar to modern readers ; but in 
past times it has played a part in boundary disputes 
between Great Britain and the United States. 

Arpad, a hero of Hungary, born about 870. He 
speedily gained a footing in the country and estab¬ 
lished a dynasty which lasted until 1301, nearly 400 
years after his death, which occurred in 907. 

Arpeggio, in Music, the playing of the notes 
of an instrumental chord in rapid succession and 
not simultaneously, after the manner of a harp. 
The arpeyyio is generally played upwards, but may 
be played downwards. 

Written: Played: 

Arpino (classic Arpinuni), an Italian town in 
the province of Catula on the river Garigliano. 
Cicero and Marius were born here. 

Arqua, a village 12 miles south of Padua, in 
Italy, in the midst of the Euganean Hills. 
Petrarch died here in 1374, and his tomb is shown 
in the churchyard. 

Arquebus, an old hand-gun, which was sup¬ 
ported on a forked rest and which carried a ball 




ARQUEBUS. 


of about two ounces in weight. In Henry VII.’s 
time half the yeomen of the guard were armed 
with arquebuses. 

Arques (anc. Archies ), a village in the depart¬ 
ment of Seine Inferieure, France, about three miles 
south-east of Dieppe. It is situated at the point 
where a little stream of the same name is joined 
by the Bethune. The remains of a strong castle 
show the former importance of the place ; and 
here Henry IV. defeated the Duke of Mayenne in 
1589. The Marquis of Salisbury has for many 
years had a country residence close by. 

Arracacha, an umbelliferous plant, native to 
the Andes, cultivated in Venezuela and naturalised 
in Jamaica, which was unsuccessfully introduced 
as a substitute for the potato about fifty years ago. 

Arracan, Aracan, or Arakan, the north 
division of Burmah. on the east of the Bay of 
Bengal, stretching from the river Naat to Cape 
Negrais. It is 400 miles long, but in breadth tapers 
off from 90 miles in the north to 15 miles in the 
south, and the area is 18,530 sq. m. The coast is 
studded with many fertile islands. Inland a range 










Arrack. 


( 206 ) 


Arrestment. 


of almost impassable mountains (Yomadang) separ¬ 
ates the country from Pegu and Ava. The chief 
rivers are the Naf, Myu, Koladvne, and Lemyu, and 
the ports are Akyab, the capital, Kyuk Phyu, and 
Sandoway. A considerable export trade is done in 
rice, wax, ivory, drugs, honey, rubies, and sapphires, 
and all kinds of manufactured goods are imported. 
The district, formerly an independent kingdom, 
was conquered by Burmah in 1783, and by the 
British in 1824. The fortified city of the same 
name was formerly the capital, and is situated 
inland on a branch of the Koladyne. It is very 
unhealthy, and is decreasing in importance. 

Arrack, a name of Arabic origin, applied to 
a variety of distilled spirits used in the East. In 
Ceylon it is distilled from the toddy or fermented 
juice of the Palmyra and Cocoa-nut palms ; in 
India from Mahwa flowers and from rice ; in Java 
from molasses. 

Arrah, a town in the district of Shahabad, 
Bengal, British India, 36 miles from Patna. It is 
famous for the gallant defence which it offered in the 
hands of a few Englishmen and Sikhs to thousands 
of rebels during the mutiny. 

Arran, an island on the W. coast of Scotland, 
near the estuary of the Clyde, and forming the 
greater part of the shire of Bute. It is 20 miles long 
by 8 to 11 broad, has an area of 165 square miles. 
The soil is sterile but mountainous and picturesque, 
possessing from the variety of its strata great 
geological interest. Goatfell, the highest point, 
has an elevation of 2,865 feet. Caves are frequent, 
and in one of them Bruce found a refuge. Flax is 
cultivated, and a few linen and woollen fabrics are 
made, but sheep-breeding is the chief industry, and 
tourists bring money into the island. Fish are 
plentiful on the coast, and there is good shooting 
on the hills. Marble, jasper, agates, cairngorms, 
and crystals known as Arran diamonds, are found 
there. 

Arran Islands. [Aran.] 

Arras, the chief town of the department of the 
Pas de Calais, France, on the river ’Scarpe, 36 
miles from Amiens. It was taken by France from 
Austria in 1640, and only became finally annexed 
in 1659. The Hotel de Ville, a handsome structure, 
dates from 1510. There is a cathedral, a bishop’s 
palace, a picture-gallery, library, law-court, and 
other public buildings. It is the birthplace of the 
two Robespierres, of Damiens, and Lebon. Tapestry 
was once a famous local manufacture, and the 
name of the town attached itself to material of 
this kind. Dimity, lace, sugar, soap, and chinaware 
are now the chief products, and the corn-market is 
the largest in northern France. The Northern 
Railway of France has an important station here. 

Arrest, a term applied to persons, to things, 
and to judgments. To arrest a person is to restrain 
him of his liberty by some lawful authority. Arrest 
is usually made by actual seizure of the defendant’s 
person, but any touching, however slight, of the 
person is sufficient for this purpose. And arrest is 
not confined to corporal seizure ; where the officer 


entered the room in which the defendant was, and 
locked the door, telling him at the same time that 
he arrested him, the court held this to be a good 
arrest. And if the officer say, “ I arrest you,” and 
the party acquiesce, or afterwards go with him, 
this is a good arrest. It seems that in order to 
constitute a valid arrest the warrant should be pro¬ 
duced, or the party arrested made aware of it. 
Arrest in civil proceedings is now rare ; the prin¬ 
cipal instances are when a person is arrested for 
contempt of court (Attachment), when the 
defendant in an action is suspected of intending to 
leave the country before judgment (Debtors Act) ; 
and in certain cases where a person has made 
default in the payment of a sum of money recovered 
or ordered to be paid by a court or judge, in penal 
actions, in summary proceedings before justices of 
the peace, and where the debtor has means to pay 
but refuses to do so. In criminal procedure arrest 
is generally made under a writ of capias , or venire 
facias, or a warrant. Arrest without warrant is 
only allowed in certain cases, as where a person is 
either seen committing an offence or is apparently 
about to commit some offence. In Admiralty 
actions a ship or cargo is arrested when the 
marshal has served the writ of summons in an 
action in rem. Under “Magna Charta” and the 
“ Habeas Corpus Act,” the liberty of the subject is 
secured from unlawful arrest. 

Arrest of Judgment. On a criminal prosecu¬ 
tion when there is some objection on the face of 
the record ( e.g . a material mis-statement or uncer¬ 
tainty in the indictment not aided, that is, not cor¬ 
rected by the verdict) the defendant may at any 
time between conviction and sentence move the 
court in arrest of judgment, and if the objection is 
well founded, judgment of acquittal is given, which, 
however, is no bar to a fresh indictment. Under 
the old common law practice, where a defendant 
might have taken, but did not take, some objection 
of substance to the plaintiff’s pleading by demur¬ 
ring to it, and a verdict was found for the plaintiff, 
the defendant might then take the objection by 
moving in arrest of judgment, and if the objection 
was well founded, judgment would not be entered 
for the plaintiff. As a judgment on a verdict is, 
under the new practice, only entered by order of the 
judge or court, this procedure is now inapplicable. 

Arrestment, “a process of attachment pro¬ 
hibiting a person in whose hands a debtor’s mov¬ 
ables are to pay or deliver up the same till a 
creditor who has procured an arrestment to be laid 
on is satisfied, either by caution, i.e. security or 
payment according to the grounds of arrestment.” 
In Scottish law the term denotes that process by 
which a creditor detains the goods or effects of his 
debtor in the hands of third parties till the debt 
due to him is paid. It is divided into two kinds :— 
1st, arrestment in security, used when proceedings 
are commencing, or in other circumstances where 
a claim may Become, but is not yet, enforceable ; 
2nd, arrestment in execution, following on the 
decree of a court, or on a registered document under 
a clause or statutory power of registration, accord¬ 
ing to the custom of Scotland. By the process of 






Arrian. 


( 207 ) 


Arsenic. 


arrestment the property covered by it is merely 
retained in its place ; to realise it for the satisfac¬ 
tion of the creditor’s claim a further proceeding, 
called “ Forthcoming,” is necessary. By old prac¬ 
tice alimentary funds, or those necessary for sub¬ 
sistence, were not liable to arrestment. In 1870 
the wages of all labourers, farm-servants, manu¬ 
facturers, artificers, and workpeople are not 
arrestable except (1) in so far as they exceed 20s. 
per week ; but the expense of the arrestment is not 
to be charged against the debtor unless the sum 
recovered exceed the amount of 20s.; or, (2) under 
decrees for alimentary allowances and payments, 
as for rates and taxes imposed by law. It is also a 
process in Scotch law for bringing a foreigner or 
other debtor living abroad and not within the 
jurisdiction of the Scottish Courts, amenable to 
such jurisdiction to the extent of making any 
movable, property he may possess in Scotland 
answerable for the claim. The analogous practice 
in England is the custom of foreign attachment in 
the Mayor’s Court in the City of London. 

Arrian, or Flavius Arrianus, was born in 
Bithynia early in the second century. He served in 
the Roman army under Hadrian, and was prefect of 
Cappadocia in i.35 a.d. He sat at the feet of Epic¬ 
tetus and took notes of his discourses, besides com¬ 
piling from the same source a treatise on moral 
philosophy. Arrian’s most important works are his 
History of Alexander the Great , an account of 
India, and a Periplus, or a description of the coasts 
of the Euxine. He also wrote on military subjects 
and on the chase. 

Arrondissement, in France, a territorial 
division of a department. It is larger than a 
canton, which again is larger than a commune. 

Arrow, a slender missile weapon, generally 
pointed, designed to be propelled from a bow. 
Frequently arrows are barbed at the tip, to make 
them more difficult of extraction, and sometimes 
they are poisoned. [Archery.] 

Arrow-head ( Sayittaria sayitti folia), a common 
aquatic monocotyledonous plant, found in large 
quantities on the Thames. 

Arrow Head. [Flint Implements.] 

Arrowroot, a valuable form of starch, ob¬ 
tained from the rhizomes or underground stems of 
various plants, mostly tropical species of the 
Marantacecc, or allied orders. That from the West 
Indies, Bermuda, and Natal is from Maranta arun- 
dinacea; that from the East Indies mainly from 
Curcuma anyustifolia , that from Otaheite, from 
Tacca pinnatif'da ; the “ Tous-les-mois ” of St. 
Kitt s, from Canna indica : and Brazilian arrow- 
root from Manihot utilissima, the cassava. An 
inferior preparation known as British arrowroot is 
made from potatoes ; and formerly the corms of 
the common Arum maculatum were collected in the 
Island of Portland for a similar purpose. 

Arrowsmith, the name of an English family 
to which geographical science is largely indebted. 
Aaron Arrowsmith was born in Durham in 1750. 
He came to London, and worked as an engraver. 


His chart of the world on Mercator’s projection 
attracted notice, and was followed by other able 
productions, especially a general atlas published 
in 1817. He died in 1823. His most distinguished 
successor was a nephew, John Arrowsmith, who 
was born in 1790, and joined his uncle in 1810. 
The London Atlas was his work, and he helped to 
found the Royal Geographical Society. He died in 
1873. 

Arru, or Aroo, a group of islands belonging to 
Holland and situated about 80 miles south of New 
Guinea. The largest of them, Tannar Besar, has a 
length of 77 miles and a breadth of 50 miles; the 
next in size, Cobron, is 69 miles long by 23 miles 
broad. The chief centre of trade is Dobbo, whither 
dealers come from Java, China, and the Moluccas 
to barter European goods for pearls, tortoise-shell, 
trepang, and bird-of-paradise feathers. 

Ars, the name of two French towns : (1) Ars- 
en-llc, a small port in Charente Inferieure, about 
20 miles W.N.W. of Rochelle. (2) Ars-sur-Moselle, 
about 5 miles S.W. of Metz, where ironworks are 
established, and a good deal of wine is made. 

Arsacidae, a dynasty of Parthian kings founded 
about 250 b.c. by Arsaces, who obtained the crown 
from Antiochus II. There were thirty-one of the 
Arsacidce. [Parthia.] 

Arsenal, a magazine or repository of military 
stores of all kinds ; the term has also been extended 
so as to include factories for arms or ammunition. 
The chief arsenal in Britain is the Royal Arsenal at 
Woolwich, while others of impoi’tance are those at 
Portsmouth, Chatham, Sheerness, Pembroke, Dept¬ 
ford, and Plymouth. In France, Brest, Toulon, 
Havre, Bordeaux, etc., are famed for their naval 
arsenals, and BesanQon, Mezieres, and Toulouse for 
their ordinary military stores. All the continental 
powers, as well as the United States of America, 
have their various arsenals. 

Arsenic (As = 75). An element known from 
the earliest times. Sometimes found native, but 
usually as sulphide in combination with sulphide of 
iron. Prepared from the ore by heating the latter 
in earthen vessels, the metallic arsenic sublimes, 
and is condensed in a suitable receiver. It is a 
steel-grey brittle metal, which volatilises at a dull 
red heat without melting, and gives off an odour 
of garlic: it oxidises slowly in the air at ordinary tem¬ 
peratures, and rapidly if heated, into arsenious 
oxide (As 2 0.j). Arsenic is on the border line 
between tile metals and non-metals, resembling the 
former in physical properties, and the latter in its 
chemical relations. Compounds of arsenic are used 
in medicine, and the metal itself in the manu¬ 
facture of leaden shot, and the preparation of alloys 
generally. Arsenic is used medicinally in minute 
doses in certain forms of skin disease, and also in some 
digestive and nervous affections. A curious point 
connected with its prolonged use is the “ tolerance ” 
to its action which becomes established. The well- 
known arsenic eaters of Styria, beginning with 
small doses, become in the course of time able 
to consume a quantity of arsenic which would prove 
fatal to an ordinary person. 








Arsinoe. 


( 208 ) 


Artabazus. 


The symptoms of arsenical poisoning are epigas¬ 
tric pain and tenderness, vomiting and diarrhoea ; 
collapse rapidly develops and death may occur in 
a few hours, if a large quantity of poison has been 
consumed, or in less acute cases life may be pro¬ 
longed for some days, and cramps, tremors, or 
even convulsions may then appear, and if recovery 
should take place these nervous phenomena may 
persist for some time. Arsenic has been at times 
administered in small, repeated doses to avoid 
suspicion rather than in one large dose; in such 
cases vomiting and wasting with coryza and 
irritation of the conjunctivae have been the most 
prominent symptoms. 

The congested state of the mucous membrane 
of the digestive tract after death, and the applica¬ 
tion of Marsh’s and Reinsch’s test to the contents 
of the stomach, usually leave no doubt in sus¬ 
pected cases of arsenic poisoning. Emerald green, 
or aceto-arsenite of copper, has given rise to un¬ 
pleasant symptoms, from its use in confectionery, 
in painting children’s toys, and particularly in con¬ 
nection with wall papers. So much attention has 
been directed to this subject that such cases of 
chronic poisoning are now fortunately becoming 
rare. The treatment of acute arsenic poisoning- 
consists in thoroughly evacuating the contents of 
the stomach, and administering the freshly precipi¬ 
tated hydrated peroxide of iron. 

Arsinoe, the name borne by several Egyptian 
princesses. (1) The daughter of Ptolemy I., who 
about 300 b.c. married Lysimachus, King of Thrace. 
After his death being persecuted by Ptolemy 
Ceraunus, her half-brother, who married her, and 
murdered her children, she became the wife of her 
brother, Ptolemy Pliiladelphus. (2) The daughter 
of Ptolemy Euergetes, called Cleopatra by Livy. 
She married her brother Ptolemy Philopater, accom¬ 
panied him in his war against Syria 217 b.c., but 
was put to death by her husband through the in¬ 
fluence of a mistress. (3) The daughter of 
Ptolemy XI., and sister of the famous Cleopatra, 
at whose request she was put to death by Antony. 
Several towns, notably Suez and Crocodilopolis, 
were named Arsinoe after one or another of these 
princesses. 

Arsis, in Prosody, originally the unaccented, 
part of a foot; now, however, the accented 
portion ; while thesis, now the unaccented, was 
formerly the accented part. In elocution arsis is 
the raising of the voice and thesis the depression. 
In music arsis is the downward beat and thesis the 
upward, as the ancients used to beat time in exactly 
the opposite way to the moderns—their upward 
beat signifying the accented portion of the bar. 

Arslan ( the lion), the title given to Ali 
Pasha, an Albanian chief born in 1741, who gained 
possession of a large portion of Albania early in his 
career. In 1787, for his services to the Porte in the 
Austro-Russian war, he was created pasha, and in 
1797 he entered into an alliance with Napoleon, but 
very shortly broke it off. He did a great deal of 
good in his own territory in putting down brigand¬ 
age and disorder. In 1803 he subdued the Suliotes 


of Epirus, while in 1807 he again concluded a treaty 
with Napoleon and again severed the alliance. In 
1820, in consequence of his efforts after complete 
independence, the Sultan ordered his deposition, 
and in 1822 Arslan, who had yielded to a false 
promise of security, was put to death. 

Arson, the malicious and wilful burning of 
the house of another, is at common law of the 
degree of felony. Some part of the house must be 
actually burnt; a bare intention or attempt will 
not constitute the offence, but the burning of any 
part, however trifling, is sufficient. The burning- 
must be malicious and wilful. If a man by wilfully 
setting fire to his own house burn that of his 
neighbour, it will be felony. Barns with corn and 
hay in them, though distant from a house, are 
within the definition of a house. The Act of 1861 
prescribes on conviction for arson penal servitude 
for life, or for any term not less than three years 
(now five years), or to be imprisoned for any time 
not exceeding two years ; the offence of setting fire 
to goods in buildings in such circumstances that 
the latter were thereby set on fire, would be 
felony. Setting fire to mines is visited with the 
full measure of penalty, and the attempt, to penal 
servitude for fourteen years. Setting fire or 
attempts to set fire to ships is punishable by the 
full penalties already enumerated. Setting fire to 
Her Majesty’s vessels of war is punishable by 
death. In Scotland the offence equivalent to arson 
in England is known as wilful fire raising. The 
statutes above cited do not apply to Scotland. 
Where the crime is punishable capitally b} r old 
Consuetudinary Law, the Public Prosecutor can 
decline to demand capital punishment, and usually 
does so. 

Art, a system of rules for the acquisition of skill 
and dexterity in the performance of certain actions. 
The “ arts ” as formerly used in the universities 
meant the seven liberal arts of the ancients, viz. 
grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, music, geome¬ 
try, and astronomy. Now-a-days, however, the 
classification of arts has been divided into two 
parts, the fine arts, in which are included music, 
painting, sculpture, etc., and all those branches of 
study which seek expression through the beautiful; 
and the mechanical arts, including carpentry, 
watchmaking, etc., and all those pursuits in which 
genius is not essential for success, but which require 
technical skill or physical accomplishment. The 
word art is frequently applied in a restricted sense 
to painting or sculpture only, and information upon 
Pa hit inr/, Schools of Painting, etc., will be found 
under their various headings. For explanation of 
the terms Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts, see the 
headings Bachelor and Master. 

Arta, or Zarta (classic Ambracia, Turk. Naida), 
a town in Albania, 39 miles south of Janina on a 
river of the same name, which flows into the 
spacious and picturesque Gulf of Arta, formerly 
the Ambracian Gulf. 

Artabazus, (1) a general who served under 
Xerxes in the expedition against Greece. He ably 
seconded Mardonius at Plataea, and made a 







Artaxerxes. 


( 209 ) 


Arteries. 


masterly retreat to Byzantium after the defeat of 
the Persians in 480 B.c. 

(2) Satrap of Ionia about 356 b.c. He revolted 
against Artaxerxes Ochus, but was restored to 
favour, and remained loyal to Darius Codomannus 
till he fell after Arbela. Alexander then gave him 
the satrapy held by Bessus, the murderer of Darius. 

(3) King of Armenia, where he succeeded 
Tigranes. It was his treachery that led to the 
ruin and death of Crassus, and he also betrayed 
Antony, but was taken and put to death in 30 b.c. 

Artaxerxes (Pers. Artakhshatra, Great War¬ 
rior), the name of several Persian monarchs. 

I. Longi MANUS, so called because his right 
hand was longer than his left, was the son of 
Xerxes I. He killed his elder brother, and when 
Artabanus, after assassinating Xerxes, seized the 
throne, he defeated and slew him and began to 
reign in 465 B.c. He distinguished himself by 
moderation and greatness of mind; and on the 
whole enjoyed tranquillity. He permitted the 
Jews to resume worship in the Temple, and gave an 
asylum to the banished Themistocles. He died in 
425 B.C. 

II. Mnemon, son of Darius II., by the daughter 
of Artaxerxes I. His brother Cyrus revolted, and 
was defeated and slain at Cunaxa 401 B.c. The 
retreat of the Ten Thousand, made memorable by 
Xenophon, followed upon this campaign. Then 
followed the efforts of the Greeks, and especially of 
the Lacedaemonians under Agesilaus, to free the 
Greek cities of Asia. In 394 the Athenians under 
Conon, aided by Pharnabazus, a Persian satrap, de¬ 
feated the Spartans at Cnidus, and in 388 the 
shameful peace of Antalcidas put an end to hostili¬ 
ties. Artaxerxes died in 359 b.c. at the age of 
ninety-four, leaving a reputation for leniency and 
wisdom. 

III. Ochus, son of the preceding monarch, came 
to the throne after killing off some thirty brothers. 
He crushed the revolt of Artabazus, and with the 
help of Greek mercenaries subdued the Egyptians, 
killing and eating the sacred bull Apis. Detested 
for his cruelty, he was poisoned by Bagoas, his 
trusted eunuch. 

IY. [Sassanid^e.] 

Artedi, Peter, a Swedish naturalist, born in 
1705. He and Linnaeus were such close friends that 
y made a mutual bequest to each other of all 
their manuscripts. Artedi was drowned in 1738, 
and Linnaeus therefore published his Bibliotheca 
Ichthyologica, and Philosojfhia Ichthyologica in 
1738. * 

Artemia, the Brine shrimps, small Phyllopoda 
living in salt pans, lagoons, and salt lakes. 

Artemis, a genus of Veneridae, or Venus 
shells; it ranges from the Carboniferous period 
upwards, and several species live on the British 
coast. 

Artemis, in Greek mythology, the daughter 
of Zeus and Leto, and sister of Phoebus, ranking 
among the great divinities. Like her brother she 
is generally represented with a bow, arrows, and 

14 


quiver; and to her also the laurel was a sacred tree. 
She was the goddess of hunting, and watched over 
the flocks. She presided over childbirth, the 
young both of men and animals being her special 
care. The moon was a type of her, as the sun w T as 
of Phoebus. Perpetual virginity was her glory, and 
the fates of Orion and Actaeon served as a warning 
to those who insulted her modesty. She was wor¬ 
shipped, however, under various aspects, some of 
them cruel and bloodthirsty. At Tauris (in the 
modern Crimea) human sacrifices were offered to 
her, and the same, in early days, was the case in 
Sparta, till Lycurgus, according to tradition, in¬ 
vented the more civilised custom of flogging boys 
on her altar. Her identity was, no doubt, mixed up 
with that of foreign deities. At Ephesus, for in¬ 
stance, she became a creature with many breasts, a 
mummy's head topped by a mural crown, and a 
body tapering to a point and covered with figures 
of animals. She was certainly confounded with 
Isis, as Phoebus was with Osiris, and the Homans, 
to whom she was introduced through Magna Graecia, 
at once identified her with Diana. 

Artemisia. 1. The great feast of Artemis, 
held yearly at Syracuse, in Sicily. 

2. Queen of Halicarnassus, who assisted 
Xerxes in his invasion of Greece (480 B.C.) and 
fought with such courage at Salamis that the 
Spartans erected a statue to her. 

3. Queen of Caria in the fourth century b.c., 
the wife of Mausolus, to whose memory she erected 
the Mausoleum. 

Artemisinin, a promontory at the north-east 
end of the island of Euboea, Greece, so called on 
account of the temple of Artemis that was erected 
there. Xerxes lost part of his fleet here in 480 B.C., 
partly through a storm, partly through the attacks 
of the Greeks. 

Arteries, the tubes through which the 
blood is carried from the heart to the various 
tissues. (Blood-vessels.) The branches of an 
artery are always smaller than the trunk from 
which they originate, the smallest arteries or arte¬ 
rioles finally breaking up into minute tubes of 
microscopic size called capillaries; the blood 
pumped by the heart through these fine channels 
is collected again into venules, and these venules 
combine with other venules to form veins. An 
artery is composed of three coats, an inner, middle, 
and outer. The inner coat is lined internally by a 
smooth layer of endothelium (q.v.), the middle 
coat consists largely of unstriped muscular tissue 
(Muscle), while in the outer coat elastic tissue 
predominates. The calibre of the arteries is con¬ 
trolled by the nervous system by means of nerves, 
called vasomotor nerves, which terminate in the 
muscle cells. Thus, in blushing a nervous impulse 
travelling down the vasomotor nerves of the 
arteries of the face causes relaxation of muscle 
cells with resulting increased calibre of arteries, 
and as a consequence more blood flows into the 
skin of the cheeks, which become flushed and hot. 
It is the contraction of the muscular coat of 
arteries after death which drives blood out of them 
and causes them to appear empty; hence arose 





Artesian Wells. 


( 210 ) 


Arthrostraca. 


their name (artery signifying air - carrier), the 
ancients being unaware that the vessel during life 
was full of blood. The pressure of blood within the 
arteries is measured by means of the mercurial 
manometer; it is found that in the carotid of a 
rabbit this pressure is capable of supporting a 
column of mercury two or three inches high. The 
velocity of blood is greatest in the large arteries, 
and diminishes as the vessel divides and subdivides. 
The elastic element in the arterial walls serves to 
convert the intermittent action of the heart into a 
continuous flow in the capillaries and veins. Thus, 
if an artery be cut blood spurts out in jets, while in 
the case of a wounded vein the bleeding occurs in 
a uniform stream. Arteries are ligatured to check 
bleeding, as, for example, when a limb is amputated. 
Of the diseases to which they are subject the most 
important is atheroma (q.v.); they may also be 
occluded or plugged (Embolus). In all cases of 
bleeding from a wounded artery it is important to 
know that the haemorrhage can almost always be con¬ 
trolled until skilled help is forthcoming by the mere 
exercise of firm pressure upon the bleeding point. 
The operation of opening an artery is known as 
arteriotomy. 

Artesian Wells, named from Artois in Picardy, 
the first district in Europe in which they were made, 



a, Artesian well ; b, upper impermeable strata; c, porous 
bed ; d, lower impermeable strata. 

are wells which contain a column of water rising from 
a considerable depth owing to the beds through 
which they are pierced being bent in a syncline or 
basin. A porous bed between two impermeable ones 
will retain the water that falls as rain on its out¬ 
cropping surface, and this water will stand, in any 
well sunk into the porous bed, at its level of satura¬ 
tion, or may actually rise above the surface-level of 
the well. Such wells have long been in use in 
China, and can be sunk round London, Southamp¬ 
ton, Paris, and Vienna, but only where there is 
such a syncline. In the places named t he porous 
bed is the Chalk. 

Artevelde, (1) Jacob Van, a wealthy brewer 
of Ghent, who in 1336 a.d. headed a revolt of the 
citizens against Louis de Nevers, Count of Flanders, 
.and drove him out of the country with the aid of 
the English. Artevelde, with the authority of several 
cities, made a treaty acknowledging Edward III. 
lord-superior of Flanders, and the victory of the 


English fleet over the French at Sluys in 1340 con¬ 
firmed this title. On the renewal of hostilities- 
Artevelde tried to make the Black Prince Count of 
Flanders, but the people of Ghent resisted this, and 
murdered Artevelde (1344), and others of his party. 

(2) Philip Van, son of the preceding, took no- 
part in public affairs until 1382, when his fellow 
citizens, having revolted against Count Louis II., 
invited him to take the supreme command. His 
first act was to avenge his father’s death, and to 
drive Louis out of the country. Charles VI. of 
France now intervened and sent De Clisson into 
Flanders with an army. A battle occurred at 
Rosebeck; the Flemings were utterly defeated, 
and Philip, with some 30,000 of his followers, 
perished. His career forms the subject of a fine 
drama by Henry Taylor. 

Arthritis, inflammation of a joint. Thus, 
acute arthritis may be set up by injury; again,, 
there is gouty arthritis, which affects by preference 
the joint of the big toe (Gout), or tubercular 
arthritis, which in its most common form consti¬ 
tutes the “ hip-joint disease ” of children. In acute 
rheumatism one or more joints are inflamed, and 
the condition may be spoken of as rheumatic 
arthritis ; this form of joint disease must not, how¬ 
ever, be confused with chronic rheumatic arthritis. 
The last-named affection, which is also designated 
by the terms “ rheumatoid arthritis,” or “ arthritis 
deformans,” has nothing to do with acute rheu¬ 
matism. It is, as a rule, chronic in its course, and 
occurs during middle life. It may affect many 
small joints, as for example those of the fingers, or 
a large joint like the hip or knee may be involved. 
In the course of the disease the articular carti¬ 
lages are gradually worn away, and the exposed 
bony surface becomes polished, grooved, and hard¬ 
ened or “ eburnated,” as the expression is. Bony 
deposit also occurs in the tissues around the joint, 
and thus considerable deformity results, hence the 
appropriateness of the term arthritis deformans. 
The course of rheumatoid arthritis is slow, but un¬ 
fortunately it is not very amenable to treatment. 
Still something can be effected by regulating diet, by 
suitable exercise, by baths, and by the administra¬ 
tion of certain remedies, such as guaiacum and 
iodide of potassium. 

Arthrobranchs, those gills in such Crustacea 
as the lobster which are situated just above the 
point of attachment of the appendages to the sides 
of the body. 

Arthrogastra, a division of the Arachnida 
including the Adelarthrosomata and Pedipalpi 
( i.e . “jointed limbs”). 

Arthropoda, the phylum (or division of the 
animal kingdom) which includes all animals with 
hollow-jointed appendages. The body is normally 
composed of a series of segments, usually more or 
less dissimilar, protected by a hard external skin. 
The phylum includes five classes, Pycnogonida. 
Crustacea, Arachnida, Protracheata, Myria¬ 
pod a, and Insect a. 

Arthrostraca, a division of Crustacea with 
lateral sessile eyes, and usually seven distinct 










































































































































































Arthur. 


( 211 ) 


thoracic limbs ; it includes the orders Amphipoda 
and Isopoda. 

Arthur, a British prince who, according’ to 
various legends, made a gallant struggle against the 
Saxon invaders in the sixth century. It has been 
doubted whether there is the slightest substratum 
of fact in his story, but looking to the fictions that 
have attached themselves to such undoubtedly 
real personages as Charlemagne, The Cid, or even 
Napoleon I., we may, perhaps, assume that 
Arthur in some form or another did exist, and 
played a part in the obscure events that preceded 
the establishment of a Teutonic race in England. 
The record of Arthur’s exploits cannot be traced 
farther back than Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Chronicle, 
written in Latin about the middle of the twelfth 
century, and translated by Wace into French, and 
by Layamon into English. The materials were 
professedly gathered from old Breton traditions, 
and. to these little by little additions were made 
until Sir Thomas Malory brought them all together 
in his Morte d'Arthur, which Caxton printed in 1485. 

Arthur is said to have been the son of a Roman¬ 
ised Kelt, who, revolting against Vortigern, made for 
himself an independent principality in Hampshire 
and Wiltshire, but was killed at Amesbury by the 
Saxon invaders under Cerdic. Arthur, his son, 
held Camelot or Cadbury against the foe for years, 
fought several battles, the most important of which 
took place at Badon or Bath, and became the 
acknowledged head of the Britons. He was killed 
in a war with his nephew Modred, who had carried 
off his wife, and was buried at Glastonbury Abbey. 
According to more romantic accounts, Caerleon on 
the Usk was the seat of his court, where his chosen 
knights gathered about the Round Table, and 
sallied forth to redress wrong throughout the 
world. The faithlessness of Guinevere, his queen, 
with Lancelot his trusted friend; the weird exist¬ 
ence of Merlin, and his ruin by the wily Vivien; 
the mystery of the sword Excalibur; the search 
for the Holy Grail, with many other episodes and 
adventures, ending in Arthur’s passing away to the 
Isle of Avalon, belong to poetry rather than history, 
and have been worthily enshrined in Tennyson’s 
Idylls of the King. 

Arthur, Chester Alan, President of the United 
States, born in 1830, early took a part in political 
life and became a prominent member of the Re¬ 
publican party. In 1871 he held the post of 
Collector of Customs for the port of New York. 
In 1880 he was elected Vice-President and succeeded 
Garfield as President on the death of the latter in 
1881. He died in 1886. 

Arthur, Prince, born in 1187, the son of Geoffrey 
the fourth son of Henry II. and Constance of 
Brittany. Thus Arthur’s claim to the English 
throne was prior to that of John. He was at first 
supported by the king of France, but John succeeded 
in purchasing the latter’s aid. John imprisoned 
the young prince, and is supposed to have finally 
procured his assassination in 1203. 

Arthur’s Seat, a hill just outside Edinburgh 
to N.E., having an elevation of 822 feet above 


Articles of Religion. 


sea-level. It consists of igneous rocks mixed with 
sedimentary strata of the Carboniferous period. 
The name is said to be derived by the familiar 
process of mythopcea from two Keltic words signi- 
fying “ Hill of Arrows,” the place having served as 
a range for archers, but the Arthurian legend has 
penetrated even farther north than this. 

Artichoke, a name, probably of Arabic origin, 
applied to Cynara Scolynius, a thistle-like member 
of the order Composite, native to the Mediterranean 
region, the edible portion of which is the common 



artichoke (Cynara Scolynius). 


receptacle and the fleshy bases of the large im¬ 
bricate bracts of the inflorescence. The Jerusalem 
Artichoke is the tuber of Heliantlius tuberosus, a 
sunflower, introduced from the United States in 
the 17th century, but native to Mexico or Brazil. It 
gets its name from resembling the true artichoke 
in flavour, “Jerusalem” being a corruption of the 
Italian “girasole,” the old English “turnsole.” 

Articles of Association, regulations for 
the management of a company formed and regis¬ 
tered under the Companies Acts. They are such as 
the subscribers to the memorandum of association 
deem expedient, provided that they do not contra¬ 
vene such memorandum or otherwise infringe the 
provisions of the Act. They generally contain 
regulations as to calls, transfers of shares, general 
meetings, votes of members, powers of directors, 
etc., and are stamped as a deed. Each member is 
entitled to a copy on payment of one shilling. A 
precedent of regulations is given in Schedule A 
of the Companies Act, 1862. 

Articles of Religion. The term implies that 
the separate'propositions form one connected sys¬ 
tem (Latin articulus, joint). The Thirty-nine 
Articles of the Anglican prayer book represent 
the forty-two articles drafted by Archbishop 
Cranmer, considered by Convocation and approved 
by the Crown in 1553. (Ten articles had already 
been similarly adopted in 1536.) These forty-two, 
suppressed during Mary’s reign, were revised 
by Convocation and re-enacted in 1553. They 
contain statements of the religious doctrine and 
practice of the Church of England, and bear frequent 










Articles of the Peace. 


( 212 ) 


Arum. 


traces of the religious controversies of the period. 
Every clergyman is required by law to sign them 
at his ordination, and at his admission to any 
benefice, as also to read them publicly on the latter 
occasion in the church (“reading himself in”). 
The question whether subscription implies belief in 
the articles, or merely an engagement not to contro¬ 
vert them, has been often disputed. Dr. Johnson 
and many High Church clergy have held the latter. 

Articles of the Peace, a complaint made 
or exhibited to a court by a person who makes oath 
that he is in fear of death or bodily harm from 
some one who has threatened or attempted to do 
him injury. The court may thereupon order the 
person complained of to find sureties for the peace, 
and in default may commit him to prison. Articles 
may be exhibited in the Queen’s Bench, or Chancery 
divisions of the High Court, or to any Justice of 
the Peace. The Court of Chancery, however, is 
rarely or never resorted to for this purpose. 

Articles of War, a code of rules for the 
government of the army and navy, which are now 
in Great Britian embodied in the Mutiny Act. They 
enumerate all punishable offences in the services, 
with the penalties attaching to each. The Mutiny 
Act is brought into force each year. [Army.] 

Articles, The Six, statements of doctrine 
passed in 1539 by Henry VIII. They were as 
follows: (1) The doctrine of transubstantiation; 
(2) “ That communion of both kinds is not necessary 
ad salute >n ; ” (3) That priests may not marry; 
(4) That vows of celibacy are to be observed; (5) 
That private masses be admitted; (6) That auricular 
confession be allowed. The Act of the Six Articles 
(known as the “ whip with six strings ”), after setting 
forth these doctrines, enacted severe penalties on 
offenders against them. It was repealed in 1547. 

Articulata, (1) one of the four great divisions 
made by Cuvier of the animal kingdom ; it included 
the Arthropoda and Vermes. (2) The order of 
Brachiopoda, in which the valves of the shell are 
attached to one another by a hinge and teeth; 
it includes the great majority of the class. (3) A 
term once used in the subdivision of the orders of 
the Bryozoa. 

Artificial Limbs. Contrivances designed to 
replace lost or injured limbs are of great antiquity, 
mention being made of them in Herodotus and 
Pliny. Under the various headings of the different 
members, and the names of the inventions, fuller 
information will be found. [Cork Leg, Beaufort 
Arm, etc.] 

Artificial Respiration. As the result of 
the action of certain poisons, or owing to some 
mechanical obstruction in the air passages, the 
movements of respiration may cease while the 
heart still continues to beat. Under such circum¬ 
stances the prompt performance of artificial 
respiration is imperatively called for, and in no 
inconsiderable number of cases it is effectual in re¬ 
storing the patient to life. After the heart has 
actually ceased beating, it is doubtful whether the 
employment of artificial respiration can ever suc¬ 
ceed in restoring animation. Still in case of doubt 


it should be resorted to, in the hope that it may 
prove of service. The best method of artificially 
filling and emptying the lungs of air is that ol 
Sylvester. The patient is laid on his back, his 
shoulders raised by means of a pillow or cushion, 
and his tongue drawn forwards. The chest is 
then alternately expanded and compressed so as to 
imitate inspiration and expiration respectively. 
The operator stands behind the patient's head 
grasping the two arms with his hands. He first 
extends the arms over the head producing ex¬ 
pansion of the chest, and then brings the two 
elbows of the patient right down to the side of the 
chest on each side, exercising firm pressure so as 
to constrict the thoracic cavity and drive air out 
of it. These movements must be regularly per¬ 
formed in such a manner that about fifteen com¬ 
plete artificial respirations are effected in a minute. 
In the excitement attendant upon the cessation of 
respiration, whether the case be one of drowning or 
poisoning, the mistake which is sometimes made is 
to perform the movements too rapidly. The normal 
rate of breathing should be imitated, and thus 
15 to 20 respirations a minute are quite sufficient. 
In cases of drowning it is well as a preliminary 
measure to turn the body face downwards, and 
raise the feet, so as to allow water to escape from 
the mouth ; and while the various measures for 
restoring animation are being adopted, it is most 
necessary to maintain the temperature by removing 
wet clothes, drying the skin, and if possible pro¬ 
curing warm blankets to protect the body. 

Artillery, Royal, Regiment of, the name 
given to the whole of the British artillery. It was 
first formed in 1715, but has since grown enor¬ 
mously, and is now subdivided into Horse, Field, 
and Garrison Artillery. The Honourable Artillery 
Company is the oldest existing volunteer force in 
Britain, having been established in the 16th century. 

Artillery. [Guns.] 

Artiodactyla, a section of Ungulata (q.v.), 
containing those in which the number of toes is 
even—two or four—and the third digit on each 
limb forms a symmetrical pair with the fourth. 
The two-toed Artiodactyla comprise the ruminants 
and the pigs ; the only living four-toed members of 
the section are the hippopotami. 

Artois, an ancient province of France, which 
comprised the modern department of Pas de Calais, 
with part of the Somme and the Nord. Louis IX. 
made it into a county for his brother Robert in 
1237. In 1384 it went by marriage to the Dukes of 
Burgundy, and from them to Austria in 1477. It 
was reconquered by France in 1640, and this con¬ 
quest was confirmed in 1678. The capital was 
Arras, which is now the chief town of Pas de Calais. 

Arum, a genus of monocotyledonous herbaceous 
perennials, giving its name to an important order. 
They have starchy conns or rhizomes, smooth, 
radical, sagittate leaves with netted veins and an 
inflorescence consisting of an unbranched monoe¬ 
cious spadix in a sheathing spathe. The spadix 
bears one-chambered ovaries, anthers with porous 
dehiscence and rudimentary ovaries, none of these 






Arundel. 


( 213 ) 


Aryans. 


flowers having any perianth, and terminates in a 
naked club-shaped appendix. The temperature 
within the unopened spathe rises considerably. 



ARUM MACULATUM. 

1> Spadix ; 2, stamen ; 3, ovary ; 4, fruit. 


Like most of the order, the genus is acridly 
poisonous. The common British species (/l. viacu- 
latuni) is termed Cuckoo-pint, or Lords-and-ladies. 

Arundel, an ancient town in the county of 
Sussex, 50 miles from London, and situated on the 
river Arun, from which it takes its name. The 
castle dates from Saxon times, and was a strong- 
place capable of offering a stubborn resistance to 
Henry I. when he besieged Montgomery, Earl of 
Arundel, there. It has been in the possession of 
the Howard family (Duke of Norfolk) since the 
middle of the 15th century, and is kept up with great 
magnificence. The fine cruciform parish church 
dates from the 14th century. There is a shipping 
trade in corn and oil, the Arun being navigable. The 
London and Brighton Railway has a station here. 

Arundel, Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury, 
son of Richard Fitz-Allan, Earl of Arundel, born in 
1353, was made Bishop of Ely at the age of 22, 
then Archbishop of Canterbury, and finally Primate 
in 139G. He was banished for a short time owing 
to his complicity in Gloucester’s intrigues, but re¬ 
turning in 1399 took a very active part in suppres¬ 
sing the Lollards. He died in 1413. 

Arundel of Wardour, Lady Blanche, 
defended Wardour Castle most courageously 
against the Parliamentary forces under Hungerford 
and Ludlow, but surrendered on honourable terms. 
These the besiegers violated, and her husband blew 
up the structure. 

Arundelian Marbles. A collection of an¬ 
cient Greek sculptures from Smyrna and elsewhere, 
originally formed by Thomas Howard, Earl of 
Arundel, and presented to the University of Oxford 
in 1667 by his grandson, Henry Howard, afterwards 
Duke of Norfolk. The most important is the 
Marmor Parium, a chronological table of Greek 
history on Parian marble, originally extending 
from 1582 to 263 B.C., but now much defaced and 


mutilated. It seems to have been originally drawn 
up by a schoolmaster for his pupils’ use. The Arun¬ 
delian Society, founded in 1848 to promote the 
study of Art in England, took its name from this 
Earl of Arundel. Its reproductions of mediaeval 
pictures are well known. 

Aruwimi, a large tributary of the Congo, 
Equatorial Africa, which it enters some distance 
below the Stanley Falls and above Upoto. It was 
by the Aruwimi that Stanley proceeded in his 1887 
expedition. 

Arval Brothers (Lat. fratres arvalcs ), in 
ancient Rome, a college of members who annually 
performed public sacrifices that the fields might 
prove fertile. They were twelve in number, and 
were of the highest rank. 

Arve, a river of Switzerland, which, rising in the 
Col de Balme, is joined by its tributary, the Arvey- 
ron, and flows through Chamounix to the Rhone. 

Arvicola. [Field Mouse. Vole.] 

Aryans, or Indo-Europeans, the largest, 
most widespread, and most highly-cultured division 
of the Caucasic family of mankind, extending from 
prehistoric times almost continuously across a 
great part of the eastern hemisphere from India to 
Scandinavia and the British Isles, and since the 
discovery of the New World widely spread through¬ 
out America, South Africa, and Australasia. There 
are two distinct types : (1) the Xanthochroi, or Fair 
tall, with flaxen or light brown wavy hair, blue 
eyes, florid complexion, dolichocephalic head, large 
straight nose, orthognathous jaw, low cheek-bone . 
(2) the Melanochroi , or Dark, short or medium 
stature, with black or dark brown straight or curly 
hair, black or brown eyes, pale complexion inclining 
to sallow, small hands and feet. The fair is pro¬ 
bably the primitive Aryan stock, the dark the non- 
Aryan peoples, on whom the first imposed their 
language and culture, and with whom they became 
almost everywhere intermingled. Hence the pre¬ 
sence of both types now constantly observed in 
every part of the Aryan world, and even within 
every special group, and in the family circle itself. 
But speaking generally, the fair predominates 
mainly amongst the Scandinavians and other 
Northern Europeans, the dark elsewhere in Europe 
and throughout south-west Asia. The question of 
the original home of the primitive Aryans has in 
recent times been much discussed, the prevailing 
opinion hitherto locating them in south-west 
Asia, the Iranian plateau, or even the Pamir 
But lately the view first put forward by Latham 
that the cradle of the race is to be sought 
in Europe has gained strength, and is now accepted 
as almost demonstrated by Penka, Canon Isaac 
Taylor, Professor G. H. Rendall, Poesche, and espe¬ 
cially Dr. O. Schrader. In his Prehistoric Anti¬ 
quities of the Aryan Peoples (English edition by F. B. 
Jevons, 1890), this writer follows Leskien in fixing 
the south-west Russian Steppes as the region where 
the Aryan nomads first tended their flocks, and 
whence they spread eastwards to Asia, and by the 
Volga, Don, and Danube throughout North and Cen¬ 
tral Europe. In some places the migratory tribes 











Aryan Language. 


( 214 ) 


Aryan Language. 


were the first occupiers of the land, and were thus 
able to preserve the purity of their race for many ages. 
Elsewhere they found the land already more or less 
thickly peopled by other races, with whom they 
became amalgamated, thus producing the above- 
described mixed types. But in Europe they ulti¬ 
mately imposed their Aryan speech everywhere 
except in the north-east (Finnic domain) and in 
the south-west (Iberian domain, still represented by 
the Basques of the Western Pyrenees). Hence 
Europe is now almost exclusively Aryan. In Asia 
their domain has been largely encroached upon 
during the historic period, especially by the Turki 
peoples, by whom they have been driven out 
or nearly absorbed in Anatolia and many parts of 
the Iranian plateau. The theory that the primitive 
Aryans were a cultured people, with an elaborate 
religion and mythology, is now exploded. Before 
the dispersion they appear to have been rude 
pastoral and agricultural nomads at a low stage 
of culture, practising a few simple industries, with 
probably a shamanistic form of religion, worship¬ 
ping the spirits dwelling in the heavenly bodies, in 
the thunder-cloud, in the forests, mountains, fire, 
and water. At that period the difference was per¬ 
haps not great between them and the surrounding- 
peoples ; and their later upward evolution, placing 
them at the head of the intellectual and political 
world, was mainly due to their more favourable 
environment in the temperate climate, fertile lands, 
and diversified seaboard of the Mediterranean 
regions. On the whole the Aryans must be re¬ 
garded not as a single race, but as an amalgam of 
many Caucasic and, no doubt, some Mongolic 
peoples, leavened by an original Aryan element, 
and endowed with a certain racial uniformity by 
the immense predominance of the Caucasic physi¬ 
cal characteristics and by general adoption of 
Aryan speech, traditions, ancl usages. Wherever 
located the original element is certainly of vast anti¬ 
quity, appearing as a distinct ethnical group probably 
at the close of the last glacial epoch. The process 
of amalgamation resulting in the historic Aryan 
peoples had its beginning with the first contact of 
the migrating tribes with alien races after the dis¬ 
persion from a common centre, and this process 
has never ceased throughout historic times. It is 
now developing new and often profoundly modified 
Aryan groups in North America (Franco-Canadian 
half-breeds), throughout Spanish and Portuguese 
America (Mestizos), in Indo-China (Franco-Ana- 
mese), in North Russia and Siberia (Russo-Ugrians), 
and in other places. But as a rule the Anglo- 
Saxon or British Aryans, who are by far the most 
numerous and widespread out of Europe, do not 
amalgamate with the aborigines. Hence Anglo- 
American, Anglo-African, or Anglo-Australian half- 
castes are rare, and the modifications of the Aryan 
types undoubtedly going on in the “Greater 
Britain ” beyond the seas are due, not to miscegena¬ 
tion, but to the changed environment. 

Aryan, or Indo-European, Languages form 
collectively the largest and most highly developed 
division of the inflecting order of speech, of which 
the other chief divisions are the Semitic and the 


Hamitic. Their range is far more extensive than 
that of the Aryan peoples themselves, for they are 
spoken by many millions of the American abori¬ 
gines, by all the African negroes in the New World, ( 
by many Russified Ugrian Finns, and by the 
natives in various parts of the British colonies. All 
descend directly, but in various divergent lines, 
from a primitive Aryan tongue long extinct past 
recovery, and all attempts at the restoration of 
which have proved abortive. The divergent lines, 
eight in number, represent each a separate branch 
of the primitive stock, and the divergence began at 
such a remote epoch that the mother tongues of 
each of these branches have also been long extinct 
past recovery. Thus we have eight distinct lin¬ 
guistic groups ( Indie and Iranic in Asia, Thraco- 
Hellenic , Italic Keltic , Slavonic , Litliuanic , and 
Teutonic in Europe), the earliest forms of which 
are already so profoundly differentiated from each 
other that their common relationship alone can be 
demonstrated, the order of their divergence from 
the parent stem, or from some now lost inter¬ 
mediate stems, remaining more or less conjectural. 
Each group comprises two or more subdivisions, 
which again throw off numerous branches, the 
whole forming an extremely complex system, 
which will be best understood by the subjoined 


TABLE OF THE ARYAN LINGUISTIC FAMILY. 


Groups. 


I. 

Indic 


fVedic 
I (Early 
{ Sanscrit) 
Later 
^Sanscrit 



The 

Prakrits 

(Vulgar 

Sanscrit) 


Neo- 

—Sanscrit 


("Kashmiri 

Panjabi. 

Gujarati. 

Marathi. 

Hindi. 

Bengali. 

Oriya. 

^Assami. 


^Branch } Zend > Puslltu ( Af S han ), Galclia. 
o ip a vm J Western ) Old Persian, Pahlavi, Nco-Persian, 
1 Branch (’ Kurdish, Baluchi. 

(.Branch antl Modern Armenian, Ossetian. 


3. Thraco- 
Hellenic 


("Thracian Illyrian 
j (extinct), (extinct), 


Albanian. 


i Pelasgic \ iEolian 
i (extinct)) Dorian 


^>- Ionian 


Attic. 

Byzantine. 
Romaic (Modern 
Greek). 


fOscan b (" Italian. 

I Sabine [ Extinct I Langue d’Oc(South French). 
4. Italic ■{ Umbrian ) | Langue d’Oil(NorthFrench). 

| Latin, Vulgar Latin, -{ Spanish, 
k Neo-Latin I Portuguese. 

! Rumanian. 
kRomansch. 


(Gaedhelic • Irish, Gadic, Manx. 

5. Keltic < Kymric: Kymraeg (Welsh), Cornish (extinct), 
(. Breton. 


6 . 


7. 


Lithuanic : Lithuanian, Lettic, Pruczi (Prussian, extinct). 


f Eastern 

Slavic \ Branch 
| Western 
k Branch 


) Church Slavonic, Bulgarian, Great and 
- Little Russian, Servo - Croatian, 
j Slovenian. 

\ Bohemian, Slovak, Polish, Polabish 
f (Czekh), Lusatian. (extinct) 


8. Teutonic 


fLow German ) G ° thic ’ frisic, Continental 
1 Branch f ? axo 1 n > Anglo-Saxon, English, 

) Lowland Scotch. 

■ Norse (Old Norse, Icelandic, Danish, 
j Branchy ) Norwegian, Swedish. 

HiehGerm'an ) Middle and New High 

i Branch k German, Rhenish, Thuringian, 

k ' ) Swiss, Suabian. 









Arzamass. 


( 215 ) 


Ascaris. 


The profound disintegration which is shown in 
this table, and which is far greater than in the 
Semitic family, is mainly due to the spread of 
Aryan speech amongst non-Aryan peoples, by 
whom its phonetic system and grammatical struc¬ 
ture were diversely modified. Apart from these 
potent outward influences, all the Aryan tongues 
have throughout their historic life betrayed an 
inner tendency to break up the highly developed 
inflectional forms of the early languages, such as 
Sanskrit, Zend, Greek, and Latin, and thus con¬ 
tinue their natural evolution in the direction from 
synthesis towards analysis. Thus the Romance or 
Neo-Latin gradually rejected all case-endings and 
passive verbal forms, and the Latin amabor , for 
instance, is expressed by three words in Italian 
and French : io sard amato ; je serai aime. It 
would require four in English (Ishall be loved), and 
in this respect English is the most highly developed 
—that is, the most analytical of all Aryan lan¬ 
guages, having retained scarcely a dozen of the 
many hundred inflections characteristic of primi¬ 
tive Aryan speech. At the opposite pole stands the 
Lithuanian, which is the most synthetic—that is, 
retains more of the original inflectional system 
than any other living Aryan language. On this 
fact was built Latham's theory that the primeval 
home of the Aryan peoples may have been situated 
somewhere about the S.E. shores of the Baltic Sea. 

Arzamass, or Arsamass, a town in the govern¬ 
ment of Nijni-Novgorod, Russia, on a tributary of 
the Volga. Two fairs are held there yearly, con¬ 
siderable business being done in sheep-skins and 
sail-cloth. There are also iron-foundries, dye- 
works, and factories for soap and leather. 

Arzew (anc. ArsenariaX), a seaport in Algeria, 
.26 miles from Oran. It exports a large quantity 
of grains, and has salt-works. Many Roman 
remains are found in the neighbourhood. 

As, a weight of 12 ounces, the same as a pound 
or libra, in use in ancient Rome. It was divided 
into 12 ounces or uncice. The coin is said to have 
weighed 12 ounces in the time of Tullus Hostilius 
(q.v.), but it was eventually reduced to only half an 
ounce. It was stamped with the two-faced Janus 
on one side and with a ship’s prow on the other. 

Asafoetida, a fetid gum-resin produced by 
Ferula Narthex, F. Scoroclosma, and allied species, 
natives of Persia and Afghanistan, belonging to 
the order Umbellifera?, used in Indian cookery, and 
reputed to have stimulant properties. 

Asaph, a Hebrew musician of the tribe of Levi, 
who was a contemporary of David, and either com¬ 
posed or set to music several of the Psalms. 

Asaph, St., a town in Flintshire, North Wales, 
20 miles from Chester. The name of the place 
was originally Llan-Elvy, but a British saint, who 
was abbot of the monastery, and perhaps bishop, 
in the sixth century, changed its appellation. It 
has certainly been for about 800 years the seat of 
a bishopric, and possesses a handsome episcopal 
palace. The cathedral is a plain structure (1472- 
1495), and was restored in 1875 by Sir G. Scott. 

Asaphidse, a family of Upper Cambrian and 


Silurian Trilobites of which Asaphus is the type 
genus. 

Asarabacca, Asa/rum europccum, a British 
representative of the Aristolochiacece, with broadly 



1, Flower, with one segment of calyx removed ; 2, ovary ; 

3, section of ditto; 4, stamen. 

kidney-shaped leaves and brown flowers, formerly 
in repute among herbalists as an emetic. 

Asbestos (Greek, unconsumable ), a fibrous form 
of hornblende, a silicate of magnesium, aluminium, 
and iron; white, grey, or green in colour, with a 
silky lustre, in flexible threads, sometimes over a 
yard long. It is not fused by ordinary flame, and 
lias been woven into fireproof fabrics; but is now 
mainly used for packing pistons, fireproof safes, and 
steam-pipes, and for gas-stoves. It is found in ser¬ 
pentine, in Anglesea and Cornwall; but the finer, 
longer form, known as Amianthus, is obtained from 
the Alps, Pyrenees, Urals, New South Wales, etc. 
Mountain leather, mountain corh, and mountain 
mood are brown, felted varieties. 

Asbjornsen, Peter Christian, a Danish 
zoologist and investigator of folk-lore, was born in 
1812. He was so poor that he was long in graduating 
at the University of Christiania. He worked in con¬ 
junction with Pastor Jorgen Moe amongst the 
peasantry, collecting tales and legends, which were 
published in 1838-42-45, and met with great 
success. He next devoted himself to marine 
zoology, and made valuable discoveries. In 1856 
he became forest inspector, and much advanced 
the peat industry. He retired in 1876, and pub¬ 
lished a complete and illustrated edition of the 
JVorshe Folke-og Huldre-Fventyr in 1879. He also 
wrote many original stories for children in the style 
of Hans Christian Andersen. He died in 1885. 

Asbury, Francis, born in Staffordshire in 
1745. He came under the influence of John Wesley, 
who sent him to North America as a missionary in 
1770. He became in 1784 first bishop of the newly 
organised Methodist Church in the United States, 
and died in Virginia in 1816. 

Ascaris, and especially A. lumbricoides, the 
common round worm, a convenient type of Nema- 
toda. It has a cylindrical body tapering at both 
ends; at the anterior is the small head with a 
triangular mouth. This leads to a muscular oeso¬ 
phagus, continued backwards as a wide tube ; this 









Ascension. 


( 21G ) 


Ascham. 


opens at the anus slightly in front of the posterior 
end of the body. The nervous system consists of a 
ring round the mouth, and six cords running back 
through the body. There is neither heart nor 
vascular system. The full course of development 
is unknown. The ova are expelled from the body, and 
after being hatched the embryos gain admittance 
to the alimentary canal of their future host. They 
usually remain in the small intestine, but they may 
enter the stomach and escape through the mouth 
or perforate the walls of the intestine and even of 
the abdomen, and cause abscesses. The female is 
ten to fourteen inches, and the male four to six 
inches long. The A scar is lumbricoides is one of 
the commonest internal parasites in man. Children 
are more commonly affected than adults, but it is 
uncertain in what manner the worm is originally 
introduced into the alimentary canal. The female 
worm produces a large number of eggs, but these 
do not develop in the human body, indeed, as a 
rule, there is no suspicion that anything is wrong 
with the child that harbours an ascaris, until the 
worm is expelled. All sorts of symptoms have been 
ascribed to the presence of ascarides, but as far as 
the round worm is concerned these are most un¬ 
reliable. As a rule the ascaris occurs singly, but 
in some cases a large number may be present and 
may call for the administration of vermifuge 
remedies. Of these santonin is the drug recom¬ 
mended for the expulsion of round worms. 

Ascension, a small volcanic island in the 
Atlantic (lat. 7° 55' N., long. 14° 25' W.), 800 miles 
north-west of St. Helena, 960 miles from Africa, and 
belonging to Great Britain. It owes its name to 
the fact that it was discovered by John de Nova on 
Ascension Day, 1502. It was occupied by the 
British when Napoleon was sent to St. Helena in 
1815, and has since served as a coaling station and 
victualling place for the navy, and as a sanatorium 
for invalids from the west coast of Africa. Its 
length is eight miles, and its average breadth six 
miles, and the central peak rises to a height of 
2,870 feet. Scarcely a blade of verdure exists save 
on Green Mountain and in the gardens kept up by 
the small staff of officials, sailors, and marines, but 
pepper and castor-oil trees, tomatoes, and Cape 
gooseberries are said to be indigenous. Turtles are 
plentiful, and deposit their eggs on the shore, as do 
myriads of sea birds. The governor, a naval officer 
appointed by the Admiralty, has absolute authority 
as on board a man-of-war. Georgetown is the name 
of the little settlement. 

Ascension Day, sometimes called Holy Thurs¬ 
day , the fortieth day after Easter, on which is 
commemorated by the Church the ascension of 
Christ into heaven. 

Ascension, Bight, one of the arcs required 
to express the position of a heavenly body in the 
celestial sphere. It corresponds to the longitude 
of a place on the earth’s surface, and with a know¬ 
ledge of the declination, which corresponds to 
latitude, the exact position of the body is deter¬ 
minate. Just as terrestrial longitude requires 
some fixed meridian, such as that through Green¬ 
wich, as a standard from which to measure the 


position of other meridians, so must there be a fixed 
declination circle or meridian in the heavens, from 
which the right ascension of any star shall be 
measured. The point on the celestial equator 
through which this standard declination circle 
passes is known as the first point in Aries. Bight 
ascension may be expressed as an angle in degrees, 
minutes, and seconds, or as the sidereal time taken 
for the object to culminate, reckoned from the in¬ 
stant the first point in Aries traverses the meridian. 
[Declination.] 

Ascetic (Gk. ashesis, exercise). A term properly 
signifying one who is in training for a race, and 
therefore abstains from certain foods, etc. It was 
adopted by the early Christians to signify absti¬ 
nence from food, wine, marriage, etc., in order to 
“mortify the flesh” and lead a stricter spiritual life. 
[Hermit.] Monastic orders (e.y. the Trappists and 
Carthusians) have often practised asceticism, such 
as abstinence from animal food or even from ordi¬ 
nary conversation. The word is now applied loosely 
to all devotees who voluntarily undergo bodily 
suffering, either to gain the favour of a Divine 
Being or Beings, or (more frequently) to free 
themselves from the temptations of the flesh. 
[Buddhism.] 

AschafFenburg (anc. Hercynid), a fortified 
town in the district of Unterfranken, Bavaria, 
Germany, on the river Main, 24 miles from Frank¬ 
fort. The cathedral, a fine building, dates from 
the tenth, and the Castle of Johannesberg from 
the seventeenth century. There are a Lyceum, 
royal library, Capuchin monastery, and a Catholic 
foundation called the “ Insignis Collegiata,” or 
“ Stiftskirche.” Some shipbuilding is carried on, 
and there are manufactories of paper, woollens, 
straw-plaiting, and tobacco. It has a station on 
the Bavarian State Bailwav. 

Ascham, Boger, was born at Kirkby Wiske in 
Yorkshire in 1515 A.D. At St. John’s College, 
Cambridge, he took to Greek and Lutheranism, but 
in spite of these drawbacks got a fellowship, 
became public orator, and was appointed tutor 
first to Prince Edward and then to Princess 
Elizabeth. In 1544 he wrote his Toxophilus the 
Schoolmaster, or Partitions of Shooting, a curious 
and interesting treatise on the history and practice 
of archery. He spent three years in Germany 
(1550-2) as secretary to the English Ambassador 
at the court of Charles V., and returned to act as 
Latin secretary to King Edward, on whose death 
he contrived to keep his post under Mary, and at 
the accession of Elizabeth became reader to the 
Queen as well. Though his life was thus spent at 
Court he appears to have preserved an independent 
spirit, never soliciting favours. However, he 
received a prebendary stall in York Cathedral in 
1559. Four years later he wrote his Schoolmaster , 
in which he explained his educational method— 
summed up in the words docendo clisces. The 
work was not published till after his death. His 
health began to fail when he was fifty, and it is 
stated that he impaired his fortune by gambling 
and cock-fighting. He died of ague in 1568, to the 
genuine grief of Elizabeth. 







Aschersleben. 


( 217 ) 


Asgill. 


Aschersleben, a town in the district of 
Magdeburg, Prussia, between the rivers Eine and 
Wipper. The ruins of Ascania, the ancestral seat 
of the Anhalt family, are not far distant. Friezes, 
flannels, and sugar are made here. 

Ascidiacea, the order of Tunicata, including 
the sessile and the compound free-swimming forms. 
It includes three sub-orders, the ascidiae simplices, 
composite, and salpaeformes. 

Ascidian, the Sea Squirt, is a good type of the 
class Virochorda, the lowest division of the great 
phyllum Chordata. The body is sac-like, and 
consists of two tunics perforated by a mouth and 
an “atrial pore.” The former leads to a large 
pharynx or branchial sac; this is lined by a net¬ 
work of longitudinal and transverse vessels. This 
network is respiratory in function, as water can 
pass through the pores (stigmata) between the 



vessels to the atrium; this is a cavity that nearly 
surrounds the pharynx, and it communicates to the 
exterior by the atrial pore. The alimentary 
system consists of an oesophagus leading from the 
pharynx to the stomach and intestine; the latter 
opens to the atrium. The single nerve ganglion is 
between the mouth and atrial pore, and beneath it 
a ciliated groove, the endostyle (q.v.), runs along the 
ventral edge of the pharynx; it is the relation of 
the nerve system and endostyle that gives the 
ascidian its vertebrate affinities. This is especially 
well shown in the embryo and such forms as 
Appendicularia. 

Ascidiozooid, one of the separate individuals 
of a compound Ascidian. 

Ascites, the condition in which a collection of 
fluid is formed in the peritoneal cavity. Ascites 
may form part of a general dropsy [Dropsy] or it 
may exist by itself. In the latter case it is due 
either to disease of the peritoneum (inflammation 
or morbid growth), or to obstruction to the portal 
circulation, the most common cause of which is 
cirrhosis of the liver (q.v.). Ascites may be simu¬ 
lated by several other conditions, from which it 
has to be distinguished by careful examination. 
The amount of fluid which collects may in extreme 
cases amount to several gallons; the pressure 
exerted in such a condition gives rise to numerous 
distressing symptoms, the most noteworthy of which 
is shortness of breath. To relieve such a state of 
things the peritoneal cavity is tapped, that is to 
say, the operation oi paracentesis abdominis is per¬ 
formed. 

Asclepiades, an eminent Greek physician 
settled at Rome in Cicero’s time. His leading 
doctrine (possibl}’ derived from Epicurus) was that 


all disease was due to an inharmonious distribu¬ 
tion of the atoms composing the body. He is said 
to have invented laryngotomy, and to have first 
distinguished acute and chronic disease. Fragments- 
of his writings are preserved. 

Ascoceratidse, a family of Nautiloidea. in 
which the body chamber occupies most of the 
ventral side of the sac-like, truncated shell. It 
occurs in the Silurian rocks of Europe and America. 
Ascoceras is the type genus. 

Ascoli (Lat. Asculum Picenum ), a town in the 
province of Ascoli Piceno, Italy, standing on the 
river Tronto, 15 miles from Teramo and 90 miles 
north-east of Rome. It occupies a strong position 
in a difficult country. It is the seat of a bishopric 
and contains a citadel, a cathedral, and the remains 
of an amphitheatre, with other Roman buildings. 
There is in the Capitanata another town of the 
name Ascoli di Satriano, the ancient Asculum 
Apulum, the scene of the victory of Pyrrhus 279 B.O. 

Ascomycetes, an important- group of the 
higher fungi, characterised by producing spores, 
generally eight together, in club-shaped cells known 
as asci. These asci are borne either in open cup¬ 
like apothecia or in nearl}--closed receptacles termed 
perithecia, the presence of these structures distin¬ 
guishing the subdivisions Diseomycetes and Pyreno- 
myeetes respectively. Peziza is a type of the former; 
ergot ( Claviceps ) of the latter. Some of the lichens 
belong to each subdivision. 

Asconidae, a family of calcareous sponges. 

Ascot, a heath in Berkshire lying just beyond 
the confines of Windsor park. Races were instituted 
here in 1711 by Queen Anne, and the meeting is 
still one of the most popular and fashionable of the 
summer season, being held a fortnight after the 
Derby. A large population has sprung up recently 
in the neighbourhood, owing to the dry, healthy 
climate and picturesque surroundings. 

Ascus, from the Greek asbbs, a leather bottle, 
the sporangium of the Ascomycetes (q.v.). 

Asellio, or Aselli, Gasparo, born in 1581, 
was a physician of Cremona, and afterwards 
professor of anatomy at Pavia. In vivisecting a 
dog his attention was called to the existence of the 
lacteal vessels, on which he wrote a treatise pub¬ 
lished in 1627, a year after his death. 

Asellus, the Water Slaters, a genus of fresh¬ 
water ISOPODA. 

Ases, the gods in Scandinavian mythology. 

Asexual Reproduction, that which is not 
the result of sexual intercourse ; it is the same as 
Agamogenesis. 

Asgard, in Scandinavian mythology, the place 
where the gods dwelt. 

Asgill, John, an eccentric personage, the date 
of whose birth is uncertain. He was called to the 
bar and in 1698 published two pamphlets on 
currency and registration of titles to land, in which 
he anticipates modern views in a remarkable 
manner. His next effort was directed to prove 













Ash. 


( 218 ) 


Ashby-de-la-Zouch. 


that physical death was due to want of faith, and 
he asserted that he should be translated to heaven 
without going through that unpleasant process. 
Going to Ireland he obtained practice, made some 
money, and married a daughter of Lord Kenmare. 
He was not allowed—though elected—to sit in the 
Irish Parliament, because his book was said to be 
blasphemous. He did take his seat for Bramber in 
the British House of Commons, but was afterwards 
expelled on the same ground. Being over head 
and ears in debt, he retired to the King’s Bench, 
then to the Mint, and lastly to the Fleet, where he 
spent thirty years writing pamphlets in apparent 
happiness. He died in 1738 at a very great age. 

Ash , the mineral residuum which is left when any 
organic substance is burnt with free access of air. 
The amount of ash thus obtained varies within very 
wide limits; in bone it may amount to 75 per cent. 
Phosphate of calcium, alkaline, chlorides, and 
carbonates, silica, and sesquioxide of iron are all 
characteristic ash-constituents. 

Ash ( Fraxinus excelsior'), a valuable British 
timber-tree belonging to the olive tribe. It has 
smooth, olive-grey bark, black buds, opposite pin¬ 
nate leaves of from seven to fifteen leaflets, flowers 



ash (Fraxinus excelsior ), showing leaf, buds, and fruit. 


without calyx or corolla, and an oblong-winged 
fruit. Its wood is more flexible than that of any 
other European tree, and is used for walking-sticks, 
spade-handles, the spokes and felloes of wheels, 
etc., though now largely superseded by the allied 
American F. amcricana. 

Ashantee, or Ashanti, a country in West Africa 
inland of the Gold Coast, and extending over 
some 70,000 square miles. Dense forests cover 
most of its surface, but round the villages clear¬ 
ings are made and abundant crops raised. The 


Assinie and the Volta are the two chief rivers, 
and alluvial gold is found rather plentifully in 
their beds. The government is in the hands of a 
king, but the local chiefs enjoy considerable in¬ 
dependence. Polygamy is practised on a large 
scale, and the sovereign has a body-guard of female 
warriors. Coomassie is the capital, and there are 
many smaller towns. From the early part of the 
century the British have frequently come into 
collision with the Ashantis, and driven them back 
from the coast. In 1873 the disputes arising out of 
the cession of the Dutch forts to the English 
Government reached such a head that Sir Garnet 
Wolseley was sent out with a large force. He pene¬ 
trated to Coomassie, burned the town, and forced 
King Kolfee to conclude a treaty and to pay an 
indemnity. Hostilities were threatened again in 
1881, but happily averted. The Ashantis belong 
to the same Tshi or Ots'i family which also com¬ 
prises the Wassaws, Tshiforos (Tufels), Safwhis, 
Gamans, Assins, Adansis, Akims, Akwapims, and 
others, collectively forming a distinct West African 
group, essentially forest people, of the true negro 
type, and speaking various dialects of the Tshi 
language. Traditionally the Ashanti came from 
Inta, an unknown region of the Sudan, and are by 
some writers described not as negroes, but as a very 
fine race, tall, well-made, with aquiline nose, and 
quite regular features. But this description applies 
only to the ruling class, probably Hamitic intruders 
from the north, who now constitute the hereditary 
aristocracy, and who have adopted the Negro Tshi 
language. Fetishism is an essential element of 
their religion, of which a chief feature is ancestry 
worship associated with human sacrifices. Hence 
the sanguinary “customs” at which hundreds of 
victims were immolated at the graves of departed 
kings and nobles. Since the British occupation 
these rites have ceased. The best work on the 
Ashanti nation is A. B. Ellis’s Tshi-speaJdng Peoples 
of the Gold Coast of West Africa (London, 1887). 

Ashburton, Alexander Baring, Baron, was 
born in 1774, being the son of Sir Francis Baring, a 
wealthy London merchant and financier, of German 
extraction. He succeeded to the baronetcy and 
headship of the firm in 1810, and entered Parlia¬ 
ment as a Whig, but at the passing of the Reform 
Bill he became a moderate Conservative. In 1834 
he joined Peel’s ministry as president of the Board 
of Trade, and on retiring from office next year was 
made a peer. In 1841 he was sent to America to 
settle boundary disputes with the United States, 
and concluded the Ashburton Treaty. He aban¬ 
doned Peel when that minister changed his views 
as to the corn-laws, and after the repeal he took no 
active part in politics. He died in 1848. 

Ashby-de-la-Zouch, a small market town in 
Leicestershire, 17 miles W. of Leicester on the 
Midland Railway. The name is derived from the 
Norman family of La Zouch. The scene of some of 
the most important incidents in Ivanlwe is laid 
here, and the ruins of Ashby Castle, where Mary 
Queen of Scots was immured, stand south of the 
town. The church of St. Helen is a fine structure 
and contains interesting monuments. The principal 








Ashdod. 


( 219 ) 


Ash Wednesday. 


manufacture is leather, but there are irou-smelting 
works, and factories for nail-making and hosiery. 

Ashdod (in N. T. Azotus), on the Mediterranean, 
21 miles S. of Jaffa, once a strongly fortified city 
•of the Philistines, and the seat of the worship of 
Dagon (Cp. 1 Sam. iii.). It was taken by the 
Assyrians 715 b.c., by the Egyptians in the next 
century, and destroyed by the Maccabees. It was 
rebuilt by the Romans, but is now a poor village. 

Ashehoh, a city in the province of Kirin, 
Central Manchuria, China. It is 30 miles S. of the 
river Soongari, and is the second city in the province, 
enjoying a considerable local trade. 

Ashen Keys, a name sometimes given to the 
dry, flat seed-vessels of the ash. When represented 
in heraldry they are known by this name. 

Ashen Pearl Shell (Pisidium cinerium ), a 
small bivalved shell common in English fresh waters. 

Asherah, a Hebrew word, incorrectly trans¬ 
lated “grove” in the Authorised Version of the 
Bible, but simply transliterated in the Revised Ver¬ 
sion. According to Prof. W. Robertson Smith, the 
Asherah must have been either a living tree or a 
tree-like post, and in all probability either form 
was originally admissible. It was undoubtedly an 
object of worship, and the prophets classed it with 
other sacred symbols (Isa. xvii. 8 ; Mic. v. 12, 13). 
He rejects the notion that there was a Canaanitish 
goddess of this name, and holds that in early times 
tree-worship prevailed to such an extent in Canaan 
that the sacred tree, or a pole representing it, was 
viewed as a symbol of Deity which might fittingly 
stand beside the altar of any god. 

Ashford. (1) A market town in Kent, 53 miles 
from London, on the river Stour. Since it has become 
a junction on the South-Eastern Railway for the 
lines to Ramsgate, Dover, and Hastings, the place 
has grown in importance, and the works of the 
eompany employ a large number of men. There is 
a handsome Gothic church and an old Grammar 
School. The cattle market is one of the largest in 
the county. (2) A town in Middlesex, 17 miles 
from London, and two miles from Staines, on the 
London and South-Western Railway. 

Ashlar (Low Latin, axillaris, plank-like, i.e. 
laid in courses), building stone squared and hewn 
(sometimes only applied to squared stone), in 
contrast to rubble and rough undressed stone. It 
is laid in regular courses, and classed as tooled , 
polished , or rustic ashlar, according as the face of 
the stone is worked or left smooth or rough. 

Ashley, John, a musician of some note in the 
18th century. It was under his management that 
Haydn’s Creation was first performed in England. 

Ashley, Lord. [Shaftesbury.] 

Ashmole, Elias, astrologer, alchemist, and 
antiquary, was born at Lichfield in 161 i, and died 
in 1692. Tradescant, in whose house at Lam¬ 
beth he lodged, bequeathed him his museum, 
which Ashmole presented, together with his library, 
to the University of Oxford, where it still bears 
his name. He was made an honorary M.D. of the 


University in 1690. His chief works are Theatrum 
Ckemieum, 1652 ; Institutions of the Order of the 
Garter, 1672; Diary, 1717; and Antiquities of 
Berkshire, 1719. 

Ashmun, Jehudi, an American philanthropist, 
born in 1794. He was educated for the ministry, 
but taking an interest in the suppression of slavery, 
became secretary to the African Colonisation 
Society. In 1822 he went to Africa to establish 
the settlement of Liberia. He performed his task 
at the cost of his life, for he returned in 1828 to die 
in his native land. He received a public funeral. 

Ashtaroth, or Istar (Gr. Astarte ), a goddess 
whose worship prevailed amongst the Phoenicians 
in Syria and Africa. She is coupled with Baal, the 
sun-god, as being the moon-goddess. The Jews 
were more than once led astray into this idolatry, 
which they borrowed from the Sidonians (1 Kings 
xi. 5-53) ; Solomon built a temple to Ashtaroth on 
the Mount of Olives, and Jezebel, daughter of the 
King of Tyre (Judges ii. 13), celebrated her rites 
on a large scale. Josiah (2 Kings xxiii.) swept 
away her shrines, but at Aphac, on Mount Lebanon 
and elsewhere, this obscene cult was kept up until 
long after the Christian era. Greece and Rome 
adopted Ashtaroth under the name Astarte. 
Amongst the Greeks she was identified with Urania 
or the celestial Venus, but does not appear to have 
taken a strong hold upon the national mind in the 
best days of Greece. The Romans took more kindly 
to her worship, and Cicero identifies her with 
Venus, but others confounded her with Juno 
Ccelestis, or with Diana. In Egypt she was regarded 
as being one and the same with Isis, but was more 
probably identical with Hathor. St. Jerome and 
St. Augustin both refer to her filthy and lascivious 
rites. Sometimes her image takes the shape of the 
head of an ox with horns ; at other times she 
appears as a woman in man’s attire or as a woman 
standing on a lion. Milton refers to her several 
times ( Paradise Lost, i. 422 ; Paradise Regained, 
iii. 417 ; Ode JVativ. 200), and she is probably the 
“ queen of heaven ” mentioned by Jeremiah (vii. 
18; xliv. 17). 

Ashton-under-Lyne, a parliamentary bo¬ 
rough in Lancashire, about six miles E. of Man¬ 
chester, on the N. bank of the river Tame. It 
returns one member. The borough is ancient, but 
its growth dates from the foundation of the Lan¬ 
cashire cotton mills in 1769. The proximity of 
coal fields enabled the power-loom to be early 
adopted. Yarns, ginghams, and calicoes are made 
here in large quantities. The town possesses many 
admirable public institutions and a fine park. 

Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, ob¬ 
served in the Western Church since the seventh 
century. The name comes from the custom of 
strewing consecrated ashes, derived from the palms 
of the previous Palm Sunday (q.v.), introduced 
probably by Gregory the Great (600 A.d.), sanctioned 
by Pope Celestin III. in 1191, and still maintained 
by the Roman Church. In the Anglican services 
the day is usually marked by the Commination 
Service (q.v.). The German Protestants and the 
Eastern Church do not specially observe the day. 








Asia. 


( 220 ) 


Asia. 


Asia, the largest continent of the world. It 
contains about 17£ million square miles, and exceeds 
by about one million square miles the New World, 
falling short to about the same extent of the col¬ 
lective area of the other great divisions of the 
Old World, viz. Europe, Africa, and Australasia. 
Europe and Africa are indeed from a geographical 
point of view appendages of Asia, while geologically 
the large and impoi’tant group of islands extending 
from Sumatra to Australia are connected with the 
south-eastern seaboard of Asia. On three sides 
Asia is bounded by oceans; by the Arctic on the 
north, by the Pacific on the east, and by the Indian 
on the south. At its extreme north-eastern point 
Asia is separated by a strait barely 36 miles wide 
from the westernmost promontory of the New 
World. From Cape Romania, the extreme point of 
the Malay peninsula, to Cape Chelyuskin, which 
juts into the Arctic Sea, it is about 5,300 miles, 
and from the narrow waterway of the Suez Canal 
to Behring’s Straits is about 6,700 miles. The 
general configuration of the continent is that of a 
rough quadrangle facing towards the four points of 
the compass, but broken on the south by the 
Arabian, Indian, and Malayan peninsulas, three 
promontories which offer a curious analogy to the 
three corresponding peninsulas of Southern Europe, 
viz. Spain, Italy, and Greece. 

The islands of Asia, beginning from the east, 
are Sakhalin, Japan, where the climate is agreeably 
modified by the Kuro Siwo, the eastern counter¬ 
part of the Gulf Stream ; the smaller group of the 
Liu-Kiu islands, which have long formed a subject 
of contention between Japan and China ; Formosa, 
whence the transition through the Batanes and 
Babuyan groups to the Philippines is easy. Formosa, 
crossed by the Tropic of Cancer, stands on the verge 
of the torrid and temperate zones, and marks the 
extreme northern extension of the Malay, which 
here meets the Chinese race. Beyond one passes 
with the Philippines into Australasia proper, and 
the Malayan archipelago, through which the south¬ 
eastern extremity of Asia merges into the Australian 
continent. Modern scientific research has indicated 
a line of physical separation along the channel 
between Borneo and the Celebes, called the Straits 
of Macassar, to the west of which the flora and 
fauna are essentially Asiatic in their type, while to 
the south and east the Australian element begins 
to be distinctly marked. This is called Wallace’s 
boundary, after the distinguished naturalist whose 
investigations established this physical conclusion. 

The entire northern confines of the continent are 
occupied by a broad belt of lowland marshes called 
tundras, which are fast frozen for some nine months 
in the year, and over which the Samoyedes hunt 
and fish. Hither in the short summer the reindeer 
comes to crop the mosses—the only vegetation in 
this rigorous climate A few hundred miles to 
the south the tundras give place to the rising ground 
and highlands of Southern Siberia. The whole of 
the interior consists of the loftiest and most exten¬ 
sive table-land in the world, with a height ranging 
up to 15,000 ft., and traversed by the mighty 
mountain ranges of Himalaya, Hindu Kush, Kuen 
Lun, Tian Shan, and Altai. This table-land widens 


out to the east, but towards the west four of the 
mountain chains converge towards a central knot, 
the Pamir or Roof of the World. A western ex¬ 
tension of the same table-land is formed by the 
Iranian plateau, which stretches through Afghanis¬ 
tan, Baluchistan, and Persia, and even as far as 
Asia Minor and Mount Lebanon. This great 
plateau has several well defined divisions, such as 
the Tibetan highlands, the loftiest of all, buttressed 
by the Himalayas, and the Kuen Lun, the Pamir 
already mentioned, the Tsaidam depression north 
of Tibet, and the basin of the Tarim river which 
drains into Lob Nor at an altitude of about 2,000 
feet. This huge mountainous mass, between the 
65th and 100th meridian east of Greenwich, and 
the 28th and 35th degree of N. latitude, is the pre¬ 
dominant feature of the continent. Notwithstand¬ 
ing the marked differences within its area, the 
enormous extent and great mean elevation of the 
whole region are enough to give to the entire 
continent an average altitude of no less than 
1,600 feet, or about 600 feet more than Europe, and 
500 more than the estimate made by Humboldt on 
the data available early in the present century. 
While the interior of the continent presents evidence 
of increasing desiccation, around the seaboard a 
slow process of upheaval has been going on. On 
the north coast, islands which a hundred years ago 
stood at some distance from the land are now con¬ 
nected with it by rocky isthmuses, and similar 
tendencies have been observed at various points 
from the Black Sea in the west to Kamschatka in 
the east. 

Hydrography .—There are several distinct systems 
of inland drainage in Asia, such as the basin of 
the Tarim, which drains the vast plain of Eastern 
Turkistan, a region now occupied by an expanse of 
sandy desert fringed with oases dotted at intervals 
along its northern and southern confines, but 
formerly studded with populous cities and traversed 
by the historic route of the silk traders who 
trafficked between Cathay and the West. Other 
land-locked basins are the hamun or lake into 
which the Halmand conveys the drainage of 
Southern Afghanistan, the Dead Sea fed by the 
Jordan, and the Aral Sea, which receives the 
drainage of a vast area through the twin rivers 
Oxus (Amu-daria) and Jaxartes (Sir Daria). For¬ 
merly the basin of the Aral must have been of far 
greater extent, communicating with the Black Sea, 
the Caspian, and Arctic Ocean, and forming a vast 
Asiatic Mediterranean. Altogether the area of the 
interior catchment basins is estimated at about 
four million square miles, while Africa can boast of 
few besides the Chad and Ngami basins, and 
Europe and America have no such inland drainage. 
In large freshwater lakes Asia is singularly deficient, 
Lake Baikal being the only lake comparable to those 
of Central Africa and North America. 

The seaward drainage comprises some of the 
largest rivers of the world. The Obi and Yenisei 
rise south of the mountains fringing the Mongolian 
plateau, and with the Lena (which now rises on the 
outer slopes, though it seems to have been formerly 
connected with the Angara basin) discharge their 
waters into the Arctic Ocean. The Amur rises 





Asia. 


( 221 ) 


Asia. 


beyond the encircling range of the Mongolian 
tableland, and the head waters of the Hoang-ho 
and Yang-tse-kiang are found far inland on the 
crest of the Tibetan highlands. These three 
rivers flow to the Pacific. The southern rivers, 
the Mekong, Salwen, Irrawaddy, Brahmaputra or 
Sanpo, and Indus, rise behind the range of the 
Himalaya mountains, while the Ganges and Jumna 
rise on their outer slopes. In the extreme west of 
the continent the Tigris and Euphrates flow to the 


northern tundras are almost destitute of vegetation. 
In India, China, and the intermediate regions rice 
forms the staple food of many hundred millions of 
human beings, whereas the nomad Kirghiz and 
Kalmuck tribes of the Mongolian and Siberian 
steppes are limited almost entirely to an animal 
diet. The tea plant flourishes in Japan, China, and 
Assam, and within the last twenty years has made 
such progress in Assam, Ceylon, and on the 
Himalayan hills that the quantity exported thence 



MAP OF ASIA, SHOWING POLITICAL DIVISIONS. 


Persian Gulf, and the Araxis to the Caspian from 
the Armenian and Kurdistan highlands. The list 
of great Asiatic rivers is almost completed by the 
Kizil-Somak and Orontes in Asia Minor, and the 
Nerbudda, Godavari, and Kistna of peninsular 
India. 

The greater part of this vast continent is charac¬ 
terised by extremes of heat and cold and by great 
dryness. * In former times moisture was more 
abundant in Central Asia than at present. The 
Tarim basin was flooded by the Sihai or Western 
Sea, a vast expanse of water communicating through 
the so-called Dzungarian strait or depression with 
the still more extensive Han-hai. But while the 
inland plateaux and those of Persia and Arabia are 
among the driest, the great southern and south¬ 
eastern peninsulas are perhaps the wettest on the 
globe. 

Flora .—The extensive limits of the continent, 
which stretch from Cape Chelyuskin within twelve 
degrees of the North Pole to Cape Romania near 
the equator, embrace a great variety of animal 
and vegetable life. While the southern peninsulas 
abound in tropical and aromatic products, the 


to the United Kingdom exceeds the quantity 
brought from China. Coffee, which is supposed to 
be indigenous in Arabia, is cultivated in Ceylon 
and Southern India. Opium is largely grown in 
India and China, indigo and sugar flourish in the 
two eastern peninsulas, cinnamon in Assam and 
Ceylon, and aromatic plants in Arabia. Forest 
trees are found along the coast of the Euxine, 
Caucasia, the southern shore of the Caspian, the 
southern slopes of the Himalayas, Indo China, and 
South Siberia. Among the more useful species are 
the oak, walnut, pine, cedar, box, poplar, teak, 
bamboo, cocoanut, date palm, apricot, peach, and 
other fruit trees. 

Central Asia produces most of the European 
grains and tree fruits, oranges, lemons and grapes, 
melons of special excellence, peaches and apricots, 
the fig and olive, vines and nut trees, besides hemp 
and flax, the garden rose and many other cultivated 
flowering plants. From India the banana has 
spread out to all parts of the tropical world, with 
rice and the sugar cane, indigo, and several sorts of 
cotton ; it is also the home of several palms, the 
cocoa and the areca palm or betel nut ; it has the 

























































Asia. 


( 222 ) 


Asia. 


largest poppy fields, yielding opium (though the cul¬ 
tivation of the plant has enormously extended of late 
years in China), giant bamboos, ebony, teak (for 
ship building), and other durable and useful timber. 

The hilly region intermediate between China and 
North-Eastern India is probably the native home of 
the tea-plant; the East India islands and the Malay 
peninsula of spices, cinnamon, black pepper, and 
cloves, and of the guttapercha tree or ficus elastica . 

Fauna .—The uplands of Central Asia are the 
native land of the horse and the ass, of the ox and 
buffalo, the sheep and goat, from which the domes¬ 
ticated varieties appear to have derived their origin. 
Both varieties of the camel (the Arabian and Bak- 
trian, the single and double humped) are Asiatic. 
The yak with its coat of long hair is to the inhabi¬ 
tants of the highland of Tibet what the reindeer is 
to the tribes of the Northern Siberian plains, an 
important means of support and locomotion. Ante¬ 
lopes in vast numbers are also found on the Tibetan 
plateaux. The elephant, smaller, but more intelligent 
than the African variety, is a native of the tropical 
parts of Asia ; the lion of Southern Asia is smaller 
than that of Africa; the tiger is found in its greatest 
beauty and strength in the south-eastern parts of the 
continent, though it does occur as far north as 
the Altai ; bears are found in most parts, the white 
bear in the extreme north, and other formidable 
species in the more temperate parts, while those of 
the tropical region are harmless feeders on fruits 
and honey. Dogs are used by some of the Siberian 
tribes as sledge drawers ; others are fattened in 
China for food ; but in all Muhammadan Asia the 
dog is an unclean animal and prowls about as the 
scavenger of the towns and villages. 

Mongolia and the central plateaux adjoining pro¬ 
duce the argali, ovis poli, and other large wild sheep 
and goats, the Tibetan and Angora breeds being 
noted for the fineness of their fleeces. Farther 
northward are found the sable, civet, marten, blue 
and silver fox, and other valuable fur-bearing ani¬ 
mals, which are mercilessly hunted throughout 
Siberia and Manchuria. 

Tropical Asia abounds in monkeys, the largest 
being the orang-utan, the “wild man of the 
woods”of Borneo and Sumatra, while the gibbon is 
also found among others. Some are tailed, others, 
such as the orang, are tailless, but none have pre¬ 
hensile tails like the American monkeys. 

The domestic poultry of all parts of the world 
seem also to be derived from the numerous galli¬ 
naceous birds of Asia ; the pheasant takes its 
name from the Phasis river (the modern Rion, flow¬ 
ing to the Black Sea from the Caucasus), from the 
banks of which it was brought at an early period 
into Greece ; the splendid peacock is a native of 
the East Indies. 

Minerals. —Siberia, the flora and fauna of which 
are almost limited to its fine woods and fur-bearing 
animals, makes up for this deficiency by its mineral 
treasures ; it is the great mining region of Asia, 
yielding gold, silver and platinum, copper and lead, 
coal and graphite. India was formerly the home of 
the Golcondah diamonds, and now yields coal, iron, 
and salt ; the regions adjacent to the Caspian yield 
salt, and the mineral oil of Baku, whither the Ghebr 


fire worshippers formerly made pilgrimages. The 
oil is now used in place of coal for the steamers on 
the Caspian and the locomotives on the Trans- 
Caspian Railway, and a brisk export to India has 
sprung up. The Dead Sea also occasionally casts 
up large masses of asphaltum or bitumen, whence 
its ancient name of Lacus Asphaltites. 

Asia has given the rest of the world most of 
its domesticated animals and cultivated plants ; it 
has also been the centre in which the germs of 
religion and learning have been fostered, and 
whence these have spread outward. The three 
monotheistic religions which have taken the widest 
hold on the minds of men (Jewish, Christian, and 
Muhammadan) arose from the Semitic peoples of 
South-western Asia. The purest of these has become 
the religion of enlightened Europe, but in its native 
country it has been overshadowed by Muham¬ 
madanism, which prevails in all South-Western 
Asia, in Asiatic Turkey and Arabia, in Persia and 
Turkestan, and which has penetrated deeply into 
Hindustan, and among the Malays of the East Indies. 
The religion founded by Zoroaster of Baktria (the 
doctrine of the Magi of the ancient world), with its 
scriptures called the Zend-avesta, is interesting 
from its antiquity. Originally a pure monotheism, it 
passed afterwards into a belief in a conflict between 
the powers of good and evil, light and darkness, 
the former of which will ultimately triumph. The 
descendants of the votaries of this religion are 
known as the Ghebrs (Turkish Gldaur ), and are 
scattered here and there over Persia at the present 
day. A branch of them after many migrations 
found shelter in India in the sixteenth century, and 
as the Parsees (people of Pars or Fars) now form 
about 20 per cent, of the population of the neigh¬ 
bourhood of Bombay. 

In Hindustan, so far as Muhammadanism has not 
taken its place, the Brahminical religion (in several 
sects) prevails, and from it, based on the same 
philosophy, arose the religion of Buddha, which 
spread over Farther India, Tibet, China, and Japan, 
and which has far more numerous adherents than 
any other faith in the world. The Brahminical 
religion, a corrupted monotheism, has three prin¬ 
cipal gods—Brahma, the creator of the universe; 
Siva, the destroyer ; and Vishnu, the preserver. Its 
scriptures are the Vedas, probably the oldest 
literary documents in existence. The transmigra¬ 
tion of souls is an important part of this faith. 

Buddha, from whom the Buddhist faith sprang, 
was prince, in the 6th centurv, of a kingdom which 
lay on the borders of Nepal and Oudh, and for 
forty years he preached in Northern India, whence 
his teaching spread to China in the subsequent cen¬ 
turies. In Tibet it has taken a somewhat different 
form, known as Lamaism, which has much in 
common with Roman Catholicism in its observances, 
especially in regard to processions, rosaries, and" 
patron saints. In China the religion of Buddha 
now degenerates from its primitive purity, and, 
overladen with absurd dogmas and image-worship, 
keeps its place along with the systems of philosophy 
of Confucius and Lao-tze (Taoism). In Japan, 
also, Buddhism has been modified by contact with 
the much older faith in the gods, or Sintuism, the 







Asia. 


( 223 ) 


Asia. 


hierarchy of which is composed of the Mikado, or 
spiritual emperor, besides ecclesiastical judges, 
monks, and priests. 

Population. —Asia, supposed by some to be the 
cradle of the human race, is still the home of 
over half of the inhabitants of the globe. But the 
distribution is far from uniform. While the frozen 
tundra in the Arctic portion of the continent, the 
deserts of Gobi, and Eastern Turkestan are almost 
uninhabited, and Siberia, Tibet, Persia, and Arabia 
are mainly occupied by nomad tribes, the alluvial 
plains of the Ganges, Yang-tse-kiang, and Hoang- 
ho are among the most densely-peopled regions in 
the world. On the whole, the density of the popu¬ 
lation is in direct ratio to the abundance of the 
rainfall; and India, Indo-China, China, and Japan, 
which are directly exposed to the moist winds from 
the Indian and Pacific oceans, embrace over half 
of the human race. 

Political divisions .—While from a geographical 
point of view Europe may be described as a de¬ 
pendency of Asia, politically Asia may almost be 
regarded as a dependency of Europe, considering 
the influence and possessions of Russia and England. 
The continent may be divided into four political 
regions, which roughly correspond to the four main 
natural divisions, and even to the four predominant 
religious systems. The Russian possessions in the 
north have mainly an Arctic and inland drainage ; 
and here is the original home of Shamanism. In 
the west, still held by the two great Moslem Powers 
of Turkey and Persia, the drainage is chiefly to the 
Euxine, Mediterranean, and Persian Gulf. The 
southern or British division drains into the Indian 
Ocean, and here Brahmanism is the prevailing 
belief; while the Buddhist world, occupying the 
eastern region, and comprising the Chinese Empire, 
Japan, and most of Farther India, drain mainly 
into the Pacific Ocean. 

Inhabitants .—Asia is certainly the cradle of the 
Mongolic, and most probably also of the Caucasic 
division of mankind. Apart from the dark negritos 
of the Malay peninsula and the Deccan, who may 
be regarded as intruders from the Oceanic region 
(Eastern Archipelago), the whole continent has 
been occupied since neolithic times exclusively by 
these two stocks—Mongols chiefly in the north, 
east, and centre, Caucasians chiefly in the south¬ 
west. The ethnological parting line may have 
originally corresponded roughly with the western 
section of the main axis, running through the 
Caucasus and North Iranian escarpments to the 
Hindu-Kush and Pamir plateau. The primeval 
home of the Caucasic division would thus have 
been restricted to the Iranian table-land and the 
peninsulas of Arabia and Asia Minor, all the rest 
of the continent comprising the Mongolic division. 
But already before the dawn of history this parting 
line had been overlapped at several points, and 
from the earliest times Mongols, such as the 
Babylonian Accads, are found encroaching on the 
Caucasic domain, and Caucasians, such as the 
Aryan Hindus, encroaching on the Mongolic domain. 
Such migratory movements and interminglings have 
continued throughout the historic period mainly to 
the advantage of the Mongols, who have occupied 


most of Asia Minor and considerable portions of the 
Caucasus and Irania (North and Central Persia and 
North Afghanistan). The Caucasian gain is chiefly 
represented by the recent political ascendency of 
the Aryans (Russians, English, and French) in the 
north and south, and by the stream of Russian 
migration which has overflowed into central Asia, 
Siberia, and the Amur valley. 

At present the Mongolic division comprises two 
main branches:— 1. The Indo-Chinese, all of 
whom speak languages of the isolating or absolutely 
uninflectional type wrongly called “ monosyllabic.” 
Their chief sub-groups are the Bod-pa (Tibetans) 
of Tibet and South Himalayan slopes; the Burmese, 
Kalihyen (Chins) and Karens of the Irawady and 
Salwen basin, Arakan and Tenasserim; the Tail 
(Siamese, Shans, or Laos) of the Menam basin, 
middle Mekhongand south-west Chinese frontier; the- 
Sinico-Anamitic (Chinese, Tonkinese, and Cochin- 
Chinese, collectively Anamese) ; the Mon (Talaings^ 
or Peguans) of the Salwen and Irawady deltas 
the Nay as, Kliasi, and others of the South Assamese 
hills. 2. The Mongolo-Tatars (Ural-Altaic 
family), all of whom speak languages of the- 
agglutinating or loosely inflectional type derived 
from one primitive stock-language. Their chief 
sub-groups are the Mongols jrroper (Khalkas of 
East and Kalmucks of West Mongolia); the Turki 
or Tatar peoples ; Yakuts of the Lena basin ; Kir¬ 
ghiz of the south-west Siberian steppes ; Usbegs of 
Khiva, Bokhara, and North Afghanistan ; Turko¬ 
mans of Turkestan, North Persia, East Caucasia, 
and Asia Minor ; the Tunyus (Tungus proper of 
Central and East Siberia), Manchus of Manchuria 
the Samoyed, Chuhchi, O sty alt, Woyul, and other 
nomad tribes of North and West Siberia. Outlying 
and more or less aberrant branches of the Mongolic 
division are the Coreans and Japanese with the 
Liu-kiu islanders in the extreme east; the Dravidians 
of Southern India (Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, and 
others); the Cambojans, Chains, and Malays, of 
Indo-China and Malay Peninsula. 

The Caucasic division comprises three main 
branches:— 1. The Eastern Aryans (Hindus of 
India, Galchas of the Pamir and both slopes of the 
Hindu-Kush), Afghans and Baluchi of East Irania, 
Persians, Kurds, Armenians, and Ossetians, of West 
Irania, Armenia, and Central Caucasus, Hellenes or 
Greeks of the Anatolian seaboard. 2. The Semites, 
now mainly represented by the Arabs of Arabia, 
Mesopotamia, and East Syria, the Arab-speaking 
Syrians, Druses, Maronites of West Syria; the 
Arab-speaking “ Chaldeans” of the Tigris basin and 
Lake Urmiah; and the Jews, chiefly in Syria, 
Palestine, and Arabia. 3. The Caucasians proper, 
of the Caucasus, all speaking highly agglutinating 
tongues, which belong to several stock languages. 
Their chief sub-groups are the Kartlivelians or 
Southern Caucasians (Georgians, Svanetians, 
Mingrelians, Lazes); the Cherkesses (Circassians), 
and Abkhasians of West Caucasus, who since the 
Russian conquest have mostly retired to Turkey; 
the Lesghians, Chechenzes and others of Daghistan 
or East Caucasus; the Kabardians of Central 
Caucasus. An aberrant Caucasic group would 
appear to be the Ainos of Yesso and the Kurile- 






Asia Minor. 


( 224 ) 


Asmodeus. 


Islands. For details see articles Aryans, Caucas¬ 
ians, Drayidians, Monyuls, Semites, Turks, Tatars, 
and special entries. 

Asia Minor, the name given since the tenth 
century a.d. to the portion of Asia which projects 
westward into the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas, 
and is only separated from Europe by the narrow 
channels of the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles. 
The eastern boundary of this peninsula can only 
be defined by a line drawn from the Gulf of Scan- 
deroon northwards to a point just east of Trebizond 
on the Black Sea. The area thus cut off is about 
equal to that of France. It resembles Spain in 
physical characteristics, consisting of a great inland 
plateau with an elevation of 2,000 feet or more 
above the sea, and fringed by a narrow strip of low- 
lying coast. This table-land is broken up into 
basins by great mountain ranges, and one of these 
basins, having no outlet to the sea, drains into an 
extensive series of shallow lakes stretching from 
Phrygia through Lycaonia into Cappadocia. The 
mountain system comprises the Taurus, Anti-Taurus, 
Erjish-dagh (Argreus), Sultan-dagh, Emir-dagh, 
Baba-dagh (Cadmus), Demirji-dagh, Ak-dagh, 
Kaz-dagh (Gargarus), and Olympus. The rivers 
are of historical rather than geographical import¬ 
ance. The Euphrates skirts the eastern border, and 
amongst others the Kizil-Irmak (Halys), the 
Sakaria (Sangarus), the Khoja-Tchai (Granicus), 
the Scamander, the Bakyr-Tchai (Caicus), the 
Pactolus, the Bojuk and Kutchuk Mender (Great 
and Little Meander), the Xanthus, the Gerenis- 
Tchai, the Gok-Su, and the Sihon and Jihon are the 
most remarkable. The Lakes of Nicma (Isnic-Gol), 
Apollonia, and Miletopolis with the Lycaonian salt 
lagoons above-mentioned, are the most extensive. 
The climate offers wide variations from the dry, 
bracing, cold air of the central uplands to the damp, 
hot, and often malarious atmosphere of the littoral. 
Almost every vegetable product can be raised except 
such as the date-palm and other trees and plants 
needing tropical heat. The cherry and apricot are 
supposed to have been imported hence into Europe. 
The lions, tigers, and leopards of ancient times are 
extinct, but wolves, bears, foxes, and wild boars are 
plentiful, and many varieties of the deer tribe are 
to be found. The long-fibred fleeces of the sheep and 
goats have been valuable from antiquity. Camels 
and buffaloes, though numerous, are of recent intro¬ 
duction. Old geographers divided the peninsula 
into 1. Pontus ; 2. Paphlagonia ; 3. Bithynia ; 
4. Mysia; 5. Lydia ; 6. Caria ; 7. Lycia ; 8. Pam- 
phylia ; 9. Cilicia ; 10. Pisidia ; 11.' Phrygia ; 12. 
Galatia; 13. Cappadocia ; 14. Lycaonia andlsauria. 
The history, limits, and ethnographical character¬ 
istics of each division will be treated under the 
separate heads. Greeks early established them¬ 
selves on the coasts. Lydia for a time held a wide 
supremacy. Persia from 546 to 333 B.c. nominally 
governed the various subject races. The Seleucid 
dynasty of Syria held sway for a brief period, and 
the kings of Pergamus and Pontus erected separate 
monarchies, but all were virtually merged in the 
Roman Empire at the accession of Augustus. A 
long spell of prosperity then succeeded, which was 


broken by the incursions of the Seljukian Turks in 
the eleventh century. The Crusaders broke this 
power, and the Byzantine Emperors controlled the 
northern and maritime districts until, in the 15th 
century, the Ottoman Turks swept away the last 
vestiges of Greek domination, and still hold what 
they conquered, though Russia is gradually en¬ 
croaching on the shores of the Black Sea. 

Asiatic Society, Royal, a society formed for 
investigating the literature, arts, and science of Asia. 

Asiphonida, those bivalved mollusca (Lamel- 
libranchiata) without, or with only imperfectly 
developed, respiratory siphons. [Anojdon.] 

Asirgarh, or Hassir, a fort and town at the 
edge of the Satpura range, in the Bombay presi¬ 
dency of British India, 15 miles N. of Burhampur. 
The fort occupies a strong position on a hill above 
the town. It was captured by the British in 1803, 
and again in 1819, since which time it has been in 
their possession. 

Askalon, Ascalon, or Askulan, a town of 
Palestine on the coast of the Mediterranean, 14 
miles north of Gaza. It was one of the five chief 
cities of the Philistines (Judges i. ii.), and is sup¬ 
posed to have been colonised from Tyre. The Jews 
ultimately became possessed of it, and Herod made 
it the second city of his kingdom. The temple of 
Derceto was a remarkable feature of the place. 
The Crusaders won a great victory here in 1099, 
but in 1270 the Saracens destroyed the fortifications, 
and Askalon is now a heap of disjointed masonry. 

Askern, a village in the West Riding of York¬ 
shire, about six miles from Doncaster on the Great 
Northern Railway, frequented by many visitors for 
the sake of its mineral springs. 

Askew, or Ascue, Anne, the daughter of Sir 
William Askew, of Kelsay, Lincolnshire, was born 
in 1529. She seems to have been an accomplished 
and pious woman, and was married early to one 
Kyme, whom she disliked. Her husband treated 
her with cruelty, and finally turned her out of doors 
because she read the Bible and was inclined to 
adopt the principles of the Reformation. Anne 
went to London with a view to getting a separation, 
but the unhappy woman was imprisoned in New¬ 
gate, tortured hideously by Lord Chancellor 
Wriothesley and Sir R. Rich, and at last (1546) 
burnt for a heretic in Smithfield. She behaved 
with the utmost firmness and gentleness to the last. 

Askja (Icel. basket), the largest volcano in 
Iceland, near the centre of the island, with a vast 
crater 17 miles round and 23 square miles in area, 
containing a hot-water lake five miles round. Its 
height is 4,633 feet above sea. It first attracted 
general attention during a great eruption in 1875. 
There are, however, traces of many earlier eruptions. 

Asmodeus, or Ashmedai (Heb. the destroyer), 
a demon created by Jewish superstition and per- ' 
petuated in Le Sage’s romance Le Liable Boiteux, 

“ Th e Devil on Two Sticks.” According to the Tal¬ 
mud he was the offspring of an incestuous alliance 
between Tubal Cain and Noema, and drove Solomon 
out of his kingdom, but was overcome and enslaved 









40 



•rtnq 


Ax'**" 

\%y« er ' 








]<n iir 


Below Sea Lex-el 
Sea Level —1,000 feet / 
1000 - 2,000 „ / 
2000 - 5,000 „ L. 
5000 -10,000 „ 
Above 10,000 ,, [ 


Palis* 


r -*as-/ 
lo P<L/,e 


lr%gja R 


Oreal B iL 




SLili.inaJi 


! >nubay 4 |^. 


PHYSICAL MAP 

ASIA 


aai) dll 


l 5 t)uUUS 

of TSr a 




Ten Dtijree. 


Dears* fh,o,\ 


Ce yl° w 

LdrAtaD "^ 1 


' air of En^lisk 




J)ondj' 


C.ttamani a. 













































Asoca. 


( 225 ) 


Asphyxia. 


by that king, who forced him to work in the build- 
hig of the temple. He appears in the Book of 
Tobit (in the Apociwpha) as the king of devils, and 
the lover o£ Sara, daughter of Raguel, and he killed 
seven of her husbands on their bridal nights, 
lobias (Milton’s Paradise Lost, iv.) drove him by a 
charm into Egypt, where he was caught and bound. 
\ anity and dress were his especial province. He is 
perhaps identical with the Persian sEsluua Peer a. 

Asoca, an Indian tree frequently mentioned in 
Indian poetry, belonging to the order Leguminosse; 
the flowers are of a rich orange colour. It is some¬ 
times called Aslioca. 

Asoka, the king of Beliar or Magadha in India, 
who, coming to the throne in 264 B.C., became an 
ardent Buddhist, and in 244 convened the third 
great council of that creed at Patna. His edicts 
engraved on stone columns or rocks are still to be 
met with all over the north of India. His grand¬ 
father was the Sandrocottus of Alexander’s time. 

Asopus (mod. Asojw), a river of Boeotia in 
ancient Greece. Taking its rise in Mount Citlueron 
it crossed the territory of Plataea and emptied itself 
into the Euboean Sea opposite Eretria. 

Asp, a word derived from the Greek, and often 
used in classic and English literature in the general 
sense of “venomous serpent.” The asp which 
Cleopatra made the instrument of her suicide was 
probably the horned viper ( Yipera cerastes'). The 
asp of Scripture cannot be identified with certainty, 
but as the same Hebrew word which is elsewhere 
translated “ asp,” is in Ps. lviii. 4 translated 
“ deaf-adder,” the context of this passage (“which 
will not hearken to the voice of charmers ”) 
has been thought to refer to Nag a haje, closely 
allied to the cobra (q.v.), and used by Egyptian 
snake-charmers in their performances to the pre¬ 
sent day. The name is sometimes applied to 
Yipera aspis, a European viper, more venomous 
than the English species. [Viper.] 

Asparagus, the young annual leafy shoots of 
the Liliaceous Asparagus officinalis, a native of our 
coasts, cultivated since Roman times, is now in 
enormous request, and is largely imported. The 
fully-grown plant is much branched, bearing its 
minute flowers and round scarlet fruits on little 
twig-like green branches. Several species are 
cultivated for the sake of this feathery spray. There 
are various uses to which asparagus is put, but it is 
most generally employed as a vegetable. 

Aspasia, a beautiful and intellectual courtesan 
(1 let air a) of Greece, was born at Miletus, and coming 
to Athens at the most brilliant period of Attic his¬ 
tory set up a school of rhetoric. Her house was 
frequented by all the greatest men of the day. 
Socrates, Pericles, and Alcibiades were among her 
many guests, and for her sake Pericles abandoned 
his lawful wife, and pleaded her cause before the 
Areopagites when she was accused of impiety. 
She is said to have greatly influenced his policy. 
After his death in 429 b.c. she transferred her 
affections to Lysicles, a cattle-dealer, and raised 
him by her advice and interest to a high position in 
the State. 

15 


Aspen (Populus tremula), one of the poplars, 
native to the northern part of the Old World, is a 
tree with furrow r ed bark; branches somewhat 



BRANCn OF ASPEN (PopuhlS tmiiula ) WITH CATKIN. 


pendulous ; downy, reddish shoots; buds slightly 
viscid ; leaves on very long laterally-compressed 
stalks, constantly quivering in the wind; and 
flowers in large catkins. Its wood is soft and 
white, and is now largely used in paper-making. 

Aspergillum, the watering pot shell; it be¬ 
longs to the family GastrochyENID^e, and lives in 
sand on the shores of the Red Sea, Pacific, etc. 

Aspern, or Gross Asparst, a village in Austria, 
situated on the Danube, about five miles E.N.E. of 
Vienna. It was the scene of Napoleon’s defeat by 
the Austrians under the Archduke Charles in 1809. 

Asphalt, or mineral pitch, a natural mixture 
of carbon and its compounds, containing from 77 
to 88 per cent, of carbon, 7 to 9 per cent, of 
hydrogen, together with oxygen and some nitro¬ 
gen. It occurs in various countries, mostly tropical; 
and in different geological formations. It is black 
or brownish-black, and may be a viscid dull paste 
or a lustrous solid with a conchoidal fracture. In 
Trinidad it forms a lake of 99 acres, varying in 
solidity and giving off sulphuretted hydrogen. In 
the Val de Travers in the canton of Neufchatel it 
occurs under the form known as asphalt-stone, a 
limestone impregnated with bituminous matter. It 
is largely used for pavements and in preparing 
roofing-felts. 

Asphodel, a name applied either to the lily¬ 
like genus Aspliodelus, many of which are cultivated 
for their flowers, or to the British NaHliecium, 
ossifragum , a member of the Rush tribe, with spikes 
of yellow, star-like blossoms, followed by orange- 
red fruits, growing in bogs and erroneously sup¬ 
posed to cause disease in the bones of sheep. In 
Greek mythology, an “asphodel meadow” is the 
home of the blest after death. 

Asphyxia. When the due aeration of the 
blood in the lungs by the processes of respiration 
is interfered with, difficult respiration or dyspnoea 









( 22G ) 


Ass. 


Aspic. 


is the result, and if relief be not afforded death by 
asphyxia occurs. Asphyxia may arise from ob¬ 
struction in the respiratory passages, from paralysis 
of the muscles of respiration, or from some inter¬ 
ference with the supply of oxygen from the sur¬ 
rounding atmosphere. In the development of 
asphyxia three stages are described : in the first the 
movements of respiration become exaggerated and 
the increasingly venous character of the blood 
causes lividity of surface particularly noticeable in 
the lips and face; in the second stage general 
convulsions occur, and finally death is ushered in 
by the stage of exhaustion in which muscular 
movement is only manifested in an occasional 
sighing inspiration, while insensibility becomes 
complete. In the asphyxia of drowning all three 
stages are passed through in from two to five 
minutes; artificial respiration (q.v.) is, however, 
sometimes successful in effecting restoration many 
minutes after the apparently complete cessation of 
the vital functions. 

Aspic (Fr. aspic), a savoury meat jelly contain¬ 
ing fish, game, etc. The name may be derived 
from its coolness (Fr. aspic, asp), or from the spikes 
(Fr. spic) of lavender originally used to flavour it. 

Aspidobranchia, or Rhipidoglossa, the sub¬ 
order of Gastropoda, in which the lateral teeth 
of the tongue or radula are in fan-shaped series. 

Aspidochirotae, a sub-order of Sea Cucumbers 
including the common genus Holothuria. The 
group is characterised by the possession of peltate 
tubercles, tube feet, and respiratory trees. 

Aspinwall, or Colon, a seaport on the north 
coast of Panama in the United States of Colombia, 
Central America. It stands upon the coral island 
of Manzanilla, and was founded in 1850 as the 
eastern terminus of the Panama Railway, taking 
its name from the originator of the line. It is a 
busy and increasing town. The strip of land 
through which the line runs has since 1873 been 
proclaimed neutral territory 




Aspirate (Lat. adspiro, to breathe upon), a 
term applied to the sound of h, and of all letters or 


ASPLENIUM TRICHOMANES. 

(Showing (a) fronds with sori.) 


combinations of letters containing it, as the Greek 
phi, chi, and theta, or the English th. In Greek 
writing the initial Zt-sound is indicated by a 
special sign, the “ rough breathing,'’ to which the 
name is also applied. 

Asplenium, the Spleenworts, a genus of ferns, 
formerly reputed to be a remedy for the spleen. 
They are characterised by having their linear sori, 
or clusters of spore-fruits, along the veins on the 
backs of their fronds and covered with an elongated 
membrane attached by one side to the vein. 

Aspromonte, a mountain at the extreme south¬ 
west of Italy, overlooking the Messina Straits. Its 
summit is nearly 7,000 feet high. 

Aspro Potamo (anc. Achelous ), the largest 
river of Greece. It rises in Mount Kodjaka, near 
Janina, and flowing south falls into the Ionian Sea 
about 15 miles from Missolonghi after a course of 
nearly 100 miles. [Achelous.] 

Aspuzi, a town in the vilayet of Aleppo, 
Asiatic Turkey. It has a high and healthy position, 
which causes it to be resorted to in summer. 

Ass, any individual of the old genus Asinus , 
now merged in Eqwus. [Horse.] Asses are dis¬ 
tinguished from horses by their generally smaller 
size, long ears, upright mane, short hair at the root 
of the tail and a tuft at the extremity, in the 
presence of warts on the fore legs only, a distinct 
line on the back, and the persistence of stripes. 
This definition includes the Dauw, the Quagga, and 
the Zebra (all which see), and is so used by zool¬ 
ogists. Popularly the term is restricted to wild 
forms without body stripes, and to the domesticated 
species (Equus asinus), or donkey. [Kiang, 
Onager.] The wild ass of Abyssinia (Equus 
tceniopus), which is faintly striped on the hind 
legs, is generally supposed to be the parent of the 
domestic form ; though some authorities consider 
that the original stock is lost, and that the so-called 
wild asses are only the descendants of individuals 
that have escaped from a state of domestication. 
The ass was reduced to the service of man at a 
very remote period, probably in the East—for these 
animals are mentioned in the Book of Genesis—■ 
certainly in a warm, dry climate, as is evinced by 
their repugnance to cross water (which is shared 
by the camel) and their habit of rolling in the dust. 
The colour of the common ass is generally some 
shade of grey, with a dark stripe on the back and 
streak on the shoulder, the whole forming a cross¬ 
like figure. Black and white varieties occur; and 
in the East white asses have long been reserved for 
the use of persons of high rank. In Britain the 
ass is especially the poor man’s beast of burden, 
for which its patience, endurance, and ability to 
subsist on hard fare, peculiarly fit it. Its small 
size is probably due far more to want of care in 
breeding than to cold, for in Western India there is 
a breed still smaller than our form, and not much 
larger than a Newfoundland dog. From about the 
beginning of the latter half of the nineteentn cen¬ 
tury there has been a great, improvement in tne 
British breed of asses, especially in and around the 
Metropolis. This is in great measure due to the 












Assam 


( 227 ) 


Assessment. 


exertions of the late Earl of Shaftesbury (1801-85), 
who did much to teach the costermongers of 
London that self-interest, if no higher motive, 
should lead them to care for their beasts of burden ; 
and now one may often see in costermongers’ bar- 
rows asses carefully groomed, capable of a respect¬ 
able rate of speed without the application of whip 
or stick, and by no means open to the proverbial 
reproach of stupidity. In Spain asses are carefully 
bred, and as much as £200 has been paid for a 
stallion ass for breeding purposes. Entire asses 
are largely imported from Spain, Malta, and France, 
into Kentucky, where they are used for breeding 
mules. The male ass is capable of procreation at 
two years old, and the female goes eleven months 
with her foal. Hybrids between the horse and ass 
are common. [Hinny, Mule.] 

Assam, a province in the north-east of British 
India. It was ceded to England after the Burmese 
war in 1820. From 1832 to 1838 Upper Assam 
was an independent native state. In 1873 the 
whole territory with the addition of Cachar was 
formed into a separate province under a Chief 
Commissioner. The Himalayas bound it on the 
north; on the east and south it is cut off by 
mountains from Burma and Silhet; Kuch Behar 
lies to the west. The country consists of a succes¬ 
sion of valleys watered by the Brahmaputra and 
its tributaries, which are very numerous. The soil 
is fertile, producing plenty of rice, maize, sugar, 
hemp, and jute on the lower levels, whilst tea 
plantations cover the hills, especially in Cachar. 
The total area is 46,341 square miles. Coal has 
been worked there for some years, and there are 
vast stores of mineral wealth only waiting to be 
unearthed. The seat of government is Shillong in 
the Khasi Hills. 

Assassins, originally a Moslem sect with 
peculiar secret doctrines derived from the Koran, 
Judaism and Christianity. The name comes from 
its founder Hassan-ibn-Sabah. Their chief strong¬ 
hold was in North Persia, at the Alamur ( eagle's 
eyrie), near the Takht-i-Sulaiman Peak, in the 
Elbury range, which was taken in 1270 by the 
Mongols. The direct descendant of the head of the 
sect (the “ Old Man of the Mountain ”) now resides 
in Bombay. All its enemies were regularly murdered 
by an organised band, which formed one division of 
the novices of the sect. Hence the modem use of 
the term. 

Assault, an attempt to apply force to the per¬ 
son of another against his will: also, the act of de¬ 
priving another of his liberty. To assent, however, 
does not always deprive an act of violence of the 
character of an assault, for the combatants at a 
prize-fight are guilty of one. “ Battery ” is in pop¬ 
ular language comprised in “ assault,” but is techni¬ 
cally distinguishable, inasmuch as the former in¬ 
volves an actual touching of the person A common 
assault is punishable with a year’s imprisonment. 
Where actual bodily harm ensues, it is punishable 
with penal servitude for five years; and other ag¬ 
gravated cases are specially provided for, and sub¬ 
jected to a severer code, e y. assaults with intent to 


commit felony, and indecent assaults on females. 
No mere words can ever amount to an assault. 

The Scottish law is very similar to the above ; a 
separate offence known as “ battery pendente lite ” 
was formerly recognised there. It was the offence 
of assaulting an adverse litigant, and was created 
by old statutes of 1584, and 155)4, which enacted 
that the offender should on conviction lose his case. 
These statutes were repealed in the year 1826. 

In the United States there are particular statutes 
providing for punishment of assaults on Government 
officials while acting in the discharge of their duties. 

Assaye, a village in the protected State of 
Haiderabad, Southern India. Here in 1803 General 
Wellesley, afterwards Duke of Wellington, with 
4.500 men, utterly defeated the Mahratta force of 
50,000 under Scindiah and the Bajah of Berar. 

Assaying, the art of determining the propor¬ 
tion of any specified metal in a metallic ore or 
alloy. The methods used are very various. 

Assegai, a missile weapon, thrown with the 
hand, used by the Zulus and other South African 
tribes. It resembles a javelin and is sometimes of 
considerable length. 

Assembly, (1) the title given to the supreme 
deliberative body of the Scottish Established 
Church. The delegates are sent from each presby¬ 
tery, royal burgh and university in Scotland. Its 
functions are deliberative, judicial, and legislative. 
There is a similar Assembly in connection with the 
Free Church of Scotland. (2) National Assembly 
was the name given to a body which was estab¬ 
lished in 1789 in France, when the clergy and 
privileged nobles refused to be associated with the 
commons. The Abbe Sieyes (q.v.) therefore pro¬ 
posed the establishment of this National Assembly. 
They drew up no less than 3,250 decrees, and 
having thus laid down the basis of a new constitu¬ 
tion, they dissolved in 1791. 

Asser, John, or Asserius Menevaisis, a 
learned monk of St. David’s, Wales. He was the 
friend and teacher of Alfred the Great, and 
tradition has it that the foundation of Oxford was 
due to his advice. He was made Bishop of Sher¬ 
borne, and wrote a Life of Alfred, which was pub¬ 
lished by Archbishop Parker in 1574. He died in 910. 

Assessment, in ordinary parlance, implies fix¬ 
ing the amount of an unliquidated sum as damages, 
which may be done by a jury, referee, or judge. 

The word “ assess ” has a technical and also a 
popular usage as applied to taxes ; “ assessed taxes ” 
being burdens charged upon persons in respect of 
houses inhabited by them, in respect of the use 
of male servants, dogs, carriages, and armorial 
bearings. 

Rates in respect of land and houses are calculated 
on value, and the value is arrived at by “ assess¬ 
ment ; ” this principle of taxation is as old at least 
as the reign of Elizabeth, when a parochial assess¬ 
ment was made, a man being rateable for all which 
he occupied in the particular parish. The provi¬ 
sions now applicable to the assessment of the poor 








Assessor. 


( 228 ) 


Assignment. 


rate are those of 6 and 7 Wm. IV. ch. 96 (an Act for 
the regulation of parochial assessment), under which 
the assessed rate must be made on an estimate of 
the rent at which the property might reasonably be 
expected to let from year to year, after deducting 
insurances, repairs, and other necessary outgoings. 
By subsequent statutes (25 and 26, and 27 and 28 
Victoria) the mode of assessment has been some¬ 
what remodelled. The rating authority is now the 
County Council having jurisdiction in the district. 
(See Stephens’ Commentaries, 11th edition, vol. 8, 
chap, ii., p. 72, and the Act for the Regulation of the 
Parochial Assessments (6 and 7 Wm. IV., c. 96), and 
the Amendment Acts of 1862 and 1864.) [Income 
Tax. Inhabited House Duty.] 

Assessor. (1) Any person appointed to assess 
or value property; (2) any person who sits next 
another as inferior in dignity ; (8) any person called 
in to sit beside and assist a judge. By the Common 
Law Procedure Act, 1854, trial of questions of fact 
were authorised to be held before a judge with as¬ 
sessors ; and by 36 and 37 Victoria, c. 66, questions 
of fact or account may be ordered to be tried 
before official or special referees with assessors. 
Under the Judicature Act, 1873, the High Court or 
Court of Appeal may call in the aid of one or more 
assessors specially qualified in any action or matter, 
to try and hear the matter in question wholly or 
partially with the assistance of such assessors. 
By the County Court Admiralty Jurisdiction Act, 
1868, provision is made for the appointment of 
assessors of nautical skill and experience in 
Admiralty actions, and such assessors frequently sit 
in County Courts under the powers of this Act. An 
assessor differs from a referee in having no voice or 
power in deciding questions, his duties being con¬ 
fined to assisting the deliberations of the Court. 
Assessor is also a term for officers in the Scottish 
Universities, they being nominated by the members 
at large. 

Assets, literally, estate of a deceased person 
sufficient to pay his debts ; in practice the word is 
also applied to such estate where there is a defici¬ 
ency. A general division of assets is made into real 
and personal; also into legal and equitable. Real 
assets consist practically of manors, advowsons, 
tithes, and freehold lands, whether in possession or 
reversion. Personal estates, as roughly stated, are 
the next presentation on an advowson to a church 
where the living is full; leaseholds; in certain 
cases, estates held for lives ; growing timber; dam¬ 
ages recovered ; money and securities for money 
or stocks. Legal assets are such as a creditor might, 
until the recent fusion of law and equity, have made 
available for his debt in an action at law; equitable 
assets could have been reached by the medium of 
the Court of Chancery. This distinction has ceased 
to have much more than a historical importance 
since the Judicature Act, 1875, for in administering 
insolvent estates the same rules, viz. those of bank¬ 
ruptcy tribunals, are now to prevail in all courts; 
and by those rules all debts are put on the same 
footing, whereas before that time the priority of 
debts of different degree ( i.e . debts secured by deed 
under seal as opposed to debts wanting in that 


formality) depended upon the question whether the 
fund applicable for payment fell within one or other 
of the classes, legal or equitable assets. 

Assiento, or Asiento, Treaty, a Spanish term 
signifying a contract or convention entered into 
between Spain and some other country for regulating 
the supply of negroes for its American colonies. 
Spain having little intercourse with those parts of 
Africa from which slaves were obtained, used to con¬ 
tract with some other nation that had establishments 
on the western coast of that continent for the supply 
of its South American possessions with negroes. 
Such treaties were made first with Portugal and 
afterwards with France, each of which countries in 
consideration of enjoying a monopoly of the supply 
of negroes to the South American dominions of 
Spain, agreed to pay to that Crown a certain sum 
for each negro imported. In both cases the assiento 
was taken by a commercial association in France. 
Both the Portuguese Company and the French 
were ruined by their contract. England was a 
party to a similar treaty during the twenty-six 
years which preceded the Treaty of Madrid in i750. 

Assign. [Heir.] 

Assignat, the name given to the French 
Republican paper money from 1789 to 1796. The 
notes were issued on the security of the funds due 
to the government from the confiscated church 
lands. They were ultimately issued to the number 
of over 45,000,000,000, but their value sank rapidly 
so that in 1795 no less than 3,000 were given for a 
louis d’or, instead of 24. 

Assignee, the proper designation of an official 
in bankruptcy proceedings, being the person in 
whom the bankrupt estate vests under the Bank¬ 
ruptcy Acts. [Assignment.] 

Assignment, a Scottish law term used in con¬ 
veyancing to indicate the transference to another 
of any right or interest in any property or obligation. 
It is thus used in a sense analogous to that of the 
English term assignment (q.v.). The person who 
transfers the right or interest is known as the 
cedent , and the person to whom the transference is 
made is termed the cessionary or assignee. 

Assignment. An assignment of land or real 
estate is properly a transfer or making over to 
another of a person’s interest therein; "but it is 
more particularly applied to express the transfer 
of an estate for life or years, or of movables. 
An assignment for life or years differs from a 
lease only in this, that by a lease a man grants 
an interest less than his own, reserving to him¬ 
self a reversion ; by an assignment he parts 
with the whole property, and the assignee conse¬ 
quently stands in the place of the assignor. Thus 
where a lease is assigned, the assignee (as well as 
the lessee) is liable to the landlord or reversioner 
for the future performance of the covenants entered 
into by the lessee, and such assignee remains liable 
until he assigns over in his turn to another person. 
And this liability attaches to him even without 
entry, where the assignment is by deed. However, 





Assimilation. 


( 229 ) 


Association of Ideas. 


lie is not liable by force of the assignment except 
on such covenants as run with the land. And he 
is also entitled to enforce against the reversioner 
any covenant of that kind which the lease contains 
in favour of the lessee ; and in case the reversioner 
conveys his interest to another, then to enforce it 
also against such grantee of the reversion. But 
if the transfer be for a single day short of the 
residue of the term, no liability or claim on the 
original covenants can arise between the transferee 
on the one hand, and the reversioner or the grantee 
of the reversion on the other hand, for it is then 
an underlease and no assignment, and the alienee 
not coming precisely into the place of the alienor, 
is in no privity with the reversioner. No deed or 
other writing was necessary at common law to the 
validity of an assignment, though in the case of a 
lease for life it could not be effected without livery 
of seizin, but by the Statute of Frauds a deed or 
written instrument was made necessary, and now 
an assignment of a chattel interest not being copy- 
hold, in any tenements or hereditaments made after 
the 1st October, 1845, shall be void at law unless 
made out not only in writing but by deed; while on 
the other hand an assignment even of a lease for 
life may now be effected by deed of hand without 
livery of seizin. Assignment may be effected by 
any words which are sufficient to express the in¬ 
tention, but “ assign ” or transfer are the most 
technical expressions. (For Assignment of 
Error, see the heading Error.) 

Assimilation, a term now used in vegetable 
physiology in a somewhat narrow sense, viz. for 
the retention of the carbon of atmospheric carbonic 
acid gas by green plants under the influence of 
light. The first stage in this process seems to be 
the union of the carbon dioxide with water taken 
in by the roots to form some polymer of formic 
aldehyde (CH 2 0) such as glucose in solution, 
starch (C 6 H l0 O 5 ) being the first visible result. In 
animal physiology the term assimilation is used in 
a wider sense to include the whole of anabolism 
(q.v.), i.e. all the constructive changes in the food- 
substances after their first mere taking in, though 
most of these substances will be already not only 
organic but organised. 

Assiniboia, a district of the North-West Terri¬ 
tories, Canada, with an area of about 90,000 square 
miles. It is bounded on the north by Saskatchewan, 
on the east by Manitoba, on the west by Alberta, 
and on the south by the United States frontier. 
The Assiniboine river, which gives its name to the 
district, after a course of some 500 miles, flows into 
the Red River above Lake Winnipeg. 

Assiniboines, Canadian aborigines, a large 
branch of the Dakota nation, from whom they have 
been separated for an unknown period, and by 
whom they are called Iloha, i.e. “ Rebels.” There 
are two branches, the Mountain or Forest Assini¬ 
boines of the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains 
and about the head waters of the North Saskatchewan 
river, who are now nearly extinct, and the Prairie 
Assiniboines, of the Assiniboine river, to which they 
give their name, and thence southwards towards 


the United States frontier. Owing to the rapid 
settlement of the Canadian Far West, the Assiniboine 
domain has recently been greatly restricted, and 
now the only alternative before them is either to 
disappear or break up the tribal connection and 
remove to the Government reserves. Some have 
already accepted plots of land along the banks of 
the Saskatchewan, where may now be seen their 
flourishing farmsteads. The Assiniboines are the 
Stone, or Stony Indians of some writers, so called 
either from their arid, stony domain, or from the 
custom of using hot stones for cooking their food. 
The proper national name is Puatak, whence Assini- 
Puatak, or “ Mountain-Puataks ” corrupted by the 
French Canadians to Assinijpoet and Assiniboine. 

Assisi (classic Asisium), a town of Italy, in the 
province of Perugia, about 13 miles from the capital 
of the same name. There are a few remains of 
ancient buildings, notably the ruins of a temple of 
Minerva, that form the portico of the Church of Santa 
Maria de Minerva. The chief interest of the place 
centres, however, in the Sacro Convento, where St. 
Francis founded the Franciscan order of mendicant 
monks. This building dates from 1230, and is still 
the resort of many pilgrims. It has two Gothic 
churches, one above the other; in a crypt beneath 
lie the relics of the saint. 

Assize, a jury summoned for the purpose of try¬ 
ing a cause, or rather a Court of Jurisdiction which 
summons a jury by a Commission of Assize to take 
the assizes. Hence the judicial assemblies held by 
the Queen’s commission in every county as well to 
deliver the gaols as to take indictments and to 
try causes at Nisi Prius, are commonly termed the 
Assizes. There are two commissions : (1) General, 
which is issued twice a year to the judges of the 
High Court of Justice, two judges being usually as¬ 
signed to every circuit. [Circuits.] The judges have 
four several commissions : 1. Of oyer and terminer , 
directed to them and many other gentlemen of the 
county, by which they are empowered to try 
treasons, felonies, etc. This is the largest com¬ 
mission. 2. Of yaol delivery , directed to the judges 
and the clerk of assize associate, empowering them 
to try every prisoner in the gaol committed for any 
offence whatsoever so as to clear the prisons. 
3. Of nisi prius, directed to the judges, the clerks 
of assize, and others, by which civil causes, in which 
issue has been joined in one of the Divisions of the 
High Court of Justice, are tried on circuit by a 
jury of twelve men of the county in which the 
venue is laid. [Nisi Prius.] 4. A commission of 
the yieace, by which all justices are bound to be 
present at their county assizes, besides the sheriffs 
to give attendance to the judges or else suffer a 
fine. ( b ) The other division of commissions is 
specially granted to certain judges to try certain 
causes and crimes. (See Stephen’s Commentaries.) 
The holding of winter and spring assizes is regu¬ 
lated by orders in council issued from time to time 
under the Winter Sessions Acts, 1876, and 1877, 
and the Spring Assizes Act, 1879. 

Association of Ideas, in Psychology , the 
connection in the mind between two ideas, so that 






Assonance. 


( 230 ) 


Assyria. 


the one tends to recall the other. Thus the sight 
of a particular place may recall an event which has 
happened there ; the mention of a particular word 
in a conversation may recall a previous conversa¬ 
tion. r ihe laws which govern the association of 
ideas are those of contiguity and similarity. Thus, 
for instance, an action or idea which has occurred 
simultaneously or in close succession to another, 
recalls the second when it (the first) is again pre¬ 
sented to the mind ; and similarly with respect to 
actions or ideas which have any resemblance to 
each other. Some psychologists hold that other 
laws—such as the laws of contrariety, analogy, etc. 
—exist; but most agree that all are reducible to 
the two above-mentioned. These laws, virtually 
stated by Aristotle in his treatise on Memory , have 
been given a most important place in psychology 
by Hartley and Hume in the last century, and by 
John and J. S. Mill and Prof. Bain in this, who are 
followed to some extent by Herbert Spencer, and 
are sometimes referred to collectively as the “ Asso- 
ciationist. School of Psychologists,” in the explana¬ 
tion of the phenomena of intellect. 

Assonance, in Poetry , the term used when 
the words of a verse have the same termination of 
sound, but yet are false rhymes. [Rhyme.J 

Assouan (anc. Sycnc'), or Eswan. is a town in 
Upper Egypt on the right bank of the Nile. It 
contains but few traces of its ancient greatness, 
but the interesting islands of Philas and Elephantine 
are close by, as are the great quarries from which 
the Syenite was hewn to build the temples and 
palaces of Egypt. It is the southermost city of 
Egypt proper, and was conspicuous as the starting- 
point of the Khartoum Expedition in 1884, and the 
post immediately threatened by the Mahdist forces. 

Assumpsit, strictly, the voluntary promise by 
which a man takes upon himself to do an act or 
make a payment; but the term has come to be 
applied to the form of action brought to recover 
damages for the breach of a promise where the per¬ 
formance of such promise has not been secured by 
deed or writing under seal. [Pleading.] Assump¬ 
sit is the most common form of action in the United 
States. 

Assumption, a term used like Ascension and 
Annunciation , with a special signification with 
regard to Scripture. The Assumption, in Christian 
writers, means the taking up into heaven of the 
Virgin Mary. The ecclesiastical festival celebrat¬ 
ing the event is held on the 15th of August. 

Assumption, or Asuncion, the capital of the 
Republic of Paraguay in South America, on the left 
bank of the river Paraguay, 18 miles above the 
junction of the Pilcomayo. It was founded by the 
Spaniards in 1535 on the Feast of the Assumption, 
and possesses a good fortified harbour. The 
exports consist of mate (Paraguay tea), hides, 
sugar, tobacco, and rum. 

Assumption Island, oneof the Lad rone group 
in the Pacific Ocean (lat. 19° 41' N., long. 145° 27' 
E.). It is of volcanic origin, and is t hickly covered 
with cocoa-palms and bread-fruit trees. * Another 


island of the same name forms part of the Sey¬ 
chelles group. [Anticosti.] 

Assurance, a term synonymous with insurance, 
but more particularly applicable to life policies, 
while the term insurance is usually applied to con¬ 
tingencies not depending upon life, but arising from 
fire, losses at sea, etc. 

Assyria. Geography and Physical Features .— 
Assyria proper was a table-land, bounded on the 
north by Mount Niphates and part of Armenia; on 
the east by that part of Media which lies towards 
Mount Zagros; on the south by Susiana and part of 
Babylonia; and on the west by the river Tigris, or 



later by the Chaboras, a branch of the Euphrates. 
In size it may be compared to Great Britain. It 
was divided into seven provinces, and contained 
many great cities, of which the chief after Nineveh, 
the capital, were Ashur, which alone stood on the 
west bank of the Tigris, Calah, Dar-Sarukin, Arbela, 
Tarbisi. In her times of prosperity Assyria ex¬ 
tended her borders on every side; and the Greeks 
and Romans often included the whole of Syria and 
of the regions watered by the Euphrates and the 
Tigris under the name. Assyria and the neigh¬ 
bouring provinces were celebrated for their great 
fertility ; they were the original home of wheat and 
barley, and the date-palm grew there to perfection. 
I he irrigation of the crops was ensured by the 
annual overflow of the Tigris, beginning in March, 
and reaching its highest "point in May; while, to 
keep this within due bounds, the country was inter¬ 
sected by a network of canals, into which the water 
of the river was admitted, or from which it was 
excluded, by a system of dams. To preserve the 
principal buildings from damage by inundations, 
they were raised upon platforms above the level of 
the plain. Stone is not rare in Assyria, and could 
easily be procured from the mountains ; but, pro¬ 
bably in imitation of the Babylonians, brick was 
geneially used for building, stone being employed 












Assyria. 


( 231 ) 


Assyria. 


only for foundations or facings. A soft gypsous 
kind of alabaster is found in the hills, and was used 
for sculpture. The chief amusement of the Assyrian 
kings—namely, hunting—was amply provided for 
by the lions, leopards, wild boars, deer, wild asses, 
and buffaloes which formerly abounded; ostriches, 
though now extinct, were still found here in the 
fourth century b.c. The horse was much employed 
in war ; and the ox, the mule, and the camel were 
used as beasts of burden. 

Recent Discoveries .—Through the Middle Ages 
Assyria remained almost unknown to Europeans, 
except by notices in the Old Testament and in 
classical writers. The natives of the district, how¬ 
ever, had preserved the name and tradition of the 
site of Nineveh among the mounds of Nunia, oppo¬ 
site Mosul, on the Tigris, and pointed it out to 
Benjamin of Tudela when he passed by it about 
A.D. 1160. When about the seventeenth century 
the number of travellers in Asiatic Turkey in¬ 
creased, the ruins of Nineveh became better known, 
and were described by Rauwolf (1573), Sherley 
(1599), Tavernier (1644), Thevenot (1663), the 
Jesuit writer in the Lettres J&dijiantes (1675), Otter 
(1734), Niebuhr (1766), Ollivier (1794). But with 
the beginning of the present century a fresh interest 
was taken in the examination and identification of 
all remaining traces of the ancient and powerful 
kingdom of Assyria. Claudius James Rich, the 
East India Company's Resident at Bagdad, visited 
Mosul in 1820 to inspect the mounds, and the in¬ 
scriptions and other relics which he obtained there 
formed the nucleus of the Assyrian collection at 
the British Museum. A still more careful survey 
of the ruins of Nineveh was made in 1852 by Com¬ 
mander Jones, under the auspices of the Indian 
Government, the results of which show that the 
city walls were 7 miles 4 furlongs in circumference, 
containing an area of 1,800 acres, which might 
perhaps allow of a population of 174,000 inhabit¬ 
ants. To reconcile these facts with the statements 
of Ctesias and the Book of Jonah, it may perhaps 
be supposed that the name of Nineveh, used in a 
wide sense, sometimes included a neighbouring 
group of cities or suburbs. About 1850 Botta and 
Place excavated Khorsabad, ancient Dur-Sarrukin, 
14 miles north-east of Mosul, containing the vast 
palace of Sargon, who founded it about B.C. 720. 
The most important excavations were carried out 
by Sir Henry Layard in the mound of Kouyunjik at 
Nineveh, and in that of Nimroud, 18 miles farther 
south, on the site of Calah. In the former the 
palaces of Sennacherib and Ashur-bani-pal, or 
Sardanapalus, and in the latter the palace of 
Ashur-nasir-pal, were laid bare, and an immense 
number of inscriptions and other objects discovered. 
Mr. Hormuzd Rassam and others have continued 
these excavations. Besides the large collection of 
inscribed clay tablets which formed the library of 
Ashur-bani-pal, the chief objects disinterred, and 
now to be seen at the British Museum, have been 
the immense series of bas-reliefs representing the 
campaigns, building operations, hunting expedi¬ 
tions, and private life of the Assyrian monarchs; 
the colossal figures of winged bulls which stood ns 
guardians at the palace gates ; and smaller objects 


without number, such as the bronze dishes and 
carved ivories of Phoenician workmanship found at 
Nimroud, the cylinders bearing the royal annals 
which were buried in the platforms of the palaces, 
and other antiquities in metal and glass. 

Language and Literature .—Our knowledge of 
the Assyrian language dates from the publication 
by Sir Henry Rawlinson in 1847 of the inscription 
on the Rock of Behistun in North-Western Persia. 
This inscription, describing the wars of Darius 
Hystaspis, King of Persia, b.c. 521-485, is in three 
languages, the Persian, the Susian, and the Assyrian 
or Babylonian, written in three varieties of the 
cuneiform character, composed of strokes resembling 
wedges combined in different forms. The way for 
the decipherment of the Assyrian inscriptions had 
been prepared by the previous interpretation of 
some of the ancient Persian inscriptions earlier in 
the century by Grotefend, Burnouf, and Lassen ; 
for as the Persian kings were in the habit of en¬ 
graving their decrees or religious invocations in 
Assyrian (or Babylonian) and Susian side by side 
with the Persian, when the latter was once trans¬ 
lated the former could be made out. Since, how¬ 
ever, there are very few of these trilingual inscrip¬ 
tions, much remained and still remains to be done 
by scholars before the Assyrian language can be 
fully understood, by collecting parallel passages 
and comparisons with the Hebrew and other kind¬ 
red languages of the Semitic family, to which the 
newly-found language belongs. The cuneiform 
writing was borrowed by the Babylonians and 
Assyrians from the Accadians or earlier inhabitants 
of the country; it consisted of more than 500 
separate characters, representing not simple sounds 
like our alphabet, but syllables, or even whole 
words. Except in monumental inscriptions upon 
stone, the Assyrians wrote upon clay tablets, 
upon which, while still soft, the characters were 
impressed with a stick ; upon this inconvenient but 
durable material, of which the country affords an 
abundant supply, every sort of composition was 
written. The most important documents were the 
historical cylinders and tablets containing the 
annals of the kings. An immense number of legal 
and commercial tablets have been found inscribed 
with deeds of sale, contracts, and records of law¬ 
suits. Even private letters were written on clay 
tablets. A very large number of documents preserve 
forms of incantation used by priests and magicians, 
and lists of omens with their meanings. There are 
also legends of the gods and heroes of Assyrian 
mythology, among which are the famous tablets 
first translated by George Smith in 1872, which give 
the Babylonian account of the Flood transcribed 
by an Assyrian hand and forming part of the Royal 
library at Nineveh. Some of the Assyrian tablets 
give an Accadian text with an Assyrian translation, 
and others give lists of Accadian words and gram¬ 
matical forms explained in Assyrian. This would 
seem to show that the old Accadian language was 
studied in Assyria as late as the seventh century 
before Christ, and that it held the position of a 
sacred language, like Latin in modern Europe. 

History. — The history of Assyria begins to 
be known to us at a later period than that of 






Assyria. 


( 232 ) 


Assyria. 


Babylonia. The first of the kings whose names are 
preserved reigned, perhaps, about b.c. 2000, but we 
know little more of them. In the fifteenth century 
b.c., Ashur-uballit, king of Assyria, appears among 
the correspondents of Amenophis III., King of 
Egypt. In 1275 b.c. Tukulti-Adar I. conquered 
Babylonia, which from this date down to the 
destruction of Nineveh remained of secondary im¬ 
portance, and was often subject to the Northern 
power. Tiglath-Pileser, whose capital was Aslmr, 
the modern Kalali Sherkat, carried on successful 
wars against the nations of Armenia and Northern 
Syria, full accounts of which are preserved on his 
cylinders. After this reign the power of Assyria 
temporarily declined, but with Tukulti-Adar II. a 
new period of greatness began; and his son, Ashur- 
nasir-pal (b.c. 885-860), of whose time there are 
many monuments in the British national collection, 
extended his conquests in all directions. The ex¬ 
tensive trade carried on by Phoenician merchants 
in Assyria at this time is largely illustrated by 
the Phoenician bronzes and ivories disinterred in 
the palace of Ashur-nasir-pal at Nimroud. The 
next king Shalmaneser II. (b.c. 860-825) is in¬ 
teresting to us on account of the tribute paid to 
him by Jehu, King of Israel, as recorded and 
represented on a sculptured obelisk; this was the 
first time that the Israelites came into contact with 
Assyria. Less than 100 years later, however, Tig- 
lath-Pileser III. (745-727) canfied away some of 
the tribes of Israel into captivity, and the destruc¬ 
tion of the kingdom of Samaria was completed by 
Shalmaneser IV. (b.c. 727-722). Sargon (722- 
705) was a great conqueror and builder, being 
best known to us as the founder of Dur-Sarrukin, 
the modern Khorsabad. Sennacherib (705-681) 
invaded Syria and even invested Jerusalem, but 
King Hezekiah purchased his safety by a large 
tribute. Two years later Hezekiah having re¬ 
fused further allegiance, Sennacherib again in¬ 
vaded Judah and took Lachish; the campaign, 
however, had an unsuccessful ending, for the 
Assyrian army was destroyed, perhaps by a sudden 
epidemic, and the king retreated to Nineveh. 
Esarhaddon (681-668) waged a series of wars, and 
took captive Manasseh, King of Judah, who was 
afterwards allowed to return to Jerusalem. Egypt 
also was invaded, and partly reduced. Ashur-bani- 
pal (668-626), the Sardanapalus of Greek writers, 
was the last of the great Assyrian monarchs ; lie 
conquered Egypt, Elam, Babylonia, the kingdom of 
liis own brother, Shamash-shum-ukin, Lydia, and 
part of Arabia. After this successful reign the 
power of Assyria suddenly declined. We hear of 
two obscure kings, Ashur-etil-ilani-ukin and Sin- 
shar-iskun, but there is no doubt that about 
B.C. 609 Nineveh was taken by the combined forces 
of the Medesand Babylonians, assisted by an inunda¬ 
tion, which washed away part of the walls, and 
that it was utterly destroyed. The province of 
Assyria proper fell under the dominion of the 
Medes, and Babylonia with other districts formed 
the new Babylonian Empire, ruled over by Nabopol- 
assar and his successors. The name of Nineveh 
now disappears from history, only to be heard of 
again as the designation of a battle-field in the 


seventh century A.D., or as the site of a Christian 
monastery. 

Religion .—The mythological and liturgical texts 
of the Assyrian literature have hardly yet been 
deciphered with sufficient completeness or accuracy 
to enable us to acquire a full knowledge of the 
Assyrian religion. We possess, however, the names 
of their principal gods. Ashur was the chief of 
the pantheon, and is always named first in the in¬ 
vocations of the kings. Sin was the moon-god, 
Shamash the sun-god, Anum the god of the sky, 
Bel the god of the earth, and Ea the god of the 
abyss and of profound wisdom. Rammanu (the 
Biblical Rimmon) was the ruler of the weather, 
Ishtar (the Biblical Ashtoreth) the goddess of love, 
Nebo the god of learning, and Nergal the god of 
war and hunting. The Assyrian temples always 
contained statues of the gods or goddesses, and 
sometimes a particular statue was held in special 
veneration, as the Istar of Nineveh, or the Istar of 
Arbela ; only two statues of a god have been dis¬ 
covered in modern times, namely the two limestone 
figures of Nebo, disinterred in a temple at Nimroud, 
and dating from the eighth century b.c. With 
regard to public worship, we know that constant 
sacrifices and libations were offered to the gods, 
images were carried in procession, and a highly 
organised and richly endowed priesthood existed. 
The building and maintenance of temples were 
among the chief functions of the king, who himself 
boasted of the title of high-priest. Many Assyrian 
psalms or hymns have been found among the 
tablets, and some of them may be compared to the 
Hebrew psalms in character. The importance of 
religion in the life of the Assyrians may be seen in 
the fact that almost every inscription begins with 
an invocation to some of the gods, and that all the 
actions of the king are attributed to divine assist¬ 
ance. Some of the Assyrian legends, such as those 
of the Creation and the Flood, bear a close resem¬ 
blance to the Hebrew narratives of Genesis ; these, 
and indeed most of the religious beliefs of Assyria, 
seem to have been borrowed from the more ancient 
culture of Babylonia. 

The Arts .—The Assyrians excelled in architec¬ 
ture, sculpture, and the industrial arts. Their 
towns were surrounded by high walls, with bastions 
and battlements, built of brick upon a basement of 
stone. Their palaces were vast structures of brick, 
in which vaulted rooms, with exceedingly thick 
walls, opened into extensive courtyards; there were 
three principal divisions, as in oriental palaces of 
the present day ; namely, the serai , or men's apart¬ 
ments, the hareem, or women’s residence, and the 
Jthan, containing rooms for the slaves, and the 
offices. The decorations of the chambers and halls 
consisted of designs painted on plaster, friezes of 
enamelled tiles, and, above all, of thin slabs of 
alabaster carved in low relief with scenes from the 
life and wars of the king. While the Assyrians 
failed in sculpture in the round, chiefly from lack 
of suitable material, they exhibited in these bas- 
reliefs a very high degree of skill, in spite of the 
want of perspective and other defects which mark 
an early stage of art. The finest sculptures are 
the latest; namely, those from the palace of 






Assyria. 


( 233 ) 


Astacus. 


Ashur-bani-pal, in which the figures of animals in the 
'vaiious hunting scenes are rendered with a truth 
and spirit that has never been surpassed. It was 
in minute details that the Assyrian artist distin¬ 
guished himself; nothing like the composition of 
scenes or co-ordination of figures is to be found. 
Apart from their own merit, the sculptures show us 
the perfection that the Assyrians had reached in 
the manufacture of artistic furniture, in jewellery, 
leather-work, and in those embroidered stuffs for 


his passage through the country. Besides the 
Mahometan Kurds, there are a iarge number of 
Christians of the Nestorian sect, and also the 
Yezidis, or Devil-worshippers. The larger portion 
of Kurdistan forms part of the Turkish Empire, but, 
the spirit of the people is so rebellious that they 
are constantly in conflict with the authorities ; the 
eastern districts are included within the Persian 
frontiers. Mosul, the modern successor of Nineveh, 
is a somewhat mean town, with a population of 



fighting in battle. (Assyrian Sculpture .) 


the production of which Mesopotamia and Baby¬ 
lonia retained their celebrity under the Roman 
Empire, through the Middle Ages, and down to our 
own time. Of Assyrian bronze-work we possess a 
very fine example in the ornamental bands, deco¬ 
rated in repousse , with elaborate scenes from the 
history of Shalmaneser II. (857-822), which were 
once attached to the gates of his palace at the 
modern Balawat. The Assyrians seem to have been 
as fond as the Babylonians of cylindrical seals of 
precious stone, engraved with figures and inscrip¬ 
tions. Numbers of these, in cornelian, jasper, or 
hmmatite, are to be seen in all the museums of 
Europe, and some have even been found on the field 
of Marathon, where they had doubtless been worn 
by the Assyrian warriors in the army of Xerxes. 

Present Condition .—The greater part of the an¬ 
cient kingdom of Assyria is now contained in the 
modern province of Kurdistan. Owing to its 
greater elevation, the climate generally is much 
cooler than that of Mesopotamia. The country 
abounds in vegetation, and produces every sort of 
fruit and cereal; the so-called “manna” is still 
found on the leaves of the dwarf oak, and collected 
by the natives, who use it as a sweetmeat. The 
modern inhabitants, the Kurds, are a free and war¬ 
like race, and contrast favourably with the effemi¬ 
nate inhabitants of Mosul and Bagdad. Though 
partly of a different race from the old Assyrians, 
they preserve many of their ancient customs, 
and the weapons which they use in warfare 
resemble those described by Xenophon in relating 


about 70,000. The climate of the district is un¬ 
healthy, being cold in winter, but in summer too 
hot for the comfort of Europeans. The principal 
remains of ancient Nineveh are concealed under 
the two vast mounds of Kouyunjik and Nebbi 
Yunus; the former covering an area of about 100 
acres, and containing about 14,500,000 tons of 
earth ; the latter, which derives its name from the 
supposed tomb of the prophet Jonah, occupying 40 
acres, and forming a mass of 6,500,000 tons; 
besides these, there are ridges which cover all that 
remains of the ancient walls. The ruined palaces 
of the ancient Calah are hidden under the modern 
mound of Nimroud, which rises 133 ft. above the 
autumn level of the Tigris ; extensive traces of the 
walls are also to be seen. Besides these there are 
numerous large mounds scattered over the country, 
and awaiting excavations which will no doubt lay 
bare others of the great cities which were flourish¬ 
ing in the period of Assyria’s prosperity. 

Assyrians. [Semites.] 

Astacus, the Crayfish, a useful type of higher 
Crustacea. It lives in streams, walking on its 
long limbs or swimming backwards by the action 
of its tail-like abdomen. The body is composed 
of twenty segments, which are very dissimilar in 
appearance, though constructed on the same type. 
The anterior thirteen segments are fused to form 
the strong “ cephalothorax,” covered by a shield or 
carapace ; the remaining seven form the abdo¬ 
men. Each segment, except the last, has a pair of 








































Astarte. 


( 234 ) 


Asthenia. 


appendages, very variable in form, but all con¬ 
structed on the same fundamental plan. The six pos¬ 
terior pairs are swimmerets. These are preceded by 
eight pairs on the thorax, of which the posterior 
live are long walking limbs (three are clawed), 
and the three anterior are known as maxilli- 
pedes or jaw-feet; the appendages on the head 
consist of three pairs of jaws and two of feelers 
(antenna and antennule). There are a consider¬ 
able number of gills on each side. The heart is 
dorsal and in a large space known as the pericar¬ 
dium. The mouth leads by a short oesophagus to a 
stomach armed with a complex masticatory appa¬ 
ratus. The sexes are separate. The eyes are on 
short stalks, one on each side of the head. It 
undergoes ecdysis, i.e. the skeleton is periodically 
thrown off to admit of growth. 

Astarte, the Greek name of the female deity 
known in Syria and Phoenicia as Ashtaroth (q.v.). 

Astarte, the Venus shells, a genus of Cvprinidae, 
widely distributed in northern seas ; it has existed 
since the time of the Coal-measures. 

Astbury (classic Asta Pompeia), a parish in 
Cheshire, comprising the town and borough of 
Congleton, and the town of Buglawton. There are 
some thirty-live silk factories within its limits. 

Aster, a large genus of composite plants, three- 
fourths of which are natives of North America, and 
one, A. Tripolmni, the Sea Aster, is British. They 
vary in the form of the leaf, and range in height 



1, Floret of the ray ; 2, stigma ; 3, tioret of disc. 

from three inches to ten feet, but agree, in having 
yellow tubular disc florets, and strap-shaped ray 
florets, either white, lilac or purple, with numerous 
imbricate bracts to the involucre. Several species 
are cultivated under the names of Michaelmas and 
Christmas Daisies. 

Asterias, the genus which includes the com¬ 
mon starfish of the English coast (A. rubens ), and 
this serves as a useful introduction to the study 
of the Echinodermata. It belongs to the class 
Asteroidea, and the order Cryptozonata. The 
animal consists of a central disc from which radiate 


several (usually five) arms. The mouth is at the 
centre of the lower or actinal side ; it leads by a 
short oesophagus to a stomach from which two 
branches (hepatic caeca) run up each arm. 'I he anus 
(not present in all Starfish) is on the centre of the 
upper or abactinal side. The main feature in the 
anatomy of the asteroids is the water vascular system; 
this consists of a ring round the mouth ; on this ring 
are nine reservoirs (Polian vesicles), a canal which 
opens on the upper side by a filter-like plate (madre- 
porite), and trunks, one of which runs up a furrow 
on the lower side of each arm ; upon these are 
borne the tube feet by which locomotion is effected. 
The blood vascular and nervous systems consist of 
similar rings round the mouth, bearing a branch up 
each arm ; the former has also a ring round the anus. 
The generative organs consist of a pair or pairs of 
glands in each arm. As each arm is thus provided 
with a complete set of organs, is bilaterally sym¬ 
metrical in cross section, and is segmented, Hiickel 
suggested that the starfish consisted of a series of 
worm-like animals fixed together by their heads. 
The Starfish live mainly on shellfish, and sometimes 
invade oyster beds in enormous numbers. 

Asteridse, a family of starfish, including the 
common Asterias rubens (q.v.). 

Asterina, a genus of starfish, of which one 
species (A. grbbosa) is common round the English 
coast. It is the type of the Asterinidcc. 

Asterisk (Greek a small star), a figure re¬ 
sembling a star (*), used in printing either to refer 
to a footnote or to denote an omission. 

Asteroidea, the starfishes, a class of the 
Echinodermata. The body is flattened, and is 
either pentagonal or has a varying number (usually 
five) of radiating arms. These are hollow and con¬ 
tain prolongations of the digestive and reproductive 
organs ; the ventral side has a furrow containing 
the tube feet. The anus, when present, is dorsal, 
as is also the opening of the water vascular vessels. 
The skeleton consists of a series of many calcareous 
plates, the importance of which varies considerably 
in different families. The larva is a small free- 
swimming animal, provided with a series of arms, 
and known as a Bipinnaria or Brachiolaria. 
The most recent classification is into the Phanero- 
zonata, those with large marginal plates (e.g. 
Astropecten), and the Cryptozonata, those with 
these plates absent or rudimentary (e.g. Asterias). 
The first starfish occur in the Cambrian period. 

Asteroids, or Planetoids, a number of small 
planets existing between the orbits of Mars and 
Jupiter. The existence of a planet in this zone 
had been surmised by Kepler as far back as 1596, 
but it was not till the beginning of this century 
that the first of the planetoids was discovered. 
More than two hundred have since been found, the 
four largest being Vesta, Ceres, Pallas, and Juno. 
They are at an average distance of about 250,000.000 
miles from the sun. A very good telescope is neces¬ 
sary in order to see them, as the largest of them is 
only about 230 miles in diameter. [Meteorites.] 

Asthenia, loss of strength, debility. 












Asthenopia. 


( 235 ) 


Astrakhan. 


Asthenopia, ci term applied to a group of 
symptoms associated with certain ocular defects. 
Thus in Hypermetropia (q.v.) headache with pain 
and inflammation on use of the eyes are commonly 
met with. Asthenopia is too frequently overlooked, 
or at any rate it is not recognised that the eyes 
aie at fault. Persistent headaches in children 
should always suggest the necessity of a pro¬ 
fessional opinion upon the eyesight. 

Asthenosoma, a deep-sea Echinoid with a 
flexible test; it is of interest, as many of the oldest 
known Sea-urchins resembled it in this respect. 

Asthma, a term loosely applied in common 
parlance to almost any form of chest affection. In 
its correct use the word should be employed to 
designate a peculiar spasmodic affection of the 
bronchial tubes leading to recurring paroxysms of 
distress and laboured breathing. True spasmodic 
asthma is frequently hereditary, and is curiously 
dependent upon certain exciting causes, such as 
certain smells, the consumption of particular 
articles of food, and especially the influence of 
locality. Many asthmatics can only live in large 
towns ; nay, sometimes they breathe in comfort in 
one particular part of a town, while their removal 
to some closely neighbouring spot is attended by 
the development of an asthmatic attack. During 
a paroxysm the distress is intense, the chest is ex¬ 
panded, and even the most powerful efforts of the 
muscles seem unable to promote that interchange 
of air which is necessary for the due aeration of 
the blood. The attack commonly lasts two or three 
days, and in young people recovery is rapid, but in 
old subjects of the disease organic changes are apt 
to develop in the lungs, making convalescence more 
prolonged. The occurrence of death in a seizure of 
uncomplicated asthma is practically unknown; never¬ 
theless the symptoms are exceedingly distressing 
and alarming while the paroxysm lasts. Relief is at 
times afforded by inhaling the fumes of stramonium, 
or those arising from burning nitre paper; as a 
rule, however, the attack has to wear itself out. 
Much can be done in the way of lengthening the 
intervals between the seizures by adopting hygienic 
precautions, by the suitable choice of locality to 
live in, and by avoiding all those digestive and other 
troubles which are so apt to induce an attack. 

Asti, a town in the province of Alessandria, 
North Italy, on the left bank of the river Tanaro, 
26 miles from Turin. It is large and well-built, 
and has a station on the line between Turin and 
Alessandria. A bishop has his seat here, and the 
cathedral dates from 1248. It was famous for pottery 
before 400 B.C., when the Gauls destroyed it. In the 
middle ages it was a powerful republic, and some 
of the hundred towers that defended it are still in 
existence. Alfieri was born here in 1749. The 
district produces one of the most famous of Italian 
sparkling wines. 

Astigmatism, a visual defect due to the re¬ 
flecting media of the eye not being of equal power 
in all meridians. Thus, rays in a vertical plane 
may be brought to a focus before those in a 
horizontal plane, or vice versa, and consequently the 


two sets of rays are not capable of being simul¬ 
taneously focussed on the retina, and blurred images 
are therefore formed. A slight degree of astigmatism 
is present in almost all eyes, but. sometimes the 
defect is so pronounced as to seriously interfere 
with accurate vision, and in that case it is most 
important that the condition should as far as 
possible be remedied by the use of suitable glasses. 

Astley, Philip, the well-known equestrian, 
was born at Newcastle-under-Lyne in 1742. He 
served with credit in the army, and in 1763 opened 
a booth for the display of horsemanship in Lambeth, 
where he built in 1773 the first of his nineteen 
theatres. He entered the ranks again for a short 
time in 1794, when the theatre was burnt down, 
and afterwards, in conjunction with Franconi, 
established the Cirque Olympique in Paris. He 
died in 1814. 

Astomata, the mouthless Protozoa, viz. the 
Rhizopoda and Sporozoa. 

Aston Manor, a suburban district of Birming¬ 
ham which was erected into a Parliamentary 
borough returning one member by the Act of 1885. 
There is a public park opened by the Queen in 
1858, and the old manor house is preserved. 

Astor, John Jacob, the founder of the great 
commercial house in New York and of the Astor 
Library, was the son of a German peasant, and was 
born near Heidelberg in 1763. At the age of 20 
he emigrated to America, and speedily made a 
fortune in the fur trade. In 1811 he established 
the colony of Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia 
river. Washington Irving made it the subject of 
one of his popular works. At his death in 1848 he 
left about four millions sterling. This vast fortune 
his son William more than doubled, besides being 
the greatest owner of land and house property in 
New York. The latter died in 1875. 

Astrabad, a town in Persia, at the foot of the 
Elburz Mountains, and 30 miles south-east of the 
Caspian Sea. It was once the residence of the 
Kajar princes, the ancestors of the Shah. Owing 
to its unhealthiness, the Persians call it “ the City 
of the Plague.” The province of which it is the 
capital bears the same name, and has an area of 
5,633 square miles. 

Astraea, the daughter of Zeus and Themis, in 
Greek mythology. She inherited from her mother 
the duty of asserting justice, and was the last 
divinity that left the earth when the Golden Age 
finished in a period of lawlessness and crime. She 
then took her place in the constellation of Virgo, 
but Dryden in a famous poem celebrated her sup¬ 
posed return at the Restoration. 

Astraea, the type genus of the Astrjeidje, a 
family of reef - building corals of the sub-order 
Aporosa. 

Astragalus, a bone of the foot, forming, to¬ 
gether with the leg bones, the ankle-joint. 

Astrakhan, a government and city of Southern 
Russia, north of the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus. 
Originally a province of the Mongol Empire, it was 
conquered by Russia in 1554. Most of its surface 








Astral Body. 


( 236 ) 


Astronomy. 


is covered with barren plains and salt lakes, but 
the banks of the Volga are fertile enough. The 
population in 1882 was 708,911. The city of 
Astrakhan stands on an island in the Volga about 
30 miles from its mouth. The sheepskins are noted 
in commerce; the fisheries are highly productive, 
and there is a large trade with Persia and the East 
in furs, silk, shagreen, iron, etc. It is the seat of 
both an Armenian and a Greek Archbishopric. 

Astral Body, the term applied by Theoso- 
phists to a body of pure ether, clothing the vital 
principle of man, and the exact counterpart of his 
human bod) 7 in appearance, which adepts are said 
to be able to project to any distance in space, thus 
accounting for the stories of bilocation (q.v.); a 
ghost, a double. 

Astral Spirits, spirits believed, in mediaeval 
times, to people the heavenly bodies. They were 
variously conceived as fallen angels, as the souls of 
dead men, or as spirits originating in fire, and 
hovering between heaven and earth or earth and 
hell. The term astral spirit is used by Theoso- 
phists to denote the principle of life. 

Astringents, drugs which possess the power 
of diminishing the secretion from mucous mem¬ 
branes. The most important of these are certain 
metallic salts, such as alum, perchloride of iron, 
sulphate of copper, acetate of lead, nitrate of 
silver, and certain vegetable substances such as 
catechu, kino, and tannic and gallic acids. 

Astrolabe, an ancient instrument formerly 
used for taking the altitude of a star or any other 
heavenly body. It was eventually superseded by 
the quadrant (q.v.). 

Astrology (Greek astron, star; and logos, dis¬ 
course) is related to astronomy as alchemy to 
chemistry. In the infancy of our race, before the 
human mind learned to distinguish between the 
phenomena of inner consciousness and those of the 
external world, observers attributed to the material 
universe the. volition and passions, the mental and 
moral powers possessed by themselves. Hence 
arose the first impulses of natural religion and the 
confused collections of false analogies that preceded 
the elaboration of the several sciences. The sky, 
the sun, the moon, and the other heavenly bodies 
became necessarily the earliest and most universal 
objects of speculation. In the East, where the 
presence and power of these phenomena were con¬ 
stantly appealing to the senses, their spiritual and 
moral influence obtained the readiest recognition. 
The Chinese, the Hindus, the Semitic nations, the 
Egyptians, the primitive Greeks, the Etruscans, all 
in different degrees exhibited this phase of develop¬ 
ment, and either left it behind or were arrested at 
one stage or another. In one case crude fire- and 
nature-worship would be the result. Elsewhere the 
deification of nature took a wider and subtler form. 
Among the monotheistic Semites a belief in the 
mysterious connection between the signs of the sky 
and the destinies of man grew up side by side with 
religious faith. As in the case of alchemy, long 
observation led to the discovery of some true laws 


and principles and to the registration of certain re¬ 
current changes, but priests, professors, or charlatans 
hid away their knowledge in unintelligible words 
and symbols, the motives of the concealment being 
power or profit. So far as the civilisation of 
Europe is concerned, the systematised error and 
superstition known as astrology were not of home 
growth, but were imported in the main from 
Chaldea or Arabia, though the cosmogonies of the 
Greeks, the divinations of the Etruscans, and the 
mysteries borrowed from Egypt and Persia had 
prepared the soil for them. The chief ideas that 
governed the elaborate scheme as it loomed forth 
on the dark ages may be thus summarised :—By a 
process of anthropomorphism to each of the planets 
there were assigned certain human characteristics, 
the sun and the moon holding higher positions in 
the scale. Each sign of the zodiac had also its 
distinct moral attribute. The celestial sphere 
was divided into twelve sections termed houses, 
measured off upon the ecliptic. It will be obvious 
that the constellations and planets appear from 
time to time in different divisions, and in different 
combinations. The houses themselves possessed 
varying powers, the strongest being the compart¬ 
ment just about to rise above the horizon at any 
moment, and termed the ascendant , whilst that just 
rising was called the horoscope. Moreover, all 
natural objects, plants, animals, minerals, and even 
countries were symbolically connected with this or 
that celestial body. Here, then, we have ample 
materials for the prediction at any given point of 
time from the aspect of the heavens of the course 
of future events. Adepts, too, were not above 
changing their rules to suit the occasion, and 
brought to their task considerable political and 
personal knowledge, so that with the use of am¬ 
biguous and technical verbiage they not unfre r 
quently hit the mark, and still more often produced 
the effect desired by their patrons. The system 
which we have briefly sketched had many out¬ 
growths and amplifications which it is impossible 
to trace out here. So long as astronomy had not 
assumed the consistency of a science, men of un¬ 
doubted intellect and honesty failed to free them¬ 
selves from the bonds of superstition. Tycho 
Brahe, Kepler, La Bruy ere, and Beza, nay, even 
Francis Bacon himself yielded to the fascinations 
of mystery. Copernicus struck the death-blow of 
error when he proved the sun and not the earth to 
be the centre of the solar system, but the folly of 
ages was not to be cured by the first touch of truth. 
In England, Swift’s satire on Partridge did more 
to discredit charlatanism than any scientific ex¬ 
position. But Napoleon professed a belief in the 
stellar influence; Zadkiel’s Almanac flourishes to 
this day; and there still exist obscure professors 
ready to cast horoscopes for a trifling pecuniary 
consideration. 

Astronomy, the science which treats of the 
heavenly bodies. Spherical astronomy is purely 
mathematical, and treats of the apparent and real 
positions of the heavenly bodies in the celestial 
sphere, including the calculation of their past or 
future positions, their distances and magnitudes. 







Astronomy. 


( 237 ) 


Asturias. 


Nautical astronomy is an application to the needs 
of navigators for the determination of position 
on the earth by means of the configurations in 
the celestial sphere. Physical astronomy dis¬ 
cusses the forces which cause motion, the analysis 
and composition, early history, and development 
of the heavenly bodies. [Spectrum Analysis.] 
The sun is the centre of a system of planets 
travelling round it, all of them very nearly in the 
same plane. One of these is our earth. Each 
planet has its year, or period of revolution round 
the sun, and its day, or period of rotation about its 
own axis. The axis of a planet does not remain 
fixed in direction, but “wobbles” slowly, like the 
axis of a spinning top. This wobbling is called 
precession (q.v.). 

Some of these planets have satellites of their own. 
The earth’s satellite is the moon (q.v.). Saturn 
(q.v.), besides having eight moons, has a very re¬ 
markable ring round it—the nature of which will 
be discussed separately. When the moon intervenes 
between the earth and the sun, part of the latter 
is obscured, and we have a solar eclipse. If the 
earth’s shadow falls on the moon we have a luno.r 
eclipse. When the space between earth and sun 
is traversed by another planet we have a transit. 
The transits of Venus are of very great importance 
in the accurate estimation of the sun’s distance 
from the earth—about 92,000,000 miles being its 
mean value. The variation of the sun’s distance, 
together with the obliquity of the earth’s axis to 
its ecliptic or plane of motion round the sun, de¬ 
termines the seasons. The attraction of the moon and 
sun on the waters of the earth produce tides, which 
are of greater or less extent as the sun and moon 
act in conjunction or oppose each other’s effects. 

Besides our sun, there are innumerable other 
suns in the universe, i.e. the stars, but at such 
tremendous distances that they are but points in 
the heavens even when viewed with the largest 
telescopes. The stars were fancifully arranged 
into constellations by the ancients, and for con¬ 
venience the old names are still employed in 
classification. Hundreds of stars have been found 
to be double, i.e. they exist in pairs, each pair 
revolving about the common mass-centre, like chain 
shot, but with only the immaterial link of gravity 
keeping them together. Finally, we have nebula;, 
some consisting of matter in a gaseous state, others 
composed of immense aggregations of stars re¬ 
sembling faintly luminous clouds, and requiring 
telescopes of high power to resolve them into in¬ 
dividual stars. The Milky Way is an example of 
the latter. 

Astronomy was studied by the ancients to a con¬ 
siderable extent. The Chinese are said to have 
recorded a conjunction of Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, 
and Mercury with the moon, which phenomenon 
took place b.c. 2500. The Indians were able to 
calculate eclipses, and certain observations of the 
Chaldean astronomers have been proved to be true 
by recent calculations. Aristarchus (260 B.c.) taught 
the double motion of the earth round the sun and 
round its own axis. Hipparchus determined the 
eccentricity of the earth’s orbit, the length of the 
solar year, noted the precession of the equinoxes, 


and started a catalogue of stars. The Ptolemaic 
system (q.v.) was propounded in the second 
century; it regarded the earth as the centre of 
the universe, round which revolved the sun, moon, 
and planets. It held sway till the time of 
Copernicus in the sixteenth century, who taught 
that the sun was the centre of our system. Then 
Kepler, chiefly by means of the observations of 
Tycho Brahe, arrived at his three laws of planetary 
motion (q.v.). Newton gave the world his theory 
of gravitation and the laws of motion, and from 
that time to the present, chiefly on account of the 
advance in optical science and the consequent 
development of the telescope, astronomical dis¬ 
covery has progressed to an amazing extent. 

Astropectenidse, a family of Starfish with¬ 
out anus, but with pointed tube feet, large marginal 
plates, and internal plates supporting the ambu- 
lacral plates. The type genus is Astropecten, which 
is first found in the jurassic rocks. 

Astrophyton, the Medusa-head Star, a genus 
of Brittlestars with very flexible and branch¬ 
ing arms. 

Astropyga, a genus of Sea Urchins, with a 
flexible test, and sometimes an extra number of 
interambulacral plates ; these features are remark¬ 
able from their occurrence in the oldest known 
Sea-urchins. 

Astrorhiza, one of the genera of Foramini- 
FERA, having the test composed of grains of 
sand, etc. It is the type genus of the family 
Astrorhizidce . 

Astruc, Jean, a noted French physician and 
Biblical critic. He was born in 1684, and in 1731 
was appointed professor of medicine in Paris. He 
was the author of many medical works, but his 
book dealing with the Pentateuch is that which 
principally entitles him to reputation. He died 
in 1766. 

Astur, a genus of raptorial birds, of which the 
goshawk (q.v.) is the type. 

Astura, a small town in Italy at the mouth of 
the river of the same name, and 40 miles from 
Rome. There is a small harbour, and a tower is 
believed to mark the site of Cicero’s villa where he 
was killed by Antony’s order. Conradi, the last of 
the Holienstauens, was captured here in 1268 after 
the battle of Taglicozzo. 

Asturias, one of the ancient provinces of Spain, 
now named Oviedo after its capital. It stretches 
along the north coast, forming the south shore of 
the Bay of Biscay, and is bounded south by Leon, 
east by old Castile, west by Galicia. Its area is 
4,091 square miles. The coast districts are flat, but 
the country rises inland towards the range that 
takes its name from the province, and is broken 
up by rugged mountains and deep valleys, the 
highest peaks being 11,000 feet above sea-level. 
The broader openings produce maize, figs, olives, 
grapes, cider, and oranges, and pasturage is 
abundant. The horses and mules are highly 
valued. Fish, coral, and amber are plentiful on 
the coast, but want of secure harbours cramps 






Astyages. 


( 238 ) 


Atcheen. 


these industries, and impedes the development of 
mineral resources. Asturias has been the cradle 
of the Spanish monarchy, and the heir apparent has 
since 1388 taken his title thence. During the 
Moorish invasions the Gothic kings found refuge 
in these mountain strongholds, and in 701 Froila, 
son of Pelagio, established at the capital of Oviedo 
the monarchy of Asturias. The only other towns 
of importance are Gijon and Aviles. 

Astyages, son of Cyaxares, was the last king 
of the Medes, his reign extending from 594 to 
559 B.C. He married a daughter of Alyattes, King 
of Lydia, and his daughter Mandane became the 
wife of Cambyses, the Persian, whose son Cyrus, 
according to Herodotus (i. 107, sq.), deposed his 
grandfather and seized the throne. However, 
Xenophon tells another story, and affirms that 
Cyrus succeeded in the ordinary course to his 
uncle, Cyaxares II., who died without issue. 

Asuncion. [Assumption.] 

Asylum. [Lunacy.] 


Asymptote, a line that approaches indefinitely 
near to a curve as the two are produced indefinitely. 



It is therefore a tangent to the curve at infinity, as 
OAorOB. A surface is regarded as asymptotic to 
another if it satisfies a similar condition to the above. 

Asyndeton (Gk. not joined') in Grammar , a 
figure in which the connecting words are omitted. 
It is used to give increased force to the statement. 

Atacama, a district on the west coast of South 
America, belonging partly to Bolivia, partly to 
Chili. Cobija is the capital of the Bolivian portion, 
and Copiapo that of the Chilian province, which is 
by far the richest. The country possesses an inex¬ 
haustible supply of copper, silver, and other metals, 
including gold. The particular variety of copper ore 
known as Atacamite takes its name hence. The 
area of the district is about 110,000 square miles. 

Atahualpa, the last of the Incas, in 1532 ob¬ 
tained complete possession of the kingdom, it having 
been formerly divided between himself and his 
brother. In 1533 he was captured by Pizarro (q.v.) 
and executed. 

Atalanta, the daughter of Schoeneus, King of 
Scvros, was, according to Greek legend, famous 
for her swiftness of foot. She promised to give her 
hand to any one who could outrun her, on condition 
that all defeated candidates should suffer death. 


Undeterred by the fate of previous suitors, Hippo- 
menes entered the lists, but Aphrodite had furnished 
him with three golden apples which he dropped 
one by one when he felt himself hard pressed. 
The maiden delayed in order to pick up the rolling 
gold, and was beaten, but took her defeat very 
kindly. Mixed up with this heroine is another 
Atalanta of Arcadia, who, exposed as an infant on 
Mount Parthenius, was suckled by a she-bear and 
became the mother of Parthenopseus. Milanion was 
the name of her successful suitor. 

Atavism, the appearance in an individual of 
some peculiarity which was present in a more or 
less remote ancestor, but which has “ skipped ” at 
least one generation. Atavism is of not uncommon 
occurrence in disease. Thus a child may suffer 
from asthma, while neither of its parents was ever 
similarly afflicted, but the disease was present in 
one of the grandparents. 

Ataxy, Locomotor, a disease in which the 
co-ordination of movements is impaired, producing 
among other characteristic symptoms a staggering- 
or “ ataxic ” gait, and a difficulty in maintaining 
the equilibrium of the body. The affection was 
first described and named in 1858 by Duchenne. 
The morbid process affects mainly the spinal cord, 
and was at one time confused with paralysis. The 
affected limbs, however, possess plenty of muscular 
power, but it is not so harmonised and directed by 
the nervous system as to produce natural move¬ 
ments. Locomotor ataxy is of insidious onset, 
and when once typically developed usually lasts 
till death, though it does not in itself as a rule tend 
to shorten life. Besides the impairment of move¬ 
ment, there are frequently present the so-called 
“lightning pains,” certain ocular phenomena, and 
an absence of the knee-jerk (q.v.). Locomotor 
ataxy rarely commences before thirty years of age, 
though a disease of a somewhat similar though not 
identical character is sometimes met with in 
children, and from its occurring in families is 
known as hereditary ataxia. 

Atchafalaya(Ind. lost river), a channel which 
conveys the waters of the Red River, and, in 
floods, of the Mississippi also, into the Gulf of 
Mexico. It passes through Lake Chetimaches, 
and has a course of 220 miles. 

Atcheen, or Acheen, once a rather important 
kingdom occupying the north-west extremity of 
the island of Sumatra. The natives are physically 
and intellectually superior to the rest of the 
Sumatrans, and for many years held the Portuguese 
at bay, while in 1874 the Dutch endeavoured to 
establish a footing in the country. They are 
mostly Mohammedans. The chief products are 
spices, pepper, betel-nuts, sugar, and rice. Formerly 
the East India Company had a factory here. 
Atcheen, or Khota Raja, the capital, is at the mouth 
of a river between two high ranges, at the north¬ 
west point of the island, near Acheen Head. The 
ground is swampy, and the houses are built on 
bamboo piles. The inhabitants of the country 
number over half a million ; but the city has been 
nearly depopulated by war. 























































Atchison. 


( 239 ) 


Athanasius. 


Atchison, a city of Kansas, U.S.A., an import¬ 
ant railway junction. There is considerable trade. 

Ate, in Greek mythology the daughter of Zeus, 
and the goddess of strife and mischief. She caused 
so much annoyance in Olympus that her father 
banished her to earth, where her presence was 
productive of great misery. Homer {II. xix. 91) 
and some tragic authors regard her as the spirit of 
vengeance or retribution for guilty rashness, and 
describe the kindly daughters of Zeus, the Litai 
(Prayers), as dogging her footsteps and counteract¬ 
ing her evil deeds. It is not easy to separate her 
functions from those of Ara and Erinys. The 
abstract noun, of which she personifies the meaning, 
is never found in any prose writer. 

Ategerat, or Adigerat, a town in the Agame 
province of Abyssinia, near the north-west frontier 
and on an eminence close to Mount Alewka. It 
was formerly the residence of the rulers of Tigre, 
but is now almost in ruins. 

Ateles. [Spider-Monkey.] 

Atelestasis, the condition in which the 
natural expansion of the lungs or of a part of the 
lung does not occur at birth, but the foetal un¬ 
expanded condition persists. 

Ateliers (Fr. workshops, studios'), the name 
given to a number of workshops which were 
established in 1848 by the French government, and 
styled ateliers nationaux. They were found to be 
impracticable, and were soon abolished. 

Atellanse Tabulae, a kind of light farce per¬ 
formed by Roman citizens of noble birth, introduced 
very early into Rome. They were of a distinctly 
broad nature. 

A tempo, in Music, a direction indicating that 
the original time is to be resumed after any change 
has been made. 

Athabasca, a river and lake in British North 
America. The former, also known as Elk river, 
rises in the Rocky Mountains near Mount Brown, 
flows north-west, then north, and discharges itself 
into the south extremity of the lake. The latter 
has a length of about 230 miles, and an average 
breadth of 20 miles. It communicates with the 
Polar Sea through Great Slave Lake, and with 
Hudson’s Bay at Port Nelson, and receives the 
Peace river from the west. 

Athabascans, the most widespread division 
of the North American aborigines, their domain 
occupying the greater part of the dominion of 
Canada and Alaska, and stretching with consider¬ 
able interruptions thence southwards into North 
Mexico. Athabascan is a purely geographical expres¬ 
sion, taken from Lake Athabasca, which lies about 
the centre of their territory. The most collective 
native name for this great aggregate of tribes is 
Tinneli , that is, “ Men,” a term in various dialectic 
forms (Tinne, Dinne. Dine, Dnaine, Dinja, etc.), ap¬ 
propriated by most of the groups as their own special 
designation. The more important of these groups 
are the Kenais and Atnahs (Nehannes) of Central 
and South Alaska; the Kutchins or Loucheux 
between the Upper Yukon and Lower Mackenzie 


rivers; the Chippewayans with the Beaver, Slave, 
Dog-rib, Hare, Yellow-knife, Sheep, and other 
tribes, between the Rocky Mountains and Hudson 
Bay north of the Churchill river ; the Tacullies or 
Carriers of North British Columbia and eastwards 
to the Mackenzie ; the Umpquas of Oregon; the 
Tlaskanais of the Lower Columbia ; the Hoopahs 
of California, and the Apaches of Arizona and 
North Mexico. The various groups differ con¬ 
siderably in their physical and mental qualities, 
some being typical Redskins, fierce and untamable, 
others of a low and somewhat degraded appearance, 
timid and servile ; but all speak more or less closely 
related forms of the same Athabascan language, 
which shows but slight affinities with any other 
native tongues. It is spoken in its greatest purity 
by the Chippewayans of Lake Athabasca, who are 
in every way the most important members of the 
family, and who are not to be confounded with the 
Algonquin Chippeways of the Laurentian lacustrine 
region. The Athabascans are mainly hunters and 
trappers, and most of them find employment as 
such in the service of the Hudson Bay Company. 
The best authority on the Athabascan tribes is the 
missionary, M. Petitot, whose writings have ap¬ 
peared in the Annee Geo graph ique and several 
other French periodicals. 

Athaliah, the wife of Jehoram, King of Judah. 
After the death of her son Ahaziah she slew all the 
male members of the royal house, except Joasli, her 
youngest grandson, who escaped, and six years 
later (878 B.C.) asserted his rights, and put her to 
death (2 Kings xi.; 2 Chron. xxii.). Her history 
is the subject of a French tragedy by Racine, 
and has been musically treated by Handel and 
Mendelssohn. 

Athanaric, a Gothic king in Thrace during the 
fourth century a.d. He was compelled by Yalens 
to abandon his encroachments on the empire, and 
was subsequently driven by the Huns to seek 
refuge in Constantinople, where he died in 381. 

Athanasian Creed, a statement of the ortho¬ 
dox faith of the Church, not, however, the work of 
Athanasius, but of a Latin author of the fifth 
century, possibly either Hilary of Arles or Yictricius, 
Bishop of Rouen. The name, however, has been 
justified on the ground that the creed states the 
faith maintained by St. Athanasius against the 
Arians (q.v.). The Church of England orders the 
Creed to be said or sung on certain festivals. The 
Disestablished Church of Ireland and the Protestant 
Episcopal Church of the U.S.A. have, however, 
abandoned the practice. The so-called “ damna¬ 
tory clauses ” have often excited discussion. 

Athanasius, the most illustrious of the 
Greek Fathers, was born at Alexandria about 
296 a.d. He was protected by Alexander, the 
Bishop of Alexandria, and as a deacon took an 
active part in combating the views of Arius at 
the Council of Nice. In 328 he was chosen Bishop 
in succession to Alexander, but the Arians resisted 
his appointment by fair means and foul, till in 327 
a council held at Tyre deposed him, and Constantine 
banished him to Treves. Constantine II. restored 






Athecata. 


( 240 ) 


Athens. 


him, and again he was expelled by two councils at 
Antioch. He now went to Rome, and found a 
friend in Constans, who induced his brother, Con- 
stantius, after the vote of councils held at Milan 
and Sardica, to reinstate the persecuted bishop 
(340 A.D.). After the death of Constans he was 
driven out once more, and sought refuge in the 
Thebaid, where he began the composition of his 
works. Julian’s accession permitted him to return 
to Alexandria, but he had again to fly into hiding. 
During Jovian’s reign he resumed quiet possession 
of his see, and though Valens exiled him for a short 
time, he spent the last ten years of his episcopacy 
in comparative peace, dying in 373. His works 
consist mainly of treatises and orations in support 
of the doctrine of the Trinity and the Incarnation, 
opposing the heresies of Arius and his followers. 
The Athanasian Creed was not composed by him, 
but was either the production of Hilary of Arles 
in the fifth century or of Spanish theologians of a 
later date. [Arius.] 

Athecata, the sub-order of Hydrozoa, in 
which there are neither Hydrotliecce nor Gonotliecce 
(i.e. cups for the protection of the polypites or 
feeding members of the colony, or for the gono- 
phores or reproductive members). It is synonymous 
with Gymnoblastese. 

Atheism (Gk. a-theos, without God), the belief 
that no God exists ; frequently confounded with 
Agnosticism and Pantheism (q.v.). 

Atheling, an Anglo-Saxon title of honour, 
usually applied only to those of royal blood, but 
later extended to any of noble birth. It was first 
conferred by Edward the Confessor on Edgar, his 
grand-nephew. 

Athelney,THE Isle of (Ang. Sa x.Boyal Island ), 
a swampy tract at the junction of the rivers Tone 
and Parret in Somersetshire. Here Alfred the 
Great found a refuge from the Norsemen, and 
established (a.d. 888) a Benedictine Abbey, of 
which no traces are left. 

Athelstan, or ^Ethelstan, born 896, suc¬ 
ceeded his father Edward the Elder in the Saxon 
monarchy in 925. He first adopted the title of 
“ King of the English.” By his marriage with 
the sister of Cytric he established a claim to 
Bernicia, which he annexed. Constantine of Scot¬ 
land supported a grandson of Cytric, and whilst 
Athelstan was engaged in upholding Louis d’Outre¬ 
nter, an insurrection broke out in the north with 
a view to restoring Danish power. This scheme 
was crushed by the great victory of Brunanburh, near 
Beverley, in 937. In 940 Athelstan died. He was 
a wise and temperate monarch, who introduced 
several important judicial and social reforms. 

Athena (Gk. Athene, in Homer always Pallas 
Athene; also called Athenaie and Pallas Athenaie, 
which makes it probable that the word is adjectival), 
in Greek mythology the goddess of wisdom, war, 
and skill in the useful arts, statecraft, agriculture, 
weaving and needlework. One tradition represents 
her as springing armed from the brain of Zeus. 
Herodotus and others regard her as the child of 
Poseidon and Tritonia. Athens was under her 


special care, and was the chief seat of her worship. 
[Acropolis.] She had the credit of founding the 
Areopagite Court, and of pleading before it in 
favour of Orestes. The olive was sacred to her as 
being one of her most precious gifts to man. 
Amongst animals the owl, the cock, and the serpent 
were her chief favourites. She lent the Greeks her 
powerful aid in the Trojan war. The Panathenaia, 
her great festivals at Athens, were celebrated 
yearly on a small scale, and once in each Olympiad 
with greater splendour. She was a virgin deity, 
and is usually represented with helmet, shield, spear, 
and coat-of-mail. The Romans identified her with 
their Etruscan goddess Minerva, who possessed 
similar attributes. 

Athenaeum (lit. the temple of Athene ), an¬ 
ciently an institution built by Hadrian and con¬ 
secrated to Athene, which was much frequented by 
poets and literary men. The term is now applied 
to any establishment founded for the purpose of 
encouraging literature or art, to which is often 
attached a reading-room or library. 

Athenaeus, a Greek rhetorician and grammarian, 
born at Naucratis in Egypt about the beginning of 
the third century A.d. Only one work of his has 
come down to us, and that unfortunately in an in¬ 
complete state. It is called Peipnosophistcc, and is 
a rambling account of a dinner party of learned 
and witty people, who discuss a hundred topics, 
and interlard their talk with references to and 
quotations from many authors known to us other¬ 
wise only by name. Casaubon devoted his erudition 
to editing this book. 

Athenagoras, an Athenian philosopher who 
embraced Christianity at Alexandria, and wrote an 
Apology for that faith, and a TreoMse on the Bcsuv- 
rection of the Bead. The first work is dedicated to 
Marcus Aurelius and Commodus, which would fix 
its date approximately at 170 a.d. Some critics 
assign it to the period of Hadrian. No reference 
is made to the author by any contemporary. 

Athenais, or Eudoxia, the learned daughter 
of Leontius, an Athenian physicist. Her father 
having bequeathed his fortune to his two sons and 
left her penniless, she went to Constantinople in 
order to put her case before Theodosius II. The 
Emperor’s sister, Pulcheria, struck with her beauty 
and talent, converted her to Christianity and in¬ 
duced Theodosius to marry her. After a time he 
suspected her of infidelity and divorced her. She 
spent the rest of her days at Jerusalem, dying there 
in 460 A.d. She translated the first eight books of 
the Old Testament into Greek verse, and wrote a 
poem on the martyrdom of St. Cyprian. 

Athens (in Gk. ’Adyvcu), the capital of Greece, 
a city of about 100,000 inhabitants. It is situated 
towards the S. of the plain of Attica, about five 
miles from the Saronic Gulf, between the two 
streams Cephissus and Ilissus, with the mountain 
of Hymettus to the E., and that of Pentelicus to 
the N.E. The modern city lies between the rock of 
Lycabettus and the Acropolis. 

The history of Athens goes back to mythological 
times. In the beginning the Acropolis was ali the 




Athens. 


( 241 ) 


Athens. 


city, which was then called Cecropia, after Cecrops, 
its founder. Cecrops I. was therefore the first king 
of Athens, so termed. He is supposed to have 
reigned about 1580 b.c. The city was then fenced 
with wooden palings. Caves in the rocks W. and 
S.W. of the Acropolis still exist, and are conjectured 
to have been the dwellings of these first Pelasgic 
Athenians. One of them is now called the prison 
of Socrates, though upon no exact evidence. Ac¬ 
cording to the legend, King Theseus in the 13th 
century b.c. united all Attica in one state, named 


preserved, public works constructed, agriculture 
encouraged, justice enforced.” His sons Hipparchus 
and Hippias were not so successful. The former 
was killed by Aristogeiton, and the latter, being- 
driven from Athens in 510 B.c., took refuge in 
Persia. Thanks in part to him King Darius sent an 
expedition against Athens, which was routed by 
Miltiades in 490 b.c. in the famous plain of Mara¬ 
thon. Subsequently Xerxes sought to avenge this 
defeat. Athens was sacked twice in two years, and 
but for Themistocles and the Battle of Salamis 



THE ACROPOLIS, ATHENS, WITH THE RUIN OF THE TEMPLE OF ZEUS OLYMPIOS. 


the city Athens, and instituted the Panathenaic 
festival. With the death of Codrus about 1100 b.c. 
began the reign of archons instead of kings. 
Gradually the city became democratic. Three 
centuries later the archons were elected every 
ten years instead of for life, and in 084 they were I 
elected annually. In 024 Draco was archon. His j 
code of laws is proverbial for its severity, all offences \ 
being punished with death. The recently discovered j 
MS. of Aristotle proves him to have been the i 
founder of Athenian democracy. The archon Solon j 
(594 b.c.) repealed many of Draco’s laws, and drew J 
up a scheme of constitutional reform which reorgan- j 
ised the financial system, and much extended the j 
franchise. He had previously carried the Seisach- j 
theia, a measure relieving the poor peasant-farmers j 
from the servitude they had incurred by their in- j 
ability to pay the arrears of rent and interest due j 
to the land-owning nobility. After Solon, Pisis- | 
tratus seized the government by a coup d'etat, and, 
though twice successfully opposed and expelled, 
ruled despotically for seventeen years in all. His 
reign was a good time for Athens—“ peace was 

16 


(480 b.c.) the Athenian nation would have been ex¬ 
terminated. Athens now became the head of a 
Hellenic league against Persia. The brilliant era of 
Pericles may be dated from about 460 b.c. The 
Parthenon was built. The dramas of Sophocles, 
Euripides, and Aristophanes were written and re¬ 
presented. Money streamed into the city from de¬ 
pendencies. Luxury and leisure prevailed. The 
population was at its greatest—100,000 freeborn 
Athenians, and 200,000 slaves or more. But another 
reaction followed soon after the death of Pericles in 
429 b.c. The Sicilian expedition under Nicias failed 
deplorably in 412 B.C., and in the agitation that en¬ 
sued the government was seized by an oligarchy, 
whose rule soon broke down through internal dis¬ 
sensions. The war with Sparta turned out badly for 
Athens. In 405 B.c. Lysander, the Spartan admiral, 
captured the city, and there was talk of razing it to 
the ground and making its site a pasturage. At 
Lysander’s bidding the Athenians now chose an olig¬ 
archy of thirty to rule over them. But the thirty 
soon became despotic, and used their power for pri¬ 
vate ends. Hence they were called the “Thirty 



















Athens. 


( 242 ) 


Athens. 


Tyrants.” Tlirasybulus headed a salutary revolu¬ 
tion, and for a time Athens continued to flourish. 
But the Athenians had degenerated in spirit. They 
were glutted with too much prosperity, and Philip 
of Macedon at Chseronea, in 338 b.c., was able to 
beat the combined Greek army, whereby Athens 
lost her independence. The succeeding Macedonian 
kings were not hard upon Athens, but they were 
careful to keep the city in subjection. Demetrius 
Poliorcetes showed especial favour to the Athenians, 
who, from gratitude, pretended to worship him as 
a god until his fortunes began to change. Then 
they made it a capital offence to have any dealings 
with him. For this Demetrius was able afterwards 
to punish them, though he was persuaded by 
Craterus, the philosopher, not to proceed to extremi¬ 
ties against the city. The nature of the Athenians 
was by this time an astounding blend of syco- 
phantism and aspiration. They wore chaplets of 
flowers on a report of Aratus’s death, to ingratiate 
themselves with the Macedonians ; yet a little later 
they besought this same Aratus to help them to get 
rid of the Macedonians. In this entreaty they were 
successful. Athens now came under the protection 
of Pome. It was politic of the Roman Senate to 
leave the Athenians a shadow of independence. 
Nevertheless, they were taxed and ruled from Rome 
like any other province of the Republic. Active 
malcontents were disposed of summarily ; otherwise 
the Athenians had not much to complain of at the 
hands of Rome until Sulla came upon them. This 
was in 86 b.c. Athens had sheltered one of the 
generals of Mithridates, in revenge for which 
Sulla sacked the city, “ and committed so merciless 
a slaughter that the very channels in the streets 
flowed with blood.” Under the empire, Athens, 
now in a state of impotence, was treated benignly. 
A Roman gentleman’s education was not reckoned 
complete unless he had journeyed to the famous 
city, whence most of Rome’s own wisdom had pro¬ 
ceeded. With the accession of Hadrian in a.d. 117 
Athens seemed likely to have a new lease of 
splendour. The emperor so loved the city that he 
gave the inhabitants special privileges, and built 
many new edifices. Hence the saying, “ the city 
that used to be Theseus’s is now Hadrian’s.” In the 
third century the Goths overran Attica and took 
Athens. A significant tale is told of them. “ When 
they had plundered the city, and heaped up an 
infinite number of books, with a design to burn 
them, they desisted from that purpose for this 
reason, viz. that the Greeks, by employing their 
time upon them, might be diverted from martial 
affairs.” The long winter of Athens’ declension 
and neglect now set in. Its temples fell into ruins, 
and its old fame was obscured. From the Latin 
dukes it passed at length by conquest, in 1456, to 
the Turks, who held it until 1830, when, by the 
Second London Protocol, Greece was declared an 
independent kingdom. In 1832 Prince Otto of 
Bavaria was proclaimed King of Greece, and was 
succeeded in 1863 by Prince William of Sonderburg- 
Gliicksburg, who still rules as George I., and who 
has several children to perpetuate his royal line. 

The interest of old Athens centres upon the Acro¬ 
polis, the summit of which is about 250 yards by 


100 in area. Here, near the middle, is the Parthenon 
—“the finest building on the finest site in the 
world.” It was designed by Ictinus, and completed 
in 438 b.c. Its Doric columns have with age 
acquired a golden colour, very beautiful with the 
sunlight upon them. It was dedicated to Athena, 
and was used as a treasure-house, and also as the 
temple-in-chief for the Panathenaic festivals. Since 
the days of Pericles it has served variously as a 
Christian church of the Greek and Latin faith, as 
a Turkish mosque, and as a powder magazine. In 
1687, during the siege by Venice, a shell exploded the 
powder in the Parthenon, and many of its columns 
were wrecked. Later, Lord Elgin obtained permis¬ 
sion to take what he pleased from it. The Elgin 
marbles in the British Museum thus comprise, among 
other valuables, the frieze of this notable work of art. 

The Erechtheum, a temple dedicated to Poseidon, 
stands near the Parthenon. It is much more ornate 
than its nobler neighbour. Some of the details of its 
chiselling are, indeed, masterpieces, copied in every 
art school in the world. Within the Erechtheum 
were the salt spring supposed to have been caused 
by a touch of Poseidon’s trident; an image of 
Athena, said to have dropped from the skies ; and 
the sacred olive produced by her. To this day the 
Erechtheum is in parts admirably preserved. 

These two are the chief buildings of the Acropolis. 
There are also the temple of the Wingless Victory, 
the Propylaea, the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, the 
theatre of Dionysus, and other lesser relics, either 
on or built in the outer sides of the rock. The 
Greek Government is now very zealous in preserving 
all the remains of old Athens in architecture and 
sculpture. It is a criminal offence to take any such 
relic out of the country without official sanction, 
which is little likely to be given. 

A few words may be said about modern Athens. 
It is a well-built, bustling city, with several daily 
papers, three or four railway stations, and bound¬ 
less ambition. The royal palace is an ugly, square 
building, of white marble from Pentelicus, whence 
also came the material for the Parthenon itself. 
Some of the private houses of Athens are exceed¬ 
ingly handsome, thanks to the abundance of pre¬ 
cious building material. The city itself is stretching 
fast over the plain towards Piraeus, its port, with 
which it will soon be quite connected by houses. 
The Athenians do not dress differently from the 
people of other European capitals ; but the number 
of Albanians and country-folk in their ancient 
costumes gives colour to the streets. 

As a residence, Athens is both healthy and cheap. 
The prevailing winds are north-east and south-west; 
these blow for more than two hundred days in the 
year. The middle of August is the hottest time, 
and the end of January the coldest, the range of 
temperature being between about 40° in January to 
90° in August. The rainiest month of the year is 
November. Of diseases, those most fatal in Athens 
are consumption, pneumonia, typhoid fever, cardiac 
maladies, and, chief of all, affections of the diges¬ 
tive organs. August seems to be the month with 
the highest rate of mortality, and the next in order 
are June, January, and May. February, March, 
and April have the least mortality. It may be 











STEAM COMMUNICATION IN THE ATLANTIC OCEAN. 



Kpsmo* 

























































































Atherine. 


( 243 ) 


Atlantic Ocean. 


remarked that the great fast of Lent occurs in 
February and March; while, on the other hand, 
the fruits are ripe, or nearly ripe, during May, 
June, and August, when the mortality is excessive. 


Atherine, a name for any fish of the Acan- 

lop eivgian family Atherinidse, and especially for 
those of the tvpe-genus {Atherina). They are 
small carnivorous fishes, from temperate and 
tropical seas; many of them readily enter fresh 
water, and some have been acclimatised in it. The 
type-genus contains some thirty species, rarely 
more than six inches long, frequenting the coasts, 
and living in large shoals—a habit retained by such 
ot the species of the family as have taken to fresh 
water. All are highly esteemed for food; and from 
their general resemblance to the smelt they are 
often called by that name, though the difference 
may be easily detected from the presence of a 
small spinous first dorsal fin in the Atherines. 
Two species ( Atherina presbyter and A. boyeri) 
occur on the south coast of Britain, and the first is 
generally known to fishermen and sold as the 
“ Sand Smelt.” The genus Atherinichthys is 
abundant on the coast of Australia and South 
America. llie species attain a much larger size 
than those of Atherina, and are equally esteemed as 
food-fish, the best known being A. laticlavia. 

Atheroma, a diseased condition affecting the 
walls of arteries and the valves of the heart. The 
arterial coats become infiltrated with cells, which 
subsequently undergo fatty degeneration or calcifi¬ 
cation. The elasticity and resistance of the artery 
are thus interfered with, and various affections 
may thence result, e.y. aneurism (q.v.), senile 
gangrene, or, if the cerebral vessels be affected, 
apoplexy (q.v.). Atheromatous degeneration is 
almost always present in old persons, but in some 
subjects it may occur earlier or to a greater extent 
than in others. 


Athetosis, a peculiar form of spasmodic move¬ 
ment affecting the fingers and more rarely the 
toes, which sometimes follows upon an attack of 
paralysis. The movements of athetosis differ from 
those of chorea (q.v.), in that they are much more 
slowdy executed; they cease as a rule during sleep, 
but at all other times there is an inability to main¬ 
tain the affected member in one position, whence 
the name of the condition, athetosis meaning “ with¬ 
out fixed position.” 

Athlete, originally, one trained to take part in 
the great contests established in ancient Greece 
and Rome. The principal event in these contests 
was the pentathlon, which consisted of running, 
leaping, boxing, wrestling, and throwing the discus. 
A victory in these games was considered a splendid 
honour, and pensions, statues, and extraordinary 
privileges were sometimes given as rewards of 
success. At the present time athletic sports do 
not hold such an important place in public esteem 
as in the days of Greece or Rome. There is still, 
however, a considerable interest manifested in the 
various branches of athletics, and information will 
be found under such headings as Cricket, Foot¬ 
ball, Jumping, Rowing, Swimming, etc. 


Athlone, a town in the counties of Westmeath 
and Roscommon in Ireland, 76 miles from Dublin. 
The river Shannon divides it into two parts. The 
castle, founded in the reign of King John, is on the 
Roscommon side. In 1691 the town was taken by 
the forces of William III. It is now one of the 
chief military stations in Ireland. 

Athos, Mount, or Monte Santo, stands at 
the extremity of the most northerly of the three 
finger-like peninsulas that project from the coast of 
Salonika into the Aegean Sea.‘ It is 6,780 feet high, 
and is covered with monasteries, called hermitages, 
and chapels, to the number of 900. These are 
occupied by monks of the Greek Church, and have 
libraries peculiarly rich in manuscripts. No woman, 
nor indeed any female animal, is allowed on the 
peninsula, presumably because of the sin of Eve. 
Xerxes on his way to Greece cut through the pe¬ 
ninsula a channel which can still be traced. 

Atitlan, a small town and lake in the interior of 
Guatemala, Central America. The latter is 24 miles 
long, and 8 or 10 miles broad, and probably occupies 
an extinct crater, as its depth exceeds 1,800 feet. 
The volcano of Atitlan stands on its south shore, 
with a town at its base. 

Atlanta, the capital of Georgia, U.S.A., nearly 
300 miles N.W. of Savannah. It is a large and 
flourishing town, and does an extensive trade in 
cotton. It has a university and medical colleges. 

Atlanta, the type-genus of Atlantid^e, a 
well-known family of Heteropoda, It occurs in 
the warmer parts of the Atlantic. 

Atlantes (plural of Gr. Atlas'), in Architecture, 
figures of men used to support entablatures instead 
of pillars. They are sometimes called Telamones. 
Female figures used for a similar purpose are called 
Caryatides (q.v.). 

Atlantic Ocean, the name given to that 
vast body of water that separates the Old World 
from the New, its north and south limits being the 
Arctic and Antarctic circles. It thus has a length 
of 9,000, an average breadth of 2,700, a shore line 
of over 50,000 miles, and an area of 25,000,000 
square miles. The widest stretches from land to 
land are just under 4,000 miles between Florida and 
Morocco, or Cape Horn and the Cape of Good Hope, 
and the narrowest breadth, between Norway and 
Greenland, is 900 miles, whilst from Cape Rocca to 
Sierra Leone the distance is 1,700 miles. The 
depth averages from three to five miles. Off St. 
Thomas soundings of 23,250 feet have been taken, 
but south of the Newfoundland Bank there seems 
to be a much deeper depression. Along the “ Tele¬ 
graphic Plateau” from Cape Clear to Cape Race 
the mean depth is no more than 11,000 or 12,000 
feet, and the ocean becomes shallower as the Pole 
is approached. This fluid mass is influenced by 
two great surface currents, viz. the Gulf Stream, 
which issues from the Gulf of Mexico, at a temper¬ 
ature of from 10 to 30 degrees higher than the sur¬ 
rounding water, and strikes in a north-east direction, 
passing between Iceland and Norway, and the Equa¬ 
torial Current, sweeping in the opposite direction 










Atlantis. 


( 244 ) 


Atmosphere. 


from the African coast to Cape St. Roque, where it 
divides, one half entering the Caribbean Sea, and the 
other half taking a southerly direction along the 
Brazilian coast. A minor current, really a branch 
of the Gulf Stream, sets from the Azores towards 
Africa, and, curving round Cape Palmas, reaches 
the Bight of Benin. It is called the Guinea 
Current. Cold streams issuing from Davis’s Strait 
and from the Polar Sea meet the Gulf Stream off 
the American coast in about 50° N. lat. and passing 
under it find their way to the equator. In the 
South Atlantic below Cape Horn a counter current 
to the Equatorial Current has a constant easterly 
direction. A large space of still water called the 
Sargasso Sea is enclosed between the Gulf Stream 
and the Equatorial Current. It is close packed 
with sea-weeds, especially with the Sargassum 
bacciferum, from which it gets its name. [Ocean 
Currents.] The Atlantic, apart from being- 
affected by constant, periodical, and local winds 
[Winds, Monsoons], is liable to heavy gales in the 
temperate zones, and to cyclones and hurricanes at 
the equator. Fogs are prevalent at the points 
where the Gulf Stream meets colder currents, and 
icebergs drift as far south as 44° N., whilst in the 
southern hemisphere their range extends as high 
as the latitude of the Cape. Waves acquire a 
greater height and mass in this ocean than in any 
other. Off the Cape of Good Hope they are some¬ 
times 40 feet high and a quarter of a mile broad. 
In the North Atlantic it is seldom that they 
exceed 25 feet. [Ocean Routes.] 

Atlantis, the name given by Plato and other 
classical authors to an island which was supposed 
to exist in the ocean beyond the Pillars of Hercules. 
Whether it may be assumed that early navigators 
had brought back tidings of a western land, or 
whether the unknown country was a mere creation 
of fancy, we cannot now determine. Bacon adopted 
the name for his Utopian romance, the New Atlantis, 
which he never completed. 

Atlas, a chain of mountains in the north-west 
of Africa extending from Cape Nun on the Atlantic 
shore to the Gulf of Sidra in the Mediterranean, 
thus traversing Morocco, Algeria, Tunis, and 
Tripoli. It consists of three or four parallel 
ranges rising stage by stage from the basin of 
the Mediterranean and increasing in altitude from 
east to west. The two larger of these ranges are 
called the Great (N.) and the Little (S.) Atlas. In 
Tripoli the average height is 2,000 feet, in Tunis 
4,500, in Algeria 7,700, but in Morocco Mount 
Miltsin (anc. Atlas) reaches 11,400 feet, Jebel 
Tedla 13,000 feet, and Mount Henleb, near the 
Algerian frontier, rivals these two peaks. Several 
lateral spurs are thrown out north and south from 
the main ridges, one of these terminating in Cape 
Spartel opposite Gibraltar. The entire chain serves 
as a barrier between the cultivated district on the 
coast and the barren sands of the interior. 

Atlas, in Greek mythology, a personification 
of the mountain near Morocco, known to us as 
Mount Miltsin. According to the story, Atlas, 
the son of Iapetus and Clymena, was King of 


Mauretania. He took part with the Titans against 
Zeus, and was by way of punishment trans¬ 
formed into a mountain and condemned to bear 
the heavens on his shoulders. He was credited 
with being father of the Pleiades, the Hyades, and 
the Atlantides. The figure bearing the world on its 
shoulders was adopted by Mercator as the frontis¬ 
piece of his first collection of maps, to which he 
gave the name Atlas , subsequently applied to all 
similar publications. Anatomists use the term to 
describe the first vertebra of the neck. 

Atmosphere, the gaseous envelope which sur¬ 
rounds the earth. It is retained by the force of 
gravity, though probably it undergoes gradual dis¬ 
sipation into interstellar space. The average com¬ 
position is as follows, column ( a ) giving the 
percentage volume, and (Jo) the percentage weight, 
of the gaseous constituents :— 



(a) 

<&) 

Nitrogen. 

■ - - 79-02 - 

70*84 

Oxygen . ■ 

• - - 20-94 - 

23-10 

Carbon dioxide - - - ■ 

• - - 0-04 - 

0-06 


The composition remains singularly uniform all over 
the earth, a result of the thorough mixing of the 
gases due to continual air currents [Wind], and to 
gaseous diffusion [Diffusion]. It is an important 
fact, however, that the air always holds a certain 
quantity of moisture, which varies very considerably 
with the locality, the wind, weather, and tempera¬ 
ture of the air. [Rain, Hygrometry.] In certain 
localities may be also found traces of nitric acid 
vapour, ammonia, sulphuretted hydrogen, and other 
gases, while solid particles of organic and other 
matter, in an exceedingly fine state of subdivision, 
occur everywhere, the importance of which has 
recently manifested itself in the investigations on 
the formation of fogs, and on the germ theory. 

It will suffice to notice here that the oxygen is 
needed for the support of combustion, inorganic 
and organic, which includes the support of all 
animal and vegetable life. Its chemical activity is 
partially marked by the neutral nitrogen present, 
which acts as a diluent. The chief products of 
combustion of organic substances are water and 
carbon dioxide gas, whose presence in the air is 
thus readily explained. The function of carbon 
dioxide is important, for plants possess the power 
of decomposing the gas by aid of certain actinic 
properties of sunlight, and in so doing absorb the 
carbon for their own sustenance. 

Being acted on by the earth’s gravitational force, 
the air has weight and exercises a measurable 
pressure on any body immersed in it. The ac¬ 
curacy of meteorological forecasts depends to a 
great extent on careful observations of the vari¬ 
ations of atmospheric pressure. The English 
standard atmosphere is that equivalent to the 
weight of a column of pure mercury 30 inches in 
height, or about 14-7 pounds to the square inch. 
[Barometer.] Under this pressure, and at a tem¬ 
perature 60° F., 100 cubic inches of dry air weigh 
31-074 grains. 

The importance of our atmosphere is obvious. It 
acts as a medium for the propagation of sound, and 
as a screen to prevent the too rapid outward radia¬ 
tion of the heat received by us from the sun ; to it 









Atoll. 


( 245 ) Atomic Theory. 


the weather phenomena are clue, and without it 
such animals as this earth possesses could not live. 

Atoll, a Maidive word meaning - a ring-shaped 
coral-reef, with a central lagoon of calm water, 
such as Whitsunday Island in the Pacific. 

Atom. An atom is defined in modern chemistry 
as the smallest portion of matter which can take 
part in a chemical change. It is not divisible by 
any forces at present at our disposal. Atoms are 
not conceived to be capable of existing singly; 
but always in combination with at least one other 
atom to form a molecule. [Molecule.] If the 
atoms in the molecule are alike, as with oxygen, 
mercury, gold, etc., the substance formed by an 
aggregation of such molecules is called an element; 
otherwise it is a compound. There can, of course, 
be no atom of a compound body, and the term is 
therefore restricted to the ultimate particles of the 
elements. 

Atomic Theory, the name given to that 
theory which regards matter as being built up of 
indivisible particles called atoms, to explain observed 
chemical facts by assigning certain physical proper¬ 
ties to these atoms. The true atomic theory of 
modern chemistry is due to Dalton and is not yet a 
century old, but has done a very great deal to for¬ 
ward the science of chemistry, and to procure 
powerful allies in physics and mathematics. The 
theory simply states that matter consists ultimately 
of atoms of different kinds, that atoms combine 
with other atoms of like or unlike kind forming 
molecules, and that matter in bulk, such as our 
senses perceive it, consists of exceedingly large 
numbers of segregated molecules. 

The atom is the smallest quantity of matter that 
can exist in combination; the molecule is the 
smallest quantity that can exist alone, and must, 
therefore, consist of at least one atom. Mercury 
and zinc give examples of molecules containing 
only single atoms; hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, 
and most other elements have two atoms; the 
ozone modifications of oxygen have three ; whilst 
phosphorus and arsenic possess four atoms to the 
molecule. 

If in a quantity of matter all the molecules 'are 
alike, the substance is said to be pure; if other¬ 
wise, we have a mechanical mixture. If the con¬ 
stituent atoms of the molecules are all alike we 
have an elementary substance or element. If, while 
the molecules are alike, they are not composed of 
like atoms, we have a pure chemical compound. 
The elements as we know them are not infinite in 
number, hence the available types of atoms are 
limited. The properties of all atoms of the same 
type, i.e. of the same element, are supposed identical 
throughout the universe, if under the same con¬ 
ditions. One of the most important physical 
properties of an atom is its mass, from which in¬ 
deed Mendeleeff’s periodic law of the elements 
enables us to deduce other properties of the sub¬ 
stance. The mass of an atom is reckoned in terms 
of the mass of the hydrogen atom, which is the 
lightest known to us at present. The atomic weight 
of an element means therefore the ratio of the 
weight of its atom to the weight of the hydrogen 


atom. The following is a table of the atomic 
weights of the known elements :— 


Aluminium 

- 

- 

A1 

27 

Molybdenum 

- 

Mo 

90 

Antimony - 

- 

- 

Sb 

120 

Nickel - - 

. 

- 

Ni 

58-6 

Arsenic 

- 

- 

As 

75 

Niobium - 

- 

_ 

Nb 

94 

Barium 

- 

- 

Ba 137 

Nitrogen - 

. 


N 

14 

Beryllium - 

- 

- 

Be 

9 

Osmium - 

_ 


Os 

195 

Bismuth - 

- 

- 

Bi 

20 s 

Oxygen - 

- 


O 

10 

Boron - 

- 

- 

B 

11 

Palladium 

_ 


Pd 100 

Bromine - 

- 

- 

Br 

80 

Phosphorus 

- 


P 

31 

Cadmium - 

- 

- 

Cd 

112 

Platinum - 

. 

- 

Pt 

194-4 

Cfesium 

- 

- 

Cs 

133 

Potassium 

. 


K 

39 

Calcium - 

- 

- 

Ca 

40 

Rhodium - 

_ 


Rh 104 

Carbon 

- 

- 

C 

12 

Rubidium - 

- 


Rb 

85 

Cerium - - 

- 

- 

Ce 

140 

Ruthenium 

- 


Ru 103-5 

Chlorine - 

- 


Cl 

35-4 

Samarium - 

- 


Sa 

150 

Chromium 

- 

- 

Cr 

52 

Scandium - 

- 


Sc 

44 

Cobalt - - 

- 

- 

Co 

5S - 6 

Selenium - 

- 


Se 

79 

Copper - - 

- 

- 

Cu 

03 

Silicon - - 

- 


Si 

28 

Didymium 

- 

- 

Di 

142 

Silver - - 

. 


Ag 

10S 

Erbium 

- 

- 

E 

100 

Sodium 

_ 

_ 

Nft 

23 

Fluorine - 

- 

- 

F 

19 

Strontium 

_ 


Sr 

87-5 

Gallium 

- 

- 

Ga 

70 

Sulphur - 

. 


S 

32 

Germanium 

- 

- 

Ge 

72 3 

Tantalum - 

- 


Ta 

1S2 

Gold - - 

- 

- 

Au 19G*5 

Tellurium - 



Te 

125 

Hydrogen - 

- 

- 

H 

1 

Thallium - 

_ 


T1 

204 

Indium - - 

- 

- 

In 

113-4 

Thorium • 

_ 


Tli 

232 

Iodine - - 

- 

- 

I 

120-5 

Tin - - - 



Sn 

118 

Iridium 

- 

- 

Ir 

192-5 

Titanium - 

- 


Ti 

4S 

Iron - - - 



Fe 

56 

Tungsten - 

. 


W 

1S3-6 

Lanthanum 

- 

- 

La 

13S 

Uranium - 

_ 


U 

240 

Lead - - 

- 

- 

Pb 206*4 

Vanadium- 

_ 


V 

51 

Lithium - 

- 

- 

Li 

7 

Ytterbium 



Yb 173 

Magnesium 

- 

- 

Mg 

24 

Yttrium - 

_ 

_ 

Y 

89 

Manganese 

- 

- 

M11 

55 

Zinc - - 

_ 


Z11 

05 

Mercury - 

- 

- 

Hg 

200 

Zirconium 

- 


Zr 

90 


It will now be seen how the following observed 
laws of chemical combination may be explained:— 

(a) The law of fixity of proportions in chemical 
compounds states that every definite pure substance 
always possesses the same constitution. Thus 
water always contains eight-ninths its weight of 
oxygen, with one-ninth of hydrogen. For on the 
assumption of the atomic theory, each molecule of 
water contains two atoms of hydrogen united with 
one of oxygen. Hence, since the percentage com¬ 
position of each molecule is a constant, that of any 
number of molecules will also remain the same. 

(b) The law of multiple proportions in chemical 
compounds states that substances may form dif¬ 
ferent compounds by uniting in fixed proportions, 
which bear some simple numerical relation to each 
other. Thus the ratio of the weights of the carbon 
and oxygen in carbon monoxide are 3 : 4, in carbon 
dioxide, 3:8. So also nitrogen and oxygen unite in 
different proportions, forming a series of oxides 
whose constituents are in the ratios 1 f, LA, i|, 14 , 
and 44 . These facts are readily explained. A 
molecule of carbon monoxide contains one atom of 
carbon and one atom of oxygen, the ratio of whose 
weight is f. The molecule of carbon dioxide con¬ 
tains one atom of carbon with two of oxygen; 
hence the ratio of the constituents is Similarly 
with the nitrogen oxides, we are led to the belief 
that two atoms of nitrogen unite with one, two, 
three, four, and five atoms of oxygen, forming these 
five different kinds of molecules, whose composi¬ 
tions are therefore closely related to each other. 

(c) The law of chemical equivalents , chemical 
quantities which are equal to the same thing as 
regards their power of doing chemical work or of 
forming chemical compounds, are equivalent to 















Atonement. 


( 246 ) 


Attachment. 


each other. One gramme of hydrogen will unite 
with 35'4 grammes of chlorine or with 8 of oxygen. 
Hence 8 grammes of oxygen are chemically equiva¬ 
lent to 35‘4 of chlorine, or two atoms of hydrogen 
combine with two of chlorine or with one of oxygen; 
hence two atoms of chlorine are equivalent to one 
of oxygen, and knowing the respective atomic 
weights the above numerical relationship may be 
immediately established. 

The next two laws given are not directly deducible 
from experiment, relating as they do to individual 
molecules. 

(d~) A vogadro's Law. — Equal volumes of all gases 
at the same temperature and pressure contain the 
same number of molecules, i.e. molecules of all 
gases under the same conditions of temperature 
and pressure occupy the same space. [Molecule.] 

( e ) Dulong and Petit's Law .—The atomic weight 
of an element multiplied by its specific heat is a 
constant for all elements, known as the atomic heat. 

These two laws receive full confirmation from the 
kinetic theory of gases, as advanced by Clausius, 
Clerk-Maxwell, and other physicists, and afford the 
most conclusive means of settling the atomic 
weight of an element. 

For an explanation of the system of nomenclature 
adopted in modern chemistry see Chemistry. 

Atonement, a “ putting at one ” or reconcilia¬ 
tion of those who were alienated, properly referring 
to the work of Christ in reconciling fallen man 
with God. Sometimes, however, in recent times the 
word has been used as if it meant satisfaction or 
payment for sin. 

Atrato, a river in the United States of 
Colombia, South America. Rising in a spur of 
the West Cordilleras, it flows almost due north, 
and after a course of 200 miles discharges itself by 
nine mouths into the Gulf of Darien. It is navig¬ 
able for most of its course, and engineers have 
proposed to connect it by canal with the S. Juan, 
which falls into the Pacific, thus providing a 
substitute for the now practically abandoned 
Panama Canal. 

Atreus, the legendary king of Mycenm, who 
succeeded his father, Pelops, married Aerope, and 
was the father of Agamemnon and Menelaus. To 
avenge the seduction of his wife by his brother, 
Thyestes, he killed the children of the latter, and 
served up their corpses at a banquet given to their 
father. Aygisthus, another son of Thyestes, killed 
Atreus, and the Nemesis attaching to the house 
extended to later generations. [Orestes.] Sophocles 
made Atreus the subject of a tragedy which is no 
longer extant. 

Atri (classic Hadria), a town in the province 
of Abruzzo Ulteriore, Italy. It is built on an 
eminence 26 miles from Teramo and 5 miles from 
t he Adriatic, on which it formerly had a large port. 
Extensive remains show the ancient importance of 
the place. It is now the seat of a bishopric. 

Atrial System, the pallial sinuses in the 
Brachiopoda. 

Atrium, (1) in Medusae, the cavity into which 
the mouth opens. (2) In Tunicata, the cavity 


around the pharynx into which the anus opens; 
the aperture by which it communicates with the 
exterior is called the atrial pore. [Ascidia.] 

Atrium, the hall or most important room in a 
Roman house in ancient times. It was lighted by 
means of a large opening in the middle of the 
ceiling called the compluvium, beneath which, in 
the centre of the floor, was the imphivium, designed 
to catch the rain which fell through the com- 
pluvium. 

Atropas, a genus of Hymenoptera ; it includes 
the bookworm A. pulsatorius. 

Atrophy (want of nourishment ), the condition 
of wasting or diminution in bulk which ensues 
when the body or any part of the body does not 
receive sufficient nutrient material. A good example 
is afforded by the atrophy of the fatty tissues of 
the human body which occurs in starvation. 

Atropine (Ci 7 Ho 3 N0 3 ), the alkaloid obtained 
from the roots and leaves of the Deadly Night¬ 
shade ( Atropa Belladonna ), a plant not uncommon 
on limestone. It is a powerful narcotic poison, 
but is extensively used in ophthalmic medioine from 
its property of contracting the iris, i.e. dilating 
the pupil, of the eye. From its use by the ladies 
of Venice in the sixteenth century for this purpose 
the plant was called “ bella donna.” It is believed 
to be mutually antidotic with muscarine, the 
alkaloid of the Fly Agaric ( Amanita muscaria). 

Atropos, in Greek mythology, one of the Fates ; 
the other two were Clotho and Lachesis. She was 
the one who cut the thread of life ; Clotho spun it 
and Lachesis directed it. 

Atrypa, a genus of Brachiopoda; A. reticu¬ 
laris is a very well-known fossil, remarkable for 
its enormous range in time. 

Atta, a genus of Ants which stores up seeds for 
the winter, and prevents their germination by 
gnawing the radicle. 

Attach^, one attached to an embassy, usually 
a junior member of the staff of the ambassador. 
[Diplomacy, Envoy.] 

Attachment is of two kinds : 1. Against the 
person ; 2. Against property (including debts). 

1. Person. —An attachment against the person is 
a kind of criminal process which Courts of Record 
are authorised to issue. This process is granted in 
cases of contempt, which all Courts of Record may 
punish in a summary manner. If a contempt be 
committed in court by a breach of the peace, 
defiance of its authority, or an interruption of its 
proceedings, the offender may at once be attached 
and punished to a reasonable extent at the discretion 
of the presiding judge. 

Attachment is also used to enforce obedience to 
the orders of the High Court of Justice, which also 
may be enforced, however, by committal. “ Attach¬ 
ment ” is effected by a writ issued by leave of a 
court or a judge, and directed to the sheriff ; 
whereas “ committal ” is directed to be made by 
an order to be carried out by the tipstaff without 
the aid of the sheriff. The distinction, however, 






Attainder. 


( 247 ) 


Attica. 


between committal and attachment in cases of 
contempt, though formerly of importance, is practi¬ 
cally abolished. Under the Debtors Act of 1869, 
arrest for making default in a sum of money is 
abolished, with the exception of certain specified 
offences, of which the most important are : default 
by trustees ordered to pay sums by a court of 
equity; and defaults by solicitors in payment of 
penal costs, or of sums for which they may be liable 
in the character of officers of the court. Attach¬ 
ment is issued to punish disobedience to the rules 
or awards of court generally. 

2. Attachment of debts is the mode by which sums 
of money due to an indebted person may be paid 
direct to his creditor. The person owing the sum 
of money sought to be so dealt with is called “ the 
garnisher; ” there are fine distinctions as to what 
liability constitutes an attachable debt. For in¬ 
stance, a liability by a third person to indemnify 
a debtor in respect of unliquidated risk is not con¬ 
sidered a debt in such a sense that a creditor may 
call upon the third person to pay the sum to him 
instead of to the debtor entitled to the benefit of 
the indemnity. The order which a creditor may 
obtain for the purpose of attaching debts due to his 
creditor is to be obtained on application to a judge 
at chambers; and the order has the effect of re¬ 
straining the garnisher from paying over the debt 
to any person but the creditor. 

As to attachment in the Mayor’s or City of London 
Court, see Foreign Attachment. “ Attachment ” 
referred to on arrest, see also Arrestment. 

Attainder, that extinction of civil rights and 
capacities which formerly took place when judgment 
of death or outlawry was recorded against a person 
Avho had committed treason or felony. The con¬ 
sequences were the forfeiture of land and goods 
and corruption of blood. In case of such a result, 
neither he, nor his ancestors through him, could 
transmit an estate of inheritance to any of his sons 
or other issue. Modern legislation has however by 
degrees modified this disability, until both forfeiture 
and corruption of blood finally disappeared under 
the provisions of the statute 33 and 34 Viet., ch. 23. 
A descendant may also now trace through an 
attainted ancestor. The attainder of a trustee or 
mortgagee does not occasion the lands, etc., to 
escheat or be forfeited. 

Attar, or Otto of Roses, an oily liquid 
perfume obtained by distillation from the petals of 
roses, chiefly the Damask Rose (. B,osa Bamascena ), 
cultivated in South France, Tunis, Persia, India, 
and, for the English market, mainly on the lower 
slopes of the Balkans, in Eastern Roumelia, where 
about 4,000 lbs., valued at £60,000, are annually 
produced. It is largely adulterated with the very 
similar Oil of Geranium obtained from the Indian 
grass Andropogon Scliaenanthus. 

Atterbury, Francis, was born in 1662, and 
after receiving his education at Winchester and 
Oxford was ordained in due course. He wrote a 
treatise in support of Luther against papistical 
detractors. His ability and eloquence were soon 
remarked, and in 1691, coming to London, he was 


chosen by William III. as one of his chaplains. 
He acted as tutor to Charles Boyle, afterwards 
Lord Orrery, and is believed to have written his 
pupil’s reply to Bentley on the Phalaris question. 
But though dexterous and showy, Atterbury was no 
match for Bentley in scholarship. He next engaged 
in a controversy with Dr. Wake, who maintained 
stoutly the royal supremacy in the Church. In 
1700 he became archdeacon of Totnes and Canon 
of Exeter. On her accession Anne appointed him 
one of her chaplains, and in 1704 he was made 
Dean of Carlisle. A sermon, in which he depreci¬ 
ated morality as distinct from religion, brought him 
into collision with Hoadley. Being translated to 
the deanery of Christchurch he created much dis¬ 
turbance in the University, and just before Anne’s 
death received the bishopric of Rochester with the 
deanery of Westminster. Casting in his lot with 
the more violent Tories, he offered at Anne’s 
decease to proclaim King James, and he refused 
to sign the bishops’ declaration in favour of 
George I. He was not unnaturally suspected of 
having a finger in the Jacobite plots, and was 
arrested and consigned to the Tower in 1722. The 
House of Lords next year sentenced him to banish¬ 
ment, and he lived until 1731 in Brussels and Paris, 
mixing in good society, and hatching schemes for 
the restoration of the Stuarts. His body was 
privately buried in Westminster Abbey. Atterbury’s 
character has been the subject of much dispute. 
He possessed brilliant abilities, but lacked depth. 
He appears to have been induced to sacrifice 
religious and political principle to personal 
ambition. His temper was overbearing and 
tyrannical under opposition, but a polished courtly 
manner veiled this defect from ordinary observers. 

Attic, in Architecture , a low storey above an 
entablature or cornice, sometimes termed an Attic 
storey. The name Attic order is sometimes given 
to small pillars or columns on the exterior of an 
attic. In ordinary language an attic is a room 
immediately below the roof of a house. 

Attica, the country that for nearly a century 
held the first place amongst the states of ancient 
Greece, occupied a triangular promontory south of 
Boeotia and east of Megaris, having the iEgean Sea 
to the east and the Saronic Gulf to the south-west. 
The name is probably connected with acte, shore. 
The surface is rugged, the ranges of Cithferon and 
Parnes making a barrier to the north, whilst 
Pentelicus, Hymettus, and Laurius, famed for silver 
mines, spi*ead over a large proportion of the interior. 
Elatea and Oxea, the highest peaks, attain about 
4,600 feet. The intervening plains produce some 
cereals, but are especially fertile in olives and figs. 
Much of the soil, however, is thin and poor. Be¬ 
sides affording pasture for sheep, goats, and cattle, 
the uplands, especially of Hymettus, were famous for 
honey. The two chief rivers are the Cephissus and 
the Ilissus, but smaller streams are abundant. The 
climate is warm, dry, and bright. The manner in 
which the scattered townships and clans of this 
peninsula were welded together so as to form a 
distinctive State must remain a subject of conjec¬ 
ture. The names of Cecrops, Erechtheus, and 






Atticus. 


( 24S ) 


Attorney. 


Theseus are inseparably connected with this period 
of Attic history, but nothing trustworthy can be 
ascertained. We find that early in the seventh cen¬ 
tury b.c. the country was occupied by Ionian 
Greeks, governed on oligarchical principles by 
archons, a senate or boule ( Areopagus ), having 
Athens for a centre, and organised into four tribes 
(phylai), each containing three Phratries (phratriai), 
and ninety Gentes {gene), the Gens consisting of 
thirty families. Locally the country was divided 
into townships ( [deinoi ), which first obtained political 
importance under Cleisthenes, and politically 
(probably at a later date) into Naucraries (nau- 
crariai). The tribes and naucraries had their 
prytanes or headmen. How this primitive organisa¬ 
tion developed into a democracy, how the popular 
assembly ( ecclesia ) gradually acquired supreme 
control of affairs, and how the constitution was 
modified by the successive reforms of Draco, Solon, 
Cleisthenes, Pericles, and Ephialtes, will be found 
described under the heads of Athens and of the 
above-named statesmen. Attica in the earliest 
historical times must have had a population of 
10,000. In the height of Athenian prosperity this 
total probably increased to something approach¬ 
ing half-a-million, the large majority of whom were 
slaves. Apart from artificial classifications the 
inhabitants fell naturally under three orders—the 
Pedieis or wealthy landowners of the plains round 
Athens, the Parali or dwellers on the southern 
coast, and the Diacrii or poor mountaineers of the 
eastern or northern cantons. The interests of these 
sections were often opposed, and under local leaders 
such intestine struggles affected the early develop¬ 
ment of the commonwealth. Attica, on the reasser- 
tion of Greek independence in 1821, suffered 
severely, and in the newly-constituted kingdom 
was united with Boeotia to form a single monarchy. 

Atticus, Herodes, an Athenian rhetorician, 
born about 104 a.d. He was chosen by Antoninus 
as tutor to Marcus Aurelius and L. Verus, and was 
also entrusted with the governorship of Greece and 
part of Asia. Having inherited enormous wealth 
from his father, he adorned Athens with splendid 
buildings, notably the Odeon, and restored other 
cities of Greece. He died in 180 a.d. One speci¬ 
men of his oratory survives. 

Atticus, Titus Pomponius, was born in 110 
B.c. of an honourable Roman family. He was edu¬ 
cated with Cicero, and from their life-long friend¬ 
ship he derived his fame. Leaving Rome to avoid 
being mixed up in the struggles between Marius 
and Sulla, he settled at Athens, where he won his 
surname by his thorough mastery of Greek. Cicero 
wrote to him the celebrated series of letters that 
has come down to us, but not a single reply from 
Atticus is extant, and his Annals have also perished. 
He appears to have been a man of singularly refined 
and genial character, having been able to retain the 
affection of such bitter opponents as Pompey and 
Ckesar, Augustus and Antony, Cicero and Hortensius. 
His great wealth and powerful influence were always 
used to promote concord and diminish the miseries 
of civil war. He is said to have starved himself to 


death in 33 b.c. in order to escape the tortures of 
an incurable malady. 

Attila, or Etzel, born in 406 A.D., succeeded 
with his brother Bleda in 433 to the joint sovereignty 
of the Huns, then established in Pannonia. Having 
first made peace, and then quarrelled with the Em¬ 
peror of the East, Theodosius II., they overran 
Thrace and Macedonia, and forced the helpless 
sovereigninto the position of a tributary (446). Attila 
next procured the murder of his brother, and then 
collecting a huge army, estimated at half a million, 
set out for the Rhine. Theodoric, King of the 
Goths, was the nominal object of his attack, but 
Valentinian was well aware that his demand for 
the hand of Honoria would be the pretext for 
aggressions on the Western Empire. In 451 he 
defeated the Franks, crossed the Rhine, and 
advanced as far as Paris. As he was besieging 
Orleans the united forces of Goths under Theodoric, 
Romans under Aetius, and Franks under Merowig, 
beat him back to within a few miles of Chalons- 
sur-Marne, where a bloody battle ensued in which 
he was utterly defeated with the loss of a quarter 
of his horde. On retreat he devastated Northern 
Italy, and would have taken Rome but for the 
influence, it is said, of Pope Leo I., but more 
probably that he found his followers getting weaiy 
and enervated. Retiring beyond the Alps he spent 
some time in reorganising his power, but in an orgy 
on the day of his marriage with Hilda he broke a 
blood-vessel and died (453). He was buried in a 
gold coffin with immense treasure, and to prevent 
liis grave being plundered the slaves who dug it 
were killed. Attila was a man of strong character, 
some military talent, and great ambition. His 
enemies called him “ the Scourge of God,” and his 
own boast was that “ where his horse passed grass 
would not grow.” At times he showed traits of 
savage magnanimity, and perhaps he was no worse 
than his contemporaries. With him the supremacy 
of the Huns came to an end. 

Attock, a town and fortress in the Panjab, 
British India, situated on the left bank of the 
Indus, near its junction with the Kabul river, and 
about half-way between Peshawur and Rawal-Pindi. 
The Indus has here a breadth of 200 yards and is 
navigable to the sea, 940 miles distant. It is crossed 
by a bridge of boats, and by the viaduct of the North¬ 
ern State Railway. Attock is said to be the ancient 
Taxila whence Alexander passed into India, Timur 
and Nadir Shah following the same route. Akbar 
built the fortress in 1583, and it was occupied by 
the British in 1849. Now, however, its importance is 
inconsiderable, as the Khyber Pass is watched from 
Peshawur. 

Attorney, one put in the place or turn of 
another, or charged with management of his 
affairs at law. By the Judicature Act, 1873, the 
expression “ attorney ” in the sense of the person 
representing another in an action is abolished, and 
the title “solicitor” substituted. Attorneys are 
not admitted to practise in courts, or to transact 
legal business for another, until they have been 





Attorney-General. 


( 249 ) 


Aube. 


examined, licensed, and sworn by the proper tribunal. 
It is necessary that they shall have been articled to 
some practising solicitor in England or Wales, and 
shall have served for live years, with a reduction of 
the period of service in certain cases of university 
students. The final examination is conducted by 
the Incorporated Law Society. 

A technical sense in which the word “ attorney ” 
is used is the character of a person named in a legal 
document empowering him to act for another, to 
receive debts, to manage estates, or perform analo¬ 
gous duties. 

Solicitors are under stringent rules and regula¬ 
tions in conducting their practice. In the United 
States the term attorney-at-law is retained, and 
includes the various offices known in England and 
Scotland as advocate, barrister, counsellor-at-law, 
lawyer, proctor, and solicitor. [Solicitors.] 

Attorney - General, the principal counsel 
of the Crown appointed by patent to hold office 
during the Queen’s pleasure. He is attorney for the 
Queen, and stands in precisely the same relation to 
her as every other attorney (now solicitor) does to 
his employer. The addition of the term “general” 
in the name of the office probably took place in 
order to distinguish him from attorneys appointed 
to act for the Crown in particular courts, such as 
the Attorney for the Court of Wards, or the Master 
of the Crown Office, whose official name is “ Coroner 
and Attorney for the Queen ” in the Queen’s Bench 
Division of the Supreme Court. By degrees the 
office has become one of great dignity and import¬ 
ance. As counsel he is bound to conduct prose¬ 
cutions and other legal proceedings on behalf of 
the Crown if required to do so. He also acts as 
representative of the Crown in matters connected 
with charities, patents, and criminal proceedings 
instituted by Government. [Information.] His 
functions are, however, political as well as legal, 
for he is almost invariably a member of the House 
of Commons, and one of the Ministry of the 
day, though not of the Cabinet. He is appointed 
to his office on the advice of the Government for 
the time being. There is therefore a change of 
Attorney-General on every change of Government. 
In the House of Commons he answers questions on 
legal matters of public interest, and has charge of 
Government measures relating to legal subjects. 
The Attorney-General grants fiats for Writs of 
Error. When the House of Lords sits in a Com¬ 
mittee of Privileges it is the duty of the Attorney- 
General to attend at the Bar, in a judicial capacity, 
and report on the claim. He also allows applica¬ 
tions for patents. All questions respecting pre¬ 
cedency of the Attorney and Solicitor-General 
were terminated by a special warrant of King 
George IV., when 'Prince Regent, in the year 
1811," by which it was arranged that these officers 
should have place and audience at the head of the 
English Bar. A discussion arose in 1834 on the 
hearing of a Scottish appeal in the House of 
Lords," upon the question of precedence between 
the Attorney-General and the Lord Advocate of 
Scotland, which was finally decided in favour of 
the former. 


The Prince of Wales has an attorney-general, and 
when there is a Queen Consort she has one also. 

In the United States the Attorney-General is a 
member of the Cabinet. He presides over the 
Department of Justice, advising the president, etc., 
on questions of law. He also conducts suits in the 
United States Courts when necessary, gives legal 
opinions on behalf of the Government, examines 
titles to land purchased by the Government for 
public use, and superintends the proceedings of the 
Courts. 

Attraction, the tendency that bodies may 
have, under certain circumstances, to diminish the 
distance between them. This tendency, whether 
due to electricity, magnetism, or ordinary gravita¬ 
tion, seems to require the existence of an interven¬ 
ing medium, though in the last-named case no satis¬ 
factory explanation has yet been offered of the way 
in which the medium is involved. 

Attribute, in Loyic, a term used to denote that 
which is affirmed of a subject. Thus sweetness 
may be said to be an attribute of sugar. 

Attwood, George, born in 1745, became fellow 
and tutor of Trinity College, Cambridge. He was 
one of the first mathematicians of his day, and 
wrote several valuable treatises on physics, and was 
fortunate enough to secure the patronage of Pitt,, 
who conferred on him a sinecure. He died in 1807. 


Attwood, Thomas, an English musician of 
merit, was born in 1767. After serving in the choir 
of the Chapel Royal, he studied music under Mozart. 
He produced several operas of no value, but being 
appointed organist to St. Paul’s and composer to 
the Chapel Royal, he wrote the anthem, “ I was 
glad,” for the coronation of George IV., and another,. 
“ O Lord, grant the King a long life,” for that of 
William IV. He died in 1838 whilst engaged on 
a composition in honour of Queen Victoria. 



Atwood’s Machine, an instrument for in¬ 
vestigating the laws of uniformly accelerated 
motion. It consists of two unequal 
masses P and Q, connected by a fine 
silk thread passing over a pulley. 

That the friction at the pulley may 
be negligible, the axle does not 
rotate on pivots, but just rests on the 
circumferences of four other pulleys, 
two each side, as shown in the figure. 

The difference in the weights of P 
and Q produces downward motion 
of the heavier mass, say P, and 
upward motion of Q. Either mass 
may be varied while in motion, and 
the time taken to traverse any 
length may be recorded by an elec¬ 
tric chronograph, water-clock, or 
other such time measurer. The 
space traversed is determined by a 
vertical scale fixed to the instru¬ 
ment. The observations thus taken 
enable us to determine the laws of 
such motion, and, indirectly, to determine G, the 
acceleration due to gravity (q.v.). 

Aube, a department in the east of France 


| gf— 


ATWOODS MACHINE. 













Auber 


( 250 ) 


Auckland. 


comprising the southern part of the province of 
Champagne, and a smaller portion of Burgundy, and 
having an area of 2,317 square miles. It derives 
its name from the river Aube, a tributary of the 
Seine. The soil is chalky and barren in the N., 
but fertile in the S., producing wine, hemp, and 
roots. There are considerable forests, and quarries 
of building-stone and marble. Troyes is the capital 

Auber, Daniel Francois Esprit, the popular 
French composer, was born in 1782. His father, a 
well-to-do print-seller, destined him for business, 
and he went to London as a merchant’s clerk. 
Returning to Paris at the Peace of Amiens, he 
devoted himself seriously to music, and became a 
pupil of Boieldieu, and afterwards of Cherubini, 
still adhering to business. In 1813 he brought out 
an unsuccessful operetta, Le Scjour Militaire. His 
father having died, he now took up music as a pro¬ 
fession, and from 1819 to 1826 produced several 
comic operas with but moderate appreciation. In 
1828 he abandoned the prevalent style of Rossini, 
and struck out a line of his own in La Muette de 
Port id. His fame was at once established, and 
then followed a number of charming works of which 
the best known are Fra, Diavolo, Le Domino Noir , 
Le Lac de Fees , Les Flavians de la Couronne, and 
Ilaijdee. In 1842 he was appointed director of the 
Conservatoire. His style is brilliant and vivacious, 
though it lacks depth, but his instrumentation shows 
consummate skill, and no musician possessed a 
more keen sense of dramatic interest. He wrote an 
ode for the opening of the London Exhibition of 
1862, and his last work, Le Rive d'Amour. appeared 
in 1870, just before the outbreak of the Franco- 
German War. He died in 1871, deeply affected by 
the sufferings of his country. 

Aubergine, Brinjal or Egg-plant, Solanum 
Melongena, a native of Asia, now cultivated in 
Europe; bears a large ovoid, white, yellow, or violet, 
fruit, which is edible when cooked. 

Aubervilliers, a small town in the suburbs of 
Paris, from which it is about four miles distant to the 
north. A great fort exists here for the protection 
of the capital, and the neighbourhood was the scene 
of many engagements in the Franco-German war. 
Iron foundries, glass works, and factories for india- 
rubber, paper, leather, and chemicals are numerous. 

Aubrey, John, an eminent antiquary, born of 
a wealthy Herefordshire family in 1626. He went 
to Oxford, became later on a student of the Middle 
Temple, and spent most of his life in London. He 
joined Harrington's Rota Club, and at the Restora¬ 
tion was elected one of the first members of the 
Royal Society, but having lost all his property by 
lawsuits and mismanagement, he had in middle life 
to depend on the kindness of friends, to whom “ Old 
Aubrey’s ” conversation was a source of delight. He 
knew Hobbes, Milton, Dryden, Sam. Butler, Boyle, 
and all the literary men of his day. Many of the 
lives in Anthony Wood’s Athence Oxonienses were 
by his hand, and he supplied material to Dugdale 
and to Blackburn. His own great work was the 
Perambulation of Surrey. Many curious facts are 
treasured in his Miscellanies. His Architectonia 


Sacra and History of Wiltshire were not published 
until after his death, which occurred in 1697. 

Auburn, (1) a village in the county of West¬ 
meath, Ireland, about six miles N. of Athlone. It 
was formerly known by another name, but Goldsmith 
in his Deserted Village having described it as 
“ Sw r eet Auburn, loveliest village of the plain,” the 
poetical name has clung to the spot. 

(2) The capital of Cayuga county in the State 
of New York, U.S.A., about 174 miles W. of 
Albany. Here was established in 1816 a great 
prison on the silent system, where a thousand con¬ 
victs by their organised labour are said to cover 
the expenses of their maintenance. There are in 
the town many factories for cotton and woollen 
goods, paper, agricultural implements, and iron¬ 
ware, worked by water power from Lake Owasco. 

^ Auch, the capital of the department of Gers, 
France, about 42 miles west of Toulouse. It occupies 
the site of the ancient Augusta Auscorum, and 
stands on the steep slope of a hill above the river 
Gers, the streets being connected by flights of steps. 
It is the seat of an archbishopric, and has a fine 
cathedral begun in 1487. There is a considerable 
local trade, especially in wine and Armagnac brandy. 

Auchenia, a genus of New World ruminants 
closely allied to the camels, and containing the 
alpaca, the guanaco, the llama, and the vicugna 
(see these words). 

Auchterarder, a town in Scotland, 15 miles 
W.S.W. of Perth. The young Pretender burnt it 
in 1715. A suit in which Lord Kinnoul successfully 
claimed the right of presentation to the parish in 
spite of the veto of the parishioners led to the split 
up of the Established Church of Scotland in 1842, 
and the creation of the Free Church. 

Auckland, the most northern county of New 
Zealand, occupying about half of North Island, and 
having a length of 400 and a breadth of 200 miles. 
The coast line, deeply indented, extends for 1,200 
miles, and there are excellent harbours. Mountains, 
fertile plains, and wooded slopes make up an at¬ 
tractive and diversified country with a climate in 
some respects superior to that of England. Signs 
of volcanic action are plentiful in the shape of 
active and extinct craters, geysers, hot springs, and 
recent deposits of lava. Of several fine lakes, Lake 
Taupo (300 square miles) is the largest. The 
Waikato issuing from it flows north-west, is joined 
by the Waipa and falls into the sea on the west 
coast. The Waiho or Thames, the Waitoa and the 
Piako discharge themselves into the Firth of 
Thames, an inlet of Hauraki Gulf. The Kaimanawa, 
Whakatane, and Tewhaite ranges stretch across the 
southern districts, but few of the summits exceed 
2,500 feet. Mount Ikuarangi, the loftiest peak 
(5,535), is in the eastern peninsula. The chief 
products are wool, timber (especially Kauri pine), 
lesin, and flax. Minerals, including coal, are abun¬ 
dant, and a good deal of gold has been exported. 
Auckland, the chief town, was formerly capital of 
New Zealand, and is now the largest city in the 
Northern island. It contains many fine buildings, 
and has a rapidly increasing population. 










Auckland. 


( 251 ) 


Audubon. 


Auckland, (1) William Eden, Baron, the 
third son of Sir Robert Eden, was born in 1744. He 
entered Parliament in 1771, and in 1784 represented 
England at the French Court, being presently trans¬ 
ferred to Spain. In 1789 he was made an Irish 
peer, and in 1798 received a peerage of the United 
Kingdom. He was Postmaster-General from 1798 
to 1801. A treatise on Penal Law is the chief of his 
works. He died in 1814. 

(2) George Eden, Earl oe, second son of the 
above,was born in 1784 and succeeded his father in 
1814, having previously sat for some years in the 
House of Commons. A steady-going Whig, he 
served as President of the Board of Trade and First 
Lord of the Admiralty under Earl Grey in 1830, 
and four years later was sent out as Governor- 
General of India. He effected considerable im¬ 
provements in education, commerce, and internal 
legislation, but unfortunately was induced to neglect 
the advice of Barnes, his representative at Cabul, 
and to resolve on ousting from Afghanistan Dost 
Mahommed, whom he suspected of intrigues with 
Russia, in favour of Shah Sujah. Upon this resulted 
the disasters of 1841-2. Lord Auckland was re¬ 
called, and his successor Lord Ellenborough reversed 
his policy. He subsequently in 1846 returned to 
his former post at the Admiralty, but died suddenly 
in 1849. 

Auction (Lat. aur/eo, I increase), a public sale 
in which the price is increased by stimulating com¬ 
petition among the purchasers. In an ordinary 
auction each bid is an advance on the previous one ; 
in a Butcli auction the seller starts with a higher 
price than he is willing to take, and lowers it till a 
purchaser is found. In England a “ reserve price ” 
may be set on the goods, unless the sale is expressly 
stated to be “ without reserve.” Conditions of sale 
must be previously brought under the notice of the 
intending purchaser, and are essential to the 
validity of the sale. The auctioneer (who in the 
United Kingdom is subject to a licence duty of £10 
annually) frequently acts as the agent for intending 
purchasers who may be absent. He is not liable 
for the price of the goods unless it has been actually 
received by him. 

Aucuba, a genus of plants, of the order Cor- 
nacecc, of which the most common is A.japonica, a 
well-known shrub with glossy green leaves mottled 
with yellow. The berries are bright red. 

Aude (anc. Atax ), a river and a department in 
the South of France. The former rises in the 
Eastern Pyrenees, and discharges itself through 
marshes into the Mediterranean about six miles 
from Narbonne, after a course of over 100 miles. 
Carcassonne is on its banks. The department is 
bounded N. by Herault and Tarn, E. by the Medi¬ 
terranean, S. by Pyrenees Orientales, and W. by 
Ariege. It has an area of 2,341 square miles. The 
surface is mountainous, but intersected by rich 
valleys running north and south. Large lagoons 
extend along the coast. The agricultural products 
include wheat, maize, and other cereals, chestnuts, 
almonds, olives, wine in abundance, and honey. 
Antimony, manganese, copper, silver, iron, lead, 


coal, marbles, jet, and lithographic stones are 
yielded in remunerative quantities, and there are 
some local manufactures. Carcassone, Narbonne, 
and Castelnaudary are the chief towns. 

Audebert, Jean Baptiste, a French artist 
who consecrated his talents to science, and executed 
some magnificent works illustrating natural history 
He brought to perfection the art of printing ir 
colours, and his histories of humming birds and ol 
monkeys are unsurpassed. He died in 1800 aged 
41, leaving many of his undertakings incomplete. 

Audiphone, an instrument for enabling deaf 
people to hear sounds. It consists of a triangular 
plate of hardened caoutchouc, which is very sensi¬ 
tive to sound waves, and which is held in contact 
with the teeth; the sounds are conveyed to the 
auditory nerves by this means, and not through the 
tympanum. It was invented in 1879. 

Auditor (Lat. audio , I hear), a person appointed 
to examine accounts on behalf of governments, 
public companies, or private persons. 

Audley, Thomas, Baron Audley of Walden, 
the son of an Essex yeoman, born in 1488, by talents 
combined with unscrupulous tinfe-serving raised 
himself to a high position at the bar. In 1523 he 
entered Parliament as a supporter of Wolsey, and 
on the disgrace of the latter became Speaker, 1529. 
He managed the Parliamentary business connected 
with the divorce of Catherine, and was made suc¬ 
cessively Lord Keeper and Lord Chancellor. In 
1533 he was accessory to the judicial murders of 
Fisher and More, and to the other iniquitous pro¬ 
ceedings of the Upper House. He was also instru¬ 
mental in putting to death Anne Boleyn, Courtney, 
and many others, and for these services was raised 
to the peerage and received the Garter. In fact he 
was the willing minister to all the evil designs and 
passions of his royal master, whose favour he con¬ 
trived to retain till he died in 1554. 

Audouin, Jean Victor, was born in 1797, and 
educated for the law. In 1816 he became in¬ 
terested in Brongniart’s fine collection of insects, 
and thenceforth devoted himself to entomology, 
and especially to the practical aspects of that 
science. He edited Les Annates des Sciences 
Naturelles , was sub-librarian of the Institute, presi¬ 
dent of the French Entomological Society, and 
lecturer on that subject at the Musee. About 1830 
he worked much with Milne Edwards, writing on 
the natural history of the shores of France and on 
the Crustacese. By the instructions of the French 
Government he entered into a minute inquiry as to 
the nature of the parasites that destroyed the vines, 
and the diseases of silkworms. He died in 1841. 

Audubon, John James, a celebrated American 
naturalist, was born of French Protestant parents 
in Louisiana in 1781. After studying in Paris, 
where he learnt drawing under David, he settled on 
a plantation in Pennsylvania and married ; but, 
having from boyhood a passion for observing and 
sketching birds, he for many years took long annual 
journeys in the primeval forests of the interior for 
this purpose. Between 1830 and 1839 he published 







Auerbach 


( 252 ) 


Augsburg 


in four folio volumes his Birds of America, de¬ 
scribed by Cuvier as “ the most magnificent monu¬ 
ment that Art had up to that time raised to Nature,” 
and his American Ornithological Biography, and 
between 1840 and 1850 devoted himself to similar 
works on The Quadrupeds of America. He died at 
New York, 27tli January, 1851. 

Auerbach, Bertiiold, the popular German 
romancer, was born of Jewish parents in 1812. 
After studying theology at Tubingen, Munich, and 
Heidelberg, he wrote an essay on the Jewish Nation 
and its It,ecent Literature, and devoted much atten¬ 
tion to the doctrines of Spinoza, whose works he 
translated. In 1843 he discovered the true bent of 
his genius, and published his Dorfgeschichten or 
Village Tales, in which he depicts with marvellous 
skill the life, habits, and feelings of the peasantry 
of the Black Forest, his native district. Several 
charming novels were written by him during the 
next thirty years, the best of them being Barfussele 
(“The Barefooted Maid”), Avf dcr IFohe (“ On the 
Heights ’), Das Landliaus am Rhein, and Brigetta. 
He took a deep and patriotic interest in the war of 
1870, and composed a history of its origin and cir¬ 
cumstances. Numerous little stories from his pen 
appeared in periodicals, and in 1876 he produced a 
new series of Black Forest Sketches under the title 
Nach dreissig Jahrcn (“ After Thirty Years ”). He 
died at Cannes in 1882. 

Auersperg, Adolphus Wilhelm, Prince, 
an Austrian statesman, was born in 1821. After 
serving in the army he became a member of the 
Bohemian Diet, and was presently appointed 
governor of that province. In 1871 the emperor 
made him Austrian prime-minister, and in that 
capacity he carried through with success a Liberal 
and constitutional programme. In 1873 he estab¬ 
lished the. principle of popular election. In 1879 
the Slavonic or Autonomist party in the Cis-Leithan 
Keichsrath was reinforced by the Czechs, who had 
hitherto held aloof from the Legislature, and the 
constitutional party found itself in a minority. 
Auersperg resigned and never again took office, 
dying in 1885. 

Auersperg, Anton Alexander, Count, be¬ 
longed to the same noble house of Carniola as the 
foregoing, and was born in 1806. He had a marked 
talent for poetry, especially for ballads and satires. 
Under the pseudonym of Anastasius Grim he used 
his pen against Metternich and the Absolutist party, 
producing also lyrical pieces of wider interest, and 
spirited romances in verse such as Der Letzte 
Ritter, Robin Hood, Volkslieder, and In der\ Veranda. 
Having for many years taken an active part in 
provincial politics, he entered the Keichsrath in 
1860, and like his more distinguished kinsman fought 
on the side of progress and popular representation. 
His death occurred in 1876. 

Augeas, a legendary king of Elis, Greece. He 
was one of the Argonauts, and he possessed 3,000 
oxen, which he kept for thirty years without cleans¬ 
ing their stalls. Heracles undertook the task on con¬ 
dition that he should receive a tenth of the herd as 
his reward. By diverting the river Alpheus he 


easily got rid of the accumulated filth, but Augeas 
declined to keep his bargain. The hero accordingly 
killed him. The cleansing of the Augean stable 
has become a proverbial expression for any difficult 
and unsavoury undertaking. 

Augereau, Pierre Francois Charles, Due de 
Castiglione and Marshal of France, was born in 
1757. In 1792 he joined the Revolutionary army, 
and distinguished himself in the Vendee and in the 
Pyrenees, obtaining in 1794 command of a division. 
Accompanying Napoleon to Italy he displayed pro¬ 
digious courage at Lodi, Castiglione, and Areola, 
but marred his fame by cruelty and spoliation. He 
executed the coup d'etat of the 18th Fructidor 
(1797), and received command of the army on the 
northern frontier, but the violence of his republi¬ 
canism caused his withdrawal. He was appointed 
to command the army in Holland, and w r as made 
duke and marshal (1804), when he subdued the 
Vorarlberg. He took a leading part at Jena and 
Eylau ; was less successful in Catalonia ; com¬ 
manded a reserve in the Russian campaign, and 
fought gallantly at Leipsic. In 1814 he was in¬ 
structed to hold Lyons against the Allies, but he 
fell back before superior numbers, and never being 
cordially attached to Napoleon, w*ent over to the 
Bourbons. His death occurred in 1816. 

Augier, Guillaume Victor Emile, the able 
French dramatist, born in 1820, was destined for 
the bar, but took to writing very early. In 1844 he 
made his debut with a most successful satirical 
drama, La Ciguc, and for forty years he supplied 
the French stage with some of‘its most brilliant 
comedies, amongst them being Gahrielle, La Pierre 
de Touche, Le Gcndre de J/. Poirier, Lcs Lionacs 
Pauvres, Les Effi.routes, Paul Forestier, Madlle. de 
la Reynce, Lcs Fourchambault, etc. In several of 
these he collaborated with Jules Sandeau, and other 
dramatists. He was elected to the Academy in 
1858, and in 1868 became a Commander of the 
Legion of Honour. He died in 1889. 

Augite, from the Greek, auge, lustre, is the 
name of a silicate of calcium, magnesium, alu¬ 
minium, and iron, closely related chemically to 
hornblende. It crystallises in the oblique system, 
is greenish black and sub-resinous, and is an essen¬ 
tial mineial in basalts and diabases, being* appa¬ 
rently formed by more rapid cooling than horn¬ 
blende. [Bronzite, Diallage, Pyroxene.] 

Augment, in Grammar, an addition used in the 
Sanscrit and Greek languages, placed at the com¬ 
mencement of particular tenses of the verbs. In 
Greek it is 4 before a consonant (syllabic), but 
when the verb begins with a vowel, the vowel is 
lengthened and usually altered (temporal). In 
Sanscrit the augment is always a. The term is 
sometimes applied to the German ge. 

Augmentation, in Heraldry, an additional 
charge on a coat-of-arms, bestowed by the Crown 
as a mark of honour. 

Augsburg (classic Augusta Vindelicornin'), a 
city in Bavaria, Germany, the capital of the circle 
ol Suabia and Neuberg, situated at the confluence 








Augsburg Confession. 


( 253 ) 


Augustine. 


of the Lech and Wertach, 36 miles W.N.W. of 
Munich. It was founded about 14 b.c. by Augustus, 
and grew to be one of the most powerful cities in 
Europe. In 1531 the famous Augsburg Confession, 
on which the Lutheran Church is based, was sub¬ 
mitted to the Emperor Charles V. in the cathedral, 
and in 1555 the Peace of Augsburg brought about a 
temporary understanding between the Reformers and 
the Romanists. Though not so prosperous as in 
former days, Augsburg is only second to Frankfort 
in financial importance. The Allgemeine Zeitung, 
one of the chief political organs in Germany, was 
published there until 1882. There are manufactories 
of cotton, linen, silk, watches, mathematical instru¬ 
ments, and large dyeing and bleaching works. The 
cathedral dates in part from the tenth century ; St. 
Ulric’s Church boasts a splendid tower; the 
townhall is a fine Renaissance building ; and the 
Fuggerei, a group of almshouses built early in the 
sixteenth century, offers many features of interest. 
The Maximilian-Strasse is regarded as one of the 
finest and most picturesque of streets. 

Augsburg Confession, a document drawn 
up by Melancnthon with Luther’s approval, signed 
by the Elector of Saxony and other German 
princes, and read at the diet of Augsburg, 
June 25th, 1530. Part I. stated the doctrines of 
the Reformers, while Part II. enumerated the seven 
principal abuses complained of in the Roman 
Church (communion in one kind, clerical celibacy, 
private masses, confession, the admission of tradi¬ 
tion, monastic vows, and indulgences). A refuta¬ 
tion, prepared by Roman Catholic theologians, was 
read at the Diet in September, but not accepted by 
the Reformers. Melanchthon had meanwhile pre¬ 
pared an Apology for the Augsburg Confession 
(pub. 1531), which is an elaborate defence of and 
commentary upon it. 

Augur (Lat. avis, a bird), in ancient Rome a 
functionary whose duty was to observe and inter¬ 
pret, according to certain rules, the auspices or 
alleged natural signs of the future—signs in the 
heavens, in the flight of birds, in the eagerness or 
disinclination to feed of fowls kept for the purpose 
of divination, and the like. The college or board 
of augurs at Rome traced its foundation to Numa, 
and was eventually increased to 16 by Julius Caesar. 
Many distinguished men, including Caesar himself 
and Mark Antony, were members of it. The augurs 
wore the sacerdotal toga, with a broad purple 
border, and carried a curved rod ( lituus ) which 
was made use of in their ritual. Their function 
at the assumption of office by the consuls and other 
magistrates has given rise to the term “inaugurate.” 

August, the eighth month of the year, so called 
by the Emperor Augustus, who gave it his own name, 
it having been previously known as the Sextilis, as 
it was the sixth month according to the Roman 
calendar. In England the first Monday in August 
is always a bank holiday. [Bank Holidays.] 

Augusta, (1) the capital of the State of Maine, 
U.S.A., stands on the right bank of the Kennebec 
river, 43 miles from its mouth. It is connected by 
railway with Canada to the N.E. and the Atlantic 


states to the S.W. The state house and the arsenal 
are the chief public buildings. A great fire did 
much damage to the city in 1865. (2) The capital 
of Richmond county, Georgia, U.S.A., is a hand¬ 
some town on the Savannah river, 127 miles N.W. 
of Savannah, with a station on the Charleston and 
Milledgeville Railway. The Augusta canal made in 
1815 supplies water-power for many flour and cotton 
mills, and the neighbouring district grows an 
abundance of cotton and tobacco. 

Augusta, a, name given by the Romans to many 
cities in honour of Augustus or some of his imperial 
successors. In some cases, e.g. Aosta, Agosta, 
Saragossa ( Ccesarea Augusta), Augst, Augsburg, 
Aoust-en-Diois, the ancient title survives, but fre¬ 
quently the local or tribal name alone remains as 
in Soissons ( Augusta Suessionum ), Treves (A. Trev- 
irorum), Merida {A. Enter it a), Turin (A.Taur inorum). 
Other towns like London (. Augusta Trinobantum) 
have entirely changed their appellation. 

Augustine, St. Aurelius Augustinus, the 
most eminent father of the Latin Church, was 
the son of a Pagan father, and a Christian mother, 
Monica. He was born at Tagaste in Numidia in 364 
A.D. Though he received a good education, his 
youth was spent in dissipation, from which his pious 
mother vainly tried to dissuade him. In 371 he was 
sent to Carthage, where he is said to have given 
up his immorality after reading Cicero’s Hortensius, 
and to have attached himself to the Manichaean 
sect. He taught rhetoric there till 383, when he 
went to Rome and lectured with great success. 
Settling a few years later in Milan he was converted 
and baptised by St. Ambrose in 387. Returning to 
Africa he was ordained by Valerius, Bishop of Hippo, 
in 391, and became that bishop’s coadjutor and 
ultimate successor in 395. Here he spent the rest 
of his life in the zealous discharge of his duties, 
training youths for the priesthood, denying himself 
for the sake of the poor, and composing the great 
works which served as a basis for scholastic theo¬ 
logy. He wrote much in opposition to the doctrines 
of the Manichaeans, Pelagians, and Donatists. His 
own views were dogmatically stern, for he denied 
all future hope to those who did not share through 
Christ in divine grace. But to his personal oppo¬ 
nents, saving the Donatists, he was gentle and 
courteous. By far the most interesting of his many 
works are the Confessions and Petr act at ions. In the 
first he gives a history of his early life ; in the last 
he manfully reviews his writings and opinions, with¬ 
drawing everything that his maturer judgment 
rejected. His greatest production, Be Civitate Bei, 
on which he spent thirteen years, contains an 
elaborate confutation of Paganism, and an eloquent 
proclamation of the reign of Christ. Besides these 
he left commentaries on the Psalms, on St. John’s 
Gospel, treatises on Grace and Free Will, on the 
Creed, on True Religion, and on various contro¬ 
versial topics, with soliloquies, sermons, and homilies, 
letters amounting to several hundreds. His style 
is rugged but powerful, and is marked constantly 
by touches of simple tenderness and pathos. He 
seizes on the ethical and dialectical side of ques¬ 
tions under discussion, and brings to bear on them 








Augustine. 


( 254 ) 


Augustus II. 


spiritualised common-sense rather than erudition or 
authority. He died in 430 whilst the Vandals were 
besieging Hippo, escaping thus the horrors that 
attended the capture of the city. 

Augustine, or Austin, St., the first Archbishop 
of Canterbury, was a Benedictine monk of the 
Convent of St. Andrew at Home, when Pope Gregory 
I. in 596 A.D. sent him to convert Britain to Chris¬ 
tianity. The gloomy accounts that he received of the 
island deterred him for a time from undertaking the 
mission. However, in 597 he landed in Thanet and 
was well received by Ethelbert, King of Kent, whose 
wife Bertha, a Frankish princess, was already a 
Christian. The missioners were allowed to settle 
in Canterbury, and soon afterwards the king himself 
was baptised. The new faith now spread rapidly as 
far as the Humber and the Welsh marches. Augus¬ 
tine is said to have baptised with his own hands 
10,000 persons in a day. He was presently conse¬ 
crated bishop of the English, and in 604 appointed 
bishops of London and Rochester, Ethelbert found¬ 
ing cathedrals in those two cities as well as in Can¬ 
terbury. He was unsuccessful in effecting a union 
between the English and Welsh Churches. His 
death occurred probably in 607 on May 26, the day 
dedicated to his memory. He was buried at Canter¬ 
bury in the Church of St, Peter and St. Paul, after¬ 
wards called St. Augustine’s Abbey, now the site of 
the Missionary College, but his remains were trans¬ 
lated to the Cathedral in 1091. 

Augustinian Canons, an order of monks who 
observed the rule attributed to St, Augustine of 
Hippo. They first appear under this name in the 
eleventh century, and were introduced into Eng¬ 
land about 1105. They had nearly 200 monasteries 
in England and Wales. Augustinian Friars, or 
Austin Friars, who have left their name to 
a street in the city of London, were organised and 
put by the Pope under the rule of their alleged 
founder, St. Augustine of Hippo, in the latter part 
of the thirteenth century. They were an austere 
order, holding no property and living only on the 
alms of the faithful. In' 1570 a portion of them 
adopted a more austere rule forbidding shoes— 
whence the term “ barefooted friars.” August¬ 
inian Nuns, vowed to the service of the sick, and 
claiming to have been founded by St. Augustine of 
Hippo, were till recently nurses at the Hotel Dieu 
in Paris. 

Augustovo, a town in the Government of 
Suvalki, Russian Poland. It is on the river Netta, 
about 150 miles N.E. of Warsaw, and was founded 
by Sigismund Augustus, King of Poland, in 1560. 
Linen fabrics are made there, and a considerable 
trade is carried on in cattle and horses. 

Augustulus, or Romulus Momyllus Augus¬ 
tus, the last of the Roman emperors of the West, 
was the son of Orestes, a general in Gaul, who de¬ 
posed Julius Nepos, and crowned Augustulus at 
Ravenna in 475 A.D. Next year Odoacer killed 
Orestes and dethroned the young prince, allowing 
him, however, to retire into Campania with a pen¬ 
sion of 6,000 pieces of gold. His own subjects in 
derision added the diminutive .suffix to his name. 


Augustus, first known as Caius Octavius, and 
afterwards as Caius Julius Caesar Octavianus, 
with the honorary title of Augustus, was the first 
emperor of Rome. His father was the senator 
Octavius; his mother, Atia, the niece of Julius 
Cassar, who adopted his grand-nephew and left him 
the greater part of his wealth. At the time of 
Caesar’s murder the young Octavius was studying in 
Greece. He returned to Rome and at the age of 20 
was made consul in 43 B.C., having first taken up 
arms against Antony and then been reconciled with 
him. The two avengers of Caesar, forming with 
Lepidus a triumvirate, defeated Brutus and Cassius 
at Philippi, and then divided the empire between 
them, Octavius taking the west. In the proscrip¬ 
tions that ensued, the future Augustus, though 
praised afterwards for his kindliness of heart, seems 
to have been no more scrupulous than his colleagues. 
He next had to quell the rising of Sex. Pompeius in 
Sicily, and whilst this was going on he contrived to 
force Lepidus into private life. Antony was now 
his only rival, and at the instigation, it was thought, 
of Fulvia Octavius began hostilities, but the quarrel 
was patched up for a time, and on Fulvia’s death 
Antony married Octavia, his colleague’s sister. 
Cleopatra’s influence over Antony, however, soon 
afforded a pretext for renewing strife, and at the 
Battle of Actium (31 B.c.) Octavius crushed his 
opjDonent and stood alone at the head of the Roman 
world. Three years later he received the title of 
Augustus. He professed a desire to retire from 
public life owing to weak health, but Maecenas and 
Agrippa dissuaded him. Whatever faults of licen¬ 
tiousness or ambition may have stained his early 
career, he was certainly an active, painstaking, and 
wise ruler. He visited most parts of the empire, 
legislated solely for the public good, and preserved 
the peace of his vast dominions for nearly half a 
century. His patronage of art and letters caused 
great lustre to be reflected on his reign and his 
private character. It is, indeed, probably true that, 
when his position was assured, he displayed 
clemency, affection, and fidelity. The praise’ of 
poets and courtiers turned his head in later years, 
and he assumed divine honours. Though* four 
times married he had but one daughter, Julia, a 
disgrace to his house. He adopted" Tiberius, the 
son of his wife Livia by her former husband, and 
on his death (14 a.d.) bequeathed to him the purple. 

Augustus I., Elector of Saxon} 7 , was born in 
1526, and began to reign in 1553. He was fortunate 
enough to enjoy till his death a period of profound 
peace, the only discords being those between the 
Catholics and the Lutherans, between whom he 
endeavoured to create a modus vivendi. He took 
part in the Diet of Augsburg. His virtues were such 
as to earn him the appellations of “Pious” and 
“ The Justinian of Saxony.” He did much to im¬ 
prove and adorn Dresden, and built the palace of 
Augustenburg. He died in 1586. 

Augustus II. (Frederick), Elector of Saxony, 
and King of Poland, was born in 1670, and succeeded 
his brother as elector in 1695. He fought on the 
side of the empire against the French and the 
Turks, and at the death of John Sobieski in 1697 





( 255 ) 


Aulicata. 


Augustus III. 


forced himself into the throne of Poland. Having 
joined Peter the Great in his opposition to Charles 
XIa. ot Sweden, lie was defeated by the latter and 
deposed (1704) in favour of Stanislas Leczinski. 
He drove out his rival, but was again compelled to 
resign in 1706. At the fall of Charles XII. he was 
finally restored, but his kingdom was utterly dis¬ 
organised nor was he capable of restoring it. Of ex¬ 
traordinary physical strength, he was morally weak. 
His life was spoilt in licentious indulgences, and 
Marshal Saxe was one of his many natural sons. 
He died in 1733. The porcelain factory and picture 
gallery at Dresden owe their origin to him. 

Augustus III. (Frederick), son of the pre¬ 
ceding, was born in 1696. On the death of his father 
he had some difficulty in establishing his claim to 
the Polish crown, for Stanislas was supported by his 
son-in-law, Louis XY. It would have been better 
for that country had he failed, for his incapacity 
led to the complications by which Russia has pro¬ 
filed. He allied himself with Austria against 
Frederick the Great, and twice his electoral 
dominions were wrested from him. His daughter, 
Maria Josepha. married the dauphin and became 
the mother of Louis XVI., Louis XVIII., and 
Charles X., who inherited perhaps an element of 
feebleness from their grandsire. Augustus died in 
1763 equally disliked by Poles and Saxons. 

Augustus I. (Frederick), first Kingof Saxony, 
son of the Elector Frederick Christian, succeeded to 
the electorate as a minor in 1763. He was one of 
the most enlightened princes of his age, and devoted 
his best energies to the improvement of his country, 
especially from the point of view of education, 
commerce, and judicial reform. After the peace of 
Posen, 1806, he was recognised as king and received 
from Napoleon the duchy of Warsaw, in return for 
which he lent his aid against Prussia and Russia. 
He afterwards joined the Confederation of the 
Rhine, but was never looked on very favourably by 
the Continental powers. In 1815 Warsaw was taken 
from him and his entire kingdom was in imminent 
peril. However, the danger was tided over chiefly 
by the influence of England, and the King of Saxony 
continued to reign until his death in 1827. 

Augustus II. (Frederick), nephew of the 
preceding, was born in 1797 and succeeded in 1836. 
He had been carefully trained as a soldier and as a 
statesman, and had for several years acted as com¬ 
mander-in-chief besides taking an active part in 
framing a liberal constitution. He was successful 
in tiding over the revolutionary troubles of 1848, and 
died in 1854, having won the affection of his subjects. 

Auk, any bird of the genus Alca, the type of the 
family Alcidae, which is confined to the north tem¬ 
perate and arctic regions, and contains the true 
Auks, the Puffins, and the Guillemots. In the birds 
of this family the wings are short and pointed, and 
the feet, which are three-toed and entirely webbed, 
are set very far back, which renders walking diffi¬ 
cult. and gives the birds an ungainly appearance on 
land. In the water they are exceedingly active, 
swimming and diving with great rapidity for their 
food, which consists of fishes and other marine 


animals. The true Auks constitute the genus Alca,. 
which consists of two species, A. torda , the Razor¬ 
bill (q.v.), and A. inijjennis, the extinct Great Auk. 



the great auk (Alca impcnnis). 


This bird was the largest of the family; it was about 
32 inches in length, and stoutly built, the wings 
were perfectly formed, but so small as to be useless • 
for flight. Its summer plumage was brownish-black 
above and white beneath, with a large white spot 
before the eye ; in winter there was more white on 
the head and face. These birds inhabited the tem¬ 
perate region of the North Atlantic, ranging as far 
south as Massachusetts in the west. They were 
known to sailors in the seventeenth century as 
“ pinwings ” (whence the modern word “ penguin ”), 
and were taken in considerable numbers for food. It 
was the custom to salt them down for future con¬ 
sumption, and the early cod-fishers on the banks of 
Newfoundland had no inconsiderable share in the 
extinction of this species. The last specimen 
known to have occurred in the United Kingdom 
was shot at Waterford in 1834, and the last indi¬ 
vidual recorded was taken in Iceland ten years 
later, and is now in the Royal Museum, Copenhagen. 
There is a specimen in the British Museum of Na¬ 
tural History, South Kensington. The Great Auk, 
like most of the family, laid only one egg each year. 
This was about five inches long, and three inches 
round at the largest part, and was deposited on the- 
bare rock. The eggs are extremely scarce, and 
fetch a very high price; in 1887 one was sold by 
auction for £160. Mergulus alle, the Rotche (q.v.), 
was formerly placed in the genus Alca, and is gene¬ 
rally called the Little Auk. In America the term 
Auk, qualified by an epithet, is often applied to 
other members of the family, as the Crested Auk 
(Simorliynchus cristatellus'), etc. 

Auklet, a name for several small species of 
Alcidae, chiefly from the North Pacific. [Auk.] 

Aulicata, a circle of the province of Syr-Daria, 
in Russian Turkestan, Central Asia. It occupies 
chiefly the N. slopes of the Karabura range, and has 








Aulic Council. 


( 256 ) 


Aurelian. 


an area of 26,530 miles. The port from which it 
derives its name is on the Talas which flows into 
Lake Karakul. 

Aulic Council (Lat. aula , hall, or court), one 
of the two supreme courts of the Holy Roman Em¬ 
pire, established in 1501 and modified in 1559 and 
1654. It was abolished with the Empire in 1806. 
The term is now applied to the Council of State of 
the Emperor of Austria. 

Aulis, a port in Bceotia, Greece, nearly opposite 
Chalcis in Euboea. It was here the fleet assembled 
before sailing to the siege of Troy, and that Iphige- 
neia was sacrificed by her father to procure a 
favourable wind [Agamemnon], the event being 
commemorated in the Ijdiigeneia in Aulis of 
Euripides. 

Auloporidae, a family of Palaeozoic Corals, 
the affinities of which are still doubtful; it includes 
Aulojwra, Cladochomts, and Monilopora. 

Aulus Gellius, or Agellius, a Latinised 
Greek, who flourished at Rome as a grammarian 
and lawyer under Hadrian and his two successors. 
After a voyage in Greece he wrote his Nodes Atticce 
(Attic nights), a sort of common-place book, ex¬ 
tremely valuable because it contains fragments of 
lost authors. His style is peculiar, being full of 
both archaisms and new-fangled expressions, but 
his judgment is generally sound. Of the twenty 
books the eighth is unfortunately missing. 

Aumale, formerly Albermarle, a small town 
in the department of Seine Inferieure, France, 
about 15 miles from Neuchatel, which has given 
the title of Duke to various families. 

Aumale, the Count of and Dukes of, have 
frequently played an important part in French 
history:— 

1. Charles was one of the heroes of the League, 
and after the assassination of the Duke of Guise 
in 1588 was Governor of Paris, which he held suc¬ 
cessfully against Henry IV., though he lost the 
battles of Senlis, Arques, and Ivry. He was con¬ 
demned to be broken on the wheel for high treason 
in giving up certain towns to the Spaniards. The 
sentence was carried out on his effigy (1595), and 
the Duke escaping to Brussels died there in 1631. 

2. Henri Eugene Philippe Louis D'Orleans, 
the fourth son of Louis Philippe, was born at Paris 
in 1822. He inherited a large fortune from the 
•Condes, and, entering the army at the age of seven¬ 
teen, distinguished "himself during three years’ 
service in Africa (1842-4) by the capture of Abd- 
■el-Kader’s Smalah. He married in 1844 Marie 
■Caroline cle Bourbon, daughter of the Prince of 
Salerno, but became a widower in 1869. In 1847 
he returned to Algeria as governor, resigning his 
command next year, when his father fled to 
England. For upwards of twenty years the prince 
lived chiefly at Claremont or Twickenham. Whilst 
defending the honour of the Orleanists against the 
attacks of Prince Napoleon, he felt justified in 
sending the latter a challenge, which was refused j 
with more discretion than valour. In 1871 he was | 
elected deputy by the constituency of Oise, and, j 


acknowledging the Republic, was restored to 
military rank and to the enjoyment of his vast 
estates in France. He presided in 1873 over the 
trial of Marshal Bazaine, had command of the 
seventh Army Corps, and behaved with great 
dignity and patriotism, though he was suspected of 
gathering about him a party of military supporters. 
In 1883, after Prince Napoleon’s manifesto, an 
attempt was made to expel all pretenders to the 
throne by bill. This failed, but M. Jules Ferry soon 
afterwards deprived the Duke of his command, and 
in 1886 the Orleanist princes were expatriated. 
The Due D’Aumale soon afterwards bestowed his 
estate and his chateau at Chantilly with all its 
valuable contents upon the French nation. 

Aungerville, Richard, better known as 
Richard de Bury, was born at Bury St. Edmunds 
in 1281. After studying at Oxford he became a 
monk of Durham, and was chosen to educate the 
heir apparent, afterwards Edward III., who made 
him Bishop of Durham in 1333 and afterwards high 
chancellor and treasurer. He was a learned man 
and a great lover of books. He corresponded with 
Petrarch, and wrote Pkilobiblon, probably the 
earliest treatise of the kind in England. His 
library, which he bequeathed to Oxford, was dis¬ 
persed at the Reformation. He died in 1345. 

Aura, a term applied to certain peculiar sensa¬ 
tions which precede the occurrence of an epileptic 
attack and serve as a warning to the patient that 
a fit is about to take place. The epileptic aura 
assumes very various forms, among which may be 
mentioned a sense of pain in some part of the body, 
a feeling of nausea, or some hallucination of 
smell, sight, or sound. 

Aurelia, one of the commonest of the British 
jelly-fish. It belongs to the order Rhizostomidh5 
of the Acraspedote section of Hydrozoa. The 
adult consists of a rounded disc, convex above and 
flat below; from the upper part of the disc a tube 
(the manubrium) is suspended; the mouth is at the 
lower end, and it opens at the upper end to 
the “ gastric cavity ” in the four lobes of which the 
food is digested. From each lobe a branching 
canal runs to the margin of the disc, while eight 
canals run directly to the large canal round the cir¬ 
cumference. Four oral tentacles surround the 
mouth. On the margin of the disc are eight sense 
organs known as “ tentaculocysts ” or “ rhopalia ”; 
a pair of olfactory pits is associated with each of 
these. A genital gland occurs in each of the four 
gastric lobes. The remarkable development found 
in this genus has been described under Acraspedh£. 
Aurelia aurita is the commonest English species. 

Aurelian, or Aurelianus, Lucius Domitius 
Valerius, the son of a peasant at Sirmium in 
Pannonia, was born about 212 a.d. He possessed 
great bodily strength and military ability, and 
serving in the Roman army against the Franks and 
Goths speedily rose to the rank of consul. In 269 
he distinguished himself highly in the great cam¬ 
paign of Claudius II. against the Goths, and was 
nominated both by the emperor and the legionaries 
as successor to the throne. He defeated the Gauls 









Aurelius. 


( 257 ) 


Aurangabad. 


again in Pannonia, and repelled the united forces 
of the Alemanni, Vandals, Marcomanni, and 
Jugonthi after a great effort on the Metaurus. His 
next task was to quell the ambitious Zenobia, Queen 
of Palmyra. That city was captured and sacked 
in 273, and Aurelian then turned to the West, where 
Tetricus had for some years usurped absolute 
sovereignty over Gaul, Spain, and Britain. Varar- 
anes, the King of Persia, now rebelled, and the 
emperor was on his way to attack him when he was 
assassinated by his own officers, whom his severity 
had long since alienated, at Ccenophrurium in 
Thrace in 275. Aurelian at first left the Christians 
undisturbed, but before his death he issued an 
•edict which led to the ninth persecution of the 
Church. 

Aurelius, Marcus Antoninus. [Antoninus.] 

Aurelius, Victor Sextus, a Latin historian 
and official of the fourth century A.D. He was an 
African of humble birth, but rose to be prefect 
under Julian of Pannonia II., and consul with 
Valentinian. About the authorship of two works 
ascribed to him, viz. Grir/o Gentis Romance and 
Be Vires Illustrious TJrbis Homed, there is con¬ 
siderable doubt. The latter was probably written 
by Cornelius Nepos. His most authentic produc¬ 
tion is Be Ccesaribus, abridged in Be Vita et Morions 
I/operator urn, which covers the period from Augus¬ 
tus to Julian. He was a pagan and evidently op¬ 
posed to Christianity. 

Aureolin, a beautiful and permanent yellow 
pigment much used by artists. It is delicate and 
transparent in colour, and consists chemically of a 
double nitrite of cobalt and potassium, prepared by 
a process of precipitation. Sometimes known as 
Cobalt Yellow. 

Auricle, (1) one of the chambers of the heart. 
{2) The internal process, of which 10 occur, round 
the mouth of a toothed Sea Urchin; it serves for 
the attachment of the muscles and ligaments that 
work the jaws. 



Auricula, a species of Primula , native to the 
Swiss Alps, with fleshy glaucous leaves and an 
“ eye ” or centre to the flower strongly contrasting 

17 


in colour with the outer rim. Introduced into 
cultivation three centuries ago, there are now 
numerous varieties of the species. 

Auricular Confession. [Confession.] 

Auricularia, the barrel-shaped larva of certain 
Holothurians (q.v.) ; it is of interest as it resembles 
the larva of Balanoglossus, an animal which is 
regarded by many as the lowest of the vertebrates. 

Auriculidae, one of the families of Land 
Molluscs without an operculum. Auricula is the 
type genus ; this commenced in the Chalk period. 

Aurillac (Lat. Aureliacum ), the capital of 
the department of Cantal, France, on the right bank 
of the river Jourdanne, which is spanned by a fine 
bridge. The town grew up in the eighth and ninth 
centuries round the abbey founded by S. Geraud, 
to which was attached one of the most famous 
schools in France. The ruins of this building and 
of the old castle are in existence, but most of the 
town is modern. Copper ware, jewellery, woollen 
goods and blonde lace are made, and there is a large 
market for cattle and horses. 

Aurochs, the German name of the extinct Bos 
primi/jenius (the Urus of Cassar), often improperly 
applied to the European Bison. The error is more 
than 300 years old, for it was noted in a book pub¬ 
lished at Antwerp in 1557 ; since then, however, 
it has found its way into many zoological text¬ 
books. [Bison, Urus.] 

Aurora, in Roman mythology, was the daughter 
of Hyperion or of Titan and of Thea of of Terra. 
She was the goddess of dawn and corresponded 
with the Greek Eos. By her union with Astrasus 
she became the mother of the winds and the stars, 
but she deigned also to bestow her favours on 
Tithonus, Cephalus, and Orion. She was generally 
represented as drawn in a rosy chariot by four white 
horses. Her figure was veiled and a star shone on 
her forehead, a torch in her right hand. With her 
rosy fingers she opened the gates of heaven for the 
sun, and her tears reached earth in the form of dew. 

Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights, a 
luminous phenomenon seen in the polar skies. The 
general appearance is that of a greenish-white arc 
of light, varying in thickness, symmetrical about 
the magnetic axis of the earth, so that the highest 
point of the aurora is in the direction of the mag¬ 
netic north. Within the arc the sky is of a deeper 
hue than it is outside. It is never at rest; occa¬ 
sionally ribbons of variegated light shoot out 
radially from the bow, and produce very beautiful 
effects. The aurora may remain visible for several 
hours. Observations seem to show that simulta¬ 
neous appearances occur at the two poles, north 
and south. The probable explanation of the phe¬ 
nomenon is that it is an electric discharge through 
the atmosphere, accompanying a magnetic dis¬ 
turbance. This theory is countenanced by the 
fact that artificial auroras working on this principle 
have been produced by physicists. 

Aurangabad, a city in Haiderabad, the king¬ 
dom of the Nizam, India. It derives its name from 









Aurungze'be. 


( 258 ) 


Austen. 


Aurungzebe, and was founded in 1620, on the site of 
the village of Gourka, as the capital of the Mogul 
dominions in S. India. When the Nizams trans¬ 
ferred the seat of government to Haiderabad it lost 
much of its previous importance, and is now half- 
ruinous. Still its fine bazaars do a large trade in 
silk, shawls, and native produce. Three or four 
other places bear the same name. 

Aurungzebe, one of the most powerful of the 
Mogul emperors of Hindostan, was the third son of 
Shah Jehan, and was born in 1618. His original 
name was Mohammed but his father altered it to 
Aurungzebe, which means “ Ornament of the 
Throne.” He affected great piety in early life, but 
in conjunction with his brother Morad rose against 
Shah Jehan and seized the throne in 1659. He then 
killed both his brothers, but kept his father in 
honourable captivity. By his conquests in Thibet, 
Golconda, Vizapur, and the Mahratta territory he 
greatly enlarged his dominions, which he adminis¬ 
tered with wisdom and justice. His children, how¬ 
ever, avenged the wrongs done to their grandfather 
by embittering the emperor’s life. .Some of them 
he put to death, and in 1707, when he expired at 
Aurangabad, he divided the empire between his 
surviving sons. He was the last of the Moguls who 
ruled with vigour and firmness. 

Auscultation (from a Latin word signifying 
to listen'), the art of detecting diseased con¬ 
ditions by the alterations which they produce in 
certain natural sounds. By means of a stethoscope 
applied to the chest the physician can discover 
any deviation from the normal character of the 
heart sounds, or of the sounds produced in breath¬ 
ing, and thus a most valuable means of detecting 
the existence of disease is afforded. Thus the 
presence of fluid in the chest cavity is in some cases 
productive of a splashing sound if the patient make 
a slight movement; this fact was known from the 
very earliest times, and is alluded to by Hippo¬ 
crates, and this “ succession,” as it is called, is thus 
the most ancient and venerable of all auscultation 
signs. The development of the science of ausculta¬ 
tion is, however, of quite recent date, and was no 
doubt in part suggested by the method of percus¬ 
sion which was introduced in 1761 by Auenbrugger 
of Vienna. To Laennec, a French physician, is due 
the credit of introducing the stethoscope, and for¬ 
mulating the main doctrines of auscultation (1819). 
He described the altered character of the breathing- 
sounds produced by solidification, or the formation 
of cavities in the lung, and the “murmurs” or 
“ bruits ” which accompany certain diseases of the 
valves of the heart. The art of auscultation has, 
however, progressed considerably since his time, 
and now forms one of the chief subjects of study in 
medicine, and is one of the most valuable aids to 
diagnosis which the physician possesses. 

Ausonius, Decimus Magnus, the son of a 
senator at Burdigala (Bordeaux), was born in 809 
A.d. Distinguished as a teacher of rhetoric he 
filled the post of tutor to the Emperor Gratian, and 
was subsequently made prefect of Latium, Libya, 
and Gaul, and proconsul of Asia. Ten or twelve 


years before his death, which occurred in 895, he 
retired to a country house near his native town and 
gave himself up to poetry in the form of epigrams, 
epistles, and idylls. He had not much of the divine 
afflatus, but he wrote with some degree of scholarly 
elegance and wit, though he was monotonous, 
affected, and occasionally puerile. His Parentalia , 
Idyl on the Moselle, and Crucifixion of Cupid are 
the best of his productions. He was apparently a 
Christian, but his whole nature was cast in a Pagan 
mould. 

Auspices (Lat. avis, bird ; and *spicio, I look), 
the signs or omens given by the behaviour of birds. 
[AUGUR.] Hence signs or omens generally. 

Aussigg, Aussyenad or Labem, a town of 
Bohemia, Austria, in a mountainous region near the 
confluence of the Bila and the Elbe. The church, 
supposed to be of the ninth century, contains a 
Madonna by Carlo Dolci, the gift of the father of 
Raphael Mengs, who was born here. There are coal 
mines at no great distance, and the chief industries 
are boat-building, woollen and linen weaving, paper, 
and chemicals. Mineral waters, paraffin, fruit, and 
timber are exported. 

Austell, St., a market town of Cornwall, 18 
miles N.N.E. of Truro, on the South Devon Railway. 
It is the centre of the tin-mining district, and large 
quantities of porcelain clay are exported thence to 
the potteries. It gives its name to a parliamentary 
division. 

Austen, Jane, the gifted English novelist, was 
born in 1775, at Steventon, in Hampshire, her 
father being rector of the parish. The story of her 
life is remarkable for its absolute lack of incident 
or variety. Twenty-six years were passed in the 
peaceful but dull parsonage at Steventon, with no 
greater distractions than the movements of a 
somewhat large family, the social gaieties of a 
rather out-of-the-way country place, and an occa¬ 
sional visit to friends in London or elsewhere. 
From her earliest years she had amused herself 
and the fireside circle at home by writing little 
sketches, thrown off spontaneously and without 
apparent effort. But neither she nor her friends 
took these literary tendencies as being of any 
serious value, and there was not a suspicion, as she 
sat at her tiny mahogany desk, filling page after 
page of manuscript amidst the talk and noise of 
the family party, that she was building up a repu¬ 
tation unrivalled by any Englishwoman up to her 
time. That her mind at this period was strongly 
influenced by Miss Burney, Richardson, and Miss 
Edgeworth can scarcely be doubted, but the ori¬ 
ginality of her own nature soon asserted itself. 
After completing a story, Elinor and Marianne, in 
the form of letters, with Evelina before her eyes as 
a model, she recast it entirely in the narrative 
style, and this work, under the title of Sense and 
Sensibility, appeared as her first published novel. 
Pride and. Prejudice was composed about the same 
time, i.e. before her twenty-sixth year, and North- 
anyer A bbey, in which she hits off with mild satire 
the productions of Mrs. Radcliffe, “ Monk ” Lewis, 
and the early sensational school, dates from the 
same period. None of these stories were written 










Austeriitz 


( 259 ) 


Australasia. 


consciously for the press, and years elapsed before a 
line of Miss Austen’s appeared in print. In 1801 
her father migrated to Bath, and this change 
seems to have checked for a moment the progress 
of her literary enterprises. Perhaps, too, her 
ardour was damped by the failure to find a pub¬ 
lisher for Pride and Prejudice or Northanger Abbey. 
Certain it is that during the four years preceding 
Mr. Austen's death in 1805 she accomplished 
nothing more important than an unnamed and 
unfinished sketch, which never saw the light till 
1871, when it was called The Watsons. From 1805 
to 1809 with her mother and sister she took up her 
residence in Southampton, but the inspiration 
never revived during her stay there. At last a 
home was found in a pleasant cottage on her 
brother’s estate at Chawton, in Hampshire, and her 
intellectual activity started anew. She had now 
reached the maturity of womanhood, her powers 
had developed themselves, her taste become more 
exacting, and possibly, too, she felt the spur of 
ambition. During the six years of vigorous life 
that were left to her she wrought out her three 
most masterly creations, Mansfield Park, Emma, and 
Persuasion. In 1811 Sense and Sensibility came 
before the public, to be followed two years later by 
Pride and Prejudice. Her fame was at once es¬ 
tablished, and so far as the modesty of her 
character permitted it she enjoyed for a spell the 
delights of successful authorship, though she died 
before her reputation reached its zenith. The 
illness of her brother Henry and other family 
troubles seriously impaired her health in 1816. 
She had strength enough to bring Persuasion to a 
close, but not to see it through the press. In July 
of that year she completely broke down, and after 
lingering twelve months she died at Winchester in 
the arms of her devoted sister. 

Miss Austen’s writings have an indefinable charm 
which it is difficult to express in words. Her 
stories have little plot, and nothing stirring in the 
way of incident or adventure. The range of char¬ 
acters is extremely limited, and she introduces no 
digressions. Her aim is to show that the ordinary 
commonplace existence of cultivated people pos¬ 
sesses sufficient interest in itself, if it be faithfully 
and delicately reproduced in language. But to 
few is given the art to effect this simple process as 
she effected it. No better description of her 
style can be given than her own comparison of her 
works to “ a little bit of ivory two inches thick,” on 
which she wrought “with a brush so fine as to 
produce little effect after much labour.” Her life 
lias been written by her nephew, Mr. Austen Leigh, 
and some of her letters have been edited by her 
relative, Lord Brabourne. 

Austeriitz, a smalltown in Moravia 12 miles 
E.S.E. of Brunn. Here on December 2,1805, Napo¬ 
leon defeated the Emperors of Russia and Austria 
in a decisive engagement, sometimes called “ The 
Battle of the Three Emperors,” which stripped 
Austria of 24,000 square miles of territory. The 
town boasts a handsome palace and park. 

Austin, John, the eminent English jurist, was 
born in Suffolk in 1790. He served for five years 


in the army, and then was called to the bar in 1818. 
He read much with John Stuart Mill. He soon 
retired from the active exercise of his profession, 
for which, in spite of wide knowledge, great intel¬ 
lect, and wonderful clearness of expression, he was 
constitutionally unfitted, and in 1828 entered upon 
the duties of Professor of Jurisprudence at Univer¬ 
sity College. His lectures at first drew large 
audiences, but the interest gradually died out and in 
1835 he vacated the chair. He had in the mean¬ 
time published his great work, The Province of 
Jurisprudence Peter mined, in which he swept away 
a mass of confusion that had hitherto obscured 
legal ideas. He served on the Criminal Law Com¬ 
mission, lectured at the Inner Temple without much 
success, and 1836 accompanied George Cornewall 
Lewis to Malta to assist in an inquiry into the 
grievances of the native population. With health 
enfeebled and spirits broken he retired for four 
years into Germany, and spent a like period in 
Paris. Coming home in 1848 he settled at Wey- 
bridge, where he died in 1859. Except a few articles 
in the Edinburgh Review he wrote little during the 
last twenty years of his life. His widow published 
his Lectures on Jurisprudence after his death. 

Austin, Mrs. Sarah Taylor, married John 
Austin in 1820. She inherited the natural talents 
of the Taylor family of Norwich to which she be¬ 
longed. Her translations of Ranke’s History of the 
Popes, Falk’s Characteristics of Goethe, and other 
standard German books won deserved popularity. 
Her Germany from, 1760 to 181j, though less known, 
contains much valuable matter. She wrote also on 
educational subjects, and edited the Memoirs of 
Sidney Smith, and the Letters from Egypt of her 
gifted daughter, Lady Duff Gordon, besides super¬ 
vising several editions of her husband’s works. She 
died at Weybridge in 1867. 

Austin, the capital of Texas, U.S.A., was named 
after Stephen Austin, who by his courage and per¬ 
severance succeeded in making Texas a part of the 
States. It is situated on the left bank of the Colo¬ 
rado river, and at a point where the railways of 
the State converge. It contains the State Capitol, 
State University, and many public buildings. 

Austin Friars. [Augustinians.] 

Australasia. The general name of the nu¬ 
merous islands and island-groups lying to the south 
and south-east of Asia, and to the southward of 
the tropic of Cancer. In its proper and widest 
meaning it embraces the continent of Australia, all 
Oceania or Polynesia, and the Indian Archipelago; 
and it includes the following, all of which will be 
found fully dealt with elsewhere under separate 
headings: Australia, Tasmania, the New Zealand 
Islands, the Philippine Islands (Luzon, Mindoro, 
Mindanao, Samar, Leyte, Palawan, etc.), Sumatra, 
Java, Billiton, Borneo, Celebes, the Sulu Islands, 
Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa, Sumba, Flores, Timor, the 
Moluccas, the Tenimber Islands, the Arru Islands, 
New Guinea, the Marianne or Ladrone Islands, the 
Caroline Islands, the Admiralty Islands, the Bis¬ 
marck Archipelago, the Solomon Islands, the New 
Hebrides, New Caledonia, Norfolk Island, the 









Australia. 


( 2G0 ) 


Australia, 


Kevmadec Islands, the Marshall Archipelago, the 
Chatham Islands, the Gilbert Islands, the Ellice 
Islands, the Fiji Islands, the Phoenix Islands, the 
Tokelan Islands, the Samoan Islands, the Tonga 
Islands, the Sandwich Islands, Palmyra, Samarang, 
Fanning, Christmas, Easter, Malden, Manikiki, the 
Cook Islands, the Society Islands, the Low Archi¬ 
pelago, the Marquesas Islands, Pitcairn Island, 
and many hundreds of others, the majority of 
those unnamed being very small. The chief native 
races are the Malay (in the Indian Archipelago), 
the Papuan (in New Guinea), the Australian, 
the New Zealand (allied to the Malayan), the 
Polynesian, and the Micronesian. A large pro¬ 
portion of the smaller islands are of coral forma¬ 
tion, and many of them are atolls, or annular reefs. 
The aborigines retain but few traces of any ancient 
civilisation, although in the opinion of some they 
must at one time have possessed considerable cul¬ 
tivation. In several of the islands, and notably in 
the Carolines and at Easter Island, prehistoric 
colossal statues and ruins of gigantic works of 
hewn stone abound. Most of the native Australa¬ 
sians were, at the time of their discovery, cannibals, 
and many are cannibals still. Very few of them 
had any distinct religious system; but nearly all 
the minor groups were governed directly or in¬ 
directly by a semi-religious caste, which maintained 
its influence by means of the institution called 
tabu , viz. the ceremonial setting aside or consecra¬ 
tion of people, places, and things for particular 
purposes. Violations of tabu , always very rare on 
account of the supernatural penalties which were 
supposed to follow its infraction, were, when they 
occurred, usually punished with death. Christian¬ 
ity has made great progress throughout Australasia, 
and to-day most of the natives are, at least nomi¬ 
nally, either Roman Catholics or members of 
Protestant Nonconformist sects. 

Australia. Extent , Configuration , Islands .— 
Australia, the smallest of the continents and the 
largest of the islands of the world, has an area of 
2,946,153 miles, and is, therefore, of about the same 
size as the United States of North America, if the 
vast lake surface of the latter be left out of the 
computation. The estimated population of Aus¬ 
tralia at the end of 1890 did not, however, exceed 
3,150,000, inclusive of the aborigines, who are 
rapidly dying out, and who do not now, in all 
probability, number a hundred thousand souls. The 
general outline of the island is that of an irregular 
half-moon, with the concave side, formed by the 
Great Australian Bight, facing to the south. The 
distance between the extreme north at Cape York 
(lat. 10° 40' S.) to the extreme south at Wilson 
Point (lat. 39° 10' S.) is about 1,930 miles; and 
between the extreme east at Cape Byron (long. 
153° 35' E.) to the extreme west at Steep Point 
(long. 113° 15' E.) about 2,450 miles. The coast is 
not very irregular or deeply indented, except on 
the north, and the estimated length of coast-line 
does not exceed 10,000 miles. The islands—if Tas¬ 
mania, which lies to the south, and is separated 
from the continent by Bass Strait, 130 miles wide, 
be excluded—are neither numerous nor important. 


On the east they include Prince of Wales Island, 
Albany Island, the Cumberland Islands, the North¬ 
umberland Islands, Great Sandy Island, and More- 
ton Island; on the south, King Island, Kangaroo 
Island, Nuyt’s Archipelago, Recherche Archipelago, 
and Eclipse Island ; on the west, Peel Island, Rott- 
nest Island, the Abrolhos or Houtman Rocks, Dirk 
Iiartog Island, Barrow Island, Dampier Archipelago, 
and Expedition Island ; and on the north, Bathurst 
Island, Melville Island, Goulburn Island, Wessel 
Island, Groote Eylandt, the Sir Edward Pellew 
Islands, and the Wellesley Islands. The chief bays 
are the Great Australian Bight, with its deepest 
inlet, Spencer Gulf, on the south; King’s Sound, 
Collier Bay, and Cambridge Gulf on the west; and 
the Gulf of Carpentaria on the north. Along the 
northern part of the east coast, and at a distance 
from it of from fifty to two hundred miles, runs the 
Great Barrier Reef, which forms a coral breakwater 
over 1,200 miles long, with a deep and well-shel¬ 
tered, though somewhat intricate, channel between 
it and the shore. The most important peninsulas 
are those of Cape York and Arnhem Land, on the 
north, and Eyria and York, on the south. 

Physical Features. —Australia, although much of 
it may be described as hilly, is, as regards great 
summits, the least mountainous, as it is also the 
least well-watered, of the continents. The elevated 
tracts lie chiefly in the eastern half, much of the 
interior of the western half being a sandy and 
almost waterless plain, known in its northern part 
as the Great Sandy Desert, and in its southern as 
the Great Victoria Desert. Most of the coast, 
nevertheless, is hilly, the hills being generally 
topped by plateaux. The chief ranges or groups 
are the South Australian Highlands, in Victoria and 
New South Wales, including the Interior Ranges 
(Mount Arrowsmith and Mount Lyell, 2,000 ft.), 
the Great Dividing Chain, the Muniong Range 
(Mount Kosciusko, 7,308 ft.), the Australian Alps 
(Bogong, 6,500 ft., Hotham, 6,100 ft., The Twins, 
5,575 ft.), the Grampians, the Pyrenees (Mount 
William, 5,600ft.), and the Blue Mountains; the 
mountains of South Australia, including the Lofty 
Range (2,334 ft.) and the Flinders Range (3,000 ft.); 
the Coast Range of Queensland (5,000 ft.); and the 
mountains in the north-west of Western Australia 
(Mount Labouchere, 3,400 ft., Mount Bruce, 3,800 ft.). 
In the south-eastern part of South Australia, near 
the Victorian frontier, are several extinct volcanoes. 

Geology. —Australia, which geologically shows 
signs of vast antiquity, is, over great part of its 
area, extraordinarily rich in the valuable and useful 
minerals, in asbestos and the porphyries, in coal, 
and in precious stones. Gold is found largely in 
nearly all parts of New South Wales, over at least 
one half of Victoria, in Queensland almost every¬ 
where, and to some extent in the other colonies. 
Valuable veins of silver exist on the confines of 
New South Wales and South Australia. Enormous 
quantities of tin are found in New South Wales 
(where the stanniferous area is estimated at 5£ 
million acres), in the beds of the tributaries of the 
Yarra-Yarra in Victoria, and elsewhere. Copper 
occurs most plentifully in South Australia, in meta- 
morphic and palmozoic rocks, and in Queensland, 









Australia. 


( 201 ) 


Australia. 


where a peculiarly fine malachite abounds. An¬ 
timony, in the form of oxide, sulphuret, and 
sulphide, generally enclosed in quartz, abounds 
in New South Wales and Victoria. Iron, chiefly in 
the form of hjematite, is also worked in the same 
colonies. Coal of all kinds, including kerosene 
shale, which yields upwards of 150 gallons of crude 
oil per ton, is found over a wide area of New South 
Wales, and in Queensland. Opal is freely met with 
in Queensland, in trachytic conglomerate and 
sandstone. Fine diamonds have been found in all 
the colonies except South Australia and Western 


central southern section is mainly drained by such 
more or less intermittent streams as the Diamant- 
ina, Alberga, and Cooper, into the large land-locked 
evaporating basins of South Australia. Most 
notable of these are Lakes Torrens, Eyre, Gairdner, 
Frome, Gregory, and Blanche. The south-western 
section of the continent has no rivers of importance, 
and the Swan river is the only stream which is 
really navigable. The north-western section is - a 
little better off; but most of the rivers there are 
sometimes dry. The chief are the Ashburton, the 
De Grey, and the Fitzroy. The northern section 



Australia. New South Wales also possesses galena, 
sulphuret of mercury, bismuth, and zinc, with 
rubies and sapphires; Victoria—osmium, zinc, 
cobalt, manganese, kaolin, gypsum, bitumen, and 
molybdenite; South Australia—bismuth and bitu¬ 
men ; Queensland—cobalt, nickel, cinnabar, zinc, 
sardonyx, agates, sapphires, garnets, topazes, por¬ 
phyries, slate, and basalt; and Western Australia, 
zinc. There are many fine marbles and building- 
stones. 

Hydrography .—Much of Australia is very indif¬ 
ferently watered, and the whole continent is singu¬ 
larly lacking in navigable rivers of any considerable 
size. The chief river, the Murray, is one of the 
few exceptions. Rising in the Muniong Range, it 
receives on its right bank the waters of the Mur- 
rumbidgee and Darling, has a length of about 1,300 
miles, and drains nearly 270,000 square miles of 
territory, or about three-quarters of New South 
Wales and Victoria. It is the principal drainer of 
the south-eastern portion of the continent. The 


contains the more permanent rivers, Roper, Ade¬ 
laide, and Victoria, the first of which is navigable 
for a distance of over 100 miles. The north-eastern 
section is drained chiefly into the Gulf of Carpen¬ 
taria, whither flow the Mitchell, Staaten, Gilbert, 
Norman, Flinders, Leichhardt, Albert, and other 
rivers; but, to some extent also, into the Pacific, 
into which the Brisbane and several smaller streams 
empty themselves. Speaking generally, the eastern 
third of the continent drains either southward or 
northward into the sea; the central half drains 
into lakes, or gets rid of most of its moisture by 
evaporation ; and the western sixth drains west¬ 
ward into the Indian Ocean. Many minor rivers, 
which would otherwise be navigable for a short 
distance inland, have their mouths choked by 
sandbanks. 

Climate. — About two-fifths of the Australian 
continent lie within the tropics. The remainder, 
including the whole of Victoria and New South 
Wales, enjoys one of the most pleasant and salubrious 





























































































Australia. 


( 2(52 ) 


Australia. 


climates in the world—a climate which bears a 
general resemblance to that of South Italy, though, 
owing to the greater extent of the territory, the 
mean temperature is more varied. In New South 
Wales the mean heat in summer is about 80° F., 
but near the coast this is agreeably tempered by 
the sea-breeze, which usually blows all day, a land- 
breeze following at night. On the inland plains, 
however, the mercury in summer often rises as 
high as 130° in the shade, and mounts almost daily 
to 100° during that season. In winter, nearly every¬ 
where south of Sydney there is occasional hoar¬ 
frost and snow. In the hills snow is common ; and 
there are places, such as Kiandra, where the mean 
annual temperature falls as low as 4(5°, and where 
the thermometer sometimes falls to 5°. The air is 
exceptionally dry and pure ; perhaps owing to the 
depression and aridity of large tracts in the interior, 
perhaps to the influence of the trade winds. The 
annual rainfall is very unequally distributed. At 
Sydney it is about 80 inches; at Melbourne, 40 
inches; at Adelaide, 21 inches ; at Perth, 31 inches ; 
on some of the interior plains, almost nil; and in 
parts of the hilly districts, enormous. Nearly all 
the lowlands are liable to long-continued droughts 
at uncertain periods. The streams then disappear 
in the parched earth; the herbage turns brown; 
and the cattle die of thirst, or of exhaustion con¬ 
sequent upon their unavailing efforts to struggle 
through the mud to the waters of some fast-vanishing 
pool. With these droughts come the terrible hot 
winds, which feel like a blast from a furnace. 
Happily, the hot winds are rare, occurring only in 
summer, and then lasting not more than two or 
three days; but while they last life is almost 
unbearable. They lull, however, at night. On the 
interior plains a fire is the almost invariable accom¬ 
paniment of the hot wind. Often this fire reaches 
phenomenal proportions. One, in 1851, devastated 
half the settled portion of what is now the colony 
of Victoria, caused immense loss of life and stock, 
and even threatened Melbourne. On February 6th, 
the day of this fire, the thermometer stood at about 
119°, but fell rapidly at night to 80°. In the northern 
parts of the island there are, as in most tropical 
climates, regular wet and dry seasons. The Govern¬ 
ment Observatory at Sydney prepares elaborate 
meteorological statistics relating to the entire con¬ 
tinent, and receives daily reports from stations in 
all districts and in New Zealand and Tasmania. It 
also publishes a daily weather-chart of Australasia, 
as the British Meteorological Office does of Europe. 

Flora .—The natural flora of Australia is strangely 
suited to the peculiarities of the climate. The great 
plains are largely covered with grasses, the roots of 
which have the power of lying dormant during pro¬ 
tracted droughts, and of reviving in response to the 
first shower or heavy dew. Where the droughts are 
less frequent there is magnificent forest vegetation. 
Among the most notable trees and shrubs which 
are indigenous are many myrtacefe, including the 
Eucalyptus globulus, or blue-gum; the Xanthorrhcea, 
or grass-tree; the tea-tree, the yellow-wood, the 
ironwood, certain cedars, the sago-palm, the cabbage 
palm, many mimosas and other leguminosm, and 
numerous orchideae, figs, bananas, yams, etc. ; but 


in one part or another of the vast island almost 
everything will thrive, and the whole flora of tropical 
and temperate lands has been successfully intro¬ 
duced. 

Fauna .—The fauna of Australia differs in nearly 
every respect from that of any other region on the 
world’s surface. Monkeys, Carnivora, and Ungulates 
are replaced by Marsupials and Monotremes ; the 
rodents are modified forms of rats and mice ; the 
bats alone possess no special interest, as they are 
forms common to the whole Eastern hemisphere. 
There are many characteristic birds, of which the 
chief are the Lyre-birds, the Scrub-birds, various 
parakeets, the Mound-birds, the Cassowaries, the 
Frog Mouths, the Black Swan, etc. There are 
many poisonous snakes, and thirty-six genera of 
lizards are peculiar to Australia. There are three 
peculiar genera of fresh-water turtles, but no tailed 
Amphibia, though frogs and toads are numerous. 
The most remarkable fish is Ceratodus (q.v.). 
Australia is poor in butterflies ; richer in beetles, 
the longicorus abounding throughout the region. 

Population .—The aboriginal population is a very 
low and dark-coloured branch of the Melanesian 
stock-—of cannibal proclivities, and of the most 
debased habits. The people are, however, very 
rapidly dying out, and are not now supposed to 
number more than 100.000 souls, of whom about 
70,000 are in Queensland. The non-aboriginal 
population is principally of British ancestry or 
birth (about 91 per cent.), of German ancestry or 
birth, and of Chinese birth. The number of Chinese 
on the continent is estimated at 22,000. 

Geographical Exploration and Progress .—The 
mainland of Australia, though it was seen by De 
Gonnerville, a French navigator, as early as 1503, 
seems to have been first touched at in 1606 by the 
Dutch yacht Dnyfhen , which, returning from an 
exploring expedition along the coast of New 
Guinea, made the land somewhere near the mouth 
of Batavia river on the east shore of the Gulf of 
Carpentaria. Godinho de Eredia had sighted Cape 
Van Diemen, on Melville Island, in 1601, and parts 
of the coast of the new continent, then known as 
New Holland, were traced by English, Dutch, Portu¬ 
guese and Spanish navigators in 1605. In 1606. 
also, De Torres passed through the strait which now 
bears his name, and sighted Cape York. These dis¬ 
coveries were followed up in 1616 by the Dutch 
navigator Dirk Hartog, in the ship Endraaght. He 
visited the west coast, and left an inscribed plate on 
what is now Dirk Hartog Island, near the mouth of 
Shark’s Bay, Western Australia. In 1618 Zeachen, 
another Hollander, discovered Arnhem Land on the 
north, and, as some say, part of Van Diemen’s Land 
on the south of the continent. The discovery of the 
Great Barrier Reef, by Harris, followed in 1619; 
and of long stretches of the north coast by the 
Dutch vessels Leeumin and Arnhem, in 1622 and 
1623. In 1627 Pieter Nuyts followed the south 
coast for a thousand miles; in the next year the 
Dutch ship Vianen was off what is now Port 
Essington; and in 1629 Pelsart, in the ship Batavia, 
was wrecked on the west coast. Abel Janszoon 
Tasman, commissioned by A. van Diemen, governor 
of Batavia, to explore the extent southwards of the 








Australia. 


( 263 ) 


Australia 


now land, sailed from Batavia on August 14, 1642, 
in the yacht Heemskirh, with the tender Zeedhen, 
and discovered Tasmania, which he named Van 
Diemen's Land, as well as New Zealand, which he 
named Staten Land. Thenceforward exploration 
languished for more than half a century, but in 
1663 Thevenot published his chart of the west coast 
•of “ Hollandia Nova,” and in 1688 Dampier fell in 
with the northern part of the continent; while in 
1696 Willem de Vlaming visited the north and 
south-west coasts, and sailed a distance of 18 
leagues up the Swan river. Exploration was re¬ 
sumed with vigour by Dampier in the Roebuck in 
1699 ; by the Dutch in 1705, when much of the 
north coast was charted ; and by Roggewein, with 
a Dutch squadron, in 1721-22. Captain Cook, with 
the Discovery and Resolution, examined much of 
the east coast in the course of his voyages ; and in 
1786 it was determined by Parliament to establish 
a penal settlement at Botany Bay, whither, in the 
following year, the first convict fleet of six trans¬ 
ports, two men-of-war (the Sirius, 20, and Supply, 
8), and three storeships sailed under the com¬ 
mand of the first governor, Commodore Arthur 
Phillip, R.N., with Captain John Hunter, R.N., as 
his captain. The squadron arrived on January 
18th, 1788 ; a few days later two French vessels, 
the Boussole and Astrolabe, under La Perouse, 
also arrived. The coasts were further explored 
by these expeditions, and by that of Bass and 
Flinders, who named the continent “Australia,” in 
1798-99. The last year of the eighteenth cen¬ 
tury witnessed Grant’s survey of all the coast, from 
Bass Land to Cape Northumberland. From that 
time forward the exploration of the interior began. 
In 1810 there were 10,454 Europeans in Australia, 
one-fifth of them being convicts and 1,100 soldiers. 
Three years later the first successful attempt was 
made to cross the Blue Mountains. They had until 
then been considered impassable, not so much by 
reason of their height, which is inconsiderable, as 
by reason of the steepness of their summits, which 
seem not to have been traversed even by the natives. 
In 1817 Oxley traced the Lachlan river, and in 1818 
the Macquarie river, and constructed the first map 
of Australia. In 1821 the first stage-coach was 
running, and the population stood at 29,783. In 
1824 Messrs. Howell and Hume made many new in¬ 
terior discoveries; by 1826 three newspapers were 
being published in the colony; and in 1829 Sturt 
began his first exploring expedition on the west. 
In the next year he began his second, and in 1831 
Mitchell discovered the Peel and Darling rivers. 
Up to about this time the settled part of the colony 
was, with the exception of the small settlement on 
the west, under a single government, the successive 
governors being Phillip, 1788—92 ; Grose, Paterson 
(as locum tenentes), Hunter, 1795-1800 ; King, 1800- 
06 ; Bligh, 1806-08 ; Macquarie, 1810-21; Brisbane, 
1821-25; Darling, 1825-31; Bourke, 1831-37; and 
Gipps, 1838-46 ; but in 1833, by Act of Parliament, 
the continent was divided into West and South 
Australia; and South Australia was actually pio- 
claimed a separate colony on December 28, 1836. 
The erection of other separate colonies followed, as 
is shown below. In the meantime, exploration 


was continued by Mitchell in 1835 ; by Hesse and 
Gellibrand, who perished, and by Mitchell again, in 
1836 ; by Earle, Eyre, Strelecki, and Ross in 1841; 
and by Landor and Lefray in 1843. Leichardts 
trans-continental expedition left Sydney in October, 
1844, and reached the shores of the Gulf of Car¬ 
pentaria in November, 1845. It returned to Sydney 
in March, 1846, and contributed immensely to the 
general knowledge of the interior. Other impor¬ 
tant inland expeditions have been those of Stuart, 
1860-61; Burke, 1860; Howett, 1861; Walker, 
1861; M’Kinlay, 1862; Macintyre, 1864-66; Giles, 
1872; Forrest, 1869-75; and Warburton. Much of 
the west central portion is still, however, unknown. 

Political Divisions .—The wdiole of the Australian 


Continent forms part of the British Empire, and so 
much of it as was settled formed, until 1829, a 
single colony. The colonies, and dates of their 
separate establishment, are now—New South Wales 
(the original colony); Western Australia, 1829; 
South Australia, 1836; Victoria, 1851; Queensland, 
1859. Each of these is treated under its proper 
head. 

The aboriyines of Australia form a tolerably 
homogeneous division of mankind, whose nearest 
affinities are with the Melanesian or Dark peoples 
of the Oceanic world. But they are distinguished 
from all other Negro or Negroid races especially by 
the combination of a black or nearly black com¬ 
plexion with wavy hair, never woolly, and a full 
beard. Some writers distinguish two types, and 
within given limits certain differences are observed, 
some being tall, stout, and vigorous, others of low 
stature, feeble, and debased. But these differences 
may be sufficiently explained by the more or less 
favourable environment of the several groups, some 
occupying the well-watered and productive region 
of the Murray-Darling basin, others roaming over 
the arid steppe 
lands on the verge 
of the desert, their 
whole existence 
devoted to the 
quest of a poor 
and scanty supply 
of food. The sub¬ 
stantial unity of 
the race seems 
to be further es¬ 
tablished by a 
community of 
traditions, social 
usages, weapons, 
and implements, 
and especially by 
their commo n 
speech, all the 
Australian idioms 
possessing the 
same phonetic and 
structural sys¬ 
tems and being 

apparently derived from one original stock 
language. Their mental capacity also stands every¬ 
where at about the same level, as shown, for in¬ 
stance, by the fact that scarcely any have radical 



AUSTRALIAN FROM QUEENSLAND. 






Australia 


( 264 ) 


Austria. 


terms for the numerals above two; thus, three is 
2 + 1 ; four 2 + 2, and so on, from one end of the 
continent to the other. The low state of culture 
indicated by this fact is shown also by the bar¬ 
barous rites practised on the youths at the age of 
puberty ; by the prevalence of infanticide and in 

many places 
of cannibal¬ 
ism ; by the 
wretched 
character of 
the dwellings, 
often little 
more than 
screens of 
foliage set up 
to windward ; 
by their om¬ 
nivorous diet, 
ranging from 
grubs and ver¬ 
min to snakes 
and human 
flesh; lastly 
by their pecu¬ 
liar marriage 
customs 
(Marriage) 
a n d t h e i r 
treatment of 
the women, who are the merest drudges with no 
rights or privileges, and condemned to spend their 
lives in ministering to the wants of their masters. 
The most prevalent weapons are spears, clubs, and 
darts with bone or flint heads ; the characteristic 
boomerang, or returning throwing-stick, is limited to 
certain districts, and not used in warfare. Tat¬ 
tooing of a rude description, consisting of a few 
scarifications or incisions artificially raised to per¬ 
manent welts, is generally practised, and supple¬ 
mented by painting the body with white, black, 
red, or yellow ochre, according to the various 
funeral, festive, or warlike occasions. There is no 
political organisation of any kind, nor are there 
any so-called “ kings” or even hereditary chiefs, as 
is commonly asserted. The tribe regulates its 
affairs by a council of elders, each head of a family 
retaining almost absolute control over the domestic 
group. The natives appear to believe in the im¬ 
mortality of the soul, but not in a presiding deity. 
The universe is full of spirits, some good or benevo¬ 
lent, some harmless and even feeble, others malevo¬ 
lent, to be conjured or thwarted by the charms and 
spells of the wizard or medicine man. The most 
comprehensive works on the Australian race are J. R. 
Brough Smyth’s Aborigines of Victoria , London, 
1878, and E. M. Curr’s Australian Race , Melbourne, 
1887. 

Australian region, one of the six prime divi¬ 
sions into which the surface of the earth is divided 
by zoologists. It contains four sub-regions : (1) 
the Austro-malayan, including the islands from 
Celebes and Lombock on the west, to the Solomon 
Islands on 1 he east; (2) the Australian, consisting 
of Australia and Tasmania; (3) the Polynesian, 


including all the tropical islands of the Pacific ; and 
(4) the New Zealand sub-region, consisting of New 
Zealand, with Auckland, Chatham, and Norfolk 
Islands. 

Austria. Originally given to a small district 
on the south bank of the Danube, this name now 
includes all the lands which have been at various 
times annexed to the Austrian crown. These are : 
Lower Austria, Upper Austria, Salzburg, Styria, 
Carinthia, Carniola, the coast districts (Goerz- 
Gradisca, Istria, and Trieste), Tyrol and Vorarlberg, 
Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, Galicia, Bukowina, and 
Dalmatia. The term is frequently, though incor¬ 
rectly, used in a still more extended sense to 
indicate all the dominions of the Emperor Francis 
Joseph I. These include, in addition, the kingdom 
of Hungary, made up of the “ crown-lands ” of 
Hungary, Transylvania (Siebenbiirgen), Fiume, 
Croatia, and Slavonia. 

Austria and Hungary are separated by the river 
Leitha, whence they are often called Cis-Leithania 
and Trans-Leithania respectively, and are so 
intimately connected, geographically and politically, 
that it will be found more convenient to consider 
them together. The present article therefore treats 
of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, the ruler of 
which is officially styled “ Emperor of Austria, King 
of Bohemia, etc., and Apostolic King of Hungary.” 

The monarchy is, with the exception of Russia, 
the largest of the European states. It extends from 
long. 9° to long. 26° E., and from lat. 42° to lat. 
51° N., comprising an area of 240,942 English square 
miles. These figures do not include the territories 
of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with an area of 20,000 
sq. m., which, though nominally still provinces of 
the Ottoman Empire, have since 1878 been governed 
and administered entirely by Austria. 

Mountains .—Next to Switzerland, Austria is by 
far the most mountainous land in Europe, no less 
than four-fifths of its area beins: more than 6,000 
feet above the sea-level. The chief ranges are (1) 
the Alps, in the south-western region, distinguished 
as the Rhaetian, Noric, Carnic, Julian, and Dinaric 
Alps, the highest peak being the Ortler Spitze, 
12,814 feet, in the first-named division ; (2) the 
Carpathians in the E. and N.E., culminating in the 
Eisthaler Thurm, 8,378 feet, and (3) the Hercynian 
system, in Bohemia, Silesia, and Moravia, including 
the Erzgebirge and the Riesengebirge with its 
crowning peak, the Schneekoppe, 5,330 feet. 

Rivers .—Owing to the conformation of the great 
watersheds formed by the ranges above described, 
the rivers flow in three directions, north, south, and 
east. The most important is the Danube, which, 
entering the empire at its confluence with the Inn, 
by Passau, on the Bavarian frontier, traverses it for 
a distance of 820 miles (rather less than half of its 
total length), quitting Austrian territory at the Iron 
Gate, a gorge formed by the near approach of the 
Eastern Carpathians and a branch of the Balkan 
range, on the confines of Bulgaria and Wallachia. 
During this part of its course the Danube falls 76(5 
feet. The largest of its many tributaries is the 
Theiss, which drains the eastern plains of Low r er 
Hungary, rising on the borders of Galicia, and 



AUSTRALIAN WOMAN FROM QUEENSLAND. 







Austria. 


( 265 ) 


Austria. 


flowing into the Danube below Peterwardein ; it is 
navigable throughout nearly the whole 500 miles 
of its length. It is worthy of note, as illustrating 
the inland situation of the empire, that not one 
river of any importance debouches into the sea in 
Austrian territory. 

Lakes. —The largest is the Flatten See, or Lake 
Balaton (the ancient Yolcea Pains), in south-west 
Hungary, 48 miles in length ; it is very shallow, 
and slightly salt. The Neusiedler See, about 30 
miles S.E. of Vienna, within the Hungarian border, 
is remarkable for the changes in its level, which 
sometimes varies to the extent of five or six feet. 
In Lake Zirknitz, in the mountains of Illyria, there 
is a total disappearance of the waters in summer, 
so that the bottom is brought under cultivation and 
produces a harvest of clover and rice. 

Coast-line. —This is limited to the eastern shore 
of the Adriatic—Austria’s only sea — from the 
Gulf of Trieste to Cattaro in Dalmatia. The coast 
constitutes about one-fifth of the total frontier 
line. 

The climate differs considerably in the different 
States, but is generally good and healthy, except in 
the swampy districts of Lower Hungary. 

Minerals abound in both Austria and Hungary ; 
in the amount of the precious metals no other 
European country can compare with them. There 
are gold mines now yielding a fair amount of ore, 
which were worked by the Romans of old. Iron, 
copper, lead, salt, and coal are widely diffused. 
The richest quicksilver mine in Europe, after that 
of Almaden in Spain, is at Idria in Carniola. An 
exceptionally good quality of iron, obtained in 
Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola, goes by the name 
of “ native steel.” 

Flora. —The variations in the climate produce an 
extended range in the vegetable world, from the 
olive and palm on the mild Adriatic coast to flax 
and other northern plants in Galicia and Bohemia, 
besides the distinct flora of the Alpine regions. 
The number of plants is estimated at 12,000, about 
one-third of which are flowering species. Of these 
nearly one-half are found in Lower Austria, which 
alone produces some 1,700 flowering plants. A 
leading characteristic of the country is the abun¬ 
dance of forests, which extend over about a third 
of its surface. Some of the finest oak and other 
timber trees in Europe are to be found in the 
mountain regions of Transylvania. 

Fauna.— The large proportion of Alpine and forest 
land makes Austria an exceptionally interesting 
country to the sportsman and the naturalist, several 
wild animals being still Irequently met with, which 
have long disappeared from more highly cultivated 
regions. Among others may be noted the brown 
bear, lynx, wolf, jackal, deer, chamois (now very 
scarce), and wild boar. The golden eagle and 
others of the falconidte, with two or three kinds of 
vulture, inhabit the wild mountainous districts, and 
the Hungarian marshes abound in waterfowl of 
numerous species ; the white heron or egret is so 
plentiful that its feathers are an article of export. 
The great bustard is still found in the plains of 
Hungary. The Theiss is said to be more plentifully 
stocked with fish than any other European rivei, 


the lakes also have an abundant supply, some of 
the species being elsewhere unknown. 

Population. —The official estimates for the end of 
the year 1886 were :—Austria, 23,895,833 ; Hungary, 
17,180,971; military population not otherwise in¬ 
cluded, 162,423; total 41,239,227, or slightly over 
172 to the square mile. The various races which 
contribute to this total may be roughly classified 
as follows : (1) Slavs (about 19 millions) including 
Czechs and Moravians in the north, Slovacks in the 
Western Carpathians, Poles andRuthensin Galicia, 
Slovens, Croatians, and Serbs in the south; (2) 
Germans (10 millions), mostly in Bohemia, Upper 
and Lower Austria ; (3) Magyars (6^ millions) in 
Hungary; (4) Roumanians (2^ millions) in the 
Bukowina and parts of Transylvania and Hungary. 
The rest of the population is made up of Italians, 
Jews, Armenians, Greeks, Albanians, Gipsies, etc. 

History .—Passing over the classical period, dur¬ 
ing which the struggles of the Pannonians, Dacians, 
and other inhabitants of the basin of the Danube 
against the Roman arms were not such as to dis¬ 
tinguish them from other “ barbarians,” w r e come 
at once to the period of Charlemagne. The great 
Kaiser, towards the end of the eighth century, 
founded the margravate of Austria (called Oester- 
reich, or Eastern Kingdom, from its position with 
reference to Charlemagne’s other dominions), in the 
country S. of the Danube and E. of the river Enns. 
In the year 1156 the Emperor Frederick I. added 
the country W. of the Enns, and raised Austria to 
the rank of a duchy. In 1278 the Emperor Rudolf 
I. took possession of the duchy. Four years later 
he gave it to his son, Albrecht I. of Hapsburg, and 
thus became the founder of the dynasty which has 
ever since swayed the destinies of Austria. After 
many changes and transfers, often of a violent 
nature, to various branches of the Hapsburg 
dynasty, Austria in 1453 was made an Archduchy. 
Ferdinand I., brother and successor to the Em¬ 
peror Charles V., married a daughter of the King 
of Hungary and Bohemia, by which union those 
countries were first brought under Austrian rule. 

Hungary had been a separate kingdom for 500 
years before this, its first king, Stephen I., having 
been crowned A.D. 1000. Hungarian history for 
centuries after his accession is one long record of 
struggles against the Turks. Indeed it is mainly 
owing to the resistance of the brave Magyars, who 
were unsurpassed as light cavalry, that the oriental 
despotism of the Ottoman Empire was confined to 
the south-eastern corner of Europe. These Magyars, 
from whom the Hungarian of to-day is proud to 
claim descent, are known to be a kindred race with 
the Turks and Fins. Their name and language, 
with many features of their character, still survive. 
The most distinguished of the Hungarian kings was 
Matthias Corvinus, who gained a high reputation 
for valour, justice and learning. He founded the 
University of Pressburg in 1467, and died in 1490. 

On the death of the Emperor Karl VI. in 1740 
the male line of the Hapsburgs came to an end, 
but his daughter, Maria Theresa, succeeded him, 
by virtue of the Pragmatic Sanction. The war 
which ensued, commonly called “ the War of the 
Austrian Succession,” ended in the triumph of 





Austria. 


( 266 ) 


Austria 


Maria Theresa over most of the European sove¬ 
reigns, including Frederick the Great. Maria 
Theresa married Duke Francis of Lorraine and 
Tuscany, her descendants being consequently named 
the Hapsburg-Lothringen (Lorraine) line. She 
died in 1780, and was followed on the throne by her 
two sons, Joseph II. (died 1790) and Leopold II. 
(died 1792). When the Holy Roman Empire was 
extinguished by Napoleon in 1801 Leopold’s son, 
Franz I., assumed the title of Emperor (Kaiser) of 
Austria. He was four times married, and died in 
1835, leaving a large family. His son, Ferdinand I., 
abdicated in 1848, when his nephew, the present 
Emperor Franz Josef I., succeeded to the united 
thrones. The crown of Hungary, it may be observed, 
is conferred by a separate ceremony at the 
Hungarian capital, the king’s claim being based on 
the Pragmatic Sanction of 1724, which secured the 
succession to the direct heirs of the House of 
Hapsburg. 

The chief event of the present reign was the war 
with Prussia in 1866, which was occasioned by diffi¬ 
culties arising out of the joint administration of the 
provinces of Schleswig and Holstein, taken from 
Denmark in 1864. The war terminated in the defeat 
of Austria at Koniggratz, and the formation of the 
North German Confederation. From that time 
Austria ceased to be reckoned as a German power. 

Constitution and Government. —Although united 
under the sway of one monarch, the Empire of 
Austria and the Kingdom of Hungary are not by 
any means amalgamated. At the date of the union 
(1724) Austria was an absolute, Hungary a limited 
monarchy. No attempt to combine the two 
countries under an identical system has been found 
successful, but after many political vicissitudes 
the government is now, by virtue of a law of 1867, 
established in a form which may be described as 
constitutionalism on a dual basis. 

The Austrian parliament, or Reiclisrath, consists 
of two chambers. The Upper House (Herrenliaus) 
is composed of princes of the imperial house, heads 
of noble families, the archbishops, certain of the 
bishops, and an indefinite number of men distin¬ 
guished in church, state, science, or art, nominated 
for life by the emperor. The Lower House (Haus 
der Abgeordneten) contains 353 elected members, 
chosen by voters, who are themselves elected in the 
proportion of 1 to every 500 inhabitants. 

The Hungarian parliament, or Reichstag , has 
also two houses, the upper (Magnatentafel) com¬ 
posed of the higher clergy and nobility, and the 
lower (Reprasentantentafel) of 447 deputies from 
the counties and towns. 

The two parliaments elect annually a body of 120 
members, 20 from each upper and 40 from each 
lower house, which is known as the Delegations, 
and meets alternately at Vienna and Pesth to dis¬ 
cuss affairs relating to the whole monarchy. 

The legislative power is vested in the sovereign 
and the two houses in each country, the executive 
in the sovereign alone. 

Each of the Austrian crown-lands has a Land¬ 
tag for the management of local affairs, but in 
Hungary only Croatia and Slavonia (together) have 
such a body. The number of members varies 


according to locality, from 20 in Vorarlberg to 240 
in Bohemia. 

The Ministers of Foreign Affairs, War, and Im¬ 
perial Finance act for the whole monarchy, under 
the presidency of the first-named. Austria has the 
following 7 Ministries:—Interior, Worship and In¬ 
struction, Commerce, Agriculture, National Defence, 
Justice, and Finance, besides a Minister without 
portfolio, and a separate Minister for Galicia. 
Hungary has the first seven as in Austria, with a 
Ministry of Public Works and Communications, a 
separate minister for Croatia and Slavonia, and a 
“Minister a latere .” The last of these is estab¬ 
lished at Vienna, and forms a connecting link 
between the sovereign and the Hungarian Govern¬ 
ment. All the others are at Buda-Pesth, the Hun¬ 
garian capital. 

Religion. —Perfect liberty of faith and conscience 
is allowed. Every recognised religious body enjoys 
freedom of worship and management of its affairs. 
The “ recognised ” bodies are the Roman Catholic, 
Greek - Oriental, Evangelical (Lutheran and Re¬ 
formed), Gregorian-Armenian, and Jewish churches 
throughout the monarchy, together with the old 
Catholics and the Evangelical Brotherhood in 
Austria, and the Unitarians in Hungary. The 
Roman Catholics constitute about 80 per cent, of 
the population in Austria, and about 50 per cent, in 
Hungary. All the churches are alike independent 
of the state. 

Education. —(1) Elementary schools. The erec¬ 
tion of these is incumbent on the several school 
districts. Attendance is compulsory between the 
ages of 6 and 14 (with slight variations in some 
states). There are two grades in Austria, and three 
in Hungary. “ Religion and Morals ” forms one of 
the obligatory subjects in all. In 1888 the atten¬ 
dance in Austria was 86’9 per cent. In Hungary, 
in 1886, it was 80’4. School-fees vary considerably 
in different localities, but are generally very low. 
In Hungary they average 12 per cent, of the total 
cost of education. (2) Gymnasia and realschulen. 
These are preparatory for the universities and 
technical schools; the curriculum extends over 7 
or 8 years. They are mostly maintained by the 
state, or enjoy a subvention from it. (3) Universi¬ 
ties and colleges. There are in all 11 universities, 
8 in Austria and 3 in Hungary. The oldest is at 
Pressburg (once the Hungarian capital), founded in 
1467, and the largest is at Vienna, with over 5,000 
students. There are four faculties, viz. theology, 
law, medicine, and philosophy. Of theological 
colleges, Austria has 51 and Hungary 49; the latter 
country also possesses 11 schools of law. There are 
seven government technical high schools of en¬ 
gineering and chemistry, and nearly 2,000 technical 
institutes for teaching agriculture, forestry, mining, 
and other industries, art, music, etc. 

It is to be noted that there are no establish¬ 
ments for the education of boys of the upper classes 
on a par with our public schools ; the majority of 
such boys are educated at home, and examined 
periodically at the gymnasium to test their progress. 

Industries. —Agriculture has never attained the 
importance which the natural opportunities ap¬ 
pear to indicate. Only 6’2 per cent, of the entire 





Austria. 


( 2(57 ) 


Austria. 


Austro-Hungarian area is unproductive. The Hun¬ 
garian plains consist of soil equal to any in Europe 
in fertility, and might long since have placed the 
country in the foremost rank among the corn-lands 
of the world. Excessive duties, imperfect means 
of communication, and too rigid adherence to anti¬ 
quated methods, have all contributed to check 
progress, but under the present regime the first two 
obstacles have been removed, and the third is 
gradually passing away. Austria-Hungary now 
ranks third of the European grain - producing 
countries, being surpassed by Russia and France. 
The grain exported in 1888 was valued at nearly 
£8,000,000, besides wheat-flour worth £2,458,000. 

Vines are extensively cultivated, especially in 
Hungary, which produces Tokay, one of the finest 
wines known. The average annual production of 
wine is more than 180 million gallons. 

Forestry is naturally a considerable feature of 
national industry, and is thoroughly and systemati¬ 
cally studied. The timber of various kinds (oak, 
beech, maple, and pine form the bulk) reaches the 
large annual aggregate of 7,240 million cubic feet. 

Pastures of almost unlimited extent abound in 
Hungary, Transylvania, Galicia, and Dalmatia. 
Austria and Hungary have for centuries been noted 
as horse-breeding countries, and still bear a high 
reputation. The Ministers of Agriculture both en¬ 
courage breeding, by a system of annual grants to 
private owners of stallions. There are three govern¬ 
ment studs in Austria, and three in Hungary, 
established for the improvement of the various 
breeds. Most of these studs have been in existence 
for about a century. Annual horse shows are held 
in each district, at which money prizes and medals 
are awarded by government commissioners. Many 
wealthy landowners have private breeding establish¬ 
ments. The Austrian Stud Book is issued annually. 
There is a great partiality for Arab blood, several 
noblemen having devoted much time and money to 
the maintenance of the purest breed. The best 
horses for general purposes are said to come from 
Transylvania. Hungary supplies the greatest 
number. In the whole monarchy the number of 
horses is estimated at more than 3| millions. 

Cattle are reared chiefly by the peasantry in the 
Alpine districts, especially the Tyrol and Styria. 
There is room for much greater development in 
this department of farming, which is unnecessarily 
limited to certain provinces. Sheep-farming 
received a notable impulse by the introduction in 
17(53 of the merino sheep into Moravia, Silesia, and 
Bohemia. At the present time these countries do 
not maintain their superiority, and the greater part 
of the sheep are raised in Hungary. Total for the 
monarchy, about 14,000,000. 

Fishing is an important industry on the Adriatic 
coast, and employs 11,000 fishermen, with 3,000 
boats, the “ takes ” realising as much as 2,000.000 
florins in the course of the year (1 florin = Is. 8d.). 

Mining is one of the chief industries of Austria, 
and might be carried on to a greater extent than 
is now the case. The mineral wealth of the 
monarchy is enormous, but the annual output is 
quite insignificant. Coal, in particular, should 
receive far more attention. Seeing that coal is 


found in all the crown lands of both Austria and 
Hungary, with the single exception of Salzburg, it 
seems strange that Hungary alone imported about 
700,000 tons in 1889, and that the annual produce 
of the whole monarchy only exceeds that of 
Belgium by about 14 per cent., being somewhat 
less than that of France. The consumption of 
coal in Hungary during 1889 exceeded 3,500,000 
tons, of which about 20 per cent, was from abroad. 
The increase in the annual demand has been calcu¬ 
lated at 200,000 tons, of which one-half is im¬ 
ported. 

In the iron mines the same lack of enterprise 
keeps the production below what might reasonably 
be expected. Taking Hungary again as an example, 
we find that the total output of gold, silver, iron, 
and other metals is not worth more than £1,800,000, 
In getting this, some 36,000 miners are employed, 
including about 800 women and 4,000 children 
under 16 years of age. In Austria there are about 
100,000 miners, besides about 13,000 men engaged 
at smelting works. In 1889 the production of pig- 
iron in the whole monarchy was 816,000 tons. 

Salt mines are worked at Halicz, Wieliczka, and 
Bochnia in Galicia, Maros Ujvar in Transylvania, 
Sugatag in Hungary, and many other places. The 
mine at Bochnia is nearly two miles long, a furlong 
wide, and 1,000 feet deep, while that at Wielickza 
forms a regular underground town, about a mile 
long and half a mile wide, with streets, churches, 
etc., cut out of the salt. With all these natural 
facilities, the monarchy only takes the fifth place 
among salt producers, with an average about one- 
seventh of that of Great Britain. The annual value 
is about £1,200,000, and the industry employs some 
12,000 men. It is a government monopoly. 

Manufactures have advanced greatly during the 
last 25 years. One of the oldest is that of linen, 
some of which is still spun, and the greater part 
woven, by hand labour. Bohemia, Silesia, and 
Moravia are the chief seats of this industry. Cotton 
fabrics are produced in increasing quantities in 
the same districts, and woollen cloths in Moravia 
and Lower Austria. Bohemia has a world-wide 
reputation for the manufacture of various kinds 
of glass, and the Tyrol has long been noted for 
the production of carved woodwork. Paper is 
made chiefly in Bohemia and in or near Vienna. 
Beet sugar is manufactured principally in Bohemia. 
About 55,000 persons are engaged in the trade, 
at some 200 factories. Brewing is an important 
trade, especially in Lower Austria and Bohemia. 
There were 1,835 breweries at work in 1888, and 
nearly £500,000 worth of beer was exported. 

Commerce .—Austria has never taken high rank 
as a commercial nation. The mountainous character 
of many of her provinces, and her relatively small 
sea-board, have offered serious natural obstacles to 
development in this direction. Of late, however, 
much has been done by commercial legislation and 
improvement of the means of transport, to foster 
native industries, with marked beneficial results. 
The chief want now appears to be an increase of 
enterprise in the employment of capital, and greater 
confidence in commercial undertakings independent 
of government aid or patronage. 


/ 











Austria. 


( 268 ) 


Austria. 


For the purposes of foreign trade Austria-Hun¬ 
gary forms a single customs union, embracing also 
Bosnia, Herzegovina, and the principality of Lich¬ 
tenstein, but exclusive of Trieste and Fiume, 
which are free ports. 

The slapping trade is limited by the small accom¬ 
modation. The progress made in the last few years 
is shown by the following figures : in 1880 Austria 
owned 113 steam and 8,097 sailing vessels ; in 1889 
these numbers had increased to 171 and 9,851 re¬ 
spectively, 69 of the steamers being of sea-going 
class. At Trieste alone in 1889 there entered 8,213 
vessels, with an aggregate of 1.447,940 tons, and 
cleared 8,192 vessels, 1,441,250 tons. About 80 
per cent, of this tonnage was Austrian, the rest 
mainly French, Italian, and English. No bounties 
or subsidies are granted in aid of ship-building, 
but materials and fittings are imported free of 
duty. 

It is interesting to note the proportion of this 
trade which is carried on with Great Britain. In 
1889 there were exported to England goods to the 
value of £2,286,834, more than half of which consisted 
of wheat flour, and over £65,000 of wood. From 
England, in the same year, Austria imported goods 
to the amount of £1,019,842, the principal items 
being cotton manufactures, £325,903; hardware, 
£118,271 ; and machinery, £106,951. 

Communications .—Although Austria claims the 
credit of having possessed the first (horse) railway 
on the continent of Europe, that between Linz and 
Budweis, completed in 1827, her railway system 
was until quite recently a long way behind that of 
some of her neighbours. Within the last twenty 
years, however, the increase has been very great, 
particularly in Hungary, where the length of lines, 
which in 1867 was only about 1,400 miles, now 
amounts to 6,700 miles. The total mileage for the 
whole monarchy was, in 1890, 15,877 miles, besides 
342 in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Part of this con¬ 
sists of state railways, part of railways owned 
and worked by companies, and part of lines owned 
by companies but worked by the state, or vice 
versa. 

The number of passengers carried in 1887 was over 
70,000,000, and the goods amounted to 79,000,000 
tons. This may compare rather unfavourably 
with the traffic returns of other nations, but it is 
to be borne in mind that the Austrians, and more 
especially the Hungarians, are scattered over a 
wide tract of country, where distances are great, 
and incentives to travel fewer than in many other 
lands. Railway fares, too, were till recently far 
too high for the means of the lower orders of the 
population. This last fact led the Hungarian 
Minister of Public Works and Communications to 
introduce in 1889 the radical reform known as the 
“ Zone Tariff,” wherein the station from which the 
traveller starts is taken as the centre of 14 zones, 
the fare being the same to all other stations in any 
zone, i.e. at any equal radial distance. The intro¬ 
duction of this system (limited to the railways under 
state control) was followed by a large increase of 
traffic, and the example has been followed by the 
adoption of a modification of it, known as the 
“ Kreuzer Tariff,” on the Austrian state lines, but 


neither system can yet be said to have passed 
out of the experimental stage. It should be 
added, however, that some of the railway com¬ 
panies are adopting similar tariffs. The reduc¬ 
tion of fares in Hungary is said to have been at 
the rate of about 40 per cent., but, on the other 
hand, return tickets and some other privileges have 
been abolished. 

The roads amount in total length to 63,920 miles. 
They are of varying degrees of excellence, some of 
those in the Alps, from the Tyrol and Illyria to 
Lombardy, being admirably constructed, while in 
Hungary, mainly for want of suitable material, many 
of the roads are of very poor quality. 

Waterways .—The Danube is navigable for sailing- 
vessels below Pesth, and for specially built steameis 
as far as Ulm. The Danube Steam Navigation 
Company, the principal steamboat owners in 
Vienna, carried in 1889 a million and a half of 
passengers, and about two million tons of freight. 
On the Elbe the freight reached to about 500,000 
tons. Several other rivers are navigable through 
part of their length. In Austria there are 2,428 
miles of rivers and canals open to timber rafts only, 
1,700 miles to barges, etc., including 376 to 
steamers, giving a total of 4,128 miles ; in Hun¬ 
gary 3,050 miles. Canals are almost confined to 
the Hungarian plains. The most important are 
the Bega Canal, and the Franzens Canal between 
the Theiss and the Danube. The Schwarzenberg 
Canal, which connects the Elbe and Danube navi¬ 
gations, is for timber only. There are many smaller 
ones, constructed chiefly for the purpose of drain¬ 
ing the Hungarian marshes. 

Army .—The military system comprises (1) the 
Active Army; (2) the Austrian Landwelir, and (3) 
the Hungarian Landwehr, or “ Honved.” The 
whole is organised into fifteen army corps, each 
corps consisting of two divisions of the active 
army, and one division of Austrian or Hungarian 
Landwehr. In the event of war these corps 
would form three armies, one of five and two 
of four corps ; the fourteenth corps being specially 
assigned to the Tyrol and the fifteenth to Bosnia 
and Herzegovina. There is also a separate military 
command at Zara, in Dalmatia, for local defence. 
The total number of infantry divisions would be 
48, on a general mobilisation, but about 17 of 
these are non-existent during peace. 

The cavalry are formed into brigades of two 
regiments, attached to the army corps, and five 
independent cavalry divisions. There are in all 
41 regiments, 14 of Dragoons, 16 of Hussars, and 11 
of Uhlans, each having six field squadrons of five 
officers and 166 men (war strength), besides a depot, 
squadron and the cadre of a reserve squadron ; there 
are also 11 officers and 80 men on the regimental 
and “ divisional ” staff (three squadrons form a 
“ division ”), and two escort detachments of an 
officer and 43 rank and file each. Thus a cavalry 
regiment at full strength requires some 1,500 horses. 
Their arms are the carbine and the cavalry sword. 
In the Honved cavalry the squadrons arc, at peace 
strength, only one-fourth of their full numbers, and 
their fifth and sixth squadrons are not intended to 
take the field with the regiment, but to act as 








Austria. 


( 269 ) 


Austrogaea. 


divisional cavalry with the Honved divisions; in 
other respects they resemble the Hussars of the 
active army. 

^ there are It regiments of corps artillery, having 
153 heavy, 28 light, 16 horse, and 12 mountain 
batteries. Besides these there are 12 battalions of 
garrison (fortress) artillery, each with 5 active 
companies and one company cadre. There is no 
artillery in the Landwehr. 

The infantry regiments, of which there are 102, 
contain 2 active and 3 reserve battalions a piece, 
besides the depot battalion. The Tyrolese Jteger 
(Rifle) Regiment has 7 battalions, and there are 
33 other battalions of rifles. Hungary, it may be 
observed, is the country in which Hussars origin¬ 
ated, while Austria first produced the “ rifleman.” 

The Landwehr of the Tyrol and Vorarlbergis of a 
specially local character ; it is organised expressly 
with a view to mountain warfare, and is not 
intended, as a rule, to be employed outside its own 
district. With this exception, the Landwehr, both 
Austrian and Hungarian, while differing in some 
important details of economy and administration 
from the active army, must be reckoned as an 
integral part of the regular military system, its 
battalions, etc., being intimately associated with their 
“ active ” comrades in a manner designed to insure 
efficient combination when mobilised. The Austrian 
Landwehr is (since 1889) organised in 22 regi¬ 
ments of from three to five battalions, and named 
after the chief town in each battalion district. 


The battalions are numbered throughout from 1 to 
82. The recruits of the Landwehr battalions are, in 
peace, eight weeks with the “ instructional cadres.” 
The Hungarian Landwehr has 92 battalions and 34 
“ of the second line ” intended as reserves, besides 
10 Hussar regiments. Most of this is potential 
rather than actual strength, battalions being repre¬ 
sented in peace by cadres of a few men. The 
infantry weapon is the Mannlicher magazine 
rifle. 

The forces include 10 battalions of Engineers, 5 
of Pioneers, 15 divisions of train, and ambulance, 
provision, and other departmental corps. 

Recruiting is conducted on the basis of universal 
liability commencing at the age of 21, the term of 
service being three years with the colours, seven 
in the reserve, and two in the landwehr. Recruits 
who voluntarily enlist and provide their own equip¬ 
ment may reduce their service with the colours 
to one year. The various nationalities affect re¬ 
cruiting in certain definite ways; thus, Poland 
supplies the bulk of the Uhlans, Hungary the 
Hussars, and the mountain districts the Rifles. 
There are no corps d'elite corresponding with the 
“ Guards ” of other European armies. 

Outside the active and Landwehr troops is the 
organisation of the Lanclsturui. In this are in¬ 
cluded all males between the ages of 19 and 42, 
who are not otherwise serving. 

The accompanying table gives the actual strength 
of the army in 1890-91:— 


Peace Strength. 

War Strength. 

Infantry. 

Cavalry. 

Artillery. 

Technical Troops - 

Train. 

Sanitary. 

Staff, etc. .... 

Establishment 

Total - 

Army. 

Landwehr. 

Total. 

Army. 

Landwehr. 

Landsturm. 

Total. 

190,233 

5S,714 

IS,509 
10,14S 
2,831 
2,0S9 
4,110 
15,945 

15,580 

11,S92 

211,813 

70,000 

IS,509 
10,14S 
2,S31 
2,0S9 
4,110 
15,945 

000,077 

73,955 

109,490 

47,009 

43,917 

0,514 

20,9S2 

39,SIS 

407,0S4 
20,045 

441,122 

1,449,483 

100,000 

109,490 

47,009 

43,917 

0,514 

20,9S2 

39,SIS 

309,245 

27,472 

330,717 

942,902 

434,329 

441,122 

1,SIS,413 


Nary .—All matters connected with the navy are 
in the hands of the naval department of the 
Ministry of War. 

The present strength is:—11 armoured battle 
ships with 165 guns, 13 cruisers, and 57 torpedo 
boats, with smaller vessels. Total, exclusive of 
harbour, barrack, and school ships, 109 ships, 
mounting 348 guns, and having 139,780 indicated 
horse-power. The largest gun weighs 48 tons, and 
is of 12-inch calibre. One ram cruiser has a speed 
of 18| knots, but the average of the remainder is 
only a little over 13 knots. Vessels of the most 
modern type are now in course of construction. 

Th e personnel of the navy is as follows :—Officers 
and cadets, 592 ; doctors, chaplains, etc., 617; men, 
7,340. Total. 8,549. The naval arsenal is at Pola. 

Art and Music .—Few names of more than local 


celebrity occur in the annals of painting in the 
past, but it is no light boast that one of the greatest 
masters of any age, Albrecht Diirer, though born 
at Nuremberg, was the son of a Hungarian father. 
In modern times, Hans Makaart in Austria and 
Munkacsy in Hungary have nobly upheld the 
reputation of the monarchy. 

In music, on the other hand, Austria has long 
held a foremost position ; indeed, Vienna has been 
called the musical capital of Europe. It is suffi¬ 
cient to recall the names of Haydn and Mozart 
to justify the title, without referring to the many 
eminent musicians of more recent date who have 
lived and worked there. 

Austrogaea, an approximate synonym of Noto- 
gma (q.v.). 





































Autenie 


( 270 ) 


Autun. 


Auteilie, a suburb of-Paris, formerly a separate 
village. It is celebrated as the place of residence 
of several famous literary men. 

Authorised Version, the English transla¬ 
tion of the Bible at present in general use. Its 
publication was suggested at the Hampton Court 
Conference between Episcopalians and Puritans held 
in 1604. King James I. entered warmly into the 
project, which was carried out (on the basis of 
previous translations) with the co-operation of 
the Universities. The translation was published 
in 1611, and appointed to be used in churches. A 
“ Revised Version ” of the New Testament published 
in 1881, and of the Old Testament in 1885, have 
failed to supersede it, though both represent the 
original much more correctly. 

Autochthones (Gk. autos , self, chthon, earth), 
sprung from the soil; a term applied to those 
Greeks (as the inhabitants of Attica) who claimed 
to have inhabited their country from time imme¬ 
morial—as contrasted with e.g. the Dorians, who 
had immigrated into Laconia. The corresponding 
Latin word is aborigines. 

Auto da Fe (Portuguese, act of faith ), the 
ceremony accompanying the public declaration of 
the sentence passed on heretics and certain other 
criminals by the Inquisition. The condemned per¬ 
sons (barefooted, each wearing a fantastic robe 
called the San Benito , and a pointed cap) walked 
to church in procession headed by Dominican friars 
with the flag of the Inquisition, and followed by 
carts carrying fantastically decorated coffins con¬ 
taining the bones of malefactors. After hearing a 
sermon on the true faith they were formally 
delivered to the secular power, and a few hours 
later were burnt alive. The most famous auto da fe 
took place at Madrid in 1680. 

Autograph (Gk. autos , self, and graplw , I 
write), something written in the handwriting of 
its author, as contrasted with copies, or with matter 
taken down from dictation. Autographs of cele¬ 
brated men are frequently collected. 

Autogravure. [Photogravure.] 

Autolycus, (1) in classical mythology, was a 
son of Hermes or Mercury by Chione, and he in¬ 
herited the most disagreeable element in his father’s 
character, viz. his propensity for stealing. His 
daughter Anticlea became the mother of Ulysses. 
The name became synonymous with thief, and is 
thus introduced by Shakespeare into The Winter's 
Tale. (2) A Greek mathematician of the fourth 
century B.C. whose birthplace was Pitane in Asia. 
Two of his treatises on The Sphere in Movement, 
and The Rising and Setting of the Stars, have come 
down to us in a Latin version. 

Automatism, as applied to animal life, in¬ 
voluntary or automatic movement; the term is also 
used to denote the power of initiating life from 
within the organism apart from any external in¬ 
fluence. 

Automaton (Gk. automates, of one’s own 
accord) a machine having the power of spontaneous 


movement, usually applied to machines so con¬ 
structed as to imitate human or animal actions. 
Among famous automata, a duck, made by Vaucan- 
son, and exhibited at Paris in 1741, which swam,, 
dived, drank, etc., the “ piping bullfinch,” exhibited 
at the Exhibition of 1851, and the moving figures in 
connection with the Strasburg clock, are well 
known. Kempelen’s “ automaton chess-player ” was 
not a true automaton, being really worked by a 
cripple concealed in the interior. Mr. J. N. Maske- 
lyne’s figures “ Psycho” and “Zoe ” (first exhibited 
in London 1875 and 1877 respectively) may also 
be classed as automata. The question whether 
“ animals are automata” (i.e. act as machines with¬ 
out their action being due to their consciousness) 
has been often discussed from Descartes down¬ 
wards. Self-acting machines, requiring but little 
attention, are sometimes called automatic. 

Autonomy, the power or right of self-govern¬ 
ment ; the governing of a state or district by its 
citizens. 

Autopsy, a post-mortem examination. 

Autotype (Gk. autos, self; typos, lit. stamp), 
a permanent print produced from a photographic 
negative as follows:—The paper on which it is 
printed is coated with a film of bichromatised 
gelatine, in which lampblack is held in solution. 
The negative being placed over it the light hardens 
those parts of the film to which it is admitted ; the 
other parts are afterwards washed away, leav¬ 
ing a permanent print. The process is better suited 
for the reproduction of oil paintings than of engrav¬ 
ings or of etchings. 

Autozooids, the zooids in an Alcyonarian, 
which are provided with tentacles and generative 
organs. [Siphonozooids.] 

Autumn (Lat. autumnus, perhaps from augeo, 
I increase, more probably from avere, to be well), 
the third season of the year, usually taken to in¬ 
clude, in Great Britain, August, September, and 
October ; in France and North America, September, 
October, and part, or whole, of November. Astro¬ 
nomically, however, it begins (in the N. hemisphere) 
at the autumnal equinox and ends at the winter 
solstice (22 Sept, to 21 Dec.). In S. hemisphere it 
corresponds in time to the spring in the northern. 

Autun (Lat. Augustodunuvi), an ancient town 
in the department of Saone and Loire, France, 
picturesquely situated on the river Arroux at the 
foot of a lofty wooded range, 28 miles from 
Chalons. Its origin was traced to the Phocaeans, 
and Caesar mentions the place as Bibracte, capital 
of the vEdui, and its present name was derived 
from Augustus. It enjoyed in early times a 
distinctive constitution, and later was celebrated 
for its school of rhetoric. It was the scene of 
the rising of Sacrovir ; was captured and destroyed 
by Tetricus ; Constantine rebuilt it, and in the 8th 
and 9th centuries it was sacked by the Saracens 
and Norsemen successively. It then became part 
of the duchy of Burgundy. Talleyrand was bishop, 
and Marshal Macmahon was born here. It con¬ 
tains a handsome cathedral, and in St. Martin’s, 






Auvergne. 


( 271 ) 


Avatar. 


church the body of Brunehaut or Brunehilda lies 
buried. There are interesting Roman remains, 
some manufactories of carpets, hosiery, etc., and 
a trade in agricultural produce. 

Auvergne (classic Arverni), an ancient province 
of France which embraced the modern departments 
of Puy-de-Dome, Cantal, and part of Haute Loire. 
The Arverni were rivals of the iEdui for supremacy 
in Southern Gaul, and Vercingetorix, their chief, 
stubbornly resisted Caesar. Louis XIII. united the 
province to the crown of France in 1610. The river 
Rue divides the province into Lower Auvergne or 
Limagne, which is fertile, and contains the towns 
of Clermont, Riom, and Aigueperse, and Upper 
Auvergne, a rugged district, its principal towns 
being St. Flour, Chaudes-Aigues, and Aurillac. The 
mountains of Auvergne, all of them extinct vol¬ 
canoes, are connected with the Cevennes by Mount 
Margerides, and fall into four groups—Le Plomb du 
Cantal, Le Cezallier, Le Mont Dore, and Le Puy-de- 
Dome. The Puy de Sancy (6,200 ft.) is the highest 
peak. The thermal springs at Mount Dore, Royat, 
and elsewhere bespeak the volcanic nature of the 
soil. The chief rivers are the Dordogne and the 
Allier, but smaller streams are fairly abundant. 
Amongst the leading products are iron, lead, cop¬ 
per, and coal, and quantities of cattle are raised. 
The Auvergnats retain their primitive character¬ 
istics, and are a rough, hardy, industrious race. 
They supply all the water carriers and street 
sweepers to Paris, and speak a strange dialect. 

Auvergne, de la Tour d’, Theophile, known 
as “ The First Grenadier of France,” an illegitimate 
descendant of the illustrious house whose name he 
bore, was born in 1743. He entered the Black 
Musketeers , and rose to the rank of captain, com¬ 
manding at the beginning of the revolutionary 
wars the Imperial Column of Grenadiers. In 1795 
he had retired, when the son of an old friend was 
drawn for the conscription, and La Tour d’Auvergne 
offered himself as a substitute. He served as a 
private, and no persuasion could induce him to ac¬ 
cept promotion. He was killed in 1800, but for 
many years his name was kept on the roll-call of the 
regiment. He was the author of several treatises 
as well as a history of the antiquities of Brittany. 

Auxerre (Lat. Altisiodurnm), an ancient city 
of France, now the capital of the department of 
Yonne, but formerly the chief town of the county 
of Auxerre, which with other domains formed the 
Auxerrois. Auxerre stands on the river Yonne, 
about 90 miles S.E. of Paris. It possesses a re¬ 
markable Gothic cathedral, a church dedicated to 
St. Germain, wherein lie the remains of the early 
counts, and an old castle. St. Germain was born 
here, and Amyot once held the extinct bishopric. 
Being close to the Burgundy vineyards it does a 
large business in wine, and manufactures catgut, 
woollen fabrics, earthenware, etc. 

Auxonne, a fortified town in the Cote d Or, 
France, on the river Sadne. It has a curious 
castle built by Louis XII., a school of^ artillery, 
cannon foundry, and powder factory. Hie Sires 
d’Auxonne enjoyed almost royal independence in 


the Middle Ages, and in 1526 the town refused to 
be handed over to Spain by the treaty of Madrid. 

Auxospore, a large cell occurring in Diatoms 
which divides repeatedly, the daughter-cells be¬ 
coming smaller at each division until one of them 
becomes another auxospore. 

Ava, the capital of the Burmese Empire from 
1364 to 1740, and from 1822 to 1838, is situated on 
the Irawadi river at the confluence of the Mytnge 
and the Myltha, which wash the city on the E., S., 
and W. It is about six miles below Amarapura, 
the old, and Mandalay, the present capital. The 
earthquake of 1839 almost destroyed the place, but 
a few great temples and a royal palace remain. 

Ava. [Kava.] 

Aval. [Bahrein.] 

Avalanche, the slipping of an accumulation of 
snow or ice down a steep declivity in Alpine regions. 
Avalanches are sometimes classified as ice, snowy 
and drift or dust avalanches. Ice avalanches occur 
in summer, being detached from glaciers ; snowy 
avalanches occur in spring, sliding down habitual 
channels, which they polish ; and drift avalanches 
occur in winter after heavy falls of snow, consisting 
of loose snow, accompanied in its fall by a rush of 
wind. Avalanches, especially the two latter kinds, 
often prove very destructive, so that the growth of 
forests is encouraged or masonry is erected to ward 
them off ; but their most important action is in¬ 
direct, in blocking the course of streams, so as to 
form temporary lakes and cause floods. 

Avalon, Avallon, or Avilion, the soul-king¬ 
dom of Celtic mythology, the Ynys yr Avallon 
(Island of Apples) or Ynysvitrin (Glass Island) of 
the Welsh. This last name seems to connect it with 
the Glasberg (Glass Mountain) of Teutonic myth, 
which has a suspicious likeness to Glastonbury, 
where, according to one legend, King Arthur was 
buried; while another—adopted by Tennyson in the 
Passing of Arthur —tells how the king was carried 

“ To the island-valley of Avilion, 

Where falls not rain, or hail, or any snow. 

Nor ever wind blows loudly ; but it lies 
Deep-meadow’d, happy, fair with orchard lawns, 

And bowery hollows, crown’d with summer seas.” 

Avares, a branch of Huns, who about the 
middle of the sixth century were driven from their 
home near the Altai Mountains by Chinese invaders, 
and ultimately forced their way into Western 
Europe, and held large tracts of territory in 
Germany N. and S. of the Danube, and in Russia 
as far as the Don. They were conquered and 
Christianised by Charlemagne. The Avares still 
give their name to a town and a large district 
(2,287 square miles) in the old province of Leghistan, 
Persia, on the N.E. side of the Caucasus. The 
population, numbering about 30,000, consists of wild 
predatory mountaineers, nominally subject to Russia. 

Avaricum. [Bourges.] 

Avatar, the incarnation of a deity, or the 
vehicle of such incarnation. The term is chiefly 
used of the manifestations of Vishnu (q.v.), but 





Avatcha 


( 272 ) 


Averno. 


might with propriety be applied to the incarnation 
of Siva in Hunaman, the monkey-god, or of Jupiter 
in the bull which bore away Europa. Tylor re¬ 
lates that a Hindu, “being shown the pictures of 
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, with their respec¬ 
tive man, lion, ox, and eagle, explained these quite 
naturally and satisfactorily as the avatars of the 
four Evangelists.” 

Avatcha. [Petropaulovski.] 

Avebury, Abury, or Abery, a village in Wilt¬ 
shire, about 6 miles W. of Marlborough. The village 
is situated in the midst of the remains of a large 
Druidical structure consisting of 100 monoliths, each 
about 1G feet in height and 40 feet in circumference, 
forming a circle 1,000 feet in diameter. Within 
this area are two smaller circles of double stones, 



AVEBURY, FROM THE SOUTH. 

(From a photograph by W. J. Barterstock, Marlborough.) 


enclosing the one a maenhir or column, the other a 
dolmen. Two barrows exist in the neighbourhood, 
viz. Silbury Hill and Hakpen Hill. It has been 
conjectured that the Avebury remains commemorate 
the last of the twelve great Arthurian battles, the 
scene of which was Badon or Waden Hill. 

Aveiro, a port in the province of Beira, Portu¬ 
gal, at the mouth of the river Vouga, about half- 
way between Oporto and Coimbra. It is the seat 
of a bishopric and college. There is a large trade 
in fish, salt, oil, wine, and fruit. The oysters are 
said to be the best in Portugal. 

Avellino (classic A bellinum), a fortified city and 
chief town of a province of the same name in Cam¬ 
pania, Italy, at the foot of M. Vergine, 59 miles E. 
of Naples. A bishopric, royal college, and cathedral 
are found here, but the streets are narrow, gloomy, 
and tortuous. The neighbourhood produces quanti¬ 
ties of chestnuts and hazel nuts, and there are some 
local manufactures and large dye works. Not far 
distant are the famous Caudine Forks (Val de 


Gazzano) where the Koreans suffered defeat from 
the Samnites in 321 b.C. 

Ave Maria (Lat. Hall Mar;/), a common 
invocation to the Virgin Mary, in use at the end of 
the seventh century, but formally sanctioned during 
the twelfth. A clause was added at the end of the 
sixteenth century. Pope John XXII. ordered in 
1326 that every Catholic should repeat it thrice at 
the ringing of the bells calling to prayer at morn¬ 
ing, noon, and night. Hence the bells (still rung in 
Roman Catholic churches) are often called the “ Ave 
Maria,” or Angelus (q.v.), in allusion to the open¬ 
ing words of the prayer, taken from the address of 
the Angel Gabriel to the Virgin (Luke i. 28). 

Avenger of Blood, the term applied to the 
person on whom, by the Mosaic law, it devolved to 
punish death by violence. He was the nearest male 
relative of the person slain. (See Deut. xix. 12; 
Numbers xxxv. 9-34 ; Joshua xx.) 

Aventinus, a Bavarian historian, Johann 
Thurmayer, who took this name from Abendsberg, 
where he was born about 1476. He was appointed 
tutor to the sons of Duke Albert of Bavaria, and 
wrote at his patron’s desire his Annales Boiorum, a 
valuable record of early German history, which, 
however, brought upon him a charge of heresy. 
He was acquitted and died at Ratisbon in 1534. 

Aventinus, Mons (now Monte di Santa Sabina ), 
the most southerly of the seven hills on which ancient 
Rome stood, lies between Mons Coelius and the Pala¬ 
tine. It was included within the city by Ancus Martius, 
and as an outlying quarter was the scene of several 
secessions of the plebs. Temples of Diana and of 
Liberty with other monuments occupied the site. 

Aventurine, a name applied to varieties of 
quartz and felspar, containing spangles of mica and 
of iron oxide respectively, from their resemblance 
to a kind of Venetian glass so called from having 
originated a venture , by accident, in the upsetting 
of some metallic foil into the molten glass. 

Average. A sum intermediate to a number of 
different sums, obtained by adding the various sums 
together and dividing the result by the number of 
sums which have been added : for instance, the 
average of 2,4, 6, and 8 is 5. [General Average, 
Particular Average.] 

Averno, or Tripergola (classic Arernus ), a 
small lake in Campania, Italy, about 10 miles W. of 
Naples, at the head of the Bay of Bake. It has a 
circumference of about one and a-half miles, and 
probably occupies the hollow of a crater, for its 
waters exhaled such mephitic vapours that no birds, 
according to ancient story, could flyover them, and 
the name was supposed to be derived from the 
Greek aornos , birdless. Agrippa connected it by a 
channel with the Lucrine Lake, but in 1538 this 
latter was filled up by a volcanic eruption. In 
classic mythology Avernus was looked upon as the 
entrance to the infernal regions. Recently the 
banks have been drained and laid out in charming 
gardens, a channel connects the lake with the sea, 
and the surrounding district is cultivated. The 
grotto of the Cumiean Sybil is still shown here. 










Averrhoes. 


( 273 ) 


Avignon. 


Averrhoes, or Ibn-Roschd, AbouAValid 
Mohammed Ibn-Ahmed, his literary name being 
a corruption of his patronymic, stands with Avi¬ 
cenna (q.v.) at the head of the so-called Arabian 
school of philosophy. He belonged to a good 
Moorish family, and was born about 1126 at Cor¬ 
dova, then a learned city. Averrhoes devoted his 
life mainly to the study of Aristotle. With un¬ 
flagging industry he annotated and expanded the 
doctrines of the Stagirite, earning for himself the 
title of “ The Commentator.” He appears to have 
adopted the Oriental theory of emanations, and to 
have held that the perishable and individual soul 
is a part of an immortal and universal intelligence. 
He also distinguished between the active and pas¬ 
sive soul, the provinces respectively of reason and 
faith. Such doctrines were as offensive to the 
devout believers in the Koran as to the orthodox 
scholastic theologians. Averrhoes was banished for 
a while from Cordova, and his views, at the insti¬ 
gation of St. Thomas Aquinas, were condemned by 
the University of Paris in J240. He wrote treatises 
on medicine, astronomy, and law, and exercised the 
functions of Kadi in Morocco, where it is said he 
died in 1198 or 1206. M. Renan has given an exhaus¬ 
tive account of him in his Aver rocs et V Averro'isme. 

Aversa, a town in the Terra di Lavoro, Italy, 
8 miles from Naples. The plain in which it stands 
is covered with vineyards and orange groves, and is 
greatly resorted to by the Neapolitans, who much 
appreciate the sweetmeats for which the place is 
famous. Besides being the seat of a bishopric, 
Aversa has a large foundling hospital and lunatic 
asylum. The Normans first established themselves 
here. In the castle, once a royal residence, now a 
palace. Andreas of Hungary, husband of Joanna 1. 
of Naples, was strangled (1345). 

Aves, Birds (q.v.), a group of vertebrates form¬ 
ing with the reptiles the division Sauropsida. 

Avesnes, a fortified town in the department of 
Nord, France, situated on the Greater Helpe about 
60 miles S.E. of Lille. It was founded in the tenth 
century, and has a fine cathedral with a tower 
330 ft. high. Serges and hosiery are made here, 
and marbles are dressed. 

Aveyron (anc. Veronius ), a river of France, 
which rises near Severac, and after a south-westerly 
course of about 160 miles joins the Tarn near Meau- 
zac. It gives its name to a department, formerly part 
of the province of Guienne, and occupying a rugged 
tract between the Cevennes and the Mountains of 
Auvergne. The plains to the west are fertile, and 
produce the celebrated Roquefort cheese. Valuable 
metals are found in the hilly portion. Rodez is the 
chief town. Area of department 3,376 sq. miles. 

Avicebron, or Solomon Ibn Gebirol, a 
Jewish philosopher of Malaga, who flourished to¬ 
wards the end of the eleventh century. His treatises 
entitled The Source of Life and- The Source of 
Wisdom produced a powerful effect on Aquinas, 
Albertus Magnus, and other schoolmen, and he un¬ 
doubtedly gave to the Aristotelianism of the East 
an acute and original impulse. The identity of this 
author was only established some thirty years 
ago by Munk of the French National Library. 

* 18 


Avicenna, “ the Prince of Physicians,” was born 
about 980 a.d. in Bokhara. In learning he was 
precocious, and during most of his somewhat stormy 
life he acted as physician to various emirs. He 
died at Hamadan a.d. 1037. His chief work, The 
Canon of Medicine , based upon Galen, modified by 
Aristotle, was a text-book in Europe until the 
middle of the seventeenth century. Upwards of 100 
treatises are ascribed to him, dealing with the entire 
circle of the sciences, as then understood, from an 
Aristotelian standpoint. He maintains the immor¬ 
tality of individual souls with Platonist arguments, 
his theology being largely Neo-Platonist in origin. 

Avicularia, or bird’s-head processes, certain 
zooids (or individuals) in a bryozoan colony, which 
are modified to the shape of birds’ heads and are 
supposed to act as organs of defence or prehension. 
[Bryozoa.] 

Aviculidae, a family of Lamellibranchiata, 
ranging from the Silurian upwards. 

Avienus, Rufus Festus, a Roman versifier 
and geographer who served twice as proconsui in 
the 4th century under Theodosius. He translated 
into Latin the Phcenomena of Aratus, and the Perie- 
gesis of Dionysius, and he composed an original work, 
Ora Maritima , of which a fragment only is extant. 

Avifauna, the birds of a country or zoological 
region considered without reference to the other 
animals inhabiting such country or region. The 
name is often used as the title of a work treating 
exclusively of the birds of a particular district. 

Avigliano, a town of some importance in the 
province of Potenza, S. Italy. It is near the town 
of Potenza. 

Avignon (classic Avenio'), the capital of the de¬ 
partment of Vaucluse, France., an ancient and 



AVIGNON. 


beautiful city standing on the left bank of the 
Rhone near the confluence of the Durance. It was 





























Avila. 


( 271 ) 


Avocet. 


founded by the Phocaeans about 539 b.c. and was 
for many years the capital of the Cavares. Under 
the Homans it was included in Gallia Narbonnensis, 
and on the disruption of the empire passed succes¬ 
sively into the hands of the Burgundians, Goths, 
Franks, and Saracens. After the defeat of the 
latter by Charles Martel it was incorporated with 
the dominions of Charlemagne, and on their divi¬ 
sion it fell as part of the kingdom of Arles to the 
Counts of Toulouse and Provence jointly, and became 
a kind of republic. In the war of the Albigenses 
it was taken from Raymond of Toulouse (122(5) by 
Louis VIII., and in 1273 was ceded to the Pope by 
Philip III. From 1309 to 1377 it was the residence 
of the Popes, and was purchased b} r Clement YI. 
from Joanna I. of Naples. The anti-popes estab¬ 
lished themselves there from 1379 to 1418, when 
Charles VI. of France drove out Benedict XIII. 
Avignon remained a Papal possession until 1791, at 
which date the French seized it. The palace of 
the Popes is preserved, and the fine Gothic cathedral 
dates from the twelfth century. The ancient 
walls still surround the town, with a noble 
boulevard outside them. Some of the older streets 
are narrow and gloomy, but the newer quarters, 
the bridges, and the many public buildings rival 
the architecture of any city in France. A large 
trade is carried on in wine, oil, dried fruits, olives, 
almonds, and other local produce. Silk is grown 
and manufactured in considerable quantities, and 
the preparation of dyes from madder is a staple 
industry. Railways connect the town with Paris, 
Marseilles, and Cette. 

Avila, the capital of the province of the same 
name in Spain. It is situated on the river Adaja 
at a height of 3,000 feet above sea-level, the 
Guadarama range rising behind it. It was formerly 
one of the most prosperous cities in Spain. Here 
Henry IY. was deposed in 1465, and here in 1520 
Padilla started the league against Charles Y. It 
possesses a bishopric and a handsome cathedral, 
but the university has been suppressed. The pro¬ 
vince has an area of 2,980 square miles. 

Avila y Zuniga, Louis d’, born in 1500, was 
employed by Charles Y. as ambassador to the 
Popes Paul IY. and Pius IY. with a view to expe¬ 
diting the procedure of the Council of Trent. He 
accompanied the emperor during the war of 1546-7 
against the German Protestants and wrote a history 
of the events, and also of the war in Africa. 

Avison, Charles, a musician of merit who was 
born at Newcastle-on-Tynein 1710. After studying 
under Geminiani in Italy, he returned to become 
organist in his native town. He wrote in 1752 an 
Essag on Musical Expression , which attracted some 
attention, as it decried Handel and lauded the 
Italian school. We have little of his music left us, 
but the music of Sound the Loud Timbrel occurs in 
one of his concertos. 

Avlona, or Yalona (Gk. Aulon), a port in 
Albania, Turkey in Europe, on the gulf of the same 
name, which opens into the Adriatic. It is un¬ 
healthy owing to the proximity of marshes, but it 
enjoys a considerable trade with the coast and with 
Brindisi, and is a port of call for the Austrian 


steamers. Tortoise-shells, and Valonia , a product 
of the oak for tanning, are largely exported. 

Avoca, or Ovoca (Kelt, meeting of the maters), 
a river and valley of County Wicklow, Ireland. Its 
chief title to fame lies in the fact that Thomas 
Moore speaks of it as the “ vale in whose bosom 
the bright waters meet,” referring to the junction 
of the Avonmore and Avonbeg. 

Avocado, or Alligator Pear, the fruit of 
Persea gratissima, a small Lauraceous tree of tropical 
America, now cultivated as a dessert fruit through¬ 
out the tropics. 

Avocet, any bird of the genus Recurvirostra, 
which contains six species, distributed throughout 
the world. The Avocets, distinguished by their 
long, slender, up-curved bill, are now classed with 
the Waders, but were formerly placed with the 
Swimming Birds, on account of their feet, which 
are completely webbed, though they never swim 
unless compelled to do so. The Common Avocet 
(Recurvirostra avocetta ) is about eighteen inches 
long, of which the bill is about one-sixth; top of 



avocet (Recurvirostra avocetta). 


the head, neck, back, lesser wing-coverts, and 
primaries black, rest of plumage white, legs and 
toes pale blue. It is common in Holland, ranges 
over Europe, and occurs as far south as the Cape 
of Good Hope. It was formerly a frequent visitor 
to the eastern counties, and frequently remained 
to breed, but is now of very rare occurrence. Sir 
T. Browne, who includes it in his Birds of 
Norfolk, in commenting on the strangely shaped 
bill of the bird, says that “it is not easy to 
conceive how it can feed.” But the thin flexible 
bill is admirably adapted for scooping and probing 
the soft mud, while the mandibles act as strainers 
and retain the prey. The bird was locally known 
as the Barker and Yelper, from its cry, and as the 











Avranches. 


Avoirdupois. ( 275 ) 


Shoeing-horn, Scooper, and Cobblers Awl Duck, 
fioni the shape of its bill. The American species 
(. • tinier icarui^, which ranges over the whole con¬ 
tinent, has the bill less recurved than the European 
species, and the coloration of the head is chestnut. 

Avoirdupois (old Fr. aveir depois, lit. goods 
of weight), the system of weights applied in the 
L nited Kingdom to all goods except medicines, 
precious metals, and precious stones. The grain is 
the foundation of the system. A cubic inch of 


1. Shakespeare’s Avon rises in Northamptonshire 
near Naseby, traverses Warwickshire, having Rugby, 
Warwick, with its castle, and Stratford on its banks, 
touches Worcestershire, and entering Gloucester¬ 
shire joins the Severn, after a course of 100 miles,, 
at Tewkesbury. 2. A river that rises in Wiltshire, 
and passing Stonehenge and Salisbury, skirts Ring- 
wood Forest in Hants, and falls into the Channel 
near Christchurch. 3. The Bristol Avon rises also 
in Wiltshire, flowing N. past Bath and Bristol and 
falls into the Bristol Channel, being navigable up 



KILCHURU CASTLE, LOCH AWE. 

(From a Photograph by Messrs. G. IF. Wilson & Co., Aberdeen.) 


water at standard temperature weighs 252-458 
grains ; 7,000 of such grains make a pound avoir¬ 
dupois (=453-6 grams in the French metric 
system). The system was introduced from Bay¬ 
onne about 1300, and is of Spanish origin. It is 
also in use in the United States, except that 
usually the hundredweight there is 100 lbs., and the 
ton 2,000 lbs., instead of, as in Great Britain, 112 
lbs. and 2,240 lbs. respectively. 

Avola (classic Abolla), a port of Sicily, 12 miles 
from Syracuse. It stands on the ruins of a former 
town destroyed by earthquake in 1693. The honey 
of Hybla was exported hence, sugar is grown here, 
and the wines and fruits are excellent. A large 
coasting trade is done with Italy. A curious sub¬ 
terranean passage has been formed in the neighbour¬ 
hood by the waters of the river Cassibilli. 

Avon, a Keltic word meaning river, and prob¬ 
ably allied to Aa, which has attached itself to many 
streams in England, Scotland, Wales, and on the 
Continent. 


to the city. 4. Another Avon flows down from the 
mountains of Glamorgan and enters the Bristol 
Channel at Aberavon. In Scotland there are three 
Avons : one in Banff, a tributary of the Spey; a 
second in Lanark, that joins the Clyde near Hamil¬ 
ton, and a third falling into the Firth of Forth, W. 
of Borrowstourmess. In France two Avons are in 
the Loire Basin, and two others are tributaries of 
the Seine. 

Avranches (anc. AbrincaUd), a town in the 
department of Manche, Lower Normandy, France, 
situated on the river See not far from the sea. 
The cathedral is quite modern, the site of the old 
structure being now an open space with a stone that 
marks the spot where Henry II. received absolution 
for the murder of Thomas 4 Beckett. The church 
of St. Saturnin has a remarkable gateway. The 
ancient palace of the bishops now serves as a 
museum. Lace-making is the principal industry, 
but there is a large trade in agricultural produce, 
such as grain, flax, hemp, butter, eggs, and cider. 






















Awe 


( 276 ) 


Axis Deer. 


, Awe, Loch, situated in the centre of Argyll¬ 
shire, Scotland, has a length of 25 miles, with a 
breadth varying from two and-a-half miles to half- 
a-mile, being the second in size of the Scottish lakes. 
It is fed by the Orchy, which drains part of the 
Moor of Rannoch, and its superfluous waters are 
.discharged by the river Awe into Loch Etive. 
Many islands stud its surface, and on some of them 
are interesting ruins. The shores are steep and 
gloomily picturesque, especially in the pass of 
.Brander, at the W. extremity, and the crest of Ben 
Cruachan overshadows its waters. It is a favourite 
resort of fishermen, being full of trout and salmon. 
The Campbell slogan, “ It’s a far cry to Lochawe,” 
took its origin hence. 

Awn, a bristle-like appendage to the glume, or 
bract, in some grasses, such as oat, barley, bearded 
wheat, etc. It springs either 
from the back or from the apex 
of the glume, and is believed to 
correspond structurally to the 
blade of a leaf. It serves to 
protect the seed from the depre¬ 
dations of birds, and may in 
some cases assist in burying it 
beyond the reach of drought. 

Axe, an instrument used for 
hewing timber and chopping 
wood, and (till the introduction 
of firearms) as a weapon. The 
modern axe consists of a head 
of iron edged with steel, and a 
helve or handle. Stone axes, 
however, are amongst the earliest 
of human inventions, and are 
often used by savage tribes. 
They differ from celts (chisels) 
in being of more complex shape 
and fitted for hewing. The 
modern axe differs from the 
adze in that its head is fixed in the plan 6 of the 
sweep of the handle, whereas the head of the adze 
is fixed transversely to this plane. 

Axel, the capital of a canton of the same name 
in Holland. It is on an island in the Scheldt, 28 
miles from Antwerp, and the inhabitants are mainly 
engaged in agriculture. 

Axel, or ecclesiastically Absalon, Archbishop 
of Lund and Primate of Denmark in the twelfth 
century, was the trusted counsellor of Waldemar I. 
and Canute IV., whom he served with the sword as 
well as with the crozier, freeing the country from 
pirates and defeating the Pomeranians. He restored 
Dantzic and enlarged Copenhagen. The famous 
Saxo Grammaticus was in his service, and has left 
many memorials of his patron’s career. He died in 
1201 at the age of 73. 

Axholme, or Axeholme (A.S. ahs-liolm, oaks- 
island), a tract of land in N.W. Lincolnshire, 17 
miles long by 5 broad, enclosed by the rivers Trent, 
Idle, and Don. It was formerly a forest, and then 
a marsh, but was drained in 1634, settled by Dutch 
and French Protestant refugees, and is now fertile, 
producing hemp, flax, rape, and . turnip seed. The 


small towns of Crowle and Epworth are within its 
limits, the latter being famous as the home of the 
Wesleys. 

Axifera, a family of Alcyonaria, of which the 
Gorgonias and “ Fan Corals ” are the best known 
members. [Gorgonia.] 

Axil, from the Lat. axilla , the armpit, is the 
angle between a leaf and the stem. In flowering 
plants there is generally one bud in each axil; but 
honeysuckle is a plant in which several occur. 

Axim, a trading settlement in the fertile district 
of Ahanta, W. of Cape Three Points, on the Gold 
Coast, Africa. It belonged to Holland until 1871, 
when it was ceded to Great Britain together with 
all the other Dutch possessions on the coast. 

Axinomancy (Gk. axine, an axe), an ancient 
method of divination for the detection of crime by 
means of an axe. In one form the axe was poised 
on a bar, and the names of suspected persons pro¬ 
nounced. Its movement at any name was taken to 
be a sign of the guilt of the person named. 

Axiom (Gk. axioo to claim), a proposition which 
disputants may fairly expect shall be accepted as 
an ultimate principle without discussion. In 
Aristotle’s logic the term was applied to the ulti¬ 
mate principles common to all sciences, as, for 
instance, the Laws of Identity and Contradiction. 
Now, however, it is specially used in geometry. 
Some philosophers hold that belief in geometrical 
axioms is due to the constitution of the mind; 
others that it is due to experience. In Euclid’s 
system of geometry we have fifteen axioms assumed. 
Three of these arc postulates, i.e. problems that 
experience tells us can be accomplished. 

Axis, a, term in geometry denoting a line in a 
plane or solid, about which there is symmetrical 



AXIS. 


disposition of' the figure ; as A B. In (C) we have 

an example of an axis of shew symmetry (q.v.). 

\ _ 

Axis Deer (Cervus axis), a native of India, 
ranging into the islands of the Eastern Archipelago. 
It closely resembles the Fallow Deer (q.v.) in size 
and coloration, but differs widely in the form of its 
antlers, the brow tine being simple, and the beam 
straight for some distance, and forked nearly at 
the end. ' The female is lighter in colour than the 
male, and has no antlers. These animals are said 
to be very indolent; they feed only by night and 
sleep by day, frequenting the heavy grass jungles 
along the banks of rivers. Their cry is a short 
shrill bark on the approach of danger. They are 
very shy and timid, and their sense of smell is so 
acute that sportsmen find it very difficult to get 



EAR OF BARLEY 

(showing awns.) 




























Axminster. 


( 277 ) 


Aye-aye. 


within range. The coat of the Axis Deer affords a 
good example of protective coloration, for it so 
much resembles the effect of sunlight through 
foliage that it is almost impossible to detect one 
of these animals in the woods. 

Axminster, a market town of Devonshire, on 
the river Ax, 24 miles from Exmouth. The minster 
is said to have been founded by Athelstan to com¬ 
memorate a victory over the Danes. It is an ancient 
structure and contains some interesting monu¬ 
ments. The place was celebrated for the manu¬ 
facture of pile-carpets, and still produces woollen 
fabrics. 

Axolotl, the larval or tadpole form of salaman¬ 
ders of the genus Amblystoma, which ranges from 
Canada and Oregon to Mexico. The best known is 
the larva of Amblystoma mexicanus, originally found 



axolotl (Amblystoma mexicanus). 


in the lake which surrounds the city of Mexico, and, 
under the name Sireclon ynsciforme, made the type 
of a genus, which of course has now lapsed. When 
full grown the Axolotl is a stoutly built lizard-like 
animal, some nine or ten inches long, of a dark 
slate-colour, covered with black spots. The tail is 
flattened and has a semi-transparent membranous 
fin, the head is flat and broad, and carries three 
feathery gills on each side. In Mexico they are 
eaten by the natives and esteemed a delicacy. 
M. Dumeril, in 1865, was the first to demonstrate 
by actual experiment the larval character of this 
animal; and since then many observers have seen 
Axolotls develop into Amblystomes. They are fre¬ 
quently kept for this purpose in aquaria in this 
country, and may be bought of any dealer in aqua¬ 
rium requisites. The Rev. G. C. Bateman says : 

“ The length of time which will elapse before the 
Axolotl becomes the perfect Amblystome will de¬ 
pend upon circumstances; sometimes it will lose 
its gills and develop into the air-breathing animal 
within twelve months, and sometimes it will remain 
an Axolotl for three or four years.” The chief dif¬ 
ference between the mature and immature form is 
that the gills and tail-fin of the latter are absorbed. 
Both forms lay eggs, some of which may develop 
into Axolotls and some into Amblystomes. The 
reason for this is not known, but probably depends 
upon environment. 

Axum ( Auxamum ), the former capital of the 
kingdom of Tig-re, Abyssinia. It is a very ancient J 


city, and from the fourth century b.c. enjoyed great 
prosperity under a Greek dynasty. Christianity 
was introduced in the fourth century A.d. It is 
now in a state of decay. The church, built in 1657, 
is regarded as one of the finest in the country and 
contains a copy of the Chronicle of Axum, a record 
of Abyssinian history. Greek inscriptions have 
been found here. The city is about 120 miles from 
the Red Sea and a little to W. of Adowa. 

Ay, or Ai, a town of France on the river Marne 
and in the department of that name, about 18 miles 
from Reims. The neighbouring vineyards produce 
a famous growth of champagne which is perhaps 
the oldest and the best of the wines of the district. 
It is calculated that the Ay vineyards yield in good 
years 20,000 pieces. 

Ayacucho (native Huamanya), the capital of 
the department of the same name in Peru, South 
America. It was founded by Pizarro, and is a 
thriving town of 10,000 inhabitants. It was here in 
1824 that the Peruvians and Colombians defeated 
the Spanish and won their independence. The 
department has an area of 24,213 square miles. 
Lake Titicaca and the peaks of Illimani and Sorata 
are within its confines. 

Ayala, Pedro Lopez d’, a Spanish statesman 
and soldier born in 1332. He served under Peter 
the Cruel and his three successors in the monarchy 
of Castile. At the battle of Najera he fell into 
the hands of the English and was brought a prisoner 
to England, where, as he tells us in a poem, Rimado 
de Palacio, he suffered great hardships. He went 
as ambassador to Charles V. of France and held 
the office of grand chamberlain and chancellor. 
Among his works were a translation of Livy and a 
chronicle of the kings of Castile. He died in 1407. 

Aye -aye, the popular name, probably derived 
from its cry, of Cheiromys madayascariensis, the 



aye-aye (Cheiromys madagascariensis). 


sole species of a genus of aberrant Lemurs, with 
affinities to the Rodents. It is a rare nocturnal 
arboreal animal, about the size of the domestic cat, 
with a long squirrel-like tail, found only in Mada¬ 
gascar. The eyes are very large, as are the naked 
ears, which are expanded widely and bent forward ; 
the hair on the body is dense and furry, of a deep 













Ayesha. 


( 278 ) 


Ayr. 


fuscous hue, approaching black, mixed with scat¬ 
tered long white hairs, especially on the back. The 
feet are long, and the great toe is well developed 
for grasping; the hands are like those of no other 
animal, the third digit of each being very thin, and 
“ resembling a piece of bent wire.” The Aye-aye 
passes the day curled up in a kind of nest, but is 
very active at night. It feeds chiefly on the larvae 
of wood-boring insects, using its strong teeth to 
gnaw away the wood and its wire-like finger to 
pick them from their holes. It also eats fruit, 
the pith of the bamboo, and in captivity subsists on 
bread and milk, with soft fruit, as bananas. It 
uses the middle finger to carry water to its mouth, 
and does this so rapidly that the liquid seems to pass 
in a continual stream, but sometimes the animal 
laps like a cat. The zoological position of the Aye- 
aye was long a matter of doubt, and to Sir Richard 
Owen belongs the credit of satisfactorily determin¬ 
ing its place with relation to other animals. 
The natives have a superstitious dread of it, 
believing that whoever kills or molests one will die 
within the year, and this fear, coupled with the 
nocturnal habits of the animals, makes it very dif¬ 
ficult to obtain specimens. At present there is 
one in the Zoological Gardens, but its cage 
appears tenantless, for “ Jack ” passes the day in 
the little box at the top, and only comes down when 
the visitors have left the monkey-house. 

Ayeslia, the favourite wife of Mohammed the 
Prophet, was the daughter of Abu-Bekr, the first 
Caliph. She married at the age of nine, and 
ardently adopted her husband's religion. Though 
she bore no children, he was deeply attached to her 
and died in her arms. After his death she opposed 
the succession of Ali, became mixed up in the 
intrigues that ensued, and was for a time kept in 
honourable captivity. She died in 677 A.D., aged 67, 
and her memory is highly venerated by the Mussul¬ 
mans, who style her “ The Mother of the Faithful.” 

Aylesbury, a borough and market town in 
Buckinghamshire on the London and North 
Western and Great Western Railways, 39 miles 
from London. The rich vale that surrounds it 
bears its name. Its antiquity is great, and it is 
associated in history with the struggles between the 
Britons and the Saxons, having for some years been 
the capital of the British kings. The parish church 
is a handsome Early English structure, and there 
are good public buildings. Besides doing a large 
trade in agricultural produce, bone-lace, and straw- 
plaits, it is famous for ducks, which are reared ex¬ 
tensively for the London market. The parliamentary 
representation is merged in a division of the county. 
It gives its name to a marquisate, the title of 
which, however, is generally written Ailesbury. 

Aylesford, a village in Kent on the right bank 
of the Medway. In the parish is the famous 
cromlech known as Kit’s Coty House, which is 
supposed to mark the grave of Catigern, the British 
king, who with his tSaxon foe Horsa was killed 
here in battle. The Earls of Aylesford take their 
title hence. 

Aylmer, John, born in Norfolk in 1521, was 


chosen as tutor to Lady Jane Grey and made 
Archdeacon of Stow, but on Mary’s accession had 
to fly to Zurich. He returned as Archdeacon of 
Lincoln in Elizabeth’s reign, sat in the Synod of 
London, and was appointed Bishop of London in 
1576. He persecuted Papist and Puritan with im¬ 
partiality, and earned the cordial detestation of 
the reformers. Spenser satirised him in the 
Shepherd's Calendar . He died in 1594. 

Aymaras, the chief indigenous race of Peru 
and Bolivia, whose original home was Lake Titicaca, 
cradle of the Peruvian Incas. They appear to be 
the primitive stock from which sprang the Quichuas, 
that is, the dominant nation of Peru at the time of 
the Spanish conquest. Both languages are related, 
Aymara representing a ruder and more archaic, 
Quichua a more modern and refined form of a 
common mother-tongue. The physical type is also 
the same—short, thickset, robust figures, little over 
five feet high, small black eyes, somewhat arched 
nose, short legs, small extremities, coppery com¬ 
plexion, very short round head, but mostly com¬ 
pressed by artificial deformation. The Aymaras 
were formerly a highly civilised and powerful nation, 
as is evident from the remains of the stupendous 
monuments scattered round the shores of Titicaca, 
and the numerous graves discovered in many dis¬ 
tricts now entirely uninhabited. The pure Aymara 
race still numbers about 500.000, and the Mestizos 
(Hispano-Aymara half-breeds) over 100,000. The 
latter mostly speak Spanish, the former Aymara, 
but all are now nominal Christians, retaining many 
of the old Pagan superstitions under the outward 
form of the Roman Catholic religion. See Clement 
Markham’s “ Tribes of the Empire of the Incas,” in 
Journal of the Royal Geographical Society , 1871, 
and D. Forbes “ The Aymara Indians,” in the Journal 
of the Ethnological Society , 1870. 

Aymon, Duke of Dordogne and Prince of the 
Ardennes, was one of Charlemagne’s vassals and 
the father of four sons renowned in chivalrous 
legends, viz. Renaud de Montauban, Guichard, 
Alard, and Richardet. The elder is immortalised 
in the Orlando Furioso of Ariosto, and their story 
is also told by Froissart. There exists also a curious 
French romance, EHistoire des quatre fils d'Aymon, 
attributed to Hugo de Villeneuve, a troubadour of 
the thirteenth century, which was translated and 
reprinted by Caxton. 

Ayr, a county on the W. coast of Scotland, 
having an area of 1,149 square miles, and returning 
two members to Parliament. The islands of Ailsa and 
the two Cumbraes belong to it. The surface is 
hilly, but the soil is fairly productive, and iron, 
copper, lead, graphite, antimony, coal, freestones, 
and valuable pebbles abound. There are several 
small rivers, and some inland lakes, the largest being 
Loch Doom The trade in iron and chemicals is 
considerable, and factories exist for woollen and 
cotton fabrics, thread and muslins. The chief 
towns are Ayr, Kilmarnock, Maybole. and Ardros- 
san. Burns, the poet, was born at Alloway in this 
county. Ayr (Erigena), the capital, stands at the 
mouth of the, river of the same name, 40 miles by 






( 279 ) 


Azerbijan. 


Ayrer. 


railway from Glasgow. It is a fine well-built town 
connected by two bridges with the suburbs of 
Newton and Wallace Town, on the right bank of 
the river. Wallace’s Tower in the High Street 
occupies the site of an older building where the 
great chief is reported to have had his quarters. 
'L’he chief industries are shipbuilding, carpet¬ 
weaving, iron-founding, and machine-making. A 
large trade is carried on in iron, coal, and timber. 
The harbour is fairly good and docks are being 
completed. For purposes of parliamentary repre¬ 
sentation it is grouped with four other burghs. 

Ayrer, Jacob, a German writer who began life 
at Nuremberg as a dealer in iron, but afterwards 
took successfully to the law. It was, however, as 
a dramatist that he became known to posterity. He 
wrote thirty-six plays in the style of his con¬ 
temporary Hans Sachs, some of them being of high 
merit for their vigour and spirit, though rough and 
irregular in form. It has been suggested that he 
borrowed from Shakespeare, but as his works were 
published posthumously in 1618, this view can 
hardly be correct. 

Ayton, or Aytoun, Sir Robert, was born in 
Fifeshire in 1570, being of a good old family. 
After graduating at St. Andrew’s he went into 
France and got a thorough knowledge of the lan¬ 
guage. A laudatory poem on the accession of James 
I. procured him employment at Court, which he re¬ 
tained till his death in 1638. His verses in Latin, 
Greek, French, and Scotch were esteemed in their 
day, and it is said that Burns received the suggestion 
of Auld Lang Syne from one of his lyrics. 

Aytoun, William Edmonstoune, was born at 
Edinburgh in 1813 and was educated for the bar. 
He preferred, however, the career of letters, and 
was in 1845 appointed to the chair of rhetoric and 
literature in the University of Edinburgh. Under 
the name of Augustus Dunshunner he wrote many 



lively sketches in Blackwood's Magazine , and mar¬ 
ried a daughter of the editor, Professor Wilson, 
whom he ultimately succeeded. His Lays of the 
Scottish Cavaliers are spirited productions in the 
ballad style, and among his serious poems Poland 


and Botluvell deserve praise. He wrote in conjunc¬ 
tion with Sir Theodore Martin the Bon Gaultier 
Ballads, and in Firmilian satirised the dramatists 
of the Joanna Baillie School. His Ballads of Scot¬ 
land contain some of the best lyrics of the north. 
Norman Sinclair was his only attempt to write a 
conventional novel. He died in 1865. 

Azalea, a genus including about twenty shrubs 
belonging to the heath tribe, natives of North 
America and Asia, largely cultivated for their frag¬ 
rant flowers. Their leaves are fringed with hairs, 
have a glandular point and are deciduous : the 
flowers are in umbellate clusters, are glutinous out¬ 
side and have five united sepals, a funnel-shaped 
corolla of five spreading petals, five long stamens 
with anthers opening by pores, and a five-chambered 
ovary with many ovules and a single style. A. 
pontica of Asia Minor produces the narcotic honey 
eaten by Xenophon’s army. 

Azazel, a word occurring only in Leviticus xvi., 
where it is translated “ scape-goat,” with “ Azazel ” 
in the margin of the Authorised Version, and “ dis¬ 
missal ” in that of the Revised Version. From the 
context it is plain that the word cannot be trans¬ 
lated “ scape-goat.” From the opposition between 
Azazel and “the Lord” (Jahveh), Ewald considers 
the former to be a relic of a pre-Mosaic religion, 
though not to be confounded with Satan. [Scape¬ 
goat.] 

Azeglio, Massimo Taparelli, Marchese d\ 
an Italian statesman, was born of a noble Piedmont¬ 
ese family in 1798. He first attracted notice and 
appealed to patriotism as a painter of historical 
pictures. Next he spoke to his fellow-countrymen 
in the stirring romances Ettore Fieramosca and 
Nxcolo de Lapi. Lastly in 1846 he published a poli¬ 
tical pamphlet which revealed him as an advocate 
of reform. He is believed to have had a good 
influence over the early days of Pio IX,, but in 
1848 he laid aside the pen for the sword, and fight¬ 
ing for Italian independence was seriously wounded 
at Vicenza. He now entered the Piedmontese par¬ 
liament, and after Novara became Victor Emanuel’s 
right-hand man. Strongly attached to constitu¬ 
tional monarchy and opposed to republican innova¬ 
tions, he paved the way for the bolder policy of 
Cavour, retiring in his favour from the head of 
affairs. He represented his country for some years 
at the British Court, and won many firm friends 
in England. He died in 1866. 

Azerbijan, or Aderbeitzan (anc. Atropatene ), 
a province of Armenian Persia comprised within the 
old limits of Media. It lies S. of the river Aras, and 
is cut off by a narrow strip of Russian territory from 
the Caspian. Its area is 25,280 square miles, and 
its population about two millions. The surface is 
very mountainous—the peak of Savalanv attaining 
over 12,000 feet, but the plains are very fertile. 
Numbers of cattle, sheep, and horses are bred and 
reared. There is also great mineral wealth of 
which but trifling use is made, and naphtha is abun¬ 
dant, Leather-dressing is the chief industry, but 
velvets, carpets, woollen fabrics, and cutlery are 
manufactured. The great salt lake of Urumivah 
occupies a large space to the west and receives 











Azergue. 


( 280 ) 


Aztecs. 


several considerable rivers. Tabruz, the capital, is 
situated almost in the centre, to the N. of the 
Sahuncl mountains. 

Azergue, or Azrek Bar El. [Blue Nile.] 

Azimgahr, a district and city in the Benares 
division of British India, under the rule of the 
lieutenant-governor of the North-West Provinces. 
The area of the district is 2,147 square miles. The 
soil is fertile and highly cultivated, producing large 
crops of rice, sugar, and indigo. Cotton and silk 
are manufactured. The Gogra gives water com¬ 
munication with Bengal. The city, which is about 
80 miles N.E. of Benares, stands on the Tons river 
a tributary of the Ganges. It was founded in 1065 
by a local landowner. 

Azimuth of a heavenly body, the arc of the 
horizon intercepted between a circle passing through 
the centre of the body and the zenith (q.v.), and 
the meridian of a place.' 

Azoic, without life, a term sometimes applied to 
the Archasan rocks as containing no fossils, or none 
at least certainly recognisable. 

Azores, or Azores, or Western Islands, form 
a group of nine in the Atlantic (lat. 37° 30 ’ N., long. 
26° 0' W.). St. Michael and St. Mary are the most 
easterly ; Terceira, Graciosa, St. George, Pico, and 
Eayal lie clustered together ; whilst far west are 
the two islets of Corvo and Flores. All are of 
volcanic origin and are subject to earthquakes. In 
1591 St. Michael’s had a severe visitation, and great 
upheavals occurred in 1808 and 1811. Numerous 
not springs are found. Discovered in the 15th cen¬ 
tury and colonised by Portugal with Flemings, they 
owe their name to the hawks (Port, aqor) that 
haunted them. The Spaniards held them from 
1580 to 1640, since which date they have belonged 
to Portugal. Their area is about 966 square miles. 
The soil is very fertile and bears heavy crops of 
wheat, maize, sugar, fruits, tobacco, and wine. The 
principal produce, however, consists of oranges and 
lemons exported to the English markets. St. 
Michael’s and Fayal have the best harbours. Ponte 
Delgada, on St. Michael’s, is the trade centre; 
Angra, on Terceira, is the seat of government, and 
Horta, on Fayal, is a thriving place. 

Azotised Bodies- [Nitrogenous Bodies.] 
Azotus. [Ashdod.] 

Azov, or Azoff, Sea of (classic Pains Mceotis ), 
an inlet formed by the Crimean Peninsula, South 
Russia, and communicating with the Black Sea by 
the Straits of Yenikale. Its length from N.E. to 
S.W. is about 235 miles, and its greatest breadth 
110 miles. The mean depth is only 35 to 40 feet. 
It receives the waters of the Don and the Kouban. 
Large exports of corn, timber, and other produce 
are made from Taganrog and Kertch, the two chief 
ports. Fish are so plentiful that the Turks call 
the Gulf Baluk-Denis or Fish Sea. In May, 1855, it 
was occupied by the French and English fleets. 

Azov, the town from which the sea gets its 
name, is situated on the river Don about 20 miles 
from its mouth. It was founded by the Genoese 
in the 12th century on the supposed site of the Greek 
colony of Tanais. It has only belonged to Russia 


since 1774. Once a place of considerable trade, it 
has sunk into insignificance chiefly because of the 
silting up of the harbour. The fortifications 
destroyed by the allies during the Crimean war 
have only been partially restored. 

Azrael, in Rabbinical and Mohammedan 
tradition, was the Angel of Death, to whom was 
entrusted the duty of watching over the dying and 
setting free the soul from the body. He will die 
himself last of all at the second trump of the Arch¬ 
angel. 

Aztecs, the civilised inhabitants of the Mexican 
plateau, whose empire was overthrown by the 
Spaniards in 1520. They appear to have reached 
the plateau after long migrations from the north 
some three or four centuries before the conquest; 




HEAD OF AZTEC. 


but they had been preceded by other civilised 
peoples of the same race, the earliest of whom were 
the so-called Toltecs, that is, “ Builders,” to whom 
all the older Mexican monuments are commonly 
attributed. At the time of the discovery the Aztecs 
occupied not only the Anahuac plateau, but also 
numerous detached settlements as far south as Lake 
Nicaragua, and the Aztec language lias been traced 
from this point northwards to Oregon. It is a 
typical American tongue, in which the polysynthetic 
principle is carried to its utmost limits, all the 
words of the sentence tending to become “incapsu- 
lated,” or incorporated in a single polysyllable. It 
is still current in a great part of Mexico from 
Oajaca as far north as Durango and Sinaloa. Its 
nearest affinities are with the Cora of Jalisco, the 
Tarahumara of Chihuahua, the Acaje of Durango, 
the Caliita, Tepehuana, Pima and Opata of Sonora 
and Sinaloa. The oldest and most comprehensive 
name of this group is Nahua , whence the terms 
Nahuatlac and Nahuatl often applied respectively 
to the Aztec nation and Aztec language. The Aztecs 
are of small size, averaging about 5 ft. 2in., with dark 
or reddish-brown skin, very long black hair, small 
black eyes slightly oblique, curved nose, large 
mouth and ears, thin lips, broad features. They 
possess great staying power, are extremely frugal 
and patient under harsh treatment, silent, moody. 






Azun. 


( 281 ) 


Baalbec. 


and impassive. They still number about 1,600,000 
of pure blood, besides numerous half-breeds. See 
H. H. Bancroft, The Native Races of the Pacific 
States. 

^ Azun, Val d’, a charming valley called “ The 
Eden of the Pyrenees.” It opens out of the valley 
of Argeles and leads up to the Pic du Midi. 

Azuni, Domenico Alberto, an Italian jurist 
and antiquary, born in the Island of Sardinia in 
1749. Before the Revolution he was a Senator at 
Nice, and was subsequently called to Paris to assist 
in codifying commercial laws. In 1807 he was 
judge of the appeal court at Genoa, and finally 
returned to Cagliari as judge and as director of the 
library of the University. He wrote several legal 
works as well as an exhaustive description of his 
native island. He died in 1827. 

Azurine (Lendsens cceruleus), a pseudo species 
of freshwater fish, founded by Yarrell on abnormally 
coloured specimens of the Rudd (q.v.) sent him 
from Knoweslev, Lancashire. 

Azurite (2CuC0 3 + CuH 2 0 2 ), or Chessylite, 
blue carbonate of copper, is related in composition 
to malachite, the green carbonate, with which it is 
commonly associated. It takes its names from its 
deep azure blue colour and from Chessy, near Lyons, 
where it occurs. When in sufficient quantity it is 
a valuable ore. 

Azygos, the term applied to any unpaired part. 

Azymites, from Gr. Azyma, “ the unleavened 
bread ” of the Jewish Passover, a term applied by 
Greek Christians to those who followed the practice 
of the Latin Church in using unleavened bread in 
the Eucharist. The controversy between the Prozy- 
mites or Fermentarians and the Azymites waxed 
hot in the eleventh century, but the Romish Church 
still adheres to the use of an unleavened wafer. 


B 

B, the second letter in the English alphabet and 
in most other alphabets. It is a labial and. a mute. 
In music it is the seventh tone of the scale of C. 
For the various meanings of B as an abbreviation, 
see Abbreviations. 

Baader, Francis Xavier, born at Munich 1765, 
and distinguished as a student of theology and phi¬ 
losophy in the university there, was taken under the 
protection of Ludwig I. of Bavaria, who desired 
through his agency to counteract the prevailing 
Pantheism of Germany. Baader wrote a great deal 
of controversial matter, chiefly in pamphlet form, 
on the Theory of Redemption, the Relation of the 
Intellectual to the Moral Faculties, and kindred 
topics. His speculations are tinged with mysticism, 
but his belief in liberty led him, in 1815, to advo¬ 
cate the restoration of Poland, little to the satisfac¬ 
tion of his royal patron. He died in 1841. 

Baal, Bel, Belus ; plu., Baalim (lord, master), 
the name of one of the most widely venerated gods 


of the East, whose worship appears to have ex¬ 
tended also amongst the primitive Keltic nations- 
of Europe. This special form of idolatry must 
have grown up in Phoenicia, Chaldtea, and Assyria,, 
but it was only another 
aspect of that natural re¬ 
ligion which marks every¬ 
where the early history of 
mankind. Baal seems to 
have represented the sun 
(2 Kings xxiii. 11), as 
Ashtaroth did the moon, 
though later on the more 
abstract notion of di¬ 
vinity was probably at¬ 
tached to the word. Thus 
we find Baal-peor (lord 
of the dead), Baal-berith 
(lord of the covenant), 

Beel-zebub ( lord of flies), 
and Baal is even a femi¬ 
nine appellation, not only in the Septuagint, but’ 
in Rom. xi. 4. It forms an element in many 
names of places and persons, as Baalbec, Babylon,. 
Baal-zephron, Hannibal (yrace of Baal), and pos¬ 
sibly may be traced in our Billingsgate (Belin's 
gate). The rites of this deity were always- 
connected with the use of fire, and occasionally 
with human sacrifices (Jerem. xix. 5) and unclean 
orgies. His altars were on high places or pyramid- 
ical structures (Babel) and surrounded by groves. 
He was represented by a human head with the 
horns and ears of a bull, and with stars surrounding 
it. The Hebrews borrowed this idolatry very early 
from the Canaanites, and under several kings, Ma- 
nasseh especially, Baal’s worship superseded that of 
Jehovah, and the description of the discomfiture of 
his priests by Elijah in the reign of Ahab (1 Kings- 
xviii.) gives a vivid picture of the pagan ritual. As 
Belus he was introduced into classical mythology, 
and identified sometimes with the father of the- 
Assyrian Ninus, sometimes with Jupiter or Saturn,, 
sometimes with the Eastern conception of Hercules. 
Among the early Britons his cult,appears to have- 
been mixed up with Druidism. Beal has left traces 
among the Irish Kelts, and Bel-tane, a spring fes¬ 
tival, was observed until recent times with curious- 
heathen ceremonies in the north of England and. 
the lowlands of Scotland. 

Baalbec, or Baalbek (city of the sun or of 
Baal, Gk., Heliopolis ), an ancient city of Syria,, 
situated in a fertile valley at the foot of Anti-Libanus,. 
about 4,500 feet above sea level, 35 miles N.N.W. of 
Damascus. Being on the route from Tyre to Pal¬ 
myra, it acquired in very remote times vast wealth 
and splendour, but is not mentioned by name in the - 
Bible, or in any author earlier than Josephus. The 
city was made a colony of Rome under Julius 
Cassar, and was occupied by a garrison under Au¬ 
gustus. In the first three centuries of Christianity 
it was the scene of fierce opposition to the new 
faith. The Moslems captured it after a severe 
struggle in 638, and the Caliph of Damascus in 
748 a.d. sacked and dismantled it, inflicting a 
heavy blow on its prosperity. In the 11th century 



BAAL. 








Baba. 


( 282 ) 


Babeuf. 


the Seljukian dynasty were masters here till dis¬ 
possessed by Genghis Khan, and in 1145 it was 
again subject to Damascus. Earthquakes inflicted 
much damage in the 12th century, and in 1400 it 
was pillaged by Timur, and afterwards became in¬ 
corporated in the Turkish empire. The old walls, 
four miles in circumference, can still be traced ; but 
the present population is housed in a miserable 
collection of huts. The Great Temple of Baal is 
one of the most magnificent ruins of the East, stand¬ 
ing on a lofty artificial platform, and covering an 
area of some four acres. The temple itself, with 
its peristyle of fifty-four columns 62 feet high, 
measured at least 250 feet in length and 140 in 
breadth. Not far from this majestic structure stands 
the Temple of the Sun, exceeding in size and pro¬ 
portions the Parthenon at Athens. The Circular 
Temple is comparatively small, but is a finished 
specimen of architecture. These ruins have not yet 
been fully explored. Two mosques of a much later 
date, and the traces of Saracenic fortifications de¬ 
serve notice. 

Baba, Cape, at the southern extremity of the 
Turkish province of Bigha, in Asia Minor (lat. 
39° 28' N., long. 26° 4' E.), at the entrance to the 
Gulf of Adramyti. The smalltown of Baba Kalessi 
is in its immediate vicinity. 

Babar, (1) a large Afghan tribe, akin to the 
Shirani, in the Koh-i-Daman, Dera Ishmail district, 
opposite the Sangao and Dahina passes ; two main 
divisions : Mahsud with seven Khels, Ghwara with 
five Khels: 4,000 families. (2) A branch of the 
Khatak Afghans, left bank of the Indus near the 
Sohan river. The term Babar, Babor, which is 
the Babhrava of Sanskrit records, is widespread 
throughout north-west India, as amongst the Jats 
-of Sindh and the Babrias (Babars) of Gujerat. 

Babbage, Charles, born at Teignmouth in 
1792, graduated in 1814 at Trinity College, 
■Cambridge, without honours. He had, however, 
•devoted himself to higher mathematics, and in con¬ 
junction with Herschel and Peacock, strove to sub¬ 
stitute the Leibnitzian for the Newtonian notation 
in the Calculus. With the object of eliminating 
inaccuracies in astronomical and other calculations, 
.he started the idea of a calculating machine, and 
was aided by the British Government in prosecuting 
his designs, which occupied nearly all his life, but 
were productive of no great practical success. 
From 1828 to 1839 he was Lucasian Professor at 
Cambridge. His later years were spent in London, 
where he constructed several machines capable of 
yielding certain results, helped to found the Astro¬ 
nomical and Statistical Societies, and waged 
incessant war with street musicians. He died in 
1871. 

Babblers ( Timaliince ), a sub-family of Bab¬ 
bling Thrushes (q.v.), most numerous in the Malay 
Peninsula, whence they range north, south, and 
•east in decreasing numbers. In this sub-family, 
which includes the Bower-Birds, Bush-Babblers, 
and Regent Bird, the rounded concave wing charac¬ 
teristic of the Babbling Thrushes reaches its fullest 
development. 


Babbling Thrushes ( Timaliidce ), a family 
of passerine birds, characteristic of and abounding 
in the Oriental region, occurring less plentifully in 
Australia and Africa. They are small, short-tailed, 
strong-legged, active birds, mostly of sombre plum¬ 
age, and are distinguished from the True Thrushes 
by their rounded concave wings, which fit close to 
the body. [Thrush.] 

% 

Babel (gate of God), the early and local name 
of Babylon (q.v.), the foundation of which is 
assigned in Genesis (x. 10) to Nimrod, about 2,000 
years before the Christian era. The tradition as to 
the building of the tower and the confusion of 
tongues, recorded in Genesis xi. 1-9, may have 
connected itself with the name, owing to its resem¬ 
blance to the Hebrew balbel (confusion). The same 
story recurs in the primitive history of many races, 
and is preserved as regards Babylon in the cunei¬ 
form inscriptions. The famous tower, which the 
builders intended to carry up to heaven, is identi¬ 
fied by Strabo with the tomb of Belus, and he 
fixes the height without apparent authority at 
606 ft. It is more probable that we have a trace 
of the structure in Birs Nimroud, the ruins of which 
still exist at Borsippa, a suburb of Babylon. This 
temple, which was according to legend completed by 
Nebuchadnezzar, after many previous kings had been 
engaged in building it, is a pyramidical structure 
of eight storeys, and over 200 ft. in height. If this 
be the building seen by Herodotus, the city walls 
must in his time have embraced an enormous area. 

Bab-el-Mandeb, Straits of (Arabic gate of 
tears), the channel which connects the Red Sea 
with the Indian Ocean, thus dividing Arabia from 
Africa, has a mean breadth of 20 miles. The island 
of Periin, occupied by Great Britain, divides it into 
the Great Strait to the W., and the Little Strait to 
the E. The latter, though narrow, is less deep and 
subject to fewer currents, and is therefore used by 
most vessels passing in and out of the Red Sea. 

Baber, or Babur (Arabic tiger), the name by 
which the founder of the Mogul dynasty in India is 
best known. Born in 1483, lie succeeded his father, 
Omar Sheikh, a descendant of Timur, in 1495, as 
sovereign of the district between Samarkand and 
the Indus. A rebellion drove him out of his king¬ 
dom, but in 1504 he collected a force, took Cabul, 
subjugated Kashgar and Kandahar, and thrice in¬ 
vaded India. At the great battle of Paniput (1526) 
he defeated and slew Ibrahim, Sultan of Delhi, and 
next became master of Agra. A year later he 
crushed Rana Sunga of Mewar, and all India fell 
virtually under his rule. He died in 1530, but his 
dynasty lasted for three centuries. His memoirs, 
written by himself, are extant. 

Babeuf, Francois Noel, born at St, Quentin, 
France, 1764, and brought up as a surveyor, em¬ 
braced revolutionary principles in their wildest 
form, and calling himself Gracchus, edited a paper 
entitled Le Tribun du Peuj)le. In this he advo¬ 
cated the nationalisation of land and socialistic 
theories generally, inveighing against the Directory. 
His followers, the Babouvistes, formed a club in 





Babington. 


( 283 ) 


Baboon. 


which equality was the rule. He was charged at 
Vendome with conspiring to overthrow the consti¬ 
tution, attempted to commit suicide, but was 
brought alive beneath the knife of the guillotine in 

1797. 

Babington, Antony, an English Catholic of 
good Derbyshire family, was a page at Sheffield 
when Mary Queen of Scots was there under charge 
of Lord Shrewsbury. He at once came under her 
fatal spell (15ti9). Being in favour at Court, he served 
as the tool of the Jesuit Ballard in hatching a con¬ 
spiracy for the murder of Elizabeth. His corre¬ 
spondence in cipher with Mary and others was 
intercepted by Walsingham. He was arrested, 
confessed his guilt, and suffered death with thirteen 
confederates at Tyburn in 1586. 

Babirusa, Babiroussa (Sits babirusa ), the 
wild pig of Celebes and some of the adjacent 



babirusa (Sus babirusa). 


islands. The native name, which has been adopted 
into English, signifies “ Pig-deer,” and refers to the 
abnormal tusks of the male, which, from their 
position, give the animal the appearance of 
being horned. The animal resembles a large hog 
in general appearance, but is more slightly 
built, has longer legs, and is nearly hairless. 
It does not root with its snout like other 
pigs, but feeds on fallen fruit and maize. The 
lower tusks are very long and sharp, and form 
terrible weapons; those of the upper jaw grow 
upwards, and curve backwards towards the top of 
the head. Dr. Bland Sutton, the pathologist to the 
Zoological Society, records the case of an animal 
that died in the gardens, and says that its upper 
canines were so long that they would have pene¬ 
trated the skull if they had not been repeatedly 
cut. It was formerly supposed these extraordinary 
teeth served as hooks by which the animal could 
rest its head on a branch. Then it was suggested 
that they served to guard the eyes from thorns and 
spines while the babirusa was hunting for fallen 
fruits among the tangled thickets of spiny plants. 
This suggestion does not meet the case, for the 
female, who procures her food in the same way, does 
not possess such teeth. Dr. A. R. Wallace believes 


that they were once useful, and were then worn 
down as fast as they grew, but that changed con¬ 
ditions of life have rendered them unnecessary, and 
they now develop into a monstrous form, just as 
the incisors of rodents—which they resemble in 
springing from persistent pulps—will go on grow¬ 
ing if the opposite teeth do not wear them away. 

Babis (Per. bdb-ed-Din, gate of the faith), a 
modern Persian sect founded in 1843 by Mirza Ali 
Mohammed of Shiraz, who took the title of Bab. 
Their theology is a mixture of Pantheism with Gnos¬ 
tic and Buddhist doctrines, and they are adverse to 
asceticism, polygamy, divorce, and the subjection 
of women. They tried to raise a revolution in 
Persia in 1848, and three of their members attempted 
to assassinate the Shah in 1852. Both attempts 
failed and were followed by terrible persecution. 
Their doctrines are a development of Sufism (q.v.). 

Baboo (Hindustani Balm , a title of respect, like 
Mr.), a term commonly applied to a native of India 
(especially Bengal) who has received some English 
education. “ Baboo English,” produced by the 
unintentional misuse by such natives of terms and 
phrases derived from English literature (the more 
grandiloquent the better), is well known, and 
specimens may often be found in the native portion 
of the Anglo-Indian Press. 

Baboon, the popular name for any monkey of 
the Old World genus Cynocephalus, of the sub¬ 
family Cynopithecinse, the species of which are 
mostly African, though some range into Arabia, 
and one (C. nlfjer ) as far eastward as Celebes. The 
muzzle is very long, and swollen by an enlargement 
of the maxillary bone ; the last lower molar has 
five tubercles, and the nostrils are always at the 
extremity of the snout (except in C. gelada and C. 
obscurus, which are on that account sometimes 
made a separate genus, Theropithecus). Baboons 
have large cheek-pouches, and callosities, some¬ 
times vividly coloured, on their haunches, and may 



baboon (Cynocephalus papio). 


be readily distinguished by their stout build, dog¬ 
like head, large canine teeth, the curious fulness 
on each side of the long nose, and their habit of 







Babrius. 


( 284 ) 


Babylonia. 


squatting on their hind-quarters like a dog. The 
tail curves upward from the root and then droops, 
but when the animal is excited it sticks out and is 
flourished furiously. When young they make 
amusing pets, for then they are full of vivacity and 
fun, but as they grow older they become irritable 
and fierce, and many keepers in menageries and 
zoological gardens can testify from painful expe¬ 
rience how savagely these animals can bite. 
Although the baboons approach man more closely 
than do the anthropoid apes (q.v.) in the double 
curvature of the spinal column, in other particulars 
they exhibit greater affinities with the Carnivora, as 
in their mode of progression, which is essentially 
quadrupedal, and in the arrangement of bones and 
muscles necessary to this end. Their food is 
chiefly fruit, seeds, and young shoots, varied with 
insects, worms, and, in the case of at least one 
species, scorpions. Some forms are known to be 
polygamous, and several males, with their females, 
live in a kind of social fashion; and nearly all 
form large troops or bands for foraging or defence. 
The number of species is probably twelve, nine or 
ten of which are well-marked. The Common 
Baboon (C.papio), ranging widely over Africa, is a 
large animal of yellowish-brown colour, slightly 
shaded with sandy or light-red. It is often seen in 
menageries, and is the constant companion of 
Egyptian jugglers, by whom it is taught many 
amusing tricks. C. hamadryas is the Sacred 
Baboon, formerly worshipped in Egypt as the type 
of the god of letters, and frequently occurring in 
their sacred and sepulchral sculptures. It is about 
four feet high when erect, the face dirty flesh- 
colour, the rest of the body dusky brown. In the 
males there is a long shaggy mane, reaching back 
as far as the loins, which gives these animals the 
appearance of exaggerated French poodles. The 
Sphinx, or Guinea Baboon (C. spldnx ), from Sene¬ 
gal, is covered with long shaggy hair of a deep 
russet-brown, each hair being marked with rusty- 
brown and black rings. The slender tapering face, 
ears, hands and feet, and callosities are black. The 
Anubis Baboon ( C. anvbis ) is a native of the west 
coast of Africa. The most noticeable points are 
the very elongated black face and the uniform dark 
olive-green fur, traversed below the surface with 
rings of yellow and black. One was purchased for 
the Zoological Society of London in 1860, and the 
owner, who had brought it from Lagos, told the 
secretary that “it is very seldom that these 
animals can be obtained, the natives having a fear¬ 
ful horror of their strength and ferocity when 
attacked.” Other species are the Black Baboon, 
Chacma, Drill, Gelada, and Mandrill (q.v.). 

Babrius, or Babrias, or Gabrias, a Greek 
writer of fables, whose history and date are un¬ 
known. The best authorities refer him to the third 
century of our era. Until 1843 a few fragments 
only in Suidas preserved his name, but in that year 
a manuscript was found in a monastery on Mount 
Athos, containing 123 of his fables, evidently based 
on those of iEsop, unless he preceded the latter in 
date. In 1859, 95 more were produced, but the 
authenticity of this last batch is doubtful. Both 


sets were edited by Sir G. C. Lewis, and their alleged 
discoverer was a Greek named Mynas. 

Babylonia. Geography— The ancient king¬ 
dom of Babylonia was bounded on the E. by Elam 
or Susiana ; on the S. by the Persian Gulf ; on the 
W. by the deserts of Arabia; and on the N. by 
Assyria. It was watered by two streams, the Tigris 
and the Euphrates, and it was intersected by a 
number of canals, branching out from these great 
rivers, and dug in order to save the country from 
the effects of the annual inundations. The last 
work of the life of Alexander the Great was to 
superintend the clearing out of some of these canals 
in the neighbourhood of Babylon, and to form new 
ones, thus continuing the labours of the ancient 



native sovereigns. The fertility of Babylonia was 
so astonishing that Herodotus could scarcely venture- 
to describe it for fear of exciting incredulity. After 
the conquest of Cyrus, this province was considered 
the richest of the Persian satrapies. Every kind of 
cereal yielded abundant crops, and the date-palm 
of the country, which furnished food, wine, build¬ 
ing material and fuel, was celebrated in ancient as 
in modern times. The more southern districts, 
however, towards the sea, were marshy, and covered 
with extensive beds of reeds, which were only 
partly reclaimed and utilised. There was a large 
manufacture of baskets, mats, and other articles 
from these reeds. The greater part of Babylonia 
is an alluvial plain, and the absence of stone and 
timber, added to the abundance of fine clay, forced 
the inhabitants to build of brick, while the pre¬ 
sence of springs of bitumen at Hit, the Is of 
Herodotus, and other places, induced them to use- 
this substance for mortar (Genesis xi. 3); the palm 
indeed was employed for roofing with a plaster of 
mud, and for pillars to support small houses, but 
for other purposes timber had to be procured with 
vast labour and expense from the mountain ranges 















Babylonia. 


( 285 ) 


Babylonia. 


of Armenia, and even from the Syrian Lebanon. 
Besides bitumen, gypsum is found, and was some¬ 
times used as cement. The domestic animals of 
Babylonia are camels, horses, sheep, buffaloes, oxen, 
all of superior breed. Among wild animals the lion 
was not uncommon, and is still sometimes to be 
seen roaming near the ruins of Babylon. The 
country is subject to sudden and terrific hurricanes, 
dangerous to life; the hot winds are also destruc¬ 
tive. The climate is exceedingly sultry from April 
to October, so that the inhabitants of modern 
Bagdad often live during those months in partly 
underground rooms called sirdabs, protected from 
the heat by exceedingly thick walls. Ancient 
Babylonia contained a great number of large cities, 
and the capital itself, Babylon, on the Euphrates, 
was, if we are to believe the accounts of Greek 
writers, the greatest city of antiquity. According 
to Ctesias, who is here more moderate than others, 
the city was 360 stades, or 40 miles in circumference, 
a wall of immense height and thickness surround¬ 
ing it. 

Recent Discoveries. —The name of Babylon has 
never been lost. Classical writers spoke of Babylon 
when they meant Seleucia or Ctesiphon, and 
mediaeval travellers generally give this name to the 
city of Bagdad, but the Arabian geographers men¬ 
tion Ard Babil , or the district of Babylon, as 
adjacent to the Euphrates in the neighbourhood of 
Hillah ; and the most northern of the artificial 
mounds opposite the last-mentioned town has 
always been called the Mound of Babil. Never¬ 
theless the exact site of the great city was a matter 
of dispute until Rich, who was also the first traveller 
carefully to examine the remains of Nineveh 
[Assyria], published his celebrated Memoir on the 
Ruins of Babylon in 1812. Among the travellers 
who had visited the mounds near Hillah before 
Rich, and recognised them as marking the site of 
Babylon, were Pietro della Valle (1616), Padre 
Vincenzo Maria di Sa. Caterina da Siena (1657), 
Otter (1734), Pere Emmanuel de St. Albert (1750), 
Niebuhr (1765), and the Abbe Beauchamp (1782). 
Many other intelligent travellers had visited Bagdad 
and its neighbourhood, but owing to the dangers 
and difficulties attending the enterprise few actually 
saw these ancient mounds ; hence the long con¬ 
tinued errors which placed Babylon on the site of 
Bagdad itself, or at Akkerkuf. Since Rich’s inspec¬ 
tion the mounds of Babylon, which consist of three 
great piles of brickwork covered by a layer of 
mould, and known respectively as Tell Babil (or 
Mujelibeh), El-Kasr (also called Mujelibeh ), and 
Tell Amran, besides several long ridges of similar 
formation, and the Birs Nimroud , the remains of a 
colossal tower in stages on the western bank of the 
Euphrates, have been examined by Sir Robert Ker 
Porter (1820), Buckingham (1821), Sir Henry 
Layard (1848), Sir Henry Rawlinson (1854), M. 
Oppert (1851). It appears probable that Babil 
represents the great temple of Bel described by 
Herodotus, that the Kasr was, as its name implies, 
the royal palace, and that the Birs Nimroud, which 
is six miles S.W. of Hillah, was not a part of Baby¬ 
lon proper, but was the famous Temple of E-zida, 
standing in the neighbouring town or suburb of 


Borsippa. No extensive excavations have been 
made at Babylon, though various antiquities have 
been brought thence to England, but other sites 
in Babylonia have been more or less completely 
excavated, such as Mukeyyer, where Ur of the 
Chaldees formerly stood; Abtf Shahrein, the ancient 
Eridu; Warka, or Erech ; Senkereh, or Larsa ; Abu 
Habbah, or Sepharvaim ; Tell-Ibrahim, the ancient 
Cutha ; and, above all, Tello, the capital of Gudea 
in remote ages. From the last-named site M. de 
Sarzec brought a collection of antiquities that 
illustrate the earliest art and culture of Chaldea, 
and are unrivalled in point of antiquity. At Abu 
Habbah Mr. G. Smith and others obtained an im¬ 
mense collection of Babylonian clay tablets, in¬ 
scribed with commercial and legal texts. Most of 
these sites have yielded bricks stamped with 
inscriptions of ancient kings, but no name has been 
found so frequently .as that of Nebuchadnezzar, 
whose bricks have been drawn by thousands from 
the ruins of Babylon, and employed in building 
modern houses ; while many of them have found 
their way to the museums of Europe, the first that 
reached England being pi'ocured by order of the 
East India Company in 1800. Historical cylinders 
containing the annals of Nebuchadnezzar, Neriglis- 
sar, Nabonidus, Cyrus, and even Antiochus, have 
been found in Babylonia. A number of Babylonian 
boundary-stones have also been discovered, the 
first of which was procured by Michaux in 1790, a 
day’s journey below Bagdad, and is now at the 
Louvre. 

History. —The earliest inhabitants of Babylonia 
are generally thought to have been a non-Semitic 
people, speaking an agglutinative language, known 
as the Accadian or Sumerian ; accordingly the most 
ancient inscriptions known to us are in the Accadian 
language alone, such as those of Ur-Nina, Entena, 
Gudea, and other rulers of Lagash, the modern 
Tello. Very early, however, a Semitic invasion 
must have taken place, for the date of two Semitic 
kings, namely, Sargon and Naram-Sin, is placed, 
according to the testimony of the later Babylonians 
themselves, at about b.c. 3800 and 3750 respectively. 
Whether Gudea lived before this date or not must 
remain an open question; some would place him 
as late as b.c. 2500. According to Berosus, a Baby¬ 
lonian priest of Bel, who wrote a history of his own 
country in Greek for King Antiochus Soter (b.c. 280), 
a long series of half-mythical kings of Babylonia, 
including Xisuthrus, in whose time the Flood came, 
was followed by a dynasty of eight Median kings ; 
among these we must perhaps reckon Kudur-nank- 
hundi, Kudur-mapuk and Arad-Sin (or Eri-aku) of 
whom we possess monuments, the last king being 
identified by some with Arioch of Ellasar (Genesis 
xiv.),andhis date fixed about b.c. 2300. About b.c. 
2200 Hammurabi sat upon the throne of Babylon, 
the name of which now first appears in cuneiform 
records, although it may have been founded cen¬ 
turies before (Genesis xi.). But after him we know 
little of the history until Burnaburyas, 700 years 
later, whose letters to Amenophis IV. of Egypt we 
possess. About 1200 B.c. Babylonia was conquered 
by Assyria, and, though she soon regained her inde¬ 
pendence and was again ruled by native kings, she 




Babylonia. 


( 286 ) 


Babylonia. 


remained a politically subordinate power, and was 
repeatedly conquered by her more powerful neigh¬ 
bour, until the fall of Nineveh. In b.c. 747 Nabon- 
assar, whose accession formed the era by which all 
subsequent astronomers dated their observations, 
came to the throne. His successor, Marduk-apal- 
iddina is well known to us as the Merodach- 
Baladan who sent an embassy to Hezekiah, king of 
Judah ; he was subdued by his mighty contem¬ 
porary Sennacherib, who added Babylonia to his 
possessions. In 700, however, it again became 
independent, to be conquered again by Esarhaddon 
in 680. Esarhaddon bequeathed Assyria to his son 
Ashur-bani-pal, and Babylonia to his son Shamash- 
shum-ukin, who, however, was conquered by his 
brother in 648, when the Babylonians became once 
more subject to their northern neighbours. About 
b.c. 609 a change came ; the Medes and Babylonians 
united their forces, besieged Nineveh, and after a 
long siege took and utterly destroyed it. Nabo- 
polassar, king of Babylon, thus acquired a large 
portion of the Assyrian possessions, and founded 
what is called the New Babylonian Empire. He 
and his son Nebuchadnezzar (b.c. 604-562) did 
much to enlarge and beautify the city of Babylon ; 
the latter king is, of course, well-known to us as 
the conqueror of the Jews, and seems to have 
carried on wars against the Arabs and Egyptians. 
Nebuchadnezzar is also said to have raised the walls 
of the capital to a height of at least 75 feet, to have 
constructed the famous Hanging Gardens for his 
Median wife, and to have built a great embankment 
along the river Euphrates. This great monarch 
was succeeded by his son Evil-Merodach, who was 
overthrown after a lawless reign of two years by 
his sister’s husband Neriglissar. In B.c. 555 Nerig- 
lissar died and left the kingdom to his son Labashi- 
Marduk (in Greek Labotosoarchodos or Labasar- 
dochos), who, though a mere child, showed signs of 
a bad disposition, and was assassinated after a few 
months by a band of conspirators, one of whom, 
Nabonidus, was made king. He reigned for seven¬ 
teen years, and was active in restoring temples, 
and in repairing the walls of his city ; towards the 
end of his reign, however, he seems to have left the 
government in the hands of his son Bel-shar-usur 
(Belshazzar). In b.c. 538 Babylon was taken by 
Cyrus, king of Persia, and remained under the 
power of Persia, although in the time of Darius 
Hystaspis an attempt was made to throw off the 
yoke, which resulted in the second Persian capture 
of Babylon and in the partial destruction of its 
walls. Further injury was done to the city by 
Xerxes, who violated and destroyed the temples, not 
excepting the great temple of Bel. The Persian 
kings, however, continued to look upon the vast 
and wealthy city of Babylon as one of the capitals 
of their empire, and generally passed the winter 
there. In B.c. 331 the last Persian king of the 
Achaemenid race, Darius Codomannus, was defeated 
by Alexander the Great, who entered Babylon in 
triumph ; but after his return from his Indian 
campaign he died in this city b.c. 325. The general 
Seleucus obtained Babylonia as his share in the 
division of Alexander’s empire, and removed the 
seat of government to his newly-founded city of 


Seleucia, but in B.c. 249 the Partliians, under 
Arsaces, seized this region from the Macedonians. 
The decay of the city of Babylon was now rapid ; 
the Parthian capital Ctesiphon, built close to 
Seleucia, drained away the inhabitants from the 
ancient metropolis, which it was their policy to 
extinguish. It soon became a mere wilderness, 
surrounded by a low wall, and was used as a hunt¬ 
ing ground by the later Parthian and Sassanian 
kings. When the Arabs conquered the last of the 
Sassanian monarchs in a.d. 632 hardly a trace of 
the city of Babylon was left; the name henceforth 
simply marked a district or a mound. 

Language and Literature .—The language and the 
writing of Babylonia were nearly identical with 
those of Assyria, and much that has been said of 
the latter applies to the former. [Assyria.] The 
written character, however, varies somewhat in 
form. The most important cuneiform tablets that 
we possess were found in Assyria, not in Babylonia; 
from the latter country at present little has been, 
brought except a large collection of commercial 
tablets (or “ contract-tablets ”) and some astro¬ 
nomical records; a certain number of bricks, 
stamped with the names and titles of the kings in 
whose reigns they were made, and of stone objects- 
engraved with votive or dedicatory inscriptions ; a 
considerable number of engraved cylindrical seals, 
and a few historical cylinders and tablets of the 
later monarchs. It would appear, however, that 
much of the religious and legendary lore of Assyria 
was of Babylonian origin; for the Accadian 
language, from which many of the Assyrian tablets- 
are translated, was the original speech of the in¬ 
habitants of the southern kingdom. The historical 
cylinders of Nebuchadnezzar and Nabonidus are- 
written in the same style as those of the Assyrian 
kings, and describe their building operations. The 
oldest documents of Babylonia are in the Accadian 
language alone, without any translation by the side, 
such as those of Gudea from Tello ; these contain 
little besides formulae of dedication. In the time 
of Hammurabi we find bilingual inscriptions, in 
which the Accadian is accompanied by a Semitic 
translation. Among the latest Babylonian docu¬ 
ments are the astronomical records ; some of which, 
dating from the period of the Parthian kings, con¬ 
tain most exact observations of the movements of 
the moon and planets. 

Religion .—As the god Ashurwasthe chief divinity 
of Assyria, so Bel-Merodach was the head of the 
Babylonian Pantheon. His vast temple, which, with 
the other great temple of E-zida, now Birs Nimroud, 
it was the pride of the Babylonian kings to main¬ 
tain, was still standing in the time of Herodotus - T 
and, though it was in a ruined state, Alexander the 
Great proposed to restore it; hence we have full 
descriptions of it in the classical writers. The 
priests attached to this temple were richly en¬ 
dowed, and the maintenance of the worship involved 
a great outlay. The impression made by this temple 
and its worship on the Jews during their captivity 
is reflected in the history of Bel and the Dragon ; 
the apocryphal Epistle of Baruch also contains 
interesting allusions to the Babylonian rites. The 
other gods of Babylonia would seem to have been 





Babylonia. 


( 287 ) 


Babylonia. 


the same as those of Assyria [Assyria], which 
country borrowed its religion, as well as the rest of 
its culture, from the southern kingdom. Bel and 
Nebo are mentioned together as the principal 
divinities of Babylon by Isaiah (xlvi. 1). The great 
importance of the religious processions of Babylonia 
is shown in the history of Nabonidus, to whom the 
neglect of certain customary processions, in which 
images of the gods were carried, is attributed as a 
great crime. Closely connected with Babylonian 
religion was the astrology for which the Chaldaean 





(«) BABYLONIAN 

(a) Tlie record of the sale of a field, (b) The < 

priests were so famous, and which they had studied 
for countless ages. There were several schools of 
astrologers, also specially called the “ Chaldseans,” 
such as those of Sippara and Erech, which held 
different doctrines. Their business was to foretell 
the future by the stars, and to interpret omens and 
dreams. 

The Arts .—Owing to the less extensive excava¬ 
tions undertaken in Babylonia we are unable to 
say as much of Babylonian as of Assyrian art. 
The only buildings that have been fully excavated 
in the southern kingdom belong to the earliest 
period of Chakhean history. The palace of Gudea, 
at Tello, resembles in many respects the palaces of 
Sennacherib and Ashur-bani-pal; it was entirely 
built of brick, the only material available in Baby¬ 
lonia, where there is a complete lack of stone, and 
of all timber except the fibrous palm tree ; it stood 
on a great platform, designed to raise it above the 
inundations; its walls were sometimes as much as 
8^ ft. thick, and the chambers were probably 
vaulted in many instances. For decoration, how¬ 
ever, it probably had to depend on colouring, and 


hanging draperies. In a small temple near this- 
palace M. de Sarzec found curious circular columns, 
arranged in groups of four, and formed entirely of 
brickwork—this must have been a rare experiment 
in architecture. That the king, Gudea, was himself 
an architect, appears from some statues of diorite, 
a material which had to be procured from the 
peninsula of Sinai, in which the monarch appears 
seated, with architectural plans, drawing materials,, 
and graduated rule upon his knees ; these statues 
are now at the Louvre, and show some skill in 



art. ( b) 

rant of certain privileges by Nebuchadnezzar. 

sculpture, although the want of modelling of the 
limbs, the stiff posture, and the treatment of the 
drapery belong to an early stage of art. Several 
very early bas-reliefs have also been brought from 
Tello, such as the lion and eagle, or the famous Vul¬ 
ture Stela, both now in Paris. Of early bronze work 
we have examples in small statuettes of Gudea,. 
buried as talismans in the foundations or walls of 
the palaces, and in figures representing priests or 
priestesses bearing sacrificial offerings in baskets 
upon their heads, like the Greek Canephorae ; some 
of these latter works are of the time of Gudea, some 
of Kudurmapuk and Arad-Sin. Of later Babylonian 
sculpture we have examples in the numerous- 
boundary-stones, with the signs of the zodiac, and 
sometimes human figures in low relief upon their 
surfaces ; the most remarkable of these exhibits 
the figure of Marduk-nadin-akhi, b.c. 1120, in his 
tiara and richly-embroidered robes. Clay statuettes 
have also been found in Chaldsca, some of remark¬ 
ably skilful workmanship; the most numerous of 
this class are figures of the goddess Ishtar, of a late 
period, not modelled by the hand, but cast in a. 


















Baccarat. 


( 288 ) 


Bach. 


mould. Of all the arts, perhaps, the work of the 
•embroiderer's needle has been that chiefly connected 
-with the name of Babylon. “Babylonish garments ” 
were already highly prized in the time of Joshua 
•{Josh. vii. 21) ; the prophet Ezekiel speaks of the 
splendid robes of the Chaldasan princes ; and down 
to the time of Alexander, and later still under the 
Koman Empire, Babylonian robes and hangings 
were everywhere in the greatest request, and valued 
.at very high prices. The designs chosen by the 
•embroiderers were originally religious emblems of 
deep mystical significance, and probably thought of 
great importance as charms and talismans for the 
welfare of the wearer. On the robe of Marduk- 
nadin-akhi, mentioned above, we see the Tree of 
Life repeated many times, and bands of rosettes, 
perhaps representing the open lotus. Symbolical 
figures of genii and animals, and the king himself 
engaged in prayer or sacrifice, also frequently 
•occur ; and all these designs were borrowed by the 
Assyrians, with the rest of the arts, from the more 
• ancient civilisation of Babylonia. 

Present Condition .—The greater part of Baby¬ 
lonia is now included in the modern Turkish pashalik 
•of Bagdad, a city on the Tigris of about 60,000 in¬ 
habitants, which, founded by the Caliph El-Mansur 
in a.d. 763, is to some extent the successor of the 
ancient Babylon, and by this name it was often 
called by travellers in former days. Forty-eight 
miles S. of Bagdad are the ruins of Babylon, oppo¬ 
site the modern town of Hillah, from which they 
are separated by the Euphrates ; and the whole 
■ country, which is now for the most part a dreary 
desert, or a succession of reedy marshes, is dotted 
with artificial mounds covering the remains of 
ancient cities. Eighteen miles S.E. of Bagdad, on 
the Tigris, stands the ruin called Tak-Kesra , all 
that is left of the magnificent vaulted palace of the 
Parthian kings at Ctesiphon. Many of the beds of 
the ancient canals are still visible, and some of 
them still in a serviceable condition. The port of 
Bagdad is Basra or Bassorah, on the Shatt-el-Arab 
or confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates, about 50 
-miles from the Persian Gulf. It is still famous for 
its dates, and has a considerable trade, especially 
with India. The population consists of Turks, Arabs, 
Nestorian Christians of Syrian descent, and in the 
•south are the remnants of the Mendaites, Sabreans 
or Christians of Saint John, who preserve a peculiar 
dialect of Syriac, in which the sacred books are 
written. The language in general use is Arabic, 
but Persian is widely understood. Many of the 
ancient customs are still preserved; for navigating 
the rivers, rafts, called beliefs, supported on inflated 
skins, and circular wicker-work boats, called htfahs, 
are still employed, as we see them in the ancient 
sculptures and read of them in old writers. 

Baccarat (Fr. baccara), a well-known French 
game of chance, played for money between a 
banker and several punters. In England it is 
illegal. 

Bacchanalia, in the strict sense the triennial 
festival of Bacchus, introduced among the native 
population of Italy from the cities in Magna Gnecia. 
Its character was entirely transformed, according to 


Livy, by Pacula Annia, a Roman matron. The 
gross immoralities which accompanied its new form 
led to its suppression in 186 li.C. by the Roman 
Senate, after inquiry by a special commission. 
Commonly the term is applied to any scene of 
drunkenness and disorder. 

Bacchus (Gk. Bacchos = Iacchos, probably 
from iaclio, i.e. the cry of the reveller), the name, 
first found in Herodotus, of the god of the vine, 
known in later Greece as Dionysus, and in Rome also 
as Liber. According to the prevailing legend, he was 
the son of Zeus and Semele, daughter of Cadmus of 
Thebes. His mother, having rashly desired to see 
her divine lover in all his glory, was scorched up by 
his presence. Her unborn child was sewn up in 
the thigh of Zeus, and hence got the epithet “ twice- 
born,” the dithyrambs sung in his praise suggesting 
the same story. Reared on Nysa, he soon set forth 
on his travels to spread the culture of the grape, 
and the orgiastic worship promoted by the use of 
wine. He went as far as India, and his return 
thence in a car drawn by tigers was a favourite 
subject of artists and poets. Lycurgus of Thrace, 
Pentheus of Thebes, the daughter of Minyas, and 
Icarus of Attica were punished, with death for their 
opposition to vinous indulgence. In his wander¬ 
ings the god was attacked by pirates off Naxos, 
and this incident led to his love affair with Ariadne. 
Phrygia and Lydia adopted his cult with much 
zeal, and as Sabazius Bagaios he was venerated on 
Mount Tmolus. Homer has very little to say about 
him, and Herodotus regards him as an inferior 
deity. His connection, through the sacrifice of the 
goat, with Greek tragedy came later. The Orphic 
poets made him visit Hades, and thus he came into 
the Eleusinian mysteries, and was even alleged to 
be the son of Persephone. He was introduced to 
Rome through Magna Grascia. The Thyrsus, or 
ivy-wrapped staff, the Corymbus, or ivy-wreath, the 
Cantharus, or cup, and the Phallus were his 
emblems. Sometimes he took the form of an effe¬ 
minate youth, sometimes of a babe, sometimes of a 
bearded man. 

Baccio Della Porta, known more generally 
as “Fra Bartolommeo” di San Marco, the name he 
assumed when under the influence of Savonarola he 
became a Dominican, was born at Savignano in 1469. 
He distinguished himself early as a painter by his 
powerful colouring, skilful treatment of drapery, 
and knowledge of the human form. He was the 
precursor and teacher of Raphael. On entering the 
monastery at Florence, in 1500, he devoted himself 
exclusively to religious art, and his St. Mark and 
St. Sebastian are the finest of his works. To him 
is attributed the first use of the mannikin or jointed 
lay figure. He died in 1517. 

Bach, the name of a family of musicians, the 
most illustrious member of which was Johann Se¬ 
bastian Bach, who is rightly counted among the 
greatest musicians which the world has ever seen. 
The founder of the family was Veit Bach, a baker 
and miller, who left his native land, Hungary, in 
1550, to escape from the persecution of the Turks, 
who were then masters of the soil. He had two sons, 





Bach. 


( 289 ) 


Bacillus. 


who displayed great talent for music, in fact the 
love for the art was the distinguishing character¬ 
istic of the whole family, so that for two centuries, 
through six generations, no less than sixty members 
of the family became eminent in the art. The 
name of Bach and music were at one time and in 
one place synonymous. At Erfurt, where one branch 
of the family settled, the town musicians were 
called “ Bachs,” whether they bore that name or 
not. 

\ eit s eldest son followed his father’s trade, his 
second son became a carpet maker. Their leisure 
hours were devoted to music, and in course of time, 
as the family increased and became scattered, they 
kept up their connection by a yearly meeting, either 
at Arnstadt, Erfurt, or Eisenach, where they spent 
the day in exchanging experiences, and making 
music. 

Johann Sebastian Bach was the youngest son 
of Johann Ambrosias by his first wife, Elisabeth 
Lommerhirt. He was born at Eisenach, on the 21st 
March, 1G85, and died on the 28th July, 1750. He 
lost his parents before he had completed his tenth 
year, and his musical education, begun by his father, 
was continued by his brother, Johann Christoph, 
who was his senior by fourteen years, and who held 
the post of organist at Ohrdruf, one of the most 
beautiful of the Thuringian valleys. Here he re¬ 
mained five years, and excited the jealousy of his 
brother by the remarkable progress he made in 
music. A book of organ studies which the boy de¬ 
sired to possess was locked up in a latticed book¬ 
case, but young Bach, by rolling it up, managed to 
draw the precious volume forth, and copied the 
whole by the light of the moon during several 
months, only to have his labour taken from him 
when it was completed. It was restored to him 
after his brother’s death a few months later. In 
1700 he went to Liineburg to sing in the choir, and 
to pursue his musical studies at the School of St. 
Michael’s. He often journeyed to Hamburg to hear 
Reinken, the most famous organist of his time, and 
to learn by hearing. When he removed to Weimar 
as violinist, and afterwards to Liibeck, he once 
walked 250 miles to hear Buxtehude the organist. 
Although pinched by poverty, he had earned a great 
reputation as an organist himself, and had many 
offers from different churches. He selected Miihl- 
hausen, and settled there for a time, and married 
the daughter of Michael Bach, his cousin. He found 
Weimar a more suitable place, and he took up his 
residence there. On one occasion he travelled to 
Dresden for a “musical tournament” with Mar- 
chand, a French artist. He defeated the Parisian, 
and a second trial was arranged, but Marchand 
at the last moment failed to appear. Bach ac¬ 
cepted the post of clief d'orcliestre to the Duke of 
Cothen, and upon the death of Kuhnau was ap¬ 
pointed musical director and choirmaster or cantor 
•of St. Thomas’s School of Leipzig, and here he re¬ 
mained until his death. Bach married his second 
wife, Anne Magdalene, the daughter of Wiilkens, one 
of the Court musicians. His last days were em¬ 
bittered by the loss of sight. His compositions are 
full of ingenuity and power, and are in many styles, 
but he is chiefly pre-eminent for his wonderful 

19 


mastery of the fugal form as well as for his strict 
conformity to law. He improved the art of play¬ 
ing upon keyed instruments, and taught the possi¬ 
bility of playing in all keys. 

His sons by his first wife, Wilhelm Friedemann, 
also called the “ Halle ” Bach, a musician of great 
genius, was the father’s favourite; but Philip 
Emanuel, the second son, the Berlin Bach, musician 
to Frederick the Great of Prussia, was his greatest 
comfort. His other sons, Johann Christoph, the 
“ Biickeburg Bach;” Johann Christian, known as 
the “ English Bach,” all from the places in which 
they settled, continued the genius of the family. 
The last descendant, William Bach, son of the 
“ Biickeburg Bach,” died in Berlin in 1845, at the 
age of ninety, and with him ended the current of 
genius which had flowed with varying strength in 
one family for a period of nearly three hundred 
years in an uninterrupted line. 

Bacharach (Latin Am Bacclu, altar of Bac¬ 
chus), an old town in Rhenish Prussia, on the Rhine, 
30 miles S.E. of Coblentz by rail. In the Middle 
Ages it was a great market for Rhine wine. The 
ruined church of St. Werner, an elaborate Gothic 
edifice in the form of a trefoil, commemorates a 
boy saint who (according to the legend) was 
murdered by the Jews in 1293, and whose body 
miraculously floated up the river to this place. 
Bliicher crossed the Rhine here on Jan. 1st, 1814. 

Bachelor (Fr. bachelier, probably from the 
Low-Lat. baccalarius, cowherd, bacca being the 
Low-Latin form of vacca, cow; but derived by some 
from a Keltic root meaning small or young), a term 
first used to denote a particular kind of inferior 
tenant of church lands; then applied to proba¬ 
tioners for the monastic life ; later on, to knights 
who had not yet been able to raise their banner 
in the field ; and in the thirteenth century 
adopted in the University of Paris to denote 
candidates who had undergone their first univer¬ 
sity trials and were authorised to lecture, but 
were not yet full teachers. Later it was used in 
other universities, and written bacca laureus (as if it 
meant “ crowned with laurel-berries”), whence the 
French baccalaureat —“bachelor’s degree.” It now* 
generally denotes the first degree taken, the lowest 
degree which exempts its holder from strict univer¬ 
sity discipline. In practice the bachelor’s degree in 
arts at Oxford and Cambridge is followed by the 
master’s without further examination, while few 
London graduates proceed beyond it. Lastly, tht? 
term came to be applied to unmarried men, as pro¬ 
bationers for matrimony. 

Bachelor’s Buttons, the popular name for 
the double-flowered variety of the common butter¬ 
cup ( Ranunculus acris), sometimes applied to that 
of the red campion ( Lychnis dlurna ), or to the 
black knapweed ( Centaurea nigra). 

Bacillus (= a little rod), one of the divisions 
of the group of Bacteria (q.v.). A bacillus may be 
roughly characterised by paying that it is at least 
twice as long as it is broad, and it thus differs from 
those forms of bacteria, cocci, which possess a more 
or less rounded shape. Bacilli may be capable or 








Back. 


( 290 ) 


Bacon. 


non-capable of movement; they often grow into 
long threads, and in these rounded or oval spores 
may be developed. These spores are very impor¬ 
tant bodies ; they offer much greater resistance to 
heat and other destructive influences than do the 
rods from which they are developed. A spore may 
readily be distinguished from a coccus by its high 
refrangibility, and its peculiar behaviour with stain¬ 
ing reagents ; it is not, however, always so easy to 
distinguish a spore from a vacuole, or from other 
abnormal developments in the bacterial protoplasm ; 
in cases of doubt the test of resistance to heat must 
be applied, or it must be ascertained whether the 
supposed spore is capable of sprouting and produc¬ 
ing a bacterium by germination. 

Certain bacilli have been shown to be the cause 
of diseases affecting man and animals. The bacillus 
anthracis (see Plate, Fig. 8) produces the disorder 
known as anthrax (woolsorter’s disease of man, 
splenic fever or splenic apoplexy of animals) ; the 
bacillus tuberculosis (Fig. 1) is the cause of con¬ 
sumption, the bacilli of glanders (Fig. 9) and 
leprosy (Fig. 2) have certainly been isolated, and 
probably those of tetanus, diphtheria, and typhoid 
(Fig. 6). Among bacilli causing disease in animals, 
those of swine fever, mouse septicaemia, rabbit 
septicaemia, and fowl cholera may be mentioned. 
Other well-known bacilli are the hay bacillus, the 
bacilli of lactic and butyric acid fermentations, the 
bacillus of blue pus, and the bacillus prodigiosus. 
A curved form is often found associated with cases 
of cholera, and may be the cause of that disease; it 
is known as the comma bacillus of Koch, but is 
simply a curved rod, so that the expression comma 
bacillus is misleading. It really belongs to the 
Spirilla, and not to the group of bacilli at all. 

Back, Sir George, the great Arctic explorer, 
was born at Stockport in 1796, and entered the 
Royal Navy in 1808. Captured by the French, he 
remained a prisoner of war for five years. In 1818 
he volunteered to join Sir John Franklin in his Polar 
Expedition, and his courage and endurance met 
with high commendation. In 1833 he took charge 
of the party sent in search of Sir John Ross, and in 
1836 commanded the Terror in a dangerous but 
fruitless voyage. Knighted in 1837, and made 
Rear-Admiral in 1859, he took an active interest in 
the Royal Geographical Society, and in more recent 
explorations. He died in 1878, leaving a sum of 
money to be devoted to researches in the Polar 
Seas. 

Backgammon (apparently bach-game, from 
certain features in the play ; or from Danish words 
meaning tray gam-e , or Welsh meaning little 
battle'), a well-known game of chance and skill 
combined, played with dice and draughts by two 
players on a special board. Possibly it dates from 
the tenth century. It is now (1891) said to be out 
of fashion. 

Backhuysen, Ludolf, born at Emden in 
1631, son of the Secretary to the States General of 
Holland, was destined for official life, but he aban¬ 
doned this career for painting. He formed his own 
style from the J practical study of marine nature, 


and acquired unrivalled skill in depicting agitated 
waves and ships lashed by wind and water. His 
death occurred in 1709. 

BackstafF, an obsolete nautical instrument for 
taking the sun’s altitude. It was so called because 
the observer, when taking his observation, turned 
his back to the sun. It was also called Davis’s 
quadrant, from its inventor, John Davis, the navi¬ 
gator. The French called it the English quadrant. 
It superseded the more ancient Cross-staff, and 
consisted of two concentric circles, the arc of one 
radius being 60° and of the other 30°, with three 
vanes and the necessary frame. It was introduced 
about 1590, improved by Flamsteed, and generally 
superseded by Hadley’s reflecting quadrant in 
1731, though here and there it was in use up to 
the end of the last century. 

Bacon, Delia, an American authoress (1811— 
1859), best known as the first promineut supporter 
of the eccentric theory that Shakespeare’s plays 
were really written by Francis Bacon, which has 
since been supported by Mr. Ignatius Donnelly. 

Bacon, Francis, Lord Verulam and Viscount 
St. Alban, born 1561 in the Strand, was the son of 
Sir Nicholas Bacon, the famous Lord Keeper. His 
mother was Anne Cooke, whose eldest sister was 
married to Lord Burleigh. He had a brother, 
Anthony, two years his elder. Both of them 
matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1573. 
Little is known of Francis Bacon at the University. 
He appears to have been a delicate youth, but quick 
and studious. According to tradition Queen Eliza¬ 
beth herself noted his ability. In 1576 he was 
admitted to Gray’s Inn, and went to Paris with Sir 
Amyas Paulet, the British Ambassador. He re¬ 
mained in France till the sudden death of his father 
in 1579, when he returned, and finding himself 
scantily provided for, settled down to the profession 
of the bar. In 1584 he took his seat in the House 
of Commons as member for Melcombe Regis, 
representing Taunton two years later, and Liver¬ 
pool in 1588. At this period he was evidently 
anxious to secure some official position which would 
allow him to follow up the philosophical aims that 
he already had in view, but, though he received the 
reversion of the valuable clerkship to the Star 
Chamber, this place did not fall vacant for twenty 
years, and meanwhile he was in very straitened cir¬ 
cumstances, his habits being decidedly extravagant. 
In 1593 he was returned for Middlesex. His oppo¬ 
sition to the interference of the Lords in a matter 
of supply and to the granting of a threefold subsidy 
in less than six years incurred the queen’s dis¬ 
pleasure. He had already attached himself strongly 
to the Earl of Essex, but even the influence of the 
favourite was unable to procure him the post either of 
Att orney or Solicitor-General. He was, however, em¬ 
ployed occasionally in legal business by the Crown, 
was made a Queen’s Counsel, and received a grant 
of land and a gift also from his patron. He was 
again disappointed in seeing Lady Hatton. Burleigh’s 
granddaughter, married to his rival Coke. In 1597 
he sat for Ipswich, and seems to have endeavoured 
in vain to exchange his reversion of the clerkship 























































* 






































































CASSELL kCOMPANY LIMITED . LITH LONDON. 


BACTERIA. 


1. Tubercle bacillus. 2. Bacillus of leprosy. 3. Micrococcus tetragenus. 4. Pneumonia: diplo- 
coccus (Friedlander). 5. Cholera comma bacillus. 6. Typhoid bacillus. 7. Relapsing 
fever spirillum. 8. Anthrax bacillus. 9. Glanders cocci. 10. Micrococci in pus. 
11. Erysipelas bacillus. 12. Sarcina. 

(1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, magnified 1,000 times ; 4, 7, 9, 12, 550 times.) 




Bacon. 


( 291 ) 


Bacteria. 


of the Star Chamber for the Mastership of the Rolls. 
Meanwhile, in spite of his admonitions, Essex was 
pursuing a headstrong—if not a treasonable— 
course, and Bacon found himself in an awkward 
position. He estranged himself for a time from the 
queen by endeavouring to shelter his protector, 
but was in the end compelled to take part in the 
prosecution that sent the Earl to the scaffold, and 
to draw up a justification of the course that. Eliza¬ 
beth pursued. At the death of the queen his cir¬ 
cumstances were still so bad that he had to sell 
part of his land to clear off debts. He begged for 
the honour of knighthood, having in view marriage 
with.an alderman’s daughter, and by his advocacy of 
the Union, as well as by his reputation for science, 
he hoped to conciliate the favour of James I., to 
whom in 1605 he dedicated the first two books of 
the Advancement of Learning. In 1606 he married 
Alice Barnham, the lady above referred to, who 
survived him many years. There appears to be no 
ground for the assertion that he was influenced in his 
choice by mercenary motives. In 1607 he opposed 
the conference between the Lords and Commons on 
the question of the Union, and in the same year 
became Solicitor-General. This office and the 
reversion of the clerkship to the Star Chamber, 
which fell in next year, gave him the tranquillity 
which he needed for grappling with his philoso¬ 
phical task, and the Instauratio Magna was begun 
with zeal. Three years were spent in professional 
work and in re-editing his essays, till at last in 
1612 he became Attorney-General. His conduct as 
regards the cases of St. John and Peacham has 
been much discussed, but it is admitted that he 
merely performed his official duty, as he also did in 
1616 with reference to the murderers of Sir Thomas 
Overbury. Next year he became Lord Keeper, and 
in 1618 was made Lord Chancellor, when with mar¬ 
vellous industry he cleared off all the arrears of 
cases in the course of a month. In 1620 he dedicated 
to the king his Novum Organum. But in 1621 his 
enemy Coke once more returned to Parliament, and 
at his motion a committee was appointed to inquire 
into public grievances. The report contained accu¬ 
sations of corruption against the Lord Chancellor, 
who at first stoutly repelled the charge. Finally 
twenty-three specific cases were alleged, and, after 
seeing the king, Bacon in somewhat guarded lan¬ 
guage admitted his guilt. That he received gifts 
from suitors there can be no doubt, but it is con¬ 
tended that he never took money for giving a judg¬ 
ment. He was sentenced to pay a fine of £40,000, 
to be imprisoned in the Tower during the king’s 
pleasure, and to be disqualified from all offices, his 
titles being left undisturbed. His incarceration 
lasted but a few days and the fine was practically 
remitted, but he lost all his income, except a pension 
of £1,000 from the king and his small private 
fortune. He was summoned to return to Parlia¬ 
ment, but a sense of shame or a love of science 
led him to prefer retirement. At first he re¬ 
sided at Gorhambury, where he wrote his History 
of Henry VII. and translated the Advance¬ 
ment of Learning into Latin. Then he came to 
Bedford House, and lived there or at Highgate 
engaged in scientific or literary pursuits. In 


1626 he caught a cold whilst investigating the 
value of snow as a preservative of meat, and died 
of fever on April 9. He was buried in the church 
of St. Michael at St. Albans. Though Bacon’s 
knowledge of natural science was not on a level 
with the most advanced science of his age (“ the 
Lord Chancellor writes on science,” said Harvey, 
“ like a Lord Chancellor”), yet the Novum Organum, 
which embodies his attempt to formulate a new 
method of discovery, is the basis of modern induc¬ 
tive logic, and contains many anticipations of 
modern scientific ideas. 

Bacon, Sir Nicholas, was born at Chiselhurst 
in 1510, and educated at Benet’s (now Corpus 
Christi) College, Cambridge, and Gray’s Inn. He 
obtained the grant of the monastic estate at St. 
Edmund’s Bury, and other rewards, for his conver¬ 
sion to Protestantism, from Henry VIII. During 
Mary’s reign he was out of favour, but he avoided 
trouble, and Elizabeth on her accession made him 
privy councillor and keeper of the Great Seal. He 
carefully kept out of party intrigues during his 
career, and seems to have been a wise and honest, 
if not an entirely disinterested, adviser of the crown, 
and his eloquence was considerable. He was twice 
married, Francis Bacon being a son by his second 
wife. He died in 1579. 

Bacon, Roger, born near Ilchester in 1214, 
went to Oxford under the protection of Richard 
Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln, and by his ability 
won the favour of other great patrons. Completing 
his studies at Paris, he returned to Oxford, and 
entered the order of St Francis. He took up scien¬ 
tific pursuits with such ardour and success as to 
incur suspicions of dealing in magic. Pope Clement 
IV., who had been legate in England, heard of his 
fame, accepted a copy of his Opus Majus, and put 
a stop to his persecution, which was, however, re¬ 
newed on the pope’s death. Bacon passed ten years 
in prison, and was only released to die in 1294. 
His intellect, obscured by the superstitions of his 
day, was acute and far-reaching. He seems to have 
grasped every subject of speculative or scientific 
interest, and to have applied, intuitively, inductive 
methods to many branches of inquiry. In this way 
he often foreshadows modern discoveries. His 
practical achievements were great, but not destined 
to bear fruit for several generations. Gunpowder, 
the telescope, the air-pump, the diving-bell, and the 
camera obscura were conceived by his genius. The 
Gregorian Calendar, too, was one of his premature 
suggestions. Besides the Opus Majus, or Boots of 
Wisdom, he wrote about eighty treatises, some of 
which are included in the Thesaurus Chemicus ; 
others have never been printed. Gunpowder is de¬ 
scribed in Be Nullitate Magice, and his Means of 
Avoiding the Infirmities of Old Age was translated 
by Browne in 1683. 

Bacteria, the name applied to certain organisms 
of microscopic size, which constitute the lowest 
division of those forms of vegetable life called 
fungi. The divisions of the group of fungi have 
undergone many changes of nomenclature of late 
years; it is now customary to apply the term 




Bacteria. 


( 292 ) 


Bacteria. 


“bacteria” as a synonym for the division known to 
botanists as the Schizomycetes or fission fungi. The 
fact that bacteria multiply by repeated division 

justifies the appli¬ 
cation of this term, 
derived as it is 
from two Greek 
words t° 

solit, and /ivkt]s , a 
fungus. The word 
bacterium means a 
little rod, and was 
at one time re- 
S3rved for certain 
members of the 
group of Schizo¬ 
mycetes, but as 
already stated the 
whole group is now 
commonly spoken 
of as bacteria. The 
bacteria are single 
cells ; an idea of 
their size may be 
obtained from a 

Figs. 1 and 2.— tubercle bacillus. sGuly of the plate, 
From a photograph by E. C. noting the magni- 

Bousjield, Esq.) tying power em¬ 

ployed. They may 
assume various shapes ( see Plate). There are 
spherical forms known as “ micrococci; ” two 
of these may adhere together forming a dumb-bell 
shaped double coccus or “ diplococcus; ” rod¬ 
shaped forms are called “ bacilli ” ( bacillus , 
a little staff) ; intermediate forms between cocci 
and bacilli, i.e. short rods, used to be called, and 
are still spoken of, 
as “ bacteria ” ; and 
thus, as already in¬ 
cidentally observed, 
this word is unfor¬ 
tunately used in a 
double sense. Again 
several rods may ad¬ 
here together form¬ 
ing filaments known 
as “ Leptothrix ” 
forms, while chains 
of micrococci are 
spoken of as “ strep¬ 
tococci.” 

Curved rods also 
occur, as, for in¬ 
stance, in the or¬ 
ganism known as 
Koch’s cholera bacil¬ 
lus, and if several 
such curved bacilli 
are united, end to 
end, the resulting 
spiral form is known 
as spirillum, while a 
long and closely 
wound spiral is called a spirochmta. 

Some bacteria are provided with a whip-like 
flagellum,” which gives them the power of active 


movement, others are non-motile. Very near re¬ 
lations of the bacteria are met with in certain 
humble members of the great family of alg;e or sea¬ 
weeds. These lowliest algae are, like the bacteria, 
unicellular, devoid of sexual organs, and present 
many other points of similarity, but one great 
difference, namely, that they contain the peculiar 
green colouring matter known as chlorophyll. The 
absence of chlorophyll in bacteria prevents their 
obtaining carbon from carbonic acid gas, and they 
must therefore live upon ready-formed carbon com¬ 
pounds, such as exist in animals or plants. In 
other words, the bacteria are parasitic, feeding 
upon organic matter, and in some cases actually 
attacking living organisms. It is this last pecu¬ 
liarity which attaches such vast importance to the 
study of bacteria, and the researches of Pasteur 
and others, which have shown how the life history 
of fission fungi is bound up with certain fermenta¬ 
tions, with putrefaction, and finally with disease, 
gave a powerful impetus to the scientific study of 
these minute plants, which are now recognised to 
be fraught with the most wonderful power for 
working good or ill to higher forms of life. 

The importance of the study of bacteria, then, 
was first recognised in investigating the role played 
by them in fermentation processes. Pasteur showed 
that milk turns sour because of the growth within 
it of a bacterium, which converts the sugar of milk 
into lactic acid; again, in the manufacture of 
vinegar a bacterium is at work, and is the cause of 
the conversion of alcohol into acetic acid. After 
the establishment of these facts the question arose 
whether the phenomena of putrefaction might not 
also be due to bacterial growth, and this led to a 
great controversy. It was maintained, on the one 
hand, that bacteria could never develop in nutrient 
material unless similar bacteria already existed 
there, or were introduced from without; on the 
other hand, the doctrine of spontaneous generation 
was upheld, and it was urged that it was impossible 
to prevent putrefactive processes from occurring 
in organic infusions, however carefully they were 
preserved from bacterial intrusion. The difficulty 
was not easily set aside, so small were the living 
units in question and so universal is their distribu¬ 
tion ; their minute spores are readily borne from 
place to place by currents of air, and every drop of 
water teems with bacterial life. It was found, 
however, in course of time that prolonged boiling 
was uniformly effectual in destroying all germs, 
and that nutrient material which had been exposed 
to this treatment in flasks plugged with cotton 
wool could be kept for an indefinite period without 
undergoing putrefactive changes. The cotton-wool 
plug served the purpose of a filter*, permitting inter¬ 
change of gases between the inside of the flask 
and the outer world, but preventing any organisms 
reaching the interior of the flask from outside. 
Nutrient media which have thus been prevented 
from putrefying are said to be “ sterilised; ” that 
their remaining unchanged is due to the absence of 
bacterial life within them is easily shown by noting 
the effect of introducing germs into them from 
without. Such sterile media are now largely em¬ 
ployed in studying the growth of bacteria, and 




Fig. 3. —DIPHTHERIA (KLEBS 

lofeler). 

Fig. 4.— STREPTOCOCCUS PYOGENES. 

(From a, photograph by E. C. 
Bousjieid, Esq.) 


























































Bacteria. 


( 293 ) 


Bacteria. 


when due precautions are taken it is not difficult 
to ensure securing what is called a “ pure cultiva¬ 
tion of a given organism; that is to say, one and 
only one kind of organism being introduced into 
the medium, there is a development within it of 
organisms of that kind and of that kind only. In this 
way the fallacy of spontaneous generation has been 
completely demonstrated; putrefactive processes 
are now clearly shown to be due to the growth of 
bacteria, and by studying the differing, ways in 
which different organisms affect nutrient material 
an invaluable method of classifying bacteria and of 
studying their life history has been placed at the 
disposal of science. 

Meanwhile, however, further and yet more im¬ 
portant truths were being elicited with regard to 
the functions of bacteria. The part played by 
them in fermentation and in putrefaction was de¬ 
monstrated, and then came the great discovery of 
their importance in disease. 

It had been noticed that the blood of animals 
dying of a disease known as splenic fever or anthrax 
contained bacilli; a minute drop of such blood 
was found to be capable of conveying anthrax to 
other animals, and the question arose whether the 
bacilli were not the cause of the disease. Davaine 
upheld this view, and the subsequent researches of 
Koch have placed the matter beyond all doubt. The 
bacillus anthracis, the bacillus in question, has now 
been carefully studied in pure cultivations ; it has 
been found to grow into long threads, to produce 
spores, and to grow and affect the nutrient material 
in a manner peculiar to itself, and infinitesimal 
portions of the growth taken from cultures many 
times removed from the original source produce 
the disease known as anthrax in suitable animals. 
Anthrax is but rarely met with in the human sub¬ 
ject ; it occasionally, however, presents itself 
among those whose work brings them in contact 
with the hides of diseased cattle, and for that 
reason anthrax in man is known as “ woolsorter’s 
disease.” 

The great discovery of the cause of “splenic 
fever ” established on a firm footing the germ theory 
of disease, and led to a vast display of activity in 
this field of work. It was soon found, however, 
that the difficulties of the subject were consider¬ 
able, and many rash generalisations have been 
made. None the less, however, a number of facts 
have been demonstrated sufficient to revolutionise 
some of the conceptions of twenty years ago. Con¬ 
sumption has been shown by Koch to be caused by 
a bacillus, the tubercle bacillus (see Plate, Fig. 1) ; 
the bacilli by which the diseases glanders and 
leprosy are produced have been demonstrated, and 
there are good reasons for supposing that the germs 
of tetanus, diphtheria, and perhaps of cholera, 
typhoid, erysipelas, and other diseases occurring in 
man are now known ; while several more disorders 
affecting animals have been undoubtedly placed in 
the category of germ diseases. 

Great advances have been made, too, in technique, 
so that further additions to the knowledge of germs 
should be speedily forthcoming. The use of aniline 
dyes in staining bacteria, the employment of gela¬ 
tine and agaragar in culture media, and the method 


of plate cultivation, introduced by Koch, may be 
alluded to in passing. 

The “ gelatine tube ” is a sterilised mixture of 
gelatine and broth, which is transparent, and can 
be liquefied by exposure to a temperature of about 
25° C. This degree of heat does not destroy the 
germs ; and admits of agitation of the resulting 
liquid, and thus of the uniform diffusion throughout 
its substance of any bacteria it may contain. The 
liquefied gelatine can then be poured out and 
allowed to set, and wherever a germ happens to be 
fixed, there a colony produced by the multiplica¬ 
tion of that germ will in time appear. By inoculat¬ 
ing sterile gelatine with a minute droplet (diluted 
if necessary) of ma¬ 
terial, the bacteria 
therein contained can 
thus be separated 
from one another. 

Agaragar, or Ja¬ 
panese isinglass, is 
used where it is 
desirable to grow 
bacteria at a rela¬ 
tively high tempera¬ 
ture ; gelatine would, 
of course, be liquefied 
if exposed to the 
body temperature, 
whereas the melting 
point of agaragar is 
considerably higher 
than this. 

The six tubes de¬ 
picted in the illus¬ 
trations show the 
characters presented 
by the growth of 
various organisms on 
nutrient material. 

Figs. 1 to 4 are 
“ streak cultures,” i.e. 
are produced by drawing a platinum wire charged 
with the material over the surface. Figs. 5 and 6 
are “stab cultures,” the needle being thrust per¬ 
pendicularly into the nutrient medium. 

The possibility of separating germs from one 
another by plate cultivation depends upon the 
varying characteristics which the colonies of 
different organisms present. In some cases colours 
are produced by bacteria, as for example the bril¬ 
liant red of the micrococcus prodigiosus, a fungus 
of wide distribution which so often presents itself 
on mouldy bread ; the yellow colour of staphylococ¬ 
cus aureus, the bluish green of bacillus pyocyaneus, 
and so on ; by these colour phenomena and by other 
characteristics it is possible in many cases to pro¬ 
nounce upon the nature of a colony without examin¬ 
ing its constituent bacteria microscopically. 

To turn now to the various means which have 
been suggested for combating the ravages of 
bacteria when they attack the bodies of men and 
animals. Germs are destroyed by certain chemical 
substances which are known as antiseptics (q.v.) ; 
and the antiseptic treatment of wounds advocated 
by Lister was one of the first practical applications 



Fig. 5. —BACILLUS PYOCYANEUS. 
Fig. 0. —ANTHRAX BACILLUS. 

(From a photograph by E. C. 
Bousfield, Esq.) 














































Bactrian. 


( 294 ) 


Baden. 


of the facts of bacteriology to therapeutics. But 
the question was how to kill germs flourishing inside 
the body, maybe in the blood itself, and to this 
problem Pasteur addressed himself. 

The great Frenchman found that by various 
means bacilli could be deprived of their virulence, 
“ attenuated ” as it is called; so that cultures of an 
organism, which would ordinarily prove fatal to an 
animal, could be rendered inert, or else modified 
so that they only produce the disease in a mild 
form. Moreover, Pasteur knew that many disorders 
only occur once in an individual’s lifetime ; for 
example, one attack of scarlet fever protects the 
patient against a subsequent attack, and thus arose 
the idea of protective vaccination with attenuated 
cultures ; the theory being to produce the disease'in 
a mild form and so render the vaccinated person 
“ immune,” incapable of subsequent infection. 
Pasteur has applied his method in anthrax, hydro¬ 
phobia and other diseases. Another theory of pro¬ 
tective vaccination is that the chemical substances 
produced by germs in the course of their growth are 
inimical to their development, and when inoculated 
into a patient hinder or prevent the development of 
the disease in question. This method has been ap¬ 
plied by Koch to the treatment of consumption. 

The doctrine of Phagocytosis (q.v.) may here be 
alluded to. It has been supposed by Metschnikoff 
that disease is in many cases a struggle for exist¬ 
ence between invading bacteria and certain cells of 
the body possessed of amoeboid movement; either 
the bacteria destroy the cells, or the cells, hence 
called phagocytes or devouring cells, eat up the 
bacteria. In the first case the patient dies; in 
the second, germs succumb and the patient re¬ 
covers. It is questionable, however, fascinating as 
the theory is at first sight, whether the cells are the 
actual destroyers of the germs ; at all events, animal 
fluids, apart from cells, have very definite germici¬ 
dal powers. 

The study of the chemical substances produced 
by germs in the course of their development promises 
to be fertile in results as regards the treatment of 
diseases. Certain it appears to be that most power¬ 
ful poisons result from bacterial growth, belonging 
either to the class known as alkaloids or to the 
albumose group. The hope may be entertained 
that as the nature of these poisons becomes more 
accurately known methods of dealing with them 
may be devised, and that thus the labours of 
bacteriologists may not be without result upon the 
medicine of the near future. 

Bactrian, a term now commonly used as a sub¬ 
stitute for Zend , to indicate the eastern branch of 
the old Iranian language at one time current 
throughout Bactria, a province of the ancient Per¬ 
sian empire ; two varieties: Gatha of the oldest 
Gathas (hymns) attributed to Zarathrastra (Zoro¬ 
aster) ; and A vesta, for many centuries current in 
East Irania, died out about the 4th century b.c. 

Baculites, a genus of Cephalopoda, belonging 
to the Ammonites ; it is restricted to the Creta¬ 
ceous period. 

Bacup, a town of Lancashire on the Lancashire 
and Yorkshire Railway, 12 miles E. of Blackburn. 


Cotton-spinning and weaving are the chief indus¬ 
tries ; but there are also dye-works and foundries. 
Coal is found in the neighbourhood. The public 
buildings are good and the handsome market-hall 
was built in 18G7. 

Badajos (classic Pax Augusta'), a province in 
the S.W. of Spain with its capital, an ancient forti¬ 
fied city, on the river Guadiana, about five miles 
from the Portuguese frontier. The tortuous streets 
contain many churches and monasteries, now used 
as barracks and hospitals, and the cathedral is itself 
a kind of fortress. In the Peninsular war Badajos 
was captured by Soult (1811), and after two futile 
attempts retaken by the British under Wellington 
(April G, 1812). The siege and assault cost the 
assailants 5,000 men in killed or wounded. Terrible 
scenes were enacted in the sacking of the town, 
which lasted two days. The painter Morales (El 
Divino) was born here. 

Badakar, the “Burghers” of English writers, a 
Dravidian people, Nilghiri Mountains, South India, 
partly subject to the Todas and Kurumbas ; Saiva 
sect; eight castes; speech Ivanaric ; light brown 
colour ; black wavy hair ; small stature. 

Badakshan, a country of Central Asia, lying on 
the N.E. frontier of Afghanistan, in the valley of 
the Kokcha, a tributary of the Oxus, and on the 
flank of the Hindu Kush range. The district is 
therefore mountainous, rising sharply from 500 to 
15,500 feet above sea-level. The mineral resources 
are great, lapis-lazuli and rubies being abundant. 
Faizabad is the most fertile and important of the 
sixteen administrative divisions, and is the seat of 
the government of the Mir, who is a vassal of the 
Amir of Kabul. The inhabitants are Persian-speak¬ 
ing Mohammedans, and the slave trade flourishes 
among them. Badakshan extends 200 miles from 
E. to W., and 150 miles from N. to S. 

Badakshi, Badakhshani, the ruling people of 
the Afghan province of Badakhstan, Upper Oxus ; 
of Galcha (East Iranian) stock, though physically 
more like the Cashmirians and other Aryans of 
North India; at present they speak pure Persian, 
and are mainly sedentary agriculturists. 

Badalona, a sea-port of Spain on the Mediter¬ 
ranean, about five miles N.E. of Barcelona. 

Badderlocks, the Scottish name of Alarla 
esculenta , the best of all the edible sea-weeds when 
eaten raw. The name is a corruption of Balder- 
locks, or the locks of Balder, a Scandinavian deity. 
The plant is also known as Henware, Honeyware, 
or Murlins. It belongs to the Laminariece or kelps, 
a group of the olive sea-weeds. The part eaten is 
the thick mid-rib of the frond. 

Baden, a small town in the canton of Aargau, 
Switzerland, 14 miles N.W. of Zurich. It has been 
famous since Roman times (Tac. H. I. G7)for its hot 
mineral springs, still much frequented. Another 
Baden, the classical Aqua Cetice , is 12 miles S. of 
A ienna at the entrance of the Hetmenthal. 

Baden, The Grand Duchy of, a state in the 
S.W. of Germany, between Bavaria and Hesse 
Darmstadt on the N. and Switzerland on the S. 





Baden-Baden. 


( 295 ) 


Badger. 


Physically it is mountainous and woody, though 
with plenty of fertile valleys and wider stretches of 
champaign towards the E. From the bend of the 
Rhine and Lake Constance to the Neckar extends 
the Schwarzwald, or Black Forest, of which the 
portion S. of the river Kinzig has a mean elevation 
of 3,100 ft., the Feldberg, the highest peak, being 
4,780 ft., whilst the N. half averages a thousand 
feet less. Beyond the Neckar lies the Odemvald 
with a height of 1,440 ft. Woods chiefly of pine 
clothe these hillsides from top to bottom, and are a 
valuable source of revenue. Many streams pour 
from them to the Rhine and Neckar, supplying 
water-power. The mineral resources are various 
but not abundant, though iron, lead, and zinc are 
worked with profit. Gypsum, china-clay, potter's 
earth, peat, and salt, are found in considerable 
quantities. Mineral springs exist in many places 
and are much esteemed. The manufactures are 
not extensive, but are being developed. Cotton 
fabrics, jewellery, and wood carving employ an 
increasing number of hands. The two universities, 
Heidelberg and Freiburg (Roman Catholic), enjoy 
European celebrity. The State owes its origin to 
the House of Zahringen—a petty fief in the eleventh 
century that gradually absorbed neighbouring 
territory, and by the judicious policy of successive 
dukes became a small power. By the treaties of 
Luneville (1801) and Pressburg (1805) additions were 
secured, and on the downfall of the empire in 1806 
Baden joined Napoleon’s Confederation of the 
Rhine, the ruler becoming a Grand Duke with fresh 
accessions of land. After 1815 Baden dexterously 
re-entered the comity of nations, and was further 
extended. The Grand Dukes conceded a constitu¬ 
tion with two chambers, one elective, the other not, 
and with certain checks on arbitrary government. 
These reforms did not prevent the expulsion of the 
sovereign by Brentano in 1848. but Prussia interfered 
and he was restored. In 1866 Baden joined the Anti- 
Prussian party, but offered no strenuous resistance 
to incorporation with the German Empire in 1870. 
The form of a separate government is still preserved, 
though independence is virtually extinct. 

Baden-Baden, the name being reduplicated to 
distinguish it from other Badens, is a town in the 
Grand Duchy of Baden. It is famous for its thermal 
springs which were known to the Romans, who 
called the place Civ it an Aurelia Aquensis. Distant 
18 miles S.W. from Carlsruhe, and 22 miles from 
Strasburg, it has a lovely site in a rich valley of the 
Black Forest, and its natural advantages have been 
enhanced by art, the roads and public gardens being 
tastefully laid out and the houses picturesquely 
constructed. The gambling-tables that once drew 
thither vast crowds of visitors have been suppressed, 
but the medicinal properties of the waters and the 
attractions of the locality still render it one of the 
most popular of German summer resorts. There 
are ancient ruins in the neighbouring town, an old 
church, a Jesuit college, and very commodious 
public buildings of modern date. The Empress 
Frederick has a country seat near the town. 

Badenoch, a district in the Scottish Highlands, 
lying in the valley of the Spey, and forming the 


S.E. extremity of Inverness-shire between Athole 
and the Monahdlead Mountains. 

Badge. Though at one time playing so impor¬ 
tant a part in the science of heraldry and in every¬ 
day life, badges stand almost alone iii the little that 
is known about them, and no authoritative rules or 
laws exist to govern their use. A badge is a matter 
quite distinct from a crest; neither should a device 
be confounded with either. The possession of a 
properly authenticated badge at the present day is 
a mark of antiquity which but few families possess ’ 
and as no fee, however large, can secure a grant or 
recognition of one of modern date, it is now con¬ 
sidered a distinction in no small degree. A crest 
is never depicted without its accompanying wreath, 
coronet, or chapeau, a badge is never so displayed, 
and herein lies the mode of distinguishing the one 
from the other. Badges were always borne for the 
purpose of easy identification, and are very often 
found to bear a “ canting” ( i.e . a “punning”) allusion 
to the names or possessions of the owner. Prior to, 
and during the reign of, Queen Elizabeth badges 
were at the height of their favour, and were con¬ 
spicuously worn by every retainer, originally em¬ 
broidered upon the back, breast, or sleeve of the 
livery, and afterwards embossed or engraved upon 
metal plates, which themselves were affixed to the 
cap or other garment of the servant; and from this 
has originated the present custom of carrying the 
crest upon the livery-buttons. Thus it was at once 
a patent fact, to all who troubled to note the badge, 
in whose service a retainer was, for the badges of a 
district would be well known therein, and many 
were household words throughout the kingdom. 
Their frequent and regular use until the end of the 
sixteenth century can only now be likened to the 
manner in which the “ broad-arrow ” is at the pre¬ 
sent time everywhere to be seen, marking Govern¬ 
ment property. But as an example, showing how a 
retainer would in the olden time wear the badge of 
his lord, the uniform of the Beefeaters, at the 
Tower of London, may be instanced. The White 
and the Red Roses of York and Lancaster were 
badges, as are the Rose, the Thistle, the Shamrock, 
and the Leek of to-day ; and amongst others which 
are well known may be mentioned the “ bear and 
the ragged staff ” of the “ king-maker,” the “ talbot ” 
of the Talbots, the “ knots” of the Wakes and Bour- 
chiers, and the heart, regally crowned, of Douglas. 

Badger, the popular name of any species of 
the genus Meles of the Arctoid family JSIustelidce 
(q.v.). The carnassial tooth has a cutting edge, and 
the lower jaw is articulated to the upper by means 
of a transverse condyle, which locks firmly into a 
long cavity of the skull, enabling these animals to 
maintain their hold with the utmost tenacity, and 
rendering dislocation of the jaw practically impos¬ 
sible. The best known species is Meles taxus , the 
common European Badger, indigenous in Britain, 
and the largest native carnivore. From the snout 
to the extremity of the tail the length is rather 
under three feet ; the head is long and pointed, 
the body flat, and increasing in breadth towards 
the hind-quarters, the legs so short that the 
long coarse hair trails on the ground as the animal 





( 29G ) 


Baffin. 


Badger-dog. 


walks, and the tail very short. The head is white, 
except a black band on each side, the upper surface 
and tail grey, and the under surface and legs black. 
There is an anal pouch which secretes an oily sub¬ 
stance of offensive odour. The Badger is a 
nocturnal burrowing animal, feeding on roots, 
fruit, eggs, and small mammals and reptiles, and 
choosing the most solitary woods for its earth, 
which has several chambers, and ends in a round 
hole well lined with dried grass. It is extremely 
shy and inoffensive, but if attacked will defend it¬ 
self stubbornly, biting fiercely and, from the peculiar 
conformation of the jaws, holding on tenaciously. 



It undergoes a partial hibernation, Badger-bait¬ 
ing, or putting a badger into a cask open at one 
end and laid on its side, and setting dogs to draw 
the poor beast out, was formerly a popular English 
sport. It is now illegal, but has left traces in the 
language in the verb “ to badger ”—to worry. M. 
leucurus, M. chinensis , and M. anakuma are closely 
allied Asiatic species. The American Badger ( Tax- 
idea americana) was formerly included in the same 
genus, with the name M. labradorica. It is rather 
smaller than the European species and more de¬ 
cidedly carnivorous in habit. Badgers are chiefly 
valued for their hair, that of the common badger 
being used for making shaving brushes ; that of the 
American species is used for the same purpose and 
also for artists’ brushes. 

Badger - dog, a translation of the German 
Dachshund (q.v.); sometimes applied to terriers used 
in driving badgers from their earths. 

Badia y Lablicli, Domingo, born at Biscay, 
Spain, in 1766, after a course of special study tra¬ 
velled in Mohammedan disguise as Ali Bey, visiting 
Egypt, Tripoli, Syria, Arabia, and other oriental 
countries. In 1807 he took service under Napo¬ 
leon, in the Peninsula, and on the expulsion of the 
French fled to Paris, where he published his travels. 
He was sent out to Syria as a French agent, and 
died at Aleppo, perhaps of poison, in 1818. 

Badminton, the seat of the Duke of Beaufort, 
near Yate, in Gloucestershire, has given its name 
to a kind of claret cup, and to a game resembling 
lawn tennis and a year or two earlier in its origin, 
in which a shuttlecock is used instead of a ball. 


Badrinath, a small town on the side of a 
mountain of the same name in the district of 
Gahrwal, North-West Provinces of British India. It 
contains a famous Hindu shrine dedicated to one 
of the incarnations of Vishnu. This encloses an idol 
of black stone, to worship which several thousand 
pilgrims come yearly, and at the decennial festival 
of Kumb Mehla this number is largely increased. 

Baedeker, Karl, the founder of the well-known 
series of Continental guides that now rival the 
publications for which John Murray once had a 
monopoly, was born at Essen in 1801. His father 
was engaged in the printing trade, and the son 
following in his footsteps established himself at 
Coblentz in 1827. There he produced some ten 
years later his Guide to the Rhine, giving, as the 
result of personal observation, details of prac¬ 
tical value to travellers of modest means. From 
this beginning started the enterprise that has now 
dealt with almost every country in Europe, and 
found expression in the principal European lan¬ 
guages. Karl Baedeker died in 1859. 

Baen, or Baena (classic Baniana), a town in the 
province of Cordova, Spain, 12 miles S.E. of that 
city, on the river Marbello. There are many 
Roman remains, including a mortuary vault of the 
Pompeian family. 

Baer, Carl Ernst von, the greatest of modern 
embryologists, was born in 1792 in Esthonia, and 
was educated at Dorpat and Wurzburg. He was 
fifteen years professor in the university of Konigs- 
berg, and then for nearly thirty in that of St. 
Petersburg, retiring in 1864. He died in 1876. In 
1827 Baer discovered the mammalian ovum; and 
in his great work on the development of animals, 
of which the first part appeared in 1829 and the 
second in 1838, he showed the developmental basis 
of Cuvier’s division of animals into Radiata, Articu- 
lata, Mollusca, and Yertebrata; traced in detail the 
development of the chicken in the egg; and laid 
down the law, now known by his name, that a deve¬ 
loping embryo resembles in succession those of suc¬ 
cessively higher types. This is now known as the 
parallelism of ontogeny and phylogeny. [Biology.] 
Baer recognised that this law of specialisation 
was of general application throughout Nature. 

Baetyl. [Cippus, Stone-worship.] 

Baeza (anc. Beotia), a town in the province of 
Jaen, Spain, situated on an eminence three miles 
from the river Guadalquivir. Under the Moors it 
was the capital of a kingdom and strongly fortified, 
some of the old gates and walls still remaining, but 
it was sacked and ruined in 1238. 

Baffin, William, was born at Southport in 
1584, but not much is known of his parentage or 
early life. In 1612 he made a voyage to the North- 
West, and in the account of it which he published 
gave a useful method of determining longitude by 
astronomical observations. In 1613 he went to the 
Greenland fisheries, and in the two following years 
went as pilot to Bylot in the Discovery, in search of 
the North-West Passage. He reached Lancaster and 











Baffin’s Bay. 


( 297 ) 


Bagneres-de-Bigorre. 


Smith Sounds and the bay that bears his name. His 
narrative, preserved in the British Museum, has been 
published by the Hakluyt Society. He then seems to 
have visited Eastern seas, and in 1621 was killed 
at Kismis, a small fort near Ormuz in the Persian 
Gulf, whilst engaged in attacking the Portuguese. 

Baffin’s Bay, or Sea, a wide strait or inlet sepa¬ 
rating the N.E. coast of N. America from Greenland. 
It was discovered by Baffin (q.v.), and is approached 
from the Atlantic by Davis’s Strait, whilst Lancas¬ 
ter Sound and Barrow's Strait connects it with the 
Arctic Ocean. It is open only for two months of 
the year, and is then much frequented for whale and 
seal fishery. The Danes have settlements on Disco 
Island to the E., and Whale Island to the N. 

Bagatelle (Fr. bagatelle, a trifle), a game some¬ 
what resembling billiards, played by two or more 
persons with nine small ivory balls and a cue or 
mace, on a board, one-half of which contains nine 
numbered holes. The player’s object is to put the 
balls into these. The game may be connected with 
the old English shovel-board. 

Bagdad, or Baghdad, a pashalic of Asiatic 
Turkey, with a capital of the same name. The 
district lies between the river Euphrates, Persia, 
and Arabia, comprising the ancient Assyria and 
Babylonia. The parts enclosed between the 
Euphrates and Tigris are very fertile, but the rest 
of the country is a sandy waste. Cereals and fruits 
of every description are produced in the less sterile 
regions. The city of Bagdad is on the Tigris about 
200 miles above its junction with the Euphrates in 
the midst of a barren plain. The ancient quarter, 
once the capital of the Caliphs, is on the W. bank of 
the river, and contains some remains of former 
splendour in the form of mosques and palaces, with 
a venerable burial place where the tomb of Zobeide, 
Haroun Alraschid’s wife, is shown, and tradition 
asserts that Ezekiel is interred there. The markets 
are still busy and prosperous, and there is a con¬ 
siderable trade with Aleppo, Damascus, and Basra. 
The East India Company had a resident here, 
whose place is now filled by a consul-general. 
The streets are dirty and narrow, and their sanitary 
condition renders the town liable to epidemics. 

Bagehot, Walter, was born at Langport, 
Somersetshire, in 1826, and educated at University 
College, London, under Professors De Morgan and 
Long, taking a high degree at the London Univer¬ 
sity. Though called to the bar in 1855 he took to 
his father's banking business, and devoted his 
leisure to writing on financial and political subjects. 
He contributed to the National Review (not the 
publication now bearing that name), and helped to 
edit it, and for the last seventeen years of his life was 
editor of The Economist , which was founded by his 
father-in-law, the Right Hon. James Wilson. His 
chief works are Lombard Street, The English Consti¬ 
tution, Physics and Politics, Treatise on Depreciation 
of Silver, and Essays on Parliamentary Reform. 
His style is bright and vigorous, and his political 
views are generally original and striking. In 
economic science he followed Ricardo without sacri¬ 
ficing his independence. He died in 1877. 


Baggara, or Bakkara, i.e. cowherds, a large 
nomad Arab nation of Egyptian Sudan, mainly along 
the left bank of the White Nile, towards the south 
frontier of Kordofan ; chief tribal divisions : Selim, 
Hunir, Hawa, Hawasm, and Hamar. 

Baggesen, Jens Emmanuel, born at Korsor, 
Denmark, in 1765, spent some years in roaming over 
France, Italy, Switzerland, and Germany, married 
a daughter of Haller, and was appointed professor 
in the University of Kiel. As a writer of light 
verse and of travels, both in Danish and German, 
he won much popularity, the best known of his 
books being Haidenblumen, Adam and Eve, The 
Labyrinth, and Travels in the Alps. His irritability 
and egotism, however, earned him many enmities. 
His death occurred in 1826. 

Baghelkand, a district comprising the five 
native states of Rewah, Nagode, Maihar, Sohawal, 
and Kothi, under the political superintendence of 
the agent for Central India. Their total area is 11,324 
square miles, and they all lie to the S. of Mirzapore 
and Allahabad. Rewah is the largest and most 
prosperous, being traversed, as is Nagode, by the 
East India Railway. The agent’s residence is in the 
chief town, Rewah, 131 miles S.W. of Allahabad. 

Bagheria, or Bagaria, a town in Sicily, eight- 
miles from Palermo, to which it serves as a villey ia- 
tura, many of the wealthy citizens having resi¬ 
dences there. It is situated between the bays of 
Palermo and Termini, and is connected with the 
capital by a railway. 

Baghermi, or Bagirmi, a Mohammedan king¬ 
dom in Central Africa, lat. 8° to 12° N., long. 15° to 
17° E. It lies S.E. of Lake Tchad, and extends about 
240 miles from N. to S., and 150 from E. to W. 
The capital is Masena, and here Dr. Barth passed 
some time as a prisoner. 

Baghtsche-serai, or Baktshi-serai, a Tartar 
town which was once the capital of the Crimea, 
Russia. It is about 10 miles S.W. of Simferopol, 
and besides many mosques and fountains contains 
the old palace of Khan-serai. Turkish saddles and 
silk are the chief manufactures. 

Baglivi, Giorgio, born at Ragusa in 1668, 
studied medicine and anatomy under Valsalva and 
Malpighi, and was appointed professor at the 
Sapientia College, Rome. He did much to put 
physiology on a rational basis. He died in 1707. 

Bagne (Ital. bagno, bath ; the term was first 
used for a prison in or near a bath at Constanti¬ 
nople), the French term for a convict prison. 
Introduced instead of the galleys (q.v.) at the 
Revolution, their use is now superseded by trans¬ 
portation (adopted 1851), usually to New Caledonia. 
The last were at Toulon, Rochefort, and Brest. A 
few “ cellular prisons ” for convicts exist in France ; 
there is a penal settlement in Corsica, and a depot 
at the lie de Re for those awaiting transportation. 

Bagn&res - de - Bigorre, or en Bigorre 
( classic Aqua Convenarum or Bigerroruni), a town 







Bagn&res-de-Luchon. 


( 298 ) 


Bahamas. 


on the river Adour in the department of Hantes 
Pyrenees, France, 13 miles S.E. of Tarbes. The 
mineral springs are numerous and of high repute for 
nervous affections and chronic catarrh. The fine 
woollen tissue known as barege is woven here. 

Bagnkres - de - Iiuchon (anc. Balnearece 
Lixiones), a town in the charming valley of Luchon, 
department of Haute Garonne, France, 4 miles from 
the Spanish frontier. Its waters, of various tem¬ 
peratures and impregnated with sulphur and other 
chemical substances, attract many summer visitors, 
and the Spaniards flock thither for amusement. 
It is a well-built town with excellent hotels. 

Bagno a Bipoli, a village situated 5 miles 
from Florence, Italy. The thermal springs cause it 
to be much frequented, and many handsome villas 
have sprung up in the vicinity. 

Bagnols, a town in the department of the 
Gard, France, 2G miles from Nimes. Silks and 
serges are manufactured here; the district yields 
excellent red wine. It is the birth-place of Rivarol. 

Bagomoyo, a mission station on the E. coast 
of Africa, opposite Zanzibar island, and a common 
place of departure for the interior. Lat. 6° 17' S. 

Bagpipe, a musical instrument of high an¬ 
tiquity, common in certain varied forms to many 
European and Asiatic nations, especially among 
those of Celtic origin. 

Its British form consists of a leathern bag, 
formed of the skin of a kid or other small animal, 
which retains the wind with which it is inflated 
by the mouth of the player. There are three pipes, 
two of which form the drone, and only produce the 
key-note and its fifth; the third, called the 
“ chanter,” is furnished with a reed, and is bored 
with holes which are stopped by the fingers of the 
player when the tune is produced. The compass is 
only nine notes in extent. The bagpipe originally 
came from the East. It is supposed that the word 
“ symphony ” mentioned in the marginal reference 
in the Bible (Dan. iii. 7) refers to the bagpipe. 

The popularity of the instrument among the 
English in mediaeval times is proved not only by 
the frequent mention of it in contemporary 
MSS. and the early poets, but its influence is shown 
also in the character of some of the melodies of 
undoubted antiquity which have survived ; some of 
which are mentioned by Mr. W. Chappell in his 
Popular Music. The bagpipe is usually considered 
in Great Britain as the national Scottish instrument, 
and some writers have asserted that Bruce’s march, 
“ Hey tuttie, taitie,” a melody more familiar 
through the words “ Scots wha hae,” by Burns, was 
the identical tune played on the bagpipes at the 
battle of Bannockburn, 1314. Barbour, the 
chronicler of the event, makes no allusion to this. 
The earliest mention of the bagpipe as a military 
instrument among the Scots was at the battle of 
Balmines in 1594. 

The Irish pipes are generally called the “ Union ” 
pipes, a word corrupted of the term “ Ullan,” which 
means the elbow ; the Irish pipes being inflated by 
a bellows worked by the elbow of the performer. 


There are three drones in the old Irish pipes, two 
tuned in unison, and the third an octave below. 
Many pipes are provided with valves to shut off the 
drone if required, and some have a contrivance by 
means of which the common chord of the key in 
which the pipes are set may be sounded at will to 
help the effect. The tone of the Irish pipes is softer 
and sweeter than the Scottish pipes, which are of a 
more piercing and stimulating tone. The.Musette, 
popular in France at the end of the 17th and the 
beginning of the 18th centuries, was a sort of “ par¬ 
lour bagpipe,” sweet and delicate in tone. It was 
often adorned in artistic style, and the bag enclosed 
in richly embroidered covers. 

Bagration, Peter Ivanovitch, Prince, a 
Russian General, was born in 1765, and, after serv¬ 
ing under Potemkin, accompanied Suwarrow into 
Poland (1794) and Italy (1799), where he so distin¬ 
guished himself that Suwarrow called him his 
“ right arm.” At Marengo, Novi, and the capture 
of Brescia, Turin, and Alexandria, he played a 
conspicuous part. Disgraced for a while by Paul, 
he returned to the army in 1805 and commanded 
the vanguard at Austerlitz, Eylau, and Friedland. 
He next served in Finland and in Turkey. During 
Napoleon’s invasion of Moscow he was at the head 
of the Western Army, made a brilliant retreat to 
Smolensk, and was killed in 1812. 

Bagshot Sands, a series of sands of Middle 
and Upper Eocene age [Eocene], named from Bag- 
shot Heath in north-west Surrey, where they cover a 
large area. They are variously coloured and gener¬ 
ally unfossiliferous, but include bands of clay and 
lignite, which contain tapir-like animals, turtles, 
crocodiles, sea-snakes, sharks, numerous marine 
shells, and land plants indicating tropical con¬ 
ditions. They form three divisions: the Lower, 
100 to 150 feet thick in the London basin, 660 feet 
in the Isle of Wight, and at Bournemouth and 
Studland ; the Middle, less than 100 feet in the 
London basin, and represented by the thicker 
fossiliferous Bracklesham beds in Sussex, Hants, 
and Dorset; and the Upper, over 100 feet thick in 
the London area, but represented by the Barton 
Clay, 300 feet thick, in Hampshire. 

Bahamas, The, or Lucayo Islands, lie off 
the coast of Florida, in the Atlantic Ocean (lat. 22° 
to 28° N., and long. 73° to 79° W.), and belong to 
Great Britain. They consist of 29 islands and 3,048 
“ cays” or rocks, and serve as stepping-stones, so 
to speak, between the West Indian Islands and 
North America. The total area is about 5,000 
square miles. Nearly all of the ground is low- 
lying and narrow. The soil in most cases is exuber¬ 
antly fertile, and the climate good, but only twenty 
of the group are inhabited. New Providence con¬ 
tains the capital, Nassau, which was a great 
resort for blockade runners during the American 
War of Secession. San Salvador was the first 
land visited by Columbus in 1492. The Spaniards 
in the next century carried off all the natives 
to work as slaves in the mines, and left the 
islands depopulated. In 1578 Sir Humphrey 
Gilbert annexed them, and in 1680 Charles II. 






Bahawulpoor. 


( 299 ) 


Baikie. 


granted them to the Duke of Albemarle and others, 
but the Spaniards put a stop to colonisation, and 
for many years they became the haunts of buccaneers 
and pirates. It was not till 1783 that a firm govern¬ 
ment was established, consisting of an English 
governor, a legislative council, and representative 
assembly. The products are pine-apples, sponges, 
and drugs, but the negroes, who form two-thirds 
of the population, are averse to settled industry. 

Bahawulpoor, or Bhawalpue, a feudatory 
state of N.W. India, under the political jurisdiction 
of the lieutenant-governor of the Punjab. It occupies 
an area of 22,000 square miles, stretching along the 
Upper Indus, Chenab, and Ghara rivers, which, 
form its N.W. boundary, and having Rajputana on 
the S.E. Five-sixths of the soil is sandy and 
barren, but the strip near the river banks is very 
fertile. The capital, Bhawalpur, is on the Ghara, 
about 60 miles above its junction with the Chenab. 

Bahia, the name given by Spanish or Portuguese 
explorers to bays in different parts of the globe. 

Bahia, a province on the S.E. coast of Brazil, 
extending from the Rio Grande do Belmont to the 
Rio Real, and bounded inland by a range of moun¬ 
tains at an average distance of 200 miles from the 
sea. Of the total area (202,272 square miles) much 
is covered by forests, but the cultivated districts 
yield rich crops of cotton, coffee, sugar, tobacco, 
maize and fruits. Coal has been found, and mines 
of diamonds and other precious stones exist. 
Bahia, or San Salvador, the capital of the province, 
is a fine city standing partly on a height, the 
Praya commanding a view of the Bay of All Saints. 
It was founded in 1549, and until 1763 was the 
capital of the empire. Two-thirds of the popula¬ 
tion are mulattoes or blacks. It is a very im¬ 
portant commercial port. The cathedral, the 
palaces of the governor and archbishop, and the 
other public buildings are spacious and handsome. 

Bahr (Arab, water or river'), a prefix in many 
geographical names wherever Arab influence has 
prevailed. Bahr-el-Abiad is the White Nile ; Bahr- 
el-Azrek, the Blue Nile ; Bahr-bela-Ma (sea without 
water), the arid valley 50 miles from Cairo on the 
confines of the Libyan desert; Bahr-el-Fars, the 
Persian Gulf ; Bahr Loot, the Dead Sea; Bar-el- 
Ghazel, etc. The form Bahret is sometimes found. 

Bahraich, or Bharaich, a district of British 
India, S. of Nepaul, under the jurisdiction of the 
Chief Commissioner of Oudh. It has an area of 
2,308 square miles. It lies between the Rapti and 
the E. Gogari rivers, and a great plateau occupies 
the centre. The capital, Bharaich, is on the latter 
river. Hindus form the bulk of the population. 

Bahrdt, Karl Friedrich, was born at Bischos- 
werda in 1741, and early attracted attention by 
his theological opinions, which inclined to Socin- 
ianism, if not to simple Deism. He began to teach 
at Leipsic, became professor of Biblical antiquities 
at Erfurt, was expelled for his heretical and revolu- 
tionaiy ideas and his aggressive temper, and settled 
at Halle. His political pamphlets got him into 
trouble, and he gave up lecturing for the trade of 
tavern-keeper, dying in 1792. 


Bahrein, a group of islands belonging to 
Muscat, on the S.W. of the Persian Gulf, near the 
Arabian coast. The chief of them, which gives its 
name to the whole, is Bahrein or Awal (Aval), and 
lies about 90 miles from Bushire, having a length of 
70 and a breadth of 23 miles. The pearl fisheries 
are the richest in the world. Tortoise-shell, sharks’ 
fins, and dates are also exported, and the soil pro¬ 
duces cereals and fruits. Manama is the capital, 
and Arad, Maharay, and Tamehoy are the other 
principal islands of the cluster. 

Baize, or Baja, a small coast town in Campania, 
Italy, between Cumae and Puteoli. The warm baths, 
salubrious climate, and pleasant neighbourhood 
made it a favourite resort of wealthy Romans ; it 
'is frequently referred to by Horace. The place was 
supposed to have been founded by one of the fol¬ 
lowers of Ulysses. It has long since succumbed to 
encroachments of the sea, but ruins of the hand¬ 
some villas built there in its palmy days still exist. 

Baias, Byas, or Payas, a town in Asiatic 
Turkey on the E. coast of the Gulf of Scanderoon, 
in the villayet of Aleppo. The ruins near it are 
those of the ancient Issus, and the neighbouring 
river perhaps bore that name, and on its banks was 
fought the battle in which Alexander defeated 
Darius Codomannus in 333 B.c. There is a poor 
harbour and a Turkish castle. 

Baibout, or Baiburt, a town of Turkish 
Armenia, on the river Chorok, 65 miles N.N.W. of 
Erzeroum. It was in the Middle Ages occupied 
for some time by the Genoese. 

Baidyabati, a town in Bengal, British India, 
on the river Hooghly and the East Indian Railway, 
15 miles from Calcutta. It is principally inhabited 
by Hindus, who are engaged in the jute trade, one 
of the largest markets in that commodity being held 
here twice a week. 

Baikal, a large fresh-water lake in the govern¬ 
ment of Irkutsk, Siberia, Asiatic Russia (lat. 53° N., 
long. 108° E.). Its greatest length from S.W. to N.E. 
is 397 miles, and it varies in breadth from 13 to 54 
miles. Lying in the midst of the Baikal range, an 
offshoot of the Altai system, it has very precipitous 
shores. Its water is remarkably clear and deep, 
and fish are plentiful, especially sturgeon, sterlet, 
and salmon. Numerous rivers flow into the lake, 
but the only outlet is the Lower Agara, a tributary 
of the Yenesei, which issues from the lower ex¬ 
tremity near the town of Irkutsk. There are several 
islands, the largest, Olkhon, being 32 miles long by 
10 miles broad. Though dangerous, like all mountain 
lakes, it is navigated in summer, and forms an im¬ 
portant link in the communication between Russia 
and China, and also between the adjacent districts. 
In winter, which lasts for eight months, it is frozen 
over so as to admit of traffic over the ice. 

Baikie, William Balfour, born at Kirkwall 
in 1824, took the degree of M.D. at Edinburgh, and 
entered the Royal Navy. In 1854 he was attached 
-to the Niger Expedition, to the command of which 
he ultimately succeeded. He explored the river 
for a distance of 250 miles. In 1857 he established 
a mission station, where he lived for some years 







Bail. 


( 300 ) 


Bailiff. 


doing excellent work, collecting valuable vocabu¬ 
laries, and translating parts of the Bible and Prayer- 
book into African dialects. His health at last broke 
down, and he died at Sierra Leone in 1802. 

Bail, the security given by one who is arrested 
for his appearance to answer the charge—derived 
from boiller , to hand over, because the accused is 
delivered into the hands of those who make them¬ 
selves responsible for him; and who may, if they 
suspect him of an intended flight, have him im¬ 
prisoned. Formerly any plaintiff might, on making 
an affidavit as to the cause of action, call upon the 
defendant to find bail for his appearance; but this 
hardship has been generally abolished, and the ne¬ 
cessity for bail only retained in a few civil cases, 
of which the most important are that under the 
Debtors’ Act of 1809, of a defendant intending to 
leave England; in cases where a defendant is 
arrested on writ of attachment; on arrest in the 
Chancery Division, where a defendant is intending 
to leave England. In Admiralty actions the de¬ 
fendant may have the ship or other property which 
has been arrested, released on his procuring bail 
for its value ; the instrument executed for this pur¬ 
pose is known as the “ Bail Bond.” 

The most familiar cases of bail are those in crimi¬ 
nal proceedings. In cases of misdemeanor the 
justices must, and in cases of felony other than 
treason they may, admit to bail. In the excepted 
case bail may be accepted by order of the Secretary 
of State, by the Court of Queen’s Bench, or by any 
judge in time of vacation. Bail in error is bail 
given by a defendant or prisoner during the pen¬ 
dency of a writ of error. In Foreign Attachment 
giving bail is one of the ways by which the attach¬ 
ment may be dissolved. [Foreign Attachment.] 

Recognisances are said to be estreated when the 
accused fails to comply with their condition, as by 
non-appearance or otherwise. [Escheat.] 

In the United States the practice is very similar 
to the above. In Scotland there are certain fixed 
amounts of bail for different degrees of persons 
under several statutes, the principal one being the 
39 Geo. III. c. 49 (1799). 

Bailee, Bailment, Bailor. Bailment is a 
contract entered into by which goods are delivered 
by one person (termed the bailor) to the other 
(termed the bailee) upon an express or implied 
undertaking by the latter to return them to the 
former, or to deliver them to some other person 
appointed by him after the purpose has been ful¬ 
filled. The bailee is legally bound to take care of 
the goods while in his possession. The amount of 
care to be thus taken is often expressly fixed by 
the contract, but where the contract is silent on 
this point the following rules, which are based on 
the presumable intention of the parties, are applic¬ 
able according to the circumstances of the par¬ 
ticular case. 

1. Where the bailment is for the benefit of the 
bailor alone, the bailee is liable only for gross 
negligence. 

2. Where the bailment is for the benefit of the 
bailee alone, he is bound to use the strictest 
diligence and care. 


3. Where it is for the benefit of both bailor and 
bailee the bailee is only bound to use ordinary 
average diligence and care. 

The practice of bailment is known in the United 
States, and the above illustrations of it are also- 
applicable there. 

Bailey, Philip JAmes, born at Nottingham in 
1816, was educated for the law at Glasgow Univer¬ 
sity. He took, however, to poetry, and 1839 
startled the world by publishing Festus, a non-act¬ 
ing drama, constructed on lines similar to those of 
Goethe’s Faust, and containing, amidst much that 
was extravagant and absurd, many passages of 
originality and beauty. Mr. Bailey’s later works,. 
The Angel World. The Mystic, The Age , or The 
Universal Hymn, were very warmly welcomed. 

Bailey, Samuel, born at Sheffield in 1787, and 
known therefore as “ Bailey of Sheffield,” devoted 
himself from his youth to ethical speculations, and 
in 1820 produced his essays On the Formation and 
Publication of Opinions. These were followed by 
Essays on the Pursuit of Truth and Progress of 
Knowledge, and a work on The Theory of Reasoning ~ 
In later life he wrote on political economy and 
Shakesperian criticism. He adopted the Utilitarian 
system of morals, the “ Common Sense ” theory of 
psychology, and advocated perfect freedom of in¬ 
quiry. At his death in 1870 he left most of his large- 
fortune acquired in business to his native town. 

Bailiff, a keeper or superintendent. There 
are several kinds of bailiffs, as bailiffs of liberties, 
sheriff’s bailiffs, bailiffs of lords of manor, etc.. 
Sheriffs are also termed the Queen’s bailiffs, and 
they are bound to preserve the rights of the Crown 
in their respective bailiwicks, a word introduced by 
the Norman princes in imitation of the French, 
whose territory was divided out into bailiwicks- 
(which is analogous to counties of England). The 
word bailiff, however, usually designates sheriff’s- 
officers, who are either (1) bailiffs of hundreds, whe 
are officers appointed over those respective districts- 
by the sheriffs to collect fines therein, to summon 
juries, to attend the judges and justices at the 
Assizes or Quarter Sessions, and also to execute 
writs and processes in the several hundreds. (2)' 
Special bailiffs are that lower class of persons em¬ 
ployed by the sheriffs for the express purpose of 
serving writs, making arrests, and levying execu¬ 
tions, etc. (3) Those persons who have the custody 
of the king’s castles are also often called bailiffs, as : 
the bailiff of Dover Castle. (4) The chief magis¬ 
trates of some particular towns and places are also 
often termed bailiffs, as “ the bailiff of West¬ 
minster.” There are also bailiffs of the county 
courts (termed high bailiffs, who, by their sub¬ 
bailiffs, execute the process of the court), bailiffs: 
of courts farm, bailiffs of the forests, etc. The word 
is also used as applied to one who manages a farm. 

In the United States the term is not so much in 
use, but where used it signifies a sheriff’s deputy or 
constable, or some one liable to account to others- 
for the rents and proceeds of an estate. The duties- 
are performed by a deputy, who acts under the 
orders of the sheriff or magistrate. 





Bailiwick. 


( 301 ) 


Bairaktar. 


Bailiwick, strictly the county or district 
within which the sheriff or bailiff of the king may 
exercise jurisdiction. English writers often use the 
term to translate bailliage or vogtei, the French and 
German terms for districts in which justice was 
administered by an officer appointed by the king 
or emperor as his deputy. 

Baillie, Joanna, born at Bothwell in Lanark¬ 
shire, in 1702, where her father, professor of divinity 
at Glasgow, was minister, her mother being the 
sister of William and John Hunter. At her father’s 
death in 1784 she joined her brother Matthew, an 
eminent physician in London, and after 1800 passed 
the rest of her life at Hampstead. In 1798 she 
published the first series of her Plays of the Passions, 
the second following in 1802. Her dramas at once 
attracted notice, and were attributed to Sir Walter 
Scott. John Kemble produced De Montfort at 
Drury Lane without much success. During the 
next thirty years she wrote several volumes of 
tragedies and comedies, a few of which were acted, 
but only one, The Family Legend , ever attained any 
degree of popularity. They are deficient in plot, 
unreal in character, and full of false sentiment. 
Yet there are occasional glimpses of genuine life, 
and touches of poetic feeling, whilst a vein of simple 
humour frequently runs through the dialogues. She 
composed some songs of merit and several metrical 
legends in the style of Scott, who was one of her 
warmest admirers. She died in 1851. 

Baillie, Matthew, M.D., the brother of Joanna, 
was bora in 1761, and studied for the medical pro¬ 
fession under William Hunter, who left him his 
museum, house, and library. For some years he 
held a distinguished position as a teacher, but did not 
get much practice. In 1795 he published his great 
treatise on morbid anatomy ; his reputation soon 
attracted clients, among- whom were George III., 
and the Princesses Amelia and Charlotte. He was 
physician to St. George’s Hospital, and President of 
the Royal College of Physicians. He died in 1823. 

Baillie, Robert, of Jerviswood, belonged to the 
family of the Baillies of Lamington, Lanarkshire. 
He took an active part in the support of Presbyter¬ 
ianism, and in 1676 w-as tried for a tumult against 
the Government owing to his attempt to procure the 
release of his brother-in-law imprisoned by Arch¬ 
bishop Sharpe. Though condemned he was speedily 
released in order to avoid popular indignation. He 
then resided in London, and was arrested in 1683 
for complicity in the Rye House Plot. After an 
unfair trial in Edinburgh he was sentenced to death, 
and as ill-health and age threatened to cheat the 
gallows of a victim, he was hanged on the same day. 

Baillie, Robert, born at Glasgow in 1602, 
entered Episcopalian orders, and became regent of 
the University. He joined the Covenanters.when 
Laud endeavoured to force his canons and services 
on the Scottish Church, and he went to London 
in 1640 to urge the charges against the Archbishop. 
At the same time he was a staunch adherent of the 
king’s party, and after the Restoration in 1661 was 
Principal of Glasgow University, a post for which he 
was fitted by his sound learning. He died in 1662. 


Bailly, Jean Sylvain, born at Paris in 1736, 
evinced as a youth great aptitude for astronomical 
pursuits, to which he devoted his best years, com¬ 
pleting in 1779 his History of Astronomy. At the 
outbreak of the Revolution he appeared as a 
staunch advocate of liberty and was chosen first 
president of the National Assembly. However, his 
views were those of the Girondins, and his tone of 
moderation towards the royal family made him 
unpopular. As Mayor of Paris in 1791 he gave the 
orders that resulted in the massacre of the Champs 
de Mars. Henceforward he was execrated and had 
to fly for his life. He was apprehended and sent to 
the guillotine in 1793. As he mounted the scaffold 
one of the bystanders cried, “ You tremble, Bailly.” 
“ My friend,” he replied, “ it is with the cold.” 

Bailment, [Bailee.] 

Bally, Edward Hodges, R.A., born in 1788 at 
Bristol, where he entered a merchant’s office, but 
displaying a talent for carving and modelling, was 
taken by Flaxman into his studio (1807). He also 
worked at the schools of the Royal Academy, and 
won the gold medal in 1811 for his Hercules rescuing 
Alcestis. In 1817, being elected A.R.A., he exhibited 
Ere at the Fountain , which established his reputa¬ 
tion. He became R.A. four years later. Few of 
his best works reveal Flaxman’s classical influence. 
His genius lay in dealing with familiar and domestic 
conceptions, and his most popular creations were 
entitled Mother and Child , A Group of Children, 
The Sleeping Girl, Ere listening to the Voice, etc. 
The statues of C. J. Fox and Lord Mansfield in St. 
Stephen’s Hall are from his chisel, and many of his 
monumental efforts are to be seen at St. Paul’s and 
elsewhere. He died in 1867. 

Baily’s Beads. [Eclipse.] 

Bain, Alexander, LL.D., born at Aberdeen in 
1818, and educated there at the Marischal College 
and University, where he distinguished himself in 
mental, moral, and natural philosophy, being ap¬ 
pointed in 1845 professor of the last at Glasgow. 
Two years later he came to London, and was assist¬ 
ant secretary to the General Board of Health, whilst 
from 1860 to 1880 he held the Chair of Logic at 
Aberdeen. He early began to write in the West¬ 
minster Review, and was closely allied with John 
Stuart Mill. In 1855 he brought out The Senses 
and the Intellect, his first attempt at an original 
analysis of the phenomena of the human mind, 
based on physiology. This was followed by The 
Emotions and the Will, the two together constitut¬ 
ing a complete exposition of his theory of psychology. 
The Study of Character appeared in 1861, and then 
Dr. Bain devoted several works to the English 
language as an instrument for the correct expression 
of scientific thought. In later years his chief pro¬ 
ductions were compendia for the use of students, 
but he assisted in editing James Mill’s Analysis of 
the Human Mind, Grote’s Aristotle and Minor 
Worhs, and a condensation of Grote’s Plato. He 
also published biographical sketches of James and 
John Stuart Mill. 

Bairaktar, or Beirakdar, Mustapha, Pacha, 
born in 1755, distinguished himself in the Turkish 






Bairam. 


( 302 ) 


Bajazet I. 


army, and in 1800, as pacha of Kustchuk, opposed 
the invasion of the Russians, who had seized 
Bucharest. At this juncture the Janissaries rose 
against Selim III., and put in his place Mustapha 
IV., who strangled Selim. Bairaktar, concluding a 
hasty armistice with Russia, marched to Constanti¬ 
nople, deposed and strangled Mustapha (1808), and 
set up Mahmoud II. He died in the same year. 

Bairam, the Persian and Turkish name for a 
Mohammedan festival somewhat analogous to our 
Easter, immediately following the fast of Ramadan 
and lasting three days. Seventy days afterwards the 
Second Bairam is celebrated, in commemoration of 
the sacrifice of Isaac. The Mohammedan year 
being lunar (354 days), the festivals run through 
all the seasons in 33 years. 

Baird, David, Sir, Bart, K.C.B., born at 
Newbytli, Aberdeenshire, in 1757, at the age of 
fifteen entered the army, and in 1779, as a captain, 
went out to India in the 73rd Highlanders. He 
was wounded in Baillie’s disastrous defeat, taken 
prisoner by Hyder Ali, and shut up for four years 
in Seringapatam. On his release he went home, 
but again returned to India in 1791, assisting in 
the capture of Pondicherry in 1793. Six years iater 
he was sent to the Cape, but in 1799, with the rank 
of brigadier-general, appeared once more in Madras 
to act under General, afterwards Lord, Harris, 
against Tippoo Sahib. At his request the storming 
of Seringapatam was entrusted to him, and most 
gallantly did he perform the task, but his disap¬ 
pointment was keen when the governorship of the 
town was handed over to Colonel Arthur Wellesley, 
his subordinate. Baird served in the expedition to 
Egypt via the Red Sea (1801-2), when Rosetta 
and Alexandria were taken; he acted against 
Scindiah in 1803 4, and captured Cape Town from 
the Dutch in 1805. He next took part in Cathcart’s 
capture of Copenhagen in 1807, and in 1808 was 
second in command at the battle of Corunna, where 
he lost his arm but gained a baronetcy. In 1820 
he held for a short time the chief command in 
Ireland, but was not successful. Retiring from 
active employment, he died in 1829. 

Baird, Spencer Fullerton, born at Reading, 
Pennsylvania, U.S.A., in 1823, received a scientific 
training at Dickinson College, and became pro¬ 
fessor of natural science there in 1846. In 1850 
he was transferred to the Smithsonian Institute at 
Washington, of which he ultimately became 
secretary. In this capacity he for many years 
directed the vast scientific operations of the 
Institute, and managed the National Museum, now 
one of the most important in existence. Among 
his best known works are A Report on the 
Mammals of North America , Report on Fish and 
Fisheries, which has led to a successful system of 
pisciculture, the Annual Report of the Smithsonian 
Institute and of the Philadelphia Academy of 
Natural Sciences, besides many minor contributions 
to the literature of natural history. He died in 1887. 

Baireuth, or Bayreuth, a principality or 
margraveship in Bavaria, which, after having pre¬ 
served a more or less independent existence sfrice 


1248 a.d., was in 1769 incorporated with Anspach 
(q.v.), sold to Prussia in 1801, surrendered to France 
in 1807, and ceded t@ Bavaria in 1810. The capital, 
Baireuth, is now the chief town of Upper Franconia. 
It has an open and pleasant site, with good wide 
streets, and fine public gardens. The Stadt-Kirche 
dates from the 15th century, as does one of the 
old castles. The Sophienberg, or palace of the mar¬ 
graves, was rebuilt after a fire in 1753. There is an 
excellent opera house, but the chief interest of the 
place in late years centres on the large theatre 
erected by the King of Bavaria for the production 
of Wagner’s musical masterpieces. A monument has 
been set up to Jean Paul Richter, who died here in 
1825. Some trade is carried on in cotton and 
woollen goods, leather, parchment, and tobacco. 

Baireuth, Sophia Wilhelmina, Margra¬ 
vine of, born in 1709, sister of Frederick the Great 
of Prussia, and mother of the well-known Margrave 
of Anspach, who married Lady Craven. She was a 
woman of literary ability, her correspondence with 
her brother and her Memoirs throwing much light 
on the events and manners of her time. 

Baitool, a town and district in the Saugor 
territory of North-West Provinces of British India. 
The town is situated on a tributary of the river 
Nerbudda, and is fortified. The area of the district 
is 900 square miles. 

Baize (Fr. haies), a coarse woollen cloth with a 
long nap, chiefly used for coverings, curtains, etc., 
and in some countries for clothing. 

Baj a, a market town on left bank of the 
Danube, and in the circle of Bacs, Hungary, 90 
miles S. of Buda-Pesth. It is celebrated for its 
fairs held four times a year, when a large business 
is done in grain and pigs. There are several 
churches, a handsome castle, and a gymnasium. 
Two other towns of the same name are in Little 
Wallachia, and a third on the N.W. coast of Cuba. 

Bajada de Santa Fe, better known now as 
Parana, is the capital of the department of Entre 
Rios, in the Argentine Confederation, South 
America. It is on the E. bank of the river Parana, 
Santa Fe being opposite to it. 

Bajazet I., or Bayazid, born in 1347, succeeded 
his father, Amurath I., in 1389, as Sultan of the 
Ottoman Turks, when he forthwith put to death his 
only brother Yakub. His life was spent in vigorous 
efforts to reduce the few independent states in Asia 
Minor, and to push the conquests of the Mussul¬ 
mans in Europe. He was successful in both quarters. 
Before 1393 he had reduced nearly all the East as 
far as Erzeroum and the Euphrates, and in that 
year he practically got into his power the Greek 
Emperor of Constantinople. In 1396 he crushed 
near Nicopolis a great army of Crusaders under 
Sigismund, King of Hungary, and extended his 
dominions to the Morea. He now came into con¬ 
tact in the East with Timur, or Tamerlane, the 
Mongolian conqueror. Their forces met (1401) in 
the plain of Angora, and Bajazet was utterly 
defeated, taken prisoner, and, according to some, 
humanely treated; but the more popular story 





Bajazet II. 


( 303 ) 


Bakhmut. 


represents him to have been shut up in a cage and 
carried about by his oppressor till he died in 1403. 

Bajazet II., the son of Mahomed II., succeeded 
his father in 1481, having first defeated his brother, 
Zizim. He failed in suppressing the Mamelukes in 
Egypt) but he won territory from the Moldavians, 
Bosnians, and Croats. His two wars with Venice 
ended rather in favour of the Republic, and Shah 
Ismael of Persia somewhat encroached on his east¬ 
ern borders. Selim, his youngest son, compelled his 
father to abdicate in his favour in 1512, and, it is 
said, poisoned him soon after. 

Bajazet, whose fate supplied the plot for one 
of Racine's finest tragedies, was the younger brother 
of Amurath IV., who put him to death in spite of 
the entreaties of their mother in 1(535. 

Baj OCCO, a small copper coin, once in use in the 
Papal States, worth about a halfpenny. 

Bajus, or De Bay, Michael, born at Melin, 
Hainault, in 1513, was educated at the University 
of Louvain, where he became professor of theology, 
and ultimately Chancellor. He was present at the 
Council of Trent, and incurred the hostility of the 
Jesuits by propounding the doctrines of Augustine 
in opposition to the orthodox scholastic theology. 
His views were condemned by two popes, and he 
made a nominal submission, but the Jansenists 
reasserted his teaching a little later. Bajus re¬ 
tained his post at Louvain, and died in 1589. 

Bajza, Joseph, born at Sziiesi, Hungary, in 
1804, adopted the profession of journalism, and 
edited from 1830 to 1837 Kisfaludy’s Aurora , to 
which his first poems were contributed. He wrote 
in various journals on a variety of topics, especially 
the drama, and he compiled the Historical Library , 
Modern Plutarch , and Universal History. Adopting 
revolutionary principles, he was editor in 1848 of 
Kossuth’s paper, but his last years were rendered 
fruitless by disease, and he died in 1858. 

Bakarganj, or Backergunge, a district and 
town of Lower Bengal, British India. The district, 
with an area of 3,(549 square miles, occupies a portion 
of the delta of the Ganges and Brahmaputra, and 
is level, well watered, and fertile, the soil being 
alluvial. Part of the Sandarbans or coast jungles 
comes within its limits. The town, now almost in 
ruins, is on a creek of the same name, flowing out of 
the Ganges. It is 125 miles E. of Calcutta. Barisal 
has taken its place as chief town of the district. 

Bakau, a town of Roumania, nearly 190 miles 
N. of Bucharest, on the Bisbriszas. 

Bakchi-serai. [Baghtsche-serai.] 

Bakelai, a numerous Bantu people of the 
Gaboon and Ogoway basins, chiefly between the 
coast and the Crystal Mountains, reached their 
present domain from the north-east about 1825, 
when they drove out the former inhabitants (Sheki- 
anis), but are now in their turn pressed upon by 
the Fans advancing from the north-east. The 
Bakelai are great traders, and their language (Dike- 
lai) has become the lingua franca of the Ogoway 
regions, and been reduced to writing by American 


missionaries, who have published A Grammar of the 
Bahelai Language, with Vocabulary, New York, 1.854. 

Baker, Mount, an active volcano in the Cas¬ 
cade Range, an offshoot of the Rocky Mountains, 
Washington Territory, N. America. Its height is 
10,500 feet, and eruptions have frequently taken 
place in recent times, notably in 1880. 

Baker, Henry, born in London in 1698, after 
spending some years first as a bookseller and then 
as an attorney’s clerk, took to natural history and 
antiquarian studies. He was elected to the fellow¬ 
ship both of the Royal and the Antiquaries Society, 
took the Copley Gold Medal, wrote works on the 
microscope, a poem on the Universe, and many con¬ 
tributions to learned periodicals. He also founded 
the Bakerian Lectureship, and died in 1774. 

Baker, Richard, Sir, born about 1568, was 
knighted in 1603. He appears to have led the life 
of a country gentleman, and was High Sheriff of 
Oxfordshire. About 1640 he was imprisoned for 
debts incurred by his wife’s family, and wrote in the 
Fleet his Chronicle of the Kings of England, a book 
which, though full of errors, enjoyed great popu¬ 
larity, and is often referred to by Sir Roger de 
Coverley in Addison’s famous sketch. Baker died 
in the Fleet in 1645. 

Baker, Samuel White, Sir, Pasha, K.C.B., 
F.R.S., born in London in 1821, showed early a 
taste for travel and adventure. In 1848 he joined 
in establishing a colony and coffee plantation in 
Ceylon, and in 1855 he went to the Crimea, after¬ 
wards helping to found the first Turkish railway. 
Accompanied by his wife, a Hungarian lady, he 
set out in 1861 to meet Speke and Grant, the 
African explorers. This was effected in February, 
1863, when, acting on their information, he pushed 
on, and after many dangers and sufferings succeeded 
next year in discovering the Albert Nyanza. For 
this exploit he received the distinction of K.C.B. 
The Khedive gave him in 1869 the command of an 
expedition to suppress the slave-trade, and to con¬ 
solidate Egyptian power in the Soudan. In 1874 
he resigned this post to Col. C. G. Gordon, publish¬ 
ing a record of his experiences in Ismailia. He next 
visited Cyprus, which he described, and has since 
travelled over a great part of India. His works 
include five books of travel, a work on Wild Beasts 
and their Ways, many articles in the Transactions 
of learned societies, and various contributions to 
the newspaper press. 

Bake well ( Badequelle in Domesday), a parish 
and market-town in Derbyshire, on the W. bank of 
the river Wye, 2 miles above its junction with the 
Derwent, and 23 miles N.N.W. of Derby. The town 
existed in 924, and the Gothic church of All Saints 
was founded about that period. There is also a 
very ancient grammar school. Its name is derived 
from a chalybeate spring, which is still used by 
invalids. The neighbourhood is most picturesque, 
and contains Chatsworth, the seat of the Duke of 
Devonshire, and Haddon Hall, the now deserted 
house of the Manners family. 

Bakhmut, a town in the government of 





Bakhtegan. 


( 304 ) 


Balaklava. 


Ekaterinoslav, Russia. It is situated in the midst 
of a large coal-field. 

Bakhtegan (also known as Derya-i-Niriz), a 
salt lake in the province of Earistan, Persia, about 
50 miles E. of Shiraz. Its length is about GO miles, 
average breadth 10 miles, and it is fed by the river 
Band-Emir. In summer much of the water evapo¬ 
rates, leaving a valuable deposit of fine salt. 

Bakhtiari, a numerous highland people of 
Luristan, West Persia, who give their name to the 
Bakhtiari mountains ; are a branch of the Lur (West 
Kurd) family, mixed with Persian elements, speech 
intermediate between Persian and Kurdish; type, 
West Persian ; middle size, brown colour, long black 
wavy hair, prominent and even aquiline nose, robust 
frame ; two main divisions : Chaliar-lang, with six 
branches (Kiyunurzi, Suhuni, Mahmud Salik, 
Moguwi, Memiwand, Samali), and Haft-lang, with 
three branches (Durkai, Beidarwand, Ulaki). Sub¬ 
ject to and classed with the Bakhtiari are also the 
Dinaruni, Janika-Garmsars, Binduni, and Gunduzlu, 
the latter originally of Turkoman stock. There is 
also a Bakhtiari tribe on north-west frontier of India, 
said to have migrated thither from Luristan, but 
now mostly fused with the Mian-Khel Afghans. 
The Bakhtiari are all Mohammedans, but fierce and 
lawless nomads, who scarcely yield more than 
nominal obedience to the Persian authorities. 

Baking is, strictly, the cooking of food in an 
air-tight chamber or oven. The term is also applied 
to the hardening of bricks or pottery. 

Baking Powder, usually a mixture of tartaric 
acid and bicarbonate of soda. The action of the 
water used liberates carbonic acid gas, which 
“ raises ” the dough. Sometimes the buttermilk or 
other acids used in the composition of the dough 
render the tartaric acid unnecessary. 

Baknol, an illuminating oil obtained from the 
mineral oils of Baku. Has a specific gravity of 
about -83, and a flashing point of about 40° Centi¬ 
grade (104° Fahrenheit). 

Bakony Wald, a range of mountains in 
Western Hungary, starting from the S. bank of the 
Danube, a little W. of Gran, and running S.W. 
between the river Raab and the Platten See, thus 
separating the great plain of Hungary on the S.E. 
from the smaller to the N.W. The average eleva¬ 
tion is 2,000 feet, and the flanks are densely 
wooded. Valuable marbles and other mineral 
products are obtained in the district. 

Bakshish, or Baksheesh (Pers. a present), 
the word used throughout the East for a small fee 
given for service or otherwise. 

Baku, a district and town in the Trans-Caucasian 
province of Asiatic Russia. The district extends 
along the W. shore of the Caspian Sea from a point 
just below Derbend in the N. to Astara in the S., 
and includes the promontory of Apsheron (q.v.). It 
stretches inland nearty as far as Lake Gotcha. 
Russia has occupied it since 1800. The town and 
port of Baku lies to the S. of the promontory of 
Apsheron, and affords safe anchorage for the 
Russian fleet and numerous trading vessels. It is 
fortified, and contains an old castle and Persian 


mosque. Cotton, fruit, opium, rice, silk, and wine 
are produced, but the place derives its commercial 
importance from the never-failing springs of 
naphtha or petroleum, which in ancient times at¬ 
tracted the veneration of fire-worshippers. 

Bakuba. [Bazeize.] 

Bakunin, Michael, was born of an aristocratic 
Russian family in 1814. After serving in the army 
he travelled in Western Europe, and came under 
the influence of George Sand, Proudhon, and the 
French socialists in 1847. He took part in the 
German revolutionary movement of 1848-49, was 
captured by the Russian authorities, and sent to 
Siberia, whence he escaped. Settling in Switzerland, 
he founded the Social Democratic Alliance, after¬ 
wards merged in the International. He instigated 
the Lyons outbreak in 1870, and his frank advocacy 
of pure materialistic anarchy brought him into 
collision with Marx and his followers. He died at 
Bern in 1876. 

Bala, the name of a market town and lake in 
the county of Merioneth, North Wales. The former 
is situated at the N. end of the lake, 17 miles from 
Dolgelly and 11 from Corwen. Bala Lake or Pool 
is 4 miles long by 1 mile broad, and has a depth of 
100 feet. It is the chief source of the river Dee, 
and its shores are highly picturesque. The Bala 
Beds are in geology a well-marked series of Silu¬ 
rian rocks, having a thickness of several thousand 
feet, and consisting of sandstone, shales, and mud¬ 
stones, with a band of calcareous nature very rich 
in fossils, and known as the Bala Limestone. 

Balaam, the son of Beor or Bosor, a Chaldean 
prophet who dwelt at Pethor, in Mesopotamia. When 
the Israelites, on their way into Palestine, came 
to the borders of Moab, Balak, the Moabite king, 
sent for Balaam to curse them At first he refused 
to obey, being warned by heaven against complying. 
Finally, receiving a modified permission, he set out 
without waiting for a summons, and an angel, 
visible only to the ass that he was riding, barred 
his path. What ensued is recounted in Numbers 
xxii. to xxiv. Balaam, with the sanction of God, 
arrived at Kirjath-Huzoth, Balak’s capital, but in¬ 
stead of cursing the Israelite host, was constrained 
to bless them three times. He returned to Pethor, 
after advising Balak to use the Moabite women as 
an instrument for leading the Hebrews into idolatry. 
Moses at God’s bidding then took up arms against 
the insidious foe, and in the battle that followed 
Balaam was slain. 

Balaena. [Whale.] 

Balseniceps. [Shoe-bill Stork.] 

Balaghat, or Balaghaut (Hind, above the 
ghats or hills), a district in the Central Provinces 
of British India, occupying a lofty and mountainous 
area of 3,146 square miles. Until 1866 the country 
was covered with jungles. Immigrants have now 
brought large tracts under cultivation, and pros¬ 
perity is gradually advancing. 

Balaklava, a small port 6 miles S.E. of Sebas¬ 
topol, in the Crimea, Russia. It possesses a large 
landlocked basin with a very narrow entrance, 






Balance. 


( 305 ) 


Balance of Trade. 


which served during the Crimean war as the place 
for disembarking troops and stores for the British 
Army. file battle of Balaklava (1854), made 
memorable by the “ Charge of the Six Hundred,” 
and by Sir Colin Campbell’s splendid handling of 
the Highland infantry, was fought to the north of 
the town. 

Balance, an instrument for the estimation of 
mass. The most general form is that of a hori¬ 
zontal beam, supported at its centre, with scale-pans 


the method; (3) the sensibility, i.e. the amount of 
turning of the beam for a given small difference in 
load, should be great. This requisite is very im¬ 
portant, and to satisfy it the beam should be light, 
the arms as long as possible under the circumstances, 
and the centre of gravity of the beam should be close 
to the point of support. But this condition satisfied, 
the beam takes a long time to come to rest, oscil¬ 
lating slowly backwards and forwards to each 
side of the mean position. Hence a method has 
been devised of estimating the required mass by 



aa, the beam ; p, the pointer, attached to the beam, to show its oscillations ; p, the pillar, a hollow brass cylinder supporting 
the beam on an agate plane at b, by an agate knife-edge ; ss, the scale pans supported at the ends of the beam on agate 
knife-edges, tld; gg, the arrestment, to lift the agate surfaces out of contact when the balance is not in use, so as to 
diminish wear; m, milled screw to work the arrestment; cc, glass case to enclose the whole, levelled by three levelling 
screws ll, and kept dry by means of a small vessel c containing sulphuric acid. 


hanging symmetrically from each end. The in¬ 
strument admits of very great refinement of 
detail. For instance, to ensure perfect freedom of 
motion the beam is supported by an agate knife- 
edge on an agate plane fixed to the central standard, j 
and the scale-pans are similarly supported on agate i 
planes at each end of the beam. With ordinary 
balances as in general use in laboratories, one milli¬ 
gram difference may be detected in a load of one 
kilogramme, i.e. one part in a million. The general 
conditions for the accuracy and delicacy of a 
balance are: (1) the beam should be horizontal 
when the pans are unloaded, a condition generally 
attained by a small screw adjustment; (2) the arms 
of the balance should be of equal length, otherwise 
a load at the end of the longer arm will counter¬ 
poise a heavier load at the other end. The error 
produced by this inequality may be removed by 
weighing the body in each pan separately, and then 
taking the square root of the product of the two 
weighings; thus, if the object counterpoise 3 grms. 
in one pan, and 3T in the other, its true mass will 
be x/S x 31. Borda’s method of double weighing 
also eliminates this error. If the body in one pan 
counterbalance a definite quantity of matter in the ' 
other pan, and if a weight w does also, then w is ! 
the weight of the bod} T ; this is the principle of | 

20 


observation of the oscillations of the beam. This 
method of oscillation is invariably adopted in accu¬ 
rate work. 

For descriptions of the other forms of balance, 
see Steelyard, Spring-balance. 

Balance of Power, in European politics, that 
state of things in which no one of the Great 
Powers (q.v.) is permitted to preponderate greatly 
over the rest. The doctrine that its maintenance 
is a chief object of diplomacy first appears in 
Modern Europe with the growth of the power of 
the House of Hapsburg under Charles V. The 
Thirty Years’ War was partly waged in its defence, 
as well as in that of Protestantism, and it was a 
prominent factor in promoting the various coalitions 
against Louis XIV., and the alliances of the various 
nations of Europe against Napoleon I., while at 
the Congress of Vienna in 1815 the map of Europe 
was reconstructed with special reference to its 
maintenance. Of late years, since the growth of 
the doctrine of Non-Intervention (q.v.), it has 
fallen into some disrepute in England. 

Balance of Trade, a term originating in con¬ 
nection with the Mercantile System of Political 
Economy (q.v.). The most important part of the 
wealth of a nation was held to consist in the specie 




































































































Balance of Machines. 


( 306 ) 


Balasore. 


acquired by trading with foreign nations. This, it 
was argued, could always purchase goods on an 
emergency; other goods could often only be re¬ 
alised with difficulty; and the first duty of a 
statesman was, therefore, to secure that ample 
specie should be in the country in case of a foreign 
war. The object of economic policy was held to 
be to sell more to the foreigner than was bought 
from him : he would then have to pay the balance 
in specie to the exporting country. Thus, when 
the value of exports exceeded that of imports the 
balance of trade was said to be favourable. This 
view is best set forth in Thomas Man's England's 
Treasure in Foreign Trade (1685). To maintain a 
favourable balance—usually by prohibition of the 
export of specie and by high import duties—was the 
great object of the policy of every European state 
till Adam Smith showed in the Wealth of Nations 
that a reserve of specie was not necessary for the 
successful conduct of a foreign war, and that, in 
fact, the wealth exported to pay for recent wars had 
taken the form, not of specie, but of manufactured 
goods. The English Government had remitted the 
money required by bills which it purchased, and the 
consequent rise of the premium on foreign bills had 
stimulated the export of goods against which such 
bills could be drawn. In recent times the term “un¬ 
favourable balance of trade ” has been chiefly used 
with reference to the relation between imports and 
exports. As “ exports pay for imports,” owing to 
the invention of bills of exchange and other substi¬ 
tutes for coin, it would seem to follow that if im¬ 
ports always largely exceed exports in value (as is 
the case with regard to the United Kingdom) the 
excess must be somehow paid for out of the national 
capital, a process which must eventually result in 
national bankruptcy. The “balance of trade,” 
in fact, is now always apparently unfavourable to 
England. The explanation is (a) that the values 
of imports are stated to the compilers of the Customs 
returns plus the charges for freight, etc., and the 
values of exports without this addition ; ( b ) the 
bulk of the excess, however, is due to the interest 
on our foreign investments and payment for the 
immense carrying trade between foreign countries, 
much of which is conducted with English capital. 
Details will be found in the works of Sir Thomas 
Farrer and Mr. Giffen. 

Balancing of Machines, in mechanical 
engineering, means the elimination of stresses in 
the framework of machinery that are caused by the 
reciprocating motion of heavy parts or by the 
rotation of masses unsymmetrically disposed about 
the axes of rotation. Thus it is a general practice 
to place balance weights on the driving wheels of 
locomotives, these weights being calculated to 
neutralise, by their centrifugal force, the effect on 
the engine frame of the irregular motions of the 
connecting rod and crank. Balancing is of special 
importance in quick-speed engines, and affects 
their efficiency. 

Balanidae, or Acorn-shells, one of the families 
of Cirripedia, which are sessile, i.e. not provided 
with a stalk [Barnacle]. The body is protected 
by a ring of from four to eight plates forming 


a short tube which is attached by its base to rocks, 
shells, etc., and is closed above by two pairs of 
small plates between which the arms can be pro¬ 
truded ; by the movements of these arms the food 
is obtained as in the barnacle. The young are 
free-swimming forms, and resemble in structure the 
mature forms of some lower groups of Crustacea; 
they possess eyes and other organs not found in the 
adults, which, it is considered, have been lost owing 
to the animals having adopted a fixed mode of life. 
The young belong to the type known as the 
Nauplius (q.v.). All the Balanidae are marine. 
Two genera, Protobalanus and Palceocreusia , are 
Devonian, and several living genera occur in the 
Chalk and the Tertiary rocks. Balanus is the 
commonest English genus. 



Balanoglossus, a genus of marine worms 
to which considerable attention has of late years 
been directed as the possible ancestor of the 
Vertebrates. The body is composed of three 
regions : (1) a long worm-like trunk, distinctly 
ringed at the hinder end, and with a series of pairs 
of respiratory pores at the anterior end ; (2) a collar 
round the latter portion of the trunk ; (3) a con¬ 
tractile proboscis. There is a horizontal bar (de¬ 
scribed as the “ notochord,” (q.v.) beneath the ali- 
mentary canal which is compared with the vertebral 
column of the Chordata (q.v.) ; the canal in this 
bar is often said to 
be homologous with 
the neural canal 
of the vertebrates, 
though it occurs in 
other worms and 
Gephyreans (q.v.). 

Balanoglossus cer¬ 
tainly has resem¬ 
blances to Amphi- 
oxus, but according 
to the most recent 
views the structure 
of the nervous sys¬ 
tem (a ring round the 
mouth from which 
two cords run back 
along the body) and the fact that the supposed 
“notochord” is below the main blood-vessel prove 
that it is a true worm. 

Balanoglossus lives in mud in warm and temperate 
seas, as the Mediterranean, round the Channel 
Isles, and off the coast of Florida. The embryo is 
known as Tornaria and most resembles the Bipin- 
naria (q.v.) stage of Starfish. 


balanoglossus. 1, Gastric regions ; 
2, collar ; 3, Proboscis. 


Balanophyllia, a genus of corals of which one 
species (B. regia, Gosse) occurs on the S.W. coasts 
of England. This is a small simple coral, usually a 
quarter of an inch in height ; it is scarlet with 
yellow tentacles. 


Balasinor, the name of a small native state 
and its capital in Gujerat, Western India. The 
territory has an area of 258 square miles, and the 
town is about 48 miles N. of Baroda. 


Balasore, a district and its capital town in the 
Orissa division of British India. The district 








33 elicit ci. 


( 307 ) 


Balder. 


occupies a strip on the coast of the Bay of Bengal, 
with an area of 2,0(58 square miles. Balasore, the 
capital, stands on the river Barabalang, about 8 
miles from the coast. Only small vessels can cross 
the bar at the river’s mouth, but there is a consider¬ 
able trade with the coast and the Maidive Islands. 

Balata, a valuable substitute for guttapercha, 
being not only ductile but, like caoutchouc, elastic. 
It is the gum of one or more species of Mi mu- 
sops, trees belonging to the order Sapotacecc, 
natives of Guiana and the West Indies, and is 
obtained by incisions in the bark. It was intro¬ 
duced in 1859, but the supply is limited. The 
name has been corrupted into bullet and bully. 

Balaton, Lake, or Platten See, the largest 
piece of water in Hungary, lies about 56 miles S.W. 
of Pesth, and has a length of 50 miles, a breadth of 
from 8 to 10 miles, and an area, including marshes, 
of 420 square miles. The water is slightly saline, 
and abounds in fish. It is fed by the river Szala 
and many small streams, and drains into the 
Danube. In 1865 it became nearly dry, but has 
since filled, though a good deal of the swampy land 
has been reclaimed. It is liable to peculiar dis¬ 
turbances, apparently of subaqueous origin. 

Balbi, Adrian, born at Venice in 1782, and 
while still young appointed professor there of 
geography and natural philosophy. In 1820 he 
went to Portugal and wrote a statistical work on 
that country, which brought him into notice. In 
1826 he published his Geographical Atlas , embracing 
the latest speculations of Adelung and the German 
ethnologists. His Abridgment of Geography was 
also a very popular work. He spent the last sixteen 
years of his life at Padua, where he died in 1848. 

Balbi, Gaspard, a native of Venice, who, for 
the purpose of trading in precious stones, started 
from Aleppo in 1579 and travelled extensively in 
the East, visiting Ormuz, Goa, Cochin, and Pegu. 
On his return in 1588 he wrote a graphic and 
faithful account of his journey, and soon after¬ 
wards died. 

Balbo, Cesare, was born at Turin in 1789, being 
the son of a high official at the Piedmontese court. 
In 1798 he went to Paris, and at the age of 18 
entered the service of Napoleon. After the fall of 
his master he was employed by the government of 
Piedmont in diplomatic missions to Paris and 
London, but lost his political status through the 
revolution of 1821. Permitted to return to his 
country in a mere private capacity, he devoted him¬ 
self to literature and produced a life of Dante, 
some historical works, and essays advocating the 
independence of Italy. He died in 1853. 

Balboa, Vasco Nunez de, born in Estrema- 
dura, Spain, in 1475, of a poor but noble family, 
started in 1501 for the Spanish Main, to better his 
fortunes. For nine years his history is obscure, but 
in 1510 he accompanied Enciso from St. Domingo 
to Darien, where he raised a settlement and was 
mixed up in the wretched intrigues that always 
occupied the Spanish explorers. In 1513, acting on 
the information of a friendly cacique, he pushed 


southwards, entered the continent of South America, 
and was the first European to behold the Pacific. 
His kindly treatment of the Indians, and his firm 
but judicious handling of his followers contributed 
much towards his success. On his return to Darien 
he found that Pedrariaz (Davila) had been sent out 
from Spain as governor with orders to arrest him. 
However, friendly relations were established and 
maintained with more or less constancy for two 
years. Then the jealousy of the governor, who 
thought that Balboa was gaining independent 
credit and influence, led to the arrest of the latter 
on an old charge. He was found guilty, condemned, 
and beheaded at Ada, in 1517. 

Balbriggan, a watering place 21 miles E.N.E. 
of Dublin. It gives its name to the well-known 
Balbriggan hosiery. 

Balchen, John, a distinguished British admiral, 
was born on February 2nd, 1669, and having, in 
early life, entered the navy, became a captain in 
1697. In 1707, as captain of the Chester, 50, he was, 
after a gallant fight, taken prisoner by the Chevalier 
de Forbin in the engagement off the Lizard, but 
upon trial by court-martial was most honourably 
acquitted of blame. He commanded many other 
vessels with credit, but was not promoted rear- 
admiral until 1728. In 1731 he was second in com¬ 
mand at the occupation of Leghorn ; in 1733 
he was made a vice-admiral; in 1739 he was com- 
mander-in-chief in the Mediterranean ; in 1743 he 
was promoted to admiral ; in 1744, while governor 
of Greenwich Hospital, he was knighted ; and in the 
summer of the same year, being in his seventy-sixth 
year, he sailed with a fleet to relieve Sir Charles 
Hardy, who was at the time blockaded in the Tagus 
by the French. He executed his mission but did 
not live to return. On October 7th, 1744, his flag¬ 
ship, the Victory, of 110 guns, with a crew of about 
1,150 officers and men, struck on the Caskets, off 
Alderney, and every soul on board perished. Sir 
John’s body was not recovered ; but a monument 
to his memory stands in Westminster Abbey. 

Balcony (Ital. balcone), a projecting gallery 
with balustrade in front of the window, supported 
on consoles or brackets fixed in the wall, or by 
pillars resting on the ground below. It is first 
introduced in Italian architecture. 

Baldachin, Baldacchino (probably from 
Baaldak, a mediaeval corruption of Bagdad), a richly 
adorned canopy in the form of a tent or umbrella- 
over a throne, pulpit, or altar; frequently of some 
durable material, as that cast in bronze by Bernini 
in St. Peter’s at Rome. The name is also given to 
the canopy borne in Roman Catholic countries over 
the priest who carries the Host. Canopies made of 
rich stuffs were frequently sent as presents in the 
East, whence the name. The proposal to erect a 
baldacchino in St. Barnabas’ Church, Pimlico, Lon¬ 
don, led to a legal decision (in 1873) that such a 
structure would be illegal in an Anglican church. 

Balder, or Baldur, in Norse mythology, the 
son of Woden and Frigga, and the wisest and most 
beautiful of the gods. His mother, alarmed by 
dreams, exacted an oath from everything in nature 




Baldness. 


( 308 ) 


Balearic Islands. 


not to harm him, but overlooked the mistletoe. 
The malicious Loki found out the secret from her 
by a stratagem, and when the gods, thinking Balder 
invulnerable, were casting stones and darts at him, 
he fetched the mistletoe and placed it in the hands 
of Hoder, the blind god of war, whose aim he then 
directed towards Balder,who fell dead. Hel, goddess 
of the nether world, consented to release him, but 
on condition that all things should weep for him. 
Loki’s step-daughter, Thock, the giantess, alone 
refused. So Balder was detained in Hel’s kingdom 
till the end of the world, when after a long struggle 
with the powers of evil he will return to reign in 
happiness and peace. Balder was avenged, how¬ 
ever, by the Wali, who slew Hoder. The story 
appears to be a nature-myth typical of the triumph 
of Winter (Hoder) over Summer (Balder) and his 
subsequent defeat by Spring (Wali). 

Baldness. [Alopecia.] 

Baldock, Ralph de, was educated at Merton 
College, Oxford, and made dean of St. Paul’s 
in 1294. Ten years later he was elected bishop of 
London, and in 1307 was appointed Lord Chancellor 
by Edward I., losing the office at the king’s death. 
His Historia Any lie a, though seen by Leland, ap¬ 
pears to have perished. He also collected the 
statutes and constitutions of his cathedral church. 
He died in 1313. 

Bald-pate, a local name in the eastern and 
middle states of the Union for Mareca americana, 
the American Wigeon. [Wigeon.] 

Baldric, a belt or sash, worn partly as a military 
and partly as a heraldic symbol, round the waist, 
or over the left shoulder, or supporting a sword. 
It is often seen represented in the effigies of knights. 

Baldwin, or Baldwyn, William, a school¬ 
master, divine, printer, poet, and comedian, who 
supported the Reformation, but is best known as 
having completed, in conjunction with Ferrers, The 
Mirrour for Magistrates, the remarkable poem that 
Sackville began. He died in 1564. 

Baldwin I., King of Jerusalem, born in 1058, 
accompanied his brothers, Eustace and Godfrey of 
Bouillon, to the Holy Land. He became Baron of 
Jerusalem and protector of the Holy Sepulchre, 
and in 1100 assumed the style of king. His reign 
was spent in continual warfare with Turks, Arabs, 
Persians, and Saracens. He took Acre, Sidon, 
Ascalon, and reduced the whole Syrian coast. He 
then invaded Egypt, contracted a disease, and re¬ 
turned to Jerusalem to die in 1118. He was 
buried on Mount Calvary. 

Baldwin II., a cousin of the preceding, 
succeeded him as titular king. He defeated the 
Saracens in 1120, but in 1124 was captured, and 
only recovered his liberty by ceding Tyre. The 
Order of Knights Templars was founded in his 
reign. In 1131 he abdicated in favour of his son- 
in-law, Foulques of Anjou, whose son came to the 
throne in 1143 as Baldwin III., and died at Tripoli 
in 1162. 

Baldwin, Baldwyn, or Baudouin, the name 
of eight Counts of Flanders, who played important 


parts in European history between 837 and 1195, and 
founded a short-lived dynasty at Constantinople. 

Baldwin I., Bras de Fer (837-877), the founder 
of the family, married by force Judith, daughter of 
Charles the Bald, who, after a defeat, was reconciled 
to his son-in-law, and helped to consolidate his 
dominions. 

Baldwin III. (988-1034) annexed a slice of 
French territory, and first summoned the states of 
Flanders. 

Baldwin IV. further encroached on France, 
became a feudatory of the German Empire, gave 
his daughter Matilda in marriage to William the 
Conqueror, and took part in the invasion of Eng¬ 
land, dying in 1067. 

Baldwin VIII., Count of Hainault, marrying- 
Margaret, acquired through her the county of 
Flanders in 1194, and reunited the two counties. 
His daughter married Philip Augustus of France. 

Baldwin I., Emperor of Constantinople, was the 
son of the foregoing, whom he succeeded in 1195. 
In 1200 he joined the fourth Crusade, but turned 
aside on his way to liberate Isaac Angelus, Emperor 
of Constantinople, from his brother who had de¬ 
posed and imprisoned him. In this the Crusaders 
succeeded, but on the death of Isaac other pre¬ 
tenders arose, and ultimately Baldwin, with his 
Venetian allies, took the city, and he was elected 
emperor with dominions, however, much curtailed. 
The Greeks, hating the Latin usurpers, rose under 
Joannices of Bulgaria, defeated Baldwin at Adria- 
nople (1205), and kept him prisoner till his death 
next year. 

Baldwin II., nephew of the foregoing, succeeded 
his brother Robert as emperor while a child, in 
1228, but John of Brienne actually held supreme 
power till 1237. The Latins were now in a 
desperate plight, and practically driven within the 
walls of Constantinople. After a fruitless struggle 
the city was seized by Michael Palaaologus in 
1261, and Baldwin fled to Italy. . 

Bale. [Basel.] 

Bale, John, born in 1495, in Suffolk, and 
educated at Cambridge, was converted to Protes¬ 
tantism and received the support of Cromwell, on 
whose death he retired to Holland. On the acces¬ 
sion of Edward VI. he came back to England, and 
in 1552 was made Bishop of Ossory. During 
Mary’s reign he once more took refuge on the 
Continent, but Elizabeth got him a prebendal stall 
at Canterbury, where he died in 1563. He wrote a 
number of books, and some of the last miracle 
plays. His Illustrium Majoris Britannicce Script- 
ovum Summarium alone possesses much interest, 
if we except some tracts on the cases of Sir John 
Oldcastle and Anne Ascue. 

Balearic Crane. [Crowned Crane.] 

Balearic Islands, a group of five islands 
lying S.E. of Spain in the Mediterranean. Of the 
three principal members Iviza is nearest to the 
Spanish coast, being 50 miles distant from Cape 
Nao. Majorca, the largest of the three, is 43 miles 
farther to the E., and a channel of 22 miles 
separates Minorca from Majorca. Formentera is a 
mere islet to the S. of Iviza, and Cabrera occupies a 










Balfe. 


( 309 ) 


Baliol. 


similar position with regard to Majorca. The 
name Balearic, dating from Strabo, is derived from 
the Greek hallo (I throw), the natives having been 
noted as expert slingers. [Majorca, Minorca, 
I viz a, Formentera, and Cabrera.] 

Balfe, Michael William, born near Wexford, 
Ireland, in 1808, took to music from his childhood, 
and in 181(5 appeared as a violinist, being engaged 
a little later in the Drury Lane orchestra. He had 
at the age of ten composed a ballad, and he now 
studied composition seriously under Horn, the 
organist of St. George’s Chapel, Windsor. Count 
Mazzara took him to Rome, where he worked under 
Frederici and Galli. He came to London to take 
part in the Benedict concerts, and then the bent of 
his genius asserted itself. Between 1835 and 1840 
he gave to the world some half a dozen popular 
English operas. In 1844 he supplied Bunn at 
Drury Lane with The Bohemian Girl, recognised 
not merely in this country but throughout the 
world as his masterpiece. Having amassed a com¬ 
petency, he spent his last years on his property in 
Hertfordshire, dying of bronchitis in 1870. Balfe 
possessed extraordinary facility, keen sense of 
melody, and a thorough practical knowledge of the 
requirements of stage and orchestra, but he lacked 
the highest originality and the power of elaboration 
necessary for permanent fame as a composer. 

Balfour, Sir James, was descended from the 
ancient family of the Balfours of Mountquhanny, 
Fifeshire, Scotland, but the date of his birth is not 
known. Educated for the Church, he joined the 
conspirators, w T ho murdered Cardinal Beaton and 
held the castle of St. Andrew’s against the forces 
of Arran. For this he was sent to the French 
galleys, but escaping in 1550 obtained pardon and 
place by abjuring Protestantism. He was now a 
lawyer, and became lord of session, privy councillor, 
and judge of the commissary court, and later 
President of the Court of Session. On the death 
of Moray he once more changed sides, and, the 
charge of complicity in Darnley’s murder being- 
pressed home, he retired to France and died in 
1583. He has been styled, not without reason, “the 
most corrupt man of his age.” The authorship of 
The Practicks of Scots Lam, a collection of statutes, 
is attributed to him. 

Balfour, John Hutton, born in Edinburgh in 
1808, and connected by descent with the author of 
the Huttonian Theory, received his education at 
the High School, and at the Universities of Edin¬ 
burgh and St. Andrew's. Destined at first for the 
Church, he was attracted to the study of medicine, 
and won the highest distinctions in that faculty, 
becoming a Fellow of the College of Surgeons and 
of the Royal Society of Edinburgh before he was 
seven-and-twenty. From Dr. Graham he acquired 
a taste for botany, and in 1841 succeeded Sir W. 
Hooker as professor of the science at Glasgow, 
ultimately occupying the same chair at Edinburgh, 
witli the posts of Keeper of the Botanical Gardens 
and Queen’s Botanist for Scotland. He was elected 
Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1856. A 
very able lecturer, Dr. Balfour was no less success¬ 
ful as a scientific writer. His Class-Book of Botany, 


Outlines of Botany, Phyto-Theoloyy, Plants of 
Scripture, and Elementary Botany are still in use. 
He died in 18S4. 

Balfour, The Right Hon. Arthur James, 
LL.D., born in 1848, the son of the late Mr. J. M. 
Balfour, M.P., of Whittinghame Castle, and edu¬ 
cated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, was 
returned to Parliament for Hertford in 1874, and 
from 1878 to 1880 acted as private secretary to 
his uncle, Lord Salisbury, whom he accompanied to 
the Berlin Conference. After the general election 
of 1880 he joined for a time the “Fourth Party,” 
under Lord Randolph Churchill. On the accession 
of the Conservatives to office in 1885 he became 
President of the Local Government Board, and at 
the general election in that year won the seat for 
East Manchester, for which he was returned un¬ 
opposed in 1886. He then undertook the arduous 
duties of Chief Secretary for Ireland. His five years 
of office were marked by the famous Parnell Com¬ 
mission, the Criminal Law and Procedure Act, the 
extension of the Land Acts, and Land Purchase 
Acts. Mr. Balfour is the author of a striking and 
unconventional essay, entitled A Defence of Philo¬ 
sophic Doubt. 

Balfrush, or Balfurosh, a town in the pro¬ 
vince of Mazanderan. Persia, situated on the river 
Bhawal, 12 miles S. of the Caspian Sea and 20 miles 
from Sari. It is a large and well-built town in the 
midst of a forest surrounded by swamps. A large 
trade is done in silk and cotton manufactures, and 
the place maintains several colleges, to which 
moolahs and students resort in great numbers. 
The population at one time was estimated at 
200,000. 

Balguy, John, born at Sheffield, 1686, and 
educated at St. John’s College, Cambridge, was or¬ 
dained in 1711. He took an active part in theo¬ 
logical controversy, and his work, Letters to a Deist, 
attracted the attention of Dr. Clarke and Arch¬ 
bishop Hoadley. He obtained the living of 
Northallerton, and a prebendal stall at Salisbury, 
and died in 1748. 

Bali, Bally, or Little Java, one of the Sunda 
Islands in the Eastern Archipelago, is separated 
from Java by the Straits of Bali, about a mile and 
a half wide. Its length is 75 miles and its breadth 
40 miles, much of the surface being occupied by a 
mountain range running from W. to E., where it 
terminates in the volcanic peak Gunungagung, 
12,379 feet high. The valleys are well watered, and 
produce rice, cotton, coffee, and tobacco. Edible 
birds’ nests are also exported. The Dutch have a 
settlement at Badong, and exercise supervision over 
the eight independent principalities into which the 
island is divided. 

Bali-Kesr, Balu-Hissar, or Balik-Shehr, 
a town in Anatolia, Asiatic Turkey, in the vilayet 
of Broussa, from which town it is distant 75 miles 
S.W. Felt is made here for clothing the Turkish 
army. 

Baliol, or Balliol, Sir John de, the descend¬ 
ant of Guy de Baliol, who came over with the 
Conqueror, was established at Barnard’s Castle, 









Baliol. 


( 310 ) 


Ballachulish. 


Yorkshire, in the reign of Henry III. .as a noble of 
wealth and power.. He was governor of Carlisle in 
1248, and in 12G3 founded Balliol College, Oxford, 
though the chief benefactor of that place of learn¬ 
ing was his widow, Devorgilla, one of the three co¬ 
heiresses of Alan, Lord of Galloway, and grand¬ 
daughter of David, Earl of Huntingdon, the brother 
of Malcolm IY. and William the Lion, Kings of 
Scotland. 

Baliol, John, son of the foregoing, was born in 
1259, and inherited from his mother the lordship of 
Galloway. On the death of the Maid of Norway, 
Alexander III.’s heiress, in 1290, he was one of the 
three competitors for the Scottish throne, the other 
two being Robert Bruce, grandson of the second 
daughter of the Earl of Huntingdon, and John de 
Hastings, son of the third daughter. Edward I., 
interfering for his own ends as arbitrator, decided 
in favour of Baliol in 1292, and the latter submitted 
to be crowned as vassal to the English king, who 
immediately began to goad him into resistance by 
assertions of absolute authority. Baliol refused to 
be cited before the English Parliament, or to follow 
his feudal superior into France, and in 1295 he 
entered into an alliance with the French king, 
Philip. Edward thereupon invaded Scotland and 
seized Berwick, whilst Surrey defeated the Scots 
at Dunbar, and the whole country as far as Perth 
was speedily subjugated. Baliol was compelled to 
surrender and to undergo the humiliation of publicly 
renouncing his crown at Stracathro (July, 1296). 
He was committed to the Tower with his son 
Edward, and remained a, prisoner till 1299, when he 
was sent to Bailleul, the home of his ancestors in 
Normandy, and died there in 1314. His son Edward 
regained the throne in 1332 with the connivance of 
Edward III., but after two or three years resigned 
his claim to England, and died childless in 1363. 

Balistes. [File-fish.] 

Balize, or Belize, the capital of British 
Honduras in Central America (lat. 17° 29' N., long. 
38° 8' W.), stands on the S. bank of the river of that 
name, and close to its mouth. It was first colonised 
by the English towards the end of the 17th century. 
The colony was twice broken up by the Spaniards, 
but by the treaty of 1783 its possession was confirmed 
to England. The neighbourhood is low and swampy, 
and the climate unhealthy, but a large trade is 
carried on in mahogany, rosewood, cedar, logwood, 
and other valuable timber. Though somewhat 
dangerous, the harbour is a regular station for the 
West Indian mail steamers. 

Balkan Peninsula, The, is the name 
applied with some vagueness to the projecting 
mass of land that divides the Adriatic from the 
JEgean Sea, the northern boundary being drawn 
at the river Save and Lower Danube. Greece and 
Roumania, however, are not regarded as being- 
covered by the term, which is usually restricted 
to the European provinces of Turkey, of past or 
present times, thus including Bulgaria, Eastern 
Roumelia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Novi-Bazar, Servia, 
Montenegro, together with the purely Turkish pro¬ 
vinces of Adrianople, Salonika, Kossovo, Scutari, 


and Janina. The entire area is irregularly pervaded 
by the Balkan Mountains (anc. Hcevms ) and their 
offshoots, Rhodope, Pindus, and Olympus. They 
attain their greatest height in the west (6,500 feet), 
where they have a tendency to run parallel to the 
Adriatic. Olympus is 9,725 feet in height, and 
Muss-alla 9,500. Of the thirty passes that cross 
the main ridge from north to south, the Shipka 
(for which the Turks fought so gallantly in 1877-8) 
is the most famous. The Danube claims a large 
proportion of the country ; but in the south, the 
Maritza, the Kara Su, the Vardar, and the Indje 
flow from the slopes of the mountains into the 
yEgean. The only two important lakes are those 
of Scutari and Ochrida. Within recent years the 
Turkish empire included the whole peninsula, but 
the disintegration of the now independent elements 
took place in the following order :—Greece, 1836 ; 
Servia, 1830-1867 and 1878 ; Roumania, 1856 and 
1878 ; Bosnia, Herzegovina given to Austria, 1878, 
Montenegro, Bulgaria, and Eastern Roumelia, 1878. 

Balkh, a country and its capital in Central 
Asia, lying N. of the Hindu Koosh mountains and 
S. of the river Oxus, and having a length of 250 
miles and a breadth of 120 miles. As the ancient 
kingdom of Bactria, the country was of importance 
in remote times. It was subsequently incorporated 
with Afghanistan, and is now subject to the Khan 
of Bokhara. The city is on the Ardisish river, 
about 30 miles south of the Oxus, and near the site 
of the former capital, which had a circuit of 20 
miles and rivalled Nineveh and Babylon. Zoroaster 
is said to have been born here, and it was a great 
centre of Buddhism. The inhabitants at present 
are Afghans and Jews. 

Balkhash, Balkash, or Tengiz, a lake in the 
N.W. of Eastern Turkestan, Central Asia. It is 
about 150 miles long by 75 miles broad, and like 
other lakes of Asia receives several rivers, but has 
no apparent outlet. 

Ball. [Cartridge.] 

Ball. [Cricket, Croquet, Fives, Tennis, 
etc.] 

Ball, John, an itinerant preacher, who was ex¬ 
communicated for denouncing the abuses of the 
Church, and in 1381 joined Wat Tyler’s rebellion. 
The often-quoted lines, 

“ When Adam delved and Eve span, 

Who was then the gentleman?” 

formed the text on which he harangued the insur¬ 
gents at Blackheath. He was captured and executed 
with Jack Straw and many others at Coventry. 

Ball, Sir R. S., Astronomer Royal for Ireland, 
born 1840. He is the author of popular works on 
astronomy, the best known being The Story of the 
Heavens and Starland. 

Ballachulish, a village on Loch Leven, Argyle- 
shire, Scotland, 16| miles S. of Fort William. It 
has a pier at which the steamers call on their way 
up and down the Caledonian Canal, and a ferry 
connects the high roads on opposite sides of the 
loch. There are large slate quarries in the vicinity. 








Ballad. 


( 311 ) 


Ballad. 


Ballad (derived from the old French bailer , 
to dance) is the name applied over all European 
countries to any simple, direct story told in 
simple verse. It was first of all a song sung to 
the rhythmic movement of a dancing chorus, The 
ballad belongs to the class of productions in verse 
known by the name of Volhs-lieder. It sprang 
from the bosom of the people. It was composed 
by one of the people for the pleasure of the people. 
Perhaps that which now remains of this class of 
literature once had a particular shape that is now 
lost. In any case, the incidents of many of the 
ballad stories, the poetic images, and even the 
dramatic manner are frequently common to different 
countries. Of the classes of ballad thus generally 
diffused there are five main classes :— 

(1) Ballads of the supernatural, including those 
of a ghostly character and those based on a belief 
in fairies and fairyland. 

(2) Romantic ballads, dealing with the familiar 
events of life—of love, tragic death, etc. 

(3) Ballads of adventure. Under this class come 
several of the Border ballads and those relating to 
Robin Hood. 

(4) Humorous ballads, usually the rendering into 
verse of some pointed popular jest. 

(5) Nursery ballads, including lullabies. 

The ballad, even in later times, appears to have 
been occasionally sung as well as said. Some pieces 
are made up of prose in addition to verse ; the 
dialogue and the purely lyrical parts are in metre, 
while the narrative is mainly given in prose. Ex¬ 
amples of this are found both in France and 
Scotland. There is no precise date as to the age 
of extant ballad literature. Shakespeare speaks 
of such verse as a familiar thing in his day; but 
even remote antiquity is pointed to in this matter 
from the fact that an old folk-song used by Goethe 
is known to the Bechuanas in South Africa. English 
and Scottish ballads, however, which can be traced 
to the fourteenth century, are probably the earliest 
of surviving forms of note. 

In regard to the universality of various character¬ 
istics of the ballad there are not a few decided 
instances. The plot, which is perhaps the most 
notable, we find repeated again and again. This 
occurs in at least four different stories. The dead 
mother returning to her children, the fickle bride¬ 
groom won from a second affection by his first love, 
the beautiful maiden wooed by a false lover who 
has slain seven women and seeks to slay her, the 
bride pretending to be dead that she may escape 
from a hated to an admired lover—all find effective 
treatment in distinct nationalities. In illustration 
of the last of these examples we have the story 
of Fair Isambourg in France and The Gay Gossliawlt 
in Scotland. 

Of the second class, which is a favourite with 
the Border minstrels, there is an almost exact 
version in Danish ; and of the third there are 
variants in almost every European country. Other 
interesting points of resemblance also occur. One 
of the most prominent of these is the introduction 
of talking-birds. Nothing comes more naturally to 
the ballad-writer than the report of the conversation 
of some hawk or parrot. In Border minstrelsy, 


Servian song, the Romaic ballads, and French folk¬ 
song, it is the same. Besides this we have also the 
parallel appearance in ballad pieces of different 
countries of the following features:— (a) The 
representation of the commonest objects of every¬ 
day life as being made of gold and silver ; ( b ) the 
constant use of certain numbers, such as 3 and 7; 
(c) textual repetition of the speeches ; ( d ) the use 
of assonance instead of rhyme ; and ( e ) brusqueness 
of recital. Despite these likenesses, however, a 
well-marked distinctiveness in literary quality 
appears. For dramatic vigour and picturesqueness 
the ballads of the Scottish Border, with Denmark, 
Sweden, and Germany are pre-eminent; those of 
France are usually bright and graceful; those of 
Greece excel in literary finish. The purely English 
ballads, though not lacking in spirit and humour, 
are often commonplace in style. Mr. Andrew Lang 
(Ward’s English Poets, i. 207) has put forward as 
an explanation of this that the English ballads as 
we have them have lost their original character 
as Volhs-lieder. The transcriber, he maintains, has 
cut down the material to his hand, till the dulness 
of prose only was left. It is probably the case, 
however, that they are there in almost their first 
shape, though why they should fall so markedly 
below those of the North in merit it is somewhat 
difficult to argue. It has been ascribed to climatic 
influences. English scenery, it is alleged, is com¬ 
paratively uninspiring; and hence, English popular 
verse lacks the imagination, the fire, and speed that 
distinguish the like productions in the North. 
Still there are exceptions, it must be said, to this 
in England; there are a few early English ballads 
of undoubted literary value. 

One remarkable feature of the old ballad consists 
in its half curious, half familiar treatment of the 
supernatural. There is exhibited a peculiar 
mysticism, sometimes weird, sometimes playful. 
In the Wife of Usher's Well there is this mysticism 
of terrible weirdness :— 

“ It fell about the Martinmas, 

When nights are lang and mirk, 

The carline wife’s three sons came hame 
And their hats were o’ the birk. 

It neither grew in syke (stream) nor ditch 
Nor yet in ony she ugh (hollow) ; 

But at the gates o’ Paradise 
That birk grew fair eneugh.” 

In Clerli Saunders, Sir Poland, and in some of 
the German and Danish ballads we have the same 
striking presentation of the unseen. Nothing 
again can be more delightful than the pictures of 
Fairyland that meet us every now and then in 
ballad poetry. In Tamlane, and in the stories of 
Thomas the Rhymer and their Scandinavian 
variants this is charmingly limned. We see its 
elfin beauty in the brightness of the queen of 
Faery, in the “ bonny road that winds about the 
fernie brae,” and in various other picturesque 
touches. These ballads no doubt truly reflect in 
their solemnity and gaiety of sentiment the 
imaginative beliefs of the people in that idyllic 
world in which the minstrel lived and moved. 
The ballads of a romantic caste are mostly con¬ 
cerned with strange and touching incidents of 
love and war. Pathos and joy naturally divide 







Ballad. 


( 312 ) 


Ballantyne. 


their claims in the subject matter. At one time, 
as in Love Gregor, the bride is sacrificed to the 
hate of a mother. Again, as in the Gay Gosshawk, 
the wit of the lovers overcomes every obstacle. 
Family feuds are frequently the occasion of a 
telling episode, as in Barthram's Dirge, the 
Three Ravens, and other pieces equally grave and 
impressive. The most prominent examples of 
ballads of adventure are the riding ballads of the 
Scottish border, and those that deal with Robin 
Hood. Of the former collection there are brilliant 
instances in Jamie Telfer and Rinmont Willie, 
passages in both of which have been authoritatively 
characterised as Homeric in dramatic vividness. 
Mr. Lang describes the ballads about Robin Hood 
as “ exceedingly English, long and dull.” This, 
however, must be accepted with a considerable 
qualification. The humorous ballads in various 
countries are often marked by clever and free 
play of fancy. Rerhaps the best belong to Germany 
and Scotland. 

The time that produced the ballad was wholly 
before the diffusion of books ; with the printing- 
press the office of the minstrel disappeared. This 
poetical form nevertheless has been cultivated 
with success in later times, especially in England 
and Germany. The disuse of the older dialect in 
Scotland has greatly hindered further accomplish¬ 
ment in the art in that country, though Scott and 
Allan Cunningham composed ballads of distinct 
merit in somewhat close imitation of the early 
examples. In England last century a like attempt 
was made, only, however, to incur ridicule, as in 
Johnson’s famous parody. But in recent times 
ballads of a distinctively powerful kind have been 
written by Coleridge, Rossetti, and Tennyson. In 
Germany the art of the minnesinger has been 
splendidly maintained by Burger, Schiller, Goethe, 
and Uhland. 

The history of ballad-collecting is a matter of 
some interest. Such pieces, at least in England, 
were first printed on broadsheets and sold by 
pedlars. About the time of the Restoration these 
broadsheets were gathered by collectors as curios ; 
Lord Dorset, Dryden, and Pepys were among such 
antiquarians. Reprints of any note were first 
undertaken in the south by Tom Durfey, in the 
north by Allan Ramsay. Bishop Percy, however, 
made the great step in this direction by the publi¬ 
cation of his Rcliques, which was based on old 
copies of ballads in a folio MS. that had come 
into his hands. In Scotland Herd published what 
had been called the first useful collection from 
oral tradition in 1769. Scott, in his Border Mins¬ 
trelsy, continued to a considerable extent the 
work of Herd. Motherwell’s collection (1827) is 
marked by critical care. A recent important 
addition to the series of ballad texts is that of 
Messrs. Furnivall and Hales (London, 1867-8, 3 
vols.). This is taken from the folio MS. of Percy. 
Critics agree in placing first among recent collec¬ 
tions in interest and scholarship that of Professor 
Child ( English and Scottish Ballads, Boston, 
U.S., 1864). Other valuable books on the subject 
are those of Ritson, Kinlocli, Jamieson, Sharpe, 
Aytoun, and Allingham. The old ballads are a very 


valuable part of poetical literature. Though com¬ 
posed in a rude era, they were the work of men of 
true artistic genius ; the themes, moreover, touch 
on almost all the chords of human experience. 
They contain, and vividly set forth in their own 
way, the elements of the deepest tragedy or gayest 
comedy. The period of their production would also 
seem to be in their favour as compositions to be 
enjoyed by later ages. The spring-time of history 
that gave them light has lent them a delightful 
brightness of delineation both in regard to nature 
and man. Round them, as round the work of 
Chaucer, we have a poetic atmosphere full of 
charm, a sweetness that belongs also to the dawn 
and May. This will always attract ; but the 
material and style of the ballads in themselves 
must still secure genuine appreciation. 

Ballade, a form of poem consisting of one or 
more triplets of seven or eight-lined stanzas, the 
last line of which is used as a refrain, and is 
common to all. 

Ballanche, Pierre Simon, born at Lyons in 
1776, abandoned in 1813 the business of printer for 
the pursuit of literature. After spending some 
years in Italy he settled in Paris in 1824, and his 
works, dealing chiefly with the regeneration of 
society, and couched in mystical language, hit off 
the prevailing spirit of the time. He was elected 
to the Academy in 1841. La Paling enesie So dale, 
Antigone, Orpliee, La Vision d'Hebal, and most of 
his other productions are mere rhapsodies, but his 
views are set forth with more clearness in Les 
Institutions Sociales. He died in 1847. 

Ballantine, William, born in 1812, was the 
son of a well-known metropolitan magistrate, and 
was himself called to the bar in 1834, and created 
Serjeant-at-law in 1856. His skill in mastering- 
cases and addressing juries soon gave him a large 
and lucrative practice in the Crown courts. He 
figured in almost every important criminal trial, 
including the notorious Tichborne case, in the 
earlier stage of which he acted for the defendant. 
His last great brief was that which he held for the 
Gaekwar of Baroda in 1875. His health failing, he 
devoted his last years to recording his Experiences 
of a Barrister's Life (1882), which was followed up 
by another series of sketches, The Old World and 
the New (1884). He died in 1886. 

Ballantyne, James, was born at Kelso, where, 
in 1795, he started a newspaper and a printing- 
establishment. In 1802 he published Sir Walter 
Scott’s Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, and 
moving to Edinburgh, founded in conjunction with 
his brother the publishing firm of John Ballantyne 
and Co., in opposition to Constable, Scott having a 
half share of the business. Financial difficulties 
soon overtook the partners, and Constable triumphed. 
Ballantyne became an auctioneer of books, and died 
at Edinburgh in 1821. 

Ballantyne, James Robert, born in 1813 
at Kelso, and educated at the Scottish Naval and 
Military Academy, was sent to India in 1841 to re¬ 
organise the Sanscrit College at Benares. He was 
the forerunner of the great investigators of Hindu 




Bailan Wrasse. 


( 313 ) 


Balloon. 


literature, editing the Makabhashya , translating 
many scientific works into Sanscrit, compiling 
grammars of Hindi, Mahratta, Persian, and San¬ 
scrit, and writing innumerable treatises and papers 
on Oriental subjects. In 1861 he returned to 
England, and was appointed Librarian at the 
India Office, but died in 1864. 

Bailan Wrasse. [Wrasse.] 

Ballarat, or Ballaarat, a municipal town and 
city in the province of Victoria, Australia, 60 miles 
N.W. of Melbourne. Situated in the midst of the 
chief gold-field, it has since 1851 grown to be the 
second city in the province. The Yarrowee Creek 
divides East from West Ballarat, the latter having 
been recognised as a city in 1870. The streets of 
both together cover an area of more than 11 square 
miles. There are many fine public buildings, and 
railways communicating with Melbourne, Ararat, 
and Maryborough. The suburb of Sebastopol has 
sprung up recently and attained considerable size. 
Gold digging is still the main industry, but as the 
surface supply of the alluvial soil has been nearly 
exhausted, mines have now to be sunk to a great 
depth. Iron-founding, agriculture, and sheep¬ 
farming are also carried on. Ballarat is the seat 
both of a Church of England and a Roman Catholic 
bishopric. 

Ballast, in Civil Engineering, a term applied 
to the covering of roads generally, laid for the pur¬ 
pose of keeping them dry, and for giving strength. 
Ballast is mostly composed of gravel, broken stone, 
or broken cinders. It should be pervious to water, 
and slightly elastic. On ordinary roads it is laid 
to a depth of six to twelve inches ; on railroads a 
thickness of two feet is the rule. [Permanent 
Way.] 

In Marine Engineering the term denotes the 
material taken into a ship when emptied of its 
cargo, to bring its displacement (q.v.) back to the 
normal amount. For a vessel to sail uniformly well 
its total weight should be of constant amount, and 
should be properly distributed. The cargo, there¬ 
fore, requires proper placing, and when removed, 
ballast is required instead. If placed too near the 
bottom of the vessel, heavy rolling results ; if too 
high, there is a tendency to top-heaviness. The 
material used is generally stone, gravel, iron, or 
water. In the case of water ballast, which has many 
advantages over the others, and is much adopted 
now, vessels are built with double bottoms, the 
space between being divided into separate com¬ 
partments. Into some or all of these compartments 
water may be admitted when required, the trim of 
the vessel allowing adjustment by selection of the 
compartments to be filled. They are usually emptied 
by steam-pumps. [Cargo, Shir.] 

Ballater, a village in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, 
36 miles S.W. of Aberdeen, with which it is con¬ 
nected by railway. It stands at an elevation of 
668 feet on the left bank of the river Dee, and is 
much frequented in summer for its bracing air and 
chalybeate springs. 

Ballet (Fr. ballet; Low Lat. ballare, to 
dance, perhaps connected with the Greek hallo, 


I throw), a theatrical exhibition consisting of 
dancing, posturing, and pantomimic action. It 
was introduced into Italy during the Renaissance. 
Ballets with historical or philosophical themes were 
a prominent feature of French court life, especially 
under Louis XIV. Noverre in 1749 stripped the 
entertainment of some of the conventions that had 
fettered it and revived the dramatic ballet. Since 
his time there has been little change, except for a 
further revival in Italy of late years. 

Ball-flower, an architectural ornament found 
in the second or Decorated period of English Gothic 
architecture (q.v.). 



BALL-FLOWER 


Ballina, a port and market town in Cos. Mayo 
and Sligo, Ireland, 7 miles from the mouth of the 
river Moy, and 19 miles from Castlebar. The river 
divides the town in two parts, the larger of which 
is on the Mayo side, the opposite suburb being 
called Ardnaree. There is a good trade in corn and 
provisions, and the salmon fishing attracts many 
sportsmen. The French took the town in 1798 and 
held it till their defeat at Killala. 

Ballinasloe, a market town in Cos. Galway 
and Roscommon, Ireland, the river Suck, which 
separates the counties, dividing the town also. It 
is 34 miles E. of Galway, and 94 miles from Dublin 
by rail. A great cattle fair is held in October, and 
the head-quarters of the Galway militia are 
established here. Close by stands Garbally Castle, 
the seat of the Earl of Clancarty. 

Ballistic Galvanometer. [Galvanome¬ 
ter.] 

Ballistic Pendulum, a contrivance designed 
for the measurement of the speed of projectiles, 
but which has now given way to other and better 
arrangements for that purpose. It consists of a 
heavy, drum-shaped block of wood, suspended by a 
light rod as with an ordinary pendulum. The pro¬ 
jectile, so fired into the block as to avoid jarring 
the point of suspension, shares its amount of motion 
with the block [Momentum], which will therefore 
start moving with a certain velocity. Observing the 
displacement of the pendulum from its mid-posi¬ 
tion, and with a knowledge of the weights of the 
projectile and block, the velocity of the former may 
be estimated. 

Balloon. A general account of the historic 
development of aerial navigation has been given in 
the article Aeronautics. It is necessary here to 
explain the general conditions to be followed in the 
design of balloons, and the directions in which im¬ 
provement may be sought. Archimedes’ principle 






















Ballot. 


( 314 ) 


Ballot. 


tells us that the entire weight of a balloon and its 
appendages must be less than that of the air dis¬ 
placed. Hence some substance specifically lighter 
than air, such as hydrogen gas, must form part of 
the balloon. The lighter the gas employed, the 
smaller the volume of it required to raise a given 
load. The above principle, again, assigns a limit 
to the height a balloon can rise, for it evidently 
cannot be sustained at a height where the density of 
the atmosphere is less than that of the enclosed gas. 

A definite quantity of this gas must be contained 
in an envelope of suitable dimensions and strength. 
As the balloon rises, the external pressure of the 
atmosphere diminishes, thereby increasing the 
tendency of the enclosed gas to burst its envelope. 
The spherical-shaped envelope is the strongest, and 
has been generally adopted. When translation from 
place to place is effected by air currents simply, 
this form is very convenient; but when the air- 
vessel is intended to provide its own means of 
locomotion, a shape is required that shall combine 
strength with small resistance to its mot ion through 
the air. Such we have in the torpedo-shaped 
aerostat. 

Concerning the motive power necessary to make 
•our vessel more or less independent of the various 
air-currents, some means for the compact storage 
•of energy readily convertible into motion must be 
available. Electric accumulators may for instance 
drive a quick-speed motor that shall work a screw- 
propeller. Already such an arrangement has been 
successfully tried, and inasmuch as the questions of 
■compact electrical storage batteries and of com¬ 
pact motors are of great importance in other fields, 
we may hope for a direct application of these to 
aerial navigation. In the above, definite distinction 
is made between a balloon and a flying-machine 
(q.v.). The former can remain motionless in the 
air by reason of its lightness ; the latter requires 
•expenditure of energy to prevent its falling. 

Ballot (Fr. a little ball), a term derived from 
the practice of voting secretly by depositing a ball 
in a box, as is still done in elections at clubs. The 
name has been extended to all systems of voting 
which aim at secrecy, as well as to the balls, 
tickets, or printed forms used in them. 

The ancient Athenians voted secretly with oyster- 
shells [Ostracism], or in judicial proceedings with 
beans or balls ; the ancient Romans with stamped 
clay tablets (tabellas). Athenian officials were, 
however, generally selected by show of hands or 
(for the less important offices) by lot. In the public 
assembly the ballot was only used in questions 
of a distinctly personal kind, e.g. admission to 
citizenship. 

Vote by ballot on bills or resolutions has occa¬ 
sionally been adopted in legislatures. It was used 
(for instance) in the Venetian Senate, and an 
attempt was made to introduce it in the English 
Parliament in 1710 ; but it is inconsistent, with the 
responsibility of representatives to their consti¬ 
tuents. By far its most important use is in the 
election of representatives in the legislature and 
public functionaries. In England it was suggested 
during the 18th century; a bill was introduced 


into Parliament by O'Connell in 1830 ; it was in 
the first draft of the Reform Bill of 1832, and a 
resolution in its favour was moved annually (at 
first by the historian George Grote) for many years 
in the House of Commons, and in 1851 was carried 
against the Government, but without result. It was 
for many years a leading feature in the Radical 
programme, and was one of the six points of 
Chartism (q.v.). In 1870 a select committee of 
the House of Commons reported in its favour, and 
it was used in the School Board elections of that 
year; and in 1872 Mr. W. E. Forster’s Ballot Act 
was passed. The system then introduced was at 
first temporary and experimental, but has succeeded 
admirably, and may now be regarded as permanent. 

In some of the English colonies in America the 
ballot had existed from the first, and it is now 
adopted throughout the United States for all 
Federal and State elections except, for the latter, 
in Kentucky (1888) ; as also in the English colonies, 
and nearly all Continental countries, Sweden and 
Hungary being exceptions ; in the latter it has been 
abolished for Parliamentary elections, but still re¬ 
mains in municipal. In Italy the voter must write 
the name of the candidate he supports, in the poll¬ 
ing place, on a paper which he then folds and puts 
in the box. But the systems in use may be reduced 
to two types—the American or ticket system, and 
the English system. 

In the former each party issues printed tickets, 
or lists of all its candidates (often very long, as 
elections for all Federal and State offices usually 
take place at the same time in the United States), 
and (where the election is to more than one 
office) “pasters,” or adhesive slips, each printed 
with the name of a candidate. Voters who object 
to any candidate on the ticket issued by their 
own party can thus substitute another name, 
or they may simply erase that of the candidate 
they dislike. These tickets and pasters are usually 
obtained from a party agent outside the polling 
place, and deposited in the ballot box. This plan 
is obviously fatal to secrecy, and the system facili¬ 
tates fraud—two or more tickets (printed on thin 
paper for the purpose) being sometimes folded and 
deposited together—while the presiding officials 
have been known to “ stuff” the boxes with tickets 
of the party they favoured, before the proceedings 
began. (In California glass ballot boxes have been 
adopted to check this.) The system therefore is 
gradually giving way in the United States to the 
English system—called, out of consideration for the 
feelings of the Irish voter, the “Australian system.” 
In this (as established by Mr. Forster's Act through¬ 
out the United Kingdom) the voter, after he has 
entered the polling place, receives a numbered 
ticket, containing the names of all the candidates. 
He makes a cross opposite the names of those he 
supports, and then folds the paper and deposits it. 
Any other mark renders the paper void. A note 
is taken of the number, in case of a scrutiny on 
petition, but except when this is resorted to (which 
it very rarely is) secrecy is absolutely assured. The 
papers are shuffled together before being counted, 
and after the count they are sealed up in the 
presence of representatives of both parties and 









Ballota. 


( 315 ) 


Balsams. 


transmitted to a Chancery official, who destroys 
them after one year. In the hurried count of some 
thousands of papers during the two or three hours 
between the close of the poll and the declaration 
no individual voter’s paper can possibly be traced. 
Special provision is, of course, made both in Eng¬ 
land and America for blind and illiterate voters. 

The introduction of the ballot in political elec¬ 
tions has often been condemned (by J. S. Mill for 
instance) on the ground that “ a vote is a public 
trust.” Experience, however, shows that many voters 
are unable to resist the temptations offered them 
to vote against their convictions. Since its introduc¬ 
tion in England bribery and intimidation have very 
greatly decreased. 

Ballota, a genus of weeds belonging to the 
Labiate family, with an offensive odour, including 
B. nigra, the black stinking horehound. 

Ballycastle, a, small port in Co. Antrim, Ire¬ 
land, at the foot of Knocklayd Mountain, opposite 
Rathlin Island, and five miles S.W. of Fair Head. It 
is on a romantic part of the coast, the Giant’s Cause¬ 
way being 12 miles to the east, whilst the ruins of 
Bonamargy Abbey and of an old castle are in the 
neighbourhood. It has a railway station, but the 
shipping trade is now slight, and the harbour is 
blocked with sand. 

Ballymena, a market town in Co. Antrim, 
Ireland, in a plain on the right bank of the river 
Braid, 33 miles N.W. of Belfast, and with a railway 
station. The district is fertile and thickly popu¬ 
lated, the cultivation of flax and the weaving and 
bleaching of linen being the chief industries. The 
linen market is one of the largest in Ireland. 

Ballymore, a parish in the eastern part of Co. 
Armagh, Ireland. It. contains the town of Tander- 
agee, and the railway station of Poyntzpass. Smaller 
places bearing the same name exist in Westmeath, 
Wexford, and Donegal. 

Ballyshannon, a port and market town in Co. 
Donegal, at the mouth of the river Erne, 157 miles 
from Dublin by rail. The harbour is blocked by a 
bar which impedes commercial traffic. Just above 
the town a fine cataract is formed by the Erne, and 
a bridge of fourteen arches spans the river nearer 
the sea. The salmon-fishing is excellent. 

Balm, the popular name for Melissa officinalis, 
a honey-yielding labiate plant. 

Balm of Gilead, or of Mecca, or Opobal- 
SAMUM, a fragrant oleo-resin obtained by incision 
in the bark of Balsamodendron Opobalsamum and 
B. Berryi, Arabian trees belonging to the order 
Terebinthacece. The name is given in gardens to 
the fragrant labiate, Dracocephalum canariense, and 
in America to a poplar, Populus can dicans, and to 
the resin of Idea Car anna, Brazilian Elemi, a tree 
related to Balsamodendron. 

Balrne, Col de, a mountain pass at the N.E. 
end of the vallev of Chamounix on the way to 
Martigny. It is 7,200 feet in height, and comes 
between the Mont Blanc range and the Dent du 
Midi, being on the border line of France and Switz¬ 
erland. 


Balmoral Castle, the favourite Highland 
residence of Queen Victoria, in the parish of 
Crathie, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, on the river Dee, 
524 miles W. of Aberdeen. The spot was visited 
by "the Queen and Prince Albert in their first Scottish 
tour, and it pleased them so much that Prince 
Albert in 1848 bought the lease of the estate, and 
four years later acquired the fee-simple from the 
trustees of the Duke of Fife for a sum of £32,000. 
A new house was forthwith erected, consisting of 
two blocks united by wings with a lofty tower and 
turret, the whole being built of massive granite. 
The nearest railway station is Ballater, nine miles 
distant, whence the journey to London is 572 miles. 

Balnaves, Henry, born at Kircaldy in Fife- 
shire, Scotland, of poor parents, early in the six¬ 
teenth century, was educated at St. Andrew's and in 
Germany, where he adopted Lutheran principles. 
On his return to Scotland he took up the profession 
of law, and the regent Arran made him secretary 
of state. In 1543 he was imprisoned for his Pro¬ 
testantism. He now openly joined the reformer, 
was supposed to be privy to the murder of Cardinal 
Beaton, and in 1547 took refuge in the castle of St. 
Andrew’s. He was captured and sent to Rouen, 
but in 1554 Mary of Guise recalled him, and he was 
one of the commissioners to revise The Book of 
Discipline. He died in 1579, and his book, The 
Confession of Faith, was published posthumously. 

Balrampore, or Bulrampur, a town in the 
division of Faizabad, province of Oude, British 
India, near the frontier of Nepaul, is situated on 
the river Bubbaie, about 50 miles S. of Mount 
Devalagiri. 

Balsall, or Basall Heath, a suburb to the 
S.E. of Birmingham, and included in the Parlia¬ 
mentary borough, but within the boundaries of 
Worcestershire. It has grown rapidly of late years, 
and lias a large population engaged in hardware 
manufactures. 

Balsam, a garden plant, Impatiens Balsamina, 
belonging to the tribe Balsaminece of the order 
Geraniacecc. It is an East Indian annual, and its 
naturally monosymmetric flowers, with a large spur 
to the posterior sepal, have been so doubled in 
cultivation as to be almost polysymmetric. 

Balsams, resinous substances, or solutions 
of resins in a volatile oil, which exude from certain 
trees, either naturally, or as a result of incisions. 
Some of them have a peculiar aromatic odour and 
pleasant pungent taste, owing to the presence of 
certain organic acids. The term balsam is some¬ 
times restricted to this group alone, but is more 
generally used in the wider sense. They were 
known to the ancients, and employed by the 
Romans and Greeks for the preparation of incense. 
They are used, but not to a large extent, in medicine. 
Some of the more common balsams are Benzoin 
(q.v.), Storax, a grey brown liquid obtained in 
Asia Minor from Liquidamber Orientalis. Canada 
Balsam exudes from the Canadian fir, Abies bal- 
samea, used as a cement, and, owing to its refractive 
index being almost identical with that of crown 
glass, largely employed in mounting microscopic 








Balta. 


( 316 ) 


Baltimore Bird. 


objects. Balsam op 1 Capaiva. or Copaiba, is .on 
acrid oleo-resin obtained from several species of 
the leguminous Copaifera. Balsam of Peru is 
the fragrant oleo-resin obtained from the stem of 
Myrospermum Pereira ?, a leguminous tree of 
Central America. Balsam of Tolu is a similar 
substance, obtained from M. toluiferum in Ven¬ 
ezuela and New Granada, and employed in cough- 
lozenges. 

Balta, a circle and its chief town in the govern¬ 
ment of Podolia, Russia. The town is on the river 
Kodima, a tributary of the Bug, and connected by 
railway with Moscow and Cracow. Two great fairs 
are annually held here, and there is a large trade 
in cattle, horses, and local produce. 

Baltic Provinces, the name given to the 
Russian provinces of Finland, Courland, Petersburg, 
Livonia and Esthonia (all of which see) ; sometimes, 
however, Finland and Petersburg are not included 
in the group. 

Baltic Sea (classic Sinus Codanus ), the name 
of uncertain derivation by which most geographers 
designate the great gulf of the North Sea known to 
those who dwell on its shores as the Ost See or 
East Sea. It extends in a north-westerly direction 
between Germany and Russia on the one side and 
the Scandinavian Peninsula on the other, being cut 
off from the North Sea by Denmark, except where 
the narrow passages of the Sound and the Great 
and Little Belt provide outlets. The northern por¬ 
tion beyond the Aland Isles is called the Gulf of 
Bothnia, and large indentations on the Russian 
coast form the Gulfs of Riga and Finland. The 
total length is 900 miles, and the breadth varies 
from 100 to 200 miles, and the area about 160,000 
square miles. It is on the whole a shallow sea, 
shelving up from the northern shores, which are in 
places rocky and precipitous, to the flat, sandy 
coasts of Russia and Germany. The water is 
brackish, owing to the number of rivers, such as 
the Vistula, Neva, Oder, Dwina, Tornea, etc., that 
flow into it. Many islands dot its surface, the 
largest of them being Fiinen and Zealand, at the 
entrance ; Oeland, off the Swedish coast; Gothland, 
almost in the middle, opposite the Gulf of Riga ; 
and the Aland group, just beyond the opening of 
the Gulf of Finland. From the middle of December 
to the beginning of April it is practically closed to 
navigation, owing to the ice that blocks the gulfs 
and harbours. St. Petersburg is situated at the 
head of the Gulf of Finland, and is protected by 
the strong fortresses of Sveaborg, Viborg, and 
Kronstadt. Kiel, the S.W. angle, is the chief sta¬ 
tion of the German navy; and Stralsund and Rtigen 
afford excellent harbours. Dantzig, Riga, Memel, 
Karlskrona, Urnea. Lulea, and Tornea export large 
quantities of corn, hemp, tallow, and timber. 
Amber is a characteristic product of the southern 
coasts. 

Baltimore, an important city in Maryland, 
United States of America, on the north side of 
the Patapsco river, the bay of the same name 
forming a convenient harbour. It is 37 miles N.E. 
of Washington and 100 miles S.W. of Philadelphia, 


and, together with the county in which it stands, 
derives its name from the Earl of Baltimore, to 
whom the colony of Maryland was granted in 
1631. The city, which was founded in 1729, now 
covers an area of more than 10,000 acres, and is 
famous for its fine public buildings and monuments, 
amongst which are the City Hall, the John Hopkins 
University, the Peabody Institute, the Roman 
Catholic Cathedral, with numerous colleges, 
churches, hospitals, and theatres ; the Washington 
Statue, and the Battle Monument. The flour mar¬ 
ket is one of the largest in the States, and tobacco 
is a valuable export. Brick-making, iron-founding, 
ship-building, brewing, and the manufacture of 
woollen and cotton goods are important industries ; 
and the oysters of Chesapeake Bay are a great 
source of profit, Baltimore is connected by railway 
with all parts of North America. 

Baltimore, George Calvert, created Baron 
Baltimore in the peerage of Ireland in 1625, was 
born in Yorkshire about 1580, and, entering Parlia¬ 
ment in 1609, rose to be Secretary of State in 1619. 
He retired from office as a Catholic in 1625, and 
for a short time lived on his Irish estates ; but 
having for some time been interested in the coloni¬ 
sation of Newfoundland he went out to America, 
and ultimately settled in Maryland, for which 
colony a charter was granted to his son. He died 
in 1632. 

Baltimore Bay, an inlet from Chesapeake 
Bay, near the head on the western side. It has a 
length of about 14 miles, and the city of Baltimore 
is situated at its extremity, being about 250 miles 
distant from the Atlantic. 

Baltimore Bird, Baltimore Oriole (Hy- 
phantes baltimore ), an American finch-like bird, 
ranging from the Atlantic coasts to the high central 




Baltimore bird (Hyphantes ballimore). 


plains, and southward to Panama. The male is 
about seven inches long with sharp conical bill; 
head all round and to middle of back, scapulars, 
wings, and upper surface of tail, black ; rest of 
under parts, rump, upper-tail coverts, and lesser 


















Baltistan. 


( 317 ) 


Bambangala. 


wing coverts, with ends of tail-feathers (except the 
two innermost), orange-red ; edges of wing quills, 
with a band across the tips of the greater coverts, 
white. The colours are much less brilliant in the 
female, and each of her feathers has a black spot. 
The males come north about the beginning of May, 
and are soon followed by the females. They are 
gregarious birds, building fearlessly in gardens near 
houses, and compensating the farmer for the tax 
they levy on his fruit by the swarms of insects they 
devour. The song of the male is loud and sweet, 
and the female has a softer note, which she utters 
incessantly while building. The nest is a cylin¬ 
drical pendulous structure, formed by interweav¬ 
ing the filaments of flax-like plants, and usually 
contains five white eggs marked with purple. The 
epithet “ Baltimore ” refers to the resemblance of 
the plumage to the colours of Lord Baltimore’s 
livery ; the popular name “ hang-nest ” to the mode 
of nidification. In New England these birds are 
called Golden Robins. [Oriole.] 

Baltistan, or Little Thibet, often called 
Iskardoh, from the name of the chief town, is an 
administrative district in the north-east of Kashmir, 
containing the valley of the Upper Indus, and 
having a mean elevation of 11,000 feet on the flank 
of the Kara Korum mountains. One of the loftiest 
peaks in the world is within its borders. The in¬ 
habitants are of Mongolian race. 

Baluchi (Beluchi, Bilochi), an East Iranian 
nation, properly the lowlanders, as opposed to the 
Brahui, or highlanders, of Baluchistan, or Beloo- 
chistan (q.v.), to which they give their name ; partly 
in Katcli-Gandava, but in centre and west reaching 
to Karman, in Persia, and even to Strait of Ormuz ; 
are all Mohammedans (Sunni sect), and even claim 
Arab descent, but are undoubtedly Iranians, with 
regular Aryan features, light brown complexion, hair 
often chestnut and even fair, eyes light grey and 
sometimes blue ; speech, a rude uncultivated variety 
of old Persian, with two marked dialects, a northern 
and a southern (Makrani). Socially, the Baluchi 
are divided into tomuns, or tribes, under a tomundar 
(head chief) ; paras (clans), under a mugaddam ; 
and palli (septs), each under its own headman ; 
and again subdivided into family groups. Thus 
the tribal subdivisions are almost innumerable, 
but are reducible to three main branches:—1. 
Narui (Nharui), in the centre and west, including 
the Rakshani, Sajadi, Khasoji, Shahadi, Minds, 
Arbabi, and Malika; 2. Maghzi, in Katch-Gandava 
and East Makran, comprising the Lashari, Nari, 
Jatki, Kalandarani, Kakrani, and others ; 3. Ilind , 
also in Katch-Gandava, intermediate between the 
Baluchi proper and the Jats, include the Rind&ni, 
Dinari, Jalambani, Dumki, Boledi, Kharani, Nusher- 
wani, Bugti, Mari, Lagari, Lurd, and many others. 
Most of the Baluchi are still nomad pastors and 
marauders, raiding especially westwards far into 
Persia. But they are very brave and amenable to 
discipline, and many take service under the British 
raj. 

Balustrade, a series of balusters (so-called 
from their supposed resemblance to the flower of 
the pomegranate, Greek balaustra') or small pillars 


supporting the rail of a balcony or staircase. It 
originated in the architecture of the Renaissance. 

Balzac, Honore de, born at Tours in 1799, 
began life in a notary’s office, but, following the 
bent of his genius, scon took to writing, under 
the name of Horace de St. Aubin. His early stories 
met with scant appreciation. In 1830 he attracted 
popular attention by his Physiologic dn Mariage ; 
Les Berniers Chouans and La Peau de Chagrin con¬ 
firmed this success, and for the next twenty years 
he laboured with ardent though fitful industry as a 
novelist, producing eighty-five works, and establish¬ 
ing a reputation which still remains unrivalled. 
His careless and extravagant habits rendered his 
life miserable, in spite of the large sums that lie 
earned ; but not long before his premature death, 
in 1850, he married Mme. Hanska, a wealthy Polish 
lady, whose fortune relieved him from painful 
embarrassments. Balzac’s merits as a novelist have 
provoked keen discussion, but the commanding 
nature of his genius is more and more appreciated 
as years go on. To say that he founded the French 
realistic school is small praise. Whilst possessing 
the faculty for describing the facts of Parisian life 
with laborious minuteness, he was an artist of 
creative gifts, and his sympathies extended into 
the spiritual and visionary world; whilst he fully 
appreciated the softer and more domestic influ¬ 
ences of the country without being blind to the 
darker phases of rural society. It would be diffi¬ 
cult to imagine books separated by a wider gulf 
than that which lies between Le Pore Goriot and 
Le Me die in de Campagne, Les Parents Pauvres and 
Louis Lambert , La Maison Huarigen and Eugenie 
Graudet. It must be admitted, however, that he 
dwells rather more forcibly on human vice than 
human virtue, for he lived in the corrupt France 
of the Restoration. His personal character was 
simple and amiable. Though extravagant, he in¬ 
dulged but little in the pleasures of life, working 
with remarkable pertinacity for weeks together, and 
often re-writing his manuscript from beginning to 
end. Yet in spite of this industry his style is 
peculiar and frequently obscure. 

Balzac, Jean Louis Guez de, born at An- 
gouleme, in 1594, of a noble French family, was 
patronised by Richelieu, who made him a coun¬ 
cillor of state and historiographer royal, with a 
pension. His Letters are of high interest; and 
amongst his other works, Le Prince , Le Socrate 
Chretien , Les Entretiens, L'Aristippe, and Le Christ 
Victorieux are the most noteworthy. After leading 
a somewhat dissipated life at Court he retired into 
a monastery, gave himself up to good works, and 
died in 1G54. 

Bamana. [Bambarra.] 

Bambangala, the native name of an antelope 
found in the Congo Free State, and described by 
Captain Bateman in his book, The First Ascent of the 
Kasai , as “ in size as large as a mule ; of a bright 
chestnut colour, striped with creamy white, much 
in the manner of a zebra, on the back and sides, 
and dappled on the neck and flanks.” Dr. Sclater 
considers that it is probably a new species of the 
genus Tragelaphus. 




Bambarra. 


( 318 ) 


Bampton Lectures. 


Bambarra, a country in the north-western 
region of Central Africa (lat. 10° to 15° N., long. 
5° to 10° W.). It lies south of Ludamar, north of 
the Kong Mountains, and east of Kaarta and Man- 
dingo, but is of somewhat vague extent. Watered 
by the Niger or Joliba, the soil is fertile, and the 
natives are fair cultivators. Maize, rice, millet, 
cassava, dates, cotton, and palm-oil, are the chief 
products. There is a brisk trade with Timbuctoo 
farther inland, and with the coast. 

The inhabtants area large Mohammedan Negroid 
Negro people of the middle Niger basin south and 
west from Timbuktu. The name “Bambarra” is 
not that of the land, but the name given to its 
inhabitants, the Bamanas, by the surrounding 
Senegal peoples. The Bamanas are a branch 
of the great Malinke (Mandingo) family, mixed 
with Fulalis, whom they resemble in their com¬ 
paratively light complexion, well-shaped nose, 
and thin lips, while the woolly hair betrays the 
Mandingo (Negro) substratum. The Bamana infant 
is born a whitish-yellow, which gradually darkens 
to a yellowish-brown. At present a mild, inoffensive 
people, the Bamanas were formerly great warriors, 
who conquered their present domain in the eleventh 
century under Fulah chiefs. The aborigines were 
reduced to slavery; and the account given by 
Golberry of the “ Bambarras ” applies, not to the 
Bamanas, but to these aborigines, who are of pure 
Negro type. 

Bamberg 1 , a city in the circle of Upper Fran¬ 
conia, Bavaria, South Germany, on the river 
Regnitz, a tributary of the Maine, and 83 miles 
north of Nuremberg. The cathedral, dating from 
1004, contains the tomb of its founder, the Emperor 
Henry II., and his Empress Cunegund. The univer¬ 
sity (1147), Ludwig's Hospital, and the palace are 
interesting buildings, and traces exist of the ancient 
walls. Bamberg was formerly governed by indepen¬ 
dent bishops, but early in this century became part 
of Bavaria. The district is productive, and there 
are thriving local industries, chief of which is 
brewing. A railway connects the town with 
Nuremberg. 

Bambino, a term in Art applied to the figure 
of the infant Christ depicted in swaddling clothes. 

Bamboo, the common name for the large tree¬ 
like grasses belonging to the genus Bcimbusa, of 
which upwards of thirty species are known, mostly 
natives of the tropics. Some of them send up 
canes from their rhizomes fifty or sixty feet high 
in a single season, and in others one of the hollow 
internodes may reach a foot in diameter or more 
than three feet in length. They sometimes secrete 
masses of silica, known as tabasheer, in their 
joints. Their leaves are broader and more dis¬ 
tinctly stalked than those of most grasses, and 
their flowers more nearly approach the type of 
monocotyledons, having generally three lodicules, 
or perianth-leaves, six stamens, and three carpels. 
In China, Japan, Java, etc., the canes are em¬ 
ployed for an infinity of purposes, masts, sails, 
mats, tables, chairs, flower-pots, etc. 

Bamborough. (Bambrough, or Bambrugh), 


a village and parish in the county of Northumber¬ 
land, on the coast, about 10 miles from Berwick. 
The old castle, alleged to have been founded in 548 



BAMBOO. 


by Ina, King of Northumbria, is now a refuge for 
shipwrecked sailors. It was a royal borough before 
the Conquest, and formerly returned two members 
to Parliament. Off the coast lie the Earn Islands, 
with their lighthouse—the scene of the exploit of 
Grace Darling, who lies buried in the churchyard. 

Bambouk, a country in the north-west of 
Central Africa, lying east of Senegambia and west 
of Bambarra, between the main stream of the 
Senegal river and its tributary, the Faleme, with 
a length of 100 and a breadth of 80 miles. It is 
mountainous, but possesses fertile and well-watered 
valleys, where cotton, maize, millet, and melons grow 
abundantly. The climate, however, is singularly 
unhealthy ; and the negro population, of the Man¬ 
dingo race, is backward in civilisation. Gold is 
found and exchanged for merchandise. 

Bamian, a town, valley, and pass in Afghanistan, 
between the Hindu Kush and Koh Sia mountains, 
on the way from Kabul to Balkh. The pass, also 
known at the Kalu Pass, has an elevation of 12,000 
feet. In the valley lies the city, scattered over a 
considerable area, and remarkable for the caves and 
colossal statues hewn out of the surrounding rocks. 
These remains are most abundant on the site of the 
city or Buddhist shrine of Ghulgulah, which was 
destroyed by Zengliiz Khan about 1222 a.d. 

Bampton Lectures. John Bampton, Canon of 
Salisbury, left property to the University of Oxford, 
now producing £200 per annum, to provide for the 
delivery of eight lectures annually during the latter 
part of Lent and the earlier part of Easter Terms 
on the authority of the Scriptures, the doctrines of 
the Church, the value of the Christian Fathers, 
the Creeds, or other (specified) subjects of the 






Ban 


( 319 ) 


Bandages. 


Christian Faith. The first appointment was made 
in 1780. The lecturer, who must be at least 
a Master of Arts of Oxford or Cambridge, is 
appointed for one year by the heads of colleges, 
the year before his lectures are delivered. New¬ 
man, Mozley, Liddon, and other distinguished 
Anglican preachers have been among the lecturers. 

Ban. [Banns.] 

Banana, Musa sapientium, a handsome herba¬ 
ceous monocotyledonous plant, long cultivated in 
tropical and sub-tropical countries for its fruit. 
The sheathing bases of the large, oblong, pinnate- 
veined leaves form a false stem 20 to 30 feet high. 
The spike of irregular flowers is succeeded by a 
branch of 100 to 200 fruits, weighing together from 
50 to 80 pounds. The long, berry-like’ fruits, as 
they ripen, convert nearly all their starch into 
sugar and pectose, and form a valuable article of 
food, the staple food in many tropical countries, 
producing 44 times the weight of food per acre 
yielded by the potato. The importation of bananas 
has enormously increased of late years. The plan¬ 
tain (M. paradisiaca) is very closely related to the 
banana. 

Banat, literally county , a term now specially 
applied to a district in S. Hungary, with an 
area of some 7,600 square miles, bounded by the 
river Theiss on the W. and Transylvania and 
Wallachia on the E. Formerly occupied by marshes 
and forests, it is now populous and thriving, and 
produces maize, wheat, cotton, silk, horses, and 
cattle. In the mountains to the E. are found iron, 
copper, lead, tin, coal, and small quantities of gold. 
It is divided into the counties of Thorontal, 
Temesvar, and Krassova, and the chief town is 
Temesvar. The population consists of settlers of 
various nationalities, who have immigrated for the 
purpose of reclaiming the soil. 

Banbury, a market town and municipal 
borough in Oxfordshire, near the borders of 
Northamptonshire, into which it extends. It for¬ 
merly returned a member to Parliament, but the 
representation is now merged in a division of the 
county. The Great Western and London and 
North-Western Railways have stations here. Its 
market is supplied by a fertile and prosperous 
neighbourhood, and there are some local industries, 
the making of agricultural implements being the 
chief. The once famous cross has been destroyed, 
but Banbury cakes are still celebrated. The battle 
of Edgecott or Banbury was fought close by in 
1469, and Edgehill, the*scene of the first engage¬ 
ment between Charles I. and the Parliamentary 
forces, is a few miles distant. 

Banca, an island belonging to the Dutch in the 
Eastern Archipelago, off the S.E. coast of Sumatra, 
It has an area of 6,883 square miles, and possesses 
valuable tin mines, worked by Chinese labour. The 
climate is very unhealthy for Europeans. 

Bancoorah, or Bankura, a district and its 
capital in the Burdwan division of Bengal, British 
India. The district has an area of 2,621 square 
miles, and produces rice, cotton, and indigo, but is 


imperfectly cultivated. The town, which is the 
administrative centre, stands on the river Dhalkisor, 
about 100 miles N.W. of Calcutta. 

Bancroft, George, born in Massachusetts in 
1800, was educated at Harvard College, at Gottingen, 
and at Berlin. He wrote in early life a volume of 
poems, translated Heeren’s Reflections on the Politics 
of Ancient Greece , and began his great historical 
task, but entering the service of the Democratic 
Government became successively collector of the 
port of Boston, secretary to the navy, and minister 
plenipotentiary at the English Court, where he won 
much esteem. He retired in 1849 to devote him¬ 
self to literature, writing frequently in reviews, and 
composing the chief work of his life, The History of 
the United States. From 1867 to 1871 he resided 
as American minister in Berlin. As a historian he 
is painstaking, philosophical, and tolerably im¬ 
partial, but his style lacks brightness, and he gives 
the impression of being weighed down beneath the 
burden of his materials. He died in 1891. 

Bancroft, Richard, born at Farnworth, 
Lancashire, in 1544, and educated at Cambridge, 
became rector of St. Andrew’s, Holborn, in 1584. 
He distinguished himself by his violent attacks on 
the Puritans, and in 1597 was made Bishop of 
London. He was one of the principal commissioners 
at the Hampton Court Conference, and on the 
death of Whitgift was translated to the See of 
Canterbury. His zeal for uniformity was unbounded,, 
and he deprived forty-nine suspected ministers of 
their livings. He was the chief overseer of the 
Authorised Version of the Bible, but died in 1610,, 
a few months before its publication. 

Band of Hope. [Temperance.] 

Banda, a district and its capital in the; Alla¬ 
habad division of the North-West Provinces, British 
India. The district has an area of 3,061 square 
miles. It is watered by the Tamna and its tribu¬ 
taries, and is generally fertile ; but little more than 
half has been brought under cultivation, cotton 
being the most valuable product. Hindus form the 
largest element in the population. The climate is 
extremely hot in summer, and somewhat cbld in 
winter. The town stands on the river Ken, about 
100 miles west of Allahabad. 

Banda Islands, The, or Nutmeg Islands, 
twelve in number, situated in the Banda Sea, south 
of Ceram, form a group of the Eastern Archipelago, 
and belong to the Dutch. Their total area amounts 
to some 7,150 square miles. The largest, called 
Banda Lantoir, from the abundance of Lontar 
palms, is exceedingly unhealthy, and so Banda 
Neira is made the seat of government. Several 
are inhabited. Earthquakes and eruptions are- 
frequent and disastrous, Gunong Api containing an 
active volcano. Nutmegs and mace, cultivated by 
Chinese or Malay coolies, constitute a very valuable- 
product, and gold is found in Rosyn-gain. Banana 
Island is famous for fruit. Lantoir and Neira possess* 
excellent harbours. 

Banda Oriental. [Uruguay.] 

Bandages. [Surgical Dressings, Splints,. 
Slings, etc.] 









Bandajan. 


( 320 ) 


Bandon. 


Bandajan, a pass leading from the Maza- 
farabad division of the State of Kashmir over the 
Himalayas. It has an elevation of 14,854 feet, and 
is amidst crags of gneiss covered with perpetual 
snow. 

‘ Bandana, a printed handkerchief of Indian 
origin, now largely made in Great Britain. The 
cloth (usually cotton) is first dyed Turkey red, and 
then pressed between metal plates on which the 
pattern is cut. Bleaching liquor is then run in, 
and discharges the colour from those parts of the 
cloth to which it is admitted, it being kept out of 
the other parts by the enormous pressure to which 
they are meanwhile subjected. 

Bandello, Matteo, born at Castelnuovo, Italy, 
in 1480, entered the Dominican order, and on the 
Spanish invasion of Italy, in 1525, went to France, 
and obtained the bishopric of Agen, which he re¬ 
signed in 1555, dying in 1562. He wrote a great 
-many verses, and several novels of a licentious 
description in the style of Boccaccio. Shakespeare, 
Massinger, and Beaumont and Fletcher derived 
some of the incidents of their plays from him. 

Band-fish., the popular name of any fish of the 
genus Cepola, constituting a family of Blenniiform 
Acanthopterygian fishes. Body very elongated, 
compressed, and covered with minute cycloid 
scales ; there is one very long dorsal fin, which, as 
well as the anal, is composed of soft rays; ventral 
fins thoracic of one spine and five rays ; eyes large ; 
lower jaw frequently the longer. They are serpenti- 
form marine fishes, of delicate structure, 15 to 20 
inches long, belonging chiefly to the north temper¬ 
ate zone, and in (he Indian Ocean extending south¬ 
ward to Penang. One species, C. rubescens , is 
European, common in the Mediterranean (where, 
from its red colour, it is known as the Red Riband 
.and the Fire-flame), and sometimes occurring on 
the British coast. Band-fishes are said to feed on 
seaweed and small crustaceans, and are preyed 
upon by cod. They are valueless as food fish. 

Bandicoot, any animal of the genus Perameles, 
typical of the family Peramelidse, to which the 



bandicoot ( Perameles ). 


popular name is sometimes extended, and which 
•contains two other genera, Macrotis [Native 
Rabbit] and Chosropus (q.v.). The Bandicoots 


proper, distributed over Australia, Tasmania, New 
Guinea, and some of the neighbouring islands, are 
small marsupials, about the size of rabbits, with 
long slender head, ovate pointed ears, short harsh 
fur, rather short tail, pouch complete and opening 
backwards. The fore limbs have each five digits, 
but only the middle three are well developed, the 
outer ones being rudimentary; the hind feet have 
a rudimentary inner toe, the second and third are 
slender and joined, but with distinct claws, the 
fourth is well, and the fifth moderately, developed. 
The species are entirely terrestrial, making nests 
of grass and sticks in hollow places on the ground, 
and feeding chiefly on roots and bulbs varied with 
insects and worms. 

Bandicoot Bat ( Nesolda landicota ), a gigantic 
rat, distributed over the Indian and Malay pen¬ 
insulas. Above it is hairy and black, the lower 
surface inclining to gray. A female, figured in the 
Transactions of the Linncean Society (vol. vii.), 
measured 26^ inches, of which the tail was 11 in., 
and weighed 2 lbs. 114 oz. The male is larger, and 
has been known to weigh 3 lbs. It is a most 
mischievous and destructive animal, preying on 
grain and vegetables, and if these are scarce attack¬ 
ing poultry. The name “ bandicoot ” is a corruption 
of Telinga pandiltolin = Pig Rat, by which name the 
animal is sometimes known. 

Bandiera, Attilio and Emilio, two brothers, 
born at Venice in the years 1810 and 1815 respec¬ 
tively, of distinguished family, and entered the 
Austrian navy, in which their father served as an 
admiral. Animated by the keenest patriotism, and 
detesting their father’s acquiescence in foreign 
domination, they put themselves in correspondence 
with Mazzini, then in London. Their letters were 
opened, and attempts were made to conciliate them, 
but they escaped from Venice to Corfu, and thence, 
with twenty companions, landed in Calabria in the 
hope of stirring up an insurrection. This expedi¬ 
tion proved a failure ; the brothers, with seven 
others, were captured, and shot at Cosenza in 1844. 

Bandinelli, Baetolommeio, or Baccio, born 
at Florence in 1487, attained eminence as a sculptor, 
and received the patronage of Cosmo de Medici, 
Clement VII., and Francis I. He was influenced 
in all his work by deep-rooted envy of Michael 
Angelo, whom he never approached save in one 
composition, the Descent from the Cross , a bas- 
relief, now in Milan Cathedral. His most ambitious 
attempt was the group of Hercules and Cacus, in¬ 
tended to rival the great master’s David. Some 
admirable productions of his may be seen at 
Florence, in the cathedral and elsewhere. He 
achieved some success as a painter, but was less 
happy as an architect. He died in 1559. 

Bandon, the name of a river and town in 
County Cork, Ireland. The river rises in the 
Carbery Mountains, and after a course of 40 miles 
flows into the bay of Kinsale, where it forms a 
harbour. Spenser mentions it as “pleasant Bandon, 
crowned by many a wood.” The town, sometimes 
called Bandonbridge, is on the river, 13 miles from 
Cork, and has a bridge of six arches. It is a 






Bands. 


( 321 ) 


Bangsring. 


well-built town of stone, with good public edifices. 
The chief industry is dyeing, especially in blue. 

Bands. [Military Bands, Orchestra.] 

Bands, the name given to the pendants of white 
linen or other material worn by the clergy, lawyers, 
and in academic dress. They are now seldom worn 
by Church of England clergymen, but were at one 
time very common. 

Banff, a port and royal borough, the capital of 
Banffshire, Scotland. It is a well-built town, with 
a good harbour, protected by a castle at the mouth 
of the river Deveron, which is crossed by a bridge 
of seven arches. The public buildings are excellent, 
among them being the hospital founded by Alex¬ 
ander Chalmers. On the opposite side of the river 
is Macduff, the seat of a thriving shipping trade. 
Archbishop Sharp was born here. Together with 
Elgin and five other towns, it sends a member to 
Parliament. The county has an area of 686 sq. m., 
and a coast-line of 30 miles. It returns one member 
to Parliament. The soil is mostly fertile and well 
tilled, but cattle-breeding is more profitable than 
agriculture. The Spey and the Deveron abound 
with salmon, and herrings are plentiful off the 
coast. Some of the mountains are of great height, 
Cairngorm attaining 4,060 feet. They yield marbles, 
granites, limestones, crystals, and topazes. Yarns, 
linens, and woollen goods are manufactured; and 
the distilleries of Glenlivat are celebrated. 

Bangalore, the administrative capital of 
Mysore, a native state of Southern India, under 
the supervision of a British Commissioner. It 
stands at an elevation of 3,000 feet above sea- 
level, and enjoys a splendid climate, in which the 
vegetables and fruits of Europe are easily reared. 
The old fortifications no longer exist, but a con¬ 
siderable force occupies the cantonments. The town 
is well-built, and prettily laid out with delightful 
gardens. The district takes its name from the town, 
and from 1834 to 1881 was completely under British 
rule, but the native rajahs have now been restored 
with restricted power. 

Bangash, a branch of the Afghans, inhabiting 
the Miranzai, Kohat, and Kurani valleys, tradition¬ 
ally from Seistan, though, according to others, 
driven hither in the 13th century by the Ghilzais of 
Gardez. Three main divisions: Miranzai, with eight 
khels; Baizae, with six khels ; and Samalzae, with 
five khels. 

Banghis (Banghyas), a low-caste people 
widely spread throughout Bengal and other parts 
of the Ganges valley, and as far west as Sindh. 
In the North-West Provinces the term is equivalent 
to paria, being applied indifferently to the Kols, 
Dhers, Ramussis, and other low-caste communities 
grouped about the outskirts of the large towns. 
There is also an Afghan tribe, Banglii, in the hills 
north of Kalabagh on the Indus. Two divisions: 
Abi Khel and Tarka. 

Bangkok, the capital of the kingdom of Siam, 
is situated on both banks of the river Menam, about 
20 miles from the sea. The houses are of wood, 
and built chiefly on piles ; many are erected on 

21 


great rafts that line the river, and canals intersect 
the streets. The royal palace stands on an island, 
and within its high walls are enclosed the chief 
offices of state, barracks for many soldiers, and the 
quarters of the famous White Elephant. Handsome 
Buddhist temples adorn the city, which is fortified, 
though the suburbs extend for miles beyond the 
defences. England and other European powers 
maintain consuls and a consular court, and there 
are many trading firms established here, pepper, 
cardamoms, sugar, rice, tin, and timber being the 
chief exports. About half of the population con¬ 
sists of Chinese. 

Bangle, an ornamental ring worn on the arms 
and ankles in India and Africa. The term is now 
commonly applied to any bracelet without a clasp. 

Bangor (Welsh White choir'), a market town 
in the county of Carnarvon, North Wales, near the 
northern entrance of the Menai Straits, and having 
the port, Penrhyn, on the adjacent coast. The old 
street winds its way through a narrow and pictur¬ 
esque valley, but a modern quarter has recently 
sprung up. Bangor became the seat of a bishopric 
in the sixth century, and the existing cathedral, an 
embattled cruciform building with a low tower, was 
erected on the site of the ancient structure, and 
completed in 1532. The chief source of trade is 
found in the slate quarries of Llandegai, six miles 
distant, but many strangers are attracted in summer 
by the natural beauty of the locality. For parlia¬ 
mentary purposes Bangor is incorporated in the 
Arfon division of the county. The University 
College of North Wales was opened here in 1884. 

Bangor, a port and chief town in the county of 
Penobscot, State of Maine, U.S.A. It is 60 miles 
from the sea on the Penobscot river, which is navig¬ 
able for the largest vessels, and a large trade is 
done in timber. 

Bangorian Controversy, in the history of 
the Church of England, an offshoot of the conflict 
with the Non jurors (q.v.). Bishop Hoadly, a 
Whig, became Bishop of Bangor in 1715, and in 
opposition to Dr. Hickes, a Nonjuror, who charged the 
Church of England with schism, he affirmed that 
communion with a visible church was not essential 
to the Christian profession. A sermon of his 
preached before George I. in 1717 provoked an 
appeal to Convocation, but, to avoid a conflict 
between the bishops, who mostly sympathised with 
Hoadly, and the clergy, who commonly agreed with 
Hickes, the king prorogued that body, and it did not 
meet again till the present reign. William Law, the 
author of the Serious Call, took a prominent part 
against Hoadly. 

Bangor-is-Coed, a village in N. Wales, on 
the Dee, about 5 miles S.E. of Wrexham. The 
monastery which once existed there was the oldest 
in Britain, having been founded before 180 A.D. 

Bangsring, Banxring, any animal of the 
insectivorous genus Tupaia, with seven species, 
typical of the family Tupaidae, and most abundant 
in the Malay Islands and Indo-Chinese countries, 
but with one species in the Khasia Mountains and 









Bangweolo. 


( 322 ) 


Banking. 


one near Madras. They are squirrel-like shrews, 
with bushy tails, generally arboreal, but also feeding 
on the ground and among dwarf bushes. The 
genus Hylomys (two species), in which the tail is 
shorter, ranges from Tenasserim to Java and 
Borneo. [Ptizocerque.] 

Bangweolo, Lake, is in Central Africa (long. 
28° E., lat. 12° S.), and was discovered by Living¬ 
stone about 1868, lying nearly due S. of Tanganyika, 
and W. of Nyassa. It receives the river Chambezi 
(not Zambesi) from the N.E., and sends its overflow 
through the Luapula to the Congo. It is also called 
Bemba. 

Banialuka, a town and fortress in Bosnia, 
Turkey in Europe, now under Austrian protection. 

It is situated on the river Verbas, and there are 
silver mines in its neighbourhood. 

Banian Days, fast days ; days when no meat 
is to be eaten. The term is derived from the Banian 
merchants. [Banyans.] 

Bail ini, John, born at Kilkenny in 1798, started 
in life as a drawing master, but, migrating to 
Dublin, he wrote in conjunction with his brother, - 
Michael, a series of powerful novels, e.g. Tales of 
the O'Hara Family, The Croppy, and Father 
Connell , describing the darker side of Irish life. 
His health broke down and poverty ensued, from 
which he was rescued by a public subscription 
raised by the English press, and by a Government 
pension. He died in 1842. 

Banishment, expulsion from any country or 
place by the judgment of some Court or other com¬ 
petent authority. The term has its root in the word 
“ ban.” Banishment as a punishment is unknown 
to the ancient unwritten law of England, although 
voluntary exile in order to avoid other punishment 
has been at times permitted. The Crown has always, 
in certain cases, exercised its prerogative of restrain¬ 
ing a subject from quitting the kingdom, but it is a 
legal maxim that no subject shall be sent out of it 
unless by authority of Parliament. It is declared 
by Magna Charta “ that no freeman shall be exiled 
unless by the judgment of his peers, or the law of 
the land.” There are, however, some instances of 
banishment of an obnoxious subject by the authority 
of the Crown alone; and in the case of Parliamentary 
impeachment for a misdemeanour, perpetual exile 
has formed part of the sentence of the House of 
Lords, with the assent of the Crown. Aliens and 
Jews (formerly regarded as aliens) have also often 
been banished by royal proclamation. Banishment 
as a punishment was introduced by a statute passed 
in the thirty-ninth year of the reign of Queen Eliza¬ 
beth, by which it was enacted that “ such rogues as 
were dangerous to the inferior people should be 
banished the realm.” At a much later period the 
punishment of transportation was sanctioned by the 
legislature. [Transportation.] 

Banjari (Brinjarri), a nomad non-Aryan 
people, Central India, driven from Mewar south¬ 
wards by the Rajputs in the sixth century, have 
always been the carriers and caravan conductors of 
this region, and enjoy a reputation for honesty above 


suspicion ; tall, aquiline nose, long hair worn in 
ringlets, ruddy bronze complexion, muscular frames, 
by many regarded as the primitive stock of the 
Gypsy race. In Sindh the term Banjari is equiva¬ 
lent to Jat, and is there applied to the Gypsy class, 
but they call themselves Gohar, and are divided 
into tandahs or tribes, governed by naiks (chiefs) 
with patriarchal authority. 

Banj armassin, a district and its capital town 
in the S.E. of Borneo, since 1860 under Dutch 
protection. The former has a length of 350 miles, 
and a breadth of 270, being in the main flat, though 
traversed by a lofty ridge. It is watered by the 
Banjar and the Nagara, and produces cotton, rice, 
pepper, besides gold, iron, coal, and diamonds. The 
town is on the Banjar about 15 miles from its 
mouth, and on account of floods is built on jiiles 
or rafts. Chinese form a large proportion of the 
population. 

Banjo (a corruption of Portuguese bandore , the 
name of a variety of the Zither), a form of guitar 
with a circular body covered with tightly-stretched 
parchment, and from five to nine strings. It is the 
characteristic instrument of the negroes of the 
United States, but has become popular elsewhere. 

Bank (from ItaL banco, a bench or money¬ 
changer's table), an institution for receiving and 
lending money, and in some cases for issuing paper 
money. [Banking.] The term is also applied in 
certain games of chance. 

Bank Holidays were established by statute 
throughout the United Kingdom in 1871, to a great 
extent through the agency of Sir John Lubbock. 
A bill of exchange due on any of them is not 
payable till the clay following. In England and 
Ireland the days are : Easter and Whit Monday, 
the first Monday in August, and the day after 
Christmas Day (or the next day, should the day after 
Christmas be Sunday). Good Friday and Christmas 
Day were already observed as bank holidays in 
England and Ireland before the passing of the Act. 
In Scotland the days it specified are, Christmas 
Day, New Year’s Day, Good Friday, and the first 
Monday in May and August. 

Banking'. The business of banking consists in 
trading in money by receiving, lending, and ex¬ 
changing it. A bank (A.S. banc, Ital. banco, a 
bench, a table) is an office or building in which 
the business of banking is carried on, the term 
being also extended to any body of persons en¬ 
gaged in such pursuit. A banker is a person con¬ 
ducting this business, sometimes individually, but 
more frequently in partnership with others. The 
business of banking has developed from that of 
mere money-lending and money-changing. 

The earliest bank on record was kept by Egibi, 
at Babylon, about 700 b.c. 

The Greek Trapezitae, or moneychangers, and the 
Roman publicani probably received deposits and 
made advances, but do not appear to have known 
the use of bank-notes. Cicero, however, remitted 
money from Cilicia to Rome through a firm of 
publicani. These publicans (a much higher class 
than those mentioned in the New Testament) did 






Banking. 


( 323 


Banking. 


mercantile as well as financial business. Both 
classes derived their name from their contracting 
to collect certain of the provincial taxes. 

Among the earliest banks in modern Europe was 
that of Venice, founded 1157, for state purposes. 
The Bank of Barcelona , the earliest existing bank, 
was established in 1401, although banking had 
been previously carried on by the cloth merchants 
of that city. Some of these early European banks 
were finance companies, established to raise money 
to lend to the government. 

The Bank of Amsterdam, founded 1609, for 
purely commercial purposes, was instituted on ac¬ 
count of the debased nature of the coinage. 
Merchants having payments to make were obliged 
to offer coins of different nations, some of them 
being greatly worn, others clipped and otherwise 
reduced in value. These coins therefore were paid 
into the bank, weighed, and credit given for their 
intrinsic value. This bank was one of deposit, and 
did not profess to advance money, but to keep all 
the coins deposited in its vaults. The only profit 
derived consisted in charges upon its customers, 
such as transfer fees, for transferring credits from 
one account to another. 

The Bank of Stockholm, established 1688, was the 
first in Europe to issue notes. The Jews were the 
first English bankers. They came to this country 
soon after the Conquest. By dint of much labour 
and carefulness of living they became very rich, 
making use of their money by lending it at a high 
rate of interest to the aristocracy. After much 
persecution they were eventually banished from the 
country in the time of Edward I., and were replaced 
by the Lombards. In addition to being bankers, 
these latter were goldsmiths and pawnbrokers. 

After the seizure by Charles I. of the sum of 
£200,000 belonging to the London merchants, and 
placed for security in the Tower, in the custody of 
the Master of the Mint, they deposited their money 
with the goldsmiths, who issued transferable re¬ 
ceipts, which were called goldsmith’s notes. Francis 
Child, one of their number, found banking so pro¬ 
fitable that he relinquished the other branches of 
his business. Many others followed his example, 
and thus laid the foundation of modern banking. 

Although banking exists primarily for the sake of 
profit, the advantage accruing to the public is in¬ 
calculable. It would be simply impossible to carry 
through the business of the present day without 
the use of substitutes for coin in the form of notes, 
bills, and cheques. It is, in fact, largely to the use 
of these that England owes her present com¬ 
mercial position. To the private individual the 
advantage is no less great. He feels a stronger sense 
of security in placing his money with a banker 
than in keeping it under his own care, or investing 
it in any enterprise of doubtful character. 

A banker will allow interest for money which 
the depositor may have no means of otherwise em¬ 
ploying, and this acts as a further inducement to a 
person to place money in his hands. 

Banks may be thus classified: public or state 
banks, joint-stock banks, and private banks. The 
first are called public, being established for national 
purposes. They in some instances owe their origin 


to the debts of the State. Joint-stock banks are 
those which conduct their business in a corporate 
capacity, while private banks are of the nature of a 
common partnership, consisting of a limited number 
of partners. 

Capital is the first consideration in banking. The 
capital of a public bank generally takes the form 
of a loan from the public to Government for State 
objects ; that of a joint-stock bank being derived 
from the joint contributions of several persons. 
The capital of a private bank is furnished from the 
private means of the partners themselves. 

But it is not with capital alone that the banker 
trades, since in the course of business he receives 
deposits, which, so long as they remain in his 
hands, are equivalent to capital. There are two 
classes of deposits, those at call, that is repayable 
on demand, and those placed at interest, repayable 
after due notice. The former kind are termed current 
accounts, kept by people in business, who pay in 
their daily receipts, as well as by independent 
persons, who pay in sums received, such as pay¬ 
ments for rent, dividend warrants, etc. The latter 
kind of accounts, termed deposit accounts, are kept 
by persons having no immediate use for their money. 

It is not usual for a banker to allow interest on 
current accounts, by reason of the trouble incurred 
in keeping them. Besides which, the money on 
such accounts being liable to withdrawal without 
notice, cannot be invested to the same advantage as 
money on deposit account. The rate of interest 
allowed on deposit accounts varies according 
to circumstances, better terms being sometimes 
obtainable if the length of notice agreed upon be 
greater than usual, or if the amount be excep¬ 
tionally large. The usual rate of interest allowed in 
London depends upon the Bank of England rate of 
discount; generally it is 1^ per cent. less. In the 
present state of affairs joint-stock banks pay 7 from 
10 to 15 per cent, dividend to their shareholders, 
but only allow their depositors from 2 to 4| per cent. 
Although at first sight this seems unfair, the reason is 
not far to seek. In the first place, the shareholders 
take all the risk of the business; secondly, they 
derive the profit from three sources, viz. those very 
deposits upon which they allow interest, those at 
call, and their own capital. A bank with a capital 
of £250,000 is able to receive deposits to £1,000,000, 
or even more, thus having a virtual trading capital 
of £1,250,000 upon whichto make its profit s. Receipts 
are issued for amounts placed on deposit account, 
which have to be produced before such money can 
be repaid. With current accounts no such receipts 
are given, but the amount of each deposit is entered 
in the customer’s pass-book. 

Money deposited with a banker at once becomes 
his property to apply to what purposes he sees 
fit. Thus the customer stands solely in the relation 
of the bankers creditor. The customer, in this 
relation, has frequent occasion for withdrawing 
money from the banker’s hands in order to meet his 
obligations. This is effected by means of cheques, 
which are demand notes or orders drawn upon the 
banker for the repayment of money. They must 
bear the signature of the drawer, and must be 
drawn in unequivocal terms. 





Banking. 


( 324 ) 


Banking. 


Cheques being peremptory orders to pay cash, it 
is incumbent on the banker to have always upon his 
premises such an amount of coin and notes as he is 
at all likely to be called upon to pay. It is obvious 
that the more money a banker keeps in reserve for 
this reason, the less he is able to lend or otherwise 
invest. His object is, therefore, to make the amount 
as small as possible, consistently with prudence. 

In addition to keeping in reserve gold and notes, 
he invests a certain proportion of his deposits in such 
securities as will command a ready sale, in order 
that he may be enabled to realise gold for them in 
times of emergency. The reason of this is obvious, 
as for some reason perhaps beyond the banker’s 
own control, there may be a very unusual demand 
by the depositors for the repayment of their money. 
If he is unable to satisfy all the demands of his 
creditors, his only alternative is to close his doors. 
This is called a suspension of payment. 

The banker employs money entrusted to him in 
various ways—by means of discounting bills, and 
lending upon approved securities. 

It often happens that when a person engaged in 
business buys goods he is not in possession of ready 
money to pay for them at the time of purchase. 
He is, therefore, said to buy the goods upon credit, 
and as it would be most unsatisfactory to the seller 
of the goods to allow the debt to run on for an in¬ 
definite period, and as a mere verbal promise to 
pay within a certain time would not be considered 
binding, he draws an order, or “ bill,” upon the 
buyer ordering him to make payment of the same 
within a certain definite time. This order is called 
a bill of exchange, and, if correct, the buyer signs 
his name across it, which signature is an admission 
of the debt, and is called an acceptance of the bill. 
But, although selling the goods on credit, the 
vendor frequently requires the money represented 
by the bill long before it is due ; he therefore takes 
it to his banker in order that he may obtain 
immediate credit for the same. The banker is said 
to “ discount the bill,” by which term is meant that 
he buys it from the customer, and he gives credit 
for it for a less amount than the bill represents. 
The difference between the actual amount of the 
bill and the amount thus advanced is called the 
discount, or in other words interest on the amount 
for the length of time between the day of discount¬ 
ing the bill and its due date. 

A banker should never discount a bill that does 
not represent an actual business transaction, as by 
so doing he frequently incurs serious losses. Such 
bills, drawn solely for the purpose of raising money 
by getting them discounted, are termed accommo¬ 
dation bills. It is difficult, however, to distinguish 
them from genuine bills. 

As bills are sometimes not provided for by the 
acceptor, a banker is careful only to discount 
such bills as are likely to be met when presented 
for payment. For this purpose he makes himself 
acquainted as far as possible with the financial 
position of the acceptor. Neither will he discount 
bills for his own customer unless such customer’s 
finances are in a satisfactory condition. And for 
this reason, that should a bill discounted by a 
banker be unpaid upon presentation, he charges his 


customer’s account with the amount of the bill, 
which he returns to him. 

Besides trade bills a banker discounts promissory 
notes signed by his customer, promising to pay a 
certain sum of money at the expiration of a definite 
time. But he always requires some other kind of 
security in addition to the mere promise to pay. 
The latter is termed collateral security. 

Another method of lending money is by means of 
loans. In this case the borrower lodges securities 
with the banker, who has a right to sell the same if 
the amount advanced is not repaid at the stipulated 
time. Money should never be lent except upon good 
security, and such as can be readily realised. 

The profit derived from the granting of loans 
depends very much upon the source from which the 
money is lent. Thus, for instance, it is plain that 
a greater profit must accrue if the advance be 
made from money upon which no interest is allowed, 
or from capital, than if drawn from deposits upon 
which interest is allowed ; or, should the lending 
banker issue his own notes, the profit is greater 
still, as these latter, being only promises to pay, 
are lent instead of cash, and the longer they remain 
in circulation the better it is for the banker. 

Another function in connection with banking is 
the remittance of money. This is accomplished 
not by sending cash from one place to another, but 
drafts, by which means the same purpose is served. 
The banker gives a draft in exchange for cash. 
This transaction is called an exchange. For in¬ 
stance, a person at Manchester wishing to remit 
money to London applies to a banker for a draft 
drawn upon his London agents, for which a small 
charge for commission is made, or the draft (for 
which ready money is given) is made payable at say 
twenty-one days after elate, in which latter case the 
banker derives profit from the interest on the money 
for that period. Money may also be remitted to 
Manchester, and although London bankers cannot 
issue drafts upon country bankers, means are con¬ 
trived by which the same purpose is effected, and 
business is so conducted that coin is seldom sent 
from place to place, except it be in large quantities. 

In the course of business a banker receives a 
great many cheques and bills payable at other 
banks, and it therefore is his duty to collect pay¬ 
ment for the same. This he does in various ways 
according to circumstances. Some are collected by 
clerks, some are presented through the post, while 
others are presented through the Clearing House. 

The advantage of the Clearing House is the great 
economy it effects in the circulation of coin and 
bank notes. Thus each clearing banker having 
claims against the others sends every day one or 
more clerks to the House, who enter on sheets pro¬ 
vided for that purpose the amounts of bills and 
cheques drawn upon the others and those drawn 
against their own office. At the close of each day 
a balance is struck and differences are adjusted by 
means of transfers on the Bank of England, with 
which each clearing banker keeps an account. The 
effect of this of course is that practically the whole 
banking reserve of the country is under the control 
of the Bank of England, which is a private company 
not under Government supervision. 





Banking. 


( 325 ) 


Banking. 


Each country banker has a London agent, through 
whom the clearing of country cheques is aiso 
effected. The total amount passing through the 
Clearing House for the year ending December 31st, 
1889, was £7,618,766,000, the highest amount on 
record. The establishment is managed by a com¬ 
mittee, composed of representatives from among 
the leading bankers. 

The Bank of England arose out of a loan of 
£1,200,000 to Government in the year 1694, and 
was established upon a plan proposed by Mr. W. 
Paterson, a Scottish merchant. In consideration of 
this loan a Charter was granted by William and 
Mary for eleven years, which Charter has been 
renewed from time to time, the last renewal being 
in 1844. The subscribers were thus incorporated as 
a bank, which was styled the Governor and Com¬ 
pany of the Bank of England. The management 
and government of the corporation was committed 
to the governor and twenty-four directors, to be 
elected each year from among the duly qualified 
members. Business was commenced on the 1st of 
January, 1695, and notes were issued, none of which 
were for a less sum than £20. The Bank also dis¬ 
counted bills of exchange, charging from 4| to 6 per 
cent. Payment was suspended in 1696, when bank¬ 
notes fell considerably in value. There was a heavy 
run upon the Bank in 1797, when cash payments 
were suspended, no payments being made except 
in bank-notes. They were not resumed till 1823. 

By the Bank Charter Act, 1844, the Bank was 
divided into two departments, called the Banking- 
Department and the Issue Department. By this 
Act the debt due from Government, £11,015,100, 
was said to be due to the Issue Department, and 
against this they were allowed to issue notes without 
holding any gold. They were also empowered to 
issue notes against securities now amounting to 
£5,184,900, making a total of £16,200,000 in notes 
against which no gold is now required to be held. 
Beyond this amount all notes issued must be repre¬ 
sented by an equal amount of gold in the Issue 
Department. 

The amount of Bank of England notes act¬ 
ually in circulation is about £25,000,000, but 
besides this the Banking Department holds another 
£10,000,000 in notes in exchange for which it has 
given gold. The Banking Department does not 
keep more gold than it requires (about £1,000,000), 
and can only obtain notes from the Issue Department 
in exchange for gold and vice verm. 

But Government does not allow the Bank the 
whole benefit of the profit upon its issue of notes, 
but only that upon the issue against the Govern¬ 
ment debt and securities to theextentof £15,000,000. 
All profit beyond this goes to Government after de¬ 
ducting the. expenses connected with their issue. 
The Bank also pays £180,000 to Government an¬ 
nually for its privileges and in lieu of stamp duties. 

For the management of the National Debt the 
Bank receives £247,000 per annum. At the Issue 
Department of the Bank persons bringing gold 
bullion have a right to demand notes for the same 
at the rate of £3 17s. 9d. for every ounce of gold. 
By these transactions the Bank makes a profit of 
ljd. per oz. or £15,000 per annum. 


The Bank of England receives money on deposit, 
but allows no interest whatever the amount may 
be. It also discounts bills, but does not issue 
circular notes nor grant letters of credit. The 
Bank has two branches in London and nine in the 
provinces. 

The London and Westminster Bank was estab¬ 
lished in 1834 in spite of much opposition from the 
Bank of England, which was jealous of the 
monopoly of joint-stock banking it had hitherto 
enjoyed in the metropolis. 

Other banks soon followed (London Joint Stock 
1836, Union 1837, London and County 1837), and 
recent years have seen a great increase in their 
number. 

Banking in Scotland differs somewhat from 
English banking. There are no private banks, but 
all are joint-stock, and they issue their own notes, 
some of so small an amount as £1. A great feature 
of Scottish banking is the system of lending money 
by means of cash credits, in which case the banker 
becomes the creditor of the customer, who keeps an 
overdrawn account, and pays interest on the daily 
amount thus overdrawn. The Bank of Scotland 
was established by an Act of the Scottish Parliament 
in 1695. The Scottish banks have a note circulation 
of £5,000,000, against which they hold £4,000,000 
in gold. 

The Bank of Ireland was established by an Act 
of the Irish Parliament in 1782. It is ver} T similar 
to the Bank of England, and like that bank does 
not allow interest on deposits. The total amount 
of Irish notes in circulation exceeds £6,000,000. 

Note Issue. A bank note is not really money, but 
only a promise to repay on demand money that has 
been previously advanced. Nevertheless, bank 
notes have come to be regarded almost as gold itself, 
and pass from hand to hand as freely. 

Notes issued by the Bank of England are legal 
tender except at the Bank itself. Country notes 
are not a legal tender, although they are a good 
discharge for debts if not objected to at the time. 
No bank is allowed to issue notes which was not 
issuing the same prior to the 6th of May, 1844, and 
any bank discontinuing to issue them is not allowed 
to resume the issue. A bank-note being a promise to 
pay, it is obvious that no person will accept it from 
a banker unless he believes he will be able to get 
cash for it on demand. Notes are put into circula¬ 
tion either as payment for cheques or in exchange 
for gold, or in making advances. 

The Bank of France, founded 1800, placed on a 
solid basis 1806, is a commercial enterprise. It 
receives deposits, discounts bills, and issues notes. 
It is next in importance and magnitude to the Bank 
of England, and has a capital of 182,000,000 francs. 
It has made large advances to Government. It also 
has the monopoly of the bank-note issue for the 
whole of France. It has many branches throughout 
the country. Discounts are very numerous. It will 
discount bills upon three responsible signatures, 
such bills not being drawn at more than three 
months. It lends money on stocks, railway shares, 
and pawns, and charges no commission for keeping- 
accounts. In 1848 it suspended cash payments. 
In 1857, after the war with Russia, its capital was 







Banking. 


( 326 ) 


Bankruptcy. 


doubled. Its charter expires in 1897; the terms 
of renewal are now (1891) under discussion. The 
administration is vested in a council of 21 members, 
the governor and deputy-governor being appointed 
by the chief of the State. 

The Imperial Bank of Germany was founded 1875 
with a capital = £6,000,000 sterling, and an un¬ 
covered paper issue of 250,000,000 marks. This 
issue may be increased if one-third of such increase 
be represented by cash in hand, and two-thirds in 
bills not having more than three months to run. 
Thirty-two other banks were recognised with a 
right to issue 135,000,000 marks in notes of the 
Imperial Bank, which issue might be exceeded if 
excess be covered in cash and 5 per cent, interest 
per annum be paid on the excess amount. This 
bank acts gratuitously for the State, which partici¬ 
pates in profits after a minimum of 4^ per cent, has 
been paid to the shareholders. 

The Bank of Russia was formed in 1856 after the 
costly Crimean war, with a capital of 25,000,000 
roubles, supplied by Government. The capital and 
reserve of this bank is at the mercy of the State. 
It is well organised, but does not belong to itself. 
It has an inconvertible paper currency with no 
metallic reserve. It will discount bills with two 
signatures at six months’ date. 

The Austro-Hungarian Bank was founded in 
1815, there being a deficiency in the exchequer 
owing to the war against France. It is the national 
bank. The capital, 110,000,000 florins, was supplied 
by the shareholders. It is very much hampered 
by loans to Government. The State does not par¬ 
ticipate in the profits. The governor is appointed by 
the Emperor. Although commissioned by Govern¬ 
ment this bank does not act for Government, which 
manages its own concerns like that of France. 

The Bank of the Netherlands was founded in 
1814 and issues notes, which privilege is exclu¬ 
sive. It has a president, secretary, and a commis¬ 
sion to assist shareholders, and is supported by the 
State. 

The Bank of Belgium (1850) is a national bank 
with a capital of 50,000,000 francs. The Treasury 
takes three-quarters of the profits after 6 per cent, 
has been paid to the shareholders. 

In the United States, Congress passed an Act 
1863-4 in order to allow banking associations, 
termed National Banks, to issue notes in the various 
States to the extent of 300,000,000 dols. They 
were to deposit interest-hearing bonds with the 
Treasurer of the United States, in exchange for 
which notes were given to the extent of 90 per 
cent, of the value of the bonds, the remaining 10 
per cent, was laid by as security for the repayment 
of the notes. The practical result is that the bank¬ 
ing reserve is invested in the National Funds, and 
controlled by the Treasury instead of by the Bank 
of England as with us. A similar system exists in 
Argentina, but its abolition is now (1891) under 
discussion. The bank-note circulation in the United 
States is very extensive, some notes being for so 
small an amount as one dollar. Treasury notes are 
also issued against silver, for small amounts. 

The Bank Charter Act of 1844 had for its main 
object the control of the bank-note circulation. 


It arose in consequence of the excessive issue of 
bank-notes, and the drain of gold from the country. 
The object of Government was to restrict the 
country note issue as well as that of the Bank of 
England, and also to take the control of the 
metallic reserve out of the hands of the directors. 

Bank Notes act as a substitute for coin, as 
described under Banking. Their manufacture 
necessarily involves elaborate precautions against 
forgery. Bank of England notes are printed with 
a peculiar ink on a specially made paper, very 
light, crisp, and tough, bearing a peculiar water¬ 
mark. When once returned to the Bank, unlike the 
notes of a private banker, they are never reissued. 
They are defaced, in order to cancel them, but 
before being destroyed are kept for a term of years 
in case it should be necessary to find out through 
whose hands they have passed while in circulation. 
Since 1855 they have been printed by electrotype. 
Scotch and foreign bank notes are usually partly 
printed in coloured inks, two or more shades being 
used in the same note to make forgery more difficult. 
In the United States the additional precaution is 
taken of using methods of engraving which can 
only be carried out by elaborate and expensive 
machinery. 

Bankruptcy, the term applied to the affairs 
of a person who has been judicially held in¬ 
solvent. There is a special code of laws applic¬ 
able to bankruptcy, and a court for their adminis¬ 
tration known as the “ Court of Bankruptcy,” 
which was constituted in the early part of the 
reign of William IV., but there were bankrupt 
laws as far back as the reign of Henry VIII. 

Bankrupt law has been repeatedly altered, but 
up to the present time it has not given complete 
satisfaction in any direction. Formerly traders 
alone were subject to become bankrupt, but by 
the last and prevailing statute on the subject, the 
Bankruptcy Act, 1883, any debtor is brought under 
its jurisdiction. The following is a summary of 
the provisions of this important Act. 

1. Acts of Bankruptcy . A debtor commits an 
act of bankruptcy ( which is the foundation of the 
jurisdiction)-. — (a) If he makes a conveyance or 
assignment of his property for the benefit of his 
creditors generally. (h) If he makes a fraudulent 
conveyance, gift, delivery, or transfer of his pro¬ 
perty, or of any part of it. (c) If he makes any 
conveyance or transfer of his property, or any part 
of it, or creates any charge on it, which would be 
void as a fraudulent preference if he were adjudged 
bankrupt, (cl) If with intent to defeat or delay 
his creditors he has left England, or being out of 
England has remained abroad or otherwise absented 
himself, or begun to keep house (i.e. been hiding). 
(e) If execution issued against him has been levied 
by seizure and sale of his goods under process in any 
court. (/) If he has filed in the court a declaration 
admitting his inability to pay his debts, or has 
presented a bankruptcy petition against himself. 
(g) If a creditor has obtained a final judgment 
against him, and execution on it not having been 
stayed has served on him a bankruptcy" notice 
under the Act requiring him to pay the debt in 







Bankruptcy. 


( 327 ) 


Bankruptcy. 


accordance with the terms of the judgment, or to 
secure or compound for it to the satisfaction 
of the creditor or of the court, and he has not 
within a stipulated time after service of the 
notice either complied with the requirements of 
the notice or satisfied the court that he has a 
counter-claim, set-off, or cross demand equalling or 
exceeding the amount of the judgment debt, and 
which he could not set up in the action in which 
the judgment was obtained ; and ( h ) if the debtor 
has given notice to any of his creditors that he has 
suspended or is about to suspend payment of his 
debts. [Assignment, Execution, Judgment.] 

2. Petition. Any of the above acts or neglects 
are sufficient to found a petition for a receiving 
order, but the act or neglect must have occurred 
within three months (formerly six months) before 
the presentation of the petition. The debtor may 
petition himself, or any single creditor whose debt 
amounts to £50, or any two or more whose debts in 
the aggregate amount to that sum. The petition 
is on oath, and may be filed in the High Court or 
county court, the choice of court depending on 
the previous residence and place of business of the 
debtor. 

3. Receiving Order. Upon the hearing of the 
petition, unless it be dismissed, a receiving order 
is made and notice thereof transmitted to the official 
receiver and to the Board of Trade, and it is also 
advertised. A general meeting of the creditors 
(known as the first meeting) takes place soon after¬ 
wards to consider whether the debtor shall be made 
a bankrupt.or not. [Composition.] 

4. Adjudication. The creditors at such meeting 
or any adjournment thereof may determine that 
the debtor be adjudged bankrupt, or if no such 
resolution is passed, or the creditors do not meet, 
the debtor is adjudged bankrupt, and his property 
vests in the official receiver. The bankruptcy is 
deemed to have relation back and to commence 
at the time of the act of bankruptcy on which 
a receiving order has been made; or if there be 
more acts than one, then to have relation back to 
the first act of bankruptcy proved to have been 
committed within three months next preceding 
the presentment of the petition. Certain trans¬ 
actions with the debtor are, however, protected 
though taking place within the period covered by 
the relation back. These are (1) any payment by 
the bankrupt to any of his creditors ; (2) any pay¬ 
ment or delivery to the bankrupt; (3) any convey¬ 
ance or assignment by the bankrupt for valuable 
consideration; and (4) any contract, dealing, or 
transaction by or with the bankrupt for valuable 
consideration, provided that the two following con¬ 
ditions be complied with :—(A) The transaction 
must have taken place before the date of the 
receiving order ; and (b) The person (other than the 
bankrupt) party to such transaction must not at the 
time have had notice of any available act of bank¬ 
ruptcy committed before that time. Also as regards 
executions against the goods or the lands, or against 
property in the hands of a third party [Attach¬ 
ment, Elegit, Foreign Attachment], they are 
by the Act held good if gjerfected before the date 
of the receiving order, and before notice of the 


presentation of any petition by or against the 
debtc r, and of the commission of any act of bank¬ 
ruptcy by him. 

5. Duties of Trustee. Dividends. The trustee's 
duties consist in realising and distributing the 
property of the debtor, and he is from time to time 
to declare dividends amongst the creditors; he is 
required to pay into such local bank as the com¬ 
mittee of inspection shall appoint, or failing such 
appointment, into the Bank of England all sums 
from time to time received by him. As regards the 
payment of dividend, the Act directs that subject 
to the retention of such sums as may be required 
for costs of administration, or otherwise, the trustee 
is to distribute dividends amongst the creditors 
who have proved their debts, and the first dividend 
(if any) shall be distributed within four months 
after the conclusion of the first meeting of creditors, 
unless the trustee gives sufficient reason to the 
committee of inspection for postponement; sub¬ 
sequent dividends shall, in the absence of sufficient 
reason to the contrary, be declared and distributed 
at intervals of not more than six months. When 
the trustee has realised all the bankrupt’s pro¬ 
perty, or so much thereof as can, in the opinion 
of himself and the committee of inspection, be 
realised without needlessly protracting the trustee¬ 
ship, he is to declare a final dividend, giving 
previous notice to the persons whose claims to 
be creditors have been notified to him, but not 
established to his satisfaction, that if they do ne t 
establish their claims to the satisfaction of the 
Court under a certain limited time he will proceed 
to make a finaL dividend without regard to such 
claims. If any surplus remains after paying every 
creditor in full with interest where that is allowed, 
and after paying all costs of administration, such 
surplus belongs to the bankrupt. 

Dividends are paid rateably among all the 
creditors without regard to their quality—hence 
judgments and recognisances and other debts by 
record or specialty are on the same level with debts 
by simple contract, and equitable debts rank with 
legal debts in the same way. But a creditor hold¬ 
ing a specific security on part of the bankrupt’s 
property is entitled,notwithstanding the bankruptcy, 
either to surrender his security and prove for his 
whole debt, or to realise the security or give credit 
for its value, and to receive a dividend rateably 
with the other creditors in respect of the surplus 
of his debt remaining unpaid. So a landlord 
distraining for rent after the bankruptcy has oc¬ 
curred may make such distress available to the 
extent of one year’s rent accrued prior to the ad¬ 
judication, though for the remainder he must come 
in with the other creditors. A priority is also given 
to rates and taxes to the extent of one year’s assess¬ 
ment, and wages to the extent of £50 in respect of 
services rendered by clerks or servants, and accrued 
during four months preceding the date of the 
receiving order, and also to any labourer or work¬ 
man to the extent of £25 for services rendered 
during two months before the receiving order. 
These must be paid in full and in priority to all 
others if the estate is sufficient, but they abate if 
the property is insufficient. With these exceptions 







Bankruptcy. 


( 328 ) 


Bankruptcy. 


all debts provable under the bankruptcy are to be 
paid pari passu. Unliquidated damages arising 
on a contract, promise, or breach of trust are not 
provable in bankruptcy. 

6. Statement of Affairs. Committee of Inspec¬ 
tion. Within seven days from the date of the 
receiving order, if on a creditor’s petition, and 
within three days if on the debtor’s own petition, 
the debtor is to submit to the official receiver a 
statement of his affairs, and as soon as possible 
after such receiving order has been advertised the 
official receiver summons a general meeting, called 
the first meeting of the creditors, of which seven 
days’ notice is given in the London Gazette , and 
in a local paper, and he transmits to the creditors 
mentioned in the statement of affairs a summary 
of such statement, and at such meeting the creditors, 
if they have first resolved that the debtor shall be 
made bankrupt,, appoint some creditor, or other 
proper person, to fill the office of trustee of the 
bankrupt’s property 7 , and they appoint from the 
creditors proper persons (not less than three in 
number, nor more than five) as a committee of 
inspection, to superintend the administration of 
the bankrupt’s estate. The first meeting is usually 
presided over by the official receiver, or his nominee, 
in whom the property vests from the date of the 
receiving order, until some one else is appointed. 
Debts can be proved at this or any other meeting, 
and no person can vote either at the first or any 
subsequent meeting till he has proved his debt in 
the prescribed form. 

7 . Management of Estate. It is the duty of the 
creditors’ trustee to use his best exertions in the 
management of the estate up to the close of the 
bankruptcy, and until the bankrupt has obtained his 
discharge. For this purpose he calls meetings of 
the creditors to ascertain their wishes, and, if 
necessary, he applies to the court for directions 
relating to any special matter occurring. He 
should also, as the bankruptcy proceeds, consult the 
committee of inspection as to his proceedings, and 
he has power hy the Act to sell all or any part of 
the property by public auction or private contract; 
to give receipts for purchase moneys, which effect¬ 
ually discharge the purchaser; to prove, rank, claim, 
and draw a dividend in respect of any debt due to 
the bankrupt; to exercise any trustee'powers under 
the Act, and to execute powers of attorney, deeds, 
and other instruments, for the purpose of carrying 
into effect the provisions of the Act, and to 'deal 
with any property in which the bankrupt is 
beneficially entitled as tenant in tail, in the same 
manner as the bankrupt might. 

He may also, with the consent of the committee of 
inspection, carry on the business of the bankrupt so 
far as necessary for winding up; bring or defend 
actions, or other legal proceedings relating to the 
property, and compromise same. He may also 
employ the bankrupt to superintend the manage¬ 
ment of the property, making an allowance to him 
for his support, or in consideration of his services. 

8. Examination of Bankrupt. The court, at the 
expiration of the time for the filing of the state¬ 
ment of affairs, holds a sitting for the bankrupt’s 
examination (called his “ public examination ”) and 


notice is given by advertisement in the London 
Gazette and a local paper ; any other examination 
by the court is usually before a Registrar at cham¬ 
bers. The court has power to adjourn from time to 
time, and it is the duty of the bankrupt to answer 
all questions put to him b}^ the court or any creditor. 
A note of the examination is'signed by the bankrupt, 
and is open to the inspection of creditors, and may 
be used against him in evidence. The court, when 
satisfied of the completeness of the investigation, 
makes an order declaring that his “public examina¬ 
tion ” is concluded, but this order cannot be made 
until after the day appointed for the first meeting. 

A bankrupt is subject to prosecution, as for a 
misdemeanour, if he fail to disclose the whole of his 
estate, or to deliver up all property in his control, 
also all books ; if he conceals or removes any part 
of his property, or makes a material omission in 
the statement of his affairs, or mutilates or falsifies 
any book or document relating to his affairs. 

9. Order of Discharge. At any time after the 
adjudication the bankrupt may apply to the court 
for an order of discharge, and this application is 
heard in open court as soon as his public examin¬ 
ation is finished; and the court may grant an 
absolute order of discharge, which releases him 
from all liabilities provable under the bankruptcy, 
except only those incurred by fraud, or fraudulent 
breach of trust, or such as are due to the Crown, or 
incurred for some offence against the revenue laws, 
or as estreated bail for any person charged with such 
offence, and the bankrupt is thereupon entitled to all 
future acquisition of property. The court may, how¬ 
ever, refuse an absolute order of discharge, and may 
suspend the same for a specified time on certain con¬ 
ditions, and the court is bound to refuse his discharge 
in all cases where he has been guilty of a misdemea¬ 
nour of the class specified. The principal other 
grounds of refusing or suspending his order of dis¬ 
charge are: 1, that he has not kept proper books of 
account; 2, that he has continued to trade after 
knowing he was insolvent; 3, that he has contracted 
debt without reasonable expectation of being able 
to pay; 4, rash and hazardous speculation; 5, the 
putting any of his creditors to expense by vexatiouslv 
defending any action properly brought against him"; 
G, undue preference of any particular creditor; 
7, previous bankruptcy or arrangement with credi¬ 
tors ; 8, fraud or breach of trust. Formerly, and 
under previous statutes, the order of discharge was 
dependent upon the bankrupt paying a dividend of 
not less than 10s. in the £ (except under special 
circumstances). It is not so now. [Composition.] 

In Scotland “ Sequestration ” is analogous to 
bankruptcy in England, and the rules and pro¬ 
cedure are pretty nearly the same; but there is 
no Court for their administration. The sheriffs of 
counties award sequestration, a judicial factor is 
thereupon (if necessary) appointed, and acts until 
the appointment of a trustee, and the creditors 
nominate commissioners to advise with him in the 
administration of the estate. 

In the United States each State can regulate its 
Bankruptcy and Insolvency Law subject to the para¬ 
mount jurisdiction conferred on Congress by the 
Constitution. There are several Federal statutes 






Banks. 


( 329 ) 


Banns. 


dealing with the general doctrines of bankruptcy, 
bankruptcy offences, and the constitution of Bank¬ 
ruptcy Courts, the last of which was passed in the 
year i.878. 

Banks, Sir Joseph, botanical collector, was 
born in 1743. He was educated at Harrow, at 
Eton, where he acquired a taste for botany, and at 
Christ Church, Oxford. Having ample private 
means, he devoted himself to travel, visiting New¬ 
foundland and Labrador in 1764 to collect plants 
and insects, and taking Solander, a pupil of 
Linnaeus, with him on Cook’s first voyage round the 
world between 1768 and 1771. In 1772 they went 
to Iceland, the Hebrides, and Staffa, the structure 
of which Banks was the first to describe. From 
1778 till his death in 1820 Banks was President of 
the Royal Society; in 1781 he was created a 
baronet, and in 1795 a Knight of the Bath. He 
bequeathed his valuable library and herbarium to 
the British Museum. 

Banks, Thomas, born at Lambeth in 1735, was 
brought up as an architect, but took to sculpture, 
and won in 1770 the gold medal of the Royal 
Academy, being sent, moreover, to Rome to finish 
his education under Capizoldi. Returning in 1779, 
he met with so little encouragement that he went 
to Russia, and found a purchaser for his Psyche in 
the Empress Catherine. His Mourning Achilles, 
now in the hall of the British Institution, attracted 
notice at home: he was elected to the Academy, and 
after a few years of prosperity died in 1805. 

Banksia, a genus of Proteacece, natives of 
Australia and Tasmania, named by the younger 
Linnmus after Sir Joseph Banks. They include 
some trees, but are mostly shrubs with leathery 
leaves very variable in form, with serrate or spinous 
margins, and white or red under-surfaces. The 
flowers are crowded together in heads, and yield 
much honey, and the fruits are follicles containing 
black winged seeds. There are over fifty species, 
many of which are greenhouse favourites. 

Bankurah. [Bancoorah.] 

Bann, a river in Ireland which rises in the 
Mourne mountains, Co. Down, and after a course of 
35 miles falls into Lough Neagh, as the Upper 
Bann. Emerging from the Lough the Lower Bann 
divides Co. Antrim from Co. Londonderry, and dis¬ 
charges itself into the Atlantic a little S.W. of Port- 
rush, the town of Coleraine being near the mouth. 
The salmon fisheries are valuable. 

Bannar (Bahnar), a hill tribe, Cochin China, 
N. of the Charais, lat. 14° to 15° N., of reddish com¬ 
plexion. speech akin to that of the Stiengs and 
Sedongs; they occupy over 100 villages, with total 
population 25.000. 

Bannatyne Club, the name given to a club 
formed in Edinburgh in 1823 to print works of 
interest relative to the history and literature of 
Scotland. It was named from G. Bannatyne, who 
in 1568 preserved the literature of the 15th and 
16th centuries. Sir Walter Scott founded the club, 
which numbered among its members Laing, T. Thom¬ 
son, and Lord Cockburn. 


Banner. This word, w T hich custom has very 
nearly rendered interchangeable w r ith the word 
“ flag,” really means only the square flag bearing 
the arms of the owner, whose rank governs its 
size. Anciently, it was used in battle, when each 
squire assembled his retainers under his own; but 
nowadays the only usage of banners appears to be 
at funerals, city processions, upon mansions, and 
over the stalls of each Knight of the various Orders. 
The “great banner” displays the whole of the 
owner’s quarterings, but the arms of a wife should 
never be shown thereupon. 

Banneret. The degree of Knight-Banneret, 
though dating certainly from the reign of King 
Edward I., is now fallen into disuse, and has been 
so for some time past. The honour, which was 
most highly esteemed, was conferred on persons 
especially distinguished for their bravery and 
gallantry in action, by the king in person, at the 
head of the army drawn up in battle array beneath 
the royal banner displayed, in the presence of all 
the officers and nobility of the Court, on the occa¬ 
sion of a glorious victory. A knight-banneret took 
precedence of all baronets (except when not created 
by the Sovereign in person), and was allowed the 
privilege of using supporters with his armorial 
bearings. 

Bannockburn, a village on the river Bannock, 
Scotland, three miles from Stirling. Here, on June 
24, 1314, the English under Edward II. were com¬ 
pletely defeated by Robert Bruce, and Scotland 
reasserted her independence. At Sauchieburn, close 
by, James III. of Scotland was defeated by his re¬ 
bellious subjects in 1488. The village has manu¬ 
factories of tartans, carpets, and nails. 

Banns, a publication or edict whereby some¬ 
thing is commanded to be done or forbidden. It is 
more particularly applicable to notices of intended 
marriages. By the statute 4 Geo. IV. c. 76 they are 
to be published in an audible manner in the parish 
church, or in some public chapel of or belonging to 
such parish, wherein the persons about to be married 
shall dwell—according to the form prescribed by 
the rubric prefixed to the “ Office of Matrimony” in 
the Book of Common Prayer—upon three Sundays 
preceding the solemnisation of the marriage, during 
the time of morning service—or of evening service 
if there shall be no'morning service in such church 
or chapel upon the Sunday upon which such banns 
shall be so published—immediately after the reading 
of the second lesson. But by a licence from the 
spiritual judge, or a registered certificate, the above 
formalities may be dispensed with. If persons be 
married without either publication of banns or 
licence, the marriage will be void and the officiating 
minister liable to penal servitude. If the marriage 
does not take place within three months after publica¬ 
tion of the banns, the marriage shall not take place 
until the banns shall have been republished on three 
several Sundays, unless it be a marriage by licence 
or certificate, which two latter alternatives, how¬ 
ever, must be acted upon within the three months. 
A clergyman refusing, without adequate cause, to 
perform the ceremony is liable to an action. In 
Scotland the law is different as to the effect of 





Banshee. 


( 330 ) 


Bantu. 


non-publication of banns. Marriage in Scotland 
without publication of banns is valid. In the United 
States banns have been almost entirely superseded 
by the marriage licence; in some States even this 
is not necessary. Each State has entire authority 
and jurisdiction over its own citizens on the subject 
of marriage. 

Banshee (Irish, a female fairy'). In Ireland and 
parts of Western Scotland and Brittany a Banshee 
is believed to attach herself to some particular 
family, and foretell by her appearance the approach¬ 
ing death of one of its members. 

Banswara, a small native state and its capital 
to the W. of Central India, and under the Mewar 
agency of Rajputana. The town is about 110 miles 
N.E. of Baroda, is encircled by obsolete mud walls, 
and contains a palace and several temples. 

Bantam, or Batan, formerly the large and 
flourishing capital of a district of the same name in 
Java. The unhealthiness of the climate led the 
Dutch to transfer the trade elsewhere in 1816, and 
a fire completed the work of decay. The harbour 
is now silted up and useless. The dwarf fowls now 
familiar in Europe were supposed to have been im¬ 
ported thence. 

Bantam, a name given to any diminutive breed 
of the domestic fowl in the belief that they origin¬ 
ally came from Bantam in Java, though they are 
probably Japanese in origin. The term is now ap¬ 
plied to diminutive fowls without any reference to 
breed. The older strains of Bantam fowls are :— 
The Black, the White, the Cochin, the Cuckoo, the 
Japanese, the Nankin, Game, and the Gold and 
Silver Laced, or Sebright Bantams, in which last 
the fowls have the laced feathers of the Polish, and 
the distinctive male plumage is absent in the cocks. 
But all the large varieties of poultry have now been 
bred down to the diminutive or « Bantam ” form. 

Banteng 1 (Bos sondaicus ), a species of wild 
cattle, ranging from Cochin China through the 
Malay Archipelago to the islands of Bali and 
Lombok. In colour and size it closely resembles 
the Gaur (q.v.). 

Banting 1 , Mr. William, a London merchant, 
published in 1863 an account of the diet he had 
found effectual in reducing his own dimensions. 
The use of lean meat and the avoidance of sugar 
and starchy foods were its chief features. The 
subject made a considerable stir for some time. 
Popularly, his name was treated as a participle 
from the imaginary verb “ to bant.” 

Bantry Bay, a deep inlet on the south-west 
coast of Ireland. Here, on May 1st, 1689, Admiral 
Arthur Herbert, with twenty sail of the line, dis¬ 
covered the French Admiral, Chateaurenault, with 
twenty-four. The fleets engaged outside the bay, 
and although Herbert got slightly the worst of the 
encounter, he was, on his return to England, created 
Earl of Torrington, while two of his captains, Ashby 
and Shovell, were knighted. Here, too, in 1796, a 
French fleet anchored in order to support the Irish 
rebellion. In 1801 the seamen of a British fleet 
at anchor in the bay mutinied. Eleven of the 


ring-leaders were executed. Bantry Bay has, since 
about 1880, been a favourite anchorage for the fleet 
during its summer cruises, and has been .he scene 
of many important operations and experiments. 

Bantu (i.e. Aba-ntu , men, people), a Zulu-Kafir 
term, now used to designate all African races of 
Bantu speech. With the exception of the Hotten- 
tot-Bushman domain, they occupy all the southern 
half of the continent from about lat. 4° or 5° N. south¬ 
wards to Kafirland, and from the Atlantic to the 
Indian Ocean. The Bantu peoples are in general 
Negroid, rather than true Negroes, the constituent 
elements being mainly the Negro and the Hamite, 
whose various interminglings present every shade 
of transition between these two extremes. Hence 
there is no clearly marked Bantu physical type, and 
this term has consequently rather a linguistic than 
an ethnological value. Bantu is, therefore, strictly 
analogous in meaning to such names as Aryan and 
Malayo-Polynesian, which similarly imply linguistic 
unity in the midst of great physical diversity. All 
the innumerable dialects current throughout the 
whole of the vast Bantu domain appear to be more 
or less closely related both in structure, phonetics, 
and vocabulary, and are all certainly sprung from 
a common Bantu mother tongue, differing funda¬ 
mentally from all other known forms of speech. It 
is distinguished by some remarkable grammatical 
features, of which the most characteristic is a 
certain alliterative harmony, somewhat analogous 
to the vocalic harmony of the Finno-Tatar system. 
The alliteration is caused by the repetition, in a 
slightly modified form, of the same prefixed element 
before all words of the sentence in grammatical 
concord. Hence the inflection in Bantu is mainly 
initial, not final, as in most other systems. All 
nouns are classed according to their proper pro¬ 
nominal prefix, of which there appear to have been 
at least sixteen in the organic Bantu language ; it 
follows that all adjectives and other words of the 
sentence in agreement with, or dependent on, the 
noun are liable to sixteen initial changes, according 
to the several classes of nouns with which they may 
occur. Thus the adjective hulu, great, becomes 
om-kulu, with ntu or any other noun whose class 
prefix is umu : umu-ntu om-kulu, a great man; in 
the same way it becomes en-kulu with hose, a chief, 
whose class prefix is in: in-kose en-kulu, a great 
chief, and so on. The principle is somewhat like 
the final concordance for gender in the Aryan 
languages, as in the Latin domin-us me-us bon-us ; 
domin-a me-a bon-a, etc. The most marked, or at 
least. the best known members of the Bantu 
linguistic family are the Ki-Swahili of the east 
coast, largely affected by Arabic influences ; the 
Zulu-Xosa (Zulu-Kafir) of the south-east coastlands, 
one of the purest and best preserved of all Bantu 
tongues , the Se-chuana of which the Se-Suto is a 
mere variety, current throughout Basuto and Bechu- 
analand ; the Ova-Herero of Damara and Ova-Mpo 
Lands; the Banda and Congo of Portuguese West 
Africa; the Mpongwe and Bakalai of the Gaboon 
and Ogoway basins ; Ki-Ganda and Ki-Nyoro of the 
Lakes Victoria and Albert Nyanza; Ki-Rua, Ki- 
Lunda, and Ki-Lobo of the Congo basin ; Cliinyanja 













Banville. 


( 331 ) 


Baphomet 


of Lake Nyassa. The Bantu races are on the whole 
more intelligent, more civilised, and more capable 
of upward development than the Negro peoples 
proper. 

Banville, Theodore de, the son of a French 
sea captain, was born at Moulins in 1823. Coming 
to Paris as a youth he adopted literature as a 
career, and in i842 published an eccentric poem, 
Les Cariatides , which speedily attracted notice. In 
1846 appeared Les Stalactites , to be followed later 
by Les Exiles, Les Odettes, La Lanterne Mayique, 
Mes Souvenirs, Paris Vecu, Odes Funambulesques, 
etc. It might be said that the title of the last- 
named volume most aptly describes De Banville s 
genius. His muse walks blindfold and in fetters 
along a thin cord of sense or plot stretched across 
an abyss of nothingness. His art lies chiefly in the 
dexterous management of startling rhymes and 
unfamiliar metres. The form with him is all im¬ 
portant, the matter of little consequence ; though 
here and there one comes across passages of real 
poetic feeling, crisp touches of cynicism provoked 
by modern French manners, or flashes of quaint 
wit. He tried with small success to write for the 
stage, and brought out some prose sketches, as well 
as a treatise on poetic methods. He died in 1891. 

Banyai, one of the aboriginal races of Matabili- 
land, South Central Africa, now largely reduced, 
absorbed or driven north to the Zambesi by the Ama- 
Ntabele (Matabili) intruders from Zululand. They 
are now chiefly confined to the right bank of the 
Zambesi above the Kafukwa confluence. The 
Ba/nyai are physically a very fine race, tall, well-pro¬ 
portioned, and of remarkably light brown com¬ 
plexion; speech, a Bantu dialect akin to the Chin- 
yanja of Nyassaland. 

Banyan (Ficus indica ), a species of fig, which 
in India not only reaches the size of a large tree, 
but is specially ‘noticeable from its sending down 



banyan (Fictcs indica ). 

numerous adventitious roots from its branches 
which thicken and acquire a covering of cork, so as 
to resemble a grove of stems, and, by acting as 
props, enable the branches to spread m a horizontal 
direction to a great distance. 


Banyans (Banians), a numerous Gujarati 
people, West India, of the Yaicya or trading caste ; 
are the chief merchant element in Gujarat and 
Bombay; type, Hindu mixed with Jilt (pre-Aryan) 
elements. The term Banyan is now generally ap¬ 
plied to all the Indian traders long settled in the 
seaports of East Africa, South Arabia, etc., though 
they have no necessary connection with the Banian 
tribe. The Banyans are extremely intelligent, thrifty, 
and moral, according to their religious standard. 
Besides their mother tongue, Gujarati, many speak 
both Hindustani and English. 


Banyuls-sur-mer and Banyuls-des-As- 
pres, two towns in the department of Pyrenees 
Orientales, France. The first conrains four ancient 
towers, one of which marks the French and Spanish 
frontier. The second, now a mere village, offered a 
gallant resistance in 1793 to 7,000 Spaniards, who 
were compelled to surrender. 

Banyumas, a province and its capital belonging 
to the Dutch in the island of Java. The province 
has an area of 2,136 square miles, with a dense 
population. The mountainous portion contains a 
remarkable volcanic plateau, 6,700 feet above sea- 
level and a gorge which from the poisonous vapours 
it exhales is called “the valley of death.” The 
fertile plains produce coffee, indigo, rice, tobacco, 
etc. The town stands on the left bank of the river 
Serajo at a distance of 22 miles from the coast, near 
the opening of a rich valley. It is protected by a 
fort and a Dutch garrison. 

Banyuwangi, or Banjoewang-ie, a port and 
a district on the E. coast of Java, subject to 
Dutch rule, and a station of the telegraph line to 
Australia. 


Banz, a town in Upper Franconia, Bavaria, 
Germany, on the river Main, and half-way between 
Coburg and Bamberg. 

Baobab (Adansonia digitata ), the monkey-bread 
or Ethiopian sour-gourd, is a remarkable, tree. It 
is a member of the order Bombacece, the silk-cotton 
family, and is a native of tropical Africa. It reaches 
a height of from 40 to 70 feet, but may have a 
diameter of 30 feet, being often narrower both 
above and below than it is in the middle ot the 
stem. The wood is soft, and is hollowed out by 
negroes as a. place of interment ; but the fibre o 
the bark is a valuable paper-making material. I he 
digitately-lobed leaves are used as a blood-purifier, 
and the pulp, which surrounds the seeds in the large 
capsular fruit, as a specific in fever. 

Bapedi, a large Bantu nation, akin to the 
Zulus, East Transvaal, Lydenburg district, west ot 
Delagoa Bay. Till recently the Bapedi were very 
powerful, and under their chief Secocum inflicted 
a series of reverses on the Boers during the frontier 
wars which preceded the temporary annexation ot 
the Transvaal by the English in 1874 lheir 
power is now broken, chiefly by the rush of English- 
speaking miners to the rich gold fields recently dis¬ 
covered in the Lydenburg district. 

Bailhomet (probably a corruption of Mahomet), 
an idol alleged to be worshipped by the Templars. 





























Baptism. 


( 332 ) 


Baptists. 


Baptism (Greek, baptismos, from bapto, to dip 
or dye), one of the Sacraments of the Christian 
Church. The rite was probably derived from the 
ceremonial washings, symbolic of cleansing from 
sin, of proselytes to Judaism. It was practised by 
John the Baptist and the disciples of Christ, but 
formally instituted by Him just before His ascen¬ 
sion (Matt, xxviii. 19). Originally adult baptism 
was the rule, though very probably in the earliest 
ages of Christianity whole households were baptised 
together; infant baptism became customary during 
the fifth and sixth centuries, and Mark x. 14 and 
John iii. 5 are quoted in its support. Immersion was 
the earliest mode, and is recognised by the Church 
of England, but in the Western Church affusion 
or the pouring on of water became the practice in 
the thirteenth century, and aspersion or sprinkling 
is also recognised. Some Protestant sects, however, 
regard baptism by immersion and adult baptism 
as the only modes warranted by Scripture [Bap¬ 
tists]. Naming is a common incident of Christian 
baptism, as of the Jewish rite of circumcision, but 
not an essential part of it. It is a much dis¬ 
puted point among theologians whether baptism 
actually produces regeneration or cleansing from 
original sin, or is only a symbol of the spiritual 
change involved in conversion to Christianity. No 
doubt the former belief (which is that of the 
Eastern and Western Churches) had much to do 
with the change from adult to infant baptism. 
Most Protestant sects, however, reject it. The 
Church of England implies it in her rubrics, but in 
the Gorham case, in 1850, the Privy Council de¬ 
cided that the doctrine of Baptismal Regeneration 
was no part of the doctrine of the Church of England 
as by law established. Baptism by laymen, in cases 
where the services of an ordained minister are not 
obtainable, is generally recognised in the Church 
of England and the Church of Rome; the latter 
allows even women to administer the rite in urgent 
cases, and recognises baptism “ by desire ” and “by 
blood” ( i.e . martyrdom). 

Baptistery (Greek baptisterion, a large jar 
or dye-vat), a building in which baptism is per¬ 
formed ; in modern times, usually that part of a 
church in which the font is placed; but in the 
early Christian Church it was frequently a separate 
building (at first hexagonal or octagonal, afterwards 
circular), often 100 feet or more in diameter, 
containing a large basin or reservoir, in which 
a number of converts were baptised together 
by immersion, usually at Christmas, Easter, or 
Whitsuntide, before the bishop. The oldest known, 
that of Aquileia, is in ruins ; those of Ravenna, of 
Florence, and of the Lateran at Rome were built 
between the fourth and sixth centuries. The octa¬ 
gonal baptistery of Florence and the circular one 
of Pisa are especially celebrated. A baptistery 
for the immersion of adult candidates for baptism 
was built at Cranbrook, Kent, by a vicar of the 
parish early in the eighteenth century, but it is 
only known to have been used twice. 

Baptists. This religious community derives 
its distinctive name from the views it holds upon 
the rite of baptism. It maintains that the only 


proper mode is by immersion, and the only proper 
subjects^ are individuals who profess personal faith 
in Christ. In support of these views Baptists 
appeal to the Scriptures, affirming that neither in 
example nor in precept is sanction to be found for any 
other observance of the rite, and they declare that 
the spiritual significance which the New Testament 
attaches to baptism cannot be expressed by sprink¬ 
ling or by pouring. They seek to strengthen their 
position by citing the opinion of eminent scholars 
as to the meaning and use of the Greek word 
baptizo, by referring to the absence of any mention 
of infant sprinkling in the writings of the Fathers 
of the first and second centuries, and by the dis¬ 
covery of the origin of baptism as applied to infants 
in the North African Church, the introduction of 
the practice being due, as they allege, to the cor¬ 
rupting influences of a growing sacerdotalism. 
They quote Tertullian, who died about 220 a.d., as 
being opposed to even child baptism, and Origen, 
who died in 254, as approving of it, and infer 
that as the dispute was evidently in relation to 
older children and not to infants, it could not have 
arisen had the practice of infant baptism been in 
existence. They trace the beginning of a change 
of mode to the innovation of clinic baptism—the 
baptism of sick persons unable to leave their beds. 

As Baptists date their origin to the age of the 
New Testament their history embraces the entire 
Christian era; when, however, departure, through 
sacerdotal and state influences, from primitive 
customs became more general and decided, and 
especially when by the edict of Justinian in the 
sixth century infant baptism was enforced by law, 
those who adhered to the original administration of 
the rite became more and more a distinct sect. 
During the obscure Middle Ages their progress can¬ 
not be followed with any degree of certainty, but 
they zealously maintained, as did other spiritually 
minded Christians who differed from them on the 
question of baptism, a fearless protest against the 
doctrines and practices of the Catholic Church. 
When the Reformation in Europe arose, Baptists 
were full of hope at the prospect of the greater 
liberty to be enjoyed ; these expectations, however 
were not fulfilled, for they found in the Reformers 
opponents little less bitter than the Catholics 
themselves. Their unflinching testimony in favour 
of the simplicity of the primitive religion and 
their determined refusal to acknowledge any 
human authority in matters of faith, brought 
them into disfavour, and exposed them to persecu¬ 
tion and death. They became a sect everywhere 
spoken against, and it must be admitted that none 
were more free in their epithets of reproach than 
were the Reformers. Taking advantage of the 
spread of the Reformation, the Baptists diligently 
propagated their opinions, and large numbers of 
the people throughout Germany, Switzerland, and 
the Low Countries accepted their principles. Then 
it was the term Anabaptist sprang into use, imply¬ 
ing as it does the rebaptism of those who had been 
baptised m infancy. 

The excesses in Munster in 1534, on account of 
which the reputation of Baptists has been unfairly 
damaged, were due to fanatical theories advanced by 










( 333 ) 


Bar. 


Baptists. 


certain leaders. And “ to accuse,” says an authority, 

“ the Continental Baptists of the sixteenth century 
of the deeds of the people who for nine months held 
possession of Munster, is as unjust as it would be 
to charge the excesses of Monnonism on the whole 
of Christendom.” In endeavouring to form an 
accurate estimate of this episode as indeed of the 
state of the Continental Baptists generally, it must 
never be forgotten that their historians were not 
their friends but their decided opponents. The 
English Reformation brought no liberty for Baptists, 
for one of the first proclamations issued by Henry 
VIII. commanded them to leave the shores of 
England or suffer the penalty of death. The oldest 
Baptist Church in this country in existence is sup¬ 
posed to be at High Cliff in Cheshire, a tombstone 
discovered some time ago bearing date 1357. The 
records of several churches now extant go back to 
the sixteenth century. Amongst the noble army of 
martyrs not a few were Baptists. 

The division into Particular and General Baptists 
appears to have arisen in the sixteenth century. 
In 1770 the New Connexion of the latter was formed 
in consequence of the Socinianism which had 
become rife in some of their churches. The terms 
Particular and General have no reference, as is 
commonly supposed, to the question of communion, 
but are purely doctrinal; the first relating to Calvin- 
istic, and the second to Arminian views of redemp¬ 
tion. These two communities are now being fused 
into one body. The word Poedolmptist is usually 
applied to those who practise infant baptism, 
though strictly speaking, as the prefix pcedo indi¬ 
cates a child, a lad, a maiden, it is not sufficiently 
distinctive, as Baptists baptise children provided 
they give evidence of faith in Christ. 

In their ecclesiastical polity the Baptists are 
congregational as distinguished from Episcopa¬ 
lians, Wesleyans, and Presbyterians, each church 
being self-governing. There are, however, county 
associations which hold periodic meetings for con¬ 
ference and mutual edification, and of more import¬ 
ance than these organisations is the Baptist Union, 
which was founded in 1832, since which date its 
constitution has undergone occasional revision. It 
has no legislative power, its functions being de¬ 
liberative and fraternal. Its operations are con¬ 
ducted by a council consisting of 100 members, 
from which are appointed sub-committees for the 
management of its Home Mission, Annuity, Pastors 
Augmentation and Education Society’s Funds. 
Most of the churches in this country are in the 
membership of this Union, but not all; seveial 
churches in England of the same faith and order, 
as also the Strict Baptist churches (the term strict 
referring to close communion and membership), the 
Scottish churches (which have their own union), 
as well as the old Scottish Baptists, are outside 
its constituency. The statistics compiled by the 
editor of the Handbook show in connection with 
the whole denomination in Great Britain and Ire¬ 
land, 2,802 churches, 3,781 chapels, with 1,223,52(5 
sittings, 330,163 members, 482,892 Sunday school 
scholars, with 48,132 teachers, 4,000 local preachers, 
and 1,874 pastors in charge. 

The Baptists are held in high reputation on 


account of the prominent part they have taken in 
the foreign missionary enterprise. To them belongs 
the honourable distinction of having formed the 
first society in this country for propagating the 
Gospel amongst the heathen , which was established 
in 1792 at Kettering. Dr. Carey was its first mis¬ 
sionary, and Andrew Fuller its first secretary. Its 
principal mission fields are India, China, and Africa, 
its missions in Jamaica being now self-supporting. 
The gross income of the society for the year ending 
March, 1891, was nearly £90,000. 

In addition to the organisations already noticed 
may be mentioned the Baptist Board, founded in 
1723, for pastors in or about the cities of London 
and Westminster to consult and advise on subjects 
of a religious nature ; the Particular Baptist Fund, 
date 1717, whose object is the relief of ministers 
and churches; the Building Fund (1824), granting 
loans without interest ; the Total Abstinence Asso¬ 
ciation ; the Tract and Book Society ; the Bible 
Translation Society, etc. The Collegiate Institu¬ 
tions are at Bristol, Rawdon, Regent's Park, Metro¬ 
politan Tabernacle, Manchester, Pontypool, Haver¬ 
fordwest, and Glasgow. 

Amongst Baptist celebrities may be enumerated 
Major-Gen. Harrison, of Cromwell’s army, Colonel 
Hutchinson, John Bunyan, Hanserd Knollys, Ben¬ 
jamin Keach, William Kiffin, Roger Williams, of 
earlier date; and Dr. Gill, Robert Robinson, Dr. 
Beddome, Dr. Gifford, Dr. Rippon, Robert Hall, 
Dr. Ryland, John Foster, of more recent times. 

In the United States of America the Baptists are 
very numerous, their membership being estimated 
at more than 3,000,000. 

Bar, literally, a term used to designate in a 
court of justice the inclosure made to prevent per¬ 
sons engaged in the business of the court from 
being incommoded by a crowd, hrom the circum¬ 
stance of counsel standing in such inclosure to 
plead their causes, it is supposed that these lawyers 
who have been called to the bar, or admitted to 
plead, are termed “ Barristers,” and that the body 
of barristers is collectively designated “ the. Bar.” 
These terms are, however, probably more directly 
traceable to the arrangements of the Inns of 
Court. [Barrister, Inns of Court.] Prisoners 
are also placed for trial at the bar, hence the term 
“ prisoner at the bar.” The term is also applied to 
the breast-high partition which divides from the 
body of the respective Houses of Parliament a space 
near the door, beyond which none but the members 
and clerks are admitted. To these bars witnesses 
and persons ordered into custody for breach of 
privilege are brought, and counsel stand there when 
pleading before the respective houses. r J he Com¬ 
mons go to the bar of the House of Lords when the 
Queen’s Speech, at the opening and close of a 
session, is delivered. A “ trial at bar is one which 
takes place before all the judges of the division of 
the High Court in which action is brought. 

Bar, Barry. The bar is one of the honourable 
ordinaries in the science of Heraldry. It should 
contain one-fifth part of the field, and is formed by 
two horizontal and parallel lines crossing the 
escutcheon from side to side, and it nevei occuis 






Baraba. 


( 334 ) 


Barbarossa. 


singly. In this it differs from the fesse , though the 
latter, whilst containing a third part thereof, always 
occupies a fixed point in the centre of the shield, 
whereas a bar is not confined to one place. When 
the field itself is composed of a number of bars 
alternately of different tinctures, it is said to be 
harry of so many (usually six or eight). The 
diminutives of the bar are the closet and the 
b armlet, and this last gives its name to the term 
barmletty, which, though sometimes confounded 
with “ barry,” should explain itself. 

Baraba, or Barabinska, the name of a steppe 
in Asiatic Russia, lying W. of Omsk, between the 
Obi and Irtish rivers, and having a length of 400 
miles and a breadth of 300. The area is broken by 
a few salt lakes and birch forests, but is otherwise 
an expanse of black loam. It was occupied in 1767 
by Russian colonists. 

Barabra. [Nubians.] 

Barabras, a district in Upper Egypt just S. of 
the first cataract on the Nile between the twenty- 
third and twenty-fourth parallels. It is also known 
as the Kenoos country. 

Baraguay D’Hilliers, Achille, born in 
Paris in 1795, fought in the Russian campaign and 
at Leipsic, where, at the age of 18, he lost his left 
hand. He took part in Quatre-Bras and other battles 
of the Hundred Days. Later on he distinguished 
himself in Algeria in the service of Louis Philippe, 
and giving his adhesion to the Republic, he was 
sent by Louis Napoleon, in 1849, on a mission to 
Rome, and later as ambassador to the Porte. At 
the outbreak of the war with Russia he took com¬ 
mand of the military force that co-operated with 
the English and French fleets in the reduction of 
Bomarsund. He was made life-senator and marshal, 
and in 1870 for a brief period commanded the be¬ 
sieged garrison of Paris. His last public appearance 
was as president of the inquiry into the conduct of 
Marshal Bazaine in 1872. He'died in 1878. 

Barak, a branch of the Khatak Afghans, with 
four main divisions: Uzshdah, Land, Mandan, 
Manzai. [Khatak.] 

^ Barak, The, a river in the territory of Cachar, 
Farther India. Traversing the S. division of the 
province, it enters Sylhet, and after a tortuous 
course empties itself into the Brahmaputra 43 
miles above Dacca. Its total length is 350 miles. 

Barakzae, the royal tribe of the Bar-Dunini 
Afghans since 1818; they are a branch of the Pop- 
alzae Ziraks, now in the Cabul district; 35,000 
families. 

Barante, Amable Guillaume Prosper Bru- 
GIERE, Baron de, was born at Riom in 1782. From 
1806 to 1848 he occupied with distinction a succes¬ 
sion of political and diplomatic posts, having served 
as ambassador at St. Petersburg when the Revolu¬ 
tion broke out. He then retired into private life, 
continuing his literary pursuits in his country- 
house in Auvergne, where he died in 1866. His 
History of the Duties of Burgundy is a monument 
of research and ability, and his History of the 


National Convention deserves praise. Besides these 
he published many literary essays, translated 
Schiller’s plays, and contributed a version of Hamlet 
to Guizot’s Sliahespeare. 

Barasefc, or Barasut, a district and town a 
few miles N. of Calcutta on the same side of the 
Hooghly. The area of the district is 1,424 sq. miles. 

Baratynski, Jervgenij Abramovitch, born 
in Russia in 1800, entered the army, but after eight 
years’ service was compelled to resign, owing to 
some youthful misconduct. He then settled at 
Moscow and gave himself up to poetry, writing his 
masterpiece, The Gipsy. His health broke down, 
and he sought a warmer climate at Naples, where 
he died in 1844. 

Barb, a name sometimes given to a breed of 
horses, and to a variety of pigeons, both originally 
from Barbary. [Horse, Pigeon.] 

Barbadoes, an island in the E. portion of the 
Windward group of the West Indian Archipelago. 
It was occupied by the English in 1624-5, and since 
the restoration has been in the hands of the Crown, 
serving as the administrative centre of the group. 
It is rather larger than the Isle of Wight, has a 
rich soil and a fairly healthy climate; and is almost 
encircled by Coral reefs. Owing to its position it is 
peculiarly liable to hurricanes. Bridgetown is the 
capital. James Town, Speight’s Town, and Oistins 
are places of importance. The chief products are 
sugar, arrowroot, ginger, and aloes. 

Barbara, Saint, a Christian saint and martyr 
of the third century. For her adoption of the 
faith she was immured in a tower—which is her 
symbol, especially Flemish art—and then beheaded 
by her own father, but other legends represent her 
as having escaped miraculously. Her day is kept 
on March 7th, and some Catholics look on her as 
extending special protection over artillery. 

Barbarian. The Gk. barbaros, probably formed 
as an imitation of an unintelligible foreign language, 
originally meant one who could not speak Greek. 
From the Persian wars onwards the Greeks came 
to contrast their superior civilisation with that of 
foreigners and to use the term with a certain con¬ 
temptuous sense. After the conquests of Alexander 
the Great it was only uncivilised races who could 
not speak Greek, and the term therefore became 
equivalent to savage. Mr. Matthew Arnold used 
the word to characterise the youth of the English 
upper classes, fond of sport and open-air life, but 
hardly tinctured by literary culture. 

Barbarossa (. Bed-beard ), the Italian name 
of Horuk or Aruch, the son of a Turkish soldier, 
who was born at Mitylene about 1474. He and his 
brother became such wealthy and influential pirates 
that they were invited by the Algerine Musulmans 
to help them against the Spaniards. Horuk soon 
seated himself on the Algerian throne, to which he 
annexed those of Tunis and Tlemcen. However, the 
heir to the latter, assisted by Gomares, the Spanish 
Governor of Oran, made a vigorous resistance, and 
Barbarossa was killed on the bank of the river 
Meileli, in 1518. 









Barbarossa. 


( 335 ) 


Barbel. 


Barbarossa, Kair-ud-deen, brother and suc¬ 
cessor of the foregoing in the kingdom of Algiers, 
was employed by the Sultan Selim II. as naval 
commander. He captured Tunis, but in 1536 was 
driven out of N. Africa by the Emperor Charles V. 
He then harried the coasts of Italy for some years, 
and subjected Yemen to Ottoman rule, dying at 
Constantinople in 1546. 

Barbarossa, The Emperor. [Frederick I.] 

Barbaroux, Charles, born at Marseilles in 
1767, was in early life distinguished by his aptitude 
for physical science, and corresponded with Ben¬ 
jamin Franklin. Elected to the National Assembly 
on the outbreak of the Revolution, he opposed the 
violence of Marat and Robespierre, proposed the 
trial of Louis XVI., and fell with the Girondists. 
He was seized and guillotined at Bordeaux in 1794. 

Barbary, a geographical term somewhat 
vaguely applied to North Africa, including the 
States of Morocco, Algeria, Tunis, Tripoli, etc. The 
name is probably to be traced to the Berbers (q.v.), 
one of the oldest races inhabiting the region, and 
the resemblance to the Latin barbarus may not be 
a mere accident. The horses for which the country 
is famous are known as barbs. 

Barbary Ape (4 lacacus inuus ), a tailless 
Macaque (q.v.), sometimes made the type of a 
genus, with the name Inuus ecaudatus, interesting 
as being the only species of monkey now living in 
Europe, though only at Gibraltar. It is about 30 
inches long, standing somewhat less at the shoulder , 
the upper surface is vellowish brown, deepening on 
the head and round the cheeks, the under parts are 
whitish, and the face, ears, and other hairless parts 
flesh coloured. The Barbary Apes, or Magots, as 
they are sometimes called, are found in the 
mountainous parts of North Africa, where they as¬ 
semble in troops, like baboons, and descend to 
plunder plantations and gardens. When young, 
these animals are very playful and gentle, and can 
be taught a number of tricks, but as they grow old 
they become morose and vicious. There is a colony 
of Barbary Apes on the Rock of Gibraltar, probably 
the descendants of some who wandered northwards 
before Europe and Africa were separated by the 
straits. They feed on roots and bulbs, which they 
dig up from' the broken ground, for there are no 
fruit trees to plunder. It is said that the garrison 
was saved by these apes from surprise by the 
Spaniards during the celebrated siege. The attack¬ 
ing partv had to pass a place where a numbei of 
these animals were collected, and startled them. 
Their cries roused the British soldiers, who were- 
soon ready to repel the intended attack. In return 
for this service General Elliott, the commander, 
never allowed these monkeys to be molested. The 
Barbary Ape is also noteworthy as being the subject 
of the dissections of Galen, from which he learnt 
all that served for anatomy till Vesalius. in the 
16th century, placed that science on a firm basis. 

Barbary Deer ( Cervus barbarus ), chiefly dis¬ 
tinguished from its Algerian variety and from the 
Red Deer by its smaller size, stouter form, and more 


permanently spotted fur. It is noteworthy as being 
the only true deer found in Africa, which abounds 
in antelopes. [Antelope, Deer.] 

Barbary Mouse (Mus barbarus), sometimes 
called the Striped Mouse, from Northern Africa, 
remarkable for its coloration. It is rather larger 
than the common mouse, darkish brown above, 
with five or six yellowish longitudinal stripes on 
each side, fading by degrees into the white of the 
under surface. 

Barbary Sheep. [Aoudad.] 

Barbastelle ( Synotus barbastelhis), an English 
bat, distinguished chiefly by the outer margin of 
the ear being carried forwards above the mouth 
and in front of the eye. 

Barbauld, Anna Lhstitia, the daughter of the 
Rev. John Aikin, was born at Kibworth-Harcourt, 
Leicestershire in 1743, and in 1774 married the 
Rev. Rochemont Barbauld, a Unitarian minister, 
having in the previous year published a volume of 
poems. With her husband she opened a school at 
Palgrave in Suffolk, and among their pupils were 
Lord Denman, Taylor of Norwich, Sir W. Gell, and 
others destined to future distinction. Here she 
wrote her Ilymns in Prose for Children. In 1785 
they moved to Hampstead, and Mrs. Barbauld 
assisted her brother in bringing out Evenings at 
Home. In 1802 the Barbaulds established them¬ 
selves at Stoke Newington, where she composed her 
Selections from the Essayists, Life of Richardson , and 
her Collection of British Novelists , together with her 
last and longest poem, Eighteen Hundred and Eleven. 
Her husband died in 1808, but she survived until 
1825, surrounded by many friends and intellectual 
admirers. Her works were edited, and her memoiis 
gracefully written by her niece, Lucy Aikin. 

Barbecue (Haitian barbacola, a frame to 
support meat while it is being smoked), an ox oi 
hog roasted whole; hence, an open-air feast at 
which this is done, formerly common in the south¬ 
western United States. 

Barbed, a term in Heraldry, which, besides 
being applied to a particular and peculiaily-shaped 
cross, and occasionally in conjunction, with the 
word crested ( barbed and crested') to signify that 
the comb and wattles of a cock are of a diffeient 
tincture from its body, is most generally used to 
describe the head of an arrow (in a like case), oi to 
denote the green leaves upon the outside of the 
full-blown heraldic rose, which is usually 7 blazoned, 
a rose yules, barbed and seeded, ppr. 

Barbel, any fish of the genus Barbus, of the 
family Cyprinidae. The dorsal fin, which is opposite 
the root of the ventral fin, and rarely includes more 
than nine branched rays, generally has the third 
ray enlarged and ossified 5 the anal fin is short and 
high ; four barbules (whence the popular name) or 
fleshy tentacles grow from the lips—two at the 
nose,' and one at each angle of the mouth. This 
genus contains nearly 200 species, and may be 
divided into three sections(1) Those with four 
barbules as in the Common Barbel (B. vulgaris ); 
( 2 ) those in which the barbules are reduced to two ; 











Barber. 


( 336 ) 


Barbier. 


and (3) those in which the barbules are absent, as 
in some East Indian forms. The greater number 
of species live in the fresh waters of India and the 
East Indian Archipelago, but the genus is widely 
represented in Asia and Africa, and moderately so 
in Europe, though the species decrease westward to 
two in France and one in Britain. The Common 



barbel (Barbus vulgaris). 


Barbel is usually about fifteen inches long, though 
specimens of more than three feet are on record ; 
olive-green above, becoming lighter on the flanks 
and greenish white towards the belly, which, with 
the throat, is pearly white. The sides of the head 
are marked with black, and the marking is some¬ 
times continued along the body. They feed almost 
entirely on aquatic plants and roots, boring with 
their snout into the banks of ponds and rivers to 
obtain them. The Barbel is plentiful in the upper 
reaches of the Thames, and is more valued by 
the angler for sport than as a food fish ; but if 
boiled in salt and water and eaten cold with a 
squeeze of lemon juice the flesh will be found 
palatable. The roe is said to be poisonous and is 
removed before the fish is cooked. In cold weather 
these fish undergo a partial hibernation, and then 
are taken with a scoop-net. Other noteworthy 
species are B. bynni , from the Nile, B. cants from 
the Jordan, the large Barbels from the Tigris, and 
B. mosal from Indian mountain streams, probably 
the largest species known, the scales of which are 
as large as the palm of the human hand. 

Barber (Low Latin barbarins , from barba , a 
beard). The calling of a barber is of considerable 
antiquity ( sec Ezek. v. 1). The nature of the pro¬ 
fession obviously makes the barber a purveyor of 
news and gossip; and the characters of the barber 
in the Arabian Nights and in Rossini’s Barber of 
Seville are well known. In mediaeval times the 
barber also perfonned such minor surgical opera¬ 
tions as tooth-drawing and blood-letting. The 
Company of Barber-Surgeons was incorporated 
under Edward I., but the two professions were 
separated in England by an Act of Parliament in 
1545. The long striped pole now often seen outside 
the barber’s door is said to typify an arm bound 
round with ribbon previous to bleeding. 

Barberini, the name of a famous Florentine 
family, a member of which, as Urban VIII., was 
elected pope in 1623. His three nephews appro¬ 
priated everything that they could seize in Rome, 
and Antonio Cardinal Barberini, at the head of 
Papal troops, wrought much mischief in Parma, 
Modena, and Tuscany. On the accession of In¬ 
nocent X. the Cardinal retired to France, was made 
Grand Almoner and Archbishop of Rheims, and 


died in 1671, aged 63. Meanwhile the family were 
restored to their great possessions in Italy, which 
they still hold. 

Barberry, or Berberry ( Berberis vulgaris'), a 
British shrub, belonging to the order Berberidacece, 
containing many varieties. It grows generally 8 or 
10 feet high, with a yellow astringent bark and 
roots, used in dyeing. The leaves are small, 
obovate, ciliate, bright-green, and deciduous, being 
clustered by the shortening of the spinous branches. 
The pendulous racemes of yellow flowers have irrit¬ 
able stamens, dehiscing by valves, and the berrv- 
like fruit is oblong and generally orange. It is 
used in pickles and preserves. The leaves are 
attacked by a fungus, the cluster-cup, JEcidium 
Berberidis, now known to be only one stage of 
Puceinia graminis, the wheat-mildew [AScidium], 
for which reason the barberry is rooted up by 
farmers. 

Barberton, a mining town of the Transvaal, 
South Africa, situated in the De Kaap gold-fields 
292 miles N. of Durban. It sprang up in 1886 
owing to the influx of miners and speculators at¬ 
tracted by a promising reef, and took its name from 
one of the earliest prospectors. It is now a local 
centre of some importance. 

Barbet, any bird of the family Megalaemidse 
(containing 13 genera with 81 species) widely dis¬ 
tributed in the tropics, but characteristic of the 
equatorial forest-zone, the most remarkable forms 
being confined to equatorial America, West Africa, 
and the Indo-Malay islands. They are rather 
small birds, of heavy ungraceful form and gaudy 
plumage, strictly arboreal in their habits and feed¬ 
ing on fruit, seeds, and buds, and occasionally on 
insects. The name was formerly applied to "the 
Bucconidae or Puff-birds (q.v.). 

Barbette, a platform inside the parapet of a 
rampart, on which heavy guns are mounted so that 
they can be fired over the rampart instead of 
through embrasures. A barbette ship is a war 
vessel carrying heavy guns, which are fired from a 
platform, or over the bulwarks, and not through 
portholes. 

Barbican (Old French barbicane, probably an 
Arabic or Persian word), an outwork defending the 
drawbridge of a fortification, or a tower over the 
gate of a castle or fortress. The most perfect 
specimen of the former type exists at Carcassonne, 
in France. 

Barbier, Antoine Alexandre, born at Cou- 
lommiers in 1765, entered the priesthood, but at 
the outbreak of the Revolution threw aside his 
vows and married. He was employed by the Con¬ 
vention to collect the books and works of art of 
the suppressed convents. He became Napoleon’s 
librarian in 1807, and founded the libraries at the 
Louvre, Compiegne, and Fontainebleau. He died in 
1825, leaving a son to succeed him at the Louvre. 

Barbier, Henri Auguste, born in Paris in 
1805, and educated for the bar, was inspired by 
the ferment of July, 1830, to write in the papers 







Barbou. 


( 337 ) 


Barclay. 


vigorous political verses. His Iambes, a more sus¬ 
tained effort, followed. Lazare and Le Minotaure 
were suggested by the social state of London. He 
tried his hand at translating Shakespeare’s Julius 
Ccesa/r, was elected to the Academy in 1869, dying 
in 1882. Of his works only the Iambes will survive. 

Barbou, Joseph Gerard, the most distin¬ 
guished member of a family of French booksellers 
and printers, who, beginning business at Lyons, 
were established in Paris about the middle of the 
eighteenth century. From 1755 to 1775 he brought 
out his famous collection of classics, in which the 
chief scholars of France co-operated. 

Barbour, John, born in Scotland about 1316, 
and said to have been educated at Oxford, entered 
the Church, and became chaplain to King David 
Bruce, also serving for forty years as Archdeacon of 
Aberdeen. He wrote in verse The Life and Actions of 
King Robert Bruce , a work consisting of 13,000 octo¬ 
syllabic lines, and possessing both historical and 
literary merit. He also described in a poem, entitled 
The Brute , the career of that mythical descendant 
of ASneas who was supposed to have settled in 
England. Even an age that produced Chaucer 
need not be ashamed of Barbour. He died in 
1395. 

Barbuda, one of the leeward group of the West 
Indian Archipelago, 10 miles long and 8 miles wide. 
Though rather low-lying and level it has a wholesome 
climate. For purposes of administration the island 
is subordinate to Antigua, 20 miles distant. 

Barca, a Turkish province on the N. coast of 
Africa, between Tripoli and Egypt, having a length 
of 500 miles from N. to S. by a breadth of 400 
miles. In classical times it was known as Cyren- 
aica, or Libya Pentapolis, the seat of the five Greek 
colonies of Arsinoe, Barca, Cyrene, Apollonia, and 
Berenice, the last of which is the modern capital 
Bengazi. Since the sixteenth century it had been 
under the beys of Tripoli, from whom it was taken 
by treaty in 1869, and made dependent on the 
Porte. Though no rivers exist and drought is a 
serious drawback, the soil produces millet, maize, 
figs, dates, and olives. 

Barcarolle (Italian barcarolo, boatman, from 
barca, a boat), a song sung by Venetian gondoliers, 
or a piece of instrumental music composed in 
imitation of it. 

Barcelona, the name (said to be derived from 
Hamilcar Barca) of a province and its capital on the 
E. coast of Spain. The province first came into ex¬ 
istence as a country under Charlemagne in 801, and 
was, after several vicissitudes, merged in the king¬ 
dom of Aragon. The city now ranks as the second in 
Spain, and stands at the mouth of the river Llobre- 
gat on the edge of a small fertile plain sloping 
towards the Mediterranean. The streets of the 
ancient quarter, dating from very remote times, 
are narrow, crooked, and full of flat-roofed, semi- 
Oriental houses. The Plaza Nuova is a fine open 
space, and the new faubourgs are Parisian in style. 
In 1845 the citadel and ramparts were removed, 
and public gardens put in their places, but the 

22 


fortress Montjuich to the S.W. recalls Peter¬ 
borough’s exploit in 1705. On the other side of 
the harbour is the suburb of Barceloneta. The 
port, in spite of the obstruction of a bar, does a 
large trade, exporting nuts and fruits, leather, silk, 



PLAZA NUOVA, BARCELONA. 

wine, brandy, iron, copper, cork, etc. The cathedral, 
begun in the thirteenth century and never com¬ 
pleted, is a fine example of the Pointed style, and 
contains magnificent glass. The university was 
founded in 1430. The royal palace was destroyed 
by fire in 1875. There are numbers of handsome 
churches and convents, two valuable libraries, 
municipal buildings, and many theatres. It is 
connected by rail witli Paris and Madrid, and has 
given shelter to many English criminals as being 
the most accessible spot beyond extradition laws. 

Barcelona, New, a province and its capital in 
the department of Cumana, Venezuela, South 
America. The province has an area of 13,744 square 
miles. The town stands on the left bank of the 
river Neveri, about 2 miles from the coast. It is a 
filthy and unhealthy place, chiefly engaged in the 
horse and cattle trades. 

Barclay, Alexander, born in Scotland (?) 
about 1476, seems to have spent his youth in 
travelling, and on his return entered the Benedictine 
monastery at Ely, afterwards joining the Francis¬ 
cans at Canterbury. On the dissolution of the 
religious houses he held a living in Somersetshire 
and later in Essex. He translated into English the 
Navis Stultifera , or Ship of Fools , making many 
original additions. His work was published by 
Pynson in 1509. He also wrote some Eclogues, in 
which he took Virgil and Petrarch for his models. 
He died in 1552. 














Barclay. 


( 338 ) 


Barentz. 


Barclay, John, born in 1582, at Pont-i\- 
Mousson, France, where his father, a Scotsman, 
patronised by Mary, Queen of Scots, held a pro¬ 
fessorship. He came over to England for ten years, 
and his poem Satyricon and his romance Aryenis 
attracted some notice. Grotius praised his Latinity. 
He died prematurely at Rome in 1621. 

Barclay, Robert, born at Gordonstown, Mor¬ 
ayshire, Scotland, in 1648, was educated at Paris 
by his uncle, the principal of the Scots College. 
Fearing papistical tendencies his father recalled 
him, and he became a devoted member of the 
Society of Friends, not merely writing in defence 
of their views, but preaching their doctrines at 
home and abroad, and suffering some persecution. 
His best known work is An Apology for the True 
Christian Divinity , which appeared in 1676. He 
died in 1690 at Ury, in Kincardineshire. 

Barclay de Tolly, Michael, born in Livonia 
of Scottish family, in 1759, entered the Russian 
army, and in the campaigns of 1806-7 rose to be 
field-marshal. He held the chief command of the 
Russian’s at the battle of Leipsic, and at the 
entrance of the Allies into France in 1815. He 
was subsequently minister of war at St. Petersburg, 
and received the title of Prince. He died in 1818. 

Barcochebas, or Barcochab (Heb. son of a 
star), a Jewish leader, who persuaded his country¬ 
men to rebel against Rome in the time of Hadrian. 
He declared himself to be the “ star ” referred to in 
Numb. xxiv. 17, and adopted the name by which 
he is known in place of his patronymic Simeon. His 
followers made him king of Jerusalem, and for a 
time he gave the Romans trouble, till in 135 A.d. he 
was defeated and killed by Julius Severus. 

Bard, a village in Piedmont, Italy, 23 miles S.E. 
of Aosta, commanding by means of its fortress the 
pass into that valley from France. Napoleon, 
checked here in 1800 by a small Austrian garrison, 
destroyed the fort, but it has since been rebuilt. 

Bard (an Irish and Gaelic word for a poet; 
Lat. bardus), the poets and singers of the ancient 
Keltic races, who celebrated the deeds of gods, 
heroes, and warriors, accompanying their recitations 
with the harp. In both Wales and Ireland they 
formed hereditary guilds, and in the latter country 
kept up the national feeling against the conqueror. 
In the former they held periodical competitions in 
poetry and music, which were revived in the last 
century and are now well known. [Eisteddfod.] 

Bardesanes, or Bar Deisan, a Syrian heresi- 
arch of the second century, who, having long been 
orthodox, first joined the Valentinians, and then 
invented his own particular form of error, which 
was akin to the Manichean doctrine. His hymns 
were famous, and a fine specimen of his style is 
preserved by Eusebius. 

Bar-Durani, the collective name of the Afghan 
tribes between the Hindu-Kush, Indus, Salt, and 
Soliman Mountains, first applied to them by Ahmed 
Shah, founder of the modern kingdom of Afghanistan 
(1746). In the group are comprised the Yusafzaes, 


Utrnan Khels, Turkolani, Mohmands, Afridis, 
Orakzaes, Shinwaris, Bangash, Khataks, Ziraks, 
Panjpaos, and many others. 

Barebones Parliament. After Oliver Crom¬ 
well had forcibly suppressed the Rump Parliament 
(April 20th, 1653), an assembly was selected by his 
council of officers from lists furnished by the 
various churches to act as a legislature. England 
was represented by 132 members, Wales and Ire¬ 
land by six each, and Scotland by five. Though 
generally spoken of as an assembly of fanatics, it 
included Blake, Montague, Monk, Ashley Cooper, 
and other influential persons. It met July 4th, 
1653, and passed laws relaxing imprisonment for 
debt, permitting civil marriage, and abolishing 
tithes and the patronage of benefices. As the two 
latter measures would practically have disestablished 
the Church, a motion was brought forward unex¬ 
pectedly and carried in the absence of most of the 
advanced party, that the members should resign 
their power to Cromwell. The dissentients were 
then expelled by soldiers. The name is derived 
from a prominent member, Praise-God Barbon, or 
Barebones, a leather-seller, of Fleet Street. The 
body is also sometimes called the “Assembly of 
Nominees ” or the “ Little Parliament.” 

Barege, a slight, sometimes almost transparent, 
fabric of silk and worsted or cotton and worsted, 
for ladies’ dresses, first manufactured at Luz in the 
valley of Bareges in the Pyrenees. 

Bareges, a small town in the department of 
Hautes Pyrenees, France, standing on the Gave de 
Bastan, about 33 miles from Tarbes. Its sulphurous 
springs are highly esteemed for gunshot wounds, 
and a military hospital is established here. The 
light woollen tissues named from the place are 
made chiefly at Bagneres-de-Bigorre (q.v.). 

Bareilly, or Bareli, a district and its chief 
town in the division of Rohilkhand, North-West Pro¬ 
vinces of British India. The former occupies an area 
of 1,614 square miles between the Ganges on the 
W. and Oudh on the E. and S., the Kumaon hills, 
Farakabad, Aligahr, and Moradabad to the N. and 
W. It is level, and on the w r hole fertile, being 
watered by the Gogra and Ramanga, but there is a 
belt of jungle to the N. Rice and sugar are the 
chief products. The city stands on the left bank 
of the Jua, and is large and handsome, being the 
most populous in the division. It contains a famous 
college, and was one of the first places at which the 
mutiny of 1857 declared itself. The Roliillas 
sustained severe defeats in its neighbourhood by 
Colonel Champion in 1774, and Sir Robert Aber¬ 
crombie in 1796. 

Barentz, or Barents, William, was born in 
the island of Ter Schelling, off the coast of Fries¬ 
land, but little or nothing is knovm of him until in 
1594 he set out as pilot of a Dutch expedition which 
explored much of the coast of Nova Zembla, and 
the next jmar he made a less successful voyage to 
the same region. In 1596 with two ships he'pushed 
as far north as Spitsbergen, then came down to 
Nova Zembla, and wintered in a spot which he 




Bar ere de Vieuzac. 


( 339 ) 


Barilla. 


called Ice Haven, being the first explorer who ever 
incurred such an experience. Next summer, after 
great privations, the party got home again, but 
Barents died on the journey. His memorials have 
been published by the Hakluyt Society. 

Bar&re de Vieuzac, Bertrand, born at 
Tarbes in 1755, practised at the bar in Toulouse, 
and was sent as a representative of the Tiers Etat 
to the States General and the Convention. The 
part he played in the National Assembly was at first 
mild enough, but in the Convention he joined the 
more violent section, voted for the execution of the 
king, supported Robespierre, Couthon, and St. Just 
in the^ Reign of Terror, and was a member of Le 
Comite du Saint Public. He somewhat severed 
himself from his associates before the reaction set 
in, but would have shared their fate had he not 
contrived to escape. Napoleon allowed him to re¬ 
turn, and used him as a spy. At the Restoration he 
had once more to fly, but after 1830 returned from 
Belgium, received a small pension, and died at Paris 
in 1841. His fondness for dabbling in light litera¬ 
ture and his cheerful insouciance where his own 
neck was not in danger, won him the title of “ the 
Anacreon of the Guillotine,” and Macaulay describes 
him as approaching more nearly than anyone “ to 
the idea of consummate and universal depravity.” 

Baretti, Giuseppe, born at Turin in 1719. 
After making some reputation by translating 
Corneille into Italian and by other efforts in prose 
and verse, he established himself as a teacher in 
London in 1751. He became secretary to the 
Royal Academy, and by Dr. Johnson’s introduction 
taught Italian to Mrs. Thrale. He was tried at the 
Old Bailey in 1769 for killing a man who attacked 
him in the Haymarket and was acquitted. His 
dictionaries of Italian and Spanish are still extant. 
Lord North gave him a pension ; he died in 1789. 

Bargain and Sale, an ancient form of con¬ 
veyance of land. A “ Bargain and Sale” required 
to be enrolled within six months. It has long 
ceased to be in use for freehold interests in 
England, but curiously enough it is the common 
form of conveyance in the United States, where it 
has its virtue and validity mainly by force of the 
Statute of Uses (q.v.). In Scotland no such 
transaction as a Bargain and Sale exists with 
reference to real estate. 

Bargander, Bergander, local names for the 
Sheldrake (q.v.), from its habit of breeding in 
rabbit burrows and other holes in soft soil, whence 
it is also called the Burrow Duck. 

Barge, a boat of state, particularly the state 
boat of an admiral or a captain of a man-of-war. 
It is usually long, narrow, light, and clinker-built. 
The name barge is also applied to a flat-bottomed 
vessel of burden intended for use on inland waters, 
or for loading and unloading larger craft. 

Barge Board, a board extending along the in¬ 
side edge of the gable of a house, to protect the 
rafters from the weather, often richly carved and 
ornamented. 


Bargouzin, The, a river in the government 
of Irkutsk, Siberia, Asiatic Russia, where, after a 
course of 200 
miles, it dis¬ 
charges itself in¬ 
to Lake Baikal. 

On it is situated 
the town of Bar- 
gouzinsk, the 
capital of the ad¬ 
ministrative cir¬ 
cle, with thermal 
springs in its 
vicinity. 

Barham, The 

Rev. Richard 
Harris, better 
known by his 
literary pseudo¬ 
nym “Thomas Ingoldsby,” was born at Canterbury 
in 1788, and after an Oxford education was about 
to enter the law when his tastes drew him towards 
the Church, and he was ordained in 1813. He 
obtained a minor canonry at St. Paul’s, was made a 
priest in ordinary of the Chapel Royal, and ulti¬ 
mately received the living of St. Augustine’s. He 
soon became mixed up in literary society, for which 
his wit and kindly nature fitted him so completely. 
His incomparable Ingoldsby Legends appeared in 
Bentley's Miscellany , and being reprinted passed 
through many editions. He wrote also for Black¬ 
wood and the Literary Gazette , contributed about 
a third of the matter to Gorton's Biographical 
Dictionary , and produced a successful novel, My 
Cousin Nicholas. He died in Amen Corner in 1845. 

Bari, a numerous negro nation along both banks 
of the White Nile, above and below Lado, between 
lat. 6° and 4° N. The Bari territory covers an area of 
over 6,000 square miles, with a population of about 
150,000 ; it is conterminous on the west with that 
of the Makarakas, a western branch of the Zandehs 
(Niam-Niam), who greatly excel the Bari in intelli¬ 
gence, enterprise, and industry. The Bari have 
been described by Schweinfurth ( Heart of Africa'), 
and by Dr. W. Junker ( Travels in Africa, 1890). 

Bari, Terra di, a province in the S. of Italy, 
with an area of 3,782 square miles, lying on the 
Adriatic coast between Capitanata, Potenza, and 
Otranto. Level to the N. and mountainous to the 
S., it is fairly fertile in grain, fruit, and wine, 
besides feeding sheep, goats, asses, and swine. 

Bari (classic Barium'), the chief town of the pro¬ 
vince, stands on a peninsula in the Adriatic about 
135 miles N.E. of Naples, and possesses a tolerable 
harbour, being defended by old walls. The citadel 
dates from the 11th century, and there is a cathedral, 
the seat of an archbishopric, besides the old Norman 
church of S. Nicolas and other fine public build¬ 
ings. Railways connect the place with Brindisi and 
Taranto. Within recent years the trade has greatly 
improved. 

Barilla, a crude form of sodium carbonate, or 
soda, obtained by digesting the ashes of certain 



ship’s barge. 











Baring. 


( 340 ) 


Barletta. 


marine plants with water, and evaporating the 
solution so obtained. It was formerly made exten¬ 
sively, being used in manufacture of soap, but is 
now prepared only to a small extent owing to 
advances in the processes for manufacturing soda. 

Baring, Sir Francis, Bart., was born in 
1740, being the third son of John Baring, M.P. for 
Exeter, whose family came from Bremen. He 
founded tire great house of Barings and Co., which 
rivalled the Rothschilds, was for many years a 
director of the East India Company, and held a large 
interest in government loans, whence he derived 
great profits, especially in the critical years 1797 
and 1806. He sat in Parliament from 1784 to 1806, 
was made a baronet in 1793, and died in 1810, 
leaving the then enormous fortune of two millions 
in realised and landed property. From him descend 
Lord Ashburton, Lord Northbrook, and Lord 
Revelstoke. 

Barita, a lapsed Cuvierian genus of birds. 
[Piping Crow.] 

Baritone (Greek barys, heavy ; tonos, tone), in 
Music a male voice, in quality between tenor and 
bass. Also the name of a small kind of sax-horn, 
now almost obsolete. In the baritone clef the F is 
written upon the third line. 

Barium, a metal which is only found in nature 
in a combined state, most commonly as sulphate in 
Barytes , or heavy spar, and as carbonate in Witherite. 
Its compounds are characterised b}’ high density, 
whence its name (Gk. barys, heavy). The metal 
itself is very difficult to prepare, and was first 
isolated by Sir H. Davy in 1808, though he probably 
only obtained an amalgam. It has a specific 
gravity 4'0, atomic weight 137, burns in air if 
heated, and decomposes water rapidly. It forms 
an oxide, BaO, closely resembling lime and known as 
Baryta. It also forms an oxide, Ba0 2 , which has 
been the starting point of many attempts for the 
manufacture of oxygen gas. Baryta is used in 
sugar refining; and certain salts, as the nitrate and 
chloride, are largely used in pyrotechny—for yreen 
fires—and in chemical analysis. 

Bark, a term somewhat loosely applied to the 
outer part of an exogenous stem. By woodcrafts- 
men it is commonly employed for everything 
external to the cambium or growing-layer, which 
is the layer torn through in “barking” a tree, and 
they divide it into the two layers, the fibrous inner 
bark, or bast, and the outer bark or cork. Botanists 
employ the term rather to the dead tissues—whether 
in part composed of the epidermis, the hypoderm or 
other part of the primary cortex, the periderm or 
corky secondary cortex, or sometimes, in part, of 
bast—which are spontaneously thrown off by the 
tree, owing to the formation of cork below them by 
which they are cut off from all the vital juices of 
the plant. Medicinally the term is more especially 
applied to the bark of the Cinchonas, the source of 
quinine. 

Barker, Edmund Henry, philologist, born in 
1788, at Hollym, in Yorkshire. He published 
editions of several classical works and edited a new 


issue of Stephen’s Thesaurus Lingua Grccca. 
Other works of his were Classical Recreations, 
Reminiscences of Professor Person, and Parriana. 
He died in 1839. 

Barker, Thomas, of Bath, was a distinguished 
landscape painter, who lived from 1769 to 1847. 
One of his best works is in the National Gallery, 
and others are at South Kensington. 

Barker, Thomas Jones, son of the preceding, 
was born in 1815, and studied under Horace Vernet. 
He devoted himself to military subjects, and 
painted The Meeting of Wellington and Blucher, 
The Allied Generals before Sebastopol, The Relief of 
Lucknow, and The Surrender of Napoleon III. at 
Sedan. He died in 1882. 

Barker’s Mill, an arrangement in which the 
reaction produced by water flowing from a vessel 
causes it to rotate. A hollow cylinder is supported 
vertically on a pivot so as to be capable of free 
rotation. Two hollow arms project from its lower 
end, and are provided with nozzles on opposite 
sides. When water is poured into the vessel at the 
top it flows out at these orifices, which are so 
arranged that the outflow of the water in one 
direction may cause the vessel to move in the 
opposite direction. [Hydraulics.] 

Barking, a very ancient market-town and port 
in Essex. It stands on the river Rocling, better 
known as Barking Creek, which enters the Thames 
seven miles below London. There is a fine old 
church dedicated to St. Margaret, and containing 
some interesting monuments. An ancient gateway 
still exists. The nunnery at Barking established in 
the seventh century flourished until the dissolution 
of the religious houses. 

Barking Bird, the popular name of Pteropto- 
chos tarnii, a Chilian wren-like bird, with a note 
like the yelping of a small dog. 

Barking Deer. [Muntjac.] 

Barlaam and Josaphat, a Greek Christian 
legend, dating probably from the seventh century 
a.d., but due in its present form to John of Damascus, 
a Greek who lived at the court of the Caliph of 
Bagdad about 1090, recounting the conversion of 
the Indian Prince Josaphat by the hermit Barlaam. 
Both these personages appear as saints in the 
Roman Catholic Calendar ; but the story is only a 
Christianised version of the legendary history of 
Buddha. See Max Muller’s Chips from a German 
Workshop, vol. iii. 

Bar-le-duc, or Bar-sur-Ornain, chief town 
of the department of Meuse, 125 miles from Paris, 
with which it is connected by railway. It is on the 
river Ornain, and possesses an old church, a college, 
library, etc. Cottons, leather, hosiery, corsets, and 
confectioneries are made here, and a good deal of 
trade is carried on in timber, iron, wine, and wool. 

Barletta, a port in the province of Terra di 
Bari, Italy. It is situated on a small island in the 
Gulf of Venice, 33 miles N. of Bari, and is connected 
with the mainland by a bridge. The streets are 








Barley. 


( 341 ) 


Barnacle. 


broad and well paved, and the houses are of dressed I 
stone. The Gothic cathedral is supported by 
curious granite columns. The little harbour does 
some trade in salt, fruit, almonds, liquorice, and 
local produce. 

Barley (Hordeuni), a genus of grasses represent¬ 
ed by several wild species, and by several cereals, the 
wild forms of which are not exactly known. It is 
characterised by having its spikelets in two rows, 
one on each side of the rachis, with three flowers 
in each spikelet, and long awns to their glumes. 
The two chief species are II. hexastichum, the six- 
rowed barley, in which all the flowers are perfect 
and fertile, and II. distichum, the two-rowed, in 
which only the central flower in each spikelet 
produces a grain. Barley has been cultivated from 
very early times, and is largely ground into meal 
as food for pigs, and still more largely converted 
by artificially-stimulated germination into malt , 
from which beer is prepared by infusion and fer¬ 
mentation, and gin and whisky by distillation. 
When the fibrous coats of the grain are more or 
less completely removed it forms Scotch or pot 
Parley and pearl barley. Barley is hardier than 
either wheat or oats. 

Barlow, Peter, born at Norwich in 1776, and 
almost self-educated, became in 1806 mathematical 
teacher at the Boyal Academy, Woolwich, and held 
the post for forty years. In 1820 his Essay on 
Magnetic Attractions won for him the Parliamentary 
grant for discoveries and useful navigation. In 
1823 he was made F.R.S., and in 1825 took the 
Copley Medal for his magnetic investigations. He 
contributed largely to the Encyclopcedia Metropoli- 
tana, dying in 1862. 

Barlow, Thomas Oldham, R.A., born at Old¬ 
ham in 1824, was educated as an engraver at Man¬ 
chester, where he distinguished himself at the 
School of Art. Coming to London, he engraved 
Courtship by John Phillip, R.A., and later on pro¬ 
duced the well-known plates from Millais’ pictures, 
The Huguenot, My First Sermon, Amalie, Asleep, 
etc. In 1882 he was elected to the Royal Academy. 
He died in 1889. 

Barm. [Yeast.] 

Barmecide Feast. In the Arabian Nights 
it is related that a member of the Barmecide 
family invited a starving beggar to a feast, and 
set empty dishes before him, giving each some 
magnificent name. The beggar entered into the 
joke so well that his entertainer caused the imagi¬ 
nary banquet to be followed by a real one. 

Barmecides, a Persian family descended from 
Barmak, a physician and priest of Balkh. The 
famous Haroun Alraschid was educated by Khaled, 
a member of the family, whose son Yaliya became 
his grand vizier on his accession in 786. Yahya’s 
four sons also held high office under the same 
caliph, who suddenly became jealous, it is prob¬ 
able, of their power and popularity, though various 
accounts of the circumstances are given, and ac¬ 
cording to some accounts had the whole family 
massacred (802 A.D.). Their splendour was a fre¬ 
quent theme of oriental poets. 


Barmen, a town in the district of Elberfeld, 
Rhenish Prussia. It stretches in a series of hamlets 
for six miles along the Wupper Valley, and is re¬ 
markable for the rapid development of several 
industries, such as the weaving and dyeing of silks, 
cottons, and ribbons, and the manufacture of 
plated and polished metal goods. It is a great 
centre of Protestantism. 

Barmouth, a port in the county of Merioneth, 
North Wales, about eight miles W. of Dolgelly. 
The town occupies a picturesque situation on 
broken ground at the mouth of the Mawddach, 
and the neighbourhood is pretty. The patronage 
of bathers in summer, fishing, and a small local 
trade are the only sources of prosperity. 

Barnabas, Saint, originally called Joses, was 
a member of the tribe of Levi, and born at Cyprus 
in the first century A. d. At what precise date he 
adopted his name, signifying son of prophecy or 
consolation, is not known. He appears to have 
sold all his property and joined the Apostles, and 
he introduced Paul to the Church at Jerusalem 
(Acts ix. 26). About a.d. 42 he was sent to 
Antioch, where Paul joined him. Two years later 
he accompanied Paul to Jerusalem, and on their 
return journey was worshipped as Jupiter at Lystra. 
Later on the two apostles appear to have quarrelled 
about Mark, the nephew of Barnabas, and the latter, 
going to Cyprus, was there stoned to death. An 
epistle is extant which is said to be his work. 

Barnabites, a society or order of clergy founded 
in Milan at the beginning of the sixteenth century, 
to engage in clerical work of various kinds under 
the direction of .the bishops. Many distinguished 
men have belonged to the order, which has about 
twenty houses or “colleges” on the Continent, 
though none in England. 

Barnacle. The Barnacle is one of the best 
known of the Cirripedia, and is the type of the 



barnacles (Lepcts anatifera). 


family Lepadidae ; its generic name is Lepas. The 
larvae are small free-swimming Crustacea known 
as Nauplius (q.v.), but during development they 






Barnacle Goose. 


( 342 ) 


Barnett. 


attach themselves by the head to some usually 
floating body, such as wood or a ship’s bottom. The 
adult consists of a long fleshy peduncle or stalk 
which bears a body protected by a multivalve 
shell. There are six pairs of appendages or limbs, 
which may be protruded through a slit between 
the pieces of the shell. By the movement of these 
limbs currents of water are established which bring 
the barnacle its food. They are all marine. 

Barnacle Goose, or Beenicle Goose ( Ber - 
nicla leucopsis), a northern goose visiting Britain in 
the winter, frequenting the western rather than 
the eastern coasts, and returning north to breed. 
The adult male is about 25 in. long; bill black, 
with a reddish streak on each side, cheeks and 
throat white, neck black, upper parts marked with 
black and white, lower parts white. These birds 
are in high estimation for the table. Of this 
species and of the Brent goose (q.v.) it was 
formerly fabled that they were hatched from 
barnacles or produced from the “ anatiferous 
trees ” mentioned by Sir Thomas Browne. Sir 
R. Moray, in a paper published by the Royal 
Society in 1678, describes the perfectly-formed 
young geese which he fancied he had seen in the 
shell of the barnacle (q.v.). But it is worth record¬ 
ing that in the same year in Ray’s edition of 
Willughbv the story is gravely discussed, and as 
gravely refuted. In many cases the Brent goose 
is confounded with this bird, but where they are 
distinguished, the true barnacle goose is often 
known as the White-fronted, or Land Barnacle. 
The Red-breasted Goose ( B. rufcollis ), a native 
of Siberia, and a closely allied species, having the 
upper part of the breast a rich chestnut, is an 
occasional visitor. The Canada, or Cravat, Goose 
(B. canadensis), owing its popular name to a white 
patch on the neck, is domesticated in England, 
notably in Norfolk, and breeds with the common 
goose. Hutchins’ Goose, or Barnacle ( B. hutchinsii) 
is American, found as high as 60° N. lat., passing 
to the southern states in the winter. 

Barnard, Lady Anne, the daughter of James 
Lindsay, fifth Earl of Balcarres, was born in Fife- 
shire in 1750. She married Sir Andrew Barnard, 
librarian to George III. Not until late in life did 
she avow the authorship of the touching ballad 
Auld Ilobin Gray. She died in 1825. 

Barnard, Sir Andrew Francis, G.C.B., G.C.H., 
born in Donegal, 1773, entered the army, served in 
the West Indies, and in the Helder expedition of 
1799. Going out to the Peninsula he fought at 
Barrosa, Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajos, Salamanca, 
Vittoria, Nivelle, and Toulouse, being more than once 
wounded. He received a slight injury at Waterloo, 
and was appointed by Wellington to the command 
of the British troops in Paris. He died in 1855. 

Barnard Castle, an old market town in the 
county of Durham, on the river Tees, 32 miles S.W. 
of Durham. It derives its name from the castle 
built there at the end of the twelfth century by 
Barnard Baliol, ancestor of John Baliol (q.v.). It 
was abandoned after a siege in 1569, but the mas¬ 
sive ruins still cover six acres of ground. Sir 


Walter Scott laid the scene of parts of Roheby in 
the neighbourhood. The parish church dates from 
the twelfth century, and there are almshouses said 
to have been founded by John Baliol. The Bowes 
Museum, left to the town by Sir George Bowes in 
1874, contains some interesting relics. Carpets 
and woollen cloths are the chief manufactures, and 
the corn market is important. 

Barnave, Antoine Pierre Joseph Marie, 
was born at Grenoble, France, in 1761, and at the 
outbreak of the Revolution was sent to the National 
Assembly as deputy for Dauphine. His eloquence 
and love of liberty soon brought him into promi¬ 
nence, and he was in 1790 elected president; but 
his popularity declined when it became apparent 
that he aimed at reforming rather than destroying 
the monarchy. He was sent as commissary to 
bring the king back from Varennes, and treated his 
prisoner with such respect that his presence was no 
longer tolerated in Paris. In 1792 some documents 
discovered in the famous Iron Chest showed that 
he had corresponded with the royal family. He 
was seized, and after fifteen months’ imprisonment 
was sent to the guillotine in Paris. 

Barnes, Thomas, born in 1786, and educated 
at Christ’s Hospital and Pembroke College, Cam¬ 
bridge, entered the service of the Times , and in 
1815 became editor. His abilities did much to put 
that paper in the high position it afterwards occu¬ 
pied. His health failed early, and he died in 1841. 

Barnes, The Rev. William, D.D., was born 
in the vale of Blackmore, Dorset, in 1800. After 
keeping a school at Dorchester, he was ordained in 
1847. and from 1862 to his death in 1886 was rector 
of Winterbourne Cance. Throughout his life he 
was devoted to philology, and especially to the 
study of the dialect of his native county. He wrote 
three volumes of Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset 
Dialect, and others in various English idioms. 
Among his scientific efforts were A Philological 
Grammar, An Anglo-Saxon Delectus, An Outline of 
English Speech-Craft, A View of the Roots and Stems 
of English, Studies in Early British History, etc. 

Barnet, or Chipping Barnet, a small town in 
Hertfordshire, eleven miles N. of London, on the 
Great Northern Railway. It has a church dating 
from the fifteenth century, and a grammar school 
founded by Queen Elizabeth. It has long been a 
favourite rural resort of Londoners, and is now 
being rapidly built over. The September horse and 
cattle fair is a very old institution, and attracts 
large crowds of the costermonger class. On Glads- 
more Heath close by was fought, April 14, 1471, 
the great battle in which the Lancastrians were 
utterly crushed, and the Earl of Warwick was 
killed. An obelisk, set up in 1740, commemorates 
the event. East Barnet is an adjoining parish. 

Barnet Fryern, a small town in Middlesex, 
on the Great Northern Railway, eight miles N.W. 
of London. It has a rapidly increasing population 
owing to the growth of suburban residences. 

Barnett, John, was born at Bedford in 1802. 
In 1834 his first great attempt at English opera, 




Barnett. 


( 343 ) 


Bar n mn. 


'1 he Mountain Sylph, was produced at the reopen¬ 
ing of the New Lyceum, and proved a solid success. 
Fair Rosamond next came out at Drury Lane, and 
Farinelli followed in 1838. In 1841 he established 
himself as a teacher in Cheltenham, and prospered. 
Among his later operas is Kathleen, and his fugitive 
works may be reckoned by thousands. He died in 
1891. 

Barnett, John Francis, nephew of the pre¬ 
ceding, born in 1838, was Queen’s scholar at the 
Royal Academy of Music, and afterwards studied 
at Leipzig. In 1864 his Symphony in A Minor 
attracted notice, and in 1867 a cantata, performed 
at Birmingham, The Ancient Mariner, established 
his reputation. Among more recent successes are 
Paradise and the Peri, The Lay of the Last Minstrel, 
and The Good Shepherd. 

Barneveldt, Johann van Olden, was born of 
a distinguished Dutch family at Amersfoort in 
1549. At the age of twenty he was made coun¬ 
cillor and pensionary of Rotterdam, and in 1573 
took an active part in the defence of Haarlem 
against the Spaniards. In 1585 he went as ambas¬ 
sador to England, and succeeded in obtaining the 
military support of Elizabeth, for which he was 
appointed Advocate - General, and subsequently 
became Grand Pensionary of Holland and West 
Friesland. When Maurice, Prince of Orange, as 
Stadtholder, revealed a dangerous ambition, Barne¬ 
veldt opposed him, and in 1609 concluded the 
treaty with Spain that virtually assured the inde¬ 
pendence of the United Provinces. Maurice roused 
the antipathy of the Calvinists against his demo¬ 
cratic opponent, who was an Arminian, and in 1618 
Barneveldt was condemned to death by the Synod 
of Dordrecht as a heretic and a traitor. He was 
beheaded in 1619. His sons, William and Rene, 
conspired to avenge his death, but their designs 
were frustrated, and the latter was executed, the 
former making good his escape. 

Barnfield, Richard, was born about 1574, 
and educated at Oxford. In 1594 he published 
The Affectionate Shepherd, and a year later Cynthia, 
which contained the lines “ As it fell upon a day,” 
included also in Shakespeare’s Passionate Pilgrim, 
bearing the same date. Barnfield appears to 
have reasserted his claim by reprinting the poem, 
slightly altered, in 1605, under the title Fncomionof 
Lady Pecunia. He probably died soon after. 

Barn Owl ( Aluco flammeus, the Strix flammea 
of some naturalists), a fairly common British 
bird, building in churches, barns, ruins, and 
hollow trees. The adult male is about 14 in. 
long, facial disc nearly white, and defined by the 
outer feathers being tipped with brown; head and 
neck light buff with black and white spots ; back 
and wings deeper buff, with grey, black, and 
white spots; tail buff, broadly barred with grey; 
under surface white, but fawn in young males and 
females. The barn owl is essentially a farmers’ 
friend, for the number of rats and mice that one 
of these birds will devour would be almost incredi¬ 
ble were it not established by the most conclusive 
evidence—examination of the pellets of undigested 


food cast up. This bird is also called the white 
owl from its light-coloured plumage, and is the 
screech-owl of popular superstition. 



barn owl (Aluco flammeus). 


Barnsley, or Barnesly, a market town and 
municipal borough in the West Riding of Yorkshire, 
18 miles N. of Sheffield, near the river Dearne, and 
on the Midland, the Manchester, Sheffield and 
Lincoln, and the Lancashire and Yorkshire Rail¬ 
ways. Damasks, drills, linen yarns, and glass 
are the staple manufactures. There are large 
bleaching grounds. The neighbourhood is rich in 
iron and coal, the coal-field extending under the 
town itself. It gives its name to a Parliamentary 
division of the county. 

Barnstaple, a port and municipal borough in 
North Devon, 40 miles N.W. of Exeter, on the 
river Taw. It is said to have been a borough since 
the reign of Athelstan in the tenth century, and 
was once a great centre of the wool trade, but it 
has now little in the way of business beyond some 
potteries, a few ship-building yards, and a fleet of 
fishing boats. Until 1885 it returned two members 
to Parliament, but the representation is now merged 
in the county. 

Barnum, Phineas Taylor, was born at Bethel, 
Connecticut, U.S.A., in 1810. After engaging in 
several lottery and newspaper speculations he came 
to New York in 1834, and there picked up an old 
negress, Joyce Heth, whom he showed for some 
months with much success as “ Washington’s 
Nurse.” In 1844 he secured the famous dwarf, 
General Tom Thumb, with whom he made the tour 
of the world, realising a great sum. Five years 
later he engaged Jenny Lind for a hundred con¬ 
certs in the States, and,having earned what seemed 
to him a fortune, devoted his energies to creating 
the town of East Bridgeport in his native state. 
For many years he kept a “ Museum ” of living and 
other curiosities in New York, embracing at various 
times white whales, walruses, a mermaid (so-called), 
a living “ missing link ” between man and the ape, 
dwarfs, giants, and the “ bogus baby ”—which had 
been produced as supplying a motive for a celebrated 
murder, with the actors in which it had no con¬ 
nection in reality. It was not before 1871 that 
he started the huge circus or travelling show that 
ultimately proved a mine of wealth, one of his 







Baroach. 


( 344 ) 


Baron. 


greatest hits being the purchase of the elephant 
Jumbo from the Zoological Gardens. In 1889 
he visited London, but the enormous expense 
of the enterprise is believed to have entailed a 
heavy loss. Barnum was a kind-hearted, free¬ 
handed humbug, temperate in his habits, full of 
cheery anecdote, and never depressed by misfortune. 
He died at Bridgeport on April 7, 1891, leaving a 
million of dollars, earned by hard work and innocent 
deception of the public. 

Baroach, or Broach, a district and its capital 
in Gujerat, British India, under the jurisdiction of 
the governor of Bombay. The district has an area 
of 1,319 square miles. The town, 36 miles N. of 
Surat on the river Nerbudda, is in a dilapidated 
condition, but does some trade in cotton, grain, and 
seeds. It contains a famous Hindu pinjari pole, or 
asylum for every kind of living creature, the killing 
of which is forbidden by the Brahminical code. 

Baroda, the capital of the Gaekwar’s dominions 
in Western India, and the residence of the British 
political agent appointed by the Bombay Govern¬ 
ment. It is situated on the river Biswamnitri, 231 
miles N. of Bombay, with which it is connected by 
railway, and is surrounded by a double wall with 
towers. The Hindu temples are remarkably fine, 
and a considerable trade is done in the bazaars. A 
British force of some strength is quartered here. 

Barometer, an instrument for the measurement 
of atmospheric or other gaseous pressure. It is of 
varied and extensive use in science. Observations 
of the variations in the atmospheric pressure 
frequently enable us to make accurate weather 
forecasts [Meteorology] ; hence the term weather 
glass. Heights of mountains can be estimated from 
the amount of diminution in pressure as one ascends 
into the rarer regions of the air. [Hypsometry.] 
Again, many of the physical properties of gases are 
dependent on the pressure to which they are sub¬ 
jected, thus rendering the accurate measurement of 
this pressure an essential in the quantitative study 
of the gases. 

These instruments are of two types, the Aneroid 
and the Torricellian. The former is comparatively 
new, but is perhaps simpler in principle. It was 
invented in 1844, and depends for its working on 
the fact that a closed box from which the air is 
removed has the tendency to become compressed 
by the external pressure of the surrounding atmos¬ 
phere. If made of flexible material, the diminution 
in volume of the box may be rendered sufficiently 
great to admit of exact measurement. When the 
external pressure varies so does the volume of the 
box, which therefore behaves as a sensitive spring 
subjected to a varying stress. In practice the 
Aneroid barometer is made somewhat drum-shaped, 
the drum membranes being represented by circular 
discs of thin corrugated steel. The drum is attached 
to the casing of the instrument by one of these 
discs; and at the centre of the other a spring is 
fixed so as to prevent too great a collapse of the 
box. The slight motions of this spring, when the 
external pressure varies, are magnified by a light 
bent lever, which by a simple mechanism actuates 
the pointer on the dial face. The dial is graduated 


in inches of mercury, corresponding to the gradua¬ 
tion of a Torricellian barometer. The Aneroid has 
the distinct advantages of lightness, compactness, 
and durability, but is not capable of such accuracy 
as may be obtained with the mercurial barometer. 

The second type depends on the principle of the 
gaseous pressure being able to support a definite 
height of liquid. If a long glass tube 
closed at one end be filled with mercury, C 
and then turned mouth downwards into a 
cistern of this liquid, it will be found that ■ 
a definite length of mercury will still re¬ 
main in the tube, kept in position by the 
pressure of the surrounding air on the 
surface of the liquid in the cistern. If 
the tube be of a length exceeding 30 
inches, an empty space will exist in the 
upper part of the tube. This is known 
as the Torricellian vacuum, and the ap¬ 
paratus, provided with a vertical scale, 
constitutes a Torricellian barometer. 

When gas of any kind is introduced 
into this space a lowering of the mercury 
column is produced, by reason of the 
gaseous pressure within partially neutral- iBi 
ising the external pressure. Hence the HHM 
necessity of preserving the vacuum as tortucel- 
perfect as possible. The ordinary British 
standard of atmospheric pressure is that meter. 
which will balance 30 inches of pure 
mercury at Greenwich. The metric standard is 
equivalent to 76 cm. of pure mercury at Paris, 
i.e. 29‘922 inches. It is necessary in exact work 
to specify the latitude where the barometric height 
is taken, since the weight due to a given height 
of mercury varies at different parts of the earth. 
Slight corrections are also necessary for expansion 
of the mercury column and of the metal scale, 
due to temperature changes. Many refinements 
are introduced in the more accurate instruments, 
which readily give the barometric height, measured 
from the mercury level in the cistern, correct to 
the °f an inch. 

Barometz or Baranetz, the Tartarian lamb, 
once supposed to be a lamb which grew on a stem 
in the steppes west of the Volga, is merely the 
rhizome, or prostrate stem, of a tree-fern ( Cibotium 
Barometz'), which is covered with yellow silky scales, 
and has a soft reddish fleshy interior. When 
inverted with four leaf-stalks retained as legs it 
does resemble a lamb. The silky down is the 
poco sempic or yolden moss used by the Chii«ese as 
a styptic, its threads absorbing the serum of blood 
by capillary action, and thus rapidly coagula¬ 
ting it. 

Baron, A (sometimes called a “ temporal baron ” 
when mentioned in contradistinction to a bishop, 
who is a “ spiritual baron ”), is, as we now under¬ 
stand the word, one holding the lowest rank in the 
peerage, or, in other words, one bearing the lowest 
hereditary title which carries with it the privilege 
of voting in the Upper House or in the elections of 
representative peers. The dignity ranks next in 
nobility, honour, and precedence to that of a bishop. 
At the present time there are existing in England 









Baron. 


( 345 ) 


Baronet. 


“ baronies by writ ” and “ baronies by patent ” ; 
anciently there were also “baronies by tenure” 
of certain lands, but it is believed that there are 
none such now in existence. A.baron “ by writ” is 
one “ unto whom a writ of summons in the name of 
a Sovei'eign is directed (without a patent of creation) 
to come to the Parliament appointed to be holden 
at a certain time and place, and there to treat and 
advise with his Sovereign, the prelates, and nobility 
about the weighty affairs of the nation.” 

A barony by writ is a much older form of the 
dignity than a barony by patent, and is heritable 
and enjoyable by females, descending in every case 
to the “ heir-general.” In England, in the case of 
two or more coheiresses, the barony falls into abey¬ 
ance between them until the death without issue, 
or the failure of the issue of all the daughters save 
one, when the heir of this one inherits. But the 
Sovereign has the power (and the prerogative is 
not unfrequently exercised) of “terminating” the 
abeyance, as it is called, in favour of any descendant 
of the last baron whom he or she may think fit. In 
Scotland, however, the eldest daughter inherits at 
once. Barons by writ take precedence according 
to the date of the writ of summons, but the exact 
origin of a good many titles is shrouded in much 
uncertainty. Baronies by patent were first created 
by King Richard II., and are those which originate 
with letters patent, the title in each case descend¬ 
ing strictly in accordance with the limitations con¬ 
tained therein, and usually confined to the “heirs 
male.” All barons at the present day are created 
by patent, with the rare exception of such an one 
as may be summoned to Parliament during the life¬ 
time of his father, in one of his father’s baronies 
already existing. A peer is entitled to display his 
armorial bearings, with the helmet, coronet, and 
mantle of his degree, and will also use supporters, 
which descend with the title. A baron is usually 

known as “ Lord-,” and his sons and daughters 

are addressed in writing as the “Hon.-.” 

Peers of Scotland rank next to the peers of 
England, and before those of Great Britain ; and 
peers of Ireland created before the Union take 
place before peers of the United Kingdom. Those 
of England and the United Kingdom have seats in 
the House of Lords ; and all peers of Scotland and 
Ireland have votes at the election of Scottish and 
Irish representative peers respectively. But many 
peers of Scotland and Ireland have in addition 
English titles, under which they sit and vote in 
the" English Parliament. The chief privileges, in 
addition to his right of voting, which a peer enjoys 
are, that he is free from arrests for debt, and no 
attachment lies upon his person, though execution 
may be taken upon his goods and lands. He is 
exempted from serving the office of sheriff; and 
in criminal cases he is tried by his peers, who 
give their verdict not upon oath, but upon their 
honour. 

By a law against “ Scandalum magnatum, ’ dating 
from 1275, any man convicted of making a scan¬ 
dalous report against a peer of the realm, though 
true , is condemned to a fine, and to remain in 
prison until the same be paid. [For Barons of 
Exchequer, see Exchequer.] 


Baron, Barony. The word baron is of great 
antiquity, and has in England and Scotland always 
denoted one belonging to a particular class. The 
barons were those who held lands of a superior by 
military or other honourable services, and were 
bound to do homage in the courts of their superiors 
and to assist in the business there transacted. The 
court in which these tenants performed their 
services is known as the Court Baron, more pre¬ 
cisely “ The Court of the Barons.” Baron is the 
most general and universal title of nobility, for 
anciently everyone of the peers of superior rank 
had also a barony annexed to his other titles. 
Earls and barons were the only titles of nobility at 
the time of the Conquest, and in the character of 
barons most of the peers temporal and spiritual sit 
in Parliament. “But it has sometimes happened 
that when a peer with barony annexed has been 
raised to a new degree of peerage, in the course of 
a few generations the two titles have descended 
differently, one, perhaps, to the male descendants, 
the other to the heirs general ; whereby the earl¬ 
dom or superior title has subsisted without a 
barony. And there are also modern instances 
where earls and viscounts have been created with¬ 
out annexing a barony to their other honours, so that 
the rule does not universally hold that all peers are 
barons.” (Stephen's Blachstone's Commentaries.) 

Baron and Femme is a term used to express 
the impaling or conjunction of the individual coat- 
of-arms of a husband and wife when placed side by 
side. If both are upon one shield, the husband's 
coat occupies the dexter half (which is that on the 
left-hand side when facing the escutcheon), and 
the wife’s the sinister. If the wife be of higher 
rank than the husband, or if the latter be a knight 
of any order or a bishop, and in one or two other 
exceptional cases, two separate escutcheons are 
used to display the joint armorial bearings. The 
arms of a wife when an heiress are in any case dis¬ 
posed in a different manner. 

Baronet. This title, which is strictly heredit¬ 
ary, according to the limitations contained in each 
separate patent, was created by King James I. on 
the 22nd day of May, 1611, in order to raise money 
for the colonisation of Ulster. Originally the 
whole order was limited to 200 persons, and it 
was then intended that no further creations 
should be made, even for the purpose of filling 
up vacancies. But in the reign of King Charles 
II. the list was increased to the number of 
888 , and during the last four or five reigns the 
number has been unlimited, and the ancient 
qualifications are now dispensed with. The great 
rule, upon the institution of the order, was that 
none should be admitted but those who could 
prove descent from a grandfather at least on the 
father’s side who bore arms and had a clear annual 
revenue from lands of £1.000; further, they were 
required to produce good proof that for quality, 
state of living and good reputation they were 
worthy of the honour, and the names upon the first 
list of baronets are all those of persons in every way 
highly respectable. A baronet upon his creation is 
required, under the terms of a royal warrant of 






Baronius. 


( 346 ) 


Barrackpore. 


King George III., to prove his armorial bearings, to 
which is then added the badge of Ulster—the 
bloody hand,—and to place his pedigree upon 
record at the College of Arms. 

The order of baronets of Nova Scotia was first 
created by King Charles I. for the plantation and 
cultivation of the province of Novia Scotia in 
America, and the sum of £3,000 was the amount 
payable for this dignity. Since the legislative 
union between Great Britain and Ireland, the 
separate orders of baronets have been superseded 
by one general institution of baronets of the United 
Kingdom. Though officially styled “ Dame,” the 
wife of a baronet is always known and addressed by 
the title of “ Lady.” Dame Maria Bolles, of Osber- 
ton, in the county of Nottingham (in the reign of 
King Charles I.), is the only lady upon whom a 
baronetcy has ever been conferred. 

Baronius, Cjesar, born near Naples in 1538, 
became an Oratorian, and was ultimately superior 
of the order. Subsequently he was appointed 
librarian at the Vatican and confessor to Clement 
VIII. He would probably have been elected Pope 
but for the intrigues of the Spanish party. In 
1596 he received a Cardinal’s hat. He spent thirty 
years in the compilation of his Annales Ecclesiastic i, 
a history of the first twelve centuries of the Church. 
His death took place in 1607. 

Barons’ War. The misgovernment of Henry 
III., and the multitude of foreigners he had ap¬ 
pointed to high posts in Church and State caused 
his barons to arrange a scheme for his control by 
a commission from among their own number (by 
the Provisions of Oxford, accepted by the king in 
1258). The disputes between the king and this 
baronial council culminated in war in 1263. After 
two ineffectual attempts at settlement, the Battle 
of Lewes, May 14, 1264, resulted in a victory for the 
barons, and was followed by the summons by their 
leader. Simon de Montfort, of the first true English 
Parliament, containing representatives of all classes 
of the people. Divisions among the barons, how¬ 
ever, led to the total defeat of Simon de Montfort 
at Evesham, August 4th, 1265. The war lasted 
on for two years, however ; Kenilworth surrendered 
in 1266, and Ely, which had been seized for the 
barons in that year, was taken in 1267. Its cap¬ 
ture by Prince Edward (afterwards Edward I.) 
ended the war. 

Barony, the old English term for a MANOR. 
In Ireland a barony is the largest subdivision of a 
county. In Scots law, rights of barony were 
granted by the Crown, and until 1745 involved 
criminal as well as civil jurisdiction, while till 1847 
they involved control over privileges to trade. 

Baroque (Port, barrucco, a rough, irregular 
pearl), a term applied to that irregular and incon¬ 
gruous style of architecture which flourished, espe¬ 
cially in Italy from the 16tli to the 18th centuries. 
Following on the classical revival of the Kenaissance, 
it is nevertheless characterised by fantastic and ex¬ 
aggerated ornamentation, and by violation of many 
of the ordinary canons of classical architect! r3. 
Many Jesuit churches are erected in this style. 


Barouche (Latin birot us, two-wheeled), a car¬ 
riage capable of accommodating four persons in¬ 
side, with a seat outside for the driver. The top 
can be raised or lowered at will ; the barouche has 
now four wheels. 

Barque, or Bark, any small ship, but especially 
a vessel, small or large, with three masts, the fore 
and main of which are rigged as in a ship, but the 



BARQUE. 


mizzen is rigged fore-and-aft. Colliers further 
apply the name generally to broad-sterned ships 
without figure-heads. The Bombay barque is a 
vessel navigable by paddles, but having a single 
mast which rakes forward and carries a long yard. 

Barquentine, or Barkentine, a vessel with 
three masts, the fore rigged like that of a ship, the 
main and mizzen carrying fore-and-aft sails only. 

Barquesimeto, a province and city in the 
state of Venezuela, South America. It is on one 
of the upper tributaries of the Orinoco, and was 
founded by the Spaniards in 1522. Formerly a 
well built and prosperous place, it was almost en¬ 
tirely destroyed by earthquake early in the century. 
The area of the province is 9,305 sq. miles. The 
breeding of mules and horses is the chief industry. 

Barra, or Barr ay, one of the Hebrides (q.v.) or 
Western Isles of Scotland, included in Inverness- 
shire ; lying about 5 miles S.W. of South Uist, with 
a length of 8 and a breadth of from 2 to 4 miles. 
The fisheries are important, cod, ling, herrings, and 
shellfish being very plentiful. Lying in the course 
of the Gulf Stream its shores intercept many 
wrecks drifting from the Atlantic. The lighthouse, 
680 feet above sea level, is the loftiest in Great 
Britain, and is visible for 30 miles. The population 
consists chiefly of Gaelic-speaking Roman Catholics. 

Barrackpore, or Barrackpur, a subdivision 
and its capital, in Bengal, on the Hooghly, 16 miles 
N.N.E. of Calcutta. The Lieutenant-Governor of 
Bengal has a residence here, as have many Euro¬ 
peans, owing to the healthiness of the climate. The 
cantonments, established in 1772. probably gave the 
place its name, and are occupied by a strong force. 










Barracks. 


( 347 ) 


Barri. 


The mutiny of 1857 first broke out in them. Hindus 
make up half the population, the rest being 
Mohammedans and Christians. 

Barracks (Spanish barraca, a hut), the build¬ 
ings, now usually of substantial character, in which 
officers and men are housed at military stations. 

Barraniunda, the native Australian name of 
Ceratodus forsteri, and of some other large-scaled 
fresh-water fishes. [Ceratodus.] 

Barranquilla, or Baranquilla, a city in 
Bolivar, United States of Colombia, South America, 
on left bank of the river Magdalena, whose estuary 
provides an excellent harbour. It is 68 miles N.E. 
of Cartagena, and enjoys a considerable trade. 

Barr as, Paul Francois Jean Nicolas, 
Comte de, was born in Provence in 1755, of a good 
family, entered the army and served at the defence 
of Pondicherry. On his return home he led an 
irregular life, adopted revolutionary views, and took 
part in the capture of the Bastille (1789). He was 
sent to the Convention in 1792 as representative of 
the Var, and at once acted with the Montagnards. 
Sent as commissioner to the siege of Toulon, he 
there recognised the abilities of Bonaparte, then a 
captain of artillery. In 1794 he was entrusted with 
the military control of Paris, and put an end to the 
career of Robespierre and the Reign of Terror. On 
the 13th Vendemiaire, 1795, with Bonaparte’s help he> 
crushed the reactionaries, and on the establishment 
of the Directory he formed with Rewbell and La 
Reveillere the Triumvirate that, in 1797, rendered 
itself supreme by the coup d'etat of the 18th 
Fructidor. The triumph was short-lived, for on the 
18th Brumaire, 1799, Bonaparte swept away the 
Directory, just as Barras was conspiring for the 
return of the Bourbons, and he had to fly to 
Brussels. He returned at the Restoration, and 
died, quite forgotten, at Chaillot in 1829. His 
private character was dissolute, and his public 
conduct venal and corrupt. 

f 

Barratry, or Barretry, the offence of fre¬ 
quently inciting and stirring up suits and quarrels 
between Her Majesty’s subjects, either at law or 
otherwise. The punishment is by fine and imprison¬ 
ment, and if the offender belong to either branch of 
the legal profession (as is very often the case) he 
may be disbarred, or struck off the rolls of the Courts. 
By an Act passed in the twelfth year of the reign of 
George I. (c. 29) it was enacted that if anyone who 
hath been convicted of forgery, perjury, suborna¬ 
tion of perjury, or common barratry, shall practise 
as solicitor or agent in any action, the Court upon 
complaint shall examine the case in a summary 
way, and on proof the offender may now be sen¬ 
tenced to penal servitude for not more than seven 
or less than five years. Barratry also specially 
signifies any act of the master or mariners 
of a ship which is of a criminal or fraudulent 
nature, and affecting the owners of the ship, such 
as desertion of the ship or embezzling the cargo. 
The term in the above sense is not known in Scots 
law, but Barratry in Scotland is the offence of a 
judge who has accepted a bribe from either party 


to a suit in order to induce his judgment in their 
favour. 

Barre, Antoine, or Antonio, for it is doubtful 
whether he was French or Italian, was engaged in 
the profession of music at Rome in 1550. With 
the assistance of Onofro Vigili he established, in 
1555, a press for printing music, whence he published 
his own and other compositions. Subsequently he 
seems to have carried on business at Milan and 
perhaps at Venice. 

Barre, Isaac, Colonel, of French extraction, 
born at Dublin, entered the army and served in 
Canada under Wolfe. He got into Parliament in 
1761, and was appointed Privy Councillor in 1766. 
He played a conspicuous part in the politics of the 
last half of the century in connection with the elder 
and younger Pitt. He is one of the many persons 
to whom the Letters of Junius have been ascribed. 
He died in 1802. 

Barrel, a cylindrical vessel or cask, usually 
larger in the middle than at the ends. It is also 
used as a measure of capacity, customary in Eng¬ 
land (though no longer legal) for various kinds of 
goods. Thus the barrel of beer contains 36 imperial 
gallons; the barrel of herrings about 800 fish ; the 
barrel of flour, 196 lbs. ; of gunpowder, 100 lbs.; of 
rice, 600 lbs. In America it is a customary measure 
of flour (196 lbs.) and beef (200 lbs.). The name is 
also applied to various cylindrical parts of machinery 
—the case of the mainspring of a watch, the main 
part of a capstan, the chamber within which the 
piston of a pump works, the tube of a lock which 
receives the key, and sometimes colloquially to the 
body of an animal, as contrasted with the head 
and limbs. 

Barrel Organ. In the familiar instrument of 
street musicians the turning of a handle works a 
bellows, and moves a cylinder studded with pins, 
which open and close valves admitting air from the 
bellows to pipes. In the barrel piano the pins 
strike on wires, which take the place of pipes. 

Barri, or Barry, Girald de (better known as 
Giraldus Cambrensis), was born at Manorbier, Pem¬ 
brokeshire, in 1146, his father being a noble Norman 
and his mother a Welsh princess. He was educated 
in Paris, and in 1172 took holy orders, becoming 
legate of the Archbishop of Canterbury in Wales. 
He displayed in this capacity rather too much zeal, 
and when the bishopric of St. David's fell vacant 
Henry II. refused to confirm his election. After a 
second visit to France he became tutor to Prince 
John, whom he accompanied to Ireland, collecting 
the materials for his Topography of Ireland and 
Conquest of Ireland. He next was engaged in 
preaching the crusade, and in 1189 accompanied 
Henry II. to France. Richard I., on departing for 
Palestine, appointed him co-regent of England. In 
1198 the See of St. David’s again became vacant, 
and he was elected, but the Pope supported a rival 
claimant, and six years were spent in vainly assert¬ 
ing his rights at Rome and in England. Finally he 
retired from all ecclesiastical office and lived at 
St. David's till 1220 in literary retirement, refusing 






Barricade. 


( 348 ) 


Barrington. 


the bishopric when it was offered to him. He wrote, 
besides the works mentioned above, an Itinerary 
and Description of Wales , Ecclesire Speculum, a 
censure on monkish morals, De Debus a se Gestis, 
a journal throwing light on his own character, and 
many smaller tracts. He was vain, headstrong, 
and prejudiced, but possessed learning, indepen¬ 
dence, power of observation, and purity of mind. 

Barricade (the name is Spanish, probably from 
the barrels, Spanish barrica , originally used in their 
construction), an improvised fortification of paving 
stones, timber, or other material, best known in con¬ 
nection with the history of Paris. In 1588 troops 
marched in by Henry III. to terrorise the populace 
were fired at from behind barricades and suffered 
heavy loss. In the “ three days’ ” revolution of 
1830 some thousands of barricades were erected in 
Paris, and also during the revolution of 1848, and 
especially in June, 1849. The “ Haussmannisation ” 
of Paris, under Napoleon III., with its wide streets 
and asphalt pavements, was intended to prevent 
them in future, but many were constructed under 
the Commune of 1871. In 1821, in London, the 
funeral cortege of Queen Caroline was turned from 
its course by a large barricade at the junction of 
Marylebone and Hampstead Roads. The intention 
in this case was to prevent the evasion (desired by 
the Ministry of the day) of a demonstration of the 
popular feeling against George IV. In the revolu¬ 
tions of 1848 barricades were erected in various 
German towns. 

Barrifcre, or La Barre, Pierre, born in a 
humble station at Orleans about the middle of the 
sixteenth century, conceived the project of ass¬ 
assinating Henry IY. He revealed his design to 
Banchi, a Dominican, who betrayed him. Seized 
at Melun on the eve of executing his design, he was 
broken on the wheel in 1593. 

Barrier Beef, The Great, an immense reef 
of coral, which, beginning at Torres Strait, extends 
for 1260 miles S.E., and forms a smooth water 
channel varying from 10 to 100 miles in breadth 
along the E. coast of Australia. Though intricate 
and dangerous in its narrower parts, this passage is 
of inestimable value to navigation off a shore that 
would otherwise be exposed to all the fury of the 
Southern Ocean. There are several openings in 
the reef into the open sea. 

Barring Out. T T p to the end of the last 
century it was a more or less recognised custom at 
English and Scottish schools that the boys should 
fortify themselves in the schoolroom, and dictate 
terms to their master as to the length of their 
holidays and other matters of school discipline. 
Addison is said to have captained the besieged in 
one of them, and a story of Miss Edgeworth’s takes 
a “ barring out ” for its theme. 

Barrington, John Shute, Viscount, was 
born at Theobalds, Herts, in 1678, his family name 
being Shute, which he exchanged for Barrington 
on inheriting a fortune. He was educated at 
Utrecht, where he wrote sundry Latin essays on 
law and theology. On his return he became an 


authority on the rights of Protestant dissenters, 
and was employed by Somers in various capacities. 
On the accession of George I. he represented 
Berwick in Parliament, and to gratify the king 
connected himself with the Harburg lottery. He 
was elevated to an Irish peerage, but when the 
scheme proved disastrous was expelled from the 
House of Commons (1723). He spent the rest of 
his life in retirement, writing Miscellanea Sacra , 
A Discourse on Natural and Devealed Dcliyion, 
and many papers in favour of toleration. He died 
in 1734. 

Barrington, The Honorable Davies, fourth 
son of the fore-going, born in 1727, was educated at 
Oxford and called to the bar. He held a variety 
of appointments such as the secretaryship of Green¬ 
wich Hospital, a Welsh judgeship, and the office of 
Commissary-General of Gibraltar. In 1752 he 
prosecuted the famous Miss Blandv for her father’s 
murder. He published in 1766 a valuable project 
for ridding the law of obsolete statutes, but his 
labours in popularising the idea of the discovery of 
the North-West Passage were more fruitful. Natural 
history, and especially ornithology, was a passion 
with him, and he wrote many detached papers and 
contributions to Philosophical Transactions. He 
died in the Temple in 1800. 

Barrington, The Hon. Samuel, fifth son of 
the first Lord Barrington, was born in 1729, and 
entered the navy in 1740. He attained the rank of 
captain in 1747, when little more than eighteen, 
and in command of the Bellona, 30, distinguished 
himself on Aug. 18th of that year by his action 
with and capture of the French East Indiaman. 
Due de Chartres, 30. Later he was honourably 
concerned in the rescue of many British subjects 
from slavery in Morocco. In 1757 he took part in 
the futile expedition against Rochefort, and cruis¬ 
ing afterwards in the Channel in the Achilles, 60, 
captured the St Florentine of equal force. In 1761 
Captain Barrington greatly signalised himself 
during Commodore Keppel’s expedition against 
Belleisle. In 1768 he was appointed to the Venus, 
36, and was entrusted for a season with the pro¬ 
fessional training of the Duke of Cumberland, one 
of George the Third’s brothers. In 1777, in the 
Prince of Wales, 74, he made some prizes in the 
Channel, but being promoted early in the following 
year to flag-rank, proceeded to the West Indies. 
There, on Dec. 15th, he was attacked off St. Lucia 
by the Comte d’Estaing, whom twice on that day 
he drove back. Finally, though of greatly superior 
force, the enemy drew off, leaving the island to 
capitulate to the British. He commanded the van 
in Vice-Admiral Byron’s action with D’Estaing off 
Grenada, on July 6th, 1779, and was wounded. 
Advanced in 1780 to the rank of vice-admiral, he 
in 1782 took command of the Channel fleet, and 
on April 13tli met a French convoy and captured a 
74, a 64, and twelve smaller vessels. In the autumn 
he sailed under Lord Howe as second in command, 
and assisted in the famous relief of Gibraltar and 
in the partial action of Oct. 20th. He became an 
admiral in 1787, and in 1799 General of Marines. 
He died in 1800. 







Barrister. 


( 349 ) 


Barrow. 


Barrister, a counsellor learned in the law who 
pleads in Court and undertakes the advocacy or 
defence of causes. It is supposed the term Barrister 
arose in England from the arrangement of the halls 
of the different Inns of Court. The benchers and 
readers being the superiors of each house, occupied 
on public occasions of assembly the upper end of 
the hall, which was raised on a dais, and separated 
from the other part of the building by a bar. The 
next in degree were the utter barristers, who, after 
they had attained a certain standing, were called 
from the body of the hall to the bar (that is, the 
first place outside the bar) for the purpose of taking 
a principal part in the meetings or exercises of the 
house ; and hence they probably derived the name 
of utter or outer barristers. The other members of 
the Inn, consisting of students of the law under the 
degree of utter barristers, took their places near to 
the centre of the hall and farther from the bar, 
and from this manner of distribution appear to have 
been called inner barristers. The distinction 
between utter and inner barristers has been long 
since abolished. The former are called barristers 
generally, and the latter students. A barrister is 
under the control of the benchers of his Inn ; his 
fees are an honorarium, and no action lies to recover 
them, nor can security be given or taken for them. 
Conveyancers, or special pleaders below the bar (a 
very restricted body now) may, however, maintain an 
action or take security for their fees. The degree of 
serjeant (which ancient title could only be allowed 
after sixteen years’ standing) formerly carried with 
it exclusive audience in the Court of Common 
Pleas. This was abolished in 1846, but the practice 
for all newly-appointed judges if not of the degree 
of the Coif to be admitted to that order before 
taking their seat on the bench was continued till a 
recent period, when, being found incompatible with 
the system introduced by the Judicature Acts, it 
was abolished, and now the title has become 
extinct. Another higher class of barristers is the 
“Queen’s Counsel.” They are from time to time 
selected on the nomination of the Lord Chancellor 
(the two principal of whom are the Attorney- and 
Solicitor-General). This advancement in the pro¬ 
fession is known as “ taking silk,” and the Queen’s 
Counsel thereafter appears in Court in a different 
style of gown from the outer barristers, and on 
special occasions wears a “full-bottomed wig,” and 
sits within the bar. When a Queen’s Counsel is 
retained against the Crown in any case he has to 
obtain a special licence for the purpose. In addition 
to the above, a practice has grown up in recent 
times of granting letters patent of precedence 
among themselves to such barristers as are thought 
worthy of that mark of distinction. Barristers with 
patents of precedence rank promiscuously with the 
Queen’s Counsel, and sit with them, but they are 
not the sworn servants of the Crown, and conse¬ 
quently may appear against the Crown without any 
licence for "that purpose. A counsel may on his 
client’s behalf compromise the case without express 
instructions for that purpose. A barrister must be 
instructed by a solicitor, and his services are not 
obtainable without such instructions. [Attorney- 
General, Solicitor-General.] 


Barros, Joao de, was born at Vizeu, Portugal, 
in 1496, and brought up at the court of King 
Emanuel. He showed great literary capacity, and 
was encouraged by the royal family to occupy him¬ 
self with Portuguese history. John III. made him 
Governor of Guinea, and subsequently General 
Treasurer of all the colonies. He then composed 
his great work, Asia Portuguesa , consisting of forty 
books, his task being completed by Couto. His 
style is admired as remarkably pure and simple. 
He died in 1570. 

Barrot, Camille Hyacinthe Odillon, born 
at Villefort in 1791, acquired fame as an advo¬ 
cate. Mixed up in the revolution of 1830, he 
accompanied the royal family to Cherbourg, and 
attached himself at first to the younger branch of 
the Bourbons. Under Louis Philippe he stood forth 
as leader of the “ moderate left ” in opposition to 
Guizot, and contributed not a little to the events of 
1848. He then joined Thiers in a futile attempt to 
form a ministry favourable to the succession of the 
Comte de Paris. The project failing, he accepted 
(1849) the presidency of the Council under Louis 
Napoleon, who distrusted him and shelved him. 
He lived in retirement till 1872, when he was made 
councillor of state and vice-president of the council, 
dying in the following year. 

Barrow, a burial mound of earth, differing 
only in the material from a cairn (q.v.), which is 
composed of stones. Barrows are sometimes 
called tumuli, a somewhat misleading name, for it 
does not necessarily imply any connection with 
burial (q.v.). The custom of heaping earth over 
the buried dead is probably older than the 
written history of the human race; at any rate 
it is mentioned in some of the earliest records 
(Homer, 11. xxxii. 175; Caesar, Be Bello Gal. iv. 
19), and barrows are widely scattered all over 
the world; within a radius of three miles from 
Stonehenge (q.v.) more than 300 may be counted. 
The following account of a barrow interment of 
a Scythian king is abridged from Herodotus (iv. 71). 
As soon as the king dies a quadrangular trench 
is sunk, and the embalmed body is placed therein. 
In some other part of this trench they bury one of 
the deceased’s concubines, whom they previously 
strangle, together with the baker, the cook, the 
groom, his most confidential servant, his horses, 
the choicest of his effects, and finally some golden 
goblets: to conclude all they fill up the trench 
with earth, and seem to be emulous in their 
endeavour to raise as high a mound as possible. 
Here we have the idea that the individual after 
death had the same wants as in life, and to provide 
for these, slaves and animals were slaughtered 
and food and implements deposited in the grave 
with the dead. 

The barrows of northern Europe range from Neo¬ 
lithic to post-Roman times ; indeed, they come down 
to the days of Charlemagne, for one of his edicts 
runs thus : “ We order that the bodies of Christian 
Saxons be borne to the burying-places of the 
church, and not to the barrows of the pagans.” 
None, however, can be referred farther back than 
the New Stone Age, for they never contain remains 






Barrow. 


( 350 ) 


B arrow-in- Fur n ess. 


of extinct mammals, nor of the reindeer [Reindeer 
Age], nor have any Palaeolithic implements been 
discovered. 

Barrows are sometimes divided into chambered 
and unchambered [Megalithic Structures] ; 
but a complete burial-place was a dolmen , covered 
with a mound and surrounded with a circle of 





BARROW ON BALLIDOX MOOR, DERBYSHIRE. 

standing stones. A dolmen is a flat stone laid 
horizontally, or nearly so, on two or more upright 
stones, and is nothing more than a burial-chamber 
from which the earth that formerly covered it has 
been removed by denudation, as is the case with 
Kit’s Coty House, between Rochester and Maidstone. 
These structures were formerly called cromlechs, a 
term now disused in England, but still employed 
in France for what British authors call Stone 
Circles (q.v.). 

According to Bateman ( Ten 1 ears' Diggings in 
the Celtic and Saxon Grave-hills ), the fundamental 
design of British barrows (with the exception of a 
few chambered or galleried mounds) is that they 
enclose a rude stone vault or chamber, or a stone 
chest called a cistvaen, built with more or less care ; 
and in other cases a grave cut out more or less below 
the natural surface, and lined, if need be, with stone 
slabs, in which the body was placed in a perfect state, 
or reduced to ashes by fire. Besides the remains of 
the buried or cremated corpse, there are found in 
British barrows : (1) Stone or bronze implements or 
ornaments; (2) pottery (urns, incense-cups, food 
vases, and drinking-cups) ; and (3) bones of quadru¬ 
peds, indicating sepulchral feasts, and burnt human 
bones, proving that slaves were sacrificed at their 
masters’ graves, and probably that widows were 
burnt with their dead husbands. [Suttee.] Of 
the British ante-Roman barrows, the long ones are 
supposed to belong exclusively to the Stone, and 
the round ones to the Bronze, Age. But the deter¬ 
mination of the question of age, when not indicated 
by the presence of implements, is a very difficult 
one. Sir John Lubbock, after an extended review 
of the evidence, says that burial in a sitting or 
contracted posture marks the Neolithic period, cre¬ 
mation the Bronze Age, and the extended position 


of the corpse the Iron Age. The term barrow is by 
some writers loosely applied to memorial mounds, 
as were “ the heap of witness ” raised by Laban 
and Jacob (Gen. xxxi. 52), and the mound thrown 
up by the Ten Thousand in their celebrated retreat 
when they obtained their first view of the sea 
(Xenophon Anah. iv. vii. 25). 

Barrow, a river in Ireland, which, rising in 
the Slievebloom Mountains, flows for 100 miles 
through Queen’s Co., King’s Co., Kildare and Car- 
low, and joining the Suir discharges itself into 
Waterford harbour. Its tributaries are the Nore, 
Blackwood, and Green rivers. It is navigable for 
65 miles to Athy, where it is connected with Dublin 
by the Grand Canal. 

Barrow, Isaac, D.D., was born in London in 
1630, being the son of Charles I.’s linen-draper. 
From the Charter House he passed to St. Peter’s, 
and afterwards to Trinity College, Cambridge, and 
studied with a view to medicine. He then made a 
prolonged tour in Europe and in the Levant, and at 
Constantinople was influenced by reading the works 
of Chrysostom. On his return to England in 1659 
he was ordained, and appointed to the chair of Greek 
at Cambridge, being later on chosen as Gresham 
Professor of Geometry, and elected F.R.S. From 
1664 to 1669 he was Lucasian Professor of Mathe¬ 
matics at his university, but resigned in favour of 
his illustrious pupil, Isaac Newton, and devoted 
himself to theology. He received a prebendal stall 
at Salisbury, and in 1672 the king made him Bishop 
of Chester. He died in 1677, and was buried 
in Westminster Abbey. As a mathematician he 
showed ability, but not genius. His Sermons, the 
only important contribution he made to literature, 
are solid, erudite, and closely reasoned, but their 
heavy style is only relieved by occasional passages 
of eloquence. 

Barrow, Sir John, Bart., born near LRverstone 
in 1764, spent his early days as a clerk, but showing 
a turn for mathematics, got employment as a 
teacher, and presently was sent out in the suite of 
the first British Ambassador to China. His abilities 
were appreciated, and on coming home, in 1794, 
Lord Macartney took him to the Cape, where he 
exerted himself with great success among the 
KafiTes, recording his experiences in a valuable 
book. Lord Melville next appointed him second 
Secretary of the Admiralty, and for 40 years he 
held this post to the entire satisfaction of 
successive administrators, among whom was 
William IV., then Duke of Clarence. He was 
elected fellow of the Royal Society, and received a 
baronetcy in 1835. Retiring from office in 1845, he 
spent three years in compiling a history of recent 
Arctic explorations and in writing his auto¬ 
biography. He died in 1848. Among his works 
were Lives of Macartney, Anson, Howe, and Peter 
the Great, besides many contributions to the Ency¬ 
clopedia Britannica and the Quarterly Beview. 

Barrow-in-Furness, a town and port in 
Lancashire, 35 miles N.W. of Lancaster, at the 
extremity of the peninsula of Furness, which forms 
the northern boundary of Morecambe Bay. The 












( 351 ) 


Bart. 


Barry. 


prosperity of the place depends on the abundance 
of iron in the district, but these resources have only 
been developed within the last fifty years by the chief 
landowners, the Dukes of Devonshire andBuccleuch, 
and Sir John Ramsden, a local pioneer of great 
energy and perseverance. The steel-works are the 
largest in the kingdom ; the docks, opened in 1867, 
cover 69 acres ; shipbuilding has grown to be an 
important industry ; hundreds of thousands of tons 
of iron in various forms are annually exported ; and 
the population in half a century has increased two 
hundredfold. The town, built chiefly on reclaimed 
ground, is well laid out, and returns a member to 
Parliament. Within the municipal boundary are 
the ruins of Furness Abbey, founded in 1127. 

Barry, Sir Charles, Knt., was born at West¬ 
minster in 1795, and after receiving the ordinary 
training of an architect, travelled from 1817 to 1820 
in Italy, Greece, Egypt, and Palestine. He then 
speedily attained high professional reputation. 
Though his first important work, St. Peter's at 
Brighton, was in the Perpendicular Gothic style, he 
shewed a marked preference at first for the Italian 
school, as may be inferred from such examples as 
the Travellers’ Club, the Reform Club, Bridgewater 
House, the Manchester Athenaeum, and the Halifax 
Town Hall. His adoption of Tudor methods in 
King Edward’s School at Birmingham proved an 
attractive success. After the destruction of the 
Houses of Parliament, in 1834, his designs were 
selected for the new buildings, which were begun in 
1840 and completed in 1860, though occupied 
earlier. Barry, who died suddenly in the year his 
great task was achieved, had been elected R. A. and 
F.R.S., besides receiving many foreign distinctions, 
and he was knighted in 1852. 

Barry, James, was born at Cork in 1741, and 
received an ordinary middle-class education, early 
showing an aptitude for painting. Edmund Burke 
noticed his efforts, and enabled him to go abroad. 
Coming home, he painted a number of classical 
compositions, and The Death of General Wolfe. 
In 1777 he undertook to decorate the hall of the 
Society of Arts with the six paintings which are his 
chief memorials. In 1782 he was appointed pro¬ 
fessor of painting at the Royal Academy, but 
though his lectures were by no means deficient in 
common sense, he contrived to quarrel with his 
brother academicians, and was expelled in 1799. He 
was now in great poverty, and a subscription was 
opened for his benefit, but he died in 1806, almost 
as soon as he was freed from immediate difficulties. 

Bar-sinister. Strictly speaking this is a mis¬ 
nomer for “ bend-sinister.” It is one of the honour¬ 
able ordinaries in heraldry, and is formed by two 
parallel diagonal lines, containing a third part of 
the field, crossing the escutcheon from the top 
right-hand corner to the bottom left-hand side. In 
heraldic language this is from the sinister (hence 
its name) chief to the dexter base points, it being 
the exact opposite of the bend proper. Though 
another mark has now taken its place it was 
anciently the “difference” denoting illegitimacy, 
and in such meaning has become a very general 
term outside the limits of armory. 


Bar-sur-Atibe, a town on the right bank of the 
river Aube, in the department of the same name in 
France. It is an ancient and picturesque town, with 
St. Maclou, an interesting church, and remains of 
old fortifications. The district is famous for its 
vineyards. In 1814 Oudinot unsuccessfully opposed 
here the advance of the Allied army. 

Bar-snr-Seine, a town in the department of 
Aube, France, 18 miles from Troyes. In the Middle 
Ages it was a place of wealth and importance, but 
it suffered greatly in the wars of religion. It is now 
insignificant, though some trade is done in wool, 
grain, wine, and brandy. A battle was fought here 
in 1814 between the Allies and the Napoleonic forces. 

Bart, or Barth, Jean, one of the most famous 
and successful of French naval officers, the son of 
a fisherman of Dunkirk, where he was born in 
1651. As a boy he served on board various armed 
coasters, and as a young man he went to Holland 
and fought under the celebrated De Ruyter. With 
him he acquired a little money, and was enabled to 
purchase a privateer of two guns, in which, in 
1674, he cruised off the Texel, France and Holland 
being at that time at war. Bart’s first exploit was 
the capture by boarding of a Dutch 18-gun sloop. 
This recommended him to the merchants of his 
native town. They subscribed to place him in com¬ 
mand of the 10-gun sloop Esperancc, in which he 
took a Dutch 12-gun ship, another Dutch 18-gun 
ship, and a large and valuable convoy. The mer¬ 
chants were so delighted that they next fitted out 
five vessels, and gave the command of the whole 
squadron to Bart. He sailed in 1676, and in that 
year and the next made numerous prizes. His 
repeated gallantry gained him the notice of 
Louis XIV., who rewarded him with a gold chain 
and medal, and a commission as lieutenant in the 
French royal navy. As such, but in command of 
a ship, he cruised, with his usual success, against the 
Barbary corsairs. In 1683, as captain of a frigate, 
he greatly distinguished himself in the action 
between the French and Spanish fleets off Cadiz, 
and in 1688 he was again in action with the Dutch, 
this time in company with another noted French 
seaman, the Chevalier Forbin. He also served 
against the English, but, with Forbin, had the 
misfortune to be taken prisoner and carried into 
Plymouth, whence the two officers promptly escaped. 
In 1690 Bart commanded the Alcion in De Tour- 
ville’s fleet, and took part in the Battle of Beachy 
Head. In the following year, with Forbin, he 
cruised in command of a small squadron, made 
many captures, and was on his return made a 
chef d'escadre , or commodore. After the battle off 
La Hogue, in which he had no share, he again 
went to sea, breaking for a second time the English 
blockade of Dunkirk in order to leave port. 
He took rich prizes, made an alarming descent 
near Newcastle, killed the Dutch Admiral Devries 
and captured part of his squadron, and was, as a 
reward, ennobled. He went to sea more than once 
afterwards, but upon the conclusion of the Peace 
of Ryswick retired from the service. He died of 
pleurisy in 1702. Bart stands almost alone amongst 
French seamen. He was illiterate and rude, but he 









Bart as. 


( 352 ) 


Bartholdi. 


was singularly brave, and, owing to the independ¬ 
ence of his character, he was never bound by the 
traditions which have usually confined French naval 
operations. This is, perhaps, why he was so suc¬ 
cessful. 

Bartas, Guillaume de Salluste du, the 
son of a treasurer of France, was born in 1544. In 
the service of Henry IV. he went as envoy to 
England, Denmark, and Scotland, commanding also 
a troop of horse. He took to poetry, and his chief 
work, La Sepmaine, or Week of Creation , was trans¬ 
lated into English by Sylvester, 1598. It won much 
admiration from Spenser, Ben Jonson, and the 
authors of the period, and exercised some influence 
on English literature. To modern taste it seems a 
most dull and pointless production. A second Week 
was published later. Du Bartas died in 1590 from 
wounds received at the battle of Ivry. 

Barter, in Law , as in usage, is the exchange 
of goods for goods as distinct from their sale for 
money. It is the primitive form of trade every¬ 
where ; indeed, the propensity to barter is men¬ 
tioned by Adam Smith as one of the chief traits 
which distinguishes man from the lower animals ; 
and wherever the value of money is subject to great 
depreciation (as in the case of over-issue of paper 
currency) it tends to reappear. But so soon as 
bills of exchange and other credit substitutes for 
money are invented, trade again tends to become 
essentially barter—since what is received in ex¬ 
change is not money, but purchasing power over 
goods, a power expressed in terms of money for 
convenience sake. In political economy it is almost 
an axiom that, since the invention of bills of ex¬ 
change, and in recent years of “ cable transfers,” 
foreign trade is barter of exports for imports, the 
differences only being paid in specie. 

Barth, Henirich, born at Hamburg in 1821, 
and educated at the University of Berlin, started in 
1845, after careful preparation, on a journey of ex¬ 
ploration in North Africa, visiting Tunis, Tripoli, 
Barca, and the valley of the Nile. In 1847 he 
travelled through Egypt, Palestine, Asia Minor, and 
Greece, and two years later he published his book 
on the coasts of the Mediterranean. Bunsen pro¬ 
cured him in 1849 the direction in connection with 
Overweg of an English expedition into Central 
Africa. After an absence of more than five years 
he gave to the world the results of his journey in a 
work entitled Travels and Discoveries in Central 
Africa. He again returned to the shores of the 
Mediterranean in 1858 and 1862, was appointed 
Professor of Geography in the University of Berlin 
in 1863, and died in 1865. 

Barthelemy, Auguste Marseille, was born 
at Marseilles in 1796. Having won some name for 
versifying, he went to Paris, and in 1825 secured 
the patronage of the court by a poem called Le 
Sacre de Charles X. He then went over to the 
opposition, and in conjunction with Mery wrote La 
Villeliade , Napoleon en fhejypte, and numberless 
other satires, which led to his imprisonment. The 
revolution of 1830 set him free, when the two friends 
published L'Lnsurrection, one of their happiest 


efforts. Though his attacks on the government 
continued, Louis Philippe gave him a pension, and 
in 1832 he suddenly became a supporter of the 
crown. His popularity declined, and, in spite of 
his return to his old principles in 1844, was never 
recovered. He died in 1867. 

Barthelemy, Jean Jacques, born at Cassis, 
near Marseilles, in 1716, and entered the priesthood. 
He had a predilection for Oriental languages, and 
to this was added soon a taste for classical antiqui¬ 
ties and numismatics. Coming to Paris in 1744 he 
became assistant to De Boze, the secretary of the 
Academy of Inscriptions, to whose office he suc¬ 
ceeded. In a journey to Italy he acquired the 
friendship of the Due de Choiseul, through whose 
influence he enjoyed several lucrative pensions. He 
spent thirty years from 1757 on the composition of 
his great work, Le Voyage du Jeune Anacharsis, 
the object of which was to throw into a popular 
form all that was then known of Greek archaeology". 
His high reputation saved him from persecution 
during the Reign of Terror, and he died in 1795. 

Barthelemy Saint Hilaire, Jules, was 
born in Paris in 1805, and began life as a journalist, 
being an active participator in the revolution of 
1830. In 1833 he dropped politics and devoted 
himself to the translation of Aristotle, being ap¬ 
pointed five years later to the chair of classical 
philosophy in the College of France. In 1848^ he 
supported Odillon Barrot, but after the Coup d' E tat 
resigned his professorship and spent ten years in 
private study and travel. He was reinstated in 
1862, remained in Paris during the siege, and in 
1870 was elected deputy, giving his support to M. 
Thiers, and after his fall joining the moderate 
Republicans. In 1875 he was made a life-senator, 
and in 1880 became Minister for Foreign Affairs, in 
which capacity he took an active part in the 
occupation of Tunis. This policy led to the resigna¬ 
tion of M. Ferry, and Saint Hilaire returned to his 
literary labours, acting as executor to M. Thiers and 
M. Cousin. Saint Hilaire has also done much in 
the field of Oriental study. 

Barthez, Paul Joseph, born at Montpellier in 
1734, took his doctorate in medicine early, and 
went to Paris, where he was soon allied with the 
highest intellects, assisting D’Alembert in the 
famous Encyclopedic. After brief employment as 
medical officer of the army in Westphalia, he ob¬ 
tained a professorship of medicine at Montpellier in 
1759. Here he remained till 1780, when he was 
appointed physician to the king, and Napoleon, 
as first consul, retained his services. His many 
scientific works show an accurate knowledge of 
anatomy, and of the mechanical and chemical 
branches of his profession, but he also recognised, 
under the name of Vital Principle, a physiological 
force as playing an important part in the functions 
of the human organism. He died in 1806. 

Bartholdi, Jacob Salomon, was born of 
Jewish parents at Berlin in 1779. After studying 
jurisprudence at Halle, he travelled for some years 
in France, Italy, and Greece. Adopting Christianity, 
he entered the Austrian army and served against 








Bartholin. 


( 353 ) 


Bartolozzi 


Napoleon. In 1815 he became Prussian consul- 
general in Italy, and subsequently ambassador at 
Florence. He made a valuable art collection which 
was purchased by the Berlin Museum, and he em¬ 
ployed Cornelius, Overbeck, and other German 
artists to paint frescoes in his house at Home. He 
wrote A History of the Tyrolese War of 1809, and 
A Life of Cardinal Consalvi. His death occurred 
in Rome in 1825. 

Bartholin, or Bartholinus, Thomas, belonged 
to a Danish family distinguished in three generations 
for scientific attainments, and was born at Copen¬ 
hagen in 1616. He studied medicine at Leyden, 
Paris, Montpellier, Padua, and Basel, and in 1648 
was appointed Professor of Anatomy at Copenhagen. 
He devoted himself to researches as to the functions 
of the recently discovered lacteal and lymphatic 
vessels, till his health broke down in 1661. In 1670 
a fire destroyed his house and library, upon which 
the king appointed him his physician ; he was also 
made librarian of the university. He died in 1680. 

Bartholomew, Saint (Heb. son of Tolmai), 
was a native of Cana in Galilee, and is generally 
supposed to be identical with Nathanael (John i. 
45, xxi. 2). The latter was introduced by Philip 
to Jesus, who on seeing him approach uttered the 
remarkable words, “ Behold an Israelite indeed, in 
whom there is no guile.” St. Bartholomew was 
present at the resurrection and ascension, return¬ 
ing with the other apostles to Jerusalem. Of his 
subsequent career we have only obscure traditions, 
according to which he went on a mission amongst 
the “ Indians,” with whom he left St. Matthew’s 
Gospel in Hebrew. It is probable that Arabia 
Felix may have been the scene of his efforts. He 
is reputed to have suffered martyrdom either in 
Armenia or Cilicia by being crucified head down¬ 
wards and being flayed alive. His festival is 
celebrated on August 24th, a day marked by in¬ 
auspicious events, as it was chosen in 1572 by 
Charles IX. and his mother for the massacre of the 
French Protestants, and in 1660 the Act of Non¬ 
conformity came into operation on that date in 
England. 

Bartholomew, Hospital of St., in Smithfield, 
London, was founded by Rahere in the year 1123. 
The hospital had originally three chapels, one of 
which is now known as St. Bartholomew the Less. 
Harvey, the discoverer of the circulation of the 
blood, was for thirty-four years physician to the 
hospital; Percival Pott, John Abernethy, Benjamin 
Brodie, and William Lawrence were also associated 
with its school. The number of beds, including the 
convalescent home at Swanley, is 746. In the year 
1890 relief was afforded to 6,997 in-pa,tients and to 
156,400 out-patients. The medical school attached 
to the hospital numbers upwards of 400 students. 

Bartholomew’s Day, St., is August 24th, 
rendered memorable by the great massacre of Pro¬ 
testants in France in 1572, by order of the Queen 
Regent, Catherine de Medicis. She had been ap¬ 
parently endeavouring to conciliate them, but at a 
time when the chief Huguenot notables were in 
Paris she persuaded the king that their leader, 
Admiral Coligny, sought his life, and he consented 

23 


to a general massacre. Three strokes on a bell in 
the tower of the palace gave the signal, and bands 
of assassins, marked by a white badge on one arm, 
went forth to their task. Four thousand were 
slain in Paris, and according to various estimates 
from 30,000 to 70,000 were massacred altogether. 
The Pope and the Spanish Court received the news 
with enthusiasm ; but the spirit of the Huguenots 
was only strengthened, and after a failure to take 
their stronghold, La Rochelle, Charles IX. was 
compelled to secure them that liberty of conscience 
which had been promised to them by the peace of 
St. Germain-en-Laye in 1570. 

Bartizan, a small battlemented turret, pierced 
with loopholes, and projecting from the wall of a 
castle or fortress. The word is first used by Sir 
Walter Scott, and probably is the result of his mis¬ 
understanding of the term bertisene , a Scottish 
corruption of bratticing. 

Bartlett, John Russell, was born at 
Providence, Rhode Island, U.S.A., in 1805. He was 
employed as commissioner for defining the Mexican 
boundary, and wrote an account of his experiences. 
He was the author of several works on ethnology 
and philology, and was well known as the author 
of the Dictionary of Americanisms. 

Bartlett, William Henry, was born in 1809, 
and articled to John Britton, the well-known 
archaeological architect, for whose works he did 
many drawings of English buildings. He next 
sought subjects in foreign countries, travelled over 
Europe, Asia, and America, and published about a 
thousand engravings, Dr. Beattie writing the ex¬ 
planatory text. Some of the more remarkable 
volumes were Walks about Jerusalem , The Nile 
Boat, The Overland Route, Footsteps of Our Lord, 
Pictures from Sicily, and The Pilgrim Fathers. He 
died on board ship in 1854, whilst travelling home 
from the East. 

Bartolini, Lorenzo, was born of a humble 
Tuscan family in 1777. He showed as a lad great 
skill as a modeller, and in 1797 went to Paris, where 
six years later he gained the second prize of the 
Academy for a group of Cleobis and Bito. Napo¬ 
leon now became his patron, and sent him to 
found a school of sculpture at Carrara. After 
Napoleon’s fall he resided in Florence till his death 
in 1850. His best works are Charity , Hercules and 
Lidias, and Faith in God, but he produced an 
enormous number of portrait busts. 

Bartolommeo, Fra. [Baccio della Porta.] 

Bartolozzi, Francesco, the son of a Florentine 
silversmith, was born in 1728 or 1730. His talent 
for designing was so great that he was put under 
teachers of painting, and then studied engraving 
with Wagner at Venice. After a first essay in this 
art at Rome he came to London in 1764, and for 
nearly forty years was busily engaged in producing 
engravings and mezzotints from the works of 
Cipriani, Angelica Kauffmann, and other artists, 
the copies often being superior to the originals. 
His Clytie, after A. Carracci, and his Virgin a/nd 
Child, after Carlo Dolce, with the plates done for 
Boydell’s Shakespeare, are among the best known 







Barton. 


f 354 ) 


Base. 


of his works. The market at present is flooded 
with feeble impressions from worn-out plates that 
do little justice to his merits. In 1802 he went to 
Lisbon to establish a school of engraving, and died 
there in 1815. He was the father of Madame 
Vestris. 

Barton, Benjamin Smith, born in Pennsylvania 
in 1706, and educated for the medical profession at 
Edinburgh and Gottingen, settled down to practise 
in Philadelphia. He subsequently held professor¬ 
ships of materia medica and clinical medicine in 
the college there, and was elected president of the 
American Philosophical Society. His numerous 
books and lectures gave a great impulse to the study 
of natural history in America. He died in 1815. 

Barton, Bernard, was born in London in 
1784 of Quaker family, and began life in trade. On 
the death of his wife he went to Liverpool and 
spent his last forty years as a clerk in a bank, 
dying in 1849. During leisure moments he wrote 
a number of graceful and tender poems, evincing 
deep religious feeling and a genial appreciation of 
the beauties of nature. He attracted the notice 
and friendship of Charles Lamb and other writers, 
and before his death received a pension from 
Government. His chief works are Napoleon, Devo¬ 
tional Verses, Poetic Vigils, The Widow's Tale, and 
The Reliquary. 

Barton, Elizabeth, or “The Maid of Kent,’’ 
was in 1525 a servant at an inn at Aldington in 
Kent. Her tendency to religious mania, probably 
originating in epilepsy, was made use of by the 
priests in opposing Henry YIII.’s plans for divorcing 
Catherine of Aragon. Under the sanction of Arch¬ 
bishop Warham, and with the approval of Fisher and 
Sir T. More, the wretched woman was worked 
upon by three monks, Masters, Booking, and Deering, 
who put into her mouth prophecies of Henry’s 
speedy downfall. The king for some time bore with 
the imposture, but at last was moved to resentment. 
Barton and four accomplices were brought to trial 
and executed at Tyburn in 1534. 

Barton-on-Hum'ber, a market-town of Lin¬ 
colnshire, on the S. bank of the Humber, with a 
station on the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincoln¬ 
shire Railway, 6 miles from Hull. It possesses 
the churches of St. Peter, dating from the eleventh 
century, and St. Mary, founded in the fourteenth. 
Ropes, sacking, and bricks are made here, and there 
is some trade in corn and flour. 

Barton-on-Irwell, a town in Lancashire, on 
the river Irwell, over which the Bridgewater canal 
is carried by an aqueduct, being the first work of 
that kind carried out in England. It is about 6 
miles from Manchester on the Liverpool Railway. 
There are factories for silk and cotton and extensive 
ironworks. The Roman Catholic church is a good 
specimen of Pugin’s skill. 

Baruch, the son of Neriah, must have lived at 
the end of the seventh and beginning of the sixth 
centuries b.c. He acted as scribe to Jeremiah, 
recording and reading his prophecies of future 
disasters when Nebuchadnezzar had plundered the 
Temple. He accompanied Jeremiah into Egypt, 


and died either there or in Babylon. The book of 
Baruch found in our Apocrypha can hardly have 
been by him entirely, as it contains references to 
events and works of later date. Some of his 
materials may have been worked up by a Palestinian 
writer of the third century b.c. The Epistle of 
Jeremiah which forms the sixth chapter has no 
connection with Baruch, and was probably com¬ 
posed by a Hellenist of the Maccabean epoch. 

Baryta. [Barium.] 

Baryte, or Barytes, is the natural sulphate of 
barium (BaS0 4 ), a common mineral, occurring com¬ 
monly as a veinstone with metallic ores. It crystal¬ 
lises, often in large crystals, belonging to the 
prismatic system, and also occurs in stalactitic and 
other massive forms. It is colourless, white or 
yellow brown, so that the stalactites resemble fossil 
wood, but are recognisable by their weight. Its 
specific gravity is about 4\5, whence it was formerly 
confused with witherite, celestite and strontianite, 
under the name “heavy spar.” It is translucent 
and vitreous, and has a white streak. It fuses with 
difficulty, decrepitating and colouring the flame 
yellowish-green. With sodium carbonate it sinks 
into charcoal or will stain silver black. The mineral 
is ground up and mixed with white lead as a paint. 

Basalt, a dark-coloured lava, finely crystalline, 
compact or sometimes porphyritic in texture, com¬ 
posed essentially of aplagioclase felspar (labradorite 
or anorthite) and augite. Olivine, magnetite, 
apatite, and other minerals commonly occur in it as 
accessories, and there are varieties characterised by 
the more or less complete replacement of the felspar 
by nepheline or by leucite. The specific gravity of the 
rock ranging from 2‘6 to 3T, it belongs to the basic 
class.of igneous rocks. It occurs in sheets, dykes 
and veins, and commonly exhibits columnar joint¬ 
ing produced by contraction during cooling. The 
columns are perpendicular to the surface of cooling, 
and may be three, four, six or eight-sided and of 
great length. There are also sometimes cross-joints 
parallel to the surface, and percolating water acting 
along all these joints produces spheroidal weather¬ 
ing. The surface of a basalt-flow is commonly 
covered with a thin glassy layer known as tackylite. 
Basalt is a hard, tough rock, suitable for road- 
metal. It surface weathers to a rust-brown. The 
“ toadstone ” of Derbyshire is an amygdaloidal 
basalt, and the columns of the Giant’s Causeway in 
Antrim, and of Fingal’s Cave, Staff a, are composed 
of an olivine-basalt. When coarse-grained, a 
basalt is termed doleritc. 

Base, a chemical substance which has the 
power of reacting with an acid (q.v.) to form a 
compound differing in properties from both the 
acid and the base, called a salt (q.v.). Bases may 
be (1) metallic oxides, such as sodic oxide Na 2 0, 
copper oxide CuO, etc. ; (2) metallic hydroxides, 
i.e. compounds of a metal with hydrogen and 
oxygen, as sodium hydrate NaOH, etc. ; or (3) 
ammonia and certain allied compounds. Many 
organic substances (Alkaloid) also exhibit basic 
properties. In the interaction of a base and acid 
water may or may not be formed, as examples in 
the following reactions:— 







Base Ball. 


( 355 ) 


Base Ball. 


CuO 

+ 

2HC1 = 

CuCl 2 

NaOH 

+ 

HC1 = 

NaCl 

nh 3 

+ 

HC1 = 

NH 4 .C1. 


Bases are defined as mon-acid, di-acid, etc., accord¬ 
ing to the number of hydrogen atoms of the acid, 
which are displaced in the reaction with one mole¬ 
cule of the base. Thus the copper oxide is f/i-acid, 
the sodium hydroxide wrw-acid. 

Base Ball. This game corresponds in the 
United States to cricket in England. Every village, 
every school, every university in the country has "its 
one or more clubs, and no paper is considered com¬ 
plete unless a base ball editor is on its staff. The 
game resembles cricket in that both require about 
the same area of level ground; both are played 
with a rather hard ball; both involve swift- and 
accurate tossing and catching of the ball ; both 
call for energetic fielding, and both are played with 
enthusiasm by young and old, rich and poor. 

The game is an evolution, and is the only national 
sport in America that has not its counterpart in the 
mother country. 

Amateur base ball is cultivated most successfully 
at the seats of learning, the matches between their 
clubs being watched with great interest, a posi¬ 
tion on a base ball “ nine ” being regarded in college 
as a distinction ranking with a seat in the “ eight.” 
Professional base ball, on the other hand, has been 
developed so far that it is a source of income to 
many clubs, who travel the country giving exhibitions 
of their skill in matches with rival organisations. 

The game will be readily understood by a glance 
at the accompanying diagram. 

Nine persons compose a side. In the centre of the 
field is a square with sides 90 feet long. This is called 
the diamond. The corners are known as home 

base (b), first base 

(d) , second base 

(e) , and third 
base (p). The side 
that is “ out ” 
takes position in 
the field ; the cat¬ 
cher (A) just be¬ 
hind the home 
base ; the pitcher 
(c) at a distance 
of 50 feet from 
the home base 
in line with the 
second base. 
Three basemen 
guard respec¬ 
tively the first, 
second, and third 
bases. A short 
stop is posted be¬ 
tween E and p ; 
and three fielders, 
known as right 
(h), centre (i), 
and left (j), take 
position at dis¬ 
tances convenient 

for stopping balls sent beyond the diamond. 

The nine men are now posted with the object of 


stopping any ball sent from the bat, and sending it 
to one of the bases before the batter himself can 
get there. 

The pitcher (bowler) at c sends the ball over the 
home plate to the catcher at a. He does this with 
the greatest possible velocity, and with one of half- 
a-dozen “ curves ” that frequently deceives the bats¬ 
man as to the distance the ball will be from him 
when passing. He is often tempted to strike at a 
ball that appears convenient, when in fact it is 
deflected so as to go above or below or beyond him 
by a twist of the pitcher’s wrist, difficult to acquire, 
and still more difficult to understand. So many 
catchers have ruined their noses, teeth and fingers 
by the swiftness and unexpected movements of 
“ twisted ” balls, that they now generally wear steel 
masks, and leather protectors on their hands. 
When a ball merely “ ticks ” the bat it is frequently 
deflected with such force and rapidity that human 
activity cannot anticipate its movement. Many 
catchers stand close up under the bat of the oppo¬ 
nent on the home plate (b) in order to be nearer 
the basemen. This involves some risk, as many a 
bat has fetched the catcher’s head a blow that was 
intended for the ball as well. 

The player at the bat, who is one of the “ in ” 
side, tries to strike the balls sent by the pitcher (c). 
If he knocks it into the air, and it is caught, he is 
“ out,” and the next of his side takes the bat. 
Should, however, the batsman send a ball back of 
the lines f b d, to the catcher’s side of the dia¬ 
mond, it does not count, unless caught before strik¬ 
ing the ground. Such a ball is called foul. If 
the batsman strikes, and the ball goes fair, and he 
is not “ caught out,” he runs to the first base (d), 
and is safe there, provided the fielders do not get 
the ball and pass it to the first baseman before the 
striker can get there. Supposing the first base is 
secured, the next man has gone to the bat, and as 
the balls are now passing between pitcher and 
catcher, the man “ running his bases ” tries to get to 
the second base (e), to the third base (f), and finally 
to the home base (b), thereby scoring a “ run ” for 
his side. If in running the “ bases ” he is touched 
by the ball in the hands of the “ out side,” while he 
is off the base, he is “ put out,” and his whole side 
is “ out ” when three men of it are “ out.” There¬ 
upon sides are changed, and the party that has been 
in the field now comes to the bat for its “ innings.” 
Nine innings make a game, and the side that makes 
most runs in their innings has won. 

The height of excitement is reached when the 
bases are all occupied by men running their bases, 
when two are already put “ out; ” when, therefore, 
the fate of four men hangs upon the success of the 
batsman’s stroke; when, perhaps, it is the last 
innings, and the fate of the game depends upon 
getting not only the batsman’s run, but the runs of 
the other three on bases. A brilliant “ bat ” 
between the lines of “ fielders,” or far beyond their 
anticipations, has at times redeemed disasters in 
the early part of the game, and made of a batsman 
the hero of the hour. 

The bat is a straight round club of massive wood, 
tapering from the handle to the extremity, and 
about as long as a cricket bat. Its weight and 


J 

o 


I 

o 


H 

o 



o 

A 

DIAGRAM OF A BASE-BALL FIELD. 

a, Catcher; b, home base ; c, pitcher ; 
d, first base ; e, second base ; f, 
third base; g, short stop ; h, right 
field; i, centre field ; j, left field. 






Basedow. 


( 356 ) 


Bashan. 


dimensions vary with the strength and taste of 
the player. 

Basedow, Johann Bernard, was born at 
Hamburg in 1723, and for several years of his early 
manhood was plunged in theological speculations 
to the loss of his repute for orthodoxy. He showed, 
however, real capacity for education, and in 1767 
set seriously about the task of reforming the school 
system of Germany. A powerfully written appeal 
brought in subscriptions, and under the patronage 
of Prince Francis of Anlialt-Dessau he started the 
Philanthropinon, an institution that failed itself 
but served as a model to other schools. Basedow 
was afflicted with a temper that prevented his act¬ 
ing with others. He was engaged in educational 
experiments at Magdeburg, where he died in 1790. 

Basedow’s Disease. [Graves’ Disease.] 

Basel, Bale, or Basle, the name of a canton 
and its capital in the N.W. of Switzerland. The 
former has an area of 184 square miles, and lies S. 
of the province of Alsace and the duchy of Baden. 
The southern portion is traversed by the Jura 
range with an average height of 4,000 to 5,000 feet, 
the slopes affording good pasturage. In the north 
the fertile lowlands are watered by the Rhine. 
Wine, corn, fruit, butter and cheese are the agricul¬ 
tural products, and timber is plentiful and valuable. 
Ribbon-making is an important industry, woollens, 
linens, and iron goods are also manufactured. The 
city division of the canton is quite distinct-from 
the rural portion. 

The town of Basel (anc. Basilia ) stands on the S. 
bank of the Rhine, being connected with a suburb 
(Little Basel) on the other side by a fine bridge. 
Founded in the 4th century a.d. it became a free city 
of the empire in the 10th century. The noble Gothic 
cathedral was built on the site of a Roman struc¬ 
ture in 1010, and contains the tomb of Erasmus and 
other interesting monuments. From 1431. to 1443 
the famous Council of Basel was held here, in 
which the non-Italian bishops, aided by the 
Emperor and the King of France, tried in vain to 
impose checks on the papal power. In 1501 Basel 
joined the Swiss Confederacy, and the old Town 
Hall was built at this period. The citizens adopted 
eagerly the principles of the Reformation, but 
passed fortunately through that movement and the 
Thirty Years’ war. The oppression of the rural in¬ 
habitants by the townspeople led to some disturb¬ 
ances until in 1832 the canton was divided. With 
railway communication on each side of the Rhine, 
and placed at the portal of Switzerland, Basel does 
a large transit business in goods and passengers. 
It manufactures silk, linen, and cotton, and has 
dye-works and iron foundries. It has always been 
an educational centre, and has a university, gym¬ 
nasium, industrial school, library, botanical garden, 
and museum. Euler was born and taught here, 
and Holbein is supposed to have been a native of 
the place. 

Basel Council, the last of the three great re¬ 
forming councils of the fifteenth century, held its 
first session in Basel, Switzerland, in 1431. It 
granted the use of the cup in the Lord’s Supper to 


the Calixtines, the most powerful section of the 
Hussites (q.v.) in 1433, and endeavoured to limit 
the abuses of the papal prerogative. Pope Eugenius 
IV., who refused to cross the Alps to preside at it, 
soon opposed its action, and summoned it to meet 
at Ferrara. It refused, and on his summoning a 
rival council at Ferrara, suspended him (1438). 
Part of the council, however, then migrated to 
Ferrara, and afterwards to Florence. The majority, 
however, remained at Basel, and next year, after 
deposing Eugenius, elected Duke Amadeus of 
Savoy under the title of Felix V. He, however, 
was not generally recognised. The council (which 
had lost most of its Italian members on its sus¬ 
pension of the Pope) gradually dwindled, and in 
1443 removed to Lausanne. In 1447 Eugenius IV. 
died, and in 1449 Felix resigned his claim to the 
papal office. The new Pope, Nicholas V., confirmed 
the acts of the council, which then submitted to 
him. Roman canonists deny the legality of its acts, 
but they were accepted as part of the canon law of 
France and Germany on the election of Felix, and 
are still partially in force. 

Base-line, in Surveying, is a straight line very 
accurately measured on the tract of country to be 
surveyed. The position of this line having been 
fixed, other points may be plotted by simply ob¬ 
serving the angles they subtend at each end of the 
base-line. Thus triangles are plotted, each of whose 
sides may in turn be regarded as a new base¬ 
line. In the Ordnance Survey of England and 
Wales the base-line was measured on Salisbury 
Plain, and was some miles in length. [TRIANGU- 
lation, Ordnance Survey.] 

Base-point. The base of an escutcheon is 
naturally the lower part of it, and the “ base-point ” 
proper is in the centre of the base directly above 
the point in which a shield of any shape terminates. 
The dexter and sinister base-points are on either 
side thereof. 

Bashahr, a hill state of the Panjab, India, 
situated on the outskirts of the Himalayahs, and 
having an area of 3,320 square miles. It is traversed 
by the river Sutlej. The Rajah and higher classes 
are Rajputs, but the bulk of the population con¬ 
sists of Hindus. A small annual tribute is paid 
to the British Government, which exercises some 
control over the native ruler. 

Bashan, a country to the N.E. of the valley of 
the Jordan in Syria. In the time of Abraham it 
was occupied by the Rephaim, the chief city being 
Asliteroth Kamaim. The Amorites were their suc¬ 
cessors, and Og, King of Bashan, was overthrown by 
the Israelites at Edrei, his kingdom going to the 
tribe of Manasseh. In the Psalms and Prophets 
the fertility of the region with its bulls, rams, 
goats, and fruit trees, is often referred to. It is 
last mentioned in 2 Kings x. 33. Later on it was 
divided into Gaulonitis, Trachonitis, Auranitis, and 
Batanea. After the death of Alexander its posses¬ 
sion was frequently contested. The Arabian 
dynasty of the Gharsanides established themselves 
there. Trachonitis and the interior have been for 
many centuries more or less infested by freebooters, 







Bashi. 


( 357 ) 


Basil I. 


and Hauran is still the seat of the Druses. The 
country is volcanic, and Jebel-el-Druz rises to a 
height of 6,000 feet. None of the architectural 
remains appear to be of great antiquity. 

Bashi, or Bashee Islands, a group of the 
Philippines lying between Luzon and Formosa. 
They were discovered by Dampier in 1687, and 
colonised in 1783 by the Spaniards, to whom they 
still belong. 

Bashi Bazouks (from Turkish words meaning 
disorderly dress), irregular Turkish troops, not in 
uniform, and usually Asiatics, sometimes recruited 
from the Circassians, who have emigrated in great 
numbers from the Caucasus of late years. They 
are daring when well led, but wild, and to all ap¬ 
pearance quite undisciplined. Serious complaints 
were made of their behaviour in the Crimean war, 
and the Bulgarian atrocities of 1876 were largely 
ascribed to them. 

Bashkirs (properly Bashkurds), a Finnish 
people of East Russia between the Volga and the 
Ural rivers. During their long subjection to the 
Kapchak Tatars they became largely assimilated 
to the Turki type, and at present speak a Turki 
dialect. But their Finnish origin is betrayed by 
their red beards, and by the names Istaki (Ostiak) 
and Sari Ishtek (Red Ostiaks) applied to them by 
the surrounding Finnish peoples, the Ostiaks of the 
east Ural slopes being pure Finns. About the 
middle of the last century the Bashkirs were 
organised, like the Cossacks, as a frontier militia 
against the incursions of the nomad Kirghiz; but 
under Russian rule they have remained Moham¬ 
medans, and even partly still nomads. Total popu¬ 
lation over 500,000, of whom 360,000 are in Orenburg, 
the rest in the governments of Perm, Ufa, Viatka, 
and Samara. 

Bashkirtself, Marie, was born in 1860, her 
parents being of good Russian family and apparently 
enjoying ample means. A delicate, intelligent, and 
precocious child, at the age of ten she accompanied 
her mother to Nice and other foreign places, and 
very soon afterwards began to record in a diary 
the impressions produced on her excitable mind by 
the events and the people that entered into her 
everyday life, noting with unsparing fidelity and 
remarkable literary skill all the aspirations, 
emotions, and passing phases of her highly strung 
and morbid nature. She devoted herself at first to 
music, with the idea that she might electrify the 
world as a great singer, but when the pulmonary 
affection, that was ultimately to prove fatal, im¬ 
paired her voice, she took to painting with such 
success as to get her work admitted to the Salon. 
With occasional intermissions her journal was con¬ 
tinued almost to the day of her death, on October 
31st, 1884. The manuscript was entrusted to M. 
Theuriet with a view to publication, and after a 
delay of some six years was given to the world. No 
book in recent times has produced a more startling 
effect. The workings of a human soul had never- 
been laid so bare since Rousseau wrote his Con¬ 
fessions, and the gravest divines and moralists found 


matter therein for reflection. Subsequent criticism 
suggests a doubt as to the complete sincerity of 
the author and the amount of editing which her 
pages have received; but in whatever proportions 
art and nature, fact and fiction may be blended, 
this so-called autobiography must be regarded as a 
deeply interesting literary production. 

Basic Steel, a steel produced by a modified 
Bessemer process (q.v.), and having the advantage 
over the ordinary method that pig iron containing 
phosphorus may be employed for "its manufacture. 
The important point of difference between the two 
methods is that the Basic-Bessemer converter is 
lined with a combination of hard-burnt magnesian 
limestone and anhydrous tar. This resists the ex¬ 
tremely high temperature attained during the 
blowing, and effects the elimination of the 
phosphorus from the molten metal. The lining of 
the ordinary Bessemer converter is siliceous. 
[Bessemer Process.] 

Basidiomycetes, a series of the higher fungi. 
They live on dead organic matter, and are made up 
of felted hyphal threads. No sexual process is 
known, and it has apparently been suppressed. 
[Apogamy.] They bear spores, known as basidio- 
spores, generally four together, at the apex of cells 
called basidia. These basidia form part of a layer 
known as the hymenium , which is either on the 
surface, as in the order Hymenomycetes, which in¬ 
cludes the mushrooms, or lining the interior, as in 
the Casteromycetes , the puff-balls. The gelatinous 
Tremellini form a third order in this series. 

Basil, Saint, the Great, was born at Caesarea 
about 330 A.D., and belonged to a distinguished 
family, his brothers Gregory of Nyssa, Peter of 
Sebaste, and Naucratius being famous in the annals 
of the Eastern Church. He at first devoted himself 
to forensic studies at Constantinople and Athens, but 
in 357 he was baptised and took to the most ascetic 
form of Christianity, travelling all over the East to 
learn the practices of the hermits. In 365 he was 
ordained at Caesarea, and temporarily retiring into 
the wildest parts of Pontus, started the first monastic 
community in the East. In 370 he succeeded 
Eusebius as bishop of Caesarea, and found himself 
severely pressed by the Emperor Valens to adopt 
Arianism, but he resisted even threats of death, 
and his firmness won for him respect and freedom 
from molestation till his death in 379. He left 
several works of interest, e.y. Ascetica , Be Spiritu 
Sancti, his Liturgy , in which music received atten¬ 
tion, and his correspondence with his life-long 
friend Gregory Nazianzen. 

Other Basils attained eminence in the Church, as 
Basil, the first bishop of Ancyra, a semi-Aryan, 
336-360; Basil, the mystic, who was burnt alive by 
Alexius Comnenus in 1118 ; and Basil of Thessalo- 
nica (Ascholius), the friend of St. Ambrose, who 
baptised Theodosius and died in 384. 

Basil I. was born of humble stock near Adria- 
nople in 813. He became a soldier, and going to 
Constantinople was noticed by the Emperor 
Michael, who promoted him ultimately to a share 







Basil. 


( 358 ) 


Basingstoke. 


in the throne, but finding him censorious resolved to 
kill him. Basil, however, turned the tables on him, 
put him to death, and reigned alone until 886. 

Basil, a name applied to species of the genus 
Ocimum, a member of the order Labiatse, natives 
of India, but grown in England as pot-herbs since 
the sixteenth century. In this genus the flowers 
are in verticillasters, forming an interrupted ter¬ 
minal raceme ; the posterior sepal is large, rounded, 
and decurrent; the whole calyx deflexed after 
flowering; the corolla is short, its lower lip flat, 
and the four stamens are bent down on this lip. 
The chief species are 0. basilicum , sweet or common 
basil; and O. minimum, bush basil. 

Basilica (Greek basilike, royal), originally a hall 
used for the sittings of the courts under the later 
Roman Republic and the Empire; the name has 
either reference to the existence of similar buildings 
under the Greek kings who succeeded Alexander 
the Great, or is derived from the official residence 
of the “ Archon Basileus,” who was judge in certain 
cases, at Athens. These halls were also used as 
business exchanges, and as promenades. After the 
adoption of Christianity the model they presented 
was followed in church building. Thus the nave, 
the aisles, the narthex or vestibule, and the apse are 
all features of the basilica at Pompeii; the latter 
representing the tribunal or part devoted to the 
judges. Twelve of the old churches of Rome are 
still called basilicas, that of the Lateran being the 
most famous, and the churches of St. Peter and of 
St. Paolo fuori le Mure in that city were originally 
of this type. Most of Sir Christopher Wren’s 
churches are basilican in character. 

Basilicata, now called Potenza, a province in 
the S. of Italy, with a coast-line on the Gulf of 
Taranto, and a smaller extent to the W. on the 
Gulf of Policastro. It is bounded by Calabria and 
Principato to the S. and W., and by Capitanata, 
Terra di Bari, and Otranto to the N. and E. It 
has an area of 4,120 square miles, and though it is 
generally mountainous, the valleys are fertile and 
produce wine, maize, linen, hemp, cotton, tobacco, 
and silk, being well watered by the Bradano, 
Basento, and other small rivers. Great numbers 
of sheep, goats, and swine are reared. Chief towns, 
Potenza, Melfi, Francavilla, Rionero, and Tursi. 

Basilicon (Greek royal), a name given to a 
class of ointments containing yellow wax, resin, 
and olive oil, and other ingredients, used for burns, 
scalds, blistered surfaces, etc. 

Basilides, a Syrian gnostic who flourished in 
Alexandria about 120 a.d., but of whose doctrines 
nothing is known save through the contradictory 
accounts of Irenaeus and Hippolytus. He appears 
to have built up a system of abstract theology in 
which the God of the Jews occupied a very inferior 
position, being, according to the first account, 
antagonistic to the higher spiritualities, and, 
according to the second, subordinate to two loftier 
divinities. But in either case the Son—represent¬ 
ing the Nous—was the revealer to mankind of 
truth and salvation. 


Basilisk, any lizard of the genus Basiliscus, 
differing from the Iguanas in having no throat pouch 
or thigh pores, in the presence of a dilatable mem¬ 
branous sac on the top of the head, a continuous 
fin-like crest, capable of elevation or depression, 
along the back, and a similar one along the tail. 
They are lively, active animals, partly arboreal and 
partly aquatic, only resembling the mythic basilisk 
in their strange form, to which they owe their name. 
The Hooded Basilisk (B. mitratus) from Central 
America is about two feet long, inclusive of the 
tail, which is considerably longer than the body. 
The general hue is brown, marked with dark zigzag 
bands, and fading into white beneath. B. amboi- 
nensis, upwards of three feet long, found in the 
islands of the Indian Archipelago, is green, marked 
with white lines on the head, brown on the back 
and tail, and silvery white beneath. 

The story of the mythic basilisk probably origin¬ 
ated in some highly-coloured account of an African 
serpent (possibly JYaja haje, see Cobra). Pliny 
describes it as “ of the greatness of not more than 
three fingers, and remarkable for a white spot like 
a diadem on its head. It drives away all other 
serpents by its hissing. . . . It kills the shrubs, 
scorches up the green herb, and splits the rocks.” 
It was believed that if speared by a horseman its 
poison passed through the weapon and killed the 
horse and its rider. But Lucan ( Pharsalia , ix. 828.) 
says that the horseman might escape death by 
promptly cutting off his right hand. Its blood was 
reputed efficacious against sorcery, and the only 
animal against which it was powerless was the 
weasel. Basilisks were said to be produced from 
the eggs of old cocks hatched under serpents or 
toads. In the middle ages the ideas of authors 
about the basilisk were modified somewhat, for 
Aldrovandus figures it as having an almost human 
head crowned, wattled, and with a recurved beak, 
a stout body, eight legs, and a snake-like tail. 
Specimens were exhibited “ contrived out of the 
skins of thornbacks, skaits, and maids,” and Sir 
Thomas Browne tells us that he “ caused some to be 
thus contrived out of the same fishes.” 

Basim, or Bassim, a town and district in Berar, 
British India, being part of the territory assigned 
by the Nizam, and go'verned by a commissioner. 

Basin, a term commonly used in geology for a 
region in which the rocks are folded into a centro- 
clinal, all dipping downwards towards a central de¬ 
pression, or into a synclinal in which they dip 
towards a line of depression. Our British coal¬ 
fields owe their preservation to such folds affecting 
the coal-measures, and such underlying rocks as 
the millstone grit, carboniferous limestone and old 
red sandstone, and artesian wells (q.v.) are ren¬ 
dered possible by similar folds, as in the Artois, 
London, Paris, Southampton, and Vienna basins. 

Basingstoke, a market town and municipal 
borough of Hampshire, 45^ miles from London on 
the South-Western Railway, and connected by 
canal with the Wey and Thames. The church of 
St. Michael dates from the sixteenth century. 
There is a considerable trade in corn, malt, and 





Basipodite. 


( 359 ) 


Basrah. 


agricultural produce. Basing House, two miles 
distant, was defended by the Marquis of Win¬ 
chester against the Parliament until captured and 
destroyed by Cromwell in 1645. 

Basipodite, the name of one of the joints of 
the limbs of such higher Crustacea as the crab ; it is 
the joint nearest but one to the body. 

Baskerville, John, born in Worcestershire in 
1706, began life as a writing-master in Birmingham, 
and taking to manufacturing made a fortune. In 
1750 he turned printer and type-founder, producing 
some remarkably beautiful editions of the classics, 
which are the more valuable as the number was 
limited. He died in 1775. 

Basking 1 Shark ( Selache maxima ), the sole 
species of the genus, and the largest shark from 
the North Atlantic, a full-grown specimen being 
more than thirty feet long. These sharks are quite 
harmless unless attacked, and are taken on the 
west coast of Ireland for the oil extracted from the 
liver, a large fish yielding from a ton to a ton and 
a half. At certain seasons they are gregarious, 
and from their habit of lying motionless on the 
surface of the water their popular name is derived, 
as well as that of “ sun-fish,” by which they are 
known on some parts of the Irish and Welsh 
coasts. They are sometimes called “ sail-fish,” 
from their swimming slowly with the first dorsal 
fin out of the water. 

Basle. [Basel.] 

Basnages, Jacques, was born at Rouen in 
1653, and educated for the Protestant ministry at 
Geneva, where he evinced great capacity for lan¬ 
guages. He served as a pastor at Rouen till the 
Protestants were expelled, and settling then in 
Rotterdam exercised much influence in politics. 
Voltaire had a high opinion of his abilities. He 
became later on pastor at the Hague, and died in 
1723. His works include a History of the Reformed 
Churches , a treatise on Jewish Antiquities , and a 
Dissertation on Duels. 

Basommatophora, the sub-order of land and 
freshwater univalve shells (Gastropoda) in which 
the eyes are situated at the base of the tentacles 
(Stylommatophora) ; it includes the families 
Auriculidce and Limnceidce with Limnceus and 
Planorbis, the commonest of the English pond- 
snails. 

Basque Provinces, The (Spanish Provincias 
Vasconyadas ), a triangular district extending over 
2,958 square miles in the north of Spain, and em¬ 
bracing the three provinces of Biscay, Guipuzcoa, 
and Alava. In race, language, habits, and political 
privileges the inhabitants differ considerably from 
the rest of the Spanish population. Their country, 
formerly constituting the kingdom of Guipuzcoa, 
is mountainous, picturesque, and wooded, with rich 
pastures, and fertile, well-cultivated valleys. It 
produces cereals, flax, timber, sheep, and cattle, 
and abounds in iron, tin, copper, marble, etc. The 
chief towns are Bilbao, St. Sebastian, and Vittoria. 
France has also a Basque element comprised within 
the arrondissements of Bayonne and Mauleon. 


Basque Roads, an anchorage to the south¬ 
ward of La Rochelle, and between the Isle of Oleron 
and the mainland. Here, between April 11th and 
April 14th, 1809, Captain Lord Cochrane (afterwards 
Lord Dundonald), of the Imperieuse , with other 
captains—all under the nominal orders of Admiral 
Lord Gambier—destroyed with great gallantry, and 
amid great difficulties, a number of French men-of- 
war commanded by Vice-Admiral Allemand. The 
enemy’s loss would have been very much larger had 
Lord Gambier permitted the operations to be con¬ 
tinued in accordance with Lord Cochrane’s plans. 

Basques (Eskualdun), a people of the Western 
Pyrenees, still distinguished from their Spanish and 
French neighbours by their speech, which is the 
only non-Aryan language surviving in Western 
Europe. They are the Vascones of Latin writers; 
whence the terms Gascony, Biscay, and their pre¬ 
sent Spanish name, Vascongados. The Basques are 
supposed to be the direct descendants of the ancient 
Iberians, and the geographical nomenclature shows 
that their language was formerly current throughout 
the Iberian Peninsula and Aquitania. They still 
number about 120,000 in French, and 500,000 in 
Spanish territory (Labourd, La Soule, and Lower 
Navarra in France, Upper Navarra, Alava, Guipuz¬ 
coa, and Biscaya in Spain); but the type has been 
so completely assimilated to that of the surround¬ 
ing Aryans that they would not be ethnically 
distinguished from ordinary South Europeans 
but for their language, which differs entirely 
from all other known forms of speech. This 
language is highly agglutinating, and even in¬ 
corporating — that is, approaches in its structure 
both to the Georgian, Lesghian, and other Cauca¬ 
sian tongues, and to the poly synthetic languages 
of America, while differing totally from them in 
its vocabulary and phonetics. It is spoken in six 
marked dialects, that of Guipuzcoa being considered 
the softest and purest; but it is slowly yielding 
to the encroachments of French, and especially of 
Spanish, its use being officially prohibited in the 
schools, churches, and courts of justice throughout 
the Basque-speaking Spanish provinces. Hence, 
most of the rising generation are bilingual, speaking 
both Basque and Spanish in the south and Basque 
and French in the north. As a race the Basques 
are distinguished by a fine physique, well-propor¬ 
tioned figures, considerable intelligence, great 
energy and activity, with a singular aptitude for 
the most varied pursuits—navigation, agriculture, 
the civil and military professions. 

Basrah, Bassora, Balsora, or Bassorah 
(Arab. Frontier ), a town in the pasha!ic of Bagdad, 
Turkey in Asia, on the west bank of the Shat-el- 
Arab, 70 miles from its mouth, was founded by the 
Caliph Omar in 636, and taken by the Turks in 
1668. Its walls of sun-dried brick enclose within 
their circumference of 8 or 9 miles gardens, groves, 
and rice fields, irrigated by canals, as well as the 
bazaars and dwellings, several mosques, the 
governor’s palace, and the English factory. Though 
ill-built and dirty, the place is a wealthy centre of 
trade by ship and caravan with the whole of the 







Bas Relief. 


( 360 ) 


Basset Hound. 


East. Piece goods, muslins, silks, drugs, spices, 
indigo, coffee, dates, metals, pearls, horses, and 
every conceivable product pass through its marts. 
Arabs and Persians enter largely into the 
population. 

Bas Relief (Fr. has , low), or Basso Rilievo, 
a form of carving in which the figures project only 
slightly from their background. [ See Alto Ri¬ 
lievo.] Mezzo Rilievo ( [half-relief) is inter¬ 
mediate between these two. 

Bass (Ital. basso, low), in music, the lower or 
grave part of the musical system, as distinguished 
from the higher or acute (treble) part. Practically 
middle C marks the division. The term is also 
applied to the lowest or deepest male voices. In 
this sense there are four kinds: the baryton, the 
basso cantante, the basso profondo, and the ex¬ 
ceptionally deep contra basso, said to be peculiar 
to Russia. The Double Bass, or contra bass, is the 
deepest toned of stringed instruments. 

Bass, Basse, the popular name of any fish of 
the genus Labrax, of the family Percidm [Perch], 
distinguished from the true perches by the opercu¬ 
lar bones being covered with scales, the spines on 
the operculum, and by the minute closely-set teeth 
on the tongue. They have two dorsal fins, the first 
with nine spines; the anal generally with three. Bass 
are common on the European and Atlantic coasts, 
and in the fresh waters of America. There are 
three European species, almost exclusively marine, 
of which the best known is Labrax lupus, the 
common bass, sea-dace, or white salmon—known 
to the Greeks by its generic, and to the Romans 
by its specific, name. It is generally from twelve 
to eighteen inches long, though much larger speci¬ 
mens are fairly common. In form it resembles the 
perch ; upper parts dusky blue, passing into silvery 
white on the sides and belly, fins pale brown. It 
is an extremely voracious fish, and was formerly 
in high repute for the table, though now it is 
little esteemed. It is more abundant on the south 
coasts of England and Ireland than farther north, 
and ranges to France, Portugal, and the Mediterra¬ 
nean. L. lineatus, the rock-fish or striped bass of 
North America, closely resembles the common bass, 
but is somewhat larger, and marked by seven or 
eight longitudinal black lines on a silvery ground- 
tint. [Wreck-Fish.] 

Bassano, a town in the province of Vicenza, 
Italy, on the river Brenta. It is well built, and 
surrounded by walls, one of the gates being the 
work of Palladio. Some good pictures exist in its 
35 churches. Francesco, Giacomo, and other 
founders of the Venetian school were born here, 
and Bartolozzi and Volpato were trained in the 
school of engraving. Napoleon defeated Wurmser 
at this spot in 1796, and it conferred a dukedom on 
General Maret. Woollens, silk, and paper are 
manufactured, and the neighbourhood produces 
good wine and fruit. 

Bassano, Giacomo da Ponte, born in 1510, 
taking his surname from his native place. Trained 
by his father and influenced by Titian, he became 


an admirable painter of landscapes with figures, 
historical subjects, etc., his works showing good 
draughtsmanship and fine colouring. Though he 
is said to have been prolific, few pictures of his 
are known to exist. The Nativity at Bassano is 
the finest. He died at Venice in 1592, and two of 
his sons distinguished themselves in the same art. 

Bassaricyon, a genus of Procyonidm, with 
two species (B. yabbi, from Costa Rica, and B. 
alleni, from Ecuador). In appearance they resem¬ 
ble the Kinkajou (q.v.), but the skull and teeth 
are very like those of the Raccoon (q.v.). 

Bassaris, a genus of Procyonidm, formerly 
placed with the Civets, with which their structure 
has little in common. The two species ( B. astutcC, 
from the south of the United States and Mexico, 
and B. sumiclirasti, from Central America) are 
closely allied to the Raccoons, but of slenderer 
proportions and more elegant form. B. astuta, the 
caxomixle, is about a yard long, of which the tail 
is about two-fifths ; the fur is brown, and the tail 
marked with rings. This animal is often kept as 
a pet by Californian and Mexican miners, and is 
said to be a good mouser. 

Bassein, a port on an island 27 miles north of 
Bombay, British India. It is now of little import¬ 
ance, but in 1531 was one of the early Portuguese 
stations. Captured by the Mahrattas in 1750, it 
was ceded to the British in 1802 by the famous 
Treaty of Bassein. 

Bassein, or Bassain, a district and its capital 
in Pegu, Farther India, under the chief com¬ 
missioner for Burmah. The former has an area of 
8,954 square miles, and a coast-line on the east of 
the Bay of Bengal. A mountain range stretches 
from N. to S. It is watered by the Irawadi, the 
delta of which produces heavy crops of rice. The 
town is on the Bassein river, a channel of the 
Irawadi, and does a considerable trade with 
England, to which it has belonged since 1852. 

Basse-Terre, the capital and chief port of 
St. Kitts, British West Indies, situated on the west 
coast at the mouth of a river; it has a fortified 
harbour, and does a good trade. 

Basse-Terre, the west island of Guadeloupe, 
French West Indies, and the capital of the colony 
which stands thereon. The town is diminishing in 
importance, having very bad anchorage. 

Basset Horn, a kind of tenor clarinet, with 
additional keys enabling it to reach the deep C 
(sounding F) in the bass clef. It has been made 
in various curved shapes for convenience of hand¬ 
ling. Mozart and Mendelssohn, especially the 
former, have written for it. 

Basset Hound, a breed of dogs closely allied 
to the Dachshund (q.v.). They may be smooth- 
or rough-coated, and both these forms may have 
crooked or straight legs. These dogs are fairly 
common in France, where they are used to track 
game, but they were only introduced into England 
about 1875. 





Bassompierre. 


( 361 ) 


Bast. 


Bassompierre, Francois de, was born in 
Lorraine in 1579 of noble family. Entering the 
service of Henry IV. he distinguished himself by 
his ability, wit, courage, and gallantry. In 1622 
he was made marshal, and subsequently went as 
ambassador to Spain, Switzerland, and England. 
He played a part in the siege of Rochelle. In the 
reign of Louis XI1L he opposed Richelieu, and con¬ 
sequently was imprisoned (1681) for twelve years in 
the Bastille, where he destroyed his thousands of 
love-letters and composed his highly interesting- 
memoirs. He died in 1646. 

Bassoon, a wood wind musical instrument of 
low pitch, whose sounds are produced through a 
double reed. It is doubtless of great antiquity, 
and has been known in one form or another for a 
long period under the names of buisine, buzaine, 
courtal, bommard, bombard, or wait. The primitive 
instrument is supposed to have been an improve¬ 
ment of the deep drone of the bagpipe (q.v.). One 
of the names for a pipe of deep tone among the 
Egyptians is zumviarah-be-soan , according to E. 
W. Lane; and the spelling of the word in early 
times not only describes the character of the tone 
but also indicates its Eastern origin. 

The improvement of the bassoon in its present 
form has been stated to be due to Afranio, a canon 
of Ferrara, in 1539. It is called phagoti by the 
inventor's nephew, who described the invention in 
a work published in the above-mentioned year. 
The name fagotto , by which the instrument is 
known in Italy, means a bundle or faggot, from a 
fancied idea that the bassoon resembled a bundle 
of sticks. The German term fagott is derived 
from the Italian. The French and Italians of 
modern times call it by the name Basson, from 
the sound produced. From the time of Afranio to 
the present the instrument has not varied much 
in its construction. The best are by French 
makers. 

The compass of the bassoon extends to nearly 
three octaves, that is to say, from low B flat to 
treble A flat. 

Sipipi! 

This compass includes all the intermediate semi¬ 
tones, except the lowest B natural and C sharp. 

g=^=ii 

But these notes and others can be obtained from 
instruments of special construction. 

The bassoon is used in the military reed band, as 
well as in the orchestra. In the latter it serves as 
the true bass of the oboe, but it is capable of ex¬ 
cellent independent effects, such as appear in the 
Pastoral Symphony of Beethoven, the “ Clown’s 
March ” in the Midsummer Night's Bream music 
of Mendelssohn, the scene of the resurrection of 
the nuns in Meyerbeer's Roberto il Biarolo, in 
Handel’s Saul , Boieldieu’s Bame Blanche , Gounod’s 


Faust , and other works. It was said to have been 
introduced into the orchestra by Cambert in his 
Pomone, 1671, to augment the tone 
of the basses, but subsequent com¬ 
posers have exalted it into an in¬ 
strument with individual powers. 

The double bassoon (It. contra 
fagotto , Fr. contre basson, Ger. con¬ 
tra fagott or doppel fagott■) gives 
out sounds an octave lower than 
the ordinary bassoon. It was for¬ 
merly employed in military bands, 
and appears to have been introduced 
by Handel in his concertos about 
the year 1739, when a pair of these 
instruments was made by Stanesby, 
and occasionally employed until the 
beginning of the present century. 
Anewly-constructed instrument was 
employed at the Handel Festival at 
the Crystal Palace in 1871. Haydn, 
in his Creation, Beethoven, in many 
works, notably in the C minor 
Symphony , Mendelssohn, in his bassoon. 
overture The Hebrides , and Sulli¬ 
van, in several of his compositions, employ the 
double bassoon with great effect. 

Bassora Gum, a tough white gum resembling 
trayacantli, and sometimes called hog tragacanth; 
specific gravity, 1-36. It contains a mucilaginous 
acid, called bassorin, closely allied to Arabic acid. 

Bassorah. [Basra.] 

Bass Rock, a precipitous islet of basaltic 
formation, 350 feet high, at the mouth of the Firth 
of Forth, a mile from the coast of East Lothian. 
It was bought by Charles I. from the Lauder family, 
and used for some years as a prison for Covenanters. 
The adherents of James II. held it for some time 
against William III. It was then dismantled and 
passed into private hands, being of no value except 
for the eggs and feathers of sea-birds that swarm 
there in the breeding seasons. 

Bass Strait, the strait which separates Van 
Diemen’s Land or Tasmania from Australia, so 
named from the discoverer (1798), a surgeon in the 
British navy. Its breadth is 150 miles, and it con¬ 
tains a few islets rich in guano, and occupied by a 
small English colony. 

Bast, or Phloem, the outer part of the fibro- 
vascular bundle in the higher (vascular) plants, 
consisting of tough thickened fibres ( hard bast ) and 
of sieve-tubes (the vessels of the bast) and cambi- 
form tissue ( soft bast). It is formed either directly 
from the procambial strand of cells, as in the closed 
bundles of leaves, and of the stems of monocotyle¬ 
dons, ferns, etc. (primary bast), or by the continued 
activity of the cambium, as in the open bundles of 
the exogenous stem ( secondary bast). With the 
exception of cotton, all important vegetable textile 
substances are derived from this tissue, whether in 
the stem, as in hemp, flax, and linden, or in the 
leaf, as in Piassaba, Manilla hemp, New Zealand 
flax, etc. The name is popularly applied mostly to 
the inner bark of the linden, imported, in mats, 


























Bastard. 


( 362 ) 


Bastiat. 


from Russia. Cuba bast is the product of the 
malvaceous Paritium elatuvi. See also Raffia. 

Bastard. A bastard is a child not born in 
lawful wedlock, as distinguished from the legiti¬ 
mate offspring of married persons. The term 
“ natural ” is also applied to all children born out 
of wedlock. 

By the English law a child born during the 
marriage of its parents is legitimate, even if the 
child be begotten before matrimony. The fact of 
birth after marriage is conclusive of legitimacy. In 
Scotland the subsequent marriage of the parents 
legitimatises ipsa facto previous- offspring. 

An illegitimate child, or bastard, is regarded for 
most purposes as the son or daughter of nobody, 
and is therefore not heir-at-law to any of his 
reputed ancestors. He is entitled to no distributive 
share of the personal property of his parents if they 
die intestate ; and under a will he cannot take under 
the general description of “ son, daughter, or child,” 
by which legitimate children alone are presumed to 
be designated. But he can take under a will made 
even before he was born, if he is therein particularly 
described. He may acquire property, and thus be¬ 
come the founder of a fresh inheritance, though 
none of his lineal descendants can claim through 
him the property of his reputed kin. If he dies 
without wife, issue, or will, his lands and goods 
escheat to the Crown or Lord of the Fee. In the 
former event it is usual for the Crown to resign its 
claim to the greater part of the property on the 
petition of some of his nearest quasi-kindred. There 
is a special clause in the Savings’ Bank Act allow¬ 
ing the sum invested by a depositor (being illegiti¬ 
mate and dying intestate) to be paid to such person 
or persons as would be entitled to the same pro¬ 
vided the depositor had been legitimate. 

A bastard has no surname until he has acquired 
one by reputation, and in the meantime he is pro¬ 
perly called by that of his mother ; and she is, 
generally speaking, entitled to the custody of the 
child, notwithstanding that the putative father is 
able and willing to maintain it in better circum¬ 
stances. The wishes of the child will, however, be 
consulted. 

The putative father is liable to contribute to the 
support of his illegitimate child to an extent not 
exceeding 5s. per week, under what is known as an 
“ affiliation order ” (obtained from the magistrates, 
on proof of parentage), until the child arrives at 
the age of 13 years—or, at the discretion of the 
magistrates, 16 years—or obtains a settlement in 
its own right. 

The rules of law as to bastardy have been 
hitherto mainly framed with reference to the Poor 
Law, for the purpose of saving the public (that is, 
the parish) from the charge of maintaining a bas¬ 
tard child. It is for this object the inquiries are 
instituted as to who has begotten the child and 
should contribute to its support; and for the 
purpose of settling disputes between parishes as 
to liability for its maintenance, it has long been 
decided that, for the purpose of settlement, a 
bastard shall be considered its mother’s child. 
But the old rules of law as to the incapacities of 


bastards still subsist, and according to those rules 
a bastard has neither father, mother, sister, or 
brother, or other remoter kin. An English bastard 
is, therefore, the founder of a new stock: the 
creator of a family whose pedigree can never be 
traced beyond him, a distinction which other people 
cannot have. 

The Roman law required children to be begotten 
in matrimony in order to be legitimate. The English 
law does not concern itself as to the conception, 
but only as to the birth, which must be in wedlock. 
The old Roman law required on the man’s part in 
intercourse with a woman a “ matrimonial mind.” 
The English law does not care with what mind the 
intercourse is initiated; it is altogether indifferent 
about the origin of the connection. The old system 
combines with a clear practical rule for determining 
the father, an elevated notion of the dignity of the 
marriage connection. The English system lays 
down a clear rule for determining paternity, sub¬ 
ject to which it is regardless as to the freedom of 
ante-nuptial sexual connection. The later Roman 
law gave a man the power of legitimatising his 
illegitimate child, which the English law does not. 

In Scotland one important variation to the law of 
England has been noticed, viz. that the subsequent 
marriage of the parents legitimatises their children 
born before marriage. Another is that the mother 
has the legal custody of her illegitimate child only 
until the age of 10 years, the father being bound 
for maintenance up to that age, when he becomes 
entitled to the custody of the child. 

Bastia, a fortified port on the E. coast of 
Corsica. It was founded in 1383 by the Genoese, 
and was taken by the French in 1553. Rising in an 
amphitheatre it is picturesque, but the streets are 
narrow and dirty. The harbour, commanded by the 
citadel, is difficult to enter, but does the largest trade 
of any in the island, exporting wine, oil, fruits, skins, 
and coral. Law courts, schools, hospitals, a theatre, 
and all the other institutions of a large French 
town are found here. 

Bastiat, Frederic, the son of a Bayonne 
merchant, born in 1801, spent a few years in busi¬ 
ness, but retired early to a small country estate at 
Mugron, where he devoted himself to the study of 
economical questions. Between 1832 and 1844 he 
published several pamphlets on local subjects, but 
the Free Trade movement in England attracted his 
attention, and he at once adopted the doctrines of 
Cobden with zeal, writing his Sophismes ficouo- 
miques, and Cobden et La Liyue , which stirred 
violently the minds of French thinkers. He 
started Free Trade associations in his country, and 
also a paper, the Libre-Echanyc. He was gaining 
ground when the revolution of 1848 brought him 
face to face with the opposing influences of 
socialism. Though hard work was affecting his 
health he issued a series of telling essays, in which 
he proved socialism to be tainted by the errors of 
protection, and in 1850 he brought out the first 
volume of a constructive treatise, Les Harmonies 
Economiques, intended to set forth his idea that 
human nature, if allowed free play, leads to har¬ 
monious combination of interests, and not to the 





Bastide. 


( 3G3 ) 


Bat. 


system of injustice and inequality that socialists 
would sweep away. But his malady compelled him 
to seek a change of climate in Italy, and he died at 
Rome at the end of the year. 

Bastide, Jules, born in 1800 of respectable 
French family, attached himself early to the 
Liberal party, and assisted in carrying out the 
revolution of 1830. He then opposed himself to 
the Orleans dynasty, and for his share in the events 
of 1832 had to fly to England. Returning to Paris 
he began as a journalist to advocate Christian 
democracy. After 1848 he was for a time, con¬ 
jointly with Lamartine, minister of foreign affairs, 
but at the December elections withdrew into private 
life, and occupied himself with writing on French 
history. He died in 1879. 

Bastien-Lepage, Jules, was born at Dam- 
villers in 1848, and soon abandoned his desk in a 
public office for the brush and palette. At the 
Beaux Arts he became a pupil of Cabanel, and was 
drawn towards the Impress ionistc school. In 1873 
he exhibited Au Pr intemps with marked success, 
which was repeated next year when he produced La 
Chanson du Printemps and Portrait demon Grand- 
pere. He now gained a rapid hold on the public taste, 
not only in France but in England, the main features 
of his work being minutely accurate drawing and 
rich effects of colour. Jeanne d'Arc, Uh Mendiant , 
Le Pere Jacques, L'Amour du Village, and La Forge 
are among his best known pictures, and one of the 
latest, a portrait of the Prince of Wales, was shown 
in the Grosvenor Gallery. His constitution broke 
down prematurely and he died in 1885. 

Bastille (old French hastir, hatir, to build), 
in mediaeval France, a general term for a strong 
fortress, but the name was specially applied to the 
fortress in Paris at the Porte St. Antoine, built 
between 1370 and 1383, and afterwards used as a 
prison. The inmates were principally state 
prisoners, either awaiting trial or merely confined 
without trial during the king’s pleasure, by lettres dc 
cachet, often, in reality, for reasons of private enmity. 
At the outbreak of the French revolution on July 
14th, 1789, it was stormed by the populace, assisted 
by some troops with field-pieces who had frater¬ 
nised with them, and was destroyed next day. 4 he 
event is now commemorated by a bronze column 
on its site, surmounted by a gilt statue of Memory 
spreading her wings as though to fly away, and 
inscribed with the names of 65 persons who took 
part in the assault, which may be regarded as the 
first event of the revolution. 

Bastinado (Spanish haston, a stick), the Euro¬ 
pean name for a beating, usually on the soles of 
the feet, sometimes on the back, which is a 
common form of punishment throughout the East. 

Bastion (old French hastir, to build), a pro¬ 
jecting outwork of a fortress consisting of two 
flanks connected by two faces which meet at an 
acute angle (called the salient angle). Its object 
is to command all the ground immediately in front 
of the fortification, and bring artillery fire to bear 
on assailants. Detatched bastions, introduced by 


Vauban, are separated from the work they protect 
by a ditch. [Fortification.] 

Basutos, an eastern branch of the Beclmana 
race, from whom they were separated by the Boers 
moving from Cape Colony across the Orange river, 
about 1835. The Basutos have all been converted 
to Christianity by French Protestant missionaries, 
and at present form a flourishing civilised nation in 
Basutoland, which since 1884 has been a British 
Crown colony. Most of the arable land has been 
brought under cultivation, good roads opened in all 
directions, agricultural machinery introduced from 
England, schools founded in all the communes, and 
large sums voluntarily raised for educational pur¬ 
poses. The land already yields sufficient for an 
annual export trade to Cape Colony, valued at over 
£200,000. In the Bechuana branch of the Bantu 
language the prefix ha answers to the Zulu-Kafir 
ama, as in Ama-Zulu, Ama-Xosa, etc.; hence 
Ba-Suto = the Suto ( paunclied ) people ; while 
the land is Le-Suto; the language, Se-Suto; and 
the paramount chief, Mo-Suto. The language— 
which is rich, sonorous, and poetic—has been 
reduced to writing by the missionaries, and the 
natives themselves now freely use it in corre¬ 
spondence and a few local periodicals. Chief 
missionary stations: Maseru (the capital), Leribe, 
Cornet Spruit, Berea, Mafeking, and Quthing; 
schools, 113; attendance, 6,500; area of territory, 
9,700 sq. miles; population (1890), over 200,000. 

Bat, the popular name for any individual of the 
order Chiroptera. Down to the end of the seven¬ 
teenth century the zoological position of these 
animals was little understood ; and so late as 1681 
Grew, in the Catalogue of the Museum of the Royal 
Society, says that they stand “ in the rear of beasts 
and in the front of birds,” which added nothing to 
men’s knowledge, for it was only a formal phrasing 
of the popular names “ flittermouse,” i.e. the flying 
or fluttering mouse, and “ reremouse,” from A.S. 
hreremits —the mouse that flaps (its wings). Two 
years after this Ray fully recognised their mam¬ 
malian character; and Linnaeus (1707-78) placed 
them in his chief order Primates (q.v.), which also 
contained the lemurs, the apes, and man. Modern 
writers, however, do not admit the bats to such a 
high zoological rank, and they are now regarded as 
INSECTIVORA (q.v.), modified for flight, one of the 
surviving intermediate forms between the two orders 
being Galeopithecus, the Flying Lemur (q.v.). 

The fore limbs are much longer than the hinder 
ones, and the digits of the former, with the excep¬ 
tion of the pollex or thumb, are extremely elongated. 
The volar membranes (or those employed for flight) 
are three: (1) The ante-brachial membrane, extend¬ 
ing from the shoulder to the base of the thumb ; 
(2) the wing membrane stretched over the digits, 
carried along the side, and reaching to the feet ; 
and (3) the interfemoral membranes, between the 
hind limbs. Well-developed clavicles are always 
present, and the radius cannot be rotated on the 
ulna. The bones though slender are not pneumatic. 

Bats appear first in the Upper Eocene, and the 
oldest known fossil form is “ very similar to existing 
European bats,” so that the period of divergence of 







Bat. 


( 364 ) 


Batavia. 


the Chiroptera from the Insectivora must be very 
remote. The living forms are universally distributed 
over the tropical and temperate regions of both hemi¬ 
spheres, and fall into two natural groups or sub¬ 
orders. 

I. Megachiroptera. Fruit-eating bats, gene¬ 
rally of large size, limited to the tropical and sub¬ 
tropical parts of the Old World. The crowns of 
the molar teeth are marked with a longitudinal 
groove ; index finger with three phalanges, the last 
phalanx generally armed with a claw ; pyloric end 
of the stomach generally much elongated ; tail, 
when present, inferior to, but not contained in, the 
interfemoral membrane. This sub-order consists of 
a single family, Pteropidse. [Flying Fox, Fruit 
Bat.] 

II. Microchiroptera. Bats ranging over the 
tropical and temperate regions of both hemispheres, 
living for the most part on insects, though some 
are fruit-eating, and two species are known to suck 
the blood of higher animals. [Vampire-Bat.] They 
are much smaller than the bats of the first sub-order, 
and have the crowns of the molars with tubercles or 
cusps ; generally one rudimentary phalanx in the 
index finger, which is never terminated by a claw; 
stomach simple; tail, when present, contained in the 
interfemoral membrane, or appearing on its upper 
surface. The sub-order is divided into two groups 
or alliances. [Emballonurine Alliance, Ves- 

PERTILIONINE ALLIANCE.] 

Bats are small nocturnal or crepuscular mammals, 
furnished with true wings, and having the power of 
flight. They generally fly abroad in the morning 
and evening twilight, and retire during the day to 
caves or crevices in the rocks, or to the inner parts 
of the roofs of barns or churches, where they sus¬ 
pend themselves by means of the hooked claws on 
their thumbs. Their senses are intensely acute, as 
was proved by some interesting but cruel experi¬ 
ments of Spallanzani on various species, towards 
the close of the eighteenth century. Their eyes are 
small and bead-like, and the proverb “ as blind as 
a bat ” must refer to the dazed condition of these 
animals when suddenly exposed to a glare of light, 
and not to their normal state in fitting environ¬ 
ment. Their ears are generally large and directed 
well forward, and they seem to have a special 
power of directing their flight in places so dark 
as to render the keenest vision useless. This power 
Cuvier thought was due to an exceptional develop¬ 
ment of the sense of touch in the volar membrane. 
His conclusion is now generally accepted; and 
later research shows that the wings of bats are very 
freely supplied with blood-vessels, and that these 
vessels have contractile walls, so that the circula¬ 
tion must be so active as to induce a condition 
closely akin to inflammation, and everyone who 
has suffered from a “ gathering ” knows how keenly 
inflammation heightens the sensibility of a part. 
The curious membranous appendages attached to 
the nose of many species doubtless serve the same 
purpose. [Leaf-nosed Bats.] When not used 
for flight the wings of the bat are folded up by the 
long fingers being drawn together, and up towards 
the fore-arm, and the wing membrane then forms 
leathery folds at the sides of the bod}'. In running 


or walking progress is effected by the action of the 
hind limbs and of the claws of the thumbs, which 
are placed on the ground. Doubtless it was from 
their appearance in this position that these animals 
derived their names of “ flittermouse ” and “ rere¬ 
mouse.” The teats, always two in number, are 
usually on the breast, sometimes on the sides. Some 
species are said to have them in the groin, but this 
is a mistake, for the nipple-like projections have 
been proved to be only warts. The reproductive 
organs in both sexes closely resemble those of the 
Primates (q.v.), a fact which influenced Linnaeus in 
his classification. The majority of the species 
hibernate. 

Batangas, a port of the island of Luzon in the 
Philippine group. It is a well-built town finely 
placed on a bay of the south coast, opening into the 
Strait of Mindoro, and commands a considerable 
trade. 

Batani, a large Afghan tribe, the so-called 
“ Jackals of the Vaziris,” in the district extending 
from the east slope of Mount Gabr to the Hisara 
Pass. Three main divisions: Tata (Pala), Dana, 
Uraspun, with about 40 khels altogether. 

Batavi, a branch of a German tribe, the 
Chatti, who settled before the time of Julius Cajsar 
on an old island formed by the Old Rhine, the 
Waal, the Maas, and the ocean. From Augustus’s 
time onward they were allies of the Romans, paying- 
no taxes, but furnishing auxiliary troops. In 
Vitellius’s reign, a.d 69, an unsuccessful rising 
took place among them, headed by Claudius 
Civilis. From them Holland takes its Latin name, 
Batavia. 

Batavia, two townships in the United States 
bear this name—(1) the capital of Genesee Co., 
New York ; (2) the capital of Claremont Co., Ohio. 

Batavia, the classical name for the country 
between the Rhine and the Waal, known also as 
Insula Batavorum , and forming now all or the 
greater part of Holland. 

Batavia, a port on the north coast of the island 
of Java, the capital of all Dutch territory in the 
Eastern Archipelago. It stands in a swampy plain 
at the head of a large bay, and is divided in two by 
the river Jacatra or Tjiliwong, which fills numerous 
canals intersecting the streets. The low-lying old 
town is extremely unhealthy, but the new quarter 
on higher ground affords a pleasant abode for 
Europeans and contains many fine buildings, in¬ 
cluding the government house, schools, hospitals, 
asylums, banks, etc. Several suburban villages 
extend beyond the town limits, and but small 
traces are left of the old ramparts. The harbour 
is not very good, as ships of much burthen cannot 
approach within a mile or two of the shore, but 
at Onrust, 6 miles distant, there is a large float¬ 
ing dock and facilities for making commercial 
basins. A railway has been made 40 miles inland, 
and tramways connect the different quarters. The 
population is very diversified, comprising Dutch, 
Javanese, Portuguese, Malays, Arabs, and China¬ 
men. Though Singapore is a powerful rival, 





Bat chian. 


( 365 ) 


Bath. 


Batavia does an enormous trade collecting exports 
from all the islands of the Archipelago, and dis¬ 
tributing to them imports from Europe, India, 
China, and elsewhere. The site was first occupied 
by the Javanese town of Sunda Colappa, then 
Jacatra took its place, and in 1619 the Dutch estab¬ 
lished their settlement. The British captured it in 
1811, but restored it at the peace of Paris. 

Bat chian, or Batshian, an island belonging 
to the Dutch in the Ternate group of the Molucca 
Archipelago. It has an area of about 900 sq. m., 
and is mountainous, but fertile, producing rice, 
sago, cocoa, and cloves. It was taken from the 
Spaniards in 1610. The capital, which has the same 
name, is in the interior. 

Bateleur Eagle ( TTelotarsus ecaudatus ), some¬ 
times called the Short-tailed Eagle, from the north¬ 
eastern and southern parts of Africa. It is about 
two feet long, general colour on upper surface 
black, with greenish-metallic gloss, tail brownish 
red, and an ash-grey band on wings. The name 
bateleur, which is French, and means “ a tumbler,” 
was given to the bird by Le Vaillant from its habit 
of turning somersaults in the air. 

Bateman, William, a native of Norwich, who 
enjoyed a high reputation for knowledge of canon 
and civil law, and rose to be bishop of that diocese. 
Edward III. employed him in many embassies. He 
founded Trinity Hall, Cambridge, 1347, and died at 
Avignon, 1355. 

Bath, a port in Maine, U.S.A., on the river 
Kennebec, 12 miles from the sea. Shipbuilding and 
fishing are the sources of a considerable prosperity. 
The place was incorporated as a city in 1850. 

Bath, the chief town of Somersetshire, is 
situated on the river Avon and the Great Western 
Railway ; 107 miles from London. Setting aside the 
mythical legend of King Bladud, it is first known in 
history in the 1st century a.d. as Aqua Solis, and 
numerous remains show that its mineral springs 
were familiar to the Romans. Offa founded an 
abbey here in 775, and Edgar was crowned in 973. 
The first charter was granted to the borough by 
Richard I., and it sent a member to Parliament in 
1297. It was not, however, till the 18th century 
that the chalybeate waters, which have a natural 
temperature of 117° to 120° F., began to be 
appreciated so highly for gouty, rheumatic, and 
hepatic disorders, and the patronage of royal and 
aristocratic sufferers made the place a resort of 
fashion. Streets of fine houses, built of the local 
freestone, rose crescent-wise on the hill to the right 
of the river, which was spanned by noble bridges. 
In 1771 the Assembly Rooms were completed, and 
since then a number of public institutions have 
come into existence, including the Guildhall, 
Literary Institute, and Sydney Gardens, the 
hospital, etc. The springs are six in number, the 
King’s being the oldest; and in the pump-room 
connected therewith “ Beau Nash ” from 1704 
to 1750 reigned supreme over the fashionable 
throng that met to dance, flirt, gamble, and get rid 
of their ailments. The scene has been described by 


many novelists. When the Continent became more 
accessible the popularity of Bath declined except 
as a place of residence. It has recently shown 
symptoms of revival. The abbey church, dating 
from 1499, and restored by Scott, is a handsome 
structure, and contains some interesting monu¬ 
ments. The grammar school was founded by 
Edward YI. The royal school for daughters of 
officers, the Bath college, and the Roman Catholic 
college are modern establishments. 

Bath gives its name to various articles:— Bath 
Brick is composed of the fine silicious sand of the 
river Parrett in Somersetshire, which is made into 
bricks at Bridgewater for convenience of carriage, 
and used for cleaning knives, etc. Bath Buns are 
larger and richer than the ordinary Bun (q.v.). 
Bath Chaps are the cheek or chojf of the 
pig, cured or smoked. Bath Chairs are small 
wheeled and hooded carriages used by invalids 
and others, usually drawn by a man, sometimes by 
a pony or donkey. Bath Metal is an alloy of 
copper and zinc, usually 55 parts of the former 
and 45 of the latter. 

Bath, Order of the, or under its full title 
“The Most Honourable Order of the Bath,” consists 
of two divisions, the military and the civil. The 
name undoubtedly originated from a certain por¬ 
tion of the ceremonies anciently attending the 
installation of each knight. The creations usually 
took place at the coronation of a king or queen, or 
at the creation of a prince or duke of the Royal 
family. The order can with certainty be traced 
back to the reign of King Henry IV., who on the 
day of his coronation conferred the honour upon 
forty-six esquires, who had, during all the previous 
night, watched in their armour in the chapel and 
bathed themselves. This occasion, according to 
many writers, was the institution of the order, but 
others are of opinion that the king herein simply 
revived the order. King Charles II. at his own 
coronation created sixty-eight knights, but the 
order was altogether neglected from that date 
until 1725, when it was revived and reconstituted 
by King George I. Since then it has under¬ 
gone several alterations and modifications (civilians 
being admitted in 1847), and as at present con¬ 
stituted consists of three classes. The first class 
(exclusive of the sovereign and princes of the blood 
royal and such distinguished foreigners as may be 
nominated “ Honorary ” Knights) is to be limited 
for the military section to 50, and for the civil 
section to 25 Knights Grand Cross (G.C.B.). These 
have the privilege of using supporters with their 
armorial bearings. The second class consists of 
Knights Commanders (K.C.B.), who, after having- 
been invested with the insignia of the order are 
entitled to the distinctive appellation of knight¬ 
hood, and also take precedence of Knights Bachelors. 
The number is limited to 102 soldiers and 50 civilians. 
The third class are Companions (C.B.) only, and 
though they take precedence of esquires and wear 
the badge of the order are not entitled to the style 
or appellation of Knights Bachelors. The motto 
of the order, which appears upon all the stars and 
badges, otherwise varying for each class and for 





Bathometer. 


( 366 ) 


Baths. 


military and civil distinction, is “ Tria juncta in 
uno.” The chapel of King Henry VII. in West¬ 
minster Abbey is the chapel of the order, where 
are to be seen the banners of the knights suspended 
over their stalls upon which are their plates of arms. 

Bathometer, an instrument for the measure¬ 
ment of sea-depths. [Sounding.] 

Bathori, Stephen, prince of Transylvania, was 
elected King of Poland in 1576, and governed the 
country wisely for ten years, having to contend 
against the encroachments of Ivan the Terrible, 
Czar of Kussia. He died at Grodno in 1586. Many 
members of his family during the 16th century 
were engaged in the struggle between the Austrians 
and Turks on the Danubian frontier. His niece 
Elizabeth, a monster of cruelty, was reputed to take 
baths of human blood. She was convicted of 
murdering 650 girls or women, and was imprisoned 
in the fortress of Esej, where she died in 1614. 

Bathos (Gk. bathos, depth, opposed to Jiypsos, 
sublimity), the effect produced in poetry or rhetoric 
by a sudden transition from the sublime to the 
commonplace, which is called anti-climax. 

Baths, in health and disease. The beneficial 
action of the bath upon the human body in health 
is primarily attributable to its perfecting the action 
of the skin as an excretory organ, while secondarily 
important effects are produced through the cutaneous 
capillaries upon the distribution of the blood 
throughout the body. 

The desirability of keeping the skin scrupulously 
clean is of course obvious ; the superficial layers of 
the epidermis are in continual process of renewal; 
the degenerate surface scales become loosened, and 
unless they are removed they form an obstruction 
to further desquamation, prevent the escape of the 
excretion of the sweat-glands, and constitute a 
layer of decomposing organic matter upon the body 
surface. It is not the degenerate cuticle alone 
which cleanliness removes from the epidermis ; the 
sweat glands are continually exuding excretory 
matter, and though the main function of these 
glands is to remove water from the body, whether 
in the form of beads of sweat or of “insensible per¬ 
spiration,” a certain though small amount of waste 
solid material also accumulates on the skin, unless 
removed by frequent ablutions. Hence the par¬ 
amount importance of “ keeping the pores of the 
skin open,” as popular phraseology has it. 

But, further, the skin, richly supplied as it is with 
blood-vessels, plays a most important part in 
regulating the body temperature. When the capil¬ 
laries of the skin dilate, an increased amount of 
blood is exposed to the temperature at the outer 
surface, and when, on the other hand, they contract, 
the blood, driven from the cutaneous circulation, 
must accumulate in increased quantity in the in¬ 
ternal organs. Immersion in cold water causes 
marked contraction of the small vessels of the skin, 
and this initial, effect is followed by their relaxation 
and the consequent glow of warmth, which is 
familiarly known as the “ reaction,” after cold 
bathing. These variations in the calibre of the 


small cutaneous arterioles are due to the contraction 
and relaxation of the muscular fibres in their walls, 
and cold baths “ educate,” so to speak, these 
muscular fibres to a ready response to alterations 
in the temperature of the media surrounding the 
body. If, on the other hand, these muscular fibres 
act sluggishly, the organism is liable to suffer from 
sudden changes in the external temperature, and 
chills are apt to result. 

The reaction produced as an after effect of the 
cold bath, moreover, increases tissue changes in 
internal organs, promotes nutrition, and has a 
distinctly tonic influence. 

If the body is exposed too long to the action of 
cold water a spasmodic contraction of the muscular 
fibres is induced, no healthy reaction follows, and 
the vessels of the skin, instead of being trained to 
beneficial action, are subjected to a paralysing in¬ 
fluence which may be productive of ill effect. It is 
open to question whether in civilised communities 
more harm is worked by defect or by excess of 
zeal in the matter of cold bathing. Certainly not a 
little mischief results in debilitated subjects from 
over enthusiasm in this particular, and it is, un¬ 
fortunately, a common practice, especially with 
young boys, to protract the stay in cold water 
beyond reasonable limits. It may be laid down as 
a rule that cold bathing should never be indulged 
in for so long a period as to prevent the superven¬ 
tion of the natural “ reaction.” The applications 
of baths in disease may be spoken of under the 
following heads:— 

1. The cold bath, apart from its tonic influence 
(mainly of use in healthy persons), is a valuable 
agent for effecting a reduction of temperature in 
fevers. In fact, immersion in cold water is the 
safest and surest means at disposal in the treatment 
of hyperpyrexia. Cold sponging is a less severe 
measure than actual plunging into water, and is 
largely employed in the treatment of febrile patients. 
The cold pack is another modification of the same 
idea: a sheet is steeped in cold water, wrung out, 
and wrapped round the patient, who is then en¬ 
veloped in blankets. After a while profuse per¬ 
spiration is usually induced. The mechanical 
restraint which is here combined with the applica¬ 
tion of cold commends itself in the treatment of 
some delirious patients, who not unfrequently pass 
after “ packing ” from a condition of great restless¬ 
ness into a quiet sleep. Among methods of ap¬ 
plying cold water locally the various forms of douche, 
in particular the “ spinal douche,” and the sitz bath, 
may be mentioned. 

2. Hot baths, in which the temperature of the 
water is that of blood heat (98‘6° F.) and upwards, 
are employed to produce sweating. Care must be 
taken that the patient does not become chilly after 
removal from the water. 

3. Air baths. The “lamp-bath” is a familiar 
form of air bath. The subject is seated naked on 
a cushioned chair with a lamp beneath him, and 
enveloped in blankets. Some drugs, particularly 
calomel, are administered by fumigation, as it is 
called, the patient being placed in a lamp bath, and 
a little calomel converted into vapour, the fumes 
being confined within the blankets until the patient 





Bath-stone. 


( 307 ) 


Baton-sinister. 


has been subjected to their influence for a suffi¬ 
ciently long time. 

The Turkish bath is a more elaborate species of 
hot air bath; there are two or three rooms filled 
with hot air ranging between 120° and 200° F., or 
even higher in temperature. Rheumatic and gouty 
patients doubtless derive some benefit from Turkish 
baths; the great objection to them is that it is 
necessary to consume a great deal of time in going 
through the various processes. 

4. Vapour baths. Here steam, not hot air, is 
caused to envelope the patient. They form a 
valuable remedial agent in cases of dropsy, but have 
to be used with caution. 

It only remains to add that while in suitable 
cases the various medicinal baths are of consider¬ 
able use, their power for good is apt to be 
exaggerated, and mistaken enthusiasm concerning 
them leads to much useless expenditure of time 
and energy. 

Bath-stone, a building stone obtained from 
quarries in the lower oolite near Bath and Box in 
Somersetshire, and also in Wiltshire. It contains 
about 94^ per cent, of carbonate of lime, and 2^ 
per cent, of carbonate of magnesium, cuts very easily 
in the quarry, and hardens in the air, but is by no 
means durable when exposed to the weather. 

Bathurst, a British settlement on St. Mary’s 
Island, at the mouth of the Gambia river, West 
Africa. It exports palm-oil, ivory, gold-dust, wax, 
teak, and other African products, and the inhabitants 
are chiefly blacks. A town of the same name is in 
Cape Colony, 20 miles S.E. of Graham Town. 

Bathurst, a district of Upper Canada, on the 
right bank of the Ottawa river, with an area of 
1,700 square miles. It is an important agricultural 
centre, and has rapidly grown in population. There 
are also in North America—Bathurst Land, lat. 75° 
N., long. 100° W.; Cape Bathurst, lat. 70° 30' N., 
long. 127° 30' W.; Bathurst Inlet, lat. 67° 30' N., 
long. 109° W.; and Bathurst Lake, in the centre 
of Newfoundland. 

Bathurst, the chief town of the western portion 
of New South Wales, situated on the Macquarie 
river, 122 miles S.W. of Sydney, with which it is 
connected by rail. Since its foundation in 1815 it 
has grown very steadily, owing to the richness of 
the soil, which is admirably suited to cereals; but 
the discovery of gold at Ophir, 27 miles distant, 
gave a great impulse to its prosperity, and in 1862 
it was made a municipality. It possesses well-built 
streets and public buildings, is the seat of an 
Anglian and Roman Catholic bishopric, and con¬ 
tains tanneries, soap-works, and other factories. 
Diamonds and other precious stones are found in 
the neighbourhood. 

Bathurst Island lies 120 miles W. of Port 
Essington, North Australia, and is of triangular 
shape, measuring about 30 miles from angle to 
angle ; is densely wooded, except towards the west. 

Bathybius. When alcohol is added to sea¬ 
water the sulphate of lime in the latter is deposited 


as a gelatinous mass or precipitate ; some of this, 
containing minute organic calcareous bodies (coc- 
cospheres, etc.), when first found was described as 
an organism. It was supposed to cover great areas 
of the deep ocean floors with masses of proto¬ 
plasmic slime. 

Bathycrinus, one of the best known of the 
living genera of Crinoidea or sea lilies. B. gracilis 
is common in the deepest parts of the Bay of 
Biscay. 

Batiste, a kind of fine Cambric (q.v.); the name 
is said to be derived from that of its original maker, 
Baptiste of Cambrai. 

Batley, a town in the West Riding of Yorkshire, 
2 miles from Dewsbury, on the London and North- 
Western and Great Northern railways. Shoddy- 
cloth, carpets, and heavy woollen textures are 
largely manufactured here. 

Batn-el-Hajar, or Batan-el-Hajar, a tract 
of the Nubian desert stretching on each side of the 
Nile, S. of Wady Haifa, between 21° and 22° N. lat. 

Batoka ( Batonga ), a numerous Bantu nation of 
the Middle Zambesi, mainly between the Victoria 
Falls and the Kafukwe confluence, where they are 
conterminous with the Banyai; outlying sections 
reach as far E. as Tete on the Lower Zambesi, 
while another branch migrated many generations 
ago southwards to the district now known as Tonga- 
land, between Delagoa Bay and Zululand. The 
Batokas are a mild, inoffensive, agricultural people, 
by whom the missionaries Moffat and Livingstone 
were well received, and who also welcomed the 
officials of the British South Africa Chartered 
Company in 1890-91. 

Baton, a short staff or truncheon given and 
carried by field marshals and other high officers as 
a token of authority. Two of these placed in 
saltire behind the arms are borne by the Duke of 
Norfolk, Hereditary Earl Marshal of England ; and 
two slightly different in shape are likewise borne 
behind the arms of the family of Keith, Earl 
Marischal of Scotland. 

Baton-Rouge, a town in the State of Loui¬ 
siana, U.S.A., on the left bank of the Mississippi, 
120 miles above New Orleans. It was one of the 
earliest French settlements, and has only within 
recent years given place to New Orleans for a time 
(1862-1880) as capital of the State. It possesses a 
university and many public buildings. Captured 
by the Federals in the Civil war, it was defended 
by Williams against the Confederates under Brecken- 
ridge in 1862. 

Baton-sinister, Baton, Baston, Batton, 
Battoon, Batune, and Fissure are all names used 
to denote one of the recognised marks of illegiti¬ 
macy. It is placed in bend sinister, is one-fourth 
of the width of a bend, and does not extend to the 
sides of the shield. It will be found occurring 
both charged and plain, and since the 17tli cen¬ 
tury it has been exclusively reserved to difference 
the arms of illegitimate descendants of the royal 
family only. 







Bat cram. 


( 3G8 ) 


Battery, 


Batoum, a port on the Black Sea, 110 miles N.E. 
of Trebizond. It was ceded to Russia by the Turks 
after the war of 1878. The town is dirty and un¬ 
healthy, but has somewhat improved under its new 
master, and the harbour, which is the best on that 
coast, now serves for the export of vast quantities 
of mineral oil from the district between the Black 
Sea and the Caspian. The neighbourhood produces 
many cattle and excellent fruit. 

Batrachia, a term used in two senses: (1) As 
the equivalent of the modern Amphibia (q.v.) ; (2) 
as a synonym of Anura or tail-less Amphibia. 

Batrachomyomachia, a mock heroic epic 
sometimes ascribed to Homer, but attributed by 
Suidas and Plutarch to Pig-res of Caria, the son or 
brother of Artemisia, the famous queen of that 
country and ally of Xerxes, and if they are correct, 
dating from the first half of the fifth century b.c. 
It describes in epic verse a battle (Gr. maclie ) 
between frogs (Gr. batrachi), and mice (Gr. myes ), 
and is probably the earliest parody now extant. 

Batta (perhaps from Canarese bhatta, paddy, 
or rice in the husk) an allowance made to British 
officers in India in addition to their ordinary pay, 
and varying according to the station of the troops, 
and according also as they are in garrison or in 
the field. 

Batta (plural Battak), a large non-Malay nation 
of North Sumatra belonging to the same wide¬ 
spread Indonesian stock as the Lampongs of South 
Sumatra, the neighbouring Mentawey islanders, the 
Bornean Dyaks and the Bisayas of the Philippines. 
Like all Indonesians they approach the Caucasic 
(European) type in their regular features, large 
straight eyes, full beard, and relatively light com¬ 
plexion. Like them also they speak a Malayo- 
Polynesian dialect, which betrays Hindu influences 
both in the presence of numerous Sanskrit and Pali 
words, and in the use of an alphabet derived from 
the Dewanagari of the Asoka inscriptions. Their 
chiefs also bear the Indian title of raja, and the 
name Batta applied to them by the Malays appears 
to be the Sanskrit Bhata, “ wild ” or “ barbarous.” 
This name, unknown to the people themselves, is 
still justified by their savage customs and cannibal 
practices, which they have preserved under an 
outer varnish of Hindu culture. Human flesh, 
however, which is always eaten raw, is now reserved 
for special occasions, and is chiefly supplied, not by 
raiding, as formerly, but by their own criminals 
condemned to death. The Batta territory extends 
from the equator to about lat. 3° N., but nowhere 
reaches the sea, all the coast lands being held by 
peoples of Malay race. Akin to the Battak are the 
Orang-Lubu, Orang-Kubu, Orang-Abung and others 
scattered over the interior of Central Sumatra. 

Battalion. [Army.] 

Battens (a mis-spelling of the French baton), 
small strips of firwood, used either as cross pieces 
to keep boards placed side by side together or 
to fasten tiles and slates, or nailed over the edge 


of a ship’s hatchway so as to fasten a tarpaulin 
over it and prevent water leaking in when seas are 
shipped (in which case the hatches are said to be 
“ battened down ”), or for other purposes. 

Battering-ram, an ancient military engine, 
consisting of a large beam, often the trunk of a 
tree, terminated by a mass of metal shaped like a 
ram’s head. It was used to make breaches in the 
walls of a besieged town, and first became an im¬ 
portant instrument under the Macedonian power 
in Greece. At first worked only by hand, it was 
afterwards mounted on wheels, and later on hung 
between posts and swung to and fro by men, who 
were protected from the defenders’ missiles by a 
sort of wooden shed erected over them. The beam 
was then at times from 80 to 120 feet long, so that 
it could be placed across a ditch. The Romans used 
such rams against Syracuse in the Second Punic 
war, and often afterwards, especially at the siege 
of Jerusalem. 

Battersea, a suburban parish and township in 
the county of Surrey, 4 miles S.W. of London, lying 
S. of the Thames, and opposite to Chelsea. It 
comprises 2,343 acres, and returns a member to 
Parliament. In the early part of the century much 
of the district was open country, and in 1829 the 
Duke of Wellington fought his memorable duel 
with the Earl of Winchilsea in Battersea Fields. 
The market gardener for some years clung to the 
soil, but had to give way to the speculative builder, 
and only here and there are traces left of rural 
simplicity. The Church of St. Mary, rebuilt in the 
abominable taste of the close of the last century, 
contains an interesting monument to Lord Boling- 
broke, and others of the St. John family, whilst the 
east window was the gift of Anne Boleyn’s father. 
The Grammar School has been remodelled on modern 
lines. Battersea Park, 185 acres in extent, with a 
sub-tropical garden of four acres, was opened in 
1858, and is connected with the Middlesex side by 
the handsome new Chelsea bridge. 

Battery- [Assault.] 

Battery, in the British army, the term for the 
smallest independent unit of an artillery force. In 
the siege artillery of foreign armies this is called 
a company. A field battery has six guns in all 
modern armies except the Russian, in which it has 
eight; a mountain battery consists of four seven- 
pounder guns carried on the backs of mules. Siege 
batteries are groups of guns protected by a bank 
of earth in front, and provided with platforms, 
magazines, etc., so that the guns may be con¬ 
veniently worked. 

Battery* in Electricity, is a cell or combina¬ 
tion of cells, composed of such constituents and 
arranged in such a way as will give us an electric 
current when a conductor is made to join its 
terminals. The energy required to effect this is 
supplied by the constituents of the battery, which 
have a chemical affinity for each other, and by 
their reaction to produce chemical compounds set 
free a surplus of energy. If this reaction takes place 






( 369 ) 


Battlement. 


Battery. 


when there is no complete electric circuit, the 
surplus energy appears as heat ; if, however, the 
circuit is complete, or closed , this energy is directed 
to drive electricity through the circuit. A battery 
is the more effective if it can send a greater current 
through the same resistances. [Resistance.] It 
is then said to possess a greater electro-motive 
force (q.v.), for brevity generally termed E.M.F. 

Batteries are of two kinds, primary and secondary . 
In the primary battery we choose materials that are 
readily obtainable in the required condition to react 
on one another. Thus, in the simple Volta cell we 
have a stick of zinc dipping into a vessel contain¬ 
ing dilute sulphuric acid. Zinc has an affinity for 
sulphuric acid, and when impure will readily dis¬ 
solve therein without the use of a separate piece 
of other metal. If pure the zinc will not dissolve 
unless a conducting circuit be formed. This is 
effected by placing a stick of copper in the liquid, 
and by joining the two metals outside the cell 
with wire or some other conductor. In this case, 
as soon as the circuit is closed the zinc stick 
begins to waste away, zinc sulphate is formed 
in the acid solution, and hydrogen bubbles appear 
on the copper stick that dips into the liquid; 
moreover, the circuit acquires properties that we 
understand to be due to the flow of an electric cur¬ 
rent through it. The E.M.F. of the battery depends 
on the substances used, and may be approximately 
calculated with a knowledge of the energy with 
which the two poles become oxidised. It is con¬ 
ventional to regard the current as flowing from 
copper to zinc in the outside circuit, which is the 
direction of the apparent passage of the hydrogen 
through the liquid. Descriptions of the more 
important batteries are given separately. Grove’s 
cell is useful for its high E.M.F., about 1-9 volts 
[Volt], its fair constancy and low resistance ; 
Leclanche’s for its applicability to intermittent easy 
duty ; and Latimer Clark’s Standard cell for its 
constancy. The deposition of hydrogen on the 
copper pole diminishes the efficacy of the battery by 
setting up a counter E.M.F. The means adopted 
to remedy this are discussed under Polarisation, 
as this deposition is termed. 

Secondary batteries do not differ intrinsically from 
primary batteries. They are simply brought to the 
condition of being able to drive a current in one 
direction by the previous passage of a suitable 
current in the reverse direction. This effects 
certain changes in the materials of the battery at 
the expense of electrical energy ; which, however, 
is recovered when the battery reproduces an 
electric current. A secondary battery may there¬ 
fore be regarded as an arrangement for the 
convenient storage of electrical energy, which may 
be taken out when desired. It is extremely 
important practically, on account of its high 
E.M.F., its very low resistance, and its portability. 
[Electricity, Electric Lighting, Resistance, 
Blanche Cell.] 

Battery, Floating. A floating fort, designed 
especially for the purpose of attacking land de¬ 
fences and only secondarily as a mobile man-of-war. 
Floating batteries were first used on a large scale 

24 


by the Spaniards during their grand attack on 
Gibraltar in 1782. On that occasion ten elabor¬ 
ately contrived batteries were used, their sides 
being of immense thickness and solidity, and 
their upper decks covered with turf: but the 
British red hot shot burnt and blew up nine out of 
the ten, and the remaining one was boarded and 
set on fire. During the Russian war of 1854-56 
the British Government built eight floating 
batteries, each carrying fourteen or sixteen guns, 
with a view to reducing the Sebastopol defences. 
These were plated with iron, and some were built 
of iron and some of wood. These were the first 
ironclads of the British navy, and were modelled 
after five somewhat similar vessels which were 
built in France for the same object, but all of 
wood. The speed of these vessels was inconsider¬ 
able, and in no case exceeded about six miles an 
hour. They were completed too late to be of 
much use during the war. 

Batthyani, the name of a distinguished Hun¬ 
garian family that has since the 15th century 
been closely connected with the varying fortunes 
of the Magyar kingdom. Louis Batthyani, Count 
of Nemeth Ujvar, was born in 1809 and served as a 
youth in the Austrian army. He then took to 
politics, and from 1839 to 1848 struggled bravely 
in the House of Peers against the attempt to crush 
out Hungarian nationality. Alarmed by the 
revolutionary movement the Emperor Ferdinand 
made sweeping concessions, and allowed Batthyani 
to form an independent ministry. At the same 
time he treacherously incited Jellacliich, the Ban of 
Croatia, to invade the kingdom. The Croatians 
were defeated in spite of Austrian support, and 
Batthyani, eager to arrive at a peaceful solution, 
went, in October, 1849, to the headquarters of 
Prince Windishgratz to propose terms. He was 
seized, tried by court-martial, and shot. 

Battle, a market town in Sussex, 8 miles N.W. 
of Hastings. It derives its name from the Battle 
of Senlac or Hastings, in which William of Nor¬ 
mandy defeated and killed Harold on October 14, 
1066. The remains of the abbey built by the Con¬ 
queror to celebrate his victory are no longer in 
existence, the ruins adjoining the seat of the Duke 
of Cleveland belonging to a later period. The old 
church has some good glass and several interesting 
monuments. There are large gunpowder-mills in 
the neighbourhood. 

Battle-axe, a heavy, powerful axe, usually 
with an iron handle and a broad steel head, much 
used in warfare by the ancient Keltic and Norse 
peoples, and in mediaeval times, particularly in 
sorties, both by cavalry and foot-soldiers. That 
used by the latter was the heaviest, and was 
grasped by both hands. 

Battlement, a parapet usually surmounting a 
building, pierced with crenelles or embrasures, and 
designed to afford protection to marksmen who 
were sheltered behind the merlons or portions of 
wall between the embrasures. Originally intro¬ 
duced into castles, it soon was adopted in churches 
and other buildings for ornamental purposes. 







Battles, 


( 370 ) 


Battles.. 


Battles. The chief battles of the British Navy 
are the following :— 

1340. June 24.—Sluys. Edward III. defeated the French. 
13(30. Aug. 29.—Wiuchelsea. Edward III. defeated the 
Spaniards. 

1372. June 22.—Rochelle. The Earl of Pembroke was de¬ 
feated by the Spaniards. 

13S7. March 24.—The Channel. The Earl of Arundel was 
defeated by the Flamands. 

1416. Aug. 15.—Harfleur. The Duke of Bedford defeated 
the Franco-Genoese squadron. 

1512. Aug. 10.—Brest. Drawn battle between the English 

and French. 

1513. Apr. 25.—Brest. Drawn battle between the English 

and French. 

1545. June IS, 19.—Spithead. Drawn battle between the 
English and French. 

15SS. July 19-2S.—The Earl of Nottingham defeated the 
Spaniards. 

1596. June 20.—The Earl of Nottingham captured Cadiz. 
1652. May 19.—Dover. Blake defeated Tronip. 

1652. June 12.—The English engaged the Dutch off the 
Lizard. 

1652. July 4.—The Channel. Ayscue defeated the French. 
1652. Aug. 16.—Plymouth. Ayscue defeated De Ruyter. 
1652. Aug. 27.—The Dutch defeated the English off Elba. 
1652. Sept. 2S.—The Goodwins. Blake defeated De Witt. 

1652. Nov. 29.—The Ness. Blake defeated by Tromp. 

1653. Feb. 1S-20.—Olf Portland. Blake defeated Tromp. 
1653. June 2, 3.—The Gable. Monk defeated Tromp. 

1653. July 31.—Defeat and death of Tromp, 

1655. Apr. 4. —Blake bombarded Tunis. 

1657. April 20.—Blake bombarded Santa Cruz. 

1665. June 1-3.—Lowestoft. The Duke of York defeated 

Opdam. 

1666. June 1-4.—The Goodwins. Drawn battle between 

Monk and De Ruyter. 

1666. July 25.—North Foreland. Monk defeated De Ruyter. 

1667. May 10. — Sir Christopher Harman defeated the 

French and Dutch. 

1667. June 11, 14.—The Dutch in the Medway. 

1672. May 3.—Solebay. Indecisive battle between the 

English and French and the Dutch. 

1673. May 2S. — The Channel. Prince Rupert repulsed 

Tromp. 

1673. June 4. — The Channel. Prince Rupert repulsed 
Tromp. 

1673. Aug. 11.—Drawn battle between the Englishand French 
and the Dutch. 

16S9. May 1.—Bantry Bay. Drawn battle between Herbert 
and Chateaurenault. 

1690. June 30.—Beacliy Head. Drawn battle between the 
English and Dutch and the French. 

1692. May 19-24.—La Hogue. Russell defeated De Tour- 

ville. 

1693. June 17. — Lagos Bay. Rooke defeated by the 

French. 

1702. Aug. 20-24.—Off Santa Martha. Drawn battle be¬ 
tween Benbow and Du Casse. 

1702. Oct. 12.—Vigo. Rooke defeated the Franco-Spanish 
squadron. 

1704. Aug. 13.—Malaga. Rooke defeated the Comte de 
Toulouse. 

1708. May 28.—Carthagena. Wager defeated the Spanish. 

171S. Aug. 11.-—Cape Passaro. Byng defeated the Spanish. 
1739. Nov. 21.—Vernon captured Porto Bello. 

1744. Feb. 11.—Toulon. Drawn battle between the English 

and the Franco-Spanish. 

1747. May 3.—Finisterre. Anson defeated De la Jonquiere. 
1747. Oct. 14.—Finisterre. Hawke defeated De Letendeur. 

1745. Oct. 1.-—Havana. Knowles defeated the Spanish. 

1756. May 20.—Minorca. Indecisive action between Byng 

and La Galisonniere. 

1758. April 29.—Negapatam. Indecisive action between 
Pocock and d’Aclie. 

1758. Aug. 3.—Pocock engaged d’Aclie in the East Indies. 

1759. Aug. 1S-19.—Barbary. Boscawen defeated De la 

Clue. 

1759. Sept. 10.—Ceylon. Indecisive action between Pocock 
and d’Aclie. 

1759. Nov. 20.—Belle Isle. Hawke defeated Conflans. 

1778. July 27.—Brest. Indecisive action between Iveppel 

and d’Orvilliers. 

1779. July 6.—Grenada. Byron defeated d’Estaing. 


17S0. Jan. 16.—Cape St. Vincent. Rodney defeated De Lan~ 
gara. 

1780. April 17. — Martinique. Indecisive action between 

Rodney and De Guichen. 

17S0. May 19.—Rodney engaged De Guichen in the West 
Indies. , 

1781. April 29.—Martinique. Indecisive action between 

Hood and De Grasse. 

1781. Aug. 5.—Dogger Bank. Hyde Parker defeated Zout- 
man. 

1781. Sept. 5.—Lynn Haven. Indecisive action between 

Graves and De Grasse. 

1782. Jan. 25, etc.—St. Christopher. Indecisive actions be¬ 

tween Hood and De Grasse. 

1782. Feb. 17.—Pondicherry. Indecisive action between 
Hughes and De Suffren. 

1782. April 12.—Ceylon. Indecisive action between Hughes 
and De Suffren. 

17S2. April 12.—Martinique. Rodney defeated De Grasse. 
17S2. July 5. — Negapatam. Indecisive action between 
Hughes and De Suffren. 

1782. Sept. 3. — Trineomalee. Indecisive action between 

Hughes and De Suffren. 

1783. June 20. — Cuddalore. Indecisive action between 

Hughes and De Suffren. 

1794. May 28—June 1.—Bay of Biscay. Howe defeated 

Villaret-Joyeusc. 

1795. March 13, 14.—Genoa. Hotliam defeated Martin. 

1795. June 17.—Bay of Biscay. Cornwallis engaged and 

eluded a superior force under Villaret-Joyeusc. 

1795. June 23.—Belle Isle. Bridport defeated Villaret- 
Joyeuse. 

1795. July 12.— Hyeres. Unsatisfactory action between 
Hotliam and the French. 

1797. Feb. 14.—Cape St. Vincent. Jervis and Nelson de¬ 
feated the Spanish. 

1797. July 22, 24.—Santa Cruz. Nelson repulsed by the 
Spanish. 

1797. Oct. 11.—Cainpcrdown. Duncan defeated De Winter. 
179S. Aug. 1—Aboukir Bay. Nelson defeated Brueys. 

179S. Oct. 12.—Donegal Bay. Warren defeated Bompart. 
1S01. April 2.—Copenhagen. Nelson destroyed the Danish 
fleet. 

1S01. July 12.—Cabareta Point. Satunarez defeated Moreno 
and Linois. 

1S05. July 22. — Ferrol. Calder defeated Villeneuve and 
Gravina. 

1S05. Oct. 21.—Trafalgar. Nelson defeated Villeneuve and 
Gravina. 

1505. Nov. 4.—Straclian’s victory off Cape Ortegal. 

1506. Feb. 6.—San Domingo. Duckworth defeated Leis- 

seignes. 

1506. Sept. 25.—Rochefort. Hood defeated the-Frencli. 

1507. Feb. 19.—Dardanelles. Duckworth forced the pas¬ 

sage. 

1S07. Aug. 12—Oct. 21.—Gambier took Copenhagen and the 
Danish fleet. 

1S09. April 11-14.—Basque Roads. Cochrane destroyed part 
of Allemande’s squadron. 

1S11. March 13.—Lissa. Hoste defeated Dubardieu. 

1816. Aug. 27.—Algiers bombarded by Exmouth. 

1S27. Oct. 20.—Navarino. Codrington, with French and 
Russian help, destroyed the Turko-Egyptian fleet. 
1840. Nov. 3.- Acre bombarded by Stopford. 

1S54. Oct. 17—Sept. 17.—Sebastopol bombarded. 

1SS2. July 11.—Alexandria bombarded by Seymour (Lord 
Alcester). 

The chief battles in which British troops have 
been engaged are (excluding the battles of the 
English Civil wars) the following :— 

1106. Sept. 29.—Tencliebrai. Henry I. defeated the Normans. 
1119. Aug. 20.—Brenneville. Henry I. defeated the Normans. 
1191. Spring.—Ascalon. Richard I. defeated Saladin. 

1314. June 25.—Bannockburn. The English defeated by 
the Scots. 

1333. July 29.—Halidon-Hill. The English defeated the 
Scots. 

1346. Aug. 6.—Crecy. Edward III. defeated the French. 
1356; Sept. 19. — Poictiei’s. Edward III. defeated the 
French. 

1415. Oct. 25.—Agincourt. Henry V. defeated the French. 
1421. March —.—Beauge. The Duke of Clarence defeated 
by the French. 







Battles. 


( 371 ) 


Battle 


1423. July 31.—Crevant. Henry VI. defeated the French. 

1424. Aug. 16.—Verneuil. The' Duke of Bedford defeated 

the French. 

1429. June 10.—Patay. The English defeated by Joan of 
Arc. 

1513. Sept. 9.—Flodden. The Earl of Surrey defeated the 
Scots. 

1542. Dec. 14.—Solway Moss. The English defeated the 
Scots. 

lo9S. -.—Black water. Sir Henry Bagnall defeated 

by O’Neil. 

1692. Aug. 4. — Steinkirk. William III. defeated by 
Luxemburg. 

1704. Aug. 2.—Blindheim (Blenheim). Marlborough and 

Eugene defeated Tallard. 

1J)6. May 23.—Ramilies. Marlborough defeated Villeroi. 
1707. July 16.—Almanza. Galway defeated by Berwick. 

1705. July 11.—Oudenarde. Marlborough defeated Yen- 

dome. 

L09. Sept. 11.—Malplaquet. Marlborough defeated Villars. 
1743. June 27.—Dettingen. George II. defeated De Noailles. 
1745. May 11.—Fontenoy. Cumberland defeated by Saxe. 
1751. Aug. 30 to Oct. 29.—Arcot, Defence of, by Clive. 

1757. June 23.—Plassey. Clive defeated Surajali Dowlali. 

1759. Sept. 15.—Quebec. Wolfe defeated Montcalm. 

1760. Jan. 22.—Wandewash. Coote defeated Lally. 

1764. Oct. 23.—Buxar. Monro defeated the Vizier of Oude. 

1775. April 19.—Lexington. English defeated by Ameri¬ 
cans. 

1775. June 17.—Bunker’s Hill. Gage defeated the Ameri¬ 

cans. 

1776. Aug 27.—Long Island. Howe defeated the Ameri¬ 

cans. 

1777. Aug. 16.—Bennington. Baum defeated by Stark 

(American). 

1777. Sept. 13.—Brandywine. Howe defeated Washington. 
1777. Sept. 19.—Stillwater. Burgoyne defeated by the 
Americans. 

1777. Oct. 16.—Saratoga. Burgoyne surrendered to Gates. 
177S. June 29.—Monmouth. Washington defeated Clinton. 

1780. Aug. 16.—Camden. Cornwallis defeated Gates. 

1781. Oct. 19. — Yorktown. Cornwallis surrendered to 

Washington. 

1799. May 4.—Seringapatam, Storming of. 

1S01. March 21.—Alexandria. Abercromby defeated the 
French. 

1S03. Sept. 23.—Assaye. Wellesley defeated the Mahrattas. 
1803. Nov. 1.—Laswaree. Lake defeated the Mahrattas. 
1S03. Nov. 28.—Argaum. Wellesley defeated the Rajah of 
Berar. 

1800. July 4.—Maida. Stuart defeated the French. 

180S. Aug. 17.—Rolica. Wellesley defeated Laborde. 

1508. Aug. 20.—Vimiera. Wellesley defeated Junot. 

1809. Jan. 15.—Corunna. Moore defeated Soijlt. 

1509. July 28.—Talavera. Wellesley defeated Victor and 

King Joseph. 

1810. Sept. 27.—Busaco. Wellington defeated Massena. 

1S11. March 5.—Barossa. Graham defeated Victor. 

1811. May 5, 6.—Fuentes d’Onoro. Wellington defeated 

Massena. 

1811. May 16.—Albuera. Beresford defeated Soult. 

1812. Jan. 19.—Ciudad Rodrigo captured by Wellington. 

1812. April 7.—Badajos captured by Wellington. 

1812. April 10.—Villa Franca. Cotton defeated Soult. 

1812. May 19.—Almaraz. Hill defeated Marmont. 

1812. July 22.—Salamanca. Wellington defeated Marmont. 

1813. June 21. — Vittoria. Wellington defeated Joseph 

Bonaparte. 

1813. July 25—Aug. 2.—Wellington’s victories in the Pyre¬ 
nees. 

1813. Aug. 31.—San Sebastian, Storming of, by Graham. 

1814. Feb. 25.—Orthes. Wellington defeated Soult. 

1815. Jan. 8.—New Orleans, Drawn battle near. 

1S15. June 16.—Quatre Bras. Wellington engaged Ney. 

1S15. June 18.—Wellington defeated Napoleon Bonaparte. 
1817. Nov. 5.—Kirkee. Elphinstone repulsed the Pin- 
darees. 

1817. Dec. 21.—Maheidpore. Hislop defeated Holkar. 

1826. Jan. 18.—Bhurtpore stormed by Combermere. 

1839. July 23.—Ghuznee captured by Keane. 

1843. Feb. 17.—Meanee. Napier defeated the Beloochees. 

1845. Dec. IS.—Moodkee. Gough defeated the Sikhs. 

1S45. Dec. 21.—Ferozesliali. Gough defeated the Sikhs. 

1846. Jan. 28.—Aliwal. Smith defeated the Sikhs. 

1846. Feb. 10.—Sobraon. Gough defeated the Sikhs. 


1S49. Jan. 13.—Chillianwallah. Gough defeated the Sikhs. 
1S49. Jan. 21.—Mooltan captured by Whish. 

1819. Feb. 21.—Guzerat. Gough defeated the Sikhs. 

1854. Sept. 20.—The Alma. Raglan and St. Arnaud de¬ 
feated Men seh i kc tf. 

1854. Oct. 25.—Balaclava. The Allies defeated the Rus¬ 
sians. 

1854. Nov. 5.—fnkerman. The Allies defeated the Rus¬ 

sians. 

1855. Sept. 8.—The Redan, Unsuccessful British assault on. 
1857. Feb. 8.—Kooshab. Outram defeated the Persians. 
1857. July 16.—Cawnpore. Havelock defeated Nana Sahib. 
1857. Sept. 20.—Delhi retaken by Wilson. 

1857. Nov. 25.—Cawnpore. Campbell and Havelock de¬ 
feated the rebels. 

185S. April 4.—Jhansi captured by Rose. 

1859. Feb. 10.—Horsford defeated Nana Sahib. 

1859. May 23.—Jorwah. Grant defeated Nana Sahib. 

1860. June 30.—Taranaki. British defeated by New Zea¬ 

landers. 

1860. Nov. 6.—Mahoetaki. Pratt defeated the New Zea¬ 
landers. 

1864. Apr. 29.—British defeated by New Zealanders at Gate 
Pah. 

1S65. Feb. 25.—Cameron defeated the New Zealanders. 

1868. April 13.—Magdala stormed by the British under 
Napier. 

1S74. Jan. 31.—Amoaful. Wolseley defeated the Asliantees. 
1874. Feb. 4.—Ordashu. Wolseley defeated the Asliantees. 

1578. Dec. 2.—Peiwar Pass. Roberts defeated the Afglians. 

1879. Jan. 22.—Isandlilana. Chelmsford defeated by Cete- 

wayo. 

1879. Jan. 22.—Rorke's Drift, Defence of, by Chard and 
Bromhead. 

1879. March 29.—Kambula. Wood defeated Cetewayo. 

1579. April 2.—Futtehabad. Gough defeated the Afghans. 
1879. April 2.—Gingliilovo. Chelmsford defeated the Zulus. 
1879. July 4.—Ulundi. Chelmsford defeated the Zulus. 

1879. Oct. 6.—Charasia. Roberts defeated the Afghans. 

1579. Dec. 23.—Sherpur. Roberts defeated the Afghans. 

1880. April.—Ahmed Khel and Ghuznee. Stuart defeated 

the Afghans. 

1580. July 27. — Maiwand. Burrows defeated by the 

Afghans. 

1880. Aug. 31.—Mazra. Roberts defeated Ayoub Khan. 

1S80. Dec. 20.—Brunker’s Spruit. The British defeated by 

the Boers. 

1881. Jan. 28.—Laing’s Nek. Colley defeated by the Boers. 

1881. Feb. 8.—Ingogo river. Colley defeated by the Boers. 

1881. Feb. 27. — Majuba Hill. Colley defeated by the 

Boers. 

1S82. Aug. 24.—Ismailia. British defeated Egyptians. 

1S82. Aug. 25.—Mahsameh. Lowe defeated the Egyptians. 
1S82. Aug. 28.—Kassassin. Graham defeated the Egyptians. 

1882. Sept. 13.—Tel-el-Kebir. Wolseley defeated the Egyp¬ 

tians. 

1S84. Feb. 29.—El Teb. Graham defeated the Arabs. 

1884. March 13.—Tamai. Graham defeated Osman Digna. 

1885. Jan. 17.—Abu Klea. Stewart defeated the Arabs. 

1885. Jan. 19.—Metammeh. Stewart defeated the Arabs. 
1885. Feb. 10.—Kirbekan. Earle defeated the Arabs. 

1885. March 22.—Tofrek. McNeill surprised by Arabs. 

1885. Dec. 30.—Ginnis. Stephenson defeated the Arabs. 
1888. Sept. 24.—Tukola Ridge. Graham defeated Thibetans. 

Battle, Wager of, a quasi-judicial form of 
trial introduced, it is believed, into English pro¬ 
cedure by the Normans, but in consonance with a 
widespread notion of primitive jurisprudence that 
the decision of a case might thus be thrown on 
divine providence. In cases of treason or capital 
felony, the appellant or prosecutor having made his 
charge against the defendant the latter might 
elect to be tried by battle instead of by jury. If 
he was defeated, the penalty of death followed; 
but should he have got the best of the fight or held 
his own till sundown, the appellant was subject to 
heavy damages. Instances of the custom are 
frequent enough in early English history, and an 
illustration will be found in Shakespeare’s Henry VI., 











Battue. 


( 372 ) 


Bautzen. 


pt. ii. i. 3. Cases occurred in the Stuart period— 
notably that of Lord Rea. In 1818 one Ashford 
appealed in the King's Bench against Thornton, 
who had been acquitted of the murder and viola¬ 
tion of Ashford’s sister. The defendant “ waged 
his battle ” and the appellant allowed the charge to 
drop. Next year an Act (59 Geo. III. c. 46) was 
passed to abolish trial by battle. 

Battue (Fr. battre , to beat), a method of killing 
game, in which it is driven towards the shooters 
by beaters. The word first occurs in English in 
1816, and the practice seems to have been intro¬ 
duced early in the present century. Though often 
condemned as unsportsmanlike, it no doubt affords 
opportunity for the display of skilful and rapid 
shooting, though it is without the exercise or the 
danger (except sometimes to the beaters) which 
are essential elements in many forms of sport. 
Commonly two guns are used alternately, at least 
by the shooters in the best positions, and a man 
is placed behind each shooter to load for him. 
Enormous numbers of birds, chiefly pheasants, as 
well as hares, etc., are shot at battues, 2,000 head 
of game frequently having been killed in a day. 

Baudelaire, Charles, was born at Paris in 
April, 1821. After residing for a while in the East 
Indies he returned to Paris and became rather a 
distinguished figure in the romantic school of poetry. 
His Les Fleurs du Mai , portions of which first 
appeared in the Revue des Deux Mondes, on account 
of their immorality led to a prosecution when they 
appeared in volume form in 1857. More pleasant 
reading was furnished by his fifty Petits Pocmes en 
Prose , and his critical essays which were collected 
under the title of L'Art Romantique. His trans¬ 
lation of the works of Edgar Allan Poe is for 
accuracy and brilliance considered the best in 
literature. Some suppressed poems were published 
in Brussels under the title of Les iCpavcs. He died 
in 1867. 

Baudry, Paul, was born at La Roche-sur-Yon 
in 1828. He is best known as the author of Punish¬ 
ment of a Vestal Virgin , and The Assassination of 
Marat. For ten years he was engaged in decorat¬ 
ing the foyer of the Grand Opera, Paris, and in 1870 
was elected a member of the Academie des Beaux- 
Arts. He died in 1886. See Magazine of Art , 
September, 1886. 

Bauer, Bruno, was born at Eisenberg, Duchy 
of Saxe-Altenberg, in 1809. After studying at 
Berlin and holding an appointment in the university 
there and at Bonn, he turned to writing on theo¬ 
logical and political subjects. His writings were 
mostly of a controversial character and landed him 
in many disputes. He also wrote histories relating 
to the eighteenth century, the leading idea that he 
sought to expound in them being that the popular 
struggles of the nineteenth century failed through 
the character of the enlightenment of the eighteenth. 
He died in 1882, the year in which was published 
Disraelis romomtisclier und Bismarck's sozialistis- 
cher Imperialismus, his last work. 

Baumgarten, Alexander Gottlieb, was 


born at Berlin 1714. After studying at Halle, he 
became professor of philosophy at Frankfort-on- 
the-Oder. He followed Leibnitz and Wolff, and is 
distinguished for separating the Theory of the 
Beautiful from other departments of philosophic 
speculation, and was the first to use the name 
“ Aesthetics ” to designate that science. His chief 
works are :— Disputationes de nonnullis ad poema 
pertinentibus, TEsthetica (incomplete), Metaphysica , 
Ethica philosophical Initia philosophies practices , 
primes. He died in 1762. 

Baur, Ferdinand Christian, son of a Wiir- 
temberg pastor, was born at Schmiden, near Stutt¬ 
gart, in 1792. From the Blaubeuren seminary he 
passed to the Tubingen university, becoming pro¬ 
fessor in the former institution in 1817 and in the 
latter in 1826. He died at Tubingen in 1860, 
after achieving great distinction as a theologian 
and being the founder of a distinct line of theo¬ 
logical speculation known as the “ Tubingen 
school.” His first literary effort, A Review of 
Kaiser's Biblical Theology , was published in 1817, 
and in 1824 appeared his first elaborate work, Sym- 
bolik und Mythologie , an exposition of ancient reli¬ 
gions. In 1831 the Christ-party in the Corinthian 
Church and the Antagonism betwixt the Pauline 
and Petrine Christianity appeared ; in 1835 The 
Christian Philosophy of Religion; in 1838 The 
Christian Doctrine of the Atonement ; in 1836 The 
Opposition between Catholicism and Protestantism , 
a reply to Mohler’s Symbolik, which was an attack 
on the Protestant Church; in 1835 the So-called 
Pastoral Epistles, in which he impugns St. Paul’s 
authorship, and refers them to the second century ; 
in 1841 The Christian Doctrine of the Trinity and 
the Incarnation ; in 1847 Handbook of the History 
of Dogma ; and other historical works on Christian 
doctrines. The chief bearing of Baur’s writings 
was to show that the books of the New Testament 
were written at a period posterior to the period 
they are assigned to, and to call in question their 
authorship. In the case of the Gospels, for instance, 
St. Luke’s, according to him, is a product of the 
second century, as is also St. John, and, if not 
later, St. Mark. St. Matthew is the earliest, and as 
for John being the author of the gospel bearing his 
name and of the Apocalypse, Baur held that to be 
impossible. 

Bautzen, or Budissin, which in Wendisli means 
town, is the capital of Saxon Upper Lausatia. and 
is situated on the right bank of the Spree. It is an 
old town, and early acquired wealth and distinc¬ 
tion through the “ Arm of St. Peter ” that was 
preserved in one of its churches, to which pilgrim¬ 
ages were made. It suffered greatly in the Hussite 
and Thirty Years’ wars, being burned on one occa¬ 
sion, and at the Peace of Prague, in 1635, passed with 
Lausatia to Saxony. On May 21st and 22nd, 1813, 
the battle of Bautzen was fought between Napoleon 
and the allied forces of Russia and Prussia, the 
former winning a barren victory. Besides churches 
and other public buildings, Bautzen has a cathedral, 
in which both Protestants and Roman Catholics 
worship. Its manufactures include cotton, linen, 
wool, tobacco, 1 Bather, paper, gunpowder, etc. 





Bavaria. 


( 373 ) 


Baxter. 


Bavaria, one of the southern kingdoms making 
up the German Empire, consists of two parts • 
Bavaria proper and the Palatinate of the Rhine It 
extends to 29,632 English square miles. There 
are eight government districts ; of these Upper 
Bavaria is largest, and Lower Bavaria next. 

Boundaries and Physical Geography. Bavaria is 
bounded on the north by the Fichtelgeberge and the 
Frankenwald; on the south by the^Tyrolese Alps • 
towards the east by the Bohmerwald ; on the west 
by Wtirtemberg, Baden, and Hesse Darmstadt. The 
Danube and the Main are the chief rivers. Although 
there are no great mountains, the general character 
of the country is hilly. The climate is warmer in 
summer and colder in winter than is the case in 
England. A fourth of the area is wood, and a third 
ot that state property. 

Population and Industries. The total population 
was 5,420,199 in 1885. This shows an annual 
inciease of about ^ per cent, during the preceding 
five years. About one-third of the whole is 
urban and two-thirds rural ; but the town dis¬ 
tricts are becoming slowly more populous at the 
expense of the country. The annual emigration 
from Bavaria is large. In 1889 it was 10,586. In 
1883 it was as much as 17,986. Munich, the capital, 
is much the largest town ; in 1890 it contained 
334,710. Nuremberg, the next town, is less than 
half. There are 709 Roman Catholics and 279 
Protestants in every 1,000 of the population. The 
chief industries are agriculture and mining. The 
mineral deposits are of great variety and excellence. 
It was not till 1868 that the mediaeval system of 
guilds was abolished by law. Nuremberg has for 
centuries been an industrial centre. Munich and 
Augsburg are also important. Beer is brewed 
everywhere, but especially at Erlangen and Munich. 
The average quantity is 278 millions of gallons. 
Twenty-seven millions are exported. Alcohol is 
also distilled in 6,562 distilleries, and small 
quantities of wine and tobacco are produced. 

Government , Revenue , etc. The Magna Cliarta of 
Bavaria is a Constitutional Act passed on May 26th, 
1818, since which further change in a popular 
direction has been made. The king has the sole 
executive power, which he exercises through 
ministers. There is an Upper and a Lower 
House. The first is composed of the princes of 
the blood royal, dignified ecclesiastics, Roman 
Catholic and Protestant, certain members of the 
nobility, and about fifteen life councillors nomi¬ 
nated by the king. The Lower House consists of 
150 deputies, chosen every six years by electors, 
who in turn are chosen by the people. Five 
hundred choose one elector. The estimates of 
revenue for the year 1891 are : Direct taxes, 
27,960,000 marks ; indirect, 89,229,300 marks ; 
State railways,mines,etc., 127,084,240marks; making 
with smaller items a total of 280,291,642 marks. 
The chief particulars of expenditure are : Public 
debt, 49,741,342 marks; collection of revenue, 
114,831,324 marks ; religion and education, 
22,832,106 marks ; share of imperial expenditure, 
37,239,620 marks. (A mark is very nearly a shilling, 
English money.) Bavaria contributes 56,864 men to 
the imperial army. The most important bodies are : 


The infantry, 36,471 ; the cavalry, 7,341 ; and the 
artillery, 6,948. This is the peace establishment. 
In time of war the force is increased threefold. In 
dress and some other minor details the Bavarian 
contingent is different from the rest of the German 
army. Justice is administered by twenty-eight 
Landgerichte , or local tribunals. Also there are 
five Oherlandesgericlite, and over these again is the 
Oherstes Landgericlit, a supreme Bavarian court, 
composed of eighteen judges. It sits in Munich, 
and from its decision the appeal is to the Reich- 
gericht, or imperial tribunal of the German Empire. 
There are about 175,000 temporary or permanent 
paupers, costing the state nearly 10,000,000 marks 
annually. The level of educational attainment is 
high. From six till fourteen all children must go 
to one of the four classes of schools—Catholic (about 
5,000), Protestant (2,000), mixed (150), Jewish 
(100). There is a university at Munich, with a 
staff of 172 professors and 3,646 students. 

History. The German name of Bavaria is Baiern , 
a word of undoubtedly Celtic origin. Rome had 
some uncertain hold on the wandering tribes which 
during the time of her power inhabited this region. 
Charles the Great made Bavaria part of his kingdom, 
and his successors ruled here after the dismem¬ 
berment of his empire as margraves. In 921 the 
margrave was made a duke. In 1620 the duke was 
made an elector in return for services rendered to 
the empire, and his territory increased by a slice 
of the Palatinate. About the middle of the 
eighteenth century Bavaria deserted the German 
for the French alliance, and after Blenheim (1704) 
the elector lost his kingdom for ten years. His son 
was constant to the French alliance, and was also 
driven from his dominion ; but on his death the 
country was restored to Maximilian Joseph, the 
next heir, under whom began a long period of peace, 
that only terminated in 1793 with the wars of the 
French Revolution. On the whole, Bavaria sup¬ 
ported Napoleon (who made her a kingdom) till 1813, 
after which she was induced to join the other 
German states in their combined attack on the 
French. In 1866 she sided with Austria against 
Prussia, but on the victory of the latter she veered 
round to her side, and was her firm ally in the 
contest of 1870 with France. Her history closes 
with the treaty of November 23rd, 1870, that 
made her an integral part of the new German 
Empire. The royal house are descended from the 
medieval Counts of Wittelsbach. King Otho, the 
present ruler, was born in 1848, and succeeded in 
1886 on the suicide of his brother, Louis, whose 
eccentricity, long notorious, had developed into 
insanity. He is also insane, and his uncle, Prince 
Luitpold, is regent. 

Baxter, Richard, was born at Rowton, Shrop¬ 
shire, November 12th, 1615. His parents were poor, 
and his early education was neglected. He was very 
diligent, however, in acquiring knowledge, his taste 
inclining towards religious philosophy. At first he 
sought to make his way at court, and with an intro¬ 
duction to Sir Henry Herbert set out for London. 
After a month at Whitehall, followed by an illness, 
he resolved upon a career in the church. At the age 














Bay. 


( 374 ) 


Bayer. 


of twenty-three he was ordained by the Bishop of 
Worcester, and became master of Dudley grammar 
school. He soon acquired popularity as a preacher, 
and was next appointed assistant to a Bridgenorth 
clergyman. In 1641 he was invited to become 
minister of Kidderminster, where with interruptions 
he remained for about nineteen years—the inter¬ 
ruptions being due to the Civil war. Though a 
supporter of monarchy, he yet sympathised with the 
Puritans; and though he sympathised with the 
Puritans, he yet did not go the whole length of 
considering episcopacy unlawful. His position was 
thus a difficult one, and Worcester being a cavalier 
stronghold, Baxter withdrew to Gloucester and 
thence to Coventry, where he preached regularly to 
the garrison and citizens for about a couple of years. 
After acting as chaplain to Colonel Whalley’s 
regiment, and being present at the sieges of Bridge- 
water, Exeter, Bristol, and Worcester, he was invited 
back to Kidderminster, where at this period he 
produced his Saints' Rest and Call to the Uncon¬ 
verted. After the Restoration he was appointed one 
of the king's chaplains, and exerted himself chiefly, 
though futilely, in endeavouring to bring about 
a reconciliation between the contending church 
factions. The Act of Uniformity compelled him to 
aever his connection with the church altogether, 
and he settled in 1663 in Acton, Middlesex, where 
he devoted his time to authorship. By the Act of 
Indulgence (1672) he was enabled to return to 
London, and in 1685 he was condemned to pay a fine 
for alleged sedition. The fine was not paid, and 
Baxter, though now seventy years of age, lay in 
prison for two years. Thereafter he lived in peace, 
dying December 8th, 1691. He was a very prolific 
writer, his publications exceeding 160 in number. 
Dean Stanley named him “ the chief of English 
Protestant schoolmen.” 

Bay, in Geography, is a wide-mouthed opening 
of the sea into the land. A gulf is a larger and 
wider opening, while a large space of salt water, 
chiefly enclosed by land, is a sea. But the terms 
are used rather loosely. The White Sea and the 
Bay of Bengal might with equal propriety be called 
gulfs. 

Bay, generally used in English gardens as the 
name of the laurel, Laurus nohilis , an evergreen 
shrub native to southern Europe, reaching a height 
of from thirty to sixty feet. Branches of this 
plant were formed into crowns for heroes or for the 
statues of the gods in ancient times, and the name 
Laurus may be connected with the Latin laus, 
praise. Dried figs are packed in its aromatic 
leaves, and in this country these leaves are used 
as a flavour in cookery. To the student of 
plant structure the twelve stamens of the in¬ 
conspicuous yellowish flowers are interesting from 
the valvular dehiscence of the anther. A showy 
garden plant, one of the willow herbs ( Epilohium 
augustifolium), with rose-coloured flowers and bay¬ 
like leaves, is called Rose-bay. The Oil of Bay, 
or Bay-berry OrL, used in the manufacture of 
the American hair-wash Bay-rum, is distilled from 
the berries of the allspice, Pimenta officinalis and 
P. acris. 


Bay a. [Weaver-bird.] 

Bayard, Pierre du Terrail, Chevalier de, 
was born at the Chateau of Bayard, near Grenoble, 
in 1476. He was regarded by his contemporaries as 
an ideal soldier and man of honour, earning the 
title, “ the knight without fear and without 
reproach.” He accompanied Charles VIII. to Italy, 
and distinguished himself at the battle of Fornovo 
by capturing a standard from the enemy. At 
Brescia, being wounded, he was taken to the house 
of a lady, and there nursed. On his recovery the 
lady made him a present of 2,000 pistoles, because 
of the protection he had afforded her family against 
the soldiers. This present he bestowed with rare 
gallantry on the lady’s two daughters, as their 
marriage portion. Another incident in his career 
was when he, in 1502, at Barletta, with ten other 
French knights, met in a tournament an equal 
number of Spaniards. In the first charge seven 
Frenchmen were overthrown, but after a combat of 
six hours’ duration the result of the contest was 
declared equal, and Bayard credited with having 
saved the day for his country. Having engaged in 
the various wars of his time, he at last met his death 
wound in 1524, at the retreat of Rebec. As he lay 
dying, Bourbon, who led the enemy’s forces, ex¬ 
pressed pity for him—for he was held in high esteem 
by foes as well as friends. “ Pity not me,” he 
replied, “ who die a true man. Pity is rather for 
yourself, who bear arms against your king, your 
country, and your oath.” His body was ordered to 
be embalmed, and was interred in the church of the 
monastery of the Minorites, near Grenoble. 

Bayazid, or Bajazid, a city of Turkish 
Armenia, in the province of Erzeroum, lies about 
fifteen miles south-west from the base of Mount 
Ararat. It used to be a place of some importance, 
doing a considerable trade. Now, however, it is in 
a ruinous condition, with a population of only a few 
thousands. In 1854 the Turks were defeated here 
by the Russians, and in 1877 the latter took it. In 
1878, however, the Berlin Congress restored it to 
Turkey. 

Bay City, the third city in size in Michigan, 
United States, is situated on the Saginaw river. 
Its importance is due mainly to the railways that 
pass through it and have their termini here. It has 
also a trade in shipbuilding, lumber, and salt. It 
contains seventeen churches, a high school, eight 
public schools, and a public library. 

Bayeiye, the aborigines of the Lake Ngami 
district, South Central Africa, now reduced to 
slavery by the intruding Batuanas, who are of 
Bechuana stock. The Bayeiye belong to the same 
Bantu family as the Bakubas, a large and still 
independent nation who occupy the region between 
Lake Ngami and Ovampo-land; the Bakuba head 
chief, “ King ” Anduri, resides at Libebe ; total 
population of all the Bayeiye and Bakuba tribes 
(1884), 162,000. 

Bayer, Johann, was born atRhain, Bavaria, in 
1572. He was an astronomer, the result of his 







( ?>75 ) 


Bayonet. 


Bayeux. 


labours being given in Uranometria and Explicatio. 
He was so zealous a Protestant as to acquire the 
designation, “ Mouth of the Protestants.” 

Bayeux, an ancient Norman city, and the 
capital of an arrondissement of the same name in 
the department of Calvados, France. It is the seat 
of a bishopric, and has a Gothic cathedral of great 
antiquity. Among its manufactures are hosiery, 
lace, porcelain, etc. 

Bayeux Tapestry, a pictorial history of the 
invasion of England by the Normans, beginning 
with Harold’s visit to the Norman court, and ending 


place of the Peripatetic scholasticism that had been 
taught him by the Jesuits. In 1675 he was appointed 
to the chair of Philosophy in Sedan university, and 
afterwards to a similar chair in Rotterdam, where 
his lectures and publications attracted the notice of 
the learned of Europe. This popularity aroused 
animosity against him, and he was denounced as an 
atheist. The result was that he was forbidden to 
give instruction in Rotterdam, and in 1693 was 
deprived of his licence to teach. He, however, went 
on with his writings, bearing his persecutions with 
philosophic calmness, until his death, in 1706. His 
chief work was the Dictionary, which, though 


SPECIMEN OF BAYEUX TAPESTRY. 



with his death at the battle of Hastings, is so 
named because it was found originally in the 
cathedral of the town of Bayeux, where it is still 
preserved in the public library. It is supposed to 
be the work of Matilda, wife of William the 
Conqueror ; though others claim it for the Empress 
Matilda, daughter of Henry I. ; and a third party 
that it was produced as a decoration for the 
cathedral of Bayeux by order of Odo, the Con¬ 
queror's half-brother. The tapestry is 214 feet long 
and twenty inches wide ; divided into seventy-two 
scenes, which are mostly described by Latin in¬ 
scriptions. In it are the figures of 623 persons, 762 
horses, dogs, etc., thirty-seven buildings, and forty- 
one boats. It has been reproduced several times, by 
drawing and by photography. 

Bay Islands, a small group in the Bay of 
Honduras, were proclaimed as a British colony in 
1852, and in 1856 were ceded to Honduras. Amongst 
the highest of the group is Guanaja, whence 
Columbus first discovered the American mainland. 

Bayle, Pierre, son of a Calvinist minister, and 
author of the Historical and Critical Dictionary, 
was born November 18th, 1647, at Carlat, Langue¬ 
doc. His studies led him at first to renounce 
Calvinism for Catholicism ; later, however, he 
returned to Protestantism, and went to Geneva, 
where he studied the philosophy of Descartes in 


proscribed in France and Holland, yet had an 
enormous effect upon the thought of the Continent, 
and is credited with being the beginning of the 
scepticism of the eighteenth century. 

Bayly, Thomas Haynes, was bom at Bath 
October 13th, 1797. He early discovered that he 
had an aptitude for verse-writing, and to him we 
owe such well-known songs as She wore a wreath 
of roses , The Soldier's Tear, etc. Besides verse, 
he wrote a novel, The Aylmers, tales, and dramatic 
pieces, one of which, Perfection, was produced 
on the stage. He died April 22nd, 1839. 

Baynes, Thomas Spencer, was born at 
Wellington, Somerset, March 24th, 1823. After 
being Sir William Hamilton’s assistant at Edin¬ 
burgh University, he became assistant editor of the 
Daily News (1857-64), and Professor of Logic in 
St. Andrew’s University (1864-87). He edited the 
ninth edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica. He 
died in 1887. 

Bay of Islands, a harbour on the north-east 
coast of the North Island of New Zealand, has on 
it Korovarika, the first European settlement in New 
Zealand. 

Bayonet, a pointed, or sharpened and pointed 
steel weapon, adapted for fixing to the muzzle of a 
musket or rifle, and for use at close quarters. It 



























( 376 ) 


Bazeilles. 


Bayonne. 


was first introduced into the French army in the 
middle of the seventeenth century, and it appears 
to have received its name from the fact, or supposed 
fact, of its having been invented at Bayonne. 
Sword-bayonets are bayonets so designed as to be 
available also for use as swords. Bayonets have 
been of many patterns and sizes. The weight and 
length beyond muzzle of the bayonets that have 
been used in the British army with various rifles 
are as follows:— 

Bayonet. 


1S00 

Name of Arm 
aud date. 

“ Brown Bess ” - - 

Wei 

lb. 

- 1 

ight. 

oz. 

2 

Len 

ft, 

1 

gtli. 

in. 

H 

1800 

Baker Rifle - - - - 

- 

15 

1 


1S42 

Percussion Musket - 

- 1 

8 

1 


1S36 

Brunswick Rifle - - 

_ o 

0* 

1 

-h 

1S51 

Minie Rifle - - - - 

- i 

0| 

1 

5i 

1S53 

Long Enfield - - - 

. 

13£ 

1 

5* 

1S60 

Short Enfield - - - 

- i 

Hf 

is| 

1 

lOf 

1S04 

Snider. 


1 

H 

10| 

1ST! 

Martini-Henry III. - 

- i 

1 

1 

1SS6 

Enfield-Martini - - 

- i 


1 

0J- 

1890 

Magazine (Lee-Speed) 

- 

15 


HI 


Bayonne, a fortified French town in the 
department of Basses-Pyrenees, situated at the 
confluence of the Adour and Nive, four miles from 
the Bay of Biscay. From 1152 to 1451 it was in 
the possession of the English. Besides being noted 
for its powerful citadel, one of the finest works of 
Vauban, and cathedral of the twelfth century, it 
lias also a considerable trade. It is said that the 
massacre of St. Bartholomew was arranged here 
in an interview between Catherine de Medici and 
the Duke of Alba, in 1565. Here also Charles IV. 
abdicated in favour of Napoleon. In 1814 the 
British and Spanish forces besieged it in vain, and 
in a sortie from here, April, 1814, no fewer than 800 
English soldiers were slain. 

Bay-window, or Bow-window (the former is 
the correct form), a window first introduced in 
Perpendicular architecture forming a bay or recess 
outwards from a room, often supplied with seats. 
It is often found in Renaissance as well as in late 
Gothic architecture. 

Baza, the Bastia of the Romans and Bastamia 
of the Middle Ages, is a city of Andalusia, famed 
in early Spanish history. It lies upwards of 50 
miles E.N.E. of Granada, has a college, hospital, 
and prison, and wine, fruit, and hemp industries. 

Baza, a Negro or Negroid people of the Mareb 
Valley, Upper Nubia, at the north foot of the 
Abyssinian plateau. The Bazas, who call them¬ 
selves Ivunama, are a savage people at a very low 
stage of culture, still pagans, and speaking a 
language of unknown origin. They have no chiefs, 
each village being ruled by elders. The Bazas 
belong to the large group of uncivilised populations 
collectively called Shangalla by the Abyssinians. 
They have been described by Munziger, Reinisch, 
and James (Wild Tribes of Soudan, 1884). 

Bazaar, the market, or the part devoted to 
trade, of an Oriental town. In England the term 
is commonly applied to a number of stalls for the 
sale of toys and fancy articles collected into one 
building. The first of these, the Soho Bazaar, was 


established in 1816. The Pantheon, the London 
Crystal Palace, and other bazaars were afterwards 
opened in imitation of it ; but most of them 
have since been put to other uses. The name is 
now most commonly applied to the sales of fancy 
work and other articles, got up for some chai'itable 
purpose, a practice which also seems to date from 
the first quarter of the present century. 

Bazaine, Francois Aciiille, was born Feb¬ 
ruary 13, 1811, at Versailles. Entering the army in 
1832, he won the cross of the Legion of Honour the 
following year for bravery displayed in Algeria. 
After fighting against the Carlists in 1837 and 
taking part in several African expeditions, he com¬ 
manded a brigade in the Crimea in 1853. He saw 
further service in the Italian war of 1859, and for his 
services in Mexico he was made Marshal of France 
and Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour. In the 
Franco-German war he commanded the Army of 
the Rhine, and after being shut up in Metz for 
three months surrendered to Prince Frederick 
Charles with a force of 173,000 men. For this he 
was tried by court-martial and sentenced to death, 
which was commuted to imprisonment for life. In 
1874 he escaped from prison and spent the remainder 
of his life in Madrid, dying in 1888. In 1883 he 
published his justification in a book, the sale of 
which was prohibited in France. 

Bazalgette, Sir Joseph William, engineer, 
was born at Enfield in 1819. After some experience 
in the construction of railways, he became first 
assistant engineer and in 1852 chief engineer to the 
Metropolitan Commission of Sewers. In 1856 with 
the formation of the Metropolitan Board of Works he 
was appointed engineer to that body, and in that 
capacity designed and carried out, in the years 
1858-65, the scheme for the drainage of London. 
The Victoria, the Albert, and the Chelsea embank¬ 
ments, executed between 1863-74, are among other 
of his works. He died in 1891. 

Bazard, Saint Amand, was born at Paris in 
1791. He was closely identified in the revolutionary 
movements of his time, helping in the formation of 
the society of the “ Amis de la Verite,” and a com¬ 
bination of French Carbonari, and being a leader in 
the “ Plot of Belfort.” He then, 1825, joined the 
Saint Simonians, editing their journal, Le Pro- 
ducteur. A series of lectures that he delivered in 
Paris in 1828 is published in a book entitled 
Exposition of the Doctrine of St. Simon. A close 
friend and fellow worker of his was Enfantin, with 
whom he founded a Socialist society living under 
its own laws. He quarrelled with Enfantin about 
the position of women and withdrew in 1831 from 
this experimental colony, dying a year afterwards. 

Bazardjik, a Bulgarian town about 30 miles N. 
of Varna. It was founded 300 years ago, and was 
attacked by Russian troops in 1774 and"l810. 

Bazeilles, a French village, in the department 
of Ardennes, only a mile or two from Sedan. 
The Bavarians burnt it down the day of the battle 
of Sedan (September 1, 1870), but with the help of 
English money it was soon rebuilt. 







Bazoche. . 


( 377 ) 


Beaconsfield. 


Bazoche, the guild of clerks of the Parliament 
of Paris, which administered justice among its own 
members, and like some other French guilds affected 
the forms of royalty. It held an annual montre , or 
review, in military form. Its chief importance, how¬ 
ever, is in the history of the drama. The privilege 
of performing religious plays, granted to the guild 
by Philip the Fair in 1303, led to the annual pres¬ 
entation of a morality play, satirising distinguished 
personages. The personalities these plays contained 
led to repeated interference during the 14th and 
lath centuries, and, ultimately, to the suppression 
of the guild. The last trace of dramatic perform¬ 
ance is in 1582. The plays may be regarded to some 
extent as precursors of modern comedy. 

Beach, the sloping accumulation of mud, sand, 
or shingle between high and low water marks along 
the sea margin. In many places similar accumu¬ 
lations, known as raised Reaches, occur above 
the present high-water mark, as at Brighton, 
Weston-super-Mare, etc. As many as four or five 
may occur, like terraces, one above the other, as in 
the north of Norway, and some of those in South 
America are 1,300 feet above the sea. They are 
sometimes accompanied by inland cliffs and sea- 
worn caves, and, containing as they do marine 
shells similar to those living in the adjoining sea, 
they prove alteration in the relative level of land 
and water to have occurred in times geologically 
recent. [Parallel Roads, Terraces.] 

Beachy Head, a promontory 564 ft. high on 
the coast of Sussex, overlooking the English 
Channel. Below it, on June 30th, 1690, the allied 
English and Dutch fleets, under Herbert, Earl of 
Torrington, and Evertsen, consisting of fifty-six 
sail, met the French fleet under De Tourville, con¬ 
sisting of seventy-eight sail and twenty-two fire¬ 
ships. Torrington, in pursuance of peremptory 
orders from the court, but against his better judg¬ 
ment, accepted battle, and was worsted, though 
not decisively. The English lost two, and the 
Dutch six ships. Torrington was tried for coward¬ 
ice and treachery, and although he was triumph¬ 
antly acquitted was deprived of his commission 
by the king, who sought thus to appease his Dutch 
subjects. 

Beacon. The derivation of this word is from 
the Anglo-Saxon beacnian, to beckon or call 
together. In the ancient times beacons were set 
up on hills and towers, and pitch, hemp, and other 
materials were burnt in an iron pot (which formed 
part of the beacon) whenever it was necessary to 
alarm the country or call the inhabitants together 
upon the invasion of an enemy. The practice 
is of great antiquity, being referred to by the 
prophet Jeremiah (vi. 1), and in the Agamemnon 
of JEschylus the news of the fall of Troy is sup¬ 
posed to be transmitted by beacon-fires to Argos 
in one night. In mediaeval England and Scotland 
a system of beacon-signalling was carefully kept 
up, especially on the approach of the Spanish 
Armada and during the long war with Napoleon. 
Superseded for warlike purposes by the electric 
telegraph and the heliograph, the chief recent 


instance of their use was at the Queen’s Jubilee 
in 1887, when the flames of a beacon on Malvern 
Hill gave the signal for the lighting of a multi¬ 
tude of others throughout the kingdom. Beacons 
are frequently to be met with in heraldry, though 
always in one regular conventionalised form. For 
the use of the word in nautical language, see 
Light-house. 

Beaconsfield, a town in Buckinghamshire, near 
Windsor, was the home of the poet Waller, who 
was also buried here, and Edmund Burke. From 
it was taken the title of the Earl of Beaconsfield. 
Benjamin Disraeli. 

Beaconsfield, The Right Hon. Benjamin 
Disraeli, first Earl of, K.G., was born December 
21, 1804, in Bloomsbury Square, London. In 1827 
he published Vivian Grey , and immediately there¬ 
after went travelling through Eastern Europe and 
the Levant for four years. In 1832 he offered him¬ 
self for election to Parliament, standing for High 
Wycombe as a Radical and being defeated. He 
then turned to literature, producing The Young 
Duke , Venetia, Henrietta Temple, The Letters of 
Runnymede, The Crisis Examined, etc. In 1835 he 
stood for Taunton as a Tory and was again defeated. 
In 1837, however, he was returned for Maidstone, 
and delivered his maiden speech December 7th of 
the same year, and in 1841 he represented Shrews¬ 
bury. In 1844 he published Coningsby, and in 1845 
Sybil. Meanwhile, in 1839, he had married Wyncl- 
ham Lewis’s widow, and with the aid of her for¬ 
tune purchased Hughenden in Buckinghamshire, a 
division of which county he was returned to repre¬ 
sent in 1847. He now became leader of the Con¬ 
servatives in the House of Commons, and when 
Lord Derby took office in 1852 he was appointed 
Chancellor of the Exchequer. The Government 
remained in power only a few months, and it was 
not until 1858 that Mr. Disraeli again assumed 
office under Lord Derby. His tenure of office was 
again short, the Government being wrecked on a 
Reform Bill for putting the town and county 
franchise on the same level. In 1866 he returned 
to office, and on the resignation of Lord Derby in 
1868 he became premier, for only a brief period 
however. Lothair appeared in 1870. In 1871 his 
wife, who had been created Lady Beaconsfield, died. 
In 1874 at the polls the Liberals were defeated, and 
Mr. Disraeli now took the reins of government, and 
held them for six years. In 1877, finding the work 
of the House of Commons too heavy for his in¬ 
creasing years, he accepted a peerage, and as Earl 
of Beaconsfield retired to the House of Lords. In 
the following year he with the Marquis of Salisbury 
as plenipotentiaries represented England at the 
Berlin Congress, and it was on his return home that 
he made the famous remark, “ We bring you peace 
with honour.” At the general election of 1880 his 
party -was severely defeated, and on April 19th, 1881, 
he died, a few months after the publication of his 
last work, Endymion. Besides novels, he published 
in 1834 A Vindication of the English Constitution, in 
1839 Alareos, a Tragedy, and in 1852 Life of Lord 
George Bentincli. 








Bead. 


( 378 ) 


Bear. 


Bead, ill Architecture, a small round moulding 
for ornamental purposes. Picture-frames and various 
objects carved in wood are often decorated with 
beading. 

Beadle (connected with the verb bid), properly 
a summoning officer. There are parish beadles, 
church beadles, and the beadles of various com¬ 
panies. The first and last of these are employed 
in various ways, in announcing meetings, summoning 
persons to attend, carrying messages, etc.; the duties 
of the church beadle commonly are to assist the 
churchwardens in seating the congregation, and to 
preserve order in church. [Bedell.] 

Beadlet, the popular name of the common 
English sea anemone ( Actinia equina, Linn.). It 
is usually about one inch in height and from one 
to four inches in diameter. It varies greatly in 
colour and markings: it may be liver-brown, green, 
orange, scarlet, crimson, or red, and spotted with 
yellow or green. It lives as a rule attached to 
rocks, and occurs all round the English coasts. 
[See Actinia for an account of its anatomy.] 

Beads are small spherical or cylindrical orna¬ 
ments, made of stone, wood, bone, ivory, jet, or 
amber, or most generally of glass, and so perforated 
that they can be strung on threads or sewn on 
cloth as decorative embroidery. Wooden and 
ivory beads are often elaborately carved; glass 
beads are found in the earliest known Egyptian 
tombs, and aggry beads, now highly valued all 
over West Africa, were probably used for barter 
with the natives by the ancient Phoenicians. 
Since the fourteenth century glass beads have been 
largely manufactured at and near Venice. The 
glass is drawn out into rods of very small diameter, 
which are then cut into very short lengths, and 
while still soft are rounded and polished. The 
name is in fact derived from the old English bede, 
a prayer. From the use of beads on rosaries 
(q.v.), to tell one’s beads became synonymous 
with saying prayers, and bedesmen existed in the 
Middle Ages whose function it was to pray for the 
persons who employed them. In Scotland the king’s 
bedesmen, or blue-gowns, were privileged beggars. 

Beagle, a variety of the Hound, smaller than 
the Harrier (q.v.) and, like that breed, used for 
hare-hunting. 

Bean, the name commonly applied to Faba 
vulgaris, the broad or Windsor bean, to its seeds 
or to other plants, mostly leguminous, having large 
seeds. The bean is an annual leguminous plant* 
believed to be a native of the eastern Mediterranean 
region, cultivated probabty before B.c. 1000. It is 
an erect plant, two to four feet high, with quad¬ 
rangular stem, pinnate leaves of four to eight oval 
leaflets, fragrant white flowers blotched with violet, 
large green pods, and roundish kidney-shaped flat¬ 
tened seeds. The precept of Pythagoras to his 
followers to abstain from beans has been explained 
as a figurative advice not to meddle with politics, 
beans being used in the Athenian ballot; and the 
Roman family of the Fabii are said to have derived 
their name from success in the cultivation of beans. 
Beans were probably introduced into England by 


the Romans, and are now largely grown as food for 
both horses and men. The French or kidney bean 
is tffie unripe pod of Phaseolus vulgaris; the scarlet- 
runner, that of P. multijlorus. . The haricot bean is 
the ripe seed of P. vulgaris; the Lima bean, a 
favourite in America, that of P. lunatus. 

Beanfeast, the annual dinner given by employers 
to their workmen, either from the season in which 
it took place, or because beans, or a bean-goose, 
were part of the bill of fare. 

Bean Goose. [Goose ] 

Bear, the popular name for any individual of 
the genus Ursus, the type of the Arctoid family 
Urskke, which also contains the genus Ailuropus, 
connecting the true bears with the Ailuridm. 
[Panda.]" The species of the type-genus, though 
not very numerous, are extensively distributed, 
but are entirely absent from the Australian and 
Ethiopian regions, and have only one representative 
in the Neotropical region— IJ ornatus, the Spectacled 
Bear, from the Peruvian and Chilian Andes. Bears 
are stout-built animals of considerable size, some 
of the forms being the largest of the Carnivora. 
They are the best examples of Cuvier’s group 
Plantigrada (a name which is rapidly falling, if 
it has not already fallen, into disuse), the whole of 
the sole of the foot being applied to the ground in 
walking. They are the least carnivorous of the whole 
order, the majority being omnivorous, and some 
almost entii’ely vegetable-feeders, only the polar bear 
and the grizzly bear being flesh-eaters to any* great 



SKULL OF THE BEAR. 


extent, and of these two the former eats grass 
greedily in the summer, and the latter feeds largely 
on acorns. The dental formula I. -5—^ c. - 

3—3 1—1 

pm. _ 42 • the incisors and canines 

4 4 3 3 

resemble those of the other Carnivora, but the 
sectorial tooth has a tuberculate crown for grind¬ 
ing and crushing, totally unlike the sharp cutting 
edges of the corresponding tooth in the lion and 
tiger. The claws are large, strong, and slightly 
curved, but cannot be retracted within sheaths, as 
in the cats, and are better fitted for digging than 
for seizing and tearing prey. The tongue is 
smooth, without the horny papillae so marked in 
the cats ; the ears are small, erect, and rounded, 
the tail short, and the nose forms a movable 
truncated snout. The soles of the feet are naked 
(except in the polar bear), and the fur is for the 
most part long, soft, and shaggy. Although so heavily 
built, bears can run and swim with considerable 
speed. Many species are good climbers, though 
they always come down backwards, just as a man 








Bear. 


( 379 ) 


Beard. 


descends a ladder. Most of them undergo at least 
a partial hibernation, and on recovering from this 
state the female brings forth her young. The 
earliest known bear is U. theobaldi, from the Pliocene 
of India. Remains of this genus have also been 
obtained from the Upper Pliocene and Pleistocene 
of Europe, and the Pleistocene of America. [Cave 
Bear.] 

Bears have played a considerable part in the 
folklore of the human race, and especially in that 
of the northern nations. The jocular name given 
to these animals by some of the German peoples— 
Bruin—comes from the bear (who is named Bruin, 
or brown, from the colour of his fur) in the 
medkeval poem of Reynard the Fox (q.v.). From 
the earliest ages they have been beasts of chase, 
they were used in the games of the Roman amphi¬ 
theatre, and, if Martial (Spec. Lib.) maybe credited, 
as ministers of justice on malefactors. They are 
important commercially, for the fur of nearly all 
the species is valuable, the fat is made into “ bear’s 
grease,” and the paws and hams are esteemed as 
delicacies. 

The genus Ursus may be divided into four 
sections, to all of which some writers have given 
generic rank. 

1. Ursus proper, containing the land bears. 
[Black Bear, Brown Bear, Grizzly Bear, 
Spectacled Bear, Syrian Bear.] 

2. Thalassarctos, having a comparatively small 
head, small, narrow molar teeth, and the soles 
covered with hair. [Polar Bear.] 

3. Helarctos, having the head short and broad, 
and the tongue long and extensile. [Sun Bear.] 

4. Melursus, having the first upper incisor 
absent, or shedding it very early, lips very large 
and extensile. [Sloth Bear.] 

Bear, Great (Ursa Major), one of the most 
familiar constellations in the northern heavens. In 
those latitudes near London it never sets, and may 


.1 

i 

i 

i 

i 

i 

i 

i 

~+r . ! 

\ ,4oa- 

THE GREAT BEAR 


THE CONSTELLATION OF THE GREAT BEAR. 

therefore be always observed on any clear night. The 
seven chief stars are shown in the figure; a and /3 
are known as the pointers , on account of the Pole- 
star lying at a short distance away in a straight line 
with them. This latter is the chief star in the 
Little Bear, and lies very close to the point known 
as th % pole of the heavens, towards which the axis 
of the earth now points. 

Bear Animalcula. These form the order 
Tardigrada, a division of the Arachnida. They 
are minute lice-like animals, creeping by four pairs 
of short stumpy legs. The points of structure which 


separate them from other Arachnida are the fact 
that they are hermaphrodite, i.e. there is no division 
of sexes, the possession of a suctorial mouth, and 
the absence of heart and respiratory organs. They 
live in moss and in puddles in house gutters, etc.; 
they can survive for a long period in a dry state, 
and recover their activity when moistened. They 
are also known as the “sloth animalcules”; they 
have, however, no connection with the true 
“ animalculas.” 

Bear-baiting 1 , with dogs, was for some centuries 
a popular sport in most European countries. In 
England, where it was only prohibited by statute in 
1835, it dates from the time of Henry II., and 
was patronised bj r Queen Elizabeth. Most English 
towns maintained bears, bear-dogs, and a bear 
ward, or official to supervise the sport. 

Bear-berry ( Arctostaphylos ), a genus of pros¬ 
trate shrubs belonging to the heath tribe. They 
have small leaves, small terminal clusters of flowers, 
like those of Arbutus, with a persistent calyx 
and a smooth berry-like fruit with five one- 
seeded stones. Two species occur in Scotland, and 
other northern regions in both hemispheres, their 
berries forming part of the food of grouse. A. uva- 
ursi, which has scarlet fruit, is an astringent, used 
medicinally in urinary affections, for tanning and 
to remove boiler-crust. A. alpina, the black bear- 
berry, is the badge of the clan Ross. 

Beard. The appearance of the beard, whiskers, 
and moustache is usually the distinctive sign 
of the advent of manhood, though it occasion¬ 
ally occurs in women, especially with advancing 
age and (it is said) in those of dark complexion. 
The growth of the beard varies greatly in different 
individuals, still more in different races. It is 
especially conspicuous in Semitic peoples, and in 
the Slavonic and Keltic divisions of the Aryan 
race; while some savage races—the Indians of 
North America, for instance—are almost beardless. 
The beard is carefully cultivated by some Eastern 
nations, Turks, Arabs, and Persians, and especially 
by Mahometans, and often dyed red with henna, 
and its removal is regarded as a degradation. Some¬ 
times, however, it is shaved in time of mourning, 
as in ancient Greece. The ancient Egyptians, 
however, reversing the contemporary practice in 
this as in other matters, shaved as a rule and let 
their beards grow during mourning, though they 
sometimes wore false beards, differing according to 
the rank of the wearer. The Assyrian sculptures 
show long beards. Leviticus xix. 27 forbids trim¬ 
ming the corners of the beard (cf. Ezek. v. 1). 

The ancient Greeks usually wore beards ; the 
Homeric heroes are bearded ; but Alexander the 
Great is said to have compelled his Macedonians to 
shave, saying “that there was no better hold in 
battle than a beard.” The philosophers of later 
times, however, always wore their beards as a kind 
of professional badge. Shaving was introduced into 
Rome about 300 b.c., and it is said Scipio Airicanus 
(about 200 B.c.) was the first Roman who shaved 
daily. The first hair shaved off by the young man 
was commonly offered to a god. Shaving was 











Bearing. 


( 380 ) 


Beas. 


general, at least in good society, till Hadrian’s time 
(117 A.D.), though we occasionally hear of “daintily 
trimmed beards” as a mark of foppery (as in Cicero’s 
letters), and along untrimmed beard was considered 
as a sign of slovenliness and squalor. The Emperor 
Hadrian wore a beard, it is said, to conceal scars 
on his face ; and either from this, or as part of the 
growth of Oriental practices in Rome, beards were 
worn thenceforth till the time of Constantine. 
Under Charles the Great the nobles usually shaved, 
but beards were worn from the tenth to the twelfth 
century. Shaving was then generally practised 
throughout the Middle Ages; the Normans intro¬ 
duced it into Britain, but beards were occasionally 
worn by the higher classes, as by Edward III. 
Henry I. had to shave his beard as a penance. With 
Elizabeth’s reign beards became common and often 
fantastic in form. Under Charles I. and Charles II. 
the “ Vandyke ” peaked beard and moustache were 
worn, familiar from the portraits of these kings; 
but afterwards shaving became common all over 
Europe until the present century was well advanced. 
In France, under Louis XIV. it was worn for a time, 
and powdered; but as the powder would not stay 
on, it became usual to shave the face closely, except 
that officers were allowed to wear moustaches—a 
privilege reserved under the First Empire for veterans j 
only. Foreign military service has been the chief 
agent in restoring the practice of wearing the beard 
in England and France. In the former it dates from 
the subjugation of Algeria (1830), though officials 
and members of the Bar are still closely shaven ; in 
the latter from the Crimean war, though Anglo- 
Indians wore it earlier. The value of the beard as 
a protection against throat complaints is now very 
generally insisted on. There is much greater 
diversity of practice in this matter of late years. 
The Roman Catholic priests are shaven, the Greek 
priests bearded ; in the Anglican Church there has 
been a considerable increase of late years among 
the clergy who wear beards, though Bishop Ryle 
(1881) introduced it as an innovation on the 
Episcopal bench. 

Of different styles of wearing the beard in the 
present century the “ Imperial ” (moustache and 
chin tuft) became fashionable under Napoleon 
III.; and the “ goatee ” is supposed to be specially 
American. In the first half of this century beards 
being uncommon were often regarded as betokening 
an eccentric and revolutionary type of mind (the 
view is even supported by a passage in one of Mr. 
Herbert Spencer’s Essays), and were the objects of 
special attention by the police of some Continental 
countries. 

Bearing, in Navigation and Hydrography , the 
distance and direction of one object from another. 
Bearings of fixed objects are given as seen from 


seaward, and, except when otherwise expressed, 
are to be accepted as magnetic. 

Bearings, in Mechanical Engineering, are 
those parts of the framework of a machine that 
support the rotating pieces, or are supported by 
them. That part of the rotating piece which fits 
in the bearing is called the journal, generally of 
cylindrical section. That portion of the bearing 
immediately in contact with the journal is called 
the hush , and is made of material somewhat softer 
than the journal, such as brass, gun-metal, or, in 
special cases, lignum-vitse. For the journal to 
rotate easily in the bearing it must be everywhere 
circular in section, it must fit the bearing accurately, 
and must admit of convenient lubrication (q.v.), 

! the nature of which will depend on the speed of 
rotation and on the pressure at the bearing. 

Ball-hearings have a special interest on account 
of their extensive application to cycles. In this 
case the journal does not fit accurately into the 
hollow cylindrical bush as usual, but is supported 
by a number of small steel balls fitting into a 
groove cut to contain them. The rolling-friction 
here, which replaces the ordinary rubbing-friction, 
is very small, and easy working at the bearing is 
| ensured. 

Bear Bake, Great, an extensive and 
irregularly-shaped sheet of fresh water, in the N.E. 
of Canada, is intersected by the arctic circle. Its 
estimated area is 14,000 square miles, and its height 
above sea-level 200 feet. Its surplus waters are 
carried by the Bear Lake river into the Mackenzie 
river. 

Bearn, an old province of France of which the 
capital was Pau, now forms the greater portion of 
the department of Basses-Pyrenees. It became an 
appanage of the crown of France in the person of 
Henry IV., who was a descendant of the family of 
Foix, the rulers of Bearn, and who, because he was 
born and brought up there, was nicknamed the 
Bearnois. Not until 1620 was it formally incorporated 
with France by Louis XIII., and up to 1790 it con¬ 
tinued to be governed by its own constitution. 

Bear River, a river of the United States, rises 
in the north part of Utah ; and, after flowing north¬ 
ward through Idaho, re-enters Utah, and flows into 
the Great Salt Lake. Though it is 450 miles in 
length, yet the distance from its mouth to its 
source in a straight line is only 90 miles. 

Beas, or Bias, ancient name Hyphasis, with the 
rivers Jelum, Chenab, Ravee, and Sutlej, comprises 
the five rivers that gives its name to the Punjab. 
It rises in the Himalaya mountains 13,300 feet 
above sea-level, and after a south-westerly course 
for 350 miles joins the Sutlej. 


Printed by Cassell & Company, Limited, La Belle Sauvage, London, E.C. 






























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% 


* 


I , 
















































. 







































THE 


Storehouse 

OF 

General Information. 



Beast—Castro. 


CASSELL & COMPANY, Limited: 

LONDON, PARIS <b MELBOURNE. 

1891. 


[all rights reserved.] 


AUTHORS OF PRINCIPAL ARTICLES 


BECHUANAS and 
XOLOGICAL ARTICLES 

Beethoven 


PT,r° T T p« ER ETH * I Prof. A. H. KEANE. 


( The Late W. A. BARRETT, 
Mus.D., Mus. Bae., Oxon. ; 
( Vicar Choral of St. Paul's. 


Belgium .. 
Bible 


W. ASTON LEWIS. 

( The Rev. Robert HUNTER, 
'( LL.D. 


Bible Society ... 

Billiards 
Bimetallism ... 
Biology . 

Birds 


J The Rev. Robert HUNTER, 
"•( LL.D. 

... A. G. PAYNE. 

... J. S. MANN. 

... Prof. G. S. BOULGER. 

C R. BOWDLER SHARPE, 

... ; F.Z.S., Keeper Ornithological 
(_ Department, British Museum. 


Blake and other Nautical j w la.IRD CLOWES. 
Articles .j 

Blood and other Medical (W. H. HAMER, M.A., M.D., 
Articles .) Cantab. 


Bohemia ... 
Boiler ... 
Bone 


W. ASTON LEWIS. 

j' O. G. JONES, B.Sc., Loud., 
Master in Physical Science at 
( the City of London School. 

W. H. HAMER. 


Bookbinding 

Botany ... 
Brain 
Breed ... 


j J. HALL RICHARDSON, as- 
i sisted by W. STRAKER. 

Prof. G. S. BOULGER, 

W. IT. HAMER. 

HENRY SCHERREN, F.Z.S. 


Bridge . 

British Museum 


... 0. G. JONES. 

( J. MACFARLANE, British 
( Museum. . 


Brittany 

Brownings 


J. S. MANN. 

W. W. HUTCHINGS. 


Bryozoa and other Zoologi-( J. W. GREGORY, British 
cal Articles .'( Museum. 


Building Societies. 

Bulgaria . 

Burglary and other legal 
articles. 

Burke . 

Burma . 

Burns . 

Byron . 


C. ETIIERINGTON. 

W. ASTON LEWIS. 
j-C. ETIIERINGTON. 

W. J. JEAFFRESON. 

C. E. D. BLACK, India Office. 
W. BAYNE. 

THOMAS ARCHER. 


Byzantine Architecture 


(R. PHENE SPIERS, F.S.A., 
Master of the Architectural 
(. School of the Royal Academy. 


Calico-Printing . J. HALL RICHARDSON. 


Cambridge University 
Cancer . 


( The Rf.v. Canon BONNE Y, 
( F.R.S. 

W. H. HAMER. 


W. LAUtU ULUWES. 


Cape Colony. ROBERT BROWN, Ph.D. 

Carbon and other Chemical B.Sc., Asso- 

\rticles ) excite of the Royal College of 

.(. Science. 


Carboniferous System 
Carlyle. 


Prof. G. S. BOULGER. 
W. BAYNE. 


LIST OF PLATES. 

Poisonous Fungi. Front is. "" 


Clouds. To face p. 05 

Map of Europe, showing Density of Popu- 


L ATI ON . 

. ,, 

}> 

129 

Comets. 

,, 

}> 

193 

Edible Fungi . 


>> 

257 

Carnivorous Plants 

... ... ... ,, 

>> 

321 - 






CASSELL’S 


Storehouse of General 

Information. 

-- 


Beast-fable, -TALE, -story, or -SAGA, a name 
for any story in which the lower animals are repre¬ 
sented as endowed with reason and speech. Such 
stories must have originated at a very early period 
in the development of the human race, when man 
saw nothing incongruous in attributing “ discourse 
of reason” to the beasts of the field and to the 
objects of the chase. By observations and experience 
primitive man knew that the birds he snared and 
the beasts he shot possessed vital energy similar to 
that which animated him and his fellows, and that 
the flint-headed arrow which pierced and killed 
the enemy of his tribe dealt a similar fate to them. 
And since these lower animals lived a similar life to 
man, like him perished from hunger or were slain 
by violence, and also like him were seen in dreams, 
and therefore possessed some kind of soul, what 
more natural than to conclude that they shared his 
higher nature, and possessed faculties similar in 
kind if not in degree ? Through this stage every 
race has passed in its progress from savagery to 
civilisation, and through it every child passes in the 
present day, though in the vast majority of ca^es 
the remembrance of such a stage is lost long before 
full mental vigour is reached. Most persons, have 
seen a child playing with a cat or a dog, talking to 
it gravely, and positively puzzled by the fact 
that the* beast did not obey the commands laid 
upon it, or reply to the questions put to it. f ew, 
however, stay to ponder on such incidents ; never¬ 
theless, in the mental condition that renders such 
incidents possible is to be found the reason for 
the genesis and continued existence of the Beast- 

fable. . .. 

From the foregoing it will be seen that it is im¬ 
possible to fix the origin in time or space of this 
form of literature, since it is, so to speak, the 
common property of races or individuals in a certain 
mental condition. Wherever any race is in this 
mental condition the Beast-fable pure and simple 
flourishes; when the race advances mentally the 
Beast-fable is gradually transformed into an apo¬ 
logue and fitted with a “ moral, as in JEsop s 
fables. Sometimes it passes through a third stage 
and is spiritualised. The mendicant friars did this 
with such stories in the Middle Ages, and specimens 
mav be seen in the Gesta Romanorum. As a sample 
of "the first kind the following African story is 
abridged from Tylor “ The great Engena-monkey 
offered his daughter to be the bride of the champion 

25 


who should drink a whole barrel of rum. The 
elephant, the leopard, and the boar tasted the spirit, 
and retreated. Then the tiny Telenga-monkey, 
who had hidden thousands of his fellows in 
the long grass, came and took his first sip, and 
went away, sending another and another in his 
stead till the barrel was emptied, and then he 
walked off with the king’s daughter. But the 
elephant and the leopard attacked him, and he took 
refuge in the top of the trees, vowing never more to 
live on the ground and suffer such violence and in¬ 
justice.” 

Traces of these stories may be found, jn the 
Scriptures. Two of the things which were “too 
wonderful” for Solomon—“the way of an eagle 
in the air, the way of a serpent upon a rock,” ap¬ 
parently refer to stories which have not come down 
to us, though they may not improbably be connected 
with a legend about an eagle and a snake preserved 
in the cuneiform inscriptions of Assur-bani-paTs 
library. In Eccles. xi. 20 there is an allusion to the 
belief that some birds possess the power of speech 
—“ a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that 
which hath wings shall tell the matter.” This 
constantly appears in Oriental tales, and we our¬ 
selves still use the expression, “ A little bird told 
me.” But there are far more weighty examples to 
be quoted. In the 148th Psalm “ beasts and all 
cattle, creeping things, and flying fowl ” are invoked 
to “ praise the Lord;” and in the Benedicite— which 
forms part of the liturgy of the Anglican and Roman 
Churches—the “ whales and all that move in the 
waters,” the “fowls of the air,” and “beasts and 
cattle,” are called on to “bless the Lord ” and to 
“ praise and exalt Him above all for ever.” Ihese 
last two instances suggest the thought that possibly 
primitive man may have “ builded better than he 
knew” when he ascribed community of nature to 
man and the lower animals, especially when one 
remembers that one of the foremost evolutionists 
of the present day is professor at a Roman Catholic 
university (Louvain) and that the Bishop of Dur¬ 
ham, in liis recent book (. Essays in the History of 
Religious Thought in the West), summarises with 
what a reviewer calls “ indirect recommendation ” 
the teaching of Origen as to the pre-existence of 
souls. [Metempsychosis.] 

Beat, in Music. (A) The name given to a pecu¬ 
liar turn employed in old music, (b) An acoustical 





Beatification. 


Beauchamp. 


( 2 ) 


phenomenon due to the interference of sound 
waves. If two notes of very nearly the same pitch 
be sounded together, the effect produced will be 
that of a single throbbing note with rapid periodic 
variation in intensity. It may often be observed 
in the clang of bells. The number of throbs, or 
beats, is equal to the difference in the frequencies 
of the two notes. Thus if one note is produced 
by 256 vibrations per second and another by 258, 
when the two are sounded together two beats 
per second will be heard. A similar effect is 
produced when the frequencies, instead of being 
nearly equal, are very nearly in some simple ratio 
to each other. This effect supplies a method for 
the estimation of the frequency of a note. [Fre¬ 
quency, Interfenerce.] (c) The movement of 
the hand or baton in counting time, (d) Also the 
several divisions of the notes in a bar of music, 
according to the time-sign indicated. 

Beatification, in the Roman Catholic Church, a 
kind of preliminary and inferior kind of Canoni¬ 
sation (q.v.), by which, not less than fifty years 
after death, the person beatified receives the 
title of Beat us or Blessed, and is formally estab¬ 
lished as an object of worship to a particular order 
or district, but not (as when canonised) to the 
whole Roman Catholic world. (Canonisation of 
course does not necessarily follow.) 

Beaton, David, Archbishop of St. Andrews and 
Cardinal, was born in 1494, educated at St. Andrews 
and Glasgow, and also studied at Paris. Through 
the patronage of his uncle, James Beaton, his pre¬ 
ferment in the Church was rapid, and in 1524 he 
sat in the Scottish Parliament as Abbot of 
Arbroath. In 1528 he was appointed by King 
James V. Keeper of the Privy Seal, and went on 
various royal missions to the French court, where 
he was held in high esteem. Pope Paul III. made 
him a cardinal in 1538, and in 1539 he succeeded 
his uncle in the see of St. Andrews. On the death 
of King James, 1542, he endeavoured to become 
one of the regents of the kingdom during the 
minority of the infant Queen Mary ; but his claims, 
which were based on a forged will of the late king, 
were set aside, and the cardinal himself imprisoned. 
In 1543 he crowned Queen Mary at Stirling, and 
was appointed Chancellor of Scotland. He now 
became notorious for his zeal in persecuting 
the Protestants. Amongst others he sent the 
famous preacher, George Wishart, to the stake, 
viewing the martyr’s sufferings from a window with 
exultation. At length a plot to assassinate him 
was formed, and on May 29th, 1546, he was 
murdered at St. Andrews in his own castle. 

Beaton, James, Archbishop of Glasgow and 
St. Andrews, took his degree at the university of 
the latter in 1493. He received his first ecclesiastical 
appointment in 1493, thereafter rapidly rising until 
he became Archbishop of Glasgow in 1509, and of 
St. Andrews in 1522. He also held the offices of 
lord treasurer and chancellor, and during the 
minority of James V. was a leading figure in Scottish 
history. He was one of the regents, and strongly 


in favour of the French as against the English 
alliance. He held direct communication with 
France through his nephew, David Beaton (q.v.), 
who represented Scotland at the French court, and 
who favoured his uncle’s policy. He sent the leaders 
of the Reformed doctrines to the stake, as his 
nephew did after him. He died in 1539. 

Beatrix Antelope. [Oryx.] 

Beattie, James, poet and writer on philosophy, 
was born at Laurencekirk, October 25th, 1735. 
After graduating at Marischal' College, Aberdeen, 
he became schoolmaster successively at Fordoun 
and the Aberdeen grammar school, becoming in 1760 
Professor of Moral Philosophy in Marischal College. 
In 1770, after one or two volumes of poems, ap¬ 
peared his celebrated Essay on Truth , which 
acquired the reputation of having overthrown 
Hume’s scepticism, and led to the offer of many 
honours. He is chiefly remembered now, however, 
as the author of The Minstrel , the first part of which 
appeared in 1771, and the second in 1774. After 
publishing several volumes of essays and disserta¬ 
tions of a religious and philosophical nature, he 
died at Aberdeen, August 18th, 1803. 

Beattie, William, physician, was born in 
Dumfriesshire in 1793. As physician to the Duke 
of Clarence, afterwards William IV., he travelled 
with him on the Continent and published the 
results in several books on Switzerland, North Italy, 
and the Danube. In 1849 he published the Life 
and Letters of his friend, Campbell, the poet. He 
also wrote treatises on Consumption and the Home 
Climates, and a poem, Heliotrope, or the Pilgrim in 
pursuit of Health. v 

Beaucaire (derived from Bellum Quadrum, the 
beautiful square), is a French commercial town on 
the Rhone, and in the department of Gard; a 
magnificent suspension bridge of four spans and 
1,456 feet long connects it with Tarascon, which is 
on the opposite (the left) bank of the river. Beau¬ 
caire is chiefly celebrated for its great fair (July 
21-28), which dates from the year 1217. To it 
come merchants from all parts of Europe, and even 
from parts of Asia. 

Beauce, a French district, part of the old 
Orleannois, and now in the departments of Loir-et- 
Cher and Eure-et-Loir. It is very productive in 
farm produce and wine. 

Beauchamp, Alphonse de, historian and 
litterateur, was “born at Monaco in 1767, dying in 
Paris in 1832. In 1784 he entered the Sardinian 
military service, and was imprisoned for refusing, 
from conscientious motives, to fight against the 
French Republic. On his release he went to Paris 
and obtained government employment, having the 
press under his surveillance. He displeased the 
authorities with his Histoire de la Vendee et des 
Chouans, and lost his situation, being obliged to 
leave Paris. In 1811 he was allowed to return, and 
received a small pension, which was continued to 
his widow. His best known historical and 







Beauclerk. 


( 3 ) 


Beaujolais. 


biographical works are:— Histoire de la Complete 
du Perou, 1807 ; Histoire du Brcsil, 1815 ; Histoire 
de la Revolution du Piemoni , 1823 ; Vie de Louis 
XVIII., 1821. The Memoires de Fouche are also 
attributed to him. 

Beauclerk, Topham, son of Lord Sydney 
Beauclerk, was born in 1739, succeeding in 1744 to 
the estates that his father had inherited from Richard 
Topham. In 1768 he married Lady Diana Spencer, 
eldest daughter of the second Duke of Marlborough, 
two days after her divorce from Lord St. John and 
Bolingbroke. He died in 1780, leaving a library of 
30,000 volumes, a catalogue of which is in the 
British Museum. He was a particular friend of Dr. 
Johnson, and is portrayed in Boswell's pages. 

Beaufort, a French town in the department of 
Maine-et-Loire, 16 miles E. of Angers. It has 
manufactures of canvas and coarse linen and a 
college. There is another French town of the name 
in Savoy, doing an extensive trade in Gruyere 
cheeses. 

Beaufort, Henry, Cardinal, was a natural son 
of John of Gaunt, and half-brother of Henry IY. 
of England. He was born in 1377 and died in 
1447. After being Bishop of Lincoln, he was trans¬ 
ferred to Winchester in 1404. He occupied the 
office of Lord Chancellor on different occasions, 
and was an active participator in the political 
movements of his time. 

Beaufort, Sir Francis, naval officer and hydro- 
grapher, was born in 1774, and entered the Royal 
Navy in 1787. He served in the Aquilon on the 
Glorious First of June, 1794, and in the Plwxton on 
the occasion of Cornwallis's celebrated retreat. 
Becoming a lieutenant in 1796, he was severely 
wounded in 1800 while assisting in the cutting out 
of a Spanish vessel, moored under the guns of a 
battery. Immediately afterwards he was promoted 
to the rank of commander, and in 1810 he attained 
post-rank. Thenceforward he was for some time 
employed on surveying duty, and in 1832 was ap¬ 
pointed hydrographer to the Admiralty, a post 
which he held until 1855. He was made an F.R.S. 
in 1814, rear-admiral in 1846, and K.C.B. in 1848. 
He died in 1857. 

Beaufort Arm, an artificial limb consisting of 
a wooden hand and a leather arm. It was distri¬ 
buted to the maimed soldiers of the French army 
in 1871. 

Beaugency, an old town in the department of 
Loiret, France, about 14 miles S.W. of Orleans, on 
the right bank of the Loire, having a station on the 
railway to Tours. The chateau was formerly the 
seat of the lords of Beaugency, whose domain was 
absorbed by the Crown in the 13th century. There 
is a ruin known as Csesar’s Tower. Joan of Arc 
took the town from the English in 1429. It enjoys 
a considerable trade in corn, wine, and agricultural 
produce. 

Beauharnais, Josephine Marie Rose de, 
was born in Martinique in 1763, her family name 


being Tascher de la Pagerie. At the age of 15 she 
married Yicomte Alexandre de Beauharnais, who 
joined the revolutionary movement, served as a 
general of division in the army of the Rhine 
(1792), was accused of treason and beheaded in 
1794. By this marriage she had two children, 
Eugene (q.v.) and Hortense, the wife of Louis 
Bonaparte, King of Holland. She nearly shared 
her husband's fate, but Tallien, charmed by her 
beauty and manner, saved her. She next exercised 
her influence on Barras, and in 1796 in an interview 
with Napoleon so captivated the great conqueror 
that he married her. She filled her high position 
with grace and brilliancy, but unhappily no chil¬ 
dren were born of this union, and Napoleon, though 
as deeply attached to her as his nature permitted, 
for dynastic considerations procured a divorce in 
1809. Josephine bore this cruel parting bravely, 
but it broke her heart. She lived in retirement at 
Malmaison until after Napoleon’s banishment to 
Elba, and died in 1814. 

Beauharnais, Eugene de, the son of the fore¬ 
going, was born in 1781. In 1795 he went to 
General Bonaparte to claim his father’s sword, and 
his bearing attracted the future emperor, who next 
year became his step-father, and took him as 
aide-de-camp to the Italian campaign. The lad 
accompanied his protector to Egypt, where he 
showed great courage, and played a brilliant part 
in the second Italian war. He rose rapidly, and in 
1804, being then colonel-in-chief of chasseurs, was 
created a prince of the empire. In 1805 he acted 
as viceroy in Italy, and filled the post with tact and 
intelligence. Next year he married Augusta 
Amelia, daughter of the King of Bavaria, and was 
adopted by Napoleon as his successor. In 1809 he 
foiled with much skill the attempt of Austria to 
recover her hold on Italy, and followed up his 
successes at Raab and Wagram. The jealousy of 
the Bonaparte family now began to undermine the 
influence of Josephine and her son. Eugene gave 
his assent to the divorce, and served Napoleon with 
zeal in the disastrous invasion of Russia, and in the 
subsequent operations in north Italy. After the 
battle of Bellegarde he fought no more. In 1814 
he was deprived of his viceroyalty, but was allowed 
by Louis XVIII. to retain his title of prince. He 
preserved a quiescent attitude during the Hundred 
Days, and retiring to Munich received the princi¬ 
pality of Eichstadt and the dukedom of Leuchten- 
burg. He died of apoplexy in 1824. Of his six 
children the eldest married Donna Maria, Queen of 
Portugal, and died early ; Josephine became the 
wife of Oscar Bernadotte, Crown Prince of Sweden; 
and Amelia was the consort of Pedro, the Emperor 
of Brazil. 

Beaujolais, a district of France, now comprised 
in the departments of Rhone and Loire, having 
Beaujeu for its chief town. In the 9th century it 
was a barony in the hands of the Counts of the 
Lyonnais and Forez. About 1400 it passed to the 
Bourbons, and Anne of France, daughter of Louis 
XI., was known as La Dame de Beaujeu. In 1626, by 
the marriage of Marie de Montpensier with Gaston 






Beaumarchais. 


Beaune. 


( 4 ) 


d’Orleans, it was acquired by the House of Orleans, 
who retained it till 1808. Its name is still pre¬ 
served to designate the excellent wine for which 
it has long been famous. 

Beaumarchais, Pierre Augustin Caron de, 
the son of a watchmaker named Caron, was born 
at Paris in 1782. Though devoted to music he 
stuck to his father’s trade, and an ingenious in¬ 
vention which he had to protect by an appeal to 
law, brought him to the notice of Louis XV., who 
first appointed him court watchmaker, and then 
comptroller of the household. He next gave les¬ 
sons in music to the three princesses. Allying 
himself with Paris Duverney, the notorious specula¬ 
tor, he grew rich and was ennobled by the king. 
In 1764 he went to Madrid, where he picked up 
materials for his Figaro, and by his adventures 
with Clavigo provided Goethe with the theme for a 
drama. A protracted lawsuit led to the publication 
of his factums, or statements of case, full of argu¬ 
ment, wit, and satire, that conduced not a little to 
the spread of revolutionary ideas. About the same 
time he produced several of his plays, the Barbier 
de Seville appearing in 1775. He acted in London 
as the secret agent of France to foment the out¬ 
break of the American colonies, and as a speculation 
sent out cargoes of arms and ammunition, for which 
he did not get paid. In 1784 his masterpiece, Le 
Mariage de Figaro , was brought out under some 
difficulties and won him enormous credit. He 
threw himself with some ardour into the revolution, 
but during the Reign of Terror was imprisoned and 
narrowly escaped the guillotine. After some years 
of poverty he died suddenly in 1799. 

Beaumaris, the chief town and municipal 
borough of the Isle of Anglesey, North Wales, 
situated three miles from Bangor, on a fine bay at 
the entrance of the Menai Straits. There is an old 
castle built by Edward I., and a handsome church. 
Until 1885 it sent a member to Parliament, but the 
representation is now merged in a division of the 
county. Little trade is carried on, and the influx 
of visitors during the bathing season is the principal 
source of prosperity. 

Beaumaris Shark. [Porbeagle.] 

Beaumont, Francis, the son of a judge of the 
Court of Common Pleas, was born in 1584, and 
educated at Oxford. Nominally a member of the 
bar he took little interest in the profession, but 
sought the society of Ben Jonson, and the wits of 
the day, attaching himself most closely to John 
Fletcher, nine or ten years his senior, so that their 
two names are indissolubly bound together in the 
history of the English drama. Over fifty dramas 
and poems are attributed to their joint labours, but 
it has never been satisfactorily decided what share 
in the composition is to be assigned to each partner, 
the allocation of thirty-eight to their united 
efforts and eighteen to Fletcher alone being quite 
fanciful. Beaumont is generally credited with 
having the advantage in tragic and pathetic power, 
in the higher ranges of feeling and expression, and 


in the more solid elements of comedy; whilst to 
Fletcher are attributed brilliancy, fluency, quickness 
of invention, romanticism, levity, and graceful ease 
rather than strength. Pliilaster, produced in 1607, 
is believed to be the first of their joint works, and 
before Beaumont’s death The Maid's Tragedy, King 
and No King, Bonduca, and The Laws of Candy ap¬ 
peared on the tragic stage, with the comedies en¬ 
titled The Woman Hater, The Knight of the Burn¬ 
ing Pestle, The Honest Man's Fortune, The Coxcomb, 
and The Captain. Of the three tragedies and nine 
comedies brought out by Fletcher after his col¬ 
league’s death none possesses features that dis¬ 
tinguish it from the earlier pieces. The Faithful 
Shepherdess, often regarded as his individual crea¬ 
tion. reveals the qualities usually connected with 
the name of Beaumont. The feebler hand that 
cooperated with Shakespeare in the The Two Noble 
Kinsmen may perhaps have been Fletcher’s, but 
Beaumont is linked with him on the title page of 
the first edition. The poetic pair seem to have 
lived together on strictly communistic principles 
until 1613, when Beaumont married. Three years 
later he died and was buried in Westminster Abbey. 
Fletcher, the son of a cleric, who from the living of 
Rye was promoted to the bishoprics of Bristol and 
of Worcester, was born in 1576. His father’s death 
apparently left him in great straits, but he went to 
Cambridge, and had found a place among the 
frequenters of the Mermaid tavern when he fell in 
with Beaumont, whom he survived nearly ten years, 
dying of the plague in 1625. Their compound 
genius never rivalled Shakespeare in either branch 
of the drama, and even fell somewhat short of 
Webster and Marlow in tragedy, and of Jonson in 
comedy. Their writings exhibit the defects of 
youth in the absence of strong and persistent moral 
purpose, and are often marred by a coarseness and 
laxity unworthy of the Elizabethan age. 

Beaumont, Jean Baptiste Elie de, was 
born in Calvados, France, in 1798, and educated at 
the Ecole Polytechnique. He became in 1824 
Professor of Geology in the School of Mines and 
afterwards in the College of France. Elected to 
the Academy of Sciences in 1825, he succeeded 
Arago as perpetual secretary to that body. His 
great work was the preparation, in concert with 
Dufresnoy, of the Geological Map of France, but 
many other minor undertakings attest his indus¬ 
try and intelligence. His theory as to the origin of 
volcanoes and the elevation of mountains has pro¬ 
voked much discussion, and gained but little cre¬ 
dence outside France. He taught that the crust of 
the earth was upheaved by subterranean forces 
until at last the dome-like mass gave way at its 
highest point and the molten lava and other sub¬ 
stances were ejected. He, moreover, applied his 
idea to the raising of mountain systems generally. 
He died in 1874. 

Beaune, a town in the department of Cote 
d’Or, France, on the railway from Paris to Lyons, 
and 23 miles S.W. of Dijon. Though ancient it is 
well laid out and built, and contains two twelfth 
century churches as well as the Hospital of Nicolas 







Beaune. 


Beaver. 


Rollin founded in 1443. The wine which bears its 
name is one of the best of the second-class Bur¬ 
gundies, and in the immediate neighbourhood are 
produced some of the finest growths of Burgundies. 
Besides enjoying a large trade in wine the town 
possesses cloth factories, distilleries, and dye 
works. 

Beaune, Jacques de, Baron of Samblan^ay, 
born at Tours in 1445, became the superintendent 
of finances under Charles VIII., Louis XII., and 
hrancis I. He lent to the queen-mother, Louise of 
Savoy, a sum of money destined for Lautrec, who 
was then endeavouring to relieve Milan, and whose 
expedition failed in consequence. Louise induced 
his secretary, Gentil, to steal the receipts, and 
Jacques being charged with embezzlement was 
convicted and hanged (1527). His innocence was 
afterwards proved, and Gentil was sent to the 
gallows. 

Beauregard, Pierre Gustave Toutant, was 
born at New Orleans in 1818, and educated at West 
Point, entering the artillery of the United States in 
1838, and after active service in Mexico being trans¬ 
ferred to the engineers. In 1861 when the civil 
war broke out he was at the head of the West 
Point Academy. He adopted the Southern cause, 
commanded in the attack on Fort Sumter, and took 
part in the battle of Bull Run. In 1862 he fought 
at Shiloh under A. S. Johnston, and next year held 
Charleston against Gilmore. He was serving in 
North Carolina with E. S. Johnston when the latter 
surrendered in 1865. He then made his home in 
the south, and became president of the New Orleans, 
Jackson, and Mississippi Railway. 

Beausobre, Isaac de, born at Niort in 1659, 
entered the Protestant ministry, and had to escape 
from France about the time of the revocation of 
the Edict of Nantes. He took refuge first in Hol¬ 
land, but in 1694 settled in Berlin, where he became 
chaplain to the king and councillor of the royal 
consistory. He was a man of sense and erudition. 
His History of Manicheeism was praised by Gibbon, 
and his History of the Reliyious Reformation is a 
fragment of a work conceived on a grand scale. 
He translated also the New Testament. His death 
occurred in 1738. 

Beauvais (anc. Ccesaromayus Rellovacorum'), 
the capital of the department of Oise, France, on 
the river Therain, about 45 miles N. of Paris, with 
which it is connected by railway. It is a very 
ancient town, and contains a basilica of the sixth 
century, the noble cathedral of St. Peter, begun in 
1225 and never finished, with admirably stained 
glass, the church of St. Etienne, also retaining fine 
windows, the episcopal palace, and the hotel-de- 
ville. The tapestry of Beauvais has long been 
famous, and carpets, velvets, woollen and leather 
goods are made. There is a large trade in corn 
and wine. The heroism of the women headed by 
Jeanne Hachette during the siege by the Duke of 
Burgundy, in 1472, is commemorated by an annual 
fete on October 14th. 

Beauxite, or Bauxite, is an earthy hydrous 


5 ) 


oxide of aluminium and iron {3Al 2 0 3 + Fe 2 0 ;r -t-2Aq), 
occurring in oolitic granules in limestone at Beaux, 
near Arles, in the south of France, and employed 
on a large scale in the manufacture of aluminium. 

Beaver, the popular name of any individual of 
the genus Castor, which constitutes a family 
(Castoridi-e) of the Sciuromorpha or Squirrel-shaped 
division of simple-toothed Rodents. [Roden- 
tia. j Authorities differ as to the number of species 
in the genus ; some hold that there are two— 
Castor f her, the European, and C. canadensis, the 
American Beaver ; others are of opinion that the 
differences between the two forms “ are sufficiently 
striking to justify us in regarding them as varieties 
of one and the same species; ” and there are yet 
other systematists who believe that these differ¬ 
ences are not sufficient to warrant the classing of 
the American Beaver even as a variety. With the 
exception of the Capybara (q.v.) the Beaver is the 
largest living rodent. An adult male is somewhat 
less than a foot in height ; the head and body are 
about 30 in. long, and the tail, which is nearly oval 
and flattened horizontally, some 10 in. more. The 
body is stout and massive, the back arched, the head 
large, the neck short and thick, the muffle naked, ears 
and tail scaly, the former capable of being folded 
so as almost to close the passage to the internal ear, 
the eyes small and furnished with a nictitating 
membrane, and the nostrils can be closed at will. 
The general colour of the fur is reddish-brown on 
the upper surface, lighter and greyish below. The 
hue varies considerably in different individuals and 
becomes darker in high latitudes. Numerous in¬ 
stances of black, pied, and albino forms are 
recorded, and these are noted in some books as 
distinct varieties. The hind feet are webbed, and 
all the digits armed with claws ; the second toe of 
the hind feet is usually furnished with a double claw, 
the supplementary one being under the other. On 
the right of the opening of the intestinal tube into 
the stomach there is a large glandular mass, and 
the anal and urethro-genital orifices open into a 
common passage. The skull is massive, and there 
is a distinct sagittal crest [Skull] for the attach¬ 
ment of the strong muscles which move the lower 
jaw. There are four molars and one incisor on 
each side in each jaw, making twenty teeth in all. 
The incisors, which are of deep orange-red colour, 
spring from persistent pulps, and are admirably 
adapted for cutting instruments. Indeed, accord¬ 
ing to Sir John Richardson, the North American 
Indians used them to cut bone and to fashion their 
horn-tipped spears till the introduction of the 
English file gave the Red man a better tool. The 
molars are nearly similar in size and structure, but 
the first is the largest ; in the upper molars there 
are three folds of the enamel on the outer, and one 
fold on the inner surface, and similar folds, but in 
reverse order, on the lower molars. 

At one time the beaver was plentifully distributed 
over the northern parts of both hemispheres. Re¬ 
mains have been found in the Fens, and it is said 
that Beverley owes its name and arms to the fact 
that beavers once abounded in the neighbouring 
river. There is historical evidence that they were 











Beaver. 


Bebek. 


( 6 ) 


formerly found in Wales and Scotland, though in 
the former they were confined to the river Teify 
in the twelfth century, but they appear to 
have lived on in Scotland for some 300 years 
longer. At present there is a protected colony in 
Bute, and there are some few individuals living 
under similar conditions in France and Germany. 
Though the beaver was once plentiful in Scandinavia, 
it is either extinct there or rapidly becoming so, and 
it is only in Poland and Russia that the animal can 
be found under natural conditions in Europe. In 
Asia it is fairly abundant in Siberia, and in the 
rivers which flow into the Caspian Sea. In North 
America, where the beaver formerly ranged over the 
whole continent from Labrador to North Mexico, it 
is still fairly abundant in the wilder portions of the 
western territories. Beavers are aquatic animals, 
and their dwellings are always close to, or in the 
neighbourhood of water. They are excellent swim¬ 
mers, using only the hind feet for this purpose, the 
fore feet being employed, like hands, in carrying 
and building operations, and in conveying food to 
the mouth. [Bimana.] They are mostly nocturnal, 
rarely venturing abroad by day, and live in families 
or colonies, in a common dwelling in the construc¬ 
tion and maintenance of which all are expected to 
take part. Those animals which neglect to do so 
are driven away, and live solitarily in burrows of 
their own, and are generally known as “ terriers,” 
and sometimes from their sex, for they are always 
males, as “ old bachelors.” Beavers feed mainly on 
the bark of trees, supplementing this diet by the 
roots of the common water lily (Nupliar lute a) ; 
but when they journey inland, as they do in the 
warm season, they live on roots, fruit, and corn. 

Beavers are excellent wood-cutters. “ When the 
beaver cuts down a tree it gnaws it all round, 
cutting it, however, somewhat higher on the one 
side than the other, by which the direction of its 
fall is determined. The stump is conical, and of 
such a height as a beaver sitting on his hind¬ 
quarters could make. The largest tree I observed 
cut down by them was about the thickness of a 
man’s thigh (that is six or seven inches in 
diameter), but Mr. Graham says he has seen them 
cut down a tree which was ten inches in diameter.” 
(Sir J. Richardson.) Another writer, speaking of 
the destruction of trees by beavers, says, “ the 
timber was entirely penetrated for a space of three 
acres on the front of the river, and one in depth, 
and great part of it removed, though some of the 
trees were as thick as the body of a man.” In the 
enclosure appropriated to the beavers at the 
Zoological Gardens, Regent’s Park, the visitor may 
see proof of the skill of these animals in felling 
trees with no other tools than their incisor teeth. 

The beaver is hunted for its fur, which was 
formerly much used for making hats, and to a less 
extent for gloves. It is now chiefly employed for 
ladies’ capes and for trimming. From the earliest 
times, too, these animals have been taken for the 
sake of the castoreum (q.v.), secreted by glands in 
the groin of the male. Wonderful tales have come 
down to us from Greek and Roman days, as to 
how, when hard pressed by the hunter, the animal 
would bite off these glands—then erroneously 


supposed to be sexual organs—and escape while 
his pursuer stopped to pick them up. Another 
version is to the effect that the beaver would lie 
placidly on his back when the hunter approached, 
that he might obtain what he wanted without 
trouble, and so be induced to spare the life of his 
victim. The flesh of the beaver is sometimes 
eaten, and is said to resemble pork in flavour ; the 
tail is considered a luxury by trappers. In the 
scale of intelligence the beaver stands high, as 
is shown by its dwellings. The best authority 
on this subject is Mr. Lewis H. Morgan ( The 
American Beaver and his Works'). According 
to this writer the simplest form of beaver-dwelling 
is a burrow, differing little from that of other 
rodents except in the fact that it opens under the 
water. He supposes that a breach of such a 
burrow at the upper end, if repaired with sticks 
and earth, would suggest the beaver lodge —an 
oven-shaped building of sticks with grass inter¬ 
woven and plastered with mud—though it must be 
borne in mind that the animal does not use his tail as 
a trowel—and repaired or added to when necessary. 
Of these lodges Mr. Lewis enumerates three kinds, 
which differ principally in the situations in which 
they are built—on small islands, in ponds or dams, 
on the banks of a lake or stream, or shelving shores 
with a large part of the dwelling built out into the 
water. But all beavers are not such accomplished 
builders ; in some there would appear to have been 
degeneration in this respect, or the habit has never 
been developed. In Mr, Lewis’s book will also be 
found interesting details as to beaver dams, by 
which these animals keep the water of variable 
streams up to the necessary height, and the canals 
by which they transport timber which they cannot 
roll. The beaver appears first in the Miocene of 
N. America, and is found in the Pleistocene of 
Europe. An allied form occurs in the Pliocene of 
the Auvergne. [Trogontherium.] 

Beaver. Though the animal of this name 
sometimes occurs, the word in Heraldry nearly 
always is used to signify the beaver or visor of a 
helmet, which was that part protecting the sight 
and opening in the front, and capable of being 
raised or lowered at pleasure. Whether the beaver 
be open or closed, whether the helmet be in profile 
or affrontee, the metal it is made of and the number 
of “ grills ” displayed determine, with other marks, 
the rank belonging to the owner of the coat-of- 
arms which it surmounts. [Helmet.] 

Beaver Bat ( Hydromys chry soy aster), a rodent 
from the Australian region, about two feet long, of 
which the tail is one-half; neck and upper parts 
of the body rich dark brown, washed with a light 
golden tint as far as the hind limbs ; under-surface 
golden-yellow ; the basal half of the tail is black, 
the remaining part white. The hind feet are 
webbed. The name is sometimes applied to the 
Musquash (q.v.). 

Bebek, or Babec, a town in the province of 
Fars, Persia, on the Kiraian frontier, 100 miles 
N.E. of Shiraz. Formerly a fine and prosperous 
city, it has now sunk into decay. 






Bebek Bay. 


Bechuanas. 


( 


Bebek Bay, on the west side of the Bosphorus, 
is a pleasant resort five miles from Constantinople. 
The Sultan has a palace there, and the American 
School and 1 rench Lazarist College are among 
other public establishments. 

Bebel, Heinrich, born in Suabia about 1472, 
studied at the universities of Cracow and Basle, 
and in 1497 was appointed professor of literature 
at Tubingen. He was one of the best Latin scholars 
of the day, and his Opuscula show a great know¬ 
ledge of the classics, but his poetical efforts lapsed 
into gross buffoonery. He died about 1516. 

Beberia Sulphate, Beberine, Bebeeru 
Bark. The greenheart tree, Nectandra Rodicei, 
contains an alkaloid beberine applied medicinally 
in the form of the sulphate Beberife sulphas. It 
was thought at one time that it would supersede 
quinine as an antiperiodic; it is, however, now but 
rarely heard of. 

Bee, a small town in the department of Eure, 
France, famous for the Benedictine abbey founded 
there in 1077 by Herlouim. Many illustrious church¬ 
men were trained in its walls, Lanfranc and Anselm 
among them. The cloister is now a stable. 

Beccaria, Caesar Bonesana, Marquis of, 
was born at Milan in 1735 or 1738. He devoted 
himself to the study of social and judicial reforms, 
and in 1764 published a little treatise on Crimes 
and Punishments , which was translated into every 
European language, and produced a striking effect 
on the ablest minds of the day. In conjunction 
with other young Italians he got up a periodical, 
II Caffe , in the style of the Spectator , for the dis¬ 
cussion of kindred topics. He was appointed to a 
chair of political economy at Milan in 1768, and 
later on was made a member of the Supreme 
Economic Council. He wrote nothing during the 
last twenty-five years of his life, but his lectures 
were printed posthumously. His cardinal doctrine 
asserted the injustice of any punishment that ex¬ 
ceeds what is necessary for the preservation of the 
public safety. He pointed out the demoralising 
effects of sanguinary and cruel penalties, of judicial 
torture, of the use of spies, and of rewards for 
evidence. He advocated open trial by jury, and 
the restriction of the power of the judge. Though 
his bias towards utilitarianism and the theory of a 
social contract blinded him to the highest concep¬ 
tion of moral duty, his teachings did much to bring 
about the beneficent changes witnessed by the 
eighteenth century. He died in 1794. 

Becher, Johann Joachim, was born at Spires 
in 1635. He acquired a great knowledge of 
medicine, chemistry, and physics, and in 1666 be¬ 
came professor at Mayence. Thence he moved to 
Munich, and later on appeared at Vienna, where, 
under the patronage of Zinzendorf, he started 
several ambitious enterprises for trade and manu¬ 
facture. Something was amiss in his character, 
for he had to fly from Vienna, and in 1678 he found 
himself at Haarlem, afterwards visiting England 


7 ) 


and Scotland. He is said to have died in London 
in 1682. His many works, though affected by the 
old quackery and superstition, show a decided 
progress towards scientific chemistry, leading up 
to the phlogistic theory of Stahl. He discovered 
boracic acid. 

Bechuanaland, a tract of country in South 
Africa, inhabited by the various tribes of the 
Bechuana, Bechwana, or Betjuana nation. It ex¬ 
tends from Griqualand West in a northerly 
direction to the Upper Zambesi, being bounded on 
the E. by the Limpopo river and Matabililand, and 
on the W. by Great Namaqua Land and Darnara 
Land. Since 1885, however, the portion of this 
great region S. of the Molopo river, amounting to 
45,000 square miles, has been made a Crown colony, 
and is known as British Bechuanaland, whilst the 
sphere of British protection has been extended as 
far as lat. 22° S. This policy was rendered neces¬ 
sary by the aggressions of the Boers, who, in 18S4, 
tried to establish the rejiublics of Stellaland and 
Goshen on the territories of Montssioa and Manka- 
roane, the two native chiefs. Mr. John Mackenzie 
and Sir Charles Warren materially aided in organ¬ 
ising the new colony, the capital of which is Mafe- 
king. The soil is fairly fertile in many places, 
though timber is deficient. For the rearing of 
cattle it is highly favourable. Gold and other 
metals have been found. The climate, somewhat 
hot in summer but cool in other seasons, and re¬ 
markably dry, owing to its elevation of about four 
thousand feet, is one of the best in Africa. 

Bechuanas, a widespread South African 
Bantu race, whose domain extends from the Orange 
river north to the Zambesi, and from Namaqua 
and Darnara lands east to the Orange Free State, 
Transvaal and Matabililand. This region com¬ 
prises politically the British Crown colony of South 
Bechuanaland, 50,000 square miles, population 
53,000, together with the British protectorates of 
North Bechuanaland, including Khama’s Territory 
and Lake Ngamiland, 200,000 square miles, popula¬ 
tion about 500,000; total 250,000 square miles, 
population 550,000, exclusive of the Basutos, who 
are an eastern division of the same people. 
[Basutos.] The chief tribal divisions, some con¬ 
stituting important nationalities, and till recently 
powerful independent states, are: 1. Baliarutse 
(Barotse), west of the Upper Limpopo, on north¬ 
west frontier Transvaal; 2. Batlapi (“Fish 

People”) Griqualand West; 3. Batlaro, southern¬ 
most of all the Bechuanas, west frontier Griqua¬ 
land, now mostly absorbed in the Batlapi group; 
4. Barolong , between the Molopo river and the 
tributaries of the Kuruman; 5. Bahatla, Gamco- 
hopa district; 6. Barvanhetsi, Khanye district, 

Upper Limpopo basin ; 7. Bahvena , north of the 
Bawanketsi territory; 8. Bacliwapeng, the hilly 
district south of Shoshong; 9. Basiliha, east of 
Shoshong near left bank Limpopo ; 10. Bahalaliari 
( Balala ), the Bechuanas of the Kalahari desert; 

11. Bamangwato , Khama’s people, most powerful 
of all the Bechuanas, Ngamiland, capital, Shoshong; 

12. Makololo of the Zambesi. [Makololo.] The 










Becker. 


Bedchamber. 


( 


Bechuanas, chiefly sedentary shepherds and agri¬ 
culturists, are amongst the most intelligent of all 
Bantu peoples, and Khama, chief of the Bamang- 
watos, has displayed remarkable qualities as a 
ruler and reformer of his people. The system 
of totemism is largely developed among the 
tribes, many of whom take their names from the 
object, generally an animal, which they regard as 
their tutelar deity, offering it a kind of worship 
expressed by the word lino, to dance. Thus the 
Bechuanas probably take their name from the 
Cape baboon ( chuene) still the totem of the Barotse 
or elder branch; the Bakatlas revere the hat la, 
another species of ape ; the Bakwenas venerate the 
kwena (crocodile), and so on. The Bechuana 
language, which is spoken with considerable 
dialectic variety, presents greater affinity to the 
Zulu-Kafir than to any other Bantu idiom ; about 
50 per cent, of the words are absolutely identical,' 
while most of the rest diverge according to fixed 
phonetic laws. It has been reduced to writing by 
the missionaries, who have been successful in 
evangelising several of the tribes. The first 
English mission of Littaku was founded before the 
year 1820, and French Protestant missionaries have 
worked in the same field since 1830. See Living¬ 
stone's Missionary Travels (1857); Rev. E. Salomon, 
Two lectures on the Native Tribes, etc. (1855); G. 
Fritsch, Bemerkungen, etc., in Zeitsclirift der 
Gesellscliaft fiir Erdkunde, Berlin, 1868, and recent 
Blue Books. 

Becker, Nicolaus, was born near Aachen in 
1810. Until 1840 he was an obscure lawyer’s clerk, 
when he was inspired to write the famous 
patriotic song now known as the Wacht am Rhein. 
For a moment he became the most popular man in 
Germany, but he published a volume of lyrics 
that destroyed his reputation, and he died almost 
forgotten in 1845. 

Becker, Wilhelm Adolf, the son of a dis¬ 
tinguished archaeologist, was born at Dresden in 
179(5. He followed in his father’s footsteps and 
became professor in the university of Leipzig. His 
two clever books, Charicles and Gallus, descriptive 
of Greek and Roman life respectively, are still ap¬ 
preciated. His Handbook of Roman Antiquities 
was completed after his death in 1846 by Marquardt. 

Beckerath, Hermann von, born at Crefeld, 
North Germany, in 1801, was sent to the Diet in 
1843 as representative of the Rhine province. In 
1848 he had risen to be finance minister to the 
empire, and next year was sent to confer with the 
Prussian government as to the general state of 
affairs. Finding among his colleagues a tendency 
to go beyond the limits of his moderate Liberalism, 
he resigned office, dying in 1870. 

Becket. [A’Becket.] 

Beckford, William, born in Jamaica in 1709, 
was sent to England early and educated at West¬ 
minster. He was a prosperous West India mer¬ 
chant, and by his wealth and ability took a high 
place in the City, being elected alderman, and 
Lord Mayor (twice), and M.P. He was a Whig of 
rather advanced views, and ventured to enter into 


8 ) 


a personal argument with George III., when that 
king received with disfavour a petition from the 
Corporation. This achievement is commemorated 
by a statue in Guildhall. Beckford died in 1770, a 
few weeks after his audacious interview with his 
sovereign. 

Beckford, William, the only son of the fore¬ 
going, whose great wealtli he inherited, was born in 
1760. He spent several years in travel, living for a 
time in Oriental magnificence at Cintra, near Lisbon. 
In 1784 he published in French The history of the 
Caliph Vathek, which was translated into English, 
and enjoyed an unmerited reputation. He devoted 
seventeen years and more than a quarter of a 
million of money to rebuilding Fonthill Abbey, his 
father’s old house near Bath, but sold it in 1822 
soon after it was finished. He then made for 
himself a mysterious and luxurious abode in Bath 
itself, where he spent his last years in almost 
solitary study. Towards the end of his life he 
published two volumes of travels in Italy and Spain. 
He died in 1844. 

Beckmann, Johann, was born in 1739, and 
educated at Gottingen, where in 1770 he was 
appointed professor of rural economy, and by his 
lectures and numerous treatises did much towards 
the creation of scientific agriculture. His best 
known work, however, is a History of Inventions , 
which has been translated into several languages. 
He died in 1811. 

Beckx, Peter John, was born at Sichem in 
Belgium in 1795, and joining the Society of Jesus 
in 1819, became one of its most active members. 
In 1847 he was Procurator of Austria, but on the 
expulsion of the Jesuits returned to Belgium as 
rector of the college at Louvain. He was recalled 
to Austria, whence in 1853 he went to Rome as 
general of the order, and to his skill and persever¬ 
ance the advances made by the Roman Church of 
late are chiefly due. When the Jesuits were 
suppressed in Rome he settled in Florence as 
editor of the Civilta Cattolica. His Month of 
Mary has been widelv read by Romanists. He died 
in 1887. 

Becquerel, Antoine Cesar, bom in 1788, 
entered the French engineers, and served in the 
Peninsula. After the peace he was made professor 
of physics in the Museum of Natural History. He 
devoted himself to researches in electricity and 
magnetism, on which he wrote a valuable treatise. 
His work on Animal Heat is highly esteemed, and 
in conjunction with his son, Alexandre, he brought 
out a useful book on Elementary Physics and 
Meteorology. He died in 1878. 

Becskerck, or Beckskerick, a market town 
and capital of the circle of Torontal, Hungary, situ¬ 
ated on the Bega, a tributary of the Theiss, 45 
miles S.W. of Temesvar. It is an important centre 
of local trade. There is a small town of the same 
name ten miles from Temesvar. 

Bedchamber, Lords and Ladies of the. 
An English king is waited on by twelve Lords of 
the Bedchamber (under a Groom of the Stole, who 






Beddoes. 


Bedford. 


( 9 ) 


attends only on state occasions), and by thirteen 
grooms of the bedchamber, who perform their 
functions in turn. During the reign of William IV. 
the Groom of the Stole received £2,000 a year, each 
Lord £1,000, and each groom £500. Under a. queen 
these officials are replaced by a Mistress of the 
Robes (salary £500), nine ordinary and three extra 
Ladies of the Bedchamber, and nine ordinary and 
four extra Bedchamber Women (salary £300) All 
these are members of the highest nobility, and the 
posts are much sought after. The refusal of the 
present Queen to allow her Bedchamber Ladies to 
resign along with the change of Government in 1839 
caused Sir R. Peel to refuse to form a Ministry, and 
led to the return of the defeated Ministry of Lord 
Melbourne. In 1841, on another change of Govern¬ 
ment, a similar difficulty was met by the interposi¬ 
tion of the Prince Consort, who induced three 
prominent Whig Ladies of the Bedchamber to 
resign. 

Beddoes, Thomas, born in 1760, studied at 
Oxford under Sheldon, and in 1786 was appointed 
reader in chemistry. He had a good knowledge of 
several languages and translated works of Spallan¬ 
zani, Bergman, and other scientists. He was 
driven from Oxford in 1792 owing to his liberal 
opinions. In 1798 he established a hospital at 
Bristol for the cure of diseases by inhalation, 
and here Humphry Davy was his assistant. The 
experiment was not a success. He died compara¬ 
tively young in 1808. 

Beddoes, Thomas Lovell, son of the preceding, 
was born at Clifton in 1803, his mother being a 
sister of Miss Edgeworth. Educated at the 
Charterhouse and Oxford, he went abroad to study 
medicine, but his Radical views got him into 
trouble. His genius lay in the direction of poetry. 
His Improrisatore was published in 1821, and his 
Bride's Tragedy in 1822. Death's Jest Booh , a 
volume of miscellaneous verses, appeared after his 
decease, which occurred somewhat mysteriously in 
the hospital at Basle in 1849. 

Bede, Beda, or B.eda, known as “The Vener¬ 
able Bede,” was born about 673 near Monkwearmouth 
in the county of Durham. According to his own 
account he took deacon’s orders at the age of 
nineteen, having been educated by the Abbot of 
Wearmouth and Jarrow, and in those twin monas¬ 
teries he devoted his life to his priestly duties, to 
the work of teaching, and to the vast literary labours 
that have made him famous. Of nearly fifty 
treatises which he left, half consist of commentaries 
on Scripture, several deal with the science and 
philosophy of his day, others are lives of saints and 
martyrs, or of the abbots of the foundation. But 
the most valuable of all is his Ecclesiastical 
History, which gives the fullest and most authentic 
account we possess of the period ending four years 
before his death, which occurred in 735. Bede 
wrote chiefly in Latin, and King Alfred translated 
parts of his works into Anglo-Saxon. How he 
acquired the title of “ Venerable ” is unknown, but 
it is inscribed on the only fragment of his shrine 
that is left in Durham cathedral. 


Bedeau, Marie Alphonse, a French general, 
born 1804, died 1863. After taking part in military 
operations in Algeria, he was in 1848 appointed to 
suppress the disturbances in Paris, but failed 
completely. On the coup d'etat in 1851 he was 
arrested and retired into exile. 

Bedeguar, a gall-like disease found on wild 
roses, produced by rhe puncture of a gnat, Bhodites 
rosce. It is a many-chambered gall, made up of a 
ball-like tuft of adventitious leaves reduced to 
hairs, and becoming a bright red, whence its 
popular name of Robin Redbreast’s pin-cushion. 

Bedell, WILLIAM, born in Essex in 1570 and 
educated at Cambridge, held a cure at Bury St. 
Edmunds, and was there appointed chaplain to Sir 
H. Wotton, the English ambassador at Venice. 
On his return he filled for two years the provostship 
of Trinity College, Dublin, and was next appointed 
bishop of Kilmore and Ardagh. His zeal and 
charity won him such respect that in the Protestant 
massacre of 1641 his life was spared, but the 
shelter which he gave to other fugitives led to his 
imprisonment, and he died as soon as he was 
released in 1642. 

Bedell, the bearer of the mace in public pro¬ 
cessions in a university. 

Bedford, a market town and municipal and 
parliamentary borough, the capital of Bedfordshire, 
50 miles N.W. of London, on the London and North- 
Western and Midland railways, and extending 
along either bank of the river Ouse. It is well- 
built and has five churches, St. Peter’s containing 
traces of Saxon work, and St. Mary's possessing a 
Norman tower. There are a corn-exchange, shire 
hall, infirmary, and all the other buildings of a 
county town. But the schools raised on the original 
foundation of Sir W. Harpur (1561) are the most 
important institutions, and have induced many 
families to settle in the town. The factory of 
Messrs. Howard, makers of agricultural implements, 
employs a large number of artisans, and lace and 
straw plaits are also staple products. The memory 
of John Bunyan, who was born at Elstow, close by, 
is perpetuated by a statue and a school. 

Bedford, New, a port of considerable size in 
Massachusetts, U.S.A., 55 miles by railway from 
Boston. Whale-fishing, ship-building, and candle¬ 
making are the chief industries. 

Bedford, John, Duke of, the third son of 
Henry IV., was born in 1389. His brother Henry 
V. on his death-bed (1422) bequeathed to him the 
task of consolidating the English power in France 
as regent, and this duty he endeavoured to fulfil. 
Marrying a daughter of the Duke of Burgundy he 
established himself in Paris, and defeated the 
Dauphin at Crevant and Verneuil. But the pacific 
policy of Cardinal Beaufort deprived him of aid 
from England, and the designs of the Duke of 
Gloucester on Hainault alienated the Duke of 
Burgundy. At this moment Joan of Arc infused 
new life into the patriotic cause, and Bedford was 
forced to abandon the siege of Orleans. Though 
he drove back the Dauphin from Paris, captured 
the Maid and consigned her to the stake, he never 






Bedford Level. 


( 10 ) 


Bedouin. 


succeeded in regaining his old supremacy. On the 
death of his wife he concluded a marriage which 
finally estranged the Duke of Burgundy, who 
opened up negotiations with Charles VII. Bedford, 
worn out with disappointment and anxiety, died in 
1435 and was buried at Rouen. 

Bedford Level is the name given to a large 
tract of very flat country extending from the Wash 
into S.W. counties. It is quite level, and it was 
here that the experiment of testing the earth’s 
roundness was tried. The Bedford level covers 
750,000 acres. 

Bedfordshire is bounded on the N. by 
Northamptonshire, on the E. by the counties of 
Huntingdon, Cambridge, and Hertford, and on the 
W. by those of Buckingham and Northampton, and 
has an area of 461 square miles, being one of the 
smallest counties in England. The surface is 
mostly flat, but the Chiltern range of chalk hills 
rises to 500 ft. towards the S. The alluvial soil of 
the central district yields heavy crops of wheat. 
It is watered by the Ouse, Ivel, Lea, and Ouzel. 
Bedford, Dunstable, Luton, and Leighton Buzzard 
are the chief towns. Many fine seats are found in 
the county, notably that o£ the Duke of Bedford, 
Woburn Abbey. 

The name of Bedford has been given to three 
counties in the United States, in Pennsylvania, 
in Virginia, and in Tennessee. 

Bedlam, a corruption of Bethlehem, the name 
of a hospital founded and dedicated to St. Mary, 
in 1247, by Simon FitzMary, a sheriff of London. 
He built a priory in Moorfields and connected it 
with the episcopate recently established by the 
Crusaders in the Holy Land. In 1402 the lunatics 
in a public asylum at Charing Cross were believed 
to have been transferred there. In 1546 Henry 
VIII. gave the hospital to the City, which had 
already purchased the lands, and it was united to 
Bridewell. Little is known of the institution until 
1675, when a new hospital was built, architecturally 
a copy of the Tuileries, on the S. side of Moorfields. 
This is the Bethlehem or Bedlam that was famous 
in the last century. In 1812 the existing asylum 
in Lambeth Road was begun from designs by 
Lewis, but Smirke added the dome. It accom¬ 
modates 400 patients, who are chosen as far as 
possible from the curable sufferers from lunacy. 

Bedlington Terrier, a breed of terriers, said 
to have originated at Bedlington, near Morpeth, in 
the early part of the nineteenth century. It is 
chiefly confined to the northern districts, and in 
Newcastle and the neighbourhood nearly every man 
has a Bedlington. Vero Shaw (in his Book of the 
Dog') quotes the following as the chief points of 
the breed: “ The Bedlington terrier should be 
rather long and small in the jaw, head high and 
narrow, crowned with a tuft of silky hair lighter 
than t he body; eyes small, round, and rather sunk ; 
ears filbert-shaped, close to the cheek, slightly 
feathered at the tips; neck long and slender, but 
muscular; body well proportioned, slender, and 
deep-chested; legs straight and rather long; tail 
small and tapering. Colour liver or sandy, with 
flesh-coloured nose, or black-blue with black nose.” 


The dog he figures was 18 months old, stood 15 in. 
at the shoulder, and weighed 24 lbs. Bedlingtons 
are sharp, active dogs, eager in pursuit of vermin. 

Bedmar, Alfonso de Cueva, Marquis of, 
was born in 1572. He was sent as Spanish 
ambassador to Venice in 1607, and entered into a 
conspiracy with the viceroy of Naples and the 
governor of Milan to destroy t 1 e republic. The 
plot was betrayed and frustrated, It furnished 
material for Otway’s play of Venice Preserved. 
Bedmar went to Flanders, received a cardinal’s 
hat, and was afterwards made Bishop of Oviedo, 
where he died in 1655. 

Bednar, a district and town in the territory of 
Mysore, Southern India. The former occupies a 
fertile table-land on the summit of the Western 
Ghats, having an elevation of 5,000 feet. The rain¬ 
fall being very heavy, vegetation is luxuriant. 
Pepper, cardamoms, areca-nuts, and sandal wood 
are produced in large quantities. The town, known 
also as Nuggur, was in the 17th century a prosperous 
place, as the capital of the rajahs of Ikeri. Haider 
Ali took it, and in 1783 it surrendered to the 
British. Tipu Sahib, however, recaptured it, 
putting General Matthews and the garrison to the 
sword. It is now much reduced in size. 

Bed of Justice (F rench lit de justice'), literally 
the covered throne which the French king occupied 
when present at the deliberations of Parliament. 
Hence the term was transferred to those meetings of 
Parliament at which the king was present. It was 
t he accepted legal theory in France(deri ved to a great 
extent from misinterpretations of maxims of Roman 
law about the Roman Emperor) that the king of a 
nation was the source of all power in it; and 
that “ on the arrival of the king the powers of 
the magistrates cease.” Hence the decisions 
given in a bed of justice were held to have a more 
binding force than the ordinary decisions of Par¬ 
liament, as proceeding from primary and not 
delegated authority. Beds of justice were held 
in order to compel the Parliament to register 
royal acts, to declare the age at which members 
of the royal family should be considered to attain 
their majority, to create new charges, etc. The 
last was held by Louis XVI. at Versailles in 1787. 

Bedouin (properly bedami, plural bedamn, from 
root badw — steppe, wilderness), a term applied by 
the Arabs collectively to the unsettled nomad 
tribes of steppe lands and oases of the desert, as 
opposed to the settled and more cultured inhabitants 
of the towns. From the very nature of the environ¬ 
ment the Bedouins are necessarily pastoral nomads 
depending for their existence on the camel, which 
enables them to cross vast desert tracts in search 
of fresh pasturage, and which supplies them with 
their staple food, cheese, butter and milk eaten 
with dates, and a few other fruits. The flesh is 
rarely eaten, but the hide, hair, and sinews serve 
as materials for the tents, harness, cordage, and 
many other purposes. They also raise a noble breed 
of horses, which have served to improve the stock 
in North Africa, Spain, England, and elsewhere. 
The Bedouins in general represent the Arab type 







Bed-sores. 


( 11 ) 


Bee. 


in its purity, though considerable differences have 
been observed in the physique of the various tribes, 
and even of the sheikhs (chiefs) compared with 
the common folk within the tribe itself. They are 
mostly of small stature (5 feet 2 inches), thin and 
wiry, with swarthy complexion and regular features. 
They are divided into a large number of kabeileh 
(chief tribes), which again ramify into a multitude 
of fendah (sub-tribes, septs, clans), each group 
possessing its own camping-ground, and recognising 
no authority except that of its hereditary chief. 
The paramount tribes, from whom all the minor 
groups claim direct or indirect descent, appear to 
be the Sherarat, Howeitat, Benu Atiyeh, Besher 
and Anezeh of north and north-west Nejd; the 
Shomer, Montefik, Mesalikh, Benu Lam, thence 
east to Mesopotamia; the Ma’az, Harb and Kahtan, 
west and south-west of Nejd; the Seba’a (with a 
large offshoot in Syria), Meteiz, Oteibah, Dawasir 
(A’al Amar) in the central steppe lands ; lastly the 
Ajman, Benu Khaled and Benu Hajar in the ex¬ 
treme east. The Arabs, who since the rise of Islam 
have spread over the surrounding regions (Mesopo¬ 
tamia, Syria, Egypt, North Africa), belong mainly 
to the Bedouin class, and many of their chiefs 
claim descent from the Khoreish, Mohammed’s 
tribe, and even from the prophet himself, in this 
case taking the title of sharif. A characteristic 
trait of the Bedouins is their zeal for the purity of 
the Arabic language, which is consequently spoken 
with surprising uniformity throughout the whole 
of the Arab domain, from the Persian Gulf to the 
Atlantic. See Palgrave, Journal R. Geographical 
Society , 1864, vol. xxxiv.; and Wustenfeld, Genea- 
logische Tahellen der Arabischen Sttimme, etc., 
Gottingen, 1852. 

Bed-sores, a complication of diseases in which 
a prolonged confinement in bed is associated with 
extreme prostration, and particularly with the con¬ 
tinued maintenance of the same position, the patient 
always lying on the back or on one side. Bed-sores 
occur in situations exposed to pressure, but they 
very rarely develop when the patient is under the 
supervision of a watchful nurse. Ignorance, neglect, 
or want of cleanliness are their most common 
causes; still in certain paralytic cases acute bed¬ 
sores appear in rare instances in spite of all pre¬ 
cautions, being then apparently due to the involve¬ 
ment of nerves which govern the nutrition of the 
skin. Change of position, when that is possible, a 
smooth, tightly-drawn sheet, or, if necessary, a 
water bed to lie upon, scrupulous cleanliness, con¬ 
stant watchfulness over parts exposed to pressure, 
with the use, if the skin becomes reddened, of air 
cushions, or the application of alcohol or glycerine ; 
these are the main preventive measures. If an 
open sore once forms, it is high time for the case 
to come under skilled medical treatment. 

Bed-straw, the popular name of several species 
of the Rubiaceous genus Galium , fourteen of which 
are British. They are herbaceous plants with 
square stems, small opposite leaves, and inter-foliar 
stipules so much resembling the leaves that the 
latter are generally said to be in whorls of from 
four to ten." They have small flowers with a minute 


calyx, a four-lobed rotate corolla, either yellow or 
white, and a dry fruit of two one-seeded carpels. 
Legend associates G. rerum, the yellow-flowered 
Our Lady’s Bed-straw, with the flight into Egypt. 

Bee. The bees, of which the honey bee {Apis 
mellifica, Linn.) is one of the best known and most 
important, belong to the family Apida of the order 
Hymenoptera. The most conspicuous feature in 
the natural history of the honey bee is that it is 
social, living in communities composed of as many 
as 50,000 individuals, belonging to three different 
forms. The female is known as the queen bee, 
and there is usually only one in each hive ; it is 
recognisable by its superior size and long pointed 
abdomen. The males are known as drones because 
they take no part in the general work of the hive ; 
they are characterised by the bluntness of the 
abdomen, the thick flat body, and the absence of a 
sting. They seldom constitute more than three 
per cent, of the total population of the hive, and 
their sole function is the fertilisation of the queen ; 
after they have accomplished this, they are ruth¬ 
lessly massacred by the workers; if the hive be 
without a queen, the males are allowed to live till 
one be reared. The workers, the third kind of 
bee, are rudimentary females; they do the whole 
work of the hive, collect the honey, secrete the 
wax, build this into comb, feed and rear the larvae, 
and defend the hive against attack; their true 
sexual nature is shown by their occasionally laying 
eggs, which are, however, either unfertile or produce 
only drones. The workers are armed with a sting, 
a fine, sharp, barbed tube which can pierce the skin 
of an opponent and deposit there a drop of poison ; 
as the sting cannot be withdrawn from the wound, 
it is torn away with its attachments, and thus 
its use is fatal to its possessor. The queen bee 
continues to lay eggs for a long time after fertilisa¬ 
tion ; by varying the food supply to the larvas, the 
workers can cause these to develop into drones, 
queens, or workers. If the queen be not fertilised she 
can lay eggs (a case of Parthenogenesis), which, 
however, only develop into drones. In the absence 
of a queen, some of the workers lay eggs, but these 
again only develop into drones. The ventilation 
of the hive is effected by bees holding to the base 
of the hive by their feet and then vibrating their 
wings as in flight; currents of air are thus sent 
through the passages. The main food of bees is 
honey, which is collected from the nectaries of 
plants during the summer and is stored up in cells 
in the hive "for winter use ; pollen is mixed with 
that used for the food of the larvas. The’comb is 
constructed of fine wax which is secreted from the 
abdomen. The main senses possessed by bees 
appear to be hearing (by the antennas) and smell; 
the former sense is very irregularly developed ; bees 
can certainly hear sounds made by other bees, 
but their appreciation of other sounds seems very 
capricious. The sense of smell appears the more 
important; by it bees can at once recognise those 
from another hive, as they at once attack strangers 
who gain admittance to the hive ; when breeders 
have to introduce other bees, the sense of smell 
has to be temporarily deadened by the use of some 





Beech. 


( 12 ) 


Bee-eater. 


strong aromatic. The honey bee is supposed to be 
of Asiatic origin, and was introduced to America 
from Europe. In some humble bees the larvee at 
first, all become workers which lay eggs producing 
only drones ; but as later larvas develop under more 
favourable conditions, as they receive more atten¬ 
tion, they give rise to forms that are sexually 
mature and capable of producing queens. This 
affords a clue as to the evolution of the complex 
social system of the honey bee. Huber, the blind 
naturalist, is the source of much of our informa¬ 
tion respecting bees, while among later investiga¬ 
tors Sir J. Lubbock is pre-eminent. 

Beech, the English name of Fagus sylvatica, a 
large and handsome tree belonging to the order 
Cupuliferoe (Quercineee ). It reaches a height of 
CO or 70 feet and a diameter of 3, 4, or even 5 
feet. Its bark is thin, smooth, and silvery; its 



leaf of beech (Fagus sylvatica). 


buds brown and pointed; its leaves hairy and 
pointed only when young; and its fruit consists of 
three-cornered nuts produced in pairs in a rigid 
brown husk which bears recurved hooks externally 
and splits into four valves. The wood is excellent 
for fuel and charcoal, and is used for tool-handles, 
and, more especially, for chair-making. From 
12,000 to 15,000 loads of beech timber are annually 
employedfor this last purpose round High Wycombe, 
Bucks, where it is grown on the chalk of the 
Chiltern Hills. The nuts yield a useful oil and are 
still valued in northern Europe as food for swine. 
The Copper Beech is a variety, merely differing in 
the colour of its leaves; but the genus is very 
widely distributed, being represented in New 
Zealand, Tasmania, and Antarctic America, as well 
as throughout the northern hemisphere. 

Beecher, Henry Ward, the son of Dr. Lyman 
Beecher, a well-known American theologian, and 
president of the Lane Seminary, was born at 
Lichfield, Connecticut, in 1813, and graduated at 
Amherst College. Entering the Presbyterian 
ministry he soon acquired reputation by his 
eloquence and vigour. In 1847 he was chosen 
pastor of the Plymouth Congregationali.st church, 
Brooklyn, and drew around him a large following. 
He preached a broad, attractive form of Christianity, 
taking also an active interest in politics as an 


abolitionist. In 1863 he visited England to advo¬ 
cate that cause. He became the subject of an 
unpleasant scandal in 1874, but a judicial investi¬ 
gation failed to procure a verdict. His independent 
views on the question of eternal punishment led to his 
secession in 1882 from the Congregationalists. In 
1886 he paid a second visit to England. He died 
in the following year. Mr. Beecher was a prolific 
contributor to periodicals, and edited for some 
years the Independent and the Christian Union. 
His most popular works were Lectures to Young 
Men, Life Thoughts, and a novel entitled Norwood. 

Beechey, Frederick William, naval officer 
and Arctic explorer, was born in 1796, and having 
entered the Koyal Navy in 1806, took part, in 1811, 
in Schomberg’s action off Madagascar, and became 
a lieutenant in 1815. He was then serving with 
the expedition against New Orleans. In 1818, in 
the Trent, he accompanied Franklin, and in 1815), 
in the Hecla, he accompanied Parry, to the Arctic 
regions. He was next engaged upon inland surveys 
in Northern Africa, and was made a commander in 
1822. In 1825-28 he commanded the Blossom, and 
attempted to discover a north-west passage. In¬ 
cidentally, during this long voyage, he made 
numerous discoveries in the Pacific, his course lying 
round Cape Horn and through Behring Strait. 
While absent he was, in 1827, advanced to post- 
rank. As captain of the Sulphur he surveyed 
much of the South American coast in 1835-36. He 
attained the rank of rear-admiral in 1854, and died 
in 1856. Admiral Beechey was the author of 
Proceedings of the Expedition to Explore the 
Northern Coast of Africa, 1823 ; of A Voyage of 
Discovery towards the North Pole, 1843; and of a 
Voyage to the Pacific and Behring Strait. 

Beech Marten. [Marten.] 

Bee-eater, any bird of the genus Merops, with 
twenty-one species, the type of the family Me- 
ROPIDtE, which is found all over the Ethiopian and 
Oriental, and penetrating into the Palaearctic and 
Australian regions. The name is often extended to 
the whole family, but is popularly confined to the 
common Bee-eater ( M . apiaster), common on the 
shores of the Mediterranean, and occasionally stray¬ 
ing to England. In winter it migrates to South 
Africa, where it incubates a second time. In size 
the adult male is rather less than a starling; 
the top of the head is rich chestnut-brown, which 
extends over the neck, back, and wing coverts, and 
changes to light reddish-yellow on the rump ; the 
primaries and secondaries are bright blue-green 
tipped with black, the tertiaries are green ; upper 
tail coverts blue-green tipped with black, tail green 
tinted with a darker hue ; chin and throat reddish 
yellow, round the latter a deep blue-black band ; 
under surface of the body bluish-green, of wings 
and tails greyish-brown. In the female the hue of 
the throat is paler, and a reddish tinge runs through 
the body and wings. They nest in river banks or 
in holes or tunnels in the ground, and prey upon 
bees, wasps, and other insects. Large numbers of 
these beautiful birds are annually shot to provide 
plumes for ladies’ bonnets and hats, and in one 




Beefeater, 


( 13 ) 


Beehive Houses. 


spring 700 were killed at Tangiers, and the skins 
consigned to a London dealer. 

Beefeater (£.<?. dependent : the supposed 
connection with buffetier, attendant at a buffet or 
sideboard, is given up), a popular name for the 
Yeomen of the Guard (q.v.) and of the warders of 
the Tower of London, who were named Yeomen 
Extraordinary by Edward VI., and wear the same 
uniforms as the regular Yeomen. The former first 
appeared at the coronation of Henry VII., and 
attend the sovereign at royal banquets and other 
state ceremonies. 

Beefeater, a popular name for any bird of the 
genus Buphaga, of the Starling family, with two 
species from Tropical and Southern Africa. They 
differ from the true starlings in having a stout 
hard bill, swollen just behind the tip, bare nostrils, 
very short stout feet, furnished with very sharp 
curved claws. These birds owe their popular and 
generic names to their habit of perching on cattle 
and feeding on the parasites which infest them. 
The best known (B. Africana) is from 9 in. to 10 in. 
long, dull brown on upper surface, chin, and throat, 
buff beneath, basal half of bill rich orange, ex¬ 
tremity scarlet. 

Beef-tea, a valuable article of invalid dietary, 
made by infusing lean beef in warm water. Much 
misconception exists with respect to the usefulness 
of beef-tea in disease. As ordinarily made it is 
rather a stimulant than a form of diet, and if given 
with the idea of nourishing the patient it should 
be recognised that such dilute material is only ad¬ 
ministered because nutriment in a more concentrated 
form would not be tolerated. Beef-tea, in fact, 
contains only mineral salts, extractive substances, 
and gelatine, with but a very small quantity of the 
albuminous constituents of the original meat. 
While, however, such a substance is of but little use 
to a stomach which can deal with material more 
sustaining, experience seems to show that it is 
admirably adapted for the enfeebled digestive 
powers of febrile patients. 

To make beef-tea a pound of good beefsteak 
should be cut up small, placed in a jar, and soaked 
for an hour or more in a pint of water, the jar being 
then transferred to a pan of water, which is allowed 
to simmer over the lire for another hour. The in¬ 
fusion is then strained, and a few pinches of salt 
added. If it is desired to extract the more nourish¬ 
ing constituents of the meat, the latter should be 
soaked in brine, and then subsequently gently 
heated, carefully noting that the temperature does 
not exceed the coagulating point of albumen ; if a 
considerable amount of salt has been originally 
employed (a procedure necessary if it be desired to 
extract all the nourishing material of the meat), 
this must be subsequently in part removed by di¬ 
alysis. Beef-tea made by the latter process, as 
compared with the former, is not so palatable, 
though far more nutritious. 

Bee-hive. [Honey.] 

Beehive Houses, the name given to certain 
primitive structures, built generally of unhewn 
stones without cement, and having a domed roof, 


like the common straw hive. These rude houses are 
principally found in Scotland and Ireland. The 
majority of them are of great antiquity, but some 
have been constructed within the last century, and 
a few are even now used as human habitations. As 



BEEHIVE HOUSES. 

to the origin of these beehive houses, Lord Dun- 
raven {Notes on Irish Architecture, ii. 136) says :— 
“ The dome, formed by the projection of one stone 
beyond another till the walls meet in one flag at the 
apex, and the use of the horizontal lintel in the 
doorways, are forms universally adopted by early 
races in all periods of the history of man and in 
various portions of the globe, before the knowledge 
of the principle of the arch had reached them.” In 
Scotland and Ireland two forms exist, which may 
be called ecclesiastical and secular. Beehive cells 
of undoubted monastic origin are found on some of 
the islands off the coast of Kerry. The most remark¬ 
able are those on Skellig Mhichel (St. Michael's 
Rock). There are five of these cells, and the 
largest is nearly circular externally, but the interior 
is oblong (15 ft. x 12 ft.). The walls, which rise 
vertically for 7 ft. or 8 ft., converge internally as 
each stone projects a little more inwards than the 
one immediately below it, until at the height of 
16 ft. 6 in. the beehive-shaped roof is finished by an 
aperture, probably once covered by a single stone. 
In the south-west of Ireland the remains of these 
structures are common, but they were probably 
used as ordinary dwellings. In Scotland their use 
continued to quite a recent period, and it is more 
than likely that some of them in Lewis are still 
inhabited during the time the inhabitants are 
making cheese and butter in the summer and early 
autumn. The following account of a double beehive 
house in Lewis is abridged from Dr. A. Mitchell’s 
Past in the Present :—“ The house consisted of two 
hive-like hillocks, joined together, and not much 
higher than a man, built of dry stones [in the 
manner described above], and covered with grass 
and weeds to keep out wind and rain. There were 
two apartments—a living room and a storehouse or 

























Beelzebub. 


( H ) 


Beethoven. 


dairy. At the right hand of the entrance was the 
fireplace, and the smoke passed out at the uncovered 
apex. A row of curb stones 8 in. or 10 in. high 
served as seats, and at the same time to separate 
the bed—some hay and rushes strewn on the floor— 
from the rest of the house. Three niches or 
presses completed the furniture of this primitive 
dwelling.” The same author notes that three forms 
of these dwellings occur—(1) single huts, (2) double 
huts (as described above) ; (3) several huts com¬ 
municating internally, and presenting the appear¬ 
ance of an “ agglomeration of beehives.” Single 
beehive huts are still built in Orkney and Caithness 
as shelters for pigs and poultry. 

Beelzebub, a name formed by combining the 
Chaldean Baal (q.v.) with zelmb , signifying “insect,” 
and signifying therefore the “ fly-god,” or averter 
of insects (cf. Gk. Zeus Agjomuios). Under this 
particular aspect Baal appears to have been 
worshipped at Ekron (2 Kings i. 2) and else¬ 
where. It seems probable that the Jews borrowed 
the name from their idolatrous neighbours and used 
it as an appellation of Satan. However, in the 
Gospels the word is uniformly spelt Beelzebub, the 
etymological signification of which might be 
Lord of the Mansion or of idols, or Lord of 
dung. This fact has led Gesenius, Lightfoot, and 
other learned divines to the belief that this is the 
original form of the name, but, if the final l in the 
New Testament is not due to an error in tran¬ 
scription, it is more likely that the Jews made a 
slight variation in pronunciation so as to cast 
contempt on a false god. 

Bee-Martin. [King-Bird.] 

Beer, an alcoholic beverage obtained from 
grain—generally barley—by a process known as 
Brewing (q.v.). Different kinds of beer vary in 
strength and colour, according to the nature and 
quantity of the different ingredients used in the 
manufacture. The percentage of alcohol in beer 
varies from two per cent, in light table ales to six 
per cent, in Burton ales, porter, etc. [Ale.] 

Beer Money. From 1800 to 1873 an allow¬ 
ance of Id. a day was made in lieu of beer and 
spirits to non-commissioned officers and men in the 
British army when on home service. In 1873 it was 
included in their pay. 

Beersheba, or Bir-es-Seba (Heb. Well of the 
Oath), a village in the south of Canaan which 
derives its name from the oath there taken by 
Abraham and Abimelech (Gen. xxi. 31). “ From 

Dan to Beersheba” is an expression often used in 
the Scriptures to describe the whole extent of the 
country, and the saying has become proverbial. 
The village became an episcopal city in later times 
and existed until the 14th century. The site is 
only marked now by two wells and a few stones. 

Beestings (exact derivation unknown), the 
first milk after the birth of offspring, containing 
numerous fat granules or colostrum corpuscles, 
lacking casein, but rich in albumen, and containing 
three times as much salt as ordinary milk, which 


probably gives it a purgative effect. Occasionally 
it has been used in cooking. 

Beeswax, a solid fatty substance secreted by 
bees—not, as is sometimes supposed, collected from 
plants—and formed into the cell walls of the comb. 
Being lighter than water (specific gravity -969), and 
melting at 64° to 65° Fah., it can be readily separ¬ 
ated by drawing off the honey and melting the comb 
in boiling water, and then collecting the wax which 
floats to the surface and solidifies as the water cools. 
It is largely used for the manufacture of candles 
and of wax figures. 

Beet, the name for various forms of the 
chenopodiaceous genus Beta, coarse, weedy plants, 
furnishing edible roots and leaves. They have 
perfect flowers with a persistent five-leaved perianth, 
five superposed stamens, and a one-seeded, one- 
chambered ovary. Beta maritima, the sea beet, a 
British plant, is very variable, and is perhaps the 
parent of all the cultivated forms. B. rubra, the 
red beet, cultivated by the Romans, but only 
introduced into England in 1656, is valued for its 
sweet, fleshy, red roots, eaten in salad. B. alba, the 
white or sugar-beet, has been largely grown for 
sugar on the continent of Europe since the time of 
Napoleon I. It yields about 7 lbs. of sugar from 
100 lbs. of roots, and over million tons are made 
annually, especially in France, Silesia, and Russia. 
B. Cicla, Sicilian beet, is grown for its leaves or 
their midribs, eaten as spinach or sea-kale. B. 
Cicla, var. macrorhiza (the large-rooted variety) is 
the mangold or mangel-wurzel, a most important 
food for cattle. Other forms are grown for their 
glossy ornamental foliage. 

Beethoven, Ludwig van, one of the greatest 
among the musicians of Germany, was born at 
Bonn on the Rhine on December 16th, 1770. His 
family was of Dutch extraction. He began his 
musical studies with his father, Johann, a tenor 
vocalist, in the year 1775. The- tendency of his 
musical mind was discovered by his grandfather, 
after whom he was named, and to whom he 
was sincerely attached. The grandfather died 
when Beethoven was in his third year, and with his 
death ceased the only happy hours young Ludwig 
is said to have enjoyed in his life. His father 
Johann, who had unfortunately given way to habits 
of drunkenness, thought to make money out of the 
talents of his child, and kept him to his musical 
studies with a severity, not to say cruelty, which 
almost disgusted him with the very name of music. 
When he was nine years of age the father engaged a 
fellow vocalist and boon companion, called Pfeiffer, 
to help in the instruction of his child, and their 
united efforts certainly, produced good results, for 
not only did the boy master all the technical diffi¬ 
culties of the violin and pianoforte, but his mind 
expanded, and he was able to give his thoughts 
expression at a very early age. He was wont to 
say in after years that lie had learned more from 
Pfeiffer than from anybody else. He never received 
more than the simplest kind of school education, 
but his desire for knowledge was great, and even as 
a boy he sought to make acquaintance with the 






Beethoven. 


( 15 ) 


Beetle. 


great writers of the chief European nations, and lie 
acquired, almost without help, a smattering of 
Latin, French and German. The organ he learned 
from the Court organist, the Fleming Van den 
Eeden, an old friend and fellow countryman of his 
late grandfather. He continued his organ studies 
with Neefe, the successor of Van den Eeden, and 
even in his twelfth year was skilful enough to act 
as his deputy. 

In 1787 he visited Vienna for the first time, and 
was introduced to Mozart, who, when he heard him 
play, said prophetically, “ Take heed to this youth, 
one of these days he will make a noise in the 
world.” Through the interest of his friend Count 
Waldstein, the Elector Max Franz sent Beethoven 
to Vienna in 1792 to continue his studies with 
Haydn, Salieri, and Albrechtsberger. He did not 
take kindly to the teaching of Haydn, for although 
he dedicated his three pianoforte sonatas (op. 2) to 
his master, he declined to insert on the title page 
“ Pupil of Haydn,” giving as his reason that “ he 
had never learned anything of him.” He took 
lessons from Salieri on the art of writing for the 
voice, and so highly did he value his teaching that 
he was never too proud to call himself his pupil. He 
passed through the drudgery of learning the art of 
counterpoint with Albrechtsberger with painstaking 
patience. He also learned to play the viola, the 
violoncello, the clarinet and the horn in his own 
obstinate, self-willed way; and although his teachers 
had a high regard for his genius he never succeeded 
in making himself agreeable to either of them. He 
visited Prague, Nuremburg, Dresden, Leipzig and 
Berlin ; was graciously received in the last named 
place by Frederick William II., and presented with 
a snuff-box full of gold pieces. “ Not an ordinary 
snuff-box,” he would say to his friends, “ but one of 
the kind usually given to ambassadors.” In 1800 
he left the hospitable shelter of the Lichnowsky 
palace for lodgings, where he felt he could follow 
his career with greater freedom. In the year fol¬ 
lowing he experienced the first symptoms of the 
malady which embittered his remaining years, for 
it never yielded to medical treatment, and in 1810 
he became totally deaf. His position in the world 
of music was by this time assured, and his brothers 
Carl and Johann followed him to Vienna. The 
last named had acquired some property, and on one 
New Year’s Eve sent his brother Ludwig a card on 
which he described himself as “ Land owner.” 
After having written on the back the words 
Ludwig van Beethoven, “ Brain owner,” he re¬ 
turned the card. By this it may be gathered that 
Beethoven had some appreciation of humour, 
though his deafness somewhat isolated him from 
the world and he appeared to be misanthropical. 
When the poet Goethe met him in 1812, he wrote 
to Zelter, his friend, “ I made acquaintance with 
Beethoven at Toplitz. His marvellous talent as¬ 
tounded me. But, unfortunately^ he is an utterly 
untamed character. He is not indeed wrong in 
finding the world detestable. Still his finding it so 
does not make it any more enjoyable either to him¬ 
self or to others.” He became more and more 
secluded from the world, and when he took the 
guardianship of his nephew Carl in 1815 the 


extravagances and evil conduct of this young man 
so affected him that he became more and more re¬ 
tiring and engrossed in musical composition. He 
caught cold driving in an open chaise, and ulti¬ 
mately succumbed tc an attack of inflammation of 
lungs and dropsy, dying during a thunderstorm on 
March 26th, 1827. He was buried in the Wahring 
Cemetery in Vienna. His remains were twice dis¬ 
turbed. They were exhumed and reburied October 
13th, 1863, and on June 21st, 1888, they were re¬ 
moved to the Central Cemetery at Summering, 
where they now rest close to the graves of Schubert 
and Mozart. 

In personal appearance Beethoven was of medium 
height, a broad and firm frame ; his head large, 
his hair black and plentiful ; he shaved close, 
though at times he allowed his beard to grow for 
several days ; his eyes were large, black, and pierc¬ 
ing ; his voice rough, except when influenced by 
feeling, when it was soft and tender in tone. 

As a composer his music is marked by deep and 
earnest thought. He always worked with an ideal 
in his mind, and his music is the expression of 
some rqental imagery and poetical emotion. In his 
later years the strength of his utterances became 
deeper, more energetic, and appeals with power as 
great in its way to musicians as the words of 
Shakespeare among poets. 

The wealth of imagery, the grandeur of his 
imagination, the character of gloom and melan¬ 
choly which pervades certain of his music has been 
compared to the poetry of Dante, so that Beethoven 
as a musician is held to be as eminent as the 
greatest of poets. 

His works, which comprise orchestral and sym¬ 
phonic compositions, chamber music, the opera 
Fidelia, two masses, and other vocal music with 
pianoforte pieces, and present differences of style 
varying according to the date of production, have 
been arranged in three periods, each the develop¬ 
ment and expansion of the other. The first period 
or style is found in his music produced up to the 
year 1800, when the sway of art as then known was 
greater than his own individuality. In the next, 
which began with his second and ended with his 
eighth symphonies (1814), the strength of his 
genius was more manifest. The third period (1815 
to his death), which includes his ninth symphony, 
is that in which the most poetical and even pro¬ 
phetic sides of his genius were more powerfully 
displayed. His symphonies form the backbone of 
all good orchestral concerts, his chamber music is 
more popular than ever, his sonatas form the 
groundwork for study among pupils, and the oppor¬ 
tunity for the display of the abilities of the best 
executants, and the influence of his music spreads 
wider every day. His compositions have been 
enumerated by Nottebohm, who has also given 
details concerning them. His life has been ably 
written by Schindler (translated by Moscheles), by 
H. A. Ruding (Sampson Low & Co.), by Sir George 
Grove (Dictionary of Music), and by others in 
French, German, and in English. 

Beetle is the popular name for the members of 
that order of insects known as Coleoptera, in 







Eeets. 


Behar. 


( 16 ) 


which the anterior pair of wings are converted into 
hard, horny cases (elytra) used to protect the pair 
of membranous flying wings. The order is a highly 
organised one, and contains upwards of 80,000 
species. The term, like most of those in popular 
use, is very loosely applied, and it includes many 
insects which are not true beetles, such as the 
black beetle (an Orthopteran, q.v.). The account of 
the order is therefore given under Coleoptera. 

Beets, Nicolas, was born at Harlem in 1814, 
and though a student of theology and ultimately a 
pastor, won early distinction as a Dutch poet of the 
Byronic school. His poems appeared at intervals 
from 1834 to 1862. In history and criticism he 
achieved some distinction, and his theological 
attainments were so great that he was in 1874 
appointed professor of that subject at Utrecht. 

Beet Sugar. [Sugar.] 

Begg, James, D.D., born in 1808 in Lanarkshire 
and educated at the University of Glasgow, entered 
the ministry and held for some years the cure of 
Libert on. At the disruption of the Scottish Church 
in 1843 he joined the Free Church, and until his 
death in 1883 was pastor of Newington, Edinburgh. 
He was conspicuous among the old orthodox school 
of divines for his intellectual capacity, genial 
humour, and controversial vigour. He took an 
active interest in the housing of the poor. 

Beggar my Neighbour, a simple game of 
chance at cards, played by two or more persons. The 
pack being dealt equally to each, each in turn lays 
down a card until an honour appears. This must be 
paid for by the next player, on a scale varying from 
four for the ace to one for the knave ; the player who 
has laid down the honour then takes the whole of 
the cards lying on the table. Should another 
honour appear among the cards laid down in pay¬ 
ment, the next player has at once to .pay for it 
similarly, and so on. The object is to obtain all the 
cards. The game is mentioned as existing in 1777. 

Beghards. [Beguines.] 

Begonia, a genus of herbaceous plants, natives 
of the East Indies and of tropical America, the 



BEGONIA REX. 


type of a somewhat isolated order of Dicotyledons, 
related perhaps to the Saxlfragaccce. The genus is 


named from Michel Begon, a Frenchman, and 
comprises some 350 species. The leaves are alter¬ 
nate, stipulate, and so markedly oblique as to have 
suggested the name elephant's ear for the genus. 
The flowers are unisexual, having a perianth of 
four leaves in the staminate ones and five leaves in 
the pistillate. The stamens are numerous; the 
carpels, three, forming a three-winged inferior ovary 
with a spiral stigma round its style. The plants 
are readily propagated by cuttings of their leaves 
which produce adventitious buds. Some species 
have tubers, and these have recently been improved 
by cultivation until their flow T ers, which are white, 
yellow, orange, pink, crimson or scarlet, have 
reached a diameter of two or three inches. 

Beg-shehr, or Bei-shehr, a lake, river, and 
town in the province of Karamania. Asiatic Turkey. 
The lake is about 20 miles long, by 5 to 10 miles 
broad, and was known to the ancients as Lake 
Coralis. The river issues from the S.E. extremity 
and connects it with Lake Sogla. The towm on the 
right bank of the river and near its exit has the 
remains of some handsome buildings, including a 
large mosque, but is lapsing into decay. 

Beguines. Prompted partly by pious motives, 
partly by the advantages of the “ religious ” pro¬ 
fession, there sprang up in the Middle Ages a class 
of persons who without taking strict vows devoted 
themselves to mendicancy and good works. Women 
usually of social position and either widows or 
spinsters adopted this life in the Netherlands about 
the 12th century under the name Beguines. Some 
trace the word to Begg or Le Begue, a supposed 
founder of the community, others to St. Begue, and 
others again with greater probability to a verb 
meaning “ to stammer.” They spread over France 
and got a footing in England, being protected by 
the Church, but everywhere became gradually 
absorbed into the inferior order of Franciscans, 
excepting in Germany and Belgium, where 
heguinages still exist. The male members were 
known as Beghards, but they developed into a 
mystical and perhaps socialistic sect, rebelled 
against the Pope, were suppressed, and ultimately 
disappeared among the Franciscan tertlarll, to 
whom they were closely allied. In Italy they were 
known as Bizgocchi or Boccasoti. 

Begum, an Indian title of honour equivalent to 
Princess , usually borne by the mothers, sisters, 
or wives of native rulers, or by women regnant in 
India. (For the robbery of the Begums of Oude 
see Hastings, Warren.) 

Behaim, Martin, mathematician and as¬ 
tronomer, was born at Nurnberg about 1460. He 
pursued a commercial career until 1480, when he 
went to Lisbon and became noted as a maker of 
maps. In 1484-86 he accompanied Diego Cam on 
a voyage of discovery along the W. coast of Africa, 
reaching as far 'as the Congo river. During the 
years 1491-93 he constructed a terrestrial globe, 
which is still preserved in Nurnberg. He died in 
Lisbon, 1507. 

Behar, a Bengal town, in the Patna district, 
has a great inn for Mohammedan pilgrims. It 






Behar. 


( 17 ) 


contains some ancient mosques and the ruins of an 
old fort. 

Behai?, Baiiar, or Beyhar, a Hindostan 
province Bengal, area 44,139 square miles. 
Iraveised by the Ganges, it has also extensive 
canal and irrigation systems. It is the most densely 
peopled province of India, and produces indigo 
•and opium extensively. As the cradle of Buddhism 
it is a holy land to the followers of that religion. 

Behistun, a mountain near a village of the 
same name in Persia, province of Irak-Ajemi, cele¬ 
brated for the sculpture and inscriptions cut out on 
its side. The principal of these relates to Darius 
H} Maspes, who is represented with a bow in his 
hand, and a number of captives before him chained 
together by the neck, and with his foot upon one. 
These inscriptions are at an elevation of 300 feet 
from the ground, and the labour expended in cutting 
them out^rnust have been enormous. Their probable 
date is 515 b.c. 4 here are other inscriptions in 
Greek and Arabic. The Darius tablets were trans¬ 
lated by Sir Henry Rawlinson, whose account of his 
work is given in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic 
Society. 

Behm, Dr. Ernst, geographer, was born in 1830, 
at Gotha. At first chief assistant in the editorship 
of the Mittheilungen, a geographical periodical, he 
became, in 18 <8, editor himself on Dr. Retermann’s 
death. He also commenced in 1872 a statistical 
supplement to the Mittheilunyen, and in 1876 be¬ 
came the statistician for the 'Almanack de Gotha. 
He died in 1884 in his native town. 

Behn, Aphra, writer of plays and novels, was 
born in 1640 in Wye, Kent, her maiden name being 
Johnson. While still a child she went to Surinam, 
where she became acquainted with Oroonoko, a 
slave, whom she introduced subsequently as the 
subject of one of her novels. On returning to 
England, about 1658, she married a London 
merchant, being left a widow in less than ten years. 
She became a favourite with Charles II., and he 
sent her on a mission to Antwerp. She then became 
a figure in the gay society of the time, and was a 
prolific author of plays, poems, and novels, which, 
though much praised at the time, are chiefly remark¬ 
able for their impurity. She died in 1689, and was 
buried in Westminster Abbey. 

Behring, or Bering, Vitus, a celebrated 
navigator, was born in-1680 at Horsens, in Jutland, 
and, having entered the Russian service under 
Peter the Great, discovered, in 1728, the Strait, 
since called after him, that divides Asia from 
America. In the course of a second voyage, under¬ 
taken for the further examination of the N.W. coast 
of America as far north as lat. 69°, he was wrecked 
on Behring Island, one of the Aleutian Islands, 
-and died there on December 8th, 1741. 

Behring’s Strait, named after Vitus Behring, 
who discovered it, is the channel that separates 
Asia from America, and connects the Pacific and 
Arctic oceans. Previous to Behring’s expedition in 
1728, Asia and America were supposed to be united. 
The strait was more fully explored by Cook in 1778. 

26 


Beja. 


Beilan is the name of a town and a pass in 
the N. of Syria, and on the E. side of the Gulf of 
Iscanderoon. It is the ordinary route between 
Syria and Cilicia. Through it Alexander the Great 
marched, and the Crusaders, and in 1832 it was the 
scene of a conflict between Egyptians and Turks. 

Beira, a province of Portugal, with Spain on the 
E. and the Atlantic on the W., and watered partly 
by the Douro in the N. and partly by the Tagus in 
the S. Besides cattle, sheep, and pigs, its products 
embiace wine, grain, fruits, etc. The heir-apparent 
to the Portuguese throne bears the title Prince of 
Beira. 

Beisa Antelope. [Oryx.] 

Bej a, an eastern branch of the Hamitic race 
[Hamites], occupying nearly the whole of the 
steppe lands between Upper Egypt and Abyssinia, 
and extending from the Middle Nile E. to the Red 
Sea. The Bejas are an historic people, the true 
aborigines of East Nubia, probably the Beo-as of 
early Arab writers (tenth century), the Bugas 
of Greek and Axumite (Abyssinian) inscriptions 
(fourth century), and the 'Buka of the hiero¬ 
glyphic records. They are the Magabari and 
Blemmyes of Strabo (book xvii.), who for centuries 
harassed the southern frontiers of Egypt, but who 
were brought under Mohammedan influences soon 
after the Moslem invasion of the Nile valley 
(seventh century). All are now Mohammedans; 
many of their chiefs even claim Arab descent, and 
some toward Upper Egypt speak Arabic. But the 
bulk of the nation still retain their primitive 
Hamitic tongue (To-Bedawiye), which is akin on 
the one hand to the old Egyptian, on the other to 
the Dankali, Somal and Galla idioms, south of 
Abyssinia. They are divided into a great number 
of tribes, some of which have been several times in 
collision with the English forces since the British 
occupation of Sawakin (Suakin) in their territory on 
the Red Sea coast. The chief tribal divisions 
are:— 1. The Abdbdeh about the frontier of Upper 
Egypt, largely assimilated to the Arab Bedouins. 

2. The Bishdri (Bishariab), the Shari of the hiero¬ 
glyphics, Egbai district, south of the Ababdeh, and 
generally between Sawakin and the Nile; include 
the Hadareb, Heljab, Mansurab, Amrar. and several 
other septs. 3. The Taqa, of the Khor-Baraka 
valley, and generally from the Bishari, south to 
Abyssinia; include the powerful Hadendawas, 
Halenkas, Homrans, and Beni-Amers. Several of 
the Arabised Senaar tribes, such as the Sukurieh. 
Kababish, Jalin and Bagara, appear to be also of 
Beja stock. The Bejas, already described by 
Herodotus as “the tallest and 'finest of men” 
(book iii.), are physically a magnificent race, with 
well-shaped muscular frames, regular features, and 
long black kinky hair, on the dressing of which 
extraordinary care is bestowed. They are an exceed¬ 
ingly brave, freedom-loving people, chiefly engaged 
in camel-breeding and as caravan leaders between 
the Nile and the Red Sea. See Burckhardt’s 
r Iravels in Nubia (1822) ; J. Russiger’s Reise in 
Egypten , und Ost. Sudan (1843-44); Col. Grant's 
Route March from Berber to Korosho (1863) ; A. H. 
Keane’s Ethnology of Egyptian Sudan (1884). 













Bejar. 


( 18 ) 


Belfast. 


Bejar, a Spanish town, fortified, is 45 miles S. 
of Salamanca, in the valley of Sierra cle Bejar. It 
has an annual fair, a hot sulphur spring, and manu¬ 
factures cloth. 

Bek, Antony, a Bishop of Durham in the time 
of Edward I. He died in 1311. Also the name of 
a Bishop of Norwich, who died in 1343. 

Bek, Thomas, a Bishop of St. David’s, died 
1293. Also the name of a Bishop of Lincoln, who 
died in 1347. 

Beke, Charles Tilstone, traveller, was born 
in London in 1800. He studied law at first, but 
abandoned it for historical and geographical 
pursuits. In 1834 he published his Researches in 
Primeval History , which drew forth much opposi¬ 
tion on the ground of its hostility to the inspired 
record of the creation in Genesis. For this he 
received the degree of Ph.D. from the university of 
Tubingen. In 1840 he went to Abyssinia, and 
published the results of his explorations in 1846. 
Besides an attempt to explore the Upper Nile and 
another journey to Abyssinia, he also, in the year 
of his death, 1874, set out for Palestine to determine 
the exact position of Mount Sinai. In addition to 
his contributions to the Transactions of learned 
societies and works on Abyssinia and the Nile, he 
also edited for the Hakluyt Society De Yere’s 
Three Voyages towards China. 

Bekes, a Hungarian market town, and the 
capital of the county of the same name, is chiefly 
inhabited by Calvinists, and does a trade in cattle, 
corn, and honey. It is situated at the junction of 
the Black and White Koros. 

Bekker, Immanuel, philologist, was born in 
1785 at Berlin, where in 1810 he obtained a 
professorship in the university. Among the works 
he edited are comprised Plato (10 vols.), Oratorcs 
Attici (7 vols.), Aristotle, Thucydides, Aristo¬ 
phanes (3 vols.), Livy, Tacitus, and 24 volumes of 
the Byzantine historians. He died in 1871. 

Bel and the Dragon, one of the books of the 
Apocrypha (q.v.), forming part of the Greek 
version of the book of Daniel, but not found in 
Hebrew or Chaldee. It describes in very naive lan¬ 
guage how Daniel’s success in combating idolatry 
caused him to be cast into the den of lions. Jerome 
considered it a fable, but it is recognised by the 
Roman and Anglican churches, and formed part 
of the Lectionary of the latter till 1871. 

Belcher, Sir Edward, navigator and explorer, 
was born in 1799, and entered the Royal Navy in 
1812. He was present in the Suj)erh at the bom¬ 
bardment of Algiers in 1816, and received his 
lieutenant’s commission in 1818. In 1825-28 he 
accompanied Beechey to Behring Strait, and in 
1829 became a commander. From 1836 to 1842 he 
was employed on surveying duties in the Sulphur, 
in which he made the voyage round the world, and 
also took part in the operations in China. In 1841 
he attained post-rank, and in 1843, while he was 
surveying in the East Indies, he was knighted. In 
1852-53 he commanded the Assistance in one of 
the Franklin search expeditions. He became a 


rear-admiral in 1861, and a vice-admiral in 1866, and 
died an admiral and K.C.13. in 1877. Among his 
works are Narrative of a Voyage Bound the World, 
1843; A Treatise on Nautical Surveying; The 
Voyage of the Samarang , 1848 ; The Last of the 
Arctic Voyages , 1855; and The Great Equatorial 
Current, 1871. 

Belemnitidee is one of the three families of 
that section of the ten-armed Cephalopoda, known 
as the Phragmophora owing to the possession of 
a “ phragmocone.” This structure consists of a 
series of septa or partitions slightly separated from 
one another, but communicating by a narrow tube 
known as the siphuncle. (This should be compared 
with the structure of a Nautilus shell.) In the 
forms with the simplest shells the phragmocone con¬ 
sists simply of a series of septa with the chambers 
between them closed in at the sides by a thin 
calcareous wall; in the Belemnites it is enclosed in 
a cavity (alveolus) at one end of a dense, long, and 
usually conical shield, known as the “ guard.” At 
the alveolar end the guard is continued as a horny 
tube (the proostracum). Like the squid they pos¬ 
sessed an ink sac. The family is extinct; the 
principal genus was Belemnites, which was common 
throughout the Mesozoic (q.v.) era; a few species 
occurred earlier and a few survived till later. The 
“ guards ” of Belemnites, owing to their indestructi¬ 
bility are very common as fossils, and have long 
been known as “ thunderbolts.” Other important 
genera are Aulacoccras . an early form found in the 
Tyrol, and Spirulirostra from the Miocene, in both 
of which the guard is small in comparison with the 
phragmocone. 

Belemnoteuthidae, a second family of the 
Phragmophora (for terms see Belemnitidae), in 
which the “ guard ” is reduced to a thin shelly 
layer surrounding the “ phragmocone.” The prin¬ 
cipal genus is Belemnoteuthis, of which some speci¬ 
mens from the Oxford clay have preserved traces 
of the soft parts, and thus have done much to 
elucidate the structure of the family and its allies. 
The family is extinct, and lived only in the Trias 
and Jurassic periods. 

Belfast, the chief commercial and manufacturing- 
centre in Ireland, is on the Lagan, which flows into 
Belfast Lough, and which is here spanned by 
several bridges. It is the capital of Ulster, and the 
county town of Antrim, and in 1888 was raised to 
the rank of a city. The area of the borough is in 
round figures 7,000 acres. Built mostly of brick, it 
has also wide and regular streets, chief among 
which is now the Royal Avenue, a new thoroughfare 
leading through the centre of the town, and contain¬ 
ing besides many elegant shops, the post-office, the 
Ulster reform club, and the free library. Other 
of its chief public buildings are the town hall, the 
county court, the commercial buildings and ex¬ 
change, the white and brown linen halls, the 
Albert memorial clock tower, theatre, etc. For 
recreation it has two extensive parks and botanic 
gardens. Its chief industries are the manufacture 
of linen and shipbuilding, after which come flour¬ 
mills, rope-making, distilling, the manufacture of 
aerated water, etc. For its extensive commerce 






Belfort. 


( 19 ) 


it has commodious harbours and docks, as much 
as between one and two millions having just 
been expended upon their improvement. Be¬ 
sides trading with British ports, its ships sail to 
America and the chief ports on the Continent. The 
prevailing religious denomination is the Presby¬ 
terian, whose churches number 33 as against 6 
Roman Catholic, 15 Methodist, and 20 Episcopalian, 
there are also Unitarian bodies and other minor 
sects. ^ The leading educational establishments are 
Queen's college, a brick edifice opened in 1849, 
the Presbyterian college, the Royal Academical 
institution, several denominational colleges, and 
national as well as private schools. It has been 
the scene of frequent faction fights between the 
Catholics and Protestants, notably in the years 
1864, 1872, 1880, and 1886. 

\ 

Belfort, a fortified French town and capital of 
the department of Upper Rhine, on the Savoureuse, 
offered a stout resistance to the German forces in 
1870, capitulating with the sanction of the govern¬ 
ment, and only after a three months’ siege. From 
1871 to 1879 that part of the Haut-Rhin department 
remaining in French possession was named the 
“territory of Belfort” after the town; the name 
Haut-Rhin, however, has now again been restored. 
Its citadel is by Vauban. It has also a fine church, 
a college, a public library, and various manu¬ 
factures: 

Belfry (F rench beffroi ) is said to be derived 
not from bell, but from old German words meaning 
a sheltered place. First applied to a kind of 
movable tower used in sieges,it was then transferred 
to a watch tower or alarm bell tower, and then to 
any tower containing a bell. In Italy (where the 
name is campanile ) church belfries stand detached 
from the church ; and so occasionally in England, 
as at Beccles in Suffolk, Evesham, and along the 
Welsh border. Often in England, however, it is 
reduced to a mere turret or bell-cote placed on the 
west end of the church. On the Continent belfries 
are frequently secular, and attached to municipal 
buildings. The famous belfry of Bruges, com¬ 
menced 1291, is of this class. It is 353 feet high, 
.and contains a carillon of forty-eight bells. 

Belgee, tile inhabitants, according to Julius 
C®sar, of one of the three great divisions of Gaul; 
they extended from the Rhine to the ocean, their S. 
boundary being the Seine and Marne, which separ¬ 
ated them from the Celt® or Gauls. Crnsar and 
his informants held them to be of German origin, 
but modern writers are of opinion that this was true 
of only some portions of them, and that in the main 
they were Celtic. The name was undoubtedly a 
collective name for a group of tribes. Belg® were 
also found settled by Cresar in Kent and Surrey, 
and Ptolemy locates a population of that name in 
the modern Wiltshire, but the relation of these 
latter to the continental Belg® is obscure. 

Belgaum, a city and district of British India, 
Bombay presidency. The city, which is situated 
55 miles N.E. of Goa, is on a plain 2,500 feet above 
sea-level. It was captured by the British in 1818 
and made ti permanent military station 


Belgium. 


Belgioj oso, a town of Northern Italy, situated 
between the Po and the Olona., has an old castle. 
The Princess Cristina of Belgiojoso, born 1808, died 
1871, was an enthusiast in the cause of Italian 
liberty. 

Belgium, a country of W. Europe, bounded on 
the N. by the North Sea and Holland, on the E. by 
Prussia and Luxemburg, and on the S.W. by France. 
The name is derived from the Belgce, a Celtic-speak¬ 
ing race who once inhabited the whole region W. 
of the Rhine known to the Romans as Gallia Bel- 
gica, of which the Belgium of to-day is only a 
fraction. This is among the smallest of the Euro¬ 
pean states, its area being only 11,373 square miles, 



MAP OF BELGIUM. 


or about one-eighth of that of Great Britain. Its 
greatest length (N.W. to S.E.) is 174 miles, and its 
greatest breadth 105 miles. The general aspect of 
the country is level, presenting few natural features 
of particular importance. The highest hill, Baraque 
Michel, is 2,230 feet, but the mean elevation of 
Belgium is not more than 536 feet. Belgium is 
remarkably well watered, the principal rivers being 
the Maas, or Meuse, of which 115 miles are Belgian, 
and the Scheldt, or Escaut, with 108 miles in 
Belgium, both navigable throughout; the Yzer is 
navigable for about 26 miles ; the Lesse, one of the 
tributaries of the Meuse, traverses in its course the 
beautiful stalactite grotto of Han, nearly a mile in 
length. The country W. of the Meuse and its 
tributary the Sambre is low, flat, and fertile, but 
the region at the foot of the Ardennes, in the E., 
is much less productive. Mineral springs are found 
in several districts; the most celebrated are those 
of Spa, Chaudefontaine, and Tongres. 

















































Belgium. 


( 20 ) 


Belgium. 


History. The Belgium of to-day can scarcely be 
said to have a history, since it dates only from 1831. 
Prior to the revolution which preceded (in Septem¬ 
ber, 1830) its establishment on its present basis, 
the country formed a part of the Netherlands, and 
shared with what is now Holland the vicissitudes 
of many wars, failing, however, to shake off the 
Spanish yoke with the Dutch Republic. [.See under 
Holland.] The Austrian Netherlands, as they then 
came to be called, acknowledged the supremacy of 
the House of Hapsburg until the all-devouring em¬ 
pire of the first Napoleon reduced them to French 
provinces. On his fall the Netherlands were once 
more united as a kingdom under the sceptre of 
William of Orange-Nassau, son of the last Stadt- 
holderof the Seven United Provinces. The revolu¬ 
tion of 1830 put an end to this union, and a “ Na¬ 
tional Congress ” in the following year elected 
Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg Gotha as king of 
the Belgians. On his death, in 1865, his son suc¬ 
ceeded him as Leopold II. In consequence of its 
geographical situation, interposed between two of 
the great European powers, Belgium has been the 
theatre of many campaigns in which politically it 
had little concern. The number of its battle-fields 
has acquired for it the unenviable title of “the 
cock-pit of Europe.” The campaigns of Marl¬ 
borough, with the battles of Ramillies (1706) and 
Oudenarde (1708), and Wellington’s victories of 
Quatre Bras and Waterloo (1815), may be cited as 
the most familiar examples. 

The Constitution, as fixed by the law of 1831, 
provides for a king, a senate, and a Chamber of 
Representatives. The last-named is elected by all 
citizens over 21 years of age who pay not less than 
40 francs (32s.) in direct taxation, and serves for 8 
years. A considerable extension of the franchise 
is, however, contemplated (1891). The maximum 
number of members is in the proportion of one to 
every 40,000 of the population; the actual number 
in 1889 was 138. The Senate, chosen by the same 
electorate as the Chamber, serves for four years 
only, and numbers half as many members as the 
Lower House. The chief ministers are (1) the 
President of the Council and Minister of Finance, 
and the Ministers of (2) Justice, (3) Interior and 
Instruction, (4) War, (5) Railways, Posts and Tele¬ 
graphs, (6) Foreign Affairs, and (7) Agriculture, 
Industry, and Public Works. 

Population. In 1889 this was 6,093,798, or an 
average of 533 to the square mile. Belgium has 
long been the most thickly peopled country of 
Europe. Even in the sixteenth century Philip II. 
of Spain is said to have exclaimed on passing 
through it, “ This is only one great town.” As the 
population is at present increasing annually at the 
rate of about 1| per cent., there seems a reasonable 
prospect of Philip’s description becoming literally 
accurate before very long. Emigration is a little 
more than counterbalanced by immigration. The 
fact that Belgium possesses no colonies helps no 
doubt to keep down the number of emigrants. The 
Congo Free State, of which the King of the Bel¬ 
gians is the sovereign, is not likely to afford much 
additional outlet for the surplus population. 

Religion. The constitution provides for full 


religious liberty, but as a matter of fact nearly all 
the inhabitants are members of the Roman Catholic 
Church. There are about 10,000 Protestants and 
4,000 Jews. The country is divided into six dioceses, 
the Archbishopric of Mechlin (Malines), and the 
Bishoprics of Bruges, Ghent, Liege, Namur, and 
Tournay. There are 5,428 Roman Catholic 
churches. 

Education. There is a system of schools, sup¬ 
ported partly by the State and partly by the locality 
in which they are situated ; but the results, as 
apparent in recruiting returns and other similar 
statistics, are not altogether satisfactory. A con¬ 
siderable percentage of the population can still 
neither read nor write. There are four universities, 
at Ghent, Liege, Brussels (free), and Louvain, with 
a total of over 5,000 students, besides a famous 
academy of fine arts at Antwerp, with some 
1,300 students, and conservatoires of music at 
Brussels, Ghent, and Louvain, with an aggregate 
of about 15,000 students. The universities have 
special technical schools attached to them, and 
there are schools of design attended by some 13,000 
students. 

Agriculture. Owing to the density of the popu¬ 
lation in proportion to the limited area, Belgium is 
forced to depend largely for its maintenance on 
foreign imports. To the same cause may also be 
attributed, in part at least, the tendency to extreme 
subdivision of the land which is a marked charac¬ 
teristic of its agriculture. Belgium is emphatically 
a country of small holdings, there being about a 
million of landed proprietors, of whom only 41,000 
hold more than 25 acres, while 59,400 are possessors 
of less than one “ hectare ” (about 2J acres). By 
these, however, the land is assiduously cultivated, 
and a very high reputation for farming has been 
established. In the low-lying districts near the 
mouth of the Scheldt, large tracts of land, called 
“polders,” have been protected by substantial 
dykes, as in Holland, from the inroads of the sea, 
and drained by a network of canals, some of which 
are above the general level of the soil, and are fed 
by pumping. Nearly 200 square miles of what 
would otherwise be waste land have thus been 
brought under cultivation ; in some parts the loose 
sand-dunes have been planted with the sand-reed 
(Arundo arenaria ), which in the course of centuries 
has formed a vegetable soil, and now supports 
extensive fir-plantations. About 67 per cent, of the 
total area is at present cultivated ; 13 per cent, 
consists of pasture and meadow lands, and 17 per 
cent, of forest. The principal crops are wheat, rye, 
barley, oats, and red clover; beetroot, potatoes, 
carrots, and turnips are also largely grown, and 
the last three are exported in considerable quanti¬ 
ties ; flax has for centuries been an important 
article of cultivation and export. 

Industries. Iron is a chief source of wealth. 
The value of the ore produced in 1888 was over 
£43,000. Pig-iron to the amount of 826,850 tons, 
valued at £1,780,000, and manufactured iron, 
547,818 tons, value £2,800,000 were produced in the 
same year, besides 231,847 tons of steel ingots, 
value £760,000, and 185,417 tons of manufactured 
steel, value £900,000. (N.B. The above values are 






( 21 ) 


Belgium. 


Belgium. 


merely approximate equivalents in English money 
of the figures in official tables.) It should be 
noted that the returns for 1889-90, as far as they 
are yet complete, show an increase under each of 
these heads. The production of pig-iron employs 
some 3,000 men, and about an equal number are 
engaged in the manufactured iron trade. 

Coal exists in great abundance. The seams in 
some districts do not lie horizontally, as in England, 
but are nearly vertical, so that mining has to be 
carried on almost entirely by means of shafts, in¬ 
stead of the level galleries in use in England. These 
shafts or pits are driven constantly deeper as the 
coal is got out, until the limit of practicable mining 
is reached. There are 260 coal-mines in Belgium, 
of which 133 were working in 1888. The output 
during that year was 19,218,000 tons, and the 
estimated value £6,480,000. Nearly 4^ million tons 
were exported. On the other hand about one 
million tons were imported during the same period. 
103,477 persons were engaged in coal mining in 
1888, including 3,327 women, 8,562 boys, and 1,026 
girls working underground. 

Manufactures. Fire-arms are made in great 
numbers. Liege is the centre of this industry, 
and contains the Royal Gun Factory, the State 
Cannon Foundry, and the State Proof-house. Ma¬ 
chinery is produced chiefly at Seraing, an industrial 
centre of which the prosperity dates from the foun¬ 
dation of a factory by John Cockerill in 1817 ; it 
has been called the Birmingham of the Continent. 
Woollen goods are made chiefly at Verviers and 
Liege ; carpets at Brussels and Tournay; linen in 
Flanders, Brabant, and Hainault; lace at Brussels, 
Mechlin, and Bruges; cotton at Ghent; glass at 
Charleroi; hosiery at Tournay. Beet-sugar manu¬ 
facture is an active industry, there being 115 re¬ 
fineries at work in 1890 ; the production amounted 
to more than 142,000 tons of raw sugar. 

Slapping. The principal sea-ports are Antwerp, 
Ostend, and Nieuport. Ghent, although situated 
inland, has a large shipping trade, the canals giv¬ 
ing free access to ships up to 2,000 tons burthen. 


Return of Shipping during the Year 1890. 


Name of Port. 

Number of 
Vessels. 

Total Tonnage. 

Antwerp - 

4,532 

4,517,698 

Ghent .... 

952 

395,517 

Ostend .... 

534 

211,582 

Brussels - 

141 

20,518 

Nieuport .... 

74 

20,649 


Commerce. Its position gives Belgium great 
importance as an entrepot. The amount of 
produce passing through its ports is therefore some¬ 
what in excess of its own requirements and pro¬ 
ductions. The imports of Belgium in 1890 exceeded 
those of 1889 (stated at £124,240,000) by nearly 
£4,000,000. The following were the principal 
articles:—Grain, of all kinds; flour, chiefly from 
the United States ; hemp, jute, and cotton, mostly 
from England and India; hides, from the river 
Plate; ivory, from the Congo; wool, from South 
America ; nitrates ; petroleum ; rice, mainly from 


British Burmah ; coffee, from Brazil; timber, from 
the Baltic ; coal, from England. 

Of exports the most important were:—Yarns, 
machinery, etc., raw textiles, coal, cereals, and 
vegetable substances. The total value is estimated 
at £122,000,000. The exports show a steady annual 
increase. 

Communications. The roads are mostly very 
good; length (in 1888)5,610 miles. Canals are more 
numerous than in any other country except Holland; 
navigable waters extend to 1,000 miles. In January’ 
1890, there were 2,793 miles of railways open, of 
which nearly three-fourths were worked by the 
State. England is the only other country as well 
furnished. There are 4,054 miles of telegraph lines, 
with over 19,000 miles of wires, and 1,548 telegraph 
stations. Post-offices number 821, and the private 
letters carried in 1889 numbered over 95,000,000, 
besides a nearly equal number of newspapers, and 
large quantities of other documents. 

The Army is raised by conscription, all able-bodied 
males being liable from the age of nineteen. Sub¬ 
stitutes are permitted at present, but a change in 
the law is probable. The term of service is eight 
years, of which about two-thirds are usually spent on 
furlough. The infantry comprises 1 regiment of 
carabiniers, 1 of grenadiers, 3 of chasseurs-a-pied, 
and 14 of the line, each having 3 active and 2 reserve 
battalions, except the carabiniers, who have 4 and 
3 respectively. The cavalry consists of 8 regiments, 
2 of chasseurs-a-cheval, 4 of lancers, and 2 of guides; 
each has 5 active squadrons and a depot. Of field 
artillery there are 4 regiments containing altogether 
34 active and 4 reserve batteries of 6 guns each, 
besides reserve munition battery and depot. There 
are also 4 regiments of fortress artillery. 

The following table gives the peace establishment 
according to the Budget of 1890:— 


Branch. 

Officers. 

Men. 

Total. 

Infantry 

1,888 

28,890 

30,778 

Cavalry 

368 

5,6S0 

6,048 

Artillery ... 

509 

7,862 

8,371 

Engineers 

89 

1,390 

1,479 

Administrative - 

74 

S20 

894 

Total .... 

2,928 

44,642 

47,570 


Besides the above there is a general staff of 474 
officers and men. The total war strength of the 
Belgian army may be stated at 154,780 men, 14,000 
horses, and 240 guns. This includes the gendar¬ 
merie, numbering 2,449, which is to a certain extent 
incorporated in the army, but does not include the 
Garde Civique, a force of about 42,000 men. 

Art. No country, Italy perhaps excepted, is 
richer in examples of the very highest art. It is 
impossible, within the limits at disposal, even to 
mention more than a few of the most prominent. 
The cathedrals of Brussels and Antwerp, the belfries 
of Tournay, Ghent, and Bruges, and the town halls 
(hotels cle ville ) of Bruges, Brussels, and Louvain 
are perhaps the most world-renowned of the many 
admirable specimens of Belgian architecture. 




























Belgium. 


( 22 ) 


Belief. 


The Flemish school is among the most celebrated 
in the history of painting, and Belgium is, of course, 
rich in examples, from the period of the Van Eycks 
at Bruges in the fourteenth century, onward. 
Mending, Quentin Matsys, Mabuse, Rubens, 
Snyders, Van Dyck, Teniers, and many other 
masters, inferior only to these, may yet be studied 
in the localities, and among most of the surround¬ 
ings which they loved to depict. 

Music has long been appreciatively studied in 
Belgium, and many of her sons have achieved a 
wide reputation. Of violinists, in particular, there 
is an excellent record. Joseph Ghys (1801-1848), 
and Hubert Leonard (1819-1890) are names well 
known and highly respected among students of 
modern music, and they have worthy successors 
among the living masters. 

The inhabitants of Belgium form two sharply 
defined ethnical groups, the Flemings and Wallons 
or Walloons, distinct in origin, speech, traditions, 
and geographical x>osition, but united by a com¬ 
mon nationality and religion. Nearly all are 
Roman Catholics ; but the Flemings, who call them¬ 
selves duytsch or neder-duytsch , are of Teutonic 
stock, a branch of the Low German division, and 
speak a Low German idiom, essentially the same as 
the Dutch of the Netherlands, whereas the Wallons 
are of mixed Gallo-Roman descent and speak 
a Romance (Neo-Latin) tongue in two varieties 
(Hennuyer and Liegeois), closely allied to the 
French dialects of Picardy and Lorraine. The two 
groups are about equal in numbers (3,100,000 of 
Flemish, 2,900,000 of Romance speech), and also 
occupy nearly equal portions of the kingdom: 
Flemings mainly in the west (both Flanders, two- 
thirds of Brabant, Antwerp, and Limbourg, with 
area 5,000 square miles), Wallons mainly in the east 
(Hainault, Namur, Liege, Luxembourg, and one- 
third of Brabant, with area over 6,000 square miles). 
Many are bilingual, especially in the towns, and 
the capital, though situated in the Flemish domain, 
is largely French in speech. French is also the 
language of the Court, of diplomacy, the higher 
circles, general literature and intercourse, hence 
it seems destined to ultimately supersede both 
Flemish and Wallon as the exclusive language of 
the country. In late years, however, there has 
been a “ Flemish revival,” and Flemish is now 
largely used in literature, and even in scientific 
works and periodicals, such as the Bulletin de 
VAcademie Royale de Belgique. On the other 
hand, Wallon, being little cultivated, has sunk to 
the position of a provincial patois. Distinctions 
have been drawn, and sometimes perhaps over¬ 
drawn, between the mental qualities of the two 
groups. Both are equally frugal and industrious, 
but while the Wallons are more lively they are less 
solid than the Flemings, who have also been most 
distinguished in science, and especially in art. 
Antwerp, Flanders, and Flemish Brabant are the 
true seats of Belgian painting, architecture and 
wood carving, and the Flemish towns are incom¬ 
parably more interesting than those of the Wallon 
territory. But the Wallons, who may be regarded 
as the true representatives of the ancient Belga, 
are physically the finer of the two races, stronger, 


more bony and taller, also more long-lived and 
less subject to disease, as shown by the lower 
death-rate in Namur (18 per 1,900) than in West 
Flanders (25 per 1,000). 

Belgorod, also Bielgokoo, a town of Russia 
upwards of 400 miles S. of Moscow, is on the 
Donetz. It is the seat of an archbishop’s see, has 
numerous churches, manufactures in leather, etc. 

Belgrade, the capital of Servia, is situated at 
the confluence of the Save and Danube, and on the 
right bank of the latter. It is identified with the 
ancient Singidunum of Ptolemy. From its posi¬ 
tion as being the key to Hungary it was long the 
scene of many fierce conflicts between the Aus¬ 
trians and the Turks, and repeatedly changed hands 
—from the Greeks in 1073 to the Hungarians, back 
again to the Greeks, and from them to the Bul¬ 
garians, Bosnians, and Servians respectively. In 
1456 and again in 1522 it was stormed by the 
Turks, who held it until 1688, when it was retaken 
by the Austrians, who again lost it in 1690. In 
1717 Prince Eugene, the ruins of whose palace 
still remain, took it, and after an attempt on the 
part of the Turks to carry it by storm in 1739, it 
came into their hands by treaty. In 1789 Austria 
again acquired it; in 1791, Turkey; in 1806, 
Servian insurgents ; in 1862 it was bombarded from 
its own citadel, which remained in Turkish hands 
until 1867. By the treaty of Berlin, 1878, it was made 
the capital of an independent state. Though it 
has in the main belonged to Turkey, it has yet 
more the appearance of a European than a Turkish 
town. It has a royal and an episcopal palace, a 
cathedral, a theatre, and other public and educa¬ 
tional buildings. Carpets, hardware, cutlery, etc., 
are manufactured, and it has a considerable trade. 

Belgravia, the specially fashionable district 
of London immediately S. of Hyde Park Corner, and 
about Eaton and Belgrave Squares. It derives its 
name from the latter, which in its turn is called 
after one of the subordinate titles of the Duke of 
Westminster, the ground landlord of the district. 

Belial is a Hebrew word meaning worthless¬ 
ness, wickedness. Translators have treated it as 
the name of a person, as in the phrases, “ son of 
Belial,” “ man of Belial.” 

Belief, a term variously used by philosophers to 
denote either a state of mind with respect to certain 
propositions, or the propositions themselves. Usually 
it means assent on insufficient evidence and is con¬ 
trasted with knowledge, that term being sometimes 
restricted to propositions of which the contradictory 
is inconceivable, i.e. necessary truths like the pro¬ 
positions of arithmetic or geometry. But some 
intuitionist psychologists regard all our know¬ 
ledge as based on certain principles involved in the 
structure of our mind and not based on experience, 
which they term fundamental, or primary beliefs. 
In religion the term is used as almost a synonym 
for faith, i.e. assent (largely coloured with emotion) 
to propositions, the evidence for which falls short 
of logical proof. The doctrine of the culpability of 








Belisarius. 


( 23 ) 


Bell, 


wrong belief in religious matters is based on the 
view that “all assent involves an act of will,” 
a mediaeval theory which receives some support 
from current psychology. 

Belisarius, in Slavonic, Beli-tzar , meaning 
White Prince, flourished in the reign of the Emperor 
Justinian. He was born in Illyria about 505 A.D., 
and died in 565. In 530, while in command 
of. the eastern army of the empire, he won a 
brilliant victory over a Persian army twice as 
numerous as ‘his own. Next year, however, at 
Callinicum on the Euphrates, the Persians defeated 
him and he was recalled. In 532 he checked the 
factious fighting in Constantinople between the 
Green and the Blue parties, who at that time were 
endangering the supremacy of Justinian. He was 
thereafter in 533 sent with an army into Africa 
against the Vandals, whose king, Gelimer, he made 
prisoner, and led in triumph through Constanti¬ 
nople. He was next engaged in Italy against the 
Goths, whose king, Vitiges, he also captured in 
540 at Ravenna. Summoned to Constantinople by 
the emperor, he was again engaged against the 
Persians in 541-42, after which he had to return to 
Italy in consequence of the invasion of Totila. 
Though inadequately supplied with forces he yet 
sustained a struggle against the barbarians for five 
years. In the end, however, his repeated requests 
for additional aid being disregarded, he was 
replaced in the command (in 548) by Narses, his 
rival, distinguishing himself once more in 559 in a 
campaign against the Bulgarians. In 563 he was 
imprisoned through a slanderous charge of con¬ 
spiracy against Justinian, whom he had served so 
well; but the emperor becoming convinced of his 
innocence soon afterwards, set him free and restored 
him to his dignities. According to another but 
not so authentic account, Belisarius was deprived 
of his eyesight and reduced to beggary. He had 
the misfortune to be mated with a profligate wife 
Antonina, a companion of the Empress Theodora. 

Belize, the capital of British Honduras, which 
also bears the same name, is situated on the river 
Belize. It is the only trading port of British 
Honduras, and from it are exported mahogany, 
logwood, rosewood, sarsaparilla, indiarubber, etc., 
the produce of the colony. 

Bell. Bells are made of various materials— 
glass, silver, and recently steel—but that most 
usually employed is bronze or bell-metal (q.v.), a 
mixture of copper and tin. Some early Irish bells 
are made of riveted plates, but all but an infini¬ 
tesimal proportion are cast. Their use is certainly 
very ancient. Small bells are found at Nineveh, 
and golden bells formed part of Aaron’s vest¬ 
ments. (Exod. xxviii. 33, 34.) Some form of bell 
was used by the Greeks in fortified towns. Greek 
and Roman bells were very variously shaped, some 
forms resembling our own. Sets of bells were at¬ 
tached to frames and carried in the hand (ap¬ 
parently) in certain religious processions ; bells were 
attached to the collars of chariot-horses; and gongs 
of bell-metal are preserved in the Naples Museum. 
In Christian worship the use of bells dates probably 


from about the fifth century. It is mentioned by 
Bede, and by Gregory of Tours. They are or have 
been used to summon to church ; to signify the 
approaching death of a member of the congrega¬ 
tion (the “passing bell”), a practice revived°in 
some places of late years, here and there, by the 
Anglican Church ; during a thunderstorm to keep 
off the lightning (a practice still customary in parts 
of the Tyrol, and elsewhere on the Continent) ; to 



GKEAT BELL OF MOSCOW. 


call to prayer (Angelus) ; and at the elevation of 
the host in Catholic worship. Before a funeral, in 
the Anglican Church, a bell is tolled; after it a 
peal of bells is often rung in the country, though 
less commonly in towns, for obvious reasons. The 
bell rung at the elevation of the host is commonly 
a hand-bell ; sometimes (in England before the 
Reformation) it was a small bell hung among the 
rest in the tower, or alone just above the chancel. 
Church bells commonly bear pious inscriptions, and 
have often been dedicated or “ baptised ” with 
religious ceremonies. The curfew bell was originally 
rung in pursuance of a statute ascribed to William 
the Conqueror, ordering all fires to be put out at 
8 p.m. The practice was abolished by Henry II., 
but the “ curfew ” is still rung at dusk in many 
places. In some places on the Continent—es¬ 
pecially at Antwerp cathedral and Bruges—elabor¬ 
ate music is performed by sets of bells. (Caril¬ 
lon.) For the ringing of bells see Change¬ 
ringing. The principal bell-foundries are those 
of Leicester in England (where Great Paul was 
cast) and Louvain in Belgium. 

Reviarliable hells. The earliest bells were mere 
hand bells ; and really large specimens hardly oc¬ 
cur before the fifteenth century of our era. The 
famous Great Bell of Moscow, now converted into a 
sort of chapel, is 80 feet round and 90 feet high, and 
is said to weigh 198 tons. It was spoilt in casting, 
was in the earth 136 years, and set up in its 
present position by the Emperor Nicholas. The 






































Bell. 


( 24 ) 


Bell. 


largest bell in use, also in Moscow, is said to weigh 
128 tons. The Kaiserglocke of Cologne Cathedral 
(1874), made from cannon captured in the Franco- 
German war, weighs a little over 264 tons. Another 
in the same cathedral, cast in 1447, weighs 11 tons. 
Big Ben in the Clock Tower at Westminster (cast 
1858) weighs 13 tons; it was cracked in the cast¬ 
ing, but the effect was cured by the crack being 
filed open; Great Tom, at Christ Church, Oxford, 
cast 1680, 7f tons; “Great Paul,” at St. Paul's 
Cathedral, London, cast 1881, 174 tons. 

Bell, Andrew, was born in 1753 at St. Andrews, 
where also he was educated. Taking orders in 
the Church of England, he went to India, and in 
1789 became manager of the institution for the 
education of the orphan children of European 
soldiers at Madras. Here, through the lack of 
properly qualified assistants, he had to fall back 
upon the scholars themselves for aid, in which 
expedient originated the Madras or monitorial 
system of education. His health failing he was 
pensioned off by the East India Company in 1797, 
and having returned to England he in the same 
year published a work on his system. Through its 
adoption by Joseph Lancaster, a Quaker, it obtained 
considerable public recognition, and Lancasterian 
schools spread over the country. This alarmed the 
Church party, which in 1811 founded the National 
Society for the Education of the Poor, with Bell as 
superintendent. After a visit to the Continent in 
furtherance of his system he was appointed pre¬ 
bendary of Hereford and of Westminster. Dying- 
in 1832, he apportioned £120,000 of his fortune for 
educational purposes. 

Bell, Sir Charles, surgeon, was born 1774 in 
Edinburgh, where he studied anatomy under his 
brother John (q.v.). In 1804, after being admitted a 
member of the Edinburgh College of Surgeons, he 
removed to London and made a name as a lecturer 
on anatomical and surgical subjects. In 1807 
he discovered the dual character of the nerves of 
the brain, sensory and motor. This was published 
in his Anatomy of the Brainin 1811, and amplified in 
his Nervous System (1830). Meanwhile (in 1814) he 
had been appointed surgeon to the Middlesex Hos¬ 
pital, in 1824 to the chair of anatomy and surgery to 
the Royal College of Surgeons, London, and in 1836 to 
the professorship of surgery in the University of 
Edinburgh. In 1829 for his scientific discoveries 
he was awarded the Royal Society’s medal and 
knighted by William IV. in 1831. He also gave 
special study to gunshot wounds. Besides numerous 
treatises on the nervous system, he also in conjunc¬ 
tion with Lord Brougham edited Paley’s Evidences 
of Natural Religion. He died in 1842 at Worcester. 

Bell, George Joseph, brother of Sir Charles, 
was born in 1770 in Edinburgh. He became dis¬ 
tinguished in law, and in 1822 was appointed pro¬ 
fessor of Scots Law in Edinburgh University. In 
1832 he became one of the clerks of the Court of 
Session, and in 1883 chairman of the Royal Com¬ 
mission on Law. He wrote several legal books, 
the chief being Principles of the Law of Scotland , 
1829. He died in 1843. 


Bell, Henry, was born in 1767 in Linlithgow¬ 
shire. After serving successively as a stonemason, 
a millwright, and in a ship-building yard, he 
settled in Helensburgh in 1807, where he gave his 
attention to the steamboat, and in 1812 the Comet, 
which had been built under Bell's directions, was 
launched. It was driven by a three-horse power 
engine made by himself, and was the first European 
steamer. He is also said to have invented the dis¬ 
charging machine used in calico-printing. He died 
at Helensburgh in 1830. 

Bell, Henry Glassford, lawyer, was born in 
1803 in Glasgow. He studied law at Edinburgh, 
where he founded and edited in 1828 the Edinhuryh 
Literary Journal. Passing as an advocate in 1832, 
he received the appointment of sheriff-substitute 
for Lanarkshire in 1839, succeeding as sheriff in 
1867. He wrote a vindication of Mary Queen of 
Scots and several volumes of poetry. He died in 
1874. 

Bell, John, traveller, was born in 1691 in Stir¬ 
lingshire. After studying medicine he went in 
1714 to St. Petersburg, and received the appoint¬ 
ment of physician to an embassy for Persia. This 
was followed by similar appointments to different 
parts, the result of these travels being published in 
1764. He died in 1780. 

Bell, John, surgeon, was born in 1763 in Edin¬ 
burgh, where he commenced his career as a lecturer 
on surgery and midwifery. These lectures brought 
him into notice. His chief works are his Anatomy, 
a book on wounds, and his Principles of Surgery, 
of which an enlarged edition was brought out by 
his brother, Sir Charles (q.v.), in 1826. He died at 
Rome, whither he had gone for the sake of his 
health, in 1820. 

Bell, John, was born in 1797 in Tennessee. A 
barrister, he became in 1827 a member of Congress, 
in 1834 Speaker, and in 1841 Secretary for War. 
In 1847 he withdrew to the Senate, and in 1860 
was nominated for the Presidency. He was not 
returned, however, and retired from active political 
life, dying in 1869. 

Bell, Robert, journalist, was born in 1800 at 
Cork. Removing to London in 1828, he became 
editor of the Atlas, Monthly Chronicle, Mirror, and 
Home News. He wrote for Lardner's Cabinet 
Cyclopaedia, completed Southey’s Naval History, 
and Mackintosh's History of England, and several 
plays and novels. His annotated edition of the 
British Poets from Chaucer to Cowper is his best 
known work. He died in 1867 in London. 

Bell, Thomas, naturalist, was born in 1792 at 
Poole, Dorsetshire. After studying at Guy's Hospital 
and holding the position of dental surgeon there, 
he in 1836 became professor of zoology in King's 
College, London. During the years 1840-53 he 
acted as secretary to the Royal Society, in 1844 
first president of the Ray Society, and 1853-61 
was president of the Lin mean Society. His best 
known books are on British. Quadrupeds, British 
Reptiles, British Stalk-eyed Crustacea, and his 
White’s Natural History of Selborne. He died at 
Selborne in 1880. 








Bell. 


( 25 ) 


Belleisle. 


Bell, Book, and Candle (Cursing by), the 
popular name for excommunication from the cere¬ 
monies used. The “ book ” was that from which 
the sentence was read ; the candle was kept burning 
during the reading and extinguished at its close, 
as a sign that the sinner’s light in the Church was 
extinguished unless he should repent; the bell was 
rung to announce what was going on. Similar 
ceremonies were used in exorcism, with, of course, 
a different meaning. 

Bella, Stefano Della, engraver, was born in 
1610 at Florence. Going to Paris in 1642 he was 
employed there by Richelieu, and on returning to 
Florence he became teacher in drawing to Cosmo 
de’ Medici. He engraved more than 1,000 plates. 

Belladonna, the Deadly Nightshade (q.v.), 
Atropa Belladonna. [Atropini.] "its active prin¬ 
ciple Atropine produces, in small doses, dryness of 
the mouth and headache. After poisonous doses 
the pupils become widely dilated, the pulse rapid, 
the skin is covered with a scarlatiniform rash, and 
a restless delirium supervenes. Belladonna poison¬ 
ing occasionally occurs in children who have swal¬ 
lowed “ eye drops ” ; the main remedial measure is to 
promptly administer an emetic. Belladonna liniment 
and ointment are most useful local applications to 
painful parts. They are also employed to check 
secretions, for example, in putting away the milk.” 
The action of atropine in dilating the pupil renders 
it invaluable in ophthalmic practice. Internally 
administered the drug is mainly employed to allay 
muscular spasm and to check night sweats. 

Belladonna Lily, Amaryllis Belladonna,, a 
native of the Cape of Good Hope, a bulbous plant 
sending up in September leafless flower-stalks 18 
inches high, bearing two or three pink, funnel- 
shaped blossoms. The strap-shaped leaves are 
produced later. The plant obtained its name in 
Italy from the blending of red and white in the 
flower as in the complexion of a beautiful woman. 

Bellaggio, the name of a village on Lake Como. 

It is much resorted to during the season. 

Bellamy, George Anne, actress, was the issue 
of an illicit connection between a school-girl and 
Lord Tyrawley. Beginning her brilliant career at 
Covent Garden in 1744, with Quin in The Orphan, 
she led a life of profligacy and extravagance. She 
was very beautiful, and amongst her intimates 
were men of the highest mark. It is believed 
that she was born in 1727 in Lisbon. 

Bellamy, Jacobus, poet, was born in 1757 at 
Flushing. He was educated at the University of 
Utrecht. His poems appeared in three volumes 
in the year 1782-85 ; they are sentimental and 
joatriotic and of the highest rank in his country. He 
died in 1786. 

Bell-animacule, or Vorticella, a bell¬ 
shaped Infusorian that grows attached to water 
plants, fish, floating wood, etc., by a thin contrac¬ 
tile stalk; they usually live in colonies. The free 
end of the bell is closed by a disc surrounded by a 
circle of cilia and perforated by the mouth. The | 


usual method of reproduction is by fission, but a 
sexual method sometimes occurs. 

Bellarmine, Robert, theologian, was born in 
1542 at Monte Pulciano, Tuscany. After studying 
under the Jesuits, he was ordained a priest in 1569 
and appointed to the chair of theology at Louvain. 
In 1599 he was made a cardinal, and in 1602 Arch¬ 
bishop of Capua. He was the main support of the 
Church of Rome in the sixteenth century. He was 
learned and in controversy moderate. His chief 
work, Disputed tones de Contronersiis Chr istiana 
Fidei ad versus hujns Temper is Haretieos, was the 
main point of the Roman Church’s defences that 
the Reformers attacked for years. He died in 
1621, having occupied since 1605 an important 
position in the Vatican. 

Bellary, the name of a town and a district in 
India in the presidency of Madras. The town is a 
military station, strongly fortified, and a centre of 
considerable trade. The district yields cotton, 
hemp, oil, and sugar cane, besides various minerals. 
It became British territory in 1800. 

Bellay, Joachhvi du, French poet, was born 
about 1525. With Ronsard and a group of other 
writers he formed the “ Pleiad,” whose object it was 
to make the French tongue the vehicle of culture 
as the classical languages of antiquity had been. 
In the Defence et Illustration de la Lanyue Fran- 
qaise he expounds the aims of the Pleiad. His 
poems comprise a collection of love sonnets, Les 
Beyrets, Les Jeux Rustiques, Les Antiquites de 
Rome, etc. For a time he was secretary to Cardinal 
du Bellay, a relative. In 1555 he was made canon 
of Notre Dame, and a little before his death, which 
occurred in 1560, Archbishop of Bordeaux. 

Bell Bird, any bird of the South American 
genus Chasmorhynchus, with four species, ranging 
from Costa Rica to Guiana and Brazil. The best 
known species is C. nii'eus, the “ Campanero ” of 
the Spaniards and the “ Arapunga” of the native 
Indians. The male is about the size of a jay, with 
snow white [plumage, and from its forehead there 
rises a spiral jet-black tube nearly three inches 
long, and dotted over with small white feathers. 
The cry is like the deep tolling of a bell, and during 
its utterance the bird erects this spiral tube, which 
at other times lies flaccid by the side of the beak. 
This horn-like tube probably adds to the resonance 
of the bird’s cry, but its exact structure is not 
determined, owing to the difficulty of procuring 
specimens for dissection. 

Belle-Alliance is the name of a farm on the 
Charteris road occupied by the centre of the 
French army during the battle of Waterloo. 

Belleisle. (l) A fortified island in the Atlantic, 
off the coast of the French department of Morbihan, 
to which it belongs. It was anciently called 
Vindilis, and Guerveur. Near it, on November 20th, 
1759, Admiral Sir Edward Hawke, with twenty-seven 
line-of-battle ships and six frigates, met M. de 
Conflans, with twenty line-of-battle ships and five 
frigates, and totally defeated him, capturing or 
destroying six sail of the line. The island was 








Belleisle. 


( 26 ) 


Bellot Strait. 


occupied by the British in 1761, but restored to 
France in 1766. It has an area of about 55 square 
miles, and a population of about 10,000. The 
coast scenery is picturesque, though not very lofty. 
The island is much indented by inlets. It was the 
birthplace of General Trochu. 

Belleisle, Charles.Louis Auguste Fouquet, 
Count de, was born in 1684 at Villefranche, 
Aveyron. After distinguishing himself in the war 
of the Spanish succession, in Italy, and Poland, he 
was elevated to the dignity of Marshal of France. 
In 1757 he was French Minister for War, and 
as such introduced many reforms into the army 
service. He died in 1761. 

Bellenden, John, poet, appears to have been 
born about the close of the 15th century at« 
Haddington or Berwick—which is not definitely 
known. He translated, at King James V.’s request, 
Boece’s history, written in Latin, into- Scottish 
prose, as also the first five books of Livy. For this 
he was awarded grants from the treasury, and was 
made Archdeacon of Moray and a canon of Ross. 
He opposed the Reformation, and in the reign of 
James V.’s successor he had to take refuge in 
Rome, where he died in 1550 or 15S7 according to 
Lord Dundrennan. 

Bellenden, William, was born between 1550 
and 1560 at Lasswade, near Edinburgh. He became 
a professor of belles-lettres in Paris, where he also 
rendered Queen Mary diplomatic services. He was 
distinguished for the grace of his Latin style, and, 
according to Hallam, for his broad and philosophical 
views of history. His chief work, published 1615, 
is Be Statu Prisci Orbis in religione, re politica . et 
litter is ; his other writings have reference mostly to 
Cicero. 

Bellerophon, or Hipponous, a hero of my¬ 
thology, had to flee to Proetus, King of Argos, for 
refuge. While there the king’s wife, Antsea, fell 
in love with him, an affection that he did not re¬ 
ciprocate. She thereupon got the king to send him 
to her father, Iobates, King of Syria, with a sealed 
letter requesting Iobates to put him to death. Not 
caring to do this with his own hands, Iobates im¬ 
posed on Bellerophon the task of slaying the 
Chimaera, which he thought would lead to the 
hero's death. Mounted on the winged steed Pegasus, 
given him by Pallas, he succeeded in slaying the 
monster. Other attempts to kill Bellerophon having 
failed, Iobates gave him in marriage his daughter 
Philonoe, by whom he had three children, Isander, 
Hippolochus, and Laodameia. 

Bellerophontid.se, the family of Gastropoda, 
of which Bellerophon is the type. It is restricted 
to the Palaeozoic except for the cretaceous genus 
Belleropldna. The family has been regarded as 
referable to the Heteropoda (q.v.). 

Belles Bettres, a term adopted from the 
French to denote the more elegant and lighter 
departments of literature—including poetry and the 
drama, fiction, literary and art criticism, and 
perhaps some forms of history. 

Belleville, a Parisian suburb, noted as being 


one of the poor quarters of the city. The lower part 
was the scene of one of the last and fiercest fights 
during the Commune, May 27, 1871. 

Belleville, in the province of Ontario, Canada, 
is a flourishing town and the seat of a denomina¬ 
tional university. 

Bellflower Animal. [Lophopus.1 

Bellini, Gentile, son of the above, was born 
1428 and was also distinguished as a portrait-painter. 
After a lucrative visit to Constantinople at the 
invitation of Mohammed II., who employed him on 
various historical works, he died at Venice in 1507. 
His chief work is The Preaching of St. Mark. 

Bellini, Giovanni, brother of Gentile, was 
born about 1424, and like his father and brother 
became celebrated with the brush. Among his 
best achievements are the Circumcision, Feast of 
the Gods, Blood of the Redeemer, etc. He did much 
to make oil-painting popular, and among his pupils 
were Titian and Giorgione. He died in 1716. 

Bellini, Jacopo, a celebrated painter belonging 
to Venice, was a pupil of Gentile da Fabriano. 
He excelled in portraits, but most of his works 
have perished. He died about 1470. 

Bellini, Vincenzo, born in 1802, died in 1835. 
He is best known as the composer of Norma (1832), 
La Sonnambula (1831), and I Puritani (1834). His 
works contain much melodious beauty, but little 
dramatic force. 

Bellinzona, a Swiss town, is the capital of the 
canton of Ticino. Situated on the left bank of the 
river Ticino, a few miles from the north end of 
Lago Mnggiore, it is a place of some military im¬ 
portance. It was the scene of the Ticino revolu¬ 
tion in September, 1890. 

Bellite, a powerful explosive, the invention of 
Mr. C. Lamm, of Stockholm. It consists of a mix¬ 
ture of nitrate of ammonium with a di-or tri-nitro- 
benzole, and much resembles securite and roburite. 
It is said to be safe for use in mines in the presence 
of fire-damp or coal-dust. 

Bell Metal, a yellowish grey alloy of copper 
and tin used in the manufacture of bells. Contains 
about three parts of copper to one part of tin. 

Bellona , the goddess of war among the Romans, 
is variously described by the poets as the sister, 
daughter, or wife of Mars. She is represented as 
armed with a bloody scourge, with dishevelled hair 
and a torch in her hand. A temple was dedicated 
to her on the Campus Martius and her priests were 
named Bellonarii. 

Bellot, Joseph Rene, explorer, was born in 
1826 in Paris. He was a French naval officer, and 
in 1851 he joined the polar expedition sent out in 
search of Sir John Franklin. In one of his ex¬ 
plorations in 1852 he discovered Bellot Strait, 
which was afterwards more fully investigated by 
McClintock. He was drowned in the following 
year, and in 1855 his diary was published. 

Bellot Strait, on the north coast of North 
America, connecting Prince Regent Inlet with 






Bellows Fish. 


( 27 ) 


Beltane. 


Franklin Channel. Its length is about 20 miles. 
It derives its name from Lieutenant Bellot (q.v.). 

Bellows Fish, one of the popular names of 
Centriscus scolopax, the only British species of 
the genus Centriscus. The species occur on the 
coasts of Australia, China, and the South of Europe, 
and are small marine fishes, having the body scaly 
or covered with spines, and are often driven out to 
sea from their feeble swimming powers. In the 
Bellows fish the body is compressed and oblong, 
covered with spiny scales, and with bony plates on 
the upper and lower surface ; the snout is produced 
so as to resemble a tube which terminates in a 
long toothless mouth ; the two small dorsal fins 
are placed far back, and the ventral fins are close 
together, and are received into a groove on the 
belly; reddish green on the back, silvery below. 

Belloy, Pierre Laurent Buirette de, 
dramatist, was born in 1727 at St. Flour in Au¬ 
vergne. He played under the name of Dormont, 
making his first hit in France in 1762, in Zelmire, 
a tragedy of his own. His Le Siege de Calais 
followed in 1765, Gaston et Bayard in 1771, 
admitting him to the French Academy, and Pierre 
le Cruel in 1772. He died in 1775 at Paris. 

Bell Bock, or Inch Cape, a dangerous reef in 
the German Ocean near the mouth of the Tay. 
On it is built a lighthouse erected in 1807-10 by 
Robert Stevenson from plans by Rennie. The 
height of this lighthouse is 120 feet, its cost was 
£60,000, and besides a revolving light it has two 
bells to be rung- in foggy weather. The rock has 
the reputation of having been a source of danger 
from early times. 

Bell’s Palsy. [Facial Palsy.] 

Belluae, a Linnaean class of Mammals now 
lapsed. It contained the horses, hippopotamuses, 
tapirs, and pigs. 

Belon, Pierre, naturalist, was born in 1518 at 
Soulletiere in Maine. After studying medicine he 
travelled in Germany, Greece, Egypt, Asia Minor, 
and Arabia, publishing the results in 1553. He 
wrote treatises also on different departments of 
animal and vegetable life, the chief being a Natural 
History of Birds , 1555. He was murdered by 
robbers in 1564 while gathering specimens in the 
Bois de Boulogne. 

Belore. [Garfish.] 

Beloochistan, anciently Gedrosia , a country 
in Asia bounded on the N. by Afghanistan, on 
the E. by Sind, on the S. by the Arabian Sea, 
and on the W. by Persia. Its coast-line on the 
Arabian Sea extends for about 600 miles, yet it 
has no good harbours, the only places of shelter 
of any note being Soumiani Bay, Honiara, and 
Gwadar. Its rivers are the Bolan, Rodbat, Lora, 
Shirinab, Mula, Habb, Sinamani, Marwar, Nari, 
Urnach, Purali, Shadi, Mokula, Bhasul, Ghish, 
Gashastan, Dasht, Rakshan, Bhado, Gwargo, Nihing, 
rn:l Mashkid. It is divided into seven provinces, 
viz. Kelat, Sarawan, Kohistan, Cutch-Gundava, 
Jhalawan, Loos, and Mekran. It is in the main a 
barren mountainous country, and for the most part 


as yet unexplored. Even its numerous rivers 
contribute little to its fertility on account of their 
insignificance. The climate is also very varied, the 
cold in winter being severe, and the heat in summer 
intense. It yields different minerals and great 
variety of fruits, grain, and vegetables. Its manu¬ 
factures are few and insignificant, being confined 
to Kelat, the capital. It is peopled by two races— 
the Baluchis and Brahui (q.v.), speaking distinct 
languages and subdivided into innumerable tribes. 
They are described as brave, active, and hospitable. 
The practice of polygamy is universal. 

Belper, a Derbyshire town on the Derwent, 
famous for its cotton mills, foundries, and, in the 
neighbourhood, numerous collieries. It gives a 
title to the Strutt family. 

Belsham, Thomas, theologian, was born in 
1750 at Bedford. In 1778 he became the pastor of 
a Worcester dissenting body, and in 1781 resident 
tutor of the Daventry Theological Academy. From 
being a Calvinist he turned in 1789 to Unitarian, 
and in 1794 succeeded Priestley in the Gravel-pit 
Unitarian chapel, Hackney, afterwards removing to 
the Essex Street chapel, where he remained until his 
death in 1829. Among his published writings the 
chief were Elements of the Philosophy of the Human 
Mind, and Memoirs of TlieopMlus Lindsey —his 
predecessor in the Essex Street chapel pulpit. 

Belshazzar, the last Chaldean king of 
Babylon, was slain b.c. 538 at the capture of 
Babylon by Cyrus. This is according to the book 
of Daniel, which, however, is at variance with the 
cuneiform inscriptions. Apparently he was associa¬ 
ted in the kingdom with his father Nabonidus, 
whom they mention as the last king. The book 
of Daniel also narrates that Belshazzar had a notice 
from heaven of his fate in the words written on 
the wall:— Mene , Mene, Tekel, XJpharsin , literally 
rendered, “Numbered, numbered, weighed', and 
divisions.” 

Belt, Great and Little, two straits connecting 
the Baltic with the Cattegat. The Great Belt 
flows between the islands of Zealand and Funen 
and is about 70 miles long and 15 miles broad ; the 
Little Belt separating Funen from the mainland of 
Schleswig is of similar length to the Great Belt, 
but only about half as wide. Both are perilous to 
navigators, who usually prefer to go by the Sound, 
which lies to the east. 

Beltane, Baltan, Bealtine, Beltein (from 
Celtic Beal, the name of a deity, and tin or teine, 
fire), a Celtic fire festival, formerly celebi'ated about 
May 1st and November 1st, and having much in 
common with the bonfire rites of other branches of 
the Aryan race. Many writers have attempted to 
identify the Celtic Beal with the Bel or Baal of 
the Semites—an attempt which Tvlor considers on 
a level with Sir William Jones’s identification of 
Woden with Buddha. 

The Beltane festival is first mentioned in a 
manuscript of the tenth century by Cormac, Arch¬ 
bishop of Cashel, though it must have originated at 
a far earlier date. At first it was undoubtedly 
sacrificial, and it seems to have retained something 









Belting. 


( 28 ) 


Bembatoka Bay. 


of its original character down to the eighteenth and 
probably to the nineteenth century. Scott, who uses 
the word in the “Boat Song” in the Lady of the 
Lahe as synonymous with Spring, in his Demon- 
oloyy attributes the Beltane and similar rites “ to 
a natural tendency to the worship of the evil prin¬ 
ciple.” It is more in accordance with the anthropo¬ 
logical teaching of the present day to ascribe them 
to nature-worship (q.w). 

In Sinclair’s Statistical Account of Scotland it is 
said that “ on May 1st all the boys (i.c. unmarried 
men) in a township or hamlet meet on the moors, 
where they dig a trench in which they kindle a fire 
and bake a cake, which is afterwards divided into 
portions. One of these pieces is blackened and 
they are then put in a bonnet, and all draw lots. 
Whoever draws the black bit is to be sacrificed to 
Baal, whose favour they mean to implore in render¬ 
ing the year productive of sustenance to man and 
beast. . . . They now omit the act of sacrifice, 

and only compel the devoted person to leap three 
times through the flames.” The same authority 
says that on All Saints’ eve bonfires were set up in 
every village, and when the fires were extinguished 
the ashes were raked into a circle. Then a stone 
was put in the ashes for every person belonging to 
the families who made the bonfire, and the person 
whose stone was displaced or injured before the 
morning was supposed to be destined not to live 
twelve months from that day. [Bonfire, Hal¬ 
loween.] 

Belting, an engineering term designating a 
convenient means for the transmission of power 
from one rotating piece to another. A belt is a 
flexible band connecting two pulleys. Power given 
to one of these is transmitted to the other through 
the belt, which must therefore grip the pulleys 
sufficiently tight to prevent slipping, and which 
must also be of suitable dimensions to withstand 
the stresses given to it. Belts are usually of tanned 
leather, cut into strips and united by cementing 
and lacing or riveting. Flat belts of indiarubber, 
guttapercha, cotton, and even paper are also used. 
The use of belts of circular section is rapidly 
extending; these require pulleys with grooved 
rims, the ropes being of hemp, cotton, or wire. 
[Rope Gearing.] 

Beltir, a large Turki tribe on the Abakan tribu¬ 
tary of the Upper Yenesei, South Siberia, in speech 
and features akin to the Yakuts of the Lena basin. 
Like the Tunguses and some other Central Asiatic 
peoples, they expose their dead on the branches of 
trees in the most secluded parts of the forests. The 
body is placed in a large coffin with provisions, 
household utensils and, if a man, his saddle and 
other valuable effects. This custom dates from 
remote times, and is analogous to a practice 
attributed by Herodotus to the ancient Scythians. 
The Beltirs are polygamists, but seldom have more 
than two wives. 

Beluga (Delphinapterus leucas ), the White 
Whale, one of the Dolphin family, closely allied to 
the Narwhal (q.v.). These animals are from 12 to 
1G feet long, creamy white in hue, symmetrical in 


form, with short stumpy flippers, and a mere ridge 
in the place of a dorsal fin. They are abundant in 
the Arctic seas, and extend as far south on the 
American coast as the St. Lawrence, which they 
ascend for a considerable distance, and they have 
occasionally been seen on the coast of Scotland. 
These animals are gregarious, often appearing in 
large schools. They are sometimes kept in aquaria, 
and from their sportive nature afford much amuse¬ 
ment to visitors. The Greenlanders capture them 
in nets, and the North American Indians on the St. 
Lawrence paint their canoes white and sail in 
among them, harpooning when opportunity offers, 
though the soft skin frequently allows the harpoon 
to drop out. Every part of the animal is valuable, the 
flesh is eaten, the fat is made into oil, the skin made 
into leather, and the membranes utilised for various 
purposes. The female brings forth a single young 
one in the spring; this is of a bluish-grey, paling 
with age. The name (which is Russian) is also 
applied to Acipenser huso [Sturgeon], and it was in 
this sense that the word was first used in English. 

Belvedere, the name given to a part of the 
Vatican at Rome, containing the famous statue of 
Apollo. 

Belzoni, Giovanni Battista, athlete and 
explorer, was born in 1778 at Padua. His parents 
were poor, and he began life with a view to entering 
the priesthood. Driven from Rome through the 
occupation of that city by the French in 1798, he 
ultimately in 1803 came to England, where he 
maintained himself by exhibiting his feats of 
strength in the streets. He was of immense size 
and corresponding strength, and found no difficulty 
in obtaining better employment. Meanwhile he 
had paid great attention to the study of mechanics, 
and in 1815 he submitted to Mehemet Ali, by 
invitation, a hydraulic machine for the purpose of 
raising the waters of the Nile. While in Egypt he 
devoted himself to the investigation of the an¬ 
tiquities of the country. He removed from Thebes 
and shipped to England the colossal statue of 
“Young Memnon,” now in the British Museum; 
discovered the temple of Rameses II. at Abusimbel; 
opened the tomb of Psammetichus, the sarcophagus 
from which he sent to England; and penetrated 
for the first time King Chephren’s pyramid. After 
further explorations he returned in 181G to England 
and published the narrative of his operations and 
discoveries. In 1823 he died while on his way to 
Timbuctoo. 

Beni, Joseph, Polish general, was born in 1795 
at Tarnow, Galicia, and served first in the French 
army in their expedition against Russia in 1812. 
After taking part in t he Polish insurrection of 1830 
he withdrew to Paris, where he gained his livelihood 
by teaching. In 1848 he joined the Hungarians 
and won several battles against the Austrians and 
Russians. After the defeat of Temesvar he escaped 
to Turkey, where he adopted the Mohammedan 
faith and became a pasha. He died in 1850 at 
Aleppo, whither he had been sent to suppress an 
insurrection of the Arabs. 

Bembatoka Bay, on the N.W. coast of 







Bembo. 


( 29 ) 


Bencoolen. 


Madagascar. There is a small village, Bembatoka, 
on the bay, the chief town being Majunga. 

Bembo, Pietro, cardinal, was born in 1470 at 
\ enice. Having laid the foundation of extensive 
erudition he entered the Church, ultimately in 
1512 becoming secretary to Pope Leo X. In 1529 
he accepted the position of historiographer to the 
Republic of Venice, and shortly afterwards of 
librarian of St. Mark’s. In 1539 Pope Paul III. 
made him a cardinal, following that up by appointing 
him to the bishoprics of Gubbio and Bergamo. 
Among his works are an edition of Petrarch's 
Italian poems and Dante's Terzerime , a History of 
Venice from 1487 to 1513, various dialogues, poems, 
and essays. He died in 1547. 

Bembridge Beds, named from Bembridge, in 
the Isle of Wight, where they occur, are a fresh¬ 
water limestone 15 to 25 feet thick, overlaid by 
marine marls 62 feet thick, belonging to the Oligo- 
cene system. 

Ben, Oil of, a limpid non-drying oil, obtained 
from the seeds of Morinya ytteryyosperma, and 
M. ajftera , the horse-radish trees, natives of the 
East Indies, Western Asia, and North Africa. It 
is used as a salad oil, for hair oil, and especially as 
a watchmakers’ lubricant. 

Benares, the name of a Hindostan town and 
district in the NorthWest Provinces of British India, 
The district is bounded on the N. by Jaunpur, on 
the E. Ghazipur and Shahabad, and on the S. and 
W. by Mirzapore. It covers an area of 996 square 
miles. It is in the main fertile and yields the 
various grain crops besides tobacco, opium, sugar¬ 
cane, etc. It is watered by the Ganges and other 
rivers, the former being navigable all the year 
round. Through it passes the East Indian Railway. 
The city of Benares is on the left bank of the 
Ganges, and is one of the most ancient cities in the 
world, its traditions making it coeval with creation. 
It is also the chief centre of Hindooismand a place 
of pilgrimage for the members of that religion. Its 
trade is considerable, embracing all the produce of 
the district, and European and American goods. 
The manufactures are in silks, shawls, gold em¬ 
broidery, gold filigree work, etc. It is the head¬ 
quarters of the commissioners of the district. The 
chief English institution is Queen’s College, which 
is conducted by a staff from England. There are 
also Christian missions of various denominations, 
a hospital and dispensaries for gratuitous relief, and 
public gardens. 

Benavente, a Spanish town in the province 
of Zamova, near the river Esla. It is now of purely 
historical interest. Its ancient castle is a ruin. It 
was once famed for its numerous churches, one of 
which, San Juan del Mercado, belonged to the 
Knights Templars. It is associated with various 
events of the Peninsular war, among them being 
the commencement of Moore's retreat in 1809. 

Benbow, John, son of one of Charles I.’s 
colonels, was born in 1650, and having served for a 
time in the merchant service commanded at last a 
ship of his own. His conduct brought him so 
much into notice that in 1689 he was offered and 


accepted a commission in the navy as captain of 
the York. In the following year he was 
master-of-the-fieet under the Earl of Torrington, 
and took part in the unsatisfactory action off 
Beachy Head. He held various other commands, 
and in 1693 had under his orders a small squadron 
which bombarded St. Malo. In 1694 he was engaged 
in the unsuccessful attack on Dunkirk, and was 
immediately afterwards appointed to the Northum¬ 
berland , a ship in which he much harassed the 
French Channel ports. In 1696, after he had been 
wounded during the bombardment of Calais, he 
was made a rear-admiral, and undertook the 
blockade of Dunkirk, wherein lay the famous 
Jean Bart, who, however, adroitly got to sea and 
escaped. In 1698 he took a squadron to the 
West Indies. In 1700, as a vice-admiral, he 
cruised off Dunkirk, and then sailed again for the 
West Indies., where the French were in superior 
force. War had for many months been inevitable, 
and when it broke out Benbow went in search of 
the enemy. On August 19th, 1702, off Santa 
Martha Benbow gallantly engaged the French 
fleet. The disaffection of some of the captains 
put a stop, however, to the fighting. Benbow 
ordered four of these officers to be tried by 
court-martial. One died before trial, one was 
sentenced to imprisonment, and two were shot for 
cowardice, disobedience, and neglect of duty. The 
vice-admiral went to Jamaica, where he had his leg 
amputated; but he never recovered from his 
injuries, and died on November 4th. He cannot be 
ranked as a great commander, but he was an 
admirable specimen of a rough, brave and honest 
sailor, and as such he deserves to be cherished for 
all time in the memory of his countrymen. 

Bench, the judge’s seat at a court of justice, or 
the platform on which the seat is placed ; hence the 
judges themselves. To the arrangement of the seats 
in the House of Lords is due "the phrase, “ the 
Bench of Bishops.” In the Court of King's 
Bench, originally the king was supposed to sit in 
person and dispense justice. Benchers are the 
members of the governing bodies of the Inns of 
Court (q.v.). 

Bencher, an important officer of the Inns of 
Court, which are regulated and controlled by a 
selected number of the benchers, who possess the 
power of admitting candidates as members and 
afterwards of calling such candidates to the bar, 
and of disbarring those who have been called. 
The benchers exercising these powers are chosen 
from time to time from those who have attained 
celebrity at the bar, and it is usual for a Queen's 
Counsel to be appointed a bencher on his attaining 
that rank. In addition to the above, the benchers 
exercise supervision and control over the pro¬ 
fessional conduct of all barristers who are members 
of their inn. 

Bench-warrant is a warrant to arrest an ac¬ 
cused person issued by the judge before whom an 
indictment has been found. 

Bencoolen, chief town of a Dutch residency 
on the S.W. of Sumatra. It stands at the mouth 
of a river of the same name on low and swampy 








Bend 


( 30 ) 


Benedict. 


ground, necessitating the building of the houses on 
piles. From 1685 to 1825 it belonged to the 
English, who exchanged it for the Dutch settlement 
on the Malay peninsula. Its chief products are 
pepper and camphor. 

Bend. This is one of the honourable ordinaries 
in heraldry, and is formed by two diagonal lines 
drawn from the dexter chief to the sinister base. 
If it be charged with any other figure or figures 
the bend occupies a third part of the field, but if it 
be plain it is reduced in size to one-fifth. The bend- 
sinister is the same ordinary, but starting in this 
case from the sinister chief. It is more frequently 
known as the bar-sinister (q.v.). A field equally 
divided by a diagonal line from the dexter chief 
to the sinister base is blazoned as “ party per 
bend,” and, should it be reversed, it is then known 
as “ party per bend-sinister,” but such a coat has 
none of the opprobrium of illegitimacy attaching 
to it. A field divided by diagonal lines into four, 
six, eight, or more pieces, is described as bendy. 

Benda, Georg, musician, was born in 1721 
at J'ungbunzlau, Bohemia. He belonged to a musical 
family, and, besides being a skilful executant on 
the piano and violin, composed several operas. He 
died in 1795 at Kostritz. 

Bendemann, Edouard, painter, was born 
in 1811 at Berlin. At the early age of twenty-one 
he exhibited his celebrated picture The Captive 
Jews in the German capital, and at twenty-six he 
won the gold medal at Paris. A year afterwards, 
1838. he received the post of art professorship in 
the Dresden Academy, and in 1858 the dictatorship 
of Dusseldorf Academy. 

Bender, a Russian town in the province of 
Bessarabia, on the Dniester. Besides its manu¬ 
factures and a considerable trade in such articles 
as cattle, corn, wine, wood, timber, etc., it has 
also a citadel which bears the name of the 
Suwaroff mound. After the defeat of Poltava in 
1709, Charles XII. of Sweden lived here till 1712. 
It was thrice taken by Russia, in 1770, 1789, and 
1806, to whom it was permanently ceded by the 
peace of Bucharest in 1812. 

Bendigo, a Victorian county, bounded on the 
W. by the Loddon and on the E. by the Campaspe. 
Gold is found in different parts, and it is intersected 
by the main line of the railway running from 
Melbourne to Echuca. 

Benedek, Ludwig von, Austrian soldier, was 
born in 1804 at GMenburg, Hungary. After some 
service during the Galician insurrection of 1846, 
he assumed the command of a regiment against the 
Italians in 1848 and against the Hungarian patriots 
in 1849. In the Italian campaign, 1859, he signalised 
himself at Solferino. After being governor of 
Hungary, and commander-in-chief in Venice, he 
commanded the Austrian army in the war of 1866 
with Prussia. The disaster of Sadowa led to his 
being superseded and court-martialled. Thereafter 
he retired to Graz, where he died in 1881. 

Benedetti, Count Vincent, was born in 1817 
at Bastia. After serving France as ambassador in 


Turin and Berlin, he created a sensation by his 
draft of a secret treaty between France and 
Prussia, published on the breaking out of the war 
in 1870. This was followed in 1871 by a pamphlet 
entitled Ma Mission en Prusse, in which he laid the 
blame for the war on Bismarck’s shoulders. 

Benedict was the name of fourteen popes. 
Benedict I., 574-8, occupied the papal chair 
during the Lombard incursions. Benedict II. 
683-5. Benedict III. 855-8, during which the 
Emperor Lothair appointed Anastasias, an anti¬ 
pope, in opposition to the choice of the people and 
the clergy. Benedict IV. 900-3. Benedict V., 
964-5, was carried off by the Emperor Otho to 
Hamburg, where he died. Benedict VI., 972-4, 
was strangled at the instigation of Crescentius. 
Benedict VII. 975-84. Benedict VIII., 1012-24, 
was driven from Rome by Gregory, an anti-pope. 
He was restored by the Emperor Henry II. in 1014. 
Benedict IX., 1033-56, became pope at the age of 
18 by means of simony, but was deposed in 1044. 
Benedict X., 1058-9, reigned for only nine months. 
Benedict XI. 1303-4. Benedict XII. 1334-42. 
Benedict XIII. the title of two popes: (1) Peter 
de Luna, 1394-1424, chosen by the French car¬ 
dinals. He abdicated in 1417, being recognised 
only by Spain and Scotland up to his death. (2) 
Vincenzo Marco Orsini, 1724-30, called himself at 
first Benedict XIV. Benedict XIV., 1740-58, 
was distinguished for his learning and the en¬ 
couragement he gave to literature and science. He 
promulgated two famous bulls, Ex quo sinyulari 
and Omnium solicitudinum, denouncing a custom 
that had grown up among the Jesuits in their 
Indian and Chinese missions, viz. the accom¬ 
modating of Christian terms and ritual to heathen 
beliefs and practices. 

Benedict, St., founder of the order of Bene¬ 
dictines, was born in 480 in Nursia, Umbria. While 
still a mere youth he fled from Rome, where he had 
been attending school, to escape the wickedness of 
the capital, and lived in a secluded grotto near 
Subiaco about 40 miles from the city. When he 
had spent about three years in this solitude, 
subjecting himself to the severest discipline, he 
was invited by the monks of a neighbouring mon¬ 
astery to become their head. His rule, however, 
proving too strict, he awakened only resentment in 
the breasts of his inferiors against him and was 
obliged to leave. Meanwhile his fame only spread 
the more and crowds flocked to see him, from the 
wealthy Roman patrician to the wild Goth. After 
founding twelve monasteries in the valley of the 
Arno, the vicinity of his retreat, he removed to 
Monte Cassino near Naples, and there established 
the monastery that afterwards grew to be the 
richest and most famous in Italy. Here Totila, the 
Gothic king, though Rome and Italy were at his feet, 
sought an interview with this holy man, and here 
the rules that he afterwards drew up for monks and 
which became general to Western monasticism, 
were first introduced. To the merely religious 
exercises of monasteries he added manual labour, 
the instruction of the young, and the copying of 
manuscripts—this last having been the means of 







Benedict. 


(31 ) 


Beneficiary. 


preserving many ancient literary remains. He is 
said to have died standing in 543. 

Benedict, Sir Julius, musician, was born in 
1804 at Stuttgart. At the age of twenty lie became 
musical director of the Karnthnerthor theatre in 
Vienna, and in 1825 of the San Carlo and Fondo 
theatres in Naples. Here he produced Giacinta ed 
Ernesto and I Portoyliesi in Goa. In 1835 he 
removed to London, where in 1836 at the Lyceum 
his operetta Tin Anno ed un Giorno was brought out. 
in 1838 conductor of the English opera at Drury 
Lane, he there produced the The Gipsy's Warning , 
The Bride of Venice (1843), and The Crusaders 
(1846). In a performance of Elijah that he con¬ 
ducted in Exeter Hall Jenny Lind made her first 
appearance in oratorio, and he in 1850 went as pianist 
t o America with her ; his cantata Undine appeared in 
1860, The Lily of Killarney in 1862, Richard Cceur 
de Lion in 1863, St. Cecilia in 1866, The Bride of 
Sony in 1864, St. Peter in 1870, and Graziella in 1882. 
He was knighted in 1871, having been previously 
naturalised. He died in London in 1885. 

Benedict Biscop, an Anglo-Saxon monk, was 
born in 628 of Northumbrian parentage. He made 
three pilgrimages to Rome, on his way home from 
the second entering the Benedictine monastery of 
Lerins in Provence, where he assumed the tonsure. 
In 647 receiving a grant of land between the Wear 
and the Tyne, he founded a monastery which he 
profusely endowed with books, pictures, and relics 
collected during his journeys to Rome. In 682 he 
founded a second monastery at Jarrow, where the 
Venerable Bede was a monk. 

Benedictine. [Liqueur.] 

Benedictine Order, the general name of all 
monks and nuns following the rule of St. Benedict. 
His first monastery was founded at Subiaco, near 
Rome, his next at Monte Cassino, near Naples. The 
order includes an immense number of well-known 
names—Gregory the Great, the first of a list of fifty 
Benedictine "popes ; St, Augustine, his disciple, who 
preached Christianity in Britain ; St, Boniface, the 
apostle of North Germany ; Ausgar, the apostle of 
Denmark ; Adalbert and Casimir, who respectively 
brought the Gospel to the Bohemians and Poles ; 
Anselm, Bernard of Clugny, and many others. The 
monasteries of the order are grouped into orders and 
congregations, named after the abbey in which 
thev have arisen, or from some country or a patron 
saint. Thus the Cistercians are named from 
Citeaux; the Camaldolese from Camaldoli, near 
Arezzo, in Tuscany ; the Silvestrians and Celestines 
from their founder; the Olivetans from the name of 
their first monastery. At the Reformation the 
number of Benedictine abbeys was reduced from 
over 15,000 to about 5,000 ; at the present day there 
are about 800. In England there were 113 
Benedictine abbeys and seventy-three Benedictine 
nunneries at the Reformation. The cathedrals of 
St. Albans, Peterborough, Bath, Gloucester, and 
Chester ; Westminster Abbey, and the churches of 
Canterbury, Romsey (Hants), Great Malvern, 
Shrewsbury, and Brecon were all originally Bene¬ 
dictine churches. Iona, too, belonged to the 
Benedict ine order. The modern Benedictine Abbey 


at Fort Augustus (Inverness-shire), the only one in 
Scotland, is familiar to travellers by the Caledonian 
Canal. The great abbey of Monte Cassino, near 
Naples (founded in 1415, but an abbey had been 
founded on the site by St, Benedict), was one of t he 
few exempted for the sake of its history when the 
monasteries were dissolved in 1869. The Armenian 
Mechitarist monaster}^ of San Lazzaro, near Venice, 
where Lord Byron spent some time, is a Benedictine 
house, called after its founder, Mechitar. The 
rule of St. Benedict was the first to bind a monk to 
a permanent abode in a monastery throughout life. 
Hospitality and the promotion of learning are also 
specially inculcated. The Benedictine habit is a 
tunic, scapular, and cowl with hood; the usual 
colour is black, though some congregations, as t he 
Cistercians, wear white. 

Benediction, an invocation of the Divine 
blessing (Latin henedietio') on persons or things. 
The term covers, on the one hand, such short invo¬ 
cations as “ grace before meat,” or the “ Pax 
Vobiscum ” usually given at the end of service in 
the Anglican Church ; and on the other, short 
dedicatory services, more common before the 
Reformation than now, over new church utensils, 
new bells, new regimental colours, or foundation- 
stones. Services of the two latter kinds are still in 
use. The term is also applied to a short evening 
service used in the Roman Church. 

Benedictus, the thanksgiving of Zacharias on 
the birth of his son, John the Baptist (Luke i. 68-79), 
used at Morning Prayer from the ninth century 
onward, and coming into the Anglican Prayer Book 
from the Sarum Breviary. It is now the Canticle 
appointed for use after {he Second Lesson. The 
text in our Prayer Book is nearest to Tyndale’s 
translation of the Bible, but does not precisely 
coincide with any. 

Benefice, a temporary right of property in an 
ecclesiastical estate, practically limited to reception 
of the income ; almost always certain duties are 
attached to the benefice, usually the performance of 
Divine service and the cure of souls. The term is 
derived from the Latin beneficium , used under 
Charles the Great to denote lands granted to dis¬ 
charged soldiers for their services. (For presenta¬ 
tion to benefices, see Advowson.) A benefice is a 
freehold for the holder's life; but he may be 
deprived or suspended for heresy or immorality, or 
under the Public Worship Regulation Act ; or it 
may be sequestrated for debt. In this case the 
Bishop appoints a curate, and assigns him a stipend, 
till the debts are paid. Benefices are occasionally 
united, either by the Archbishop of the Province 
under certain limitations, or by the Queen in 
Council, or by special Act of Parliament. To such 
unions are due the alternate rights of presentation 
sometimes found. The holder of a benefice must 
be in priest's orders. 

Beneficiary, in English and Scottish law, a 
person in the enjoyment of the income of property 
held in trust for others. In English law the tech¬ 
nical term is cestui que trust. Beneficiaries are 
entitled to require an account from the trustees, 





Benefit of Clergy. 


( 32 ) 


Bengal. 


and to protect the property by legal means against 
improper acts on their part. 

Benefit of Clergy. In the Middle Ages 
persons who could claim to be clergy (or “ clerks ”) 
might be tried by a church court, which was con¬ 
sidered less severe than a secular court. Laymen, 
however, could only claim this benefit once. The 
test was ability to read Latin, and was applied with 
great laxity. For all great crimes the privilege was 
abolished at various times soon after the Reforma¬ 
tion, and its last remnants were finally got rid of by 
Act of Parliament in 1727. 

Benefit of Inventory. [Inventory.] 

Benefit Societies are societies for insurance 
against death, sickness, or inability to work, common 
among the working classes, and better known as 
Friendly Societies (q.v.). The term is sometimes 
also applied to Building Societies (q.v.), which 
enable their members to obtain funds for purchasing 
land or house property on condition of their making 
periodical payments to the society. 

Beneke, Friedrich Eduard, was born at 
Berlin in 1798 and soon distinguished himself as a 
psychologist, publishing in 1820 his Theory of 
Knowledge, Empirical Psychology , and De Veris 
Philosophies Initiis. He was opposed to the pre¬ 
vailing systems of Kant and Hegel. Hegel being in 
high favour with the Prussian government Beneke 
was banished for ten years, but in 1832 returned to 
Berlin as “ Extraordinary Professor.” In 1854 he 
was found dead in a canal near Charlottenburg and 
is supposed to have committed suicide. His Elements 
of Psychology has been translated into English. 

Benevento, a province and its capital in South 
Italy. The province, which occupies the central 
port ion of Campania, has an area of 609 square miles. 
Under the Lombards it was a duchy, and then fell 
into the hands of the Popes. Napoleon converted it 
into a principality and bestowed it on Talleyrand. 
The city was probably founded by the Samnit.es, 
and received a Roman colony early in the 3rd 
century B.C., when its name was changed to Bene- 
ventum. Situated on the Appian Way, it was highly 
prosperous in ancient times, and contains more 
architectural remains than any town of its size. 
Trajan’s beautiful arch serves as a gateway in 
the enclosing walls which are of much later date. 
The amphitheatre has been nearly destroyed, the 
masonry being used for building. The castle dates 
from the 12th century, and the cathedral is in the 
Lombardo-Saracenic style. A large trade is carried 
on in grain, and the chief manufactures are leather, 
parchment, and plated goods. 

Benevolence, in English History , a compulsory 
loan exacted by the sovereign from the people 
without legal authority. In 1484 Richard III. 
passed a law condemning benevolences, but never¬ 
theless had recourse to them in the following year. 
They were finally abolished in 1689. 

Benfey, Theodor, was born in 1809 at Got¬ 
tingen, where he became professor of Sanskrit and 
comparative philology. His contributions to the 
science of language include an edition of the 
Hymns of the Sama Veda, a Handbook of Sanskrit, 


and treatises on the Egyptian and Cuneiform in¬ 
scriptions, with other works. He died in 1881. 

Bengal, called also Lower Bengal to distin¬ 
guish the territory designated from the former 
presidency of Bengal, which, except as regards the 
army, is now purely historical, is bounded on the N. 
by Assam, Bhutan, and Nepaul; E. byBurmah, S. by 
Burmah, the Bay of Bengal, and Madras, and W. by 
the North-Western and Central Provinces of India. 
It is a lieutenant-governorship and comprises the 
four great provinces of Bengal Proper, Behar, Orissa, 
and Chutia Nagpur. It covers an area of 193,198 
square miles, being the largest and most populous 
of the twelve local governments of India. Three 
of its provinces, viz. Bengal Proper, Behar, and 
Orissa, comprise great river valleys, while the 
fourth, Chutia Nagpur, is mountainous. In Orissa 
are the rich deltas of the Mahawuddy river; in 
Bengal Proper the marvellous deltas of the Ganges 
and Brahmapootra, higher up whose valleys lies 
Behar. In these rivers lies the secret of Bengal’s 
wealth and productivity, and what these rivers are 
to Bengal is thus eloquently described by Mr. W. 
W. Hunter, director-general of statistics to the 
Government of India “ These untaxed highways 
bring down, almost by the motive power of their 
own current, the crops of Northern India to the 
seaboard; an annual harvest of wealth to the 
trading classes for which the population of the 
lower provinces neither toil nor spin. Lower 
Bengal, indeed, exhibits the two typical stages in 
the life of a great river. In the northern districts 
the rivers run along the valleys, receive the drainage 
from the country on each side, absorb broad tribu¬ 
taries,and rush forward in an ever increasing volume. 
But near the centre of the provinces they enter upon 
a new stage in their career. Their main channels 
bifurcate and each new stream so created throws 
off its own set of distributaries to right and left. 
The country which they thus enclose and intersect 
forms the Delta of Bengal. Originally conquered 
by fluvial deposits from the sea, it now stretches out 
as a vast dead level, in which the rivers find their 
velocity checked. The diminished force of their 
currents ceases to carry along the silt which they 
have brought down from Northern India. The 
streams accordingly deposit their alluvial burden 
in their channels and along their banks, so that by 
degrees their beds rise above the level of the sur¬ 
rounding country. In this way the rivers in the 
delta slowly build themselves up into high-level 
canals, which every autumn break through or over¬ 
flow their margins, and leave their silt upon the 
adjacent flats. Thousands of square miles in 
Lower Bengal thus receive each year a top-dressing 
of virgin soil brought free of expense from the 
Himalayas—a system of natural manuring which 
defies the utmost power of overcropping to exhaust 
its fertility. As the rivers creep farther down the 
delta they become more and more sluggish, and 
their bifurcations and interlacings more complicated. 
The last scene of all is a vast amphibious wilder¬ 
ness of swamp and forest, amid whose solitudes the 
network of channels insensibly merges into the sea. 
Here the perennial struggle between earth and 










Bengalese. 


( 33 ) 


Beni-Hassan. 


ocean goes on, and all the ancient secrets of land¬ 
making stand disclosed. The rivers, finally checked 
by the dead weight of the sea, deposit their re¬ 
maining silt, which emerges as banks or blunted 
promontories, or, after years of battling with the 
tide, adds a few feet, or, it may be, a few inches to 
the foreshore. Excepting its forests, which cover 
a surface of 12,000 square miles, no other physical 
feature of Bengal calls for note. The climate is 
humid and excessively hot, the mean temperature 
throughout the year being nearly 80° Fah. For 
administrative, purposes Bengal is divided into 47 
districts, and it has 33 towns of more than 20,000 
inhabitants. Of these the chief are Calcutta and 
Faina. Internal communication is facilitated by 
l ail way and canal systems, which are under the 
control of the Government. Among the mineral 
products of Bengal are coal, iron, and salt; its great 
staple crop is rice, while it also grows oil-seeds, 
jute, indigo, tea, opium, and cinchona. Among its 
manufactures are silk, sugar from the date, salt¬ 
petre etc. The natives of Bengal, one of the most 
densely peopled regions on the globe, present a 
considerable diversity of type according to their 
origin and environment. But the great bulk of the 
lowland peasantry are a somewhat feeble race of 
dark olive Complexion, short stature, and slender 
extremities, lacking both the physical energy and 
moral tone of the populations of the more elevated 
districts such as Berar, Auclh, and the Doab. The 
substratum is certainly non-Aryan, partly Kolarian, 
partly Dravidian, and even Indo-Chinese and 
libetan, but for many ag'es subject to Aryan in¬ 
fluences, and now mainly Aryan in religion (Hindus) 
and in speech, the current languages (Bengali, 
Berari, Hindi, Urdu, etc.) being all essentially neo- 
Sanskritic, that is, modernised forms of the old 
Prakrits or vulgar Sanskrit dialects. Many of the 
upper^ classes, especially the high-caste Brahmans 
and Kshatrias, have even largely preserved the 
regular features, but not the fair complexion, of the 
primitive Aryan intruders from the north-west. The 
Bengali is endowed with a considerable degree of 
intelligence or shrewdness, but is indolent and 
unsci upulous, and excessively fond of litigation. 
Many of the upper classes have received a varnish 
of Emopean culture, and have acquired a certain 
fluency in the English language. [Baboo.] The 
serious side to the Bengali character is manifested 
in the rise of the Braltmo-Soindj , a religious move¬ 
ment which aims at the reform of the Hindu system 
on a monotheistic basis. 

Bengalese, a dealers’ name for a white variety 
of Spermestes acuticcmdata, with pale pink feet and 
bill. By continuous cross-breeding the Japanese 
have produced white and pied strains from a 
naturally brown-black bird. 

Bengal Lights, mixtures burning with fine 
coloured flames. They may be formed by mixing- 
potassium chlorate, or nitre, together with carbon 
or sulphur, and the chemical employed to give the 
desired colour to the flame. For green" lights, 
barium salts may be used, for crimson, strontium 
salts, tor blue, antimony or copper salts, and for 
27 


yellow, sodium salts. It should be noted that there 
is danger in mixing together potassium chlorate 
and sulphur, as the mixture explodes if struck by 
the pestle, and may explode spontaneously owing to 
the piesence of sulphuric acid in the sulphur. 

Bsngazi (classic Berenice), the capital of Barca, 
N. Afiica, is situated on the Gulf of Sidra, with a 
salt lagoon to the landward. The port is silted up, 
but a fair number of trading vessels embark and 
discharge goods by means of lighters. Though 
ruinous and neglected the town retains traces of 
ancient wealth in its buildings, among which are a 
castle and a Franciscan monastery. Until quite 
recently a brisk trade in slaves was carried on with 
-k'S'ypb but at present the exports are sheep, wool 
grain, butter, and salt. 

Bengel^JoHANX Albkecht, born in Wiirtem- 
burg in 1687, was educated at Tubingen and entered 
the 1 lotestant ministry. His life was spent in 
directing with great ability the Seminary at Ben¬ 
kendorf, and in discharging the duties of consis- 
toiial counsellor at Stuttgart. His fame, however, 
rests on the laborious and intelligent zeal which 
he devoted to the textual criticism of the Greek 
Testament, His edition is still held in esteem, and 
* even more valuable is the Gnomon , or expository 
index that followed it, a work that won the praise 
of John IVesley, and has given much help to com¬ 
mentators. He died in 1752. 

Benguela, a country on the W. coast of Africa, 
extending from the Coanza to the Cunene river 
between 10° and 17° S. lat. with vague limits 
inland. It is a w r ell watered and fertile district 
sloping up to mountains of considerable height, and 
at various levels producing a great variety of crops. 
There is also much undeveloped mineral wealth. 
The Portuguese in 1617 founded S. Felipe cle Ben¬ 
guela about the middle of the coast, and have made 
it the administrative centre of their protectorate. 
Since the suppression of slavery it has dwindled 
into^ insignificance. Other towns are Catumbela, 
Bihe, and Quicombo. The southern part of Ben¬ 
guela is known as Mossamedes, and forms a separate 
government, the capital, which bears the same 
name, being in Little Fish Bay. 

Beni, a river in S. America which rises in Bo¬ 
livia, not far from Mount Illimani, and flows to the 
N.E. with a navigable stream till it joins at Biera 
the Rio Mamore, and thus passes into the Madeira, 
the chief tributary of the Amazons. It gives its 
name to a large province. 

Benicia, the former capital of California, 
United States, is situated on the north side of the 
Strait of Karguenas, in the Bay of San Francisco, 
and is connected by railway with Sacramento. The 
harbour is excellent, and the works of the Pacific 
Steamship Company are near it. The Benicia Boy 
was the name given to the pugilist Heenan, who 
fought Tom Sayers (q.v.). 

Beni-Hassan, a village in the province of 
Vostani or Middle Egypt, on the right bank of the 
Nile, 15 miles above Minieh. The "name is tribal, 

















Beni Israel. 


( 34 ) 


Bennett 


and signifies sons of Hassan. The tombs of the 
twelfth dynasty that are to be seen here exhibit 
some remarkable architectural features. 

Beni Israel (Sons of Israel), a people of 
Jewish origin and type, settled for at least a thou¬ 
sand years past in Bombay and other towns, on the 
W. coast of India. Some of them know Hebrew, 
but their language is Marathi, and they possess 
some literature. They observe the Levitical dis¬ 
tinctions of clean and unclean food, and keep Jewish 
feasts including the Sabbath, but seldom intermarry 
with ordinary Jews or with an inferior class among 
them, the Kala Israel or black Israel, consisting of 
half-breeds and the descendants of proselytes. 

Benin, a country, city, and river on the W. 
coast of Africa. The Portuguese first visited 
this region towards the end of the 15th cen¬ 
tury, and for some years carried on a trade in 
slaves. At that time and for two centuries later 
there would seem to have existed a powerful king¬ 
dom extending to the whole delta of the Niger. 
At present the name applies only to the area com¬ 
prised between the Niger to the E., Dahomey to 
the W., and the Yoruba tribes to the N., and within 
these limits are many independent chiefs. The 
country is fertile, being watered by the Lower 
Niger, and produces palm oil, rice, maize, cotton, 
sugar, and t obacco. The population is rather dense, 
and their manners and customs are similar to those 
of Ashanti. Benin, the capital, is on the river of the 
same name, about 73 miles from its mouth. It covers 
a large space, but has a decayed and deserted aspect. 
The river, called by the natives Uwoko Jakri, and 
by the Portuguese Rio Fonnoso, is the western 
branch of the Niger. 

Benin, The Bight of, the bay that forms the 
northern part of the Gulf of Guinea. It extends 
from the Gold Coast to the mouth of the Niger; 
it has no harbour accommodation. 

Beni-Souef, a town of Middle Egypt, 72 miles 
above Cairo, on the right bank of the Nile. It 
serves as a mart for the produce of the fertile valley 
of Fayum, and has cotton-mills and quarries of 
alabaster. 

Benitier, a vessel or font for holy water placed 
near the entrance of Roman Catholic churches, 
being generally attached to one of the pillars. 

Benjamin (Heb. son of the right hand) was 
the youngest son of Jacob by. his wife Rachel, who 
on her death-bed called the child Benoni (son of 
■my pain), a name changed subsequently. He was 
the favourite of his father and apparently of his 
brother Joseph, but little is known of his life except 
his journey into Egypt at the urgent request of the 
latter, and his detention there (Gen. xlii. xliii.). 
The tribe that descended from him was numerically 
the smallest, but displayed fighting qualities (Num. 
xxvi. 41), and was almost exterminated by the rest 
of the nation (Judges xix. xx.), It appears to have 
speedily recovered, and in Asa’s time boasted 280,000 
warriors. Saul, the first King of Israel, was a 
member of the tribe, and Jerusalem came within 


its territory. Always closely connected with Judah, 
Benjamin remained with that tribe in the schism 
that followed Solomon’s death. 

Ben Lawers, a mountain in the centre of 
Perthshire, Scotland, 32 miles W.N.W. of Perth, 
and on the W. side of Loch Tay. Its height is 
3,984 feet. 

Beil Iiomond, a mountain in Stirlingshire, 
Scotland, on the E. side of Loch Lomond, having 
an altitude of 3,192 feet. It is the highest point of 
the most southerly extension of the Grampians. 
The N. side has a precipitous face 2,000 feet high. 

Ben Macdhui, a mountain in Aberdeenshire, 
forming part of the Cairngorm group at the head 
of Glen Dee. It has an elevation of 4,390 feet. 

Bennett, or Benett, Henry, Earl of Arling¬ 
ton, was born of a good Middlesex family in 1G18, 
and educated at Oxford. He fought as a royalist, 
and acted also as secretary to Lord Digby. He 
served the Duke of York in the same capacity, and 
was for several years employed by Charles II. in 
France, Italy, and Spain, where he acquired a 
diplomatic training. At the restoration he was 
promoted from knighthood to a barony, and later 
to an earldom. As chief Secretary of State he was 
largely responsible for the Dutch war and the 
Triple Alliance, and in 1670 he played a leading 
part in the Cabal (q.v.). He received the Garter 
in 1672. Under James II. his influence waned, and 
he died in 1685. Macaulay belittles him, but 
Clarendon, to whose policy he was hostile, speaks 
of him in respectful terms, and he compares fav¬ 
ourably with statesmen of the period. 

Bennett, James Gordon, born near Dumfries 
in 1795 and educated for the Roman priesthood, 
abandoned that career and emigrated (1819) to 
America. After hard struggles as a teacher, printer, 
and journalist, he found himself in New York in 
1835 no better off than at starting. He contrived 
to start a little one-cent sheet, which he edited and 
sold himself in a cellar. Thus was the Nerr York 
Herald founded, and Bennett by his industry, 
shrewdness, enterprise, and knowledge of the 
American public, soon developed it into a magnifi¬ 
cent property. He continued to edit and manage 
the paper till his death in 1872, and one of his last 
strokes of business was to send Stanley to Africa in 
search of Livingstone. 

Bennett, William (1804-1886), a celebrated 
High Churchman, incumbent of St. Paul’s, Knights- 
bridge. He was the defendant in the celebrated 
trial of Sheppard v. Bennett (1872). He was, how¬ 
ever, judged to be not antagonistic to the Church 
of England in his teaching. 

Bennett, Sir William Sterndale, was born 
at Sheffield in 1816, his father being an organist. 
From 1826 to 1836 he was a pupil at the Royal 
Academy of Music, and began early to compose. 
He attracted the attention of Mendelssohn and 
Schumann, spending some time in Germany. How 
far he sank his individual talents in slavish 









Ben Nevis. 


C 35 ) 


Bentham. 


subservience to the great master is a matter of 
dispute with critics. He certainly made a name 
abroad long before he won any popularity at home, 
where he was thought more of as a teacher than a 
composer. In 1856 he was appointed professor of 
music at Cambridge, and conductor of the Phil- 
harmonic Concerts. The May Queen, his most 
successful cantata, was produced at Leeds in 1858. 
The overture of Paradise and the Peri followed in 
1862, and llic Woman of Samaria came out at 
Birmingham in 1867. Among his other works the 
best known are The Lake , the. Mill stream, and the 
Fountain, his pianoforte pieces the Overture to The 
Naiads, and his Symphony in G minor. In 1868 
he was made principal of the Royal Academy of 
Music. He died in 1875. 

Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the United 
Kingdom, is in the S.W. corner of Inverness-shire, 
between Loch Eil and Loch Leven, and 7 miles dis¬ 
tant from Fort William. It has an elevation of 
4,406 feet, and the circumference of the base mea¬ 
sures 24 miles. To the N. and N.E. its flanks are 
very precipitous with a sheer height of 1,500 feet. 
Geologically the structure may be described as 
granite and gneiss capped with porphyry. Since 
1883 the Scottish Meteorological Society has had 
an observatory on the summit. 

Benningsen, or Beningsen, Levin Augustus 
Theophilies, Count, was born at Brunswick in 
1745, and in 1773 left the Hanoverian army to take 
service under Catherine of Russia. In 1791 he was 
sent by Catherine into Poland, where he was suc¬ 
cessful, and in 1801 he supported the conspiracy 
against Paul. In 1805 he commanded the army , 
of the north, but became commander-in-chief in 
1807, and fought the battle of Eylau. In 1812 he 
held the Russian centre at the battle of Moskowa, 
and he contributed indirectly to the victory at 
Leipzig. He died in Germany in 1826. 

Benningsen, Rudolph von, was born at Lune- 
berg in 1824, and after a successful start as an 
advocate became judge at Gottingen, but in 1856 
abandoned that position for a political career, lead¬ 
ing the Opposition in the Hanoverian Parliament. 
When Hanover was annexed he became a member 
of the Prussian Chamber and of the Reichstag, and 
in 1870-71 he conducted important negotiations in 
S. Germany and at Versailles for the establishment 
of the empire. In 1873 he was chosen president 
of the Prussian House of Deputies. He has long 
been one of the leaders of the National Liberal 
party. 

Ben Rhydding, a village prettily situated in 
the Wharfedale district of Yorkshire, 12 miles from 
Leeds by the Midland Railway. The handsome 
hydropathic establishment is a great resort of 
invalids and tourists. Denton Park in the parish 
was the home of the Fairfaxes. 

Benson, Edward White, D.D., was born in 
1829 near Birmingham, and was educated at the 
King’s School there and at Trinity College, Cam¬ 
bridge, of which he became scholar and fellow. 


After holding a mastership at Rugby he was in 
1858 appointed first head-master of Wellington 
College. Leaving this post after fourteen years he 
became chancellor of Lincoln cathedral, but in 
1876 was chosen by Lord Beaconsfield as bishop of 
the new see of Truro. On the death of Dr. Tait 
in 1882 Mr. Gladstone procured his translation to 
Canterbury. He is credited with being a moderate 
High Churchman, but he has avoided controversial 
entanglements with much tact, and adopted a con¬ 
ciliatory tone towards all parties. 

Bent Grass, a name commonly applied to 
various species of the genus Agrostis and other 
grasses, occurring in damp pastures and on dry 
waste ground, the dried stalks of which remain 
standing at the close of the grazing season. 

Bentham, George, was born at Stoke, near 
Plymouth, in 1800, being the nephew of Jeremy 
Bentham, the jurist (q.v.). In his youth he resided 
a good deal in France, managing his father’s vine¬ 
yards. He then acted as his uncle’s editor, and in 
1827 published Outlines of a new System of Logic, 
setting forth the doctrine of the quantification of 
the predicate. His attention was early directed 
to botany, and from 1829 to 1840 he acted 
as secretary to the Royal Horticultural Society, 
and from 1861 to 1874 as president of the Linnean 
Society. Among his chief botanical works were 
the Flora of Hong-Kong, 1861, the Flora Austra- 
liensis, 1863—1878, and the Genera Plantarum, 
written in conjunction with Sir Joseph Hooker, 
1862—1883. He became F.R.S. in 1862, and C.M.G. 
in 1878, and was also an LL.D. of Cambridge. His 
extensive herbarium was presented to the nation, 
and is preserved at Kew. Bentham died in 1884. 
The genus Benthamia, belonging to the Cornacece, 
was dedicated to him by Lindley. 

Bentham, Jeremy, the son of a prosperous 
attorney, was born in Red Lion Street, Houndsditch, 
in 1748. He was educated at Westminster and 
Queen’s College, Oxford, being called to the bar 
in 1772. He heard Blackstone lecture at the 
university, and listened with delight to Mansfield’s 
judgments in the Court of Queen’s Bench, but 
so far from being stirred to seek forensic distinc¬ 
tion, he felt a burning zeal to rebuild on a rational 
basis the whole edifice of jurisprudence. From 
Beccaria he adopted as the keystone of his philo¬ 
sophy the doctrine that human society has for its aim 
“ the greatest happiness of the greatest number.” 
Applied to ethics this formula became the prin¬ 
ciple of the school of moralists, afterwards called 
Utilitarian. His first essay, entitled A Fragment on 
Government, appeared anonymously in 1776, and at 
once met with attention. In 1780 he published his 
Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legisla¬ 
tion, a more elaborate exposition of his theories and 
aims. He then spent some time with his brother in 
Russia or gravelling on the Continent, where he 
wrote A Defence of Usury. In 1792 he was made a 
French citizen, a proof that his ideas were exer¬ 
cising widespread influence. Settling, down in 
Queen Square he devoted the rest of his long and 












Bentinck. 


( 36 ) 


Benton. 


laborious life, amid the congenial society of such 
men as the Mills, the Austins, Samuel Romilly, 
Brougham, and Bowring, to elaborate criticisms of 
laws and institutions, and to the still more arduous 
task of reconstruction. Every principle and every 
application of it was subjected to rigorous logical 
tests, and Bentham’s mind, unwarpecl by profes¬ 
sional training and pecuniary need, was especially 
suited to the work. The dream of his life is still 
far from being realised, and there is a tendency of 
late to treat him as a dry doctrinaire , but it is 
hardly too much to say that all the reforms that 
the last centuly has witnessed in our judicial 
system and most of our advances in social legisla¬ 
tion were indicated with precision by Bentham 
many years before their adoption, whilst his exer¬ 
tions have borne fruit all over the world. No doubt 
the style and phraseology of his later writings 
marred his fame. He lived until 1832, and before 
his death gave instructions that his body should be 
dissected, embalmed, dressed in his usual clothes, 
and preserved in the museum at University College, 
London, where it still remains. 

Bentinck, Lord George, the third son of the 
fourth Duke of Portland, was born in 1802. Can¬ 
ning, his uncle by marriage, took him as private 
secretary, and in 1826 he was elected member for 
King’s Lynn. At that time he was nominally a 
Whig, but like many of the aristocratic members of 
the party held loosely to old ties. In 1835 he fol¬ 
lowed Lord Stanley in seceding to the Tories, and 
like most converts became more thoroughgoing 
than those of the old faith. He left Sir Robert 
Peel in 184G on the repeal of the corn laws, and 
stood forth as leader of the Protectionists until his 
sudden death in 1848. He was not a brilliant man, 
but he possessed some sterling qualities of head 
and heart. He was, perhaps, a greater loss to the 
turf than to Parliament, and owes his fame chiefly 
to Lord Beaconsfield’s memoir. 

Bentinck, Lord William Henry Cavendish, 
the second son of the third Duke of Portland, was 
born in 1774. At the age of 17 he entered the 
army, and in 179G was returned as member for 
Camelford. He took little part in politics, being 
attached to Suwaroff’s staff from 1799 to 1801. In 
1803 he went out to India as Governor of Madras, 
but the mutiny at Vellore, brought about by his in¬ 
judicious treatment of the native troops, led to his 
recall in 1808. He then went out to the Peninsula, 
and was present at the battle of Corunna. In 1827 
he accepted the post of Governor-General of India. 
His rule was marked by striking reforms. He put 
the finances of the country in a healthier condition 
by cutting down expenses, imposing licence 
duties, abolishing the system of “ double batta,” 
and bringing under taxation large areas that had 
hitherto enjoyed immunity. He also encouraged 
the employment of natives by Government, and 
inaugurated great educational schemes. In 1833 
the charter of the Company was renewed on con¬ 
dition that complete freedom of trade should be 
established with England, and a legal member 
added to the Governor’s Council. Macaulay was 
sent out as the first occupant of that post. Few 


wars disturbed Bentinck’s governorship, and excepl 
in the cases of Coorg and Mysore there was little 
interference with the native states. He returned to 
England in 1835, and became member for Glasgow 
in 1837, but he died in 1839 before he had taken 
any important part in home politics. 

Bentley, Richard, w r as born in 1GG2 at Oulton 
in Yorkshire, where his family had been reduced to 
poverty by adherence to the Royalist party. His 
mother looked after his education, and from the 
Grammar School at Wakefield he passed as a sizar 
to St. John’s, Cambridge. The college sent him as 
head-master to Spalding School, and Stillingfleet, 
Dean of St. Paul’s, soon after employed him for six 
years as tutor to his son, whom he accompanied to 
Oxford. All this time he was accumulating vast 
stores of classical learning, and at Oxford he 
became acquainted with the leading scholars of the 
day. His Epistola ad Milliuvi (1G91), appended to 
Mill’s edition of Alalalas, proclaimed him the ablest 
critical emendator of the day. He had now taken 
orders, and in 1G92 was appointed Boyle Lecturer, 
receiving next year a prebendal stall at Wor¬ 
cester, the posts of royal librarian and chaplain 
with the living of Hartlebury. For some years, 
though busy in small undertakings, he attempted 
nothing on a large scale, and it was almost by acci¬ 
dent that in 1G97 he inserted in a work of Wootton’s 
some remarks exposing the spurious character of 
the Epistles of Eh alar is, which Boyle (afterwards 
Earl of Orrery) had edited at Oxford. Atterbury 
and Smalridge helped Boyle to write a foolish 
reply, whilst Swift, Pope, and Garth abused the 
dull Cambridge pedant. In 1699 Bentley published 
his famous Dissertation , crushing down his oppo¬ 
nents by the weight of his erudition and making 
reply impossible. He was forthwith selected by the 
Crown for the mastership of Trinity College, Cam¬ 
bridge. Here the rest of his life was utterly 
wasted. He determined to sweep away the dis¬ 
graceful corruptions that had grown up both in the 
college and the university, but he set about the 
task with a heavy hand, often resorting to means 
as little creditable as those by which his reforms 
were met. Twice he was nominally deposed by 
the fellows, the vice-chancellor, and the Bishop of 
Ely, but the courts of law protected him in some 
measure, and amidst endless wrangling he suc¬ 
ceeded in holding his ground till, death removed 
him in 1742. During the intervals of the fray he 
brought out his editions of Horace, Terence, 
Phasdrus, Publius Syrus, and Manilius ; his replv to 
Collins, in which he defended the text of the Greek 
Testament against the freethinkers; his criticism 
of Menander and Philemon ; and his absurd reprint 
of the Paradise Lost. He was engaged on the text 
of Homer when he died, and left some valuable 
material to future scholars. His ingenuity led him 
to make wild emendations in Milton no less than 
in the Greek poets, and his lack of taste prevented 
his seeing how such verbal changes spoiled the 
beauty of the original; but in mere knowledge he 
had and has no rival. 

Benton, Thomas Hart, was born in North 






Benue. 


( 37 ) 


Benzoline. 


Carolina, U.S.A., in 1782, and settled as a lawyer in 
Tennessee, where he became a member of the legis¬ 
lature. In 1812 he served on General Jackson’s 
staff, and afterwards started a paper at St. Louis. 
In 1820 he was elected senator for the new state of 
Missouri, and for thirty years played an active part 
in politics, opposing- Calhoun, and supporting Jack- 
son in his attacks on the United States Bank. He 
wrote a History of American Affairs from. 1820 to 
1850, and an Abridgment of the Debates in Con¬ 
gress from 1789 to 1850. He died in 1858. 

^ Beniie, Binue, Benuwe, or Chadda, a river in 
Upper Guinea (Niger Protectorate), West Africa. 
It joins the Quorra, or Niger, on the left at some 
230 miles above its mouth, having flowed down 
from the mountains in the Adamawa country, a 
distance of about 300 miles. The Royal Niger 
Company since 1886 has navigated most of "its 
course. 

Benyowsky, Count Maurice Augustus de, 
born in Hungary in 1741, joined the Poles in their 
revolt against Russia (1768), and being captured 
was sent to Kamchatka. There he married the 
governor’s daughter and escaped to Macao. He got 
back to Europe, and was employed by the French 
(1774) to establish a colony in Madagascar. He 
was chosen as king by the natives, and then sought 
the support of England. On his return to the 
country in 1785 the French took up arms against 
him, and he was killed. He left some interesting- 
memoirs. 

Benzene, also called Benzol, a hydro-carbon 
of the composition represented by C ( ;H 6 . The name 
is derived from the gum benzoin (q.v.). It is 
contained in coal-tar, which forms the chief source 
of all the benzene compounds. When coal is dis¬ 
tilled for the production of illuminating gas, tar and 
ammoniacal liquors are also obtained. The coal-tar 
contains a large number of solid and liquid 
substances, amongst which are benzene and certain 
of its derivatives. This tar is then distilled. The 
portion of the distillate which comes over below 160° 
is known as Light Oil , the part distilling over be¬ 
tween 160° and 250° is known as Intermediate Oil , 
and the distillate above 250° is called Heavy Oil. 
The light oil consists chiefly of benzene and some 
derived products. It is washed first with caustic 
soda, and then with sulphuric acid in order to 
remove certain acid and basic substances, viz. 
phenol and pyridine. It is then distilled in a suit¬ 
able form of apparatus, and the part distilling over 
first consists of benzene. Benzene thus obtained is 
a colourless liquid-which boils at 80-5°, and has a 
sp. gr. of -899. It has a peculiar odour, and the 
vapour when inhaled produces giddiness. It burns 
with a bright flame. It is very extensively used for 
the manufacture of the aniline colours, and as a 
solvent for many organic compounds. It is also of 
very great theoretical importance, as it is the 
starting-point of an exceedingly large number of 
compounds known as the benzene derivatives or the 
aromatic compounds. On this account its constitu¬ 
tion has been, at different times, the source of much 


speculation, and it is now generally accepted that 
the carbon atoms are all arranged in the form of a 
closed chain, each being united with one hydrogen 
atom and two other carbon atoms, as repre¬ 
sented by 

H 

/°\ 

H—C C—H 

I I 

H—C C—H 

\ c / 

I 

H 

By replacement of one or more hydrogen atoms by 
other elements or radicals a large number of 
derivatives can be obtained. By replacement of 
hydrogen by hydroxyl (OH) or carbolic acid (q.v.) 
'phenol results. By substitution of the acid group 
CO.OH for a hydrogen atom, Benzoic acid 
C 6 H 5 -CO OH is obtained, which can be obtained as 
needle-like crystals, melting at 121° by sublimation 
of Benzoin. If only one hydrogen atom is replaced, 
the group C 6 H 5 persists ; this group is called phenyl. 
The compound Aniline (q.v.) is an example of this 
class. Many of its derivatives contain the group 
C 6 H 5 CO. These are caWeH Benzoyl compounds. Thus 
benzoyl chloride has composition C 6 H 5 C0C1. Other 
compounds contain the group C 6 H 5 *CH, and are 
called Benzol compounds, benzal chloride would 
thus be C 6 H 5 CHC1 o. Those containing C 6 H 5 CH 2 are 
known as Benzyl compounds. [For other deriva¬ 
tives of Benzene see Bitter Almond Oil, Car¬ 
bolic Acid, Salicylic Acid, Pyrogallic Acid, 
Hydroquinone.] 

Benzoic Acid is an antiseptic, an expectorant, 
and a diuretic. It had at onetime a considerable 
reputation in the treatment of pulmonary affec¬ 
tions. Its main use at the present day is in diseases 
of the bladder. It appears in the urine as hippuric 
acid, and so serves to restore the normal acid 
reaction to that excretion, when it is rendered 
alkaline in certain forms of disease. Ammonium 
Benzoate has the same therapeutic action as 
Benzoic acid. [Benzene.] 

Benzoin, a fragrant gum-resin obtained from 
Styrax Benzoin , the Benjamin tree, a native of 
Siam, Sumatra, Borneo, etc. It is obtained by in¬ 
cisions, each tree yielding about three pounds 
weight annually. It is used in bronchitis, etc., 
forming a principal ingredient in “ Friar’s Balsam ; ” 
but it is chiefly employed as incense in the Greek 
Church. The name is also applied to a genus of 
Lauracece. 

Benzoin Resin. Its main medicinal use is as 
an external application to wounds, in the form of 
Friar’s Balsam, the compound tincture of Benzoin. 
Internally it is occasionally employed as an expec¬ 
torant in chest affections. 

Benzoline, a mixture of paraffins (q.v.), boil¬ 
ing between 70° and 100°, and obtained by 







Benzoyl 


( 38 ) 


Berber 


distilling paraffin oil or petroleum. Is used for 
illuminating purposes. 

Benzoyl. [Benzene.] 

Benzyl. [Benzene.] 

Beowulf, the mythical hero of an Anglo-Saxon 
romance or epic, which is written in probably the 
earliest form of that language as imported into 
England. The only manuscript of this remarkable 
poem is preserved in the Cotton Library in the 
British Museum, and dates from the tenth century, 
but the original composition may very likely be 
referred to the fifth century, though after the 
spread of Christianity some later touches were 
most likely given in the eighth or ninth century. 
Nothing is known of the author, but the work is 
full of vigour and rugged beauty. Beowulf is 
represented as being a Western Dane, and the 
scene of his exploits was the north. 

Beranger, Pierre Jean de, was born at Paris 
of mediocre parentage in 1780. He was in early 
life apprenticed to a printer at Peronne, from whom 
he seems to have picked up a taste for versifying. 
Coming to Paris, he was struggling against poverty 
when Lucien Bonaparte generously took him up, and 
he also got a humble clerkship in the office of the uni¬ 
versity. Some of his most sparkling songs and fugi¬ 
tive pieces were composed at this time, and began to 
get in vogue. He was in 1813 admitted to the 
Caveau Moderne, and became the rival of Desan- 
giers. A democrat in principle, but not insensible 
to the glamour of Napoleon’s career, he dealt play¬ 
fully with politics until the restoration, but he then 
assailed the government with bitterness, and was 
imprisoned. The revolution of 1830 found him at 
the height of his popularity, and he was sent to the 
Constituent Assembly in 1848 as deputy for the 
department of the Seine. He soon retired from 
public life, and spent his remaining years in literary 
work and in the society of his devoted friends. 
He died in 1857. Politically Beranger’s poems did 
much to keep alive the Napoleonic tradition and 
prepare for the Second Empire. They stand almost 
alone in their particular department of the lyric 
art. They are almost as carefully polished as the 
odes of Horace, and yet they are always addressed 
to a popular audience. Now and then his wit is 
inclined to indecency and profanity, but he is 
generally stirred by pure and kindly emotions, 
while he occasionally displays tragic pathos. 

Berar, also known as the Haiderabad Assigned 
Districts, is a province of Central India, lying 
between Central Provinces N. and E., Bombay W., 
and Nizam’s Dominions S., and having an area of 
17,711 square miles. It comprises the provinces of 
Amraoti, Ellichpur, Wun, Akola, Buldana, and 
Basim, and forms a commissionership under the 
British resident at Haiderabad. Occupying mainly 
a broad valley, the basin of the Parna river, be¬ 
tween the Ajanta and Satpura hills, it is divided 
into the Paliyanghat or lowlands and the Balaghat 
or uplands; the former being very fertile and 
yielding large crops of millet, seed, wheat, pulse, 


tobacco, and especially cotton. There is a salt 
lake at Louar, and coal and iron exist in the pro¬ 
vince. 

Berat, a town of Albania, Turkey, in the pro¬ 
vince of Janina, 30 miles from the port of Avlona. 
It is the seat of a Greek archbishopric. 

Berber, a town on the right bank of the Nile, 
near the confluence of the Atbara. It is impoitant 
as the point at which the caravans from Cairo and 
from Suakin meet on the way to Khartoum, and in 
1885 the British commenced a railway from Suakin 
to this place, but the works were soon abandoned. 

Berber, the collective name of the western 
branch of the Hamitic race, extending along the 
Mediterranean seaboard from the Siwah oasis, west 
frontier Lower Egypt, to the Atlantic, and occupy- 
ing the whole of the Sahara as far east as about 13 
01^14° E. long. Here they are conterminous with 
the Tibbus of the East Sahara, and since the spread 
of Islam their own domain has been largely 
encroached upon by the Arabs. 1 he Berbers, who 
give their name to the “ Barbary ’’ states, and who 
are undoubtedly the true aborigines, of North 
Africa, are grouped in three great divisions : The 
Tuaregs of the Sahara ; the Shillulis (.Shluhs ) of 
Morocco ; and the Kabyles of Algeria and Tunis, 
with whom may be classed the outlying tribes of 
the eastern oases, who have no collective name. 
The name Berber itself, though of doubtful origin, 
is of vast antiquity, and already occurs under the 
form Beraberata in an inscription in the Temple of 
Karnak dating from the time of Rameses II., about 
1400 B.C. The Berber type, wherever it has not 
been modified by the negro of Sudan, is essentially 
Caucasian, that is, regular in the European sense; 
even the complexion is fair, often not more swarthy 
than that of Spaniards or Sicilians. Many of 
the Kabyles have even light hair and blue eyes, 
though this has been attributed to contact with the 
Romans, and later with the Vandals who invaded 
North Africa under Gcnseric, and became absorbed 
in the surrounding populations. But on the Egyp¬ 
tian monuments of the fourteenth and fifteenth 
centuries B.c. the Libyans and other peoples west of 
Egypt (all Berbers) are already depicted with a 
pink complexion, blue eyes, and fair or red hair, 
The Berber language, current throughout the whole 
of the Berber domain in forms not differing from one 
another more than Italian from French, constitutes 
a distinct branch of the Hamitic linguistic family, 
and is consequently allied to the Old Egyptian and 
to the Ethiopian (Beja, Somal, Galla, etc.) of the 
north-east African seaboard. The Shluhs and 
Tuaregs apply to the national speech the term 
Tamashek (properly Tamazigt ) in the sense of 
“ noble ” or “ free,” this word stripped of its feminine 
prefix and postfix t being identical with the Maxyes 
of Herodotus, that is, the Amzigh (Imazighen) or 
“Freemen” of Mauritania. Berber possesses an 
alphabet which dates from remote prehistoric 
times, but the existence of which was first dis¬ 
covered by Dr. Oudney in 1822. Specimens of this 
tajinagh writing, as it is called, occur in numerous 
rock inscriptions scattered over the Sahara and 











Berber ah. 


( 39 ) 


Beresina. 


Mauritania. The letters, 35 in number, closely 
resemble old Semitic forms, and their Carthaginian 
(Punic or Phoenician) origin is now demonstrated, 
and is even indicated by their very name ta-finagh, 
where finayli— Phoenician. See Shaler, “ Communi¬ 
cations on the African Berbers,” in the Memoirs of 
the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, 
1824 ; Graberg de Hemsse, “ Remarks on the Lan¬ 
guage of the Amazirghs, commonly called Berebbers,” 
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1836 ; General 
Hanoteau, La Kabylie, etc., Paris, 1872-73. 

Berberah, a good harbour in the Somali coun¬ 
try, East Africa, situated on the Gulf of Aden, and 
occupied since 1884 by a small detachment from 
the garrison of that station. A large fair is held 
here annually. 

Berberidese, the natural order of dicoty¬ 
ledonous plants to which the barberry belongs. 
There are 12 genera and over 100 species in the 
order, which is absent from Africaj and Austral¬ 
asia. They are shrubs or herbaceous perennials 
with scattered leaves, generally compound and 
spinous; sepals, petals, and stamens generally 
equal in number; stamens opposite the petals and 
dehiscing by valves, and fruit of one carpel, either 
dry or succulent. Bitter astringent properties pre¬ 
vail throughout the group. 

Berbice, once a separate colony, has since 
1831 been united with Essequibo and Demerara to 
form British Guiana. It produces sugar, cocoa, and 
magnificent timber. The capital is New Amster¬ 
dam, on the right bank of the Berbice river, which 
is navigable for 170 miles. 

Berchem. [Berghem.] 

Berchta, or Bertha (O.H.G. Pcrahta, bright), 
corresponded in the ancient superstitions of South 
Germany to the goddess Hulda in the North. She 
was, however, of a more stern and forbidding charac¬ 
ter than her northern sister, and her festival was a 
fast prescribed under severe penalties. Her per¬ 
sonality has been a little mixed up with that of 
historical Berthas, and enters into many local 
legends. Perhaps through the attribute “bright¬ 
ness ” she was especially associated with the feast 
of the Epiphany. 

Berchtesgaden, a mountain village in Bavaria, 
15 miles S. of Saltzburg. It has large salt mines, 
worked by the Government, and a royal hunting 
lodge which occupies the site of an ancient abbey. 

Berdiansk, a port in the government of 
Taurida, South Russia, on the N.W. shore of the Sea 
of Azov. The harbour is the best in the district, 
and a large trade is carried on. 

Berditchef, a town in South Russia, 108 miles 
by railway S.W. of Kiev. It has, until recently, 
been largely populated by Jews, and at the five 
annual fairs a great deal of business has been 
done in corn, cattle, wine, and local products. 

Bereans, a religious sect, founded in 1773 by 
the Rev. John Barclay, whence they are also known 
as Barclayites. They called themselves Bereans, 
from the allusion in Acts xvii. 2 to the people of 


Berea, who “ received the word with all readiness 
of mind.” 

Berengar I., son of Eberhardt, Duke of Friuli, 
caused himself to be proclaimed king of Italy in 
888, and, getting rid of his many rivals, was elected 
emperor in 915. In 923 his nobles, fearing his 
encroachments, supported Rudolph II. of Burgundy 
in usurping the throne, and Berengar was thrown 
into prison at Verona and was killed in 924. 

Berengar II., grandson of the foregoing, was 
by the help of the Emperor Otho (950) restored to 
a part of the dominions of his ancestor, but as he 
refused to acknowledge himself Otho’s vassal, he 
was after a struggle deposed and imprisoned at 
Bamberg, where he died in 966. 

Berengarius was born at Tours in 998 and 
was educated by Fulbert of Chartres. In 1031, as 
master of the cathedral school in his native city 
he acquired great fame, but had a powerful rival 
in Lanfranc of Bee. It is said that in order to 
attract attention he adopted novel views, especially 
as to the eucharist, rejecting the doctrine of tran- 
substantiation. He was condemned in 1050 and 
imprisoned. He was protected by Hildebrand, and 
partly recanted, but soon resumed his old teaching, 
and continued to do so until 1079, when he was 
summoned to a council at Rome, and compelled by 
his former ally—now Pope Gregory VII.—to publicly 
retract. He then withdrew to an island in the 
Loire and spent his declining years in solitude and 
prayer, dying in 1088. 

Berenice, the name of several Jewish and 
Egyptian princesses. 1. Berenice, the wife of 
Ptolemy Euergetes of Egypt, who, during her 
husband’s absence on a Syrian campaign, offered up 
her hair in the temple of Venus to procure his safe 
return. The tresses vanished, but reappeared as the 
constellation known by the name of Coma Berenices. 
2. Berenice, the daughter of Agrippa I. of 
Judsea, who married her uncle Herod, and afterwards 
lived with her brother Agrippa. She took as a 
second husband Polemo, King of Cilicia, but re¬ 
turned to Agrippa, and was with him when Paul 
was brought before him at Csesarea. Titus, capti¬ 
vated by her charms, carried her to Rome, and but 
for the popular prejudice against the Jews would 
have married her. 

Berenice, the name of many cities in the 
East, so called in honour of various princesses. 

1. Berenice in Grenaica, now Bengazi (q.v.). 

2. Berenice in the Thebaid on the Red Sea, once 
a great centre of trade with Asia. 3. Berenice or 
Arsinoe on the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb. 

Beresina, or Berezina, a tributary of the 
Dnieper, rising in the north of the Russian province 
of Minsk, Lithuania. As a stream it is an important 
artery for floating timber from the country to the 
open sea. It is memorable in history as the scene 
of the fatal crossing by Napoleon’s army in its 
retreat from Moscow in November, 1812. On that 
occasion 12,000 dead bodies were found on the 
banks of the river, and the Russians captured 
16,000 prisoners and 25 pieces of ordnance. 








Bereslav. 


( 40 ) 


Bergman. 


Bereslav, a town on the Dnieper, in the 
Russian government of Kherson. 

Berezna, a town on a tributary of the Desna 
in the Russian government of Tchernigov. 

Berezov, a town of Asiatic Russia in the 
government of Tobolsk, on the Sosva. It was 
founded in 1593, and in the 18th century was made 
a place of banishment. Among those exiled there 
were Prince Menschikoff in 1727, Prince Ivan 
Dolgoruki in 1730, and General Osterman in 1742. 
Also the name of a gold mining village of Asiatic 
Russia in the government of Perm. 

Berg, since 1815 a territory of Prussia, formerly 
a duchy of Germany, is situated on the right bank 
of the Rhine. Acquired by Napoleon in 1800, it was 
made a grand duchy with Murat, Napoleon’s 
brother-in-law, as Grand Duke of Berg. 

Bergamo, the name of a town and province of 
North Italy. The town is fortified, manufactures 
textile fabrics and iron, and is annually the scene 
of the largest fair in Italy. The dialect of the 
people is peculiar, and is affected by the comic 
characters in Italian comedy. The Bergamasque 
shepherds, familiar in the Eastern Alps, come from 
this province. 

Bergamot, the name originally of Mentha 
citrata, whence a fragrant oil is obtainable. True 
essence of Bergamot is obtained from the unripe 
fruits of the Calabrian Bergamot orange (Citrus 
Beryamia'). It is used in perfumery and con¬ 
fectionery. The Lime (Citrus Limetta ) is known 
in France as Bergamotte., 

Bergedorf, the name of a district and town of 
Hamburg. Its chief industry is the growing of 
fruit and vegetables, some of which are sent to 
the London markets. A railway connects it with 
Hamburg. 

Bergen, a seaport and city on the west coast of 
Norway and capital of the province of S. Bergen. 
It is fortified by the castle of Bergenhus (until the 
end of the 14th century the residence of the Nor¬ 
wegian kings) and by the citadels of Fredericksberg 
and Sverresberg. It is the second town in the 
kingdom, and manufactures gloves, leather, por¬ 
celain, etc. Its export trade is considerable, com¬ 
prising timber, fish, fish-roes, cod-liver oil, hides, 
tar, etc. It is the seat of a bishopric, and besides 
a cathedral has the interesting church of St. Mary 
dating from the 12th century. In its museum is an 
important collection of Norse antiquities. It was 
founded in the 11th century, and in 1445 the 
Hanseatic League, driving out British merchants, 
established a factory and practically controlled 
the trade of the city until 1558. In 1855 it 
suffered from an extensive conflagration. 

Bergen-op-Zoom, a town in Holland in the 
province of North Brabant, stands on the Zoom 
near its junction with the Scheldt. It was formerly 
a place of great strength, and the scene of many 
struggles between the Spanish and the Nether- 
landers. In 1814 it belonged to France and was 
unsuccessfully attacked by the English under Sir 
Thomas Graham, afterwards Lord Lynedoch. A 


curious feature about the tower of the castle is the 
way its breadth increases as it rises, so that it rocks 
in a severe wind. It has commodious market¬ 
places and does a good trade in anchovies, which 
are caught in the Scheldt. Its manufactures 
embrace tiles, bricks, and a fine quality of pottery. 

Bergenroth, Gustav, historian, was born in 
1813 in East Prussia. Appointed assessor to the 
High Court of Berlin in 1843, he was in 1848 
removed to a subordinate position in consequence 
of his revolutionary sympathies. He left the 
public service altogether, however, and in 1856 
came to England to collect materials in the Record 
Office for a history of the Tudor period. In I860 he 
went to Spain, where he collected for the Master of 
the Rolls from the archives preserved in Simancas y 
three volumes of State papers relating to English 
history. He died in 1869. 

Bergerac, chief town of an arrondissement in 
the French department of Dordogne, is situated on 
the river Dordogne. It is an enterprising place,, 
manufacturing leather, paper, iron, and articles of 
clothing. It does a considerable trade with Bor¬ 
deaux and Libourne in the wines of the district. 
It is an old town, dating from the 11th century, 
and during the wars with England was an impor¬ 
tant fortress. Its inhabitants adopting Calvinist 
views, Louis XIII. had its fortifications demolished 
in 1621. while the Edict of Nantes had the effect of 
exiling many of its citizens. 

Bergerac, Savinien Cyrano de, French 
writer, was born in 1619 at Paris. He is reputed 
to have been principal in more than a thousand 
duels. While still at college he wrote Le Pedant 
Joue , which Moliere freely drew from for his Four- 
heries de Scajrin. His best known production is 
the Histoire Comique des Ftats et Empires de la 
Lune et du Soldi, which is credited with inspiring 
Dean Swift’s Gullivers Travels. He died in 1655 
at Paris. 

Berghaus, Heinrich, geographer, wmsborn in 
1797 at Cleves. Educated at the Gymnasium of 
Munster, he served both in the French and Prussian 
armies, being made in 1816 geographical engineer 
in the war department at Berlin, in 1824 mathe¬ 
matical professor in the architectural academy of 
Berlin, and in 1836 director of the geographical 
school in Potsdam. His best known work is the 
Physical Atlas, which forms the basis of Johnston’s. 
He died in 1884 at Stettin. 

Bergk, Theodor, scholar, was born in 1812 at 
Leipzig. From 1842 to 1869 he acted as professor 
of philology at the universities of Marburg, Frei¬ 
burg, and Halle. His chief work was in the pre¬ 
paring of editions of the Greek poets. In 1843 he 
published the Poe tec Lyrici Greed, and in 1872 the 
first volume of his unfinished Geschiclde der griech- 
isclien Litteratnr. He died in 1881. 

Bergman, Torbern Olof, chemist, was born 
in 1735 at Katharinaberg, West Gothland. Having 
studied under Linnaeus at Upsala, he became assis¬ 
tant professor of mathematics and physics there, 
and in 1767 professor of chemistry. He discovered 





Bergmehl. 


( 41 ) 


Berkeley. 


oxalic acid, and was the first to classify minerals ac¬ 
cording to their chemical properties. He also experi¬ 
mented in electricity, giving the result in An Essay on 
Elective Affinities. He died in 1784 at Upsala. 

Bergmehl, Mountain Meal, or Fossil 
Farina, now generally known as diatomaceous 
earth, a pulverulent rock of recent origin, accumu¬ 
lated either in fresh or in salt water, and composed 
entirely of the siliceous frustules of diatoms [q.v.], 
a group of microscopic algae. 

Bergylt ( Sehastes norvegicus'), a Scorpaenoid 
fish, somewhat resembling a perch in appearance, 
found in all northern seas as far west as Newfound¬ 
land, occasionally visiting the northern coasts of 
Britain. It is about two feet long, deep red on the 
back, lighter on the sides, passing into light flesh- 
colour on the under surface. It is sometimes called 
the Norway Haddock. There are about twenty 
other species of the genus, principally from seas 
of the north temperate zone. 

Berhampur. 1. A military station in the 
Madras Presidency, and the headquarters of the 
Ganjam district. It is a healthy place and trades 
in silks and sugar. 2. The administrative centre 
of the Murshidabad district, Bengal; it used to be 
a military station. The mutiny of 1857 first burst 
into flame here. 

Beri, an Indian town in the district of Rohtak, 
Punjab; also the name of a state in Bundelkund. 
The town is about 40 miles N.W. from Delhi, and 
has a considerable trade. 

Beri beri, the name of a disease prevalent in 
the East Indies, known in Japan as Kakke, and 
which, from what is known of its character, ap¬ 
pears to be a form of multiple neuritis. The most 
marked symptoms are burning pains, muscular 
wasting and paralysis, affecting mainly the legs. 
It is possibly due to some form of malarial poison. 

Berkeley, a town in Gloucestershire, nearly 20 
miles from Gloucester. It has a curious church, 
but is chiefly remarkable for the castle, which is of 
great historical and antiquarian interest. In 1327 
Edward II. was murdered there. The Berkeley 
peerage takes its title from this place. 

Berkeley, George, Bishop of Clo 3 7 ne, was 
born in 1685 at D} T sart-on-the-Nore, Kilkenny, 
where he received his early education, going subse¬ 
quently to Trinity College, Dublin. Graduating 
B.A. in 1704, and M.A. in 1707, he was chosen a 
fellow of his college and ordained a deacon in 1709, 
the year in which appeared his Essay towards a 
New Theory of Vision. This was followed in 1710 
by an amplification of the argument for his new 
theory in a Treatise on the Principles of Human 
Knowledge , and in 1713 by Dialogues between Hylas 
and Philonous —a more popular exposition. Mean¬ 
while Berkeley had come to London in 1712, and in 
1713 was presented by Swift at Court. As chaplain 
to Lord Peterborough he travelled on the Continent, 
and again as tutor to the son of Dr. Ashe. In 1721 
he was appointed chaplain to the Duke of Grafton, 
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and in 1722 he held the 
positions of Dean of Dromore, Hebrew lecturer, 
and senior proctor at the university. In 1723 he 


was left a legacy by Miss Yanhomrigh, Swift’s 
“ Vanessa,” whom he met only once at dinner, and in 
1724 the rich deanery of Derry Pell to his lot. He 
now became enthusiastic over the founding of a 
college in the Bermudas for the benefit of the 
American heathen, and he set out for Rhode Island 
to carry out his scheme. The subscriptions that 
had been promised him were not forthcoming, and 
after a few years of waiting, spent in study, 
Berkeley came home and published in 1733 
Alciphron, or the Minute Philosopher , in execution 
his finest work. It is an examination of the various 
forms of freethought in the light of his own theory 
of perception. In 1734 he was made Bishop of 
Cloyne, where he remained 18 years, retiring in 
1752 to Oxford, where, in 1753, he died, and was 
interred in the cathedral of Christ Church. In 
addition to the works mentioned, and some mathe¬ 
matical and theological writings, Berkeley also pro¬ 
duced in 1744 Siris, Philosophical Deflections and 
Inquiries concerning the Virtues of Tar Water. 

The current psychological doctrine that percep¬ 
tion, especially by sight, consists very largely of 
inference based on past experience is due in great 
measure to Berkeley’s theory of vision. But he is 
more important as the first great English idealist. 
Locke had held that material objects are known to 
us only through “ ideas ” or images caused by their 
action on our minds through our sense-organs. 
Berkeley pointed out that this view involved ab¬ 
surdities ; material objects are known only in terms 
of mind, and there is and can be no evidence that 
they exist apart from mind. But we know that 
ideas can be excited in a mind, by itself or by other 
minds ( e.g. through language). Thus Berkeley 
concluded that the ideas ordinarily referred to 
material objects are due to the direct action of 
a supreme mind, the Deity, wherein they subsist 
when human beings are not perceiving them. This 
doctrine received an important sceptical develop¬ 
ment from David Hume (q.v.), and was combated 
by Beattie and Reid. It is taken up in the cur¬ 
rent idealist theory, that the -whole system of 
Nature is essential^ 7 rational, the product of spirit, 
and that instead of mind being a product or 
function of matter, material phenomena are modes 
of a Divine mind. But it was long grotesquely 
misunderstood as implying the non-existence of 
what is ordinarily called matter. Thus Dr. John¬ 
son professed to refute it by kicking a stone. 

Berkeley, James, 3rd Earl of, was born in 
1681, and, having entered the navy, became a 
captain at the age of twenty. As Lord Dursley he 
commanded the Boyne , 80, at Rooke’s action off 
Malaga in 1704; and in 1706 he commanded the 
St. George, 96, at the siege of Toulon. In 1708 he 
became a vice-admiral, and was actively employed 
in the Channel and North Sea, taking several ships 
from the French ; in 1710 he succeeded his father 
as Earl of Berkeley; in 1717 he was made first 
Commissioner of the Admiralty; in 1718 he was 
appointed Vice-admiral of England, and hoisted, 
by special warrant, a Lord High Admiral’s flag, 
as commander-in-chief of a fleet destined to act 
against Spain ; in the same year he was installed 







Berkeley. 


( 42 ) 


Bermudas. 


a Knight of the Garter, and in 1736, after having 
retired from active service, he died at the Chateau 
d’Aubigny, near Rochelle. 

Berkeley, Sir William, who was born in 1639, 
entered the navy, and attained the rank of captain 
in 1662. In 1665, in spite of his youth, he was 
apjiointed rear-admiral under the Duke of York, 
and as such behaved most gallantly in the victory 
over the Dutch off Lowestoft. He was at once 
made a vice-admiral, and in the next year led the 
van during the bloody action off the Goodwin in 
the early days of June, his flag flying in the 
Siviftsure , 36. In that unfortunate battle he fell, 
and his. ship was taken by the Dutch, who, after 
embalming Sir William’s body, chivalrously sent 
it to Charles II. in order to ascertain his majesty’s 
wish as to its disposal. It was brought home, 
and buried in Westminster Abbey. 

Berkshire, a county in England, lies in the 
Thames valley. Its fertile soil overlies solid chalk, 
and is mostly under cultivation or timber. The 
richest part, the Yale of the White Horse, is so 
named from the gigantic figure of a horse cut out 
in the adjacent hill. This figure, which occupies 
nearly an acre, is said to have been the work of 
Alfred the Great in commemoration of a victory 
over the Danes in 872. In the east part of the 
county is Windsor forest, and at the south-east 
Bagshot Heath. The county comprises 20 hundreds, 
151 parishes, and 12 poor-law unions. It is chiefly 
devoted to agriculture, and is celebrated for its 
breed of pigs. Its manufactures are mainly in 
agricultural implements, paper, malt, and biscuits. 
The chief towns are Reading, the capital, Newbury, 
Maidenhead, Faringdon, Hungerford, Wantage, 
Wokingham, East Ilsley, Lambourn, and Windsor. 
Besides the Thames, its tributaries, the Kennet 
with the Lambourn, the Leddon, the Ock, and the 
Enborne, flow through the county. In Berkshire are 
numerous Roman and Saxon remains and Norman 
churches of the 12th century. 

Berlad, a Roumanian town with considerable 
trade, on the Berlad river, which is navigable and 
a tributary of the Sereth. 

Berlin, capital of Prussia and of the German 
empire, in the province of Brandenburg, is situated 
on the Spree, which divides the city into two parts, 
united by about fifty bridges. The area of the city 
is about 16,000 acres. The houses are built of 
brick covered with plaster, and the streets are, 
except in the oldest parts, straight and wide, the 
Unter den Linden being one of the finest in Europe. 
In close proximity to this street are the government 
buildings, including the emperor’s palace, the uni¬ 
versity, the opera, the cathedral, the old and new 
museums, and the national gallery. All its public 
buildings, excepting a few churches and the castle, 
are modern. It is profusely supplied with monu¬ 
ments of historic figures, the most notable being 
the equestrian statues of the Great Elector erected 
1703, and of Frederick the Great. Among its 
educational institutions, besides its schools and the 
University founded in 1809, may be mentioned the 
Royal Academies of Arts and of Sciences, academies 


for military, architectural, musical, agricultural, 
and technical training, and numerous libraries and 
museums. The chief museums are the Old and 
the New. Of its five parks the largest is the 
Thiergarten, covering an area of 370 acres. There 
are also Zoological and Botanical Gardens. Its 
largest hospital is the Charite, accommodating 
1,500 patients. Its manufactures are varied, em¬ 
bracing steam-engines, sewing machines, pianos, 
scientific instruments, textile goods, musical instru¬ 
ments, beer, etc. Excepting Leipsic, it is the chief 
publishing centre in Germany, and has, in addition 
to numerous other periodicals, upwards of thirty 
daily newspapers. For transit it is provided with 
fourteen railways, the Spree with its canals commu¬ 
nicating with the Oder and the Baltic, besides the 
public vehicles common to modern cities. It has 
a metropolitan and an outer circle railway. 

Berlin Spirit, a coarse kind of whisky used 
in the manufacture of brandy (q.v.). 

Berlioz, Hector, was born in 1803 near 
Grenoble. His father was a physician, and wishing 
his son to follow the same profession sent him to 
Paris to study medicine. He, however, devoted 
himself to music and passed the entrance examina¬ 
tion at the Conservatoire as a pupil of Lesner. His 
father being displeased with him for relinquishing 
medicine, he had to support himself now, which he 
did by singing in the chorus at the Gymnase. In 
1828 he w r on the second prize at the Conservatoire, 
and in 1830 the first, called the Prix de Home, 
which carries with it an income for three years to 
be expended in musical studies at Rome. He after¬ 
wards became a contributor to the Journal des 
Debats, and in 1833 married Henrietta Smithson, 
an Irish actress. In 1838 Paganini was so struck 
on hearing the Symphonie Fantastique , which 
Berlioz had composed while still a student, that he 
presented him with 20,000 francs. In 1839 Berlioz 
was made a chevalier of the Legion of Honour, 
and received the appointment of librarian to the 
Conservatoire. In 1842 he set out upon a musical 
tour, meeting with enthusiastic receptions where- 
ever he went. In 1852 he went to London and 
was engaged as conductor of the New Philharmonic 
Society. In the following year he successfully 
produced his Benvenuto Cellini at the Royal Italian 
Opera, acting also as musical conductor at Covent 
Gaixlen. His best known works are the Symphonie 
Lantastique, Lelio , Borneo et Juliette, and La Dam¬ 
nation de Faust. He died in 1869, since which 
time the popularity of his works has gone on 
increasing. 

Bermondsey, a London district on the south 
side of the Thames, is the centre of the London 
tanning trade. 

Bermudas, or Somers Islands, a group of 
small islands in the possession of Great Britain, are 
situated in the Atlantic Ocean in lat. 32° 20' N., 
and long. 64° 50' W. They are named from Juan 
Bermudez, a Spaniard, who discovered them in 
lo22, and from Sir George Somers, an Englishman, 
who was wrecked here in 1609 and established a 
settlement. Their number is given as being 
between four and five hundred, yet so small are 







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1 Kxmigfoches Schloss ! Royal Castle / 

2 CathedraL 1 dm Dorrv) 

3 Liurtgartm and monument ol 
Frederic/ Williams HI. 

4 Museurrv 

5 HationaL Gad rry 
G Schloss MtmbijoUs 

7 English/ Church/ 

8 Ruhmes Haile fRoyal Armory. 

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10 University and Kastarxien Wald 

11 Art Acscidemy 

12 Eonigliehes Falaus Royal Titian*/J oral 
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IS Op cm Beats Opera, > 

14 Hedwig Eirche Catholics Church. I 

15 Franz bsischer Rom- French Church) 

16 Sch (Turpi el Bans I Royals Theatre! 

17 Ileutscher Horn. 

18 Schiller Flats. 

19 PancrptLaum 

20 Russian. Embassy 

21 Coitus- Mmisterium 

22 Aquarxurrv 

23 Ministry of fhelnterior* 

24 Erieqs Academic 

25 French Embassy 

26 Brandenburger Thor Brandenburg Gate. 

27 English. Embassy 

28 Ministry of the Royal Rouse/ 

29 Reichs Amt des Innerrx and 
Reichsschatz Amt 

30 Ministry of Justice. 

31 Auswdrtiges Amt 

32 Palais des Reichs EansLers 

33 Erieqs Ministemunx 

34 Reichs Post Amt 

35 DreifaltigIceits JRrche 

36 Museum fur UoUserlcunde and. 

G exverb e-Mixs earn 

37 Friedrich ~Wdhd.ni Gymnasium. 

38 Berliner Theater 

39 Bnckoflati and Obsem’atory 

40 Friedens Saule 

41 Eji'che zum Redigen Ereuz 

42 Monument 1813 

43 English Gas- Works 

44 Garrison Church. 

45 Didhonissenhaus Betharrien 

46 Mariannen Flats. 

47 Thomas JSrche 

48 Emrnaus Rirche 

49 Michael Eirche 

50 Jerusalemer Eirche 

51 Beichshallerx Theater' 

52 Reich shank 

53 Ednigliche Miinze [Royal Mint 

54 Rathhaus 

55 Land und Amts Gericht 

56 Folizei Fraesidium 

57 Marien Eirche 

58 Bor sc Rrchange 

59 Bart ho lo nidus Eirche 

60 Zions Eirche. 

61 Elies ab eth Eirche 

62 Synagogue 

63 Golgotha Eirche 

64 Circus Rent 

65 Deutsih.es Theater 

66 Anatomic 

67 Ebniqliche Tbd.ec- drztlichcRooh. Selude 

68 Charitc Eranketxhaus 

69 Lessing Theater 

70 Rdehstcujs Geh dude 

71 Sieges Denknull 

72 Generalstitb 

73 Erolls Etahlisserrxent■ 

74 Muster Straf Anstalt. (Zellerx Gefangniss 

7 5 Justin Talast 

7TV Criminal Justiz Anstalt 
77 Schloss Bellevue/ 

7 8 Goldhsch Teich 

79 Matthdi Eirche/ 

80 BbUendorf Flat* 

81 Kaiser Wilhelm. Gediichtn iss Eirche 

82 Joachimsthalsche Gymnasium 

83 Technical Righ Schools 

84 Palmenhaus 




























































Bermudez. 


( 43 ) 


Bernard. 


they that they cover an area of only about 12,000 
acres. The largest is Great Bermuda, or Long 
Island, the chief town of which, Hamilton, is the 
governor’s seat and a military station. Other of the 
islands are named St. George’s—whose harbour is 
sufficiently commodious to shelter the whole British 
Navy, and where is situated the chief military 
station—Paget’s, Smith’s, St. David’s, Cooper’s, 
Nonsuch, Longbird, etc. The Bermudas were long 
considered unhealthy, a reputation that is not con¬ 
sistent with their low death rate. Their chief draw¬ 
back is the want of fresh water, the islanders 
having to depend upon the rain for their supplies 
of this necessary. The air is always moist, and 
the vegetation ever green. The chief products 
are potatoes, onions, tomatoes, arrowroot, bananas, 
which articles are exported chiefly to New York, 
between which and the islands regular steam com¬ 
munication is maintained. Oranges and medicinal 
plants, like the aloe, jalap, and castor oil plant, also 
grow. The government of the islands comprises a 
governor, appointed by the Crown, a privy council 
of nine appointed by the governor, and an assembly 
of thirty-six paid members. There are plenty of 
schools, free and private, and, besides the Church 
of England, the Presbyterian, Wesleyan, and 
Roman Catholic denominations are represented. 
Here Bishop Berkeley (q.v.) settled in 1726 to 
carry out his mission of christianising the American 
Indians. 

Bermudez, a Venezuelan state, lies between 
the Orinoco and the Caribbean Sea. 

Bern, the name of a canton and town in Switzer¬ 
land. The town is situated on the Aar, and com¬ 
prises well-built houses and regular streets. Its 
principal buildings are a Gothic cathedral, the 
church of the Holy Spirit, the federal council hall, 
the town hall, university, hospital and mint. 
Among educational institutions are its museum, 
library, and literary societies. Its trade is brisk, 
and besides textile fabrics includes watches, clocks, 
small articles in carved wood, etc. Since 1848 
it has been the capital of the whole Swiss 
Confederation. The canton, covering an area 
of 2,560 square miles, is the most populous 
in Switzerland, and its southern part, called the 
Oberland, is celebrated for its scenery. Here are 
many of the grandest mountains of the Alpine 
range, the Jungfrau, Eiger, Wetterhorn, Schreck- 
horn, and Finsteraarhorn. The central part of the 
canton is noted for its fertility, while in the north 
is the Jura range of mountains. The principal 
river is the Aar, and its lakes are those of Thun, 
Brienz, Neuchatel, and Bienne. Iron and even gold is 
found in some parts, and there are numerous sand¬ 
stone, marble, and granite quarries; but its chief 
wealth lies in agriculture and cattle-raising. 

Bernadotte, Jean Baptiste Jules, King 
Charles XIV. of Sweden and Norway, was born in 
1764 at Pan. His father was a lawyer, and he too 
was educated for the bar. In 1780, however, he 
enlisted as a private in the royal marines, and in 
1789 had attained no higher than the rank of ser¬ 
geant. After the Revolution his promotion was 
more rapid, and in 1792 he was made a colonel, in 


1793 a general of brigade, and soon after a general 
of division. In the Rhine and Italian campaigns 
he bore himself with distinction as a soldier, and 
in the conduct of a difficult embassy to Austria he 
showed that he was a diplomatist as well. While 
Napoleon was in Egypt he was appointed minister 
of war, and though between these two there was 
considerable rivalry, yet on the establishment of 
the empire Bernadotte was made a marshal, and in 
1806 was created Prince Ponte-Corvo. In 1810, the 
heir to the Swedish throne dying, Bernadotte was 
nominated by the Swedish States in Council as the 
successor to Charles XIII. He immediately de¬ 
voted all his energies to the service of his adopted 
country, ascending the throne in 1818. He died, 
after a successful reign, in 1844. 

Bernard, Claude, physiologist, was born in 
1813 at St. Julien, in the French department of the 
Rhone. After studying at Paris he became in 1841 
Majendie’s assistant at the College de France, and 
in 1854, having achieved distinction by his investi¬ 
gations and discoveries, he was appointed to the 
general physiology chair in the Faculty of Sciences 
and member of the Institute. In 1855 he succeeded 
Majendie in the chair of experimental physiology 
in the College de France, which in 1868 was fol¬ 
lowed by his appointment as professor of general 
physiology at the Museum. In the same year he 
succeeded Flourens in the French Academy, and in 
1869 became a member of the Senate. Among his 
discoveries were the function of the pancreatic 
juice, the saccharine formation in the liver, and the 
part played by the nervous system in this process. 
For his experiments he was thrice awarded the 
grand prize of the Institute, and was the recipient 
of many other distinctions. His published writings 
comprise Reclierch.es sur les Usages du Pancreas , 
De la Pliysiologie Generate, now a text-book in 
France, Lecons sur les Anesthesique ct sur Asphyxie, 
etc. He died at Paris in 1878, and was honoured 
with a public funeral. 

Bernard, James, philosopher, was born in 
1658 at Nions, Dauphine. As a minister he preached 
the reformed doctrines and was in consequence 
obliged to retire to Holland. In 1705 he became 
pastor of the Walloon church in Leyden, and suc¬ 
ceeded M. de Valder as professor of mathematics 
and philosophy in the university there. Among his 
writings are Histoire Abregrec de VEurope, Lettres 
Historiques, Actes de Negociations de la Paix 
Rysivic, a continuation of Bayle’s Nourelles de la 
Republiques des Lettres , etc. He died in 1718. 

Bernard, St., Abbot of Clairvaux, was born in 
1091 at Fontaines, Burgundy. In 1113, after study¬ 
ing at the University of Paris, he joined the monas¬ 
tery of Citeaux, and so unswerving was his devotion 
to duty and the rules of religion that he com¬ 
manded the esteem and veneration of all about him. 
He was accordingly selected to lead a band of 
devotees to found a new branch of the order, which 
he did in 1115 at Clairvaux in Champagne, he himself 
becoming abbot. His fame and influence grew, 
and novices were drawn to Clairvaux who after¬ 
wards became distinguished men. A proof of his 






Bernard. 


( 44 ) 


Bernouilli. 


great influence was furnished in 1130, when he 
was appealed to to decide the claims of the two 
rival popes, Anacletus II. and Innocent II. He 
decided in favour of Innocent, who, though pre¬ 
viously banished from Rome, was, at the bidding 
of St. Bernard, “ accepted by the world.” Opposed 
to the doctrines of Abelard, he in 1140 indicted 
him in a letter to the Pope, and procured sentence of 
condemnation upon him. He also secured the ban¬ 
ishment from Rome and Zurich of Arnold of Brescia. 
At the council of Vezelai he preached the second 
Crusade in 1146. The disasters that befel the vast 
armies that were raised through St. Bernard’s preach¬ 
ing, recoiled upon him, as he had predicted success 
to the Christian arms. He founded about 100 
monasteries, and was a prolific writer of epistles, 
sermons, and theological treatises. He died in 1153 
at Clairvaux, and was canonised in 1174. 

Bernard, Simon, engineer, was born in 1779 at 
Dole. Educated at the Ecole Polytechnique, 
when Laplace and Haiiy were among the masters, he 
so profited by the instructions he received that he 
soon after entering the army became one of 
Napoleon’s most distinguished engineer officers. 
After the emperor's defeat he withdrew to the 
United States, where he executed engineering- 
works of hitherto unexampled magnitude — vast 
canals, the fortification of 4,500 miles of frontier, 
etc. Returning to France after the Revolution of 
1830, he was in 183G chosen minister of war to 
Louis Philippe. He died in 1839. 

Bernardino, St., of Siena, was born in 1380 at 
Massa-Carrara. Of noble parentage, lie in 1404 
entered the order of the Franciscans. He became 
noted as a preacher, and in 1438 was made vicar- 
general of his order in Italy, where he established 
upwards of 300 monasteries. He died in 1444 at 
Aquilo, in the Abruzzi, and was canonised six years 
later by order of Nicholas V. His works, which 
were published in collected form in 1571, are of a 
mystical character. 

Bernauer, Agnes, daughter of an Augsburg 
doctor, was in 1432 married to Duke Albrecht with¬ 
out the knowledge of his father, Duke Ernst of 
Bavaria. When the latter learnt of the alliance he 
sought to degrade his son. Failing to make Al¬ 
brecht give way in his devotion to his wife, he had 
her tried and condemned for witchcraft. She was 
then drowned in the Danube in 1435. 

Bernburg, an ancient city of Anhalt, in Ger¬ 
many, formerly the capital of Anhalt-Bernburg. 
It is intersected by the river Saale, and is the seat 
of a considerable trade in grain. Its manufactures 
embrace snuff, paper, starch, sugar, etc. 

Berners, Juliana, was the daughter of Sir 
James Berners, who was executed on Tower Hill 
in 1388. The year of her birth is not known, as 
indeed is very little else about her. To her author¬ 
ship are ascribed certain writings on hunting, 
hawking, and heraldry. The title of the book 
which was printed in 148G at St. Albans, near 
which at Sopewell Nunnery she is said to have 
been prioress, is Treatyse perteynynge to Hawhynge, 
ITicntynge, and Fysshynge with an Angle; also a 


right noble Treatyse on the Lygnage of Cot Armours , 
endynge with a Treatyse which specyfyeth of 
Blasynge of Armys. If Juliana Berners be the 
authoress of this work, then she is the earliest 
known female writer in English. 

Bernhard, Duke of Weimar, was born in 1G04. 
After signalising himself in the Thirty Years’ war 
on the Protestant side, he became a colonel in 
the Danish army, joining Gustavus Adolphus in 
1G31. After the king’s death he assumed the 
chief command. He died suddenly at Neuburg in 
1639. 

Bernhardy, Gottfried, scholar, was born in 
1800 at Frankfort. After studying at Berlin he 
was appointed director of the Philological Seminary 
at Halle. He contributed several valuable works 
to philological science, including a history of 
Greek literature. He died in 1875. 

Berni, Francesco, poet, was born about 1490 
at Lamporecchio, Tuscany. After a period spent at 
Florence he removed to Rome, and there became 
celebrated for his witty effusions. In 1530, return¬ 
ing to Florence, he was made a canon in the cathe¬ 
dral there. In 1536 he died, supposed by some to 
have been poisoned by Duke Alessandro de Medici. 
He is the chief of Italian comic poets, and so 
pungent was his wit that comic poetry was called 
after him Versi Berneschi. His chief work was 
the remodelling of Boiardo’s Orlando Innamorato . 

Bernicia. [Northumbria.] 

Bernier, Francois, French traveller, w T as born 
at Angers, France. After studying medicine at 
Montpellier university, he visited Palestine, Egypt, 
and India, residing at the court of Aurungzebe as 
his physician for twelve years. In 1670, on his return 
to France, he published a popular account of his 
travels, which have often been republished and 
translated into different languages. He visited 
England in 1685 and died in Paris in 1688. 

Bernina, Piz, a Swiss mountain 13,290 feet 
above sea-level, in the canton of Grisons. It is 
remarkable for its glaciers, and its summit was first 
reached in 1850. 

Bernini, Giovanni Lorenzo, artist, was born 
in 1598 at Naples. After he had produced at the 
age of 18 his celebrated sculptured group of Apollo 
and Daphne, he enjoyed the patronage of Cardinal 
Maffeo Barberini, who on becoming Pope Urban 
VIII. appointed Bernini as his architect. Among 
his best works in this capacity was the great colon¬ 
nade of St. Peter’s. In 1665 at the invitation of 
Louis XIV. he visited Paris to compete in designs 
for the Louvre. Perrault’s were considered supe¬ 
rior to his, and so he limited his attention to 
sculpture. In 1680 he died at Rome, leaving a 
fortune of upwards of £100,000. 

Bernouilli, Daniel, second son of John Bern¬ 
ouilli (q.v.), was born February 9th, 1700, at Gron¬ 
ingen. After studying medicine he turned to 
mathematics, of which he was appointed professor 
at St. Petersburg in 1725. In 1733 he withdrew 
to Basel, where he was professor first of anatomy 
and botany and afterwards of experimental and 






Bernouilli. 


( 45 ) 


Berryer. 


speculative philosophy. He published several mathe¬ 
matical treatises, the chief being - his Hydrodynamica, 
(1738), the first work on that subject. In his later 
years he directed his attention to the study of 
probabilities with special reference to social and 
economic matters. He was a member of the 
Academies of Berlin, Paris, and St. Petersburg, 
and F.R.S. of London. He died in 1782. 

Bernouilli, James, mathematician, was born 
December 27, 1654, at Basel. Though destined by 
his father for the church he developed a passion for 
mathematics, and soon distinguished himself in this 
science. On returning in 1682 from a visit to 
England, where he met Boyle, Hooke, Stillingfleet, 
and other distinguished men of science, he opened 
in Basel a seminary for the teaching of experimental 
physics. In 1687 he became professor of mathe¬ 
matics in the University of Basel, whither through 
his influence foreign students were attracted. He 
and his brother John (q.v.) were the first two 
foreigners that were appointed associates of the 
Paris Academy of Sciences ; and by the special 
request of Leibnitz they were made members of 
the Berlin Academy. In 1696 a problem he pro¬ 
posed relative to the properties of isoperimetrical 
figures led to a quarrel between the brothers, John 
being held to have evinced jealousy at James’s 
superiority. By his triumphs in the severe science 
he is esteemed as worthy to be ranked with Newton 
and Leibnitz. Among his published works were 
A Method of teaching Mathematics to the Blind , 
Universal Tables on Dialling , Conamen Novi Sys- 
tematis Cometarum , De Gravitate AEtheris, etc. 
He also wrote verses in French, German, and Latin. 
He died in 1705, and on his tomb, as he requested, 
the logarithmic spiral was engraven with the 
inscription, Eadem mutata resurgo. 

Bernouilli, John, like his brother James (q.v.) 
also a mathematician, was born July 27th, 1667, at 
Basel. After about a year in the commercial world 
at Neufchatel he returned to his studies at Basel, 
being aided by his elder brother, James. Mathe¬ 
matics and chemistry were his special subjects; he 
also studied medicine, graduating M.D. in 1694, and 
immediately afterwards was appointed to the mathe¬ 
matical chair at Groningen. Here he remained 
until the death of his brother James, when he was 
appointed to the chair in the University of Basel 
thereby vacated. His mathematical discoveries 
were numerous and comprised the exponential 
calculus and the curve of swiftest descent. His 
collected works were published in 1742, and in 1745 
his correspondence with Leibnitz. He died January 
1st, 1748. 

Bernouilli. Other members of this celebrated 
family that achieved distinction were: Nicholas, 
eldest son of John, born in 1695, and died 1726 ; 
John, youngest son of John, born 1710, died 1770 ; 
Nicholas, cousin of the preceding, born 1687, died 
1759 ; John, grandson of the first John mentioned, 
born 1744. died 1807 ; JAMES, younger brother of 
the preceding, born 1759, drowned in the Neva 1789. 
This celebrated name, Bernouilli, it is said, con¬ 
tinuously appeared on the list of Foreign Associates 
of the French Academy from 1699 to 1790. 


Beroe is the type genus of Beroidm, a family of 
jellyfish of the order Ctenophora ; each Beroe 
consists of a small egg-shaped jelly-like mass. It 
differs from the common Pleurohrachia , which it 
most resembles, by the absence of the long tactile 
filaments. [Jelly-fish.] 

Berosus, a Chaldean priest, lived in the time of 
Alexander the Great. He translated a history of 
Babylonia into Greek, from the Creation down to 
his own time. Only fragments of this work now 
exist, and these have been preserved to us in the 
pages of such writers as Josephus and Eusebius. 
They were first collected and published by Richter 
in 1825 in Germany. 

Berri, Charles Ferdinand de Bourbon, 
Due de, second son of Charles X. of France, was 
born 1778 at Versailles. In 1801 he came to Eng¬ 
land, remaining thirteen years and marrying an 
English lady by whom he had two children. This 
. marriage, for reasons of state, was cancelled in 
1814, and in 1816 he married Princess Caroline 
Ferdinande Louise of Naples. In 1820, while leav¬ 
ing the opera house, he was assassinated by one 
Louvel. Seven months after this his son Henri, 
Due de Bordeaux, or the Comte de Chambord, was 
born. 

Berry, strictly speaking, a succulent, inferior, 
syncarpous fruit, neither horny exteriorly as in 
gourds [Pepo], nor having a core as in the 
pome of the apple, hawthorn, or service-trees. 
A gooseberry, banana, or prickly pear are true 
berries ; but the term is often more loosely used, 
either for similar superior fruits, such as the 
tomato or grape [Nuculane], or even for apocar¬ 
pous drupes; for etserios of drupels, such as the 
raspberry; or for other fruits of quite different 
structure, such as the strawberry ; or even for the 
united fruit-structures of several flowers, as in the 
mulberry. 

Berry, Sir Edward, a distinguished naval 
officer, was born in 1768, entered the Royal Navy 
in 1779. became a lieutenant in 1794, and served 
with Nelson in the Agamemnon in 1796, from which 
date the great admiral became his fast friend. 
Attaining the rank of commander, Berry was 
present as a volunteer on board the Captain at 
the battle off Cape St. Vincent, and at Nelson’s 
side he boarded the San Josef and San Nicholas. 
He was promoted to be captain in 1797; was 
Nelson’s flag-captain at the battle of the Nile; 
and, being sent home with despatches in the 
Leander after that victory, fell with her into the 
hands of the enemy. He commanded the Foudroy- 
ant at the capture of the Gcncreux and Guillaume 
Tell in 1800 ; and the Agamemnon at Trafalgar in 
1805, and at Duckworth’s victor}^ in 1806. In the 
latter year he was made a baronet; in 1815 a K.C.B.; 
and in 1819 a colonel of Royal Marines. He 
became a rear-admiral in 1821, and died in 1831. 

Berryer, Pierre Antoine, politician, was 
born in 1790 at Paris. After receiving his pre¬ 
liminary education he adopted the legal profession, 
though he leaned to a career in the church. Among 
his first work was the defending of Marshal Ney 





Bersaglieri. 


( 46 ) 


Berthollet. 


and other of Napoleon’s generals. In 1830 he was 
elected a member of the Chamber of Deputies, and 
shortly before the fall of Charles X. made an effec¬ 
tive speech on behalf of the policy of that king. 
After the July revolution he was the only member 
of the Legitimist party that retained his seat. In 
1832 he left Paris to meet the Duchess of Berri on 
her landing at Marseilles and so prevent her from 
organising a rising on behalf of her son, the Count 
of Chambord. He failed, and was arrested as a par¬ 
ticipator in the insurrection. He was soon released, 
however. Thereafter he signalised himself by his 
defence of Chateaubriand in 1833. In 1840 he 
defended Louis Napoleon after his attempt at 
Boulogne, and in 1843 he made a visit to the Count 
of Chambord in London, acknowledging him as the 
lawful king of France. He was a member of the 
National Assembly of 1848, and was among those 
who vigorously protested against the coup d'etat of 
December 2, 1851. Withdrawing from parlia¬ 
mentary life he was received at the French Aca¬ 
demy in 1854; after twelve years’ retirement he 
again, however, appeared as a deputy to the legisla¬ 
tive body in 1863. The leading achievement of his 
later life was his defence of Montalembert in 1858. 
In 1865 he visited Lord Brougham and was enter¬ 
tained by the benchers of the Temple and Lincoln’s 
Inn. He died in 1868. 

Bersaglieri, so named from the Italian 
bersoplio, aim, or target, are the riflemen or sharp¬ 
shooters of the Italian army. They were organised 
by General de la Marmora upon the model of the 
French chasseurs-a-pled , and they now number 
twelve regiments, each of three battalions of four 
companies, with a depot, and with a total normal 
strength of about 42,000 men. In war-time, this, 
by the addition of the militia, may be increased 
to 106,000. The Bersaglieri are distinguished by 
wearing a soft felt hat decorated with a voluminous 
plume of cock’s feathers. 

Berserker, a Scandinavian mythological hero, 
was the grandson of the fabled eight-handed 
Starkader and Alfhilde. He slew in battle King 
Swafurlam, by whose daughter he had twelve sons 
who inherited his name. He went into battle with¬ 
out armour, hence the name Berserker, popularly 
derived from her, bare, and serher, shirt of mail. 
More probably,however, it means “bear-shirt,” and 
is either connected with Totemism (q.v.), or affords 
a parallel to the WEREWOLF (q.v.) myth. 

Bert, Paul, was born at Auxerre in 1833, and 
after a training for the legal profession took to 
physiology, and in 1863 became assistant to Claude 
Bernard, the famous professor at the College of 
France. In 1867 he was elected to the chair of 
physiology at Bordeaux, and in 1869 filled the 
same post in Paris. On the fall of the empire he 
came forward as a politician, was returned to the 
Chamber of Deputies, and as Minister of Education 
and Public Worship, under Gambetta, he was active 
in suppressing the clerical schools. He was sent 
out as governor to Tonkin in 1886, and died very 
soon afterwards of fever. He wrote a good deal on 
scientific and educational subjects, and his little 


book for children, La Premiere Annee d'Enseiejne- 
ment Scientijique, has been translated into several 
languages. 

Bertha, the name of many royal and noble 
ladies who have played a part in the history of 
Teutonic nations. [Berchta.] 

1. Bertha, St., daughter of Charibert, King of 
the Franks, married Ethelbert, King of Kent, and 
was instrumental in converting England to Chris¬ 
tianity. 2. Bertha, Long-Foot, daughter of the 
Count of Laon, who married Pepin of France, and 
became the mother of Charlemagne. 3. Bertha, 
daughter of Conrad, King of Burgundy, and wife 
of Robert, King of France, but divorced from him 
(998) by Pope Gregory V. because she was related 
to her husband in the fourth degree. 

Berthelot, Sabin, born at Marseilles in 1794, 
devoted his life to travel and the study of natural 
history. His most valuable work treats of the 
Canary Islands, and was written in conjunction 
with Mr. Barber-Webb. Many papers on physical 
geography and kindred subjects were contributed 
by him to scientific periodicals. 

Berthier, Louis Alexander, Prince of Wag- 
ram and Neufchatel, was born in 1753. Like his 
father he became a soldier, and served in America 
under Lafayette and Rochambeau. In 1789 he 
commanded the National Guard at Versailles, and 
favoured the escape of the royal family. After 
fighting for the republic in the Vendee, he joined 
Bonaparte as chief of the staff in the Italian cam¬ 
paign of 1796, and henceforth was the closest and 
most devoted friend of the future emperor, who 
made him his secretary of war after the affair of the 
18th Brumaire. He played a part at Austerlitz and 
Wagram, and all the important engagements until 
the banishment of his master to Elba. He then 
reconciled himself to the Bourbons, and refused 
to return to his allegiance during the Hundred 
Days, retiring to Bamberg, his wife being a daughter 
of the King of Bavaria. Here he was found dead 
on the pavement in front of the palace a few days 
before the battle of Waterloo. Some assert that he 
killed himself through remorse or madness, others 
that he was murdered. He left several interesting 
records of events in which he was mixed up. 

Berthollet, Claude Louis, was born in 1748 
in Savoy. Educated as a physician, he abandoned 
the profession to study chemistry, and rapidly rose 
to eminence, being a member of the Academy of 
Sciences, professor at the Normal and Polytechnic 
schools, and one of the founders of the Institute. 
The republic employed him together with Monge 
in making gunpowder and in plundering the art 
galleries of Europe. He accompanied Bonaparte to 
Egypt, and was appointed by him a senator in 1805, 
but this did not prevent his accepting a peerage 
under the Restoration. Apart from his theories, 
not always verified, but clearly argued out in his 
Chemical Statics, he did much to improve the 
manufacture of steel, soap, and dyes. He dis¬ 
covered chlorate of potash and fulminating silver, 
and followed up the investigations of Lavoisier and 
Priestley. He died in 1822. 







Bertholletia. 


( 47 ) 


Beryl. 


Bertholletia, a germs of lofty trees 100 to 150 
feet high, seldom branching except near the top, 
belonging to the order Lecythidacece, and native to 
northern South America. Its seed is the Brazil 
nut (q.v.). 

Bertin, Louis Francois, called Bertin the 
Elder, was born in Paris in 1766, and in 1799 estab¬ 
lished the Journal des Debats, which under his 
able management secured the co-operation of the 
ablest literary men of the day. His suspected 
devotion to the Bourbons led to his expulsion from 
France during the greater part of Napoleon’s career, 
but in 1815 he returned permanently. In 1824 he 
combated the unconstitutional policy of Charles 
X., and gave his firm support to Louis Philippe. 
He died in 1841. 

Bertin, Nicolas, an eminent French painter, 
pupil o£ Jouvenet and Boullouque, was born in 1667, 
and died in 1736. His subjects were mainly clas¬ 
sical and religious. 

Bertrand, Count Henri Gratien, was born 
in 1773, and served under Napoleon in Egypt, at 
Austerlitz, Friedland, Wagram and Moscow, be¬ 
coming ultimately Grand Marshal of the House¬ 
hold. He bravely covered the retreat of the French 
from Leipzic, and contested the advance of the 
Allies to Paris. He then shared the emperor’s 
exile both at Elba and St. Helena. On his return 
to France in 1821 he was restored to his rank and 
honours, and sat as a deputy for many years. In 
1840 he went to St. Helena with the Prince de 
Joinville to bring over Napoleon’s remains. He 
died in 1844. 

Bertrand, £lie, was born in the Pays du Vaud 
in 1712, and became a distinguished Protestant 
preacher and writer. In the latter years of his life 
he adopted with ardour the study of geology, and 
was one of the early pioneers in that science. .He 
wrote several works on the structure of mountains, 
on earthquakes, and on fossils, and died in 1777. 

Berwick, a county of Scotland, lying N. of 
Roxburghshire and S. of Haddington, with the 
German Ocean as its boundary on the E. It has 
an area of 464 square miles, and is roughly divided 
into three districts: Lauderdale, the valley of the 
Leader; Lammermuir, a bleak hilly tract having 
an average elevation of 1,000 feet 5 and the Merse, 
a level reach to the S. and E. of. these hills.. It is 
well watered by the Tweed and its tributaiies, the 
Whiteadder, the Leader, the Eden, the Leet, etc., 
and by the Eye, which falls into the sea. Owing to 
the varying geological characteristics the soil is 
much diversified, but the industry of the people 
and the system of long leases have greatly enhanced 
the agricultural wealth of the county. Minerals 
are not worked profitably, and there are no im¬ 
portant manufactures. The coast is rugged and 
inaccessible save at Eyemouth, an indifferent har¬ 
bour, so that little external commerce exists. Its 
salmon-fishery, however, yields a good return, and 
a considerable quantity of sea fish is taken by the 
littoral population. Berwickshire boasts many 
places of romantic or historical interest, such as 
Dryburgh Abbey, Coldingham Priory, Fast Castle, 
home of the Bride of Lammermoor, the Rhymei s 


Castle, Hume Castle, Piet’s House, Dunse Castle, 
and Ladykirk. Greenlaw is the county town. 

Berwick, Duke of, James Fitz-James, (1670 
—1734), the illegitimate son of James II. He won 
great fame as a soldier on the Continent, and was 
present with his father at the battle of the Boyne. 
He was made a marshal of France and a grandee of 
Spain. 

Berwick, North, a port in Haddingtonshire, 
Scotland, on the Firth of Forth, 22£ miles N.E. of 
Edinburgh by rail. It has an indifferent harbour, 
and a small trade, but the climate, the sands, and 
the golf-links attract many visitors. 

Berwick-upon-Tweed, a port and municipal 
and parliamentary borough of Northumberland, on 
the N. bank of the Tweed at its mouth, but it now 
includes the suburbs of Tweedmouth and Spittal 
on the opposite shore. Of its foundation nothing 
certain is known, but at the end of the 10 th century 
it had become an important stronghold on the 
Scottish frontier, being made a royal burgh by 
Alexander I. It frequently changed hands during 
the struggle between the two countries, but in 1296 
was sacked by Edward I. and never recovered from 
the blow. About this time the stone walls were 
built, but those that now exist date from Elizabeth. 
It was not till 1482 that the English finally became 
masters of the town, which with its liberties ex¬ 
tending over 8 square miles maintained a curiously 
isolated existence, almost like an independent 
principality, until the union. It was still a distinct 
county in 1835, when the Municipal Reform Act 
incorporated it with Northumberland, but the title 
is retained in certain proclamations. In 1885 
its parliamentary representation was reduced to 
one member. In spite of its antiquity the town 
is well built, open, and clean, having a fine site on 
a plateau above the river, which is spanned by a 
fine stone bridge and a railway viaduct. Of old 
buildings there are but few, except the ruins of the 
castle. The parish church dates from Cromwell, 
and the handsome town-hall was completed in 
1760. The harbour is not very good, though im¬ 
proved in recent years, and the trade is limited to 
local products and demands, but there is a very 
large fishing fleet. By the original charter the 
Corporation owns all lands within the liberties that 
are not private property, and these lands produce 
a considerable revenue. 

Beryl, a double silicate of aluminium and the 
rare metal beryllium or glucinum (A1 2 0 3 . 3Si0 2 -f 
3BeO SiCt,). It crystallises in hexagonal prisms 
with basal planes, often deeply striated longitudi¬ 
nally. These crystals sometimes reach enormous 
dimensions, being found at Grafton, New Hamp¬ 
shire, four to six feet long, and weighing 2,000 to 
3,000 lbs. The hardness of the mineral ranges 
from 7'5 to 8 , and its gravity from 2‘63 to 2'75. It 
is brittle and has sometimes a conchoidal fracture : 
its streak is white ; its lustre, vitreous or resinous ; 
and it is almost infusible. It may be transparent 
and colourless; but is more often only translucent 
and bluish-green ( aquamarine ) or bright green 
(emerald), from the presence of a trace of oxide of 
chromium. Large crystals are generally opaque. 









Beryllium. 


( 48 ) 


Bessel. 


Beryls were worked by the ancient Egyptians, and 
engraved as gems by the Greeks and Homans. 
Good gems are obtained at Mursinsk and Nert- 
chinsk in the Urals, Canjargum in Hindustan, and 
Rio San Matteo in Brazil; but the locality for the 
finest emeralds is Muzo, about 70 miles from Santa 
Fe de Bogota, New Granada. 

Beryllium, a lustrous white metal (sp. gr. 2d, 
at. wt. 9*1, symbol Be), does not occur free in 
nature, and it is difficult to obtain the metal from 
its compounds. It occurs as silicate in phenacite, 
as aluminate in chrysoberyl, and as silicate 
together with aluminium silicate in emerald and 
beryl. Its oxide, BeO, is known as berylla. The 
metal itself is also called glucinum. 

Berzelius, Jons Jakob, was born in Sweden 
in 1779. He showed at first an inclination towards 
natural science, but on going to the University of 
Upsala threw himself zealously into the study of 
chemistry under Afzelius. In 1800 he was called to 
Stockholm as assistant to Dr. Hedin, and soon after 
began to lecture on physics, directing his attention 
specially to the bearing of chemistry on physiology. 
He early appreciated Volta’s discoveries, sharing 
with Davy the honour of propounding the electro¬ 
chemical theory. After several valuable treatises 
on physics, chemistry, and mineralogy, he produced 
in 1810 his great work on Fixed Proportions and 
the Weights of Atoms , and this was followed by a 
Treatise on the Blowpipe, which led to the classifi¬ 
cation of minerals according to their chemical con¬ 
stituents. For this the Royal Society of London 
awarded him the Copley medal. He gave up lec¬ 
turing in 1832, but went on with his investigations. 
In 1842 he was nearly killed by an explosion, but 
his death did not occur until 1848. 

Besancon (classic Vesontio), the capital of the 
department of Doubs, France, on the river Doubs, 
45 miles E. of Dijon, is a town of the highest 
antiquity, and was in Caesar’s time the chief place 
of the Sequani. Under the emperors it rose to 
great prosperity, and its streets still bear Roman 
names, whilst the remains of a triumphal arch, an 
amphitheatre, and many other buildings still exist. 
From the 12th to the 16th centuries hTbelonged to 
Germany. By the treaty of Westphalia it was as¬ 
signed to Spain. Louis XIV. took it twice, and it 
finally became French in 1678 after the peace of 
Nimeguen. Since thenit has beenbesieged more than 
once. The citadel stands 400 feet above the river, 
and the fortifications are strong. There are an 
arsenal, barracks, royal college, archbishop’s palace, 
library, academy of painting, besides the usual 
institutions of a provincial capital. The cathedral 
is Gothic, and the palace of Granvella, Charles V.’s 
minister, is an interesting monument. Watches, 
porcelain, and carpets are the chief manufactures, 
and a brisk trade goes on with Switzerland. 

Besant, Walter, was born at Portsmouth in 
1838, and educated for the church at King’s College, 
London, and Christ’s College, Cambridge. He 
turned his attention, however, to literature, and in 
1868 brought out a volume of Studies in Early 
French Poetry. He was secretary to the Palestine 


Exploration Fund, and assisted Professor Palmer 
(whose memoirs he afterwards wrote) in writing 
his History of Jerusalem. In 1871 he began jointly 
with Mr. James Rice to cultivate the field of fiction. 
The two partners published eleven novels, of which 
The Golden Butterfly and Ready-Money Mortihoy 
have been the most popular. Then Mr. Rice died, and 
Mr. Besant produced on his own account All Sorts 
and Conditions of Men, The Revolt of Man, Dorothy 
Forster, The Chaplain of the Fleet, and other stories, 
evincing, some of them, strong moral and social 
views, and all of them descriptive power and know¬ 
ledge of character, but lacking the humour that 
marked the earlier works. Mr. Besant has lately 
devoted much energy to the protection of authors 
against publishers, whom he regards as their natural 
enemies. He has founded the Society of Authors, 
and also a journal to advocate his opinions. 

Besika Bay, an inlet on the coast of Turkey in 
Europe, near the entrance to the Dardanelles, only 
remarkable as having been the station of the British 
fleet in 1878, when war appeared imminent with 
Russia. 

Bessarabia, a government of European 
Russia, with an area of about 15,000 square miles, 
lying between Moldavia and the river Dneister, 
and extending along the coast of the Black Sea 
from the mouth of the latter to the Kilia mouth of 
the Danube. Formerly a part of Moldavia, this 
strip of territory was held by the Turks from 1484 
to 1812, when it was ceded to Russia, and its 
boundaries have often formed a bone of conten¬ 
tion between the two neighbours. The Berlin Treaty 
of 1878 extended the share of Russia to the Pruth. 
The country, low, swampy, and intersected by 
watercourses in the Bujak steppes towards the 
sea, trends up inland to the fringe of the Carpa¬ 
thians, and becomes hilly and wooded. The so- 
called wall of Trajan divides the two districts. The 
chief products are cereals, hemp, flax, tobacco, wine, 
and cattle, and the principal towns are Akerman, 
Bender, Kishenau, and Ismail. 

Bessarion, Johannes, was born at Trebizond 
in 1395 (or 1389). He became archbishop of Nicaea 
in 1437, and went to Rome in order to negotiate for 
the uniron of the Eastern and Western churches. 
Pope Eugenius made him a cardinal, and gave him 
preferment and employment. Though raised to 
the nominal patriarchate of Constantinople in 1463, 
he spent his life chiefly in Italy, where he was one 
of the great promoters of the revival of letters, 
being a learned Greek scholar. He translated 
Aristotle’s Metaphysics and Xenophon’s Memora¬ 
bilia, and endeavoured to reconcile the systems 
of Aristotle and Plato. He died at Ravenna in 
1472, broken-hearted, it is said, by an insult received 
from Louis XI. of France, to whom he had been 
sent as an envoy. 

Bessel, Friedrich Wilhelm, born at Minden 
in 1784, and brought up as a merchant, was attracted 
during a voyage to the study of navigation and 
astronomy. Some observations which he published 
brought him into notice, and in 1810 he was made 
director of the new observatory at Konigsberg. 





Bessemer. 


( 49 ) 


Bethel. 


In 1818 he produced his Funda mentum Astro no m ice, 
a work that placed him in the first rank of astrono- 
mists. He was especially skilful in the use of 
delicate instruments, as was shown by his deter¬ 
mination of the parallax of 61 Cygni. ‘ He died in 
1846. 

Bessemer, Sir Henry, was born at Charlton, 
Herts, in 1813, his father being an artist of Breton 
origin. His inventive talents shewed themselves 
early by the construction of an apparatus to prevent 
the fraudulent use of obliterated stamps. Several 
profitable patents, e.(j. “ Bessemer’s Gold Paint,” 
were taken out by him at this period. It was not, 
however, till 1856 that he perfected the system 
which bears his name for manufacturing steel by 
introducing oxygen into molten iron, and so elimi- 
n; ting the carbon. This discovery revolutionised 
the iron and steel trades, and brought Bessemer a 
great fortune and high honours. In 1871 he was 
chosen president of the Iron and Steel Institute, 
and in 1879 was made F.R.S. and knighted. 

Bessemer Process, for the manufacture of 
steel from pig-iron, was introduced by Sir Henry 
Bessemer in 1856. Its introduction has almost revo¬ 
lutionised the steel trade, nearly thirty times as much 
steel being now turned out as was produced prior 
to its invention, and at about one-fifth the cost per 
ton. Nevertheless, the finer steels have still to be 
worked up in other ways, for reasons which are 
evident when the Bessemer method is explained. 
The principle is very simple. Pig-iron contains 
from 2 to 5 per cent, of carbon, besides small 
quantities of numerous other substances, such as 
silicon, sulphur, phosphorus, manganese, etc. 
Steel is essentially a compound of iron with -1 to 1 
per cent, of carbon, though several other elements 
are invariably present in small quantity and con¬ 
siderably affect the nature of steel. Hence if we 
can properly reduce the quantity of carbon in pig- 
iron, and also eliminate some of the other ingre¬ 
dients, we shall obtain steel. 

This is effected in the Bessemer process by a 
special method of oxidation. Molten pig-iron is 
run into a converter lined with ganister, a siliceous 
reducer. Then air is forced through the liquid 
metal from below by means of blowing-engines. 
Ordinary converters contain 8 or 10 tons of 
metal, and the process lasts 20 to 30 minutes. The 
progress of the reduction is noted by the appear¬ 
ance of the flames issuing from the converter. If 
the pig-iron be pure, as with Swedish iron, the 
process is stopped when the correct carbon per¬ 
centage is reached. If less pure, it is continued 
till all the carbon is oxidised, and very nearly all 
the other ingredients, though practically all the 
phosphorus and sulphur in the original crude 
metal still remain. When this condition is reached, 
a definite amount of carbon and other matter is 
supplied by introducing a known weight of spierjel- 
eisen, which is a special cast-iron of determinate 
constitution. In this way a steel may be made 
with the required percentage of carbon, but with 
the other ingredients to some extent beyond con¬ 
trol. The metal is condensed subsequently by the 

28 


steam - hammer and the rolling - mill. [Steel, 
Basic Process.] 

Bessikres, Jean Baptiste, Due d’Istria and 
Marshal of France, was born of humble parentage 
in 1768, and entered the army as a private soldier. 
In the battles of Roveredo and Rivoli his courage 
was witnessed by Bonaparte, who advanced him 
rapidly and took him to Egypt in command of a 
brigade. In the second Italian campaign he won 
the battle of Marengo by a well-timed cavalry 
charge. After serving honourably at Austerlitz, 
Jena, Eylau, and Friedland, he was sent to Spain 
in 1808, won several engagements against the 
Spaniards, and was recompensed with a dukedom. 
He commanded the cavalry of the Guard in the 
beginning of the Leipsic campaign of 1813, and was 
killed the day before the battle of Lutzen. 

Bestiary, the name formerly given to a book 
which treated of animals. 

Bestucheff, Alexander, born 1795, entered 
the Russian army, and with his brother Michael 
formed a conspiracy against the Emperor Nicholas. 
For this offence Michael was executed, and Alex¬ 
ander transported to Siberia (1826). Subsequently 
he was allowed to join the forces in the Caucasus, 
where he was killed in 1837. He was one of the 
first of the romance writers of modern Russia, and 
excelled in portraying military life. 

BestuchefF-Riumin, Alexis, Count op, 
was born at Moscow in 1693. He was employed as 
a diplomatist by Peter I. and Anne, and the minister 
Biron was his supporter. Elizabeth made him 
chancellor, and he negotiated the peace of Abo. 
In 1758 he was banished on a false charge of 
treason, but was restored to favour by Catherine II., 
and died in 1766. 

Betel-nut, the seed of A reca Catechu, a palm 
cultivated in tropical Asia. It resembles a nutmeg 
in size, in colour, and in its “ruminate” albumen 
which gives it a mottled appearance internally. 
Pieces of this nut are rolled up with a little lime 
in leaves of Piper Betel, the Betel-pepper, and 
chewed by the natives. The pellet is hot, acrid, 
aromatic, and astringent, tinges the saliva red, and 
stains the teeth. Areca-nut is now sometimes pre¬ 
scribed as a taenifuge. Its charcoal is used as tooth- 
powder. 

Bethany (Heb. the home of dates), a village 
on the eastern flank of the Mount of Olives, 2,200 
feet above the sea-level. It is frequently men¬ 
tioned in the New Testament and was the home 
of Lazarus, and his sisters, Martha and Mary. The 
modern name, Lazarieh, preserves this fact. During 
the Crusades it became the seat of a monastic es¬ 
tablishment, which dragged on a decaying existence 
up to a recent date. 

Bethel (Heb. the house of God) was an ancient 
town, originally Luz, on the con flues of Benjamin 
and Ephraim, about 11 miles N. of Jerusalem. 
According to one account it was renamed by Jacob 
on his receiving there the promise of Canaan, and 
when the tribes occupied the Promised Land it was 
the temporary resting-place of the Ark. Later on 




Bethesda 


( 50 ) 


Betting. 


several of the kings made it the centre of idolatry, 
but tins fact lias not prevented the word being 
applied freely by Nonconformists to designate a 
place of worship. Large ecclesiastical buildings 
were subsequently raised upon the spot, but Beitin, 
as it is now called, displays only a heap of deserted 
ruins. The name was frequently associated with 
that of Dan as representing two extreme points. 

Bethesda (Heb. house of mercy?') was a pool 
used as a public bath in the sheep-market near the 
Temple in Jerusalem. It is identified with Birket 
Israel close to St. Stephen’s Gate. At certain 
hours when “anangel troubled the pool” (John v.), 
the water possessed miraculous powers of healing. 

Bethlehem (Heb. house of bread), a small but 
very ancient town about six miles from Jerusalem 
on the road to Hebron. It was known in the time 
of the patriarchs as Ephrata, and is mentioned in 
the story of Ruth. David was born here, and 
Rehoboam fortified the place as a station on the 
way to Egypt. It had sunk into insignificance, 
when it became famous for ever as the birth-place 
of the Saviour. Hadrian desecrated the scene of 
the Nativity by setting up a temple and grove 
to Adonis, but the Empress Helena built on the 
site a majestic basilica which is still preserved. 
Around it sprang up Greek, Latin, and Armenian 
convents. In a neighbouring grotto Jerome passed 
his days translating the Scriptures. The Crusaders 
founded a bishopric here, which was long preserved 
in name. The inhabitants of the village are 
Christians. 

Bethlehemite, a monastic order founded in 
Guatemala about 1659, under the patronage of 
Our Lady of Bethlehem, and at one time widely 
extended in Spanish America, but now represented 
only by a few monasteries in Central America. Their 
special functions were the care of hospitals and 
schools. An order with a similar name and object 
existed at Cambridge in the 13th century. The 
name was also applied to a military order estab¬ 
lished by Pius IX., 1459, to defend Europe against 
the Turks, and to the followers of John Huss—in 
the latter case from Bethlehem church in Prague, 
where he preached. 

Bethlen-Gabor was born in Transylvania in 
1580. With the aid of the Turks he rose against 
Prince Gabriel Bathori, his benefactor, and seized 
his throne in 1613. He then roused the Hungarians 
against Austria, and in 1618 assumed the title of 
king of Hungary. In the Thirty Years’ war he 
assisted Bohemia to revolt, but was compelled by 
Tilly to renounce his sovereignty. He died in 
1629 just as he was preparing to renew hostilities. 

Bethnal Green, a parish of 750 acres in the 
East End of London, which in 1885 was made a 
parliamentary borough, returning two members. 
Lying beyond Spitalfields, it boasted in the time 
of Pepys pleasant gardens and country houses. It 
is now the most poverty-stricken and squalid quarter 
of the metropolis, but it is the scene at present 
of many beneficent experiments for the improve¬ 
ment of the humbler classes, and among these the 


Bethnal Green Museum may be regarded as the 
most successful. 

Bethsaida, a city in Palestine, on the N.E. 
shore of the Sea of Galilee, near the point where 
the Jordan has its issue. Philip the Tetrarch 
called it Julias and beautified it. Though the 
home of Peter, Andrew, and Philip, and often 
visited by Jesus (John i. 44 ; Mark viii. 22), the 
city profited little by its advantages, and was 
specially denounced by Christ (Luke x. 13). 

Bethune, a fortified town in the department of 
the Pas de Calais, France, 16 miles N.N.W. of 
Arras. Situated on a rock above the river Brette, it 
is an unattractive place, but has a fine Gothic church 
and the usual public institutions. It was founded 
in the 11th century, taken by France in 1645, recap¬ 
tured by the Allies in 1710, and restored at the 
peace of Utrecht. There are manufactories of 
linen, cloth, and beer, and some trade is done in 
agricultural produce. 

Betony, Stachys Betonica, a British plant be¬ 
longing to the order Labiate? , common on heaths 
and in woods. Its pairs of oblong, crenate leaves, 
stalked below, but sessile where they occur between 
the interrupted spike of whorled flowers, are charac¬ 
teristic. The flowers are crimson, pink, or white. 
It is a popular anthelmintic. 

Betsimisarakas, amain division of the Mala¬ 
gasy race, occupying a great part of the east coast 
of Madagascar, and extending round to the north¬ 
west side, where their domain is conterminous with 
that of the Sakalavas. The Betsimisarakas are 
politically subject to the dominant Hova nation, 
whom they resemble in appearance and language. 
Their chief subdivisions are the Sihanakas, Tanalas, 
Tankays and Ikongos; total population 300,000. 
See Bishop Kestell Cornish, Tour in the Madaqas- 
car, 1877. 

Betterton, Thomas, born at Westminster in 
1635, was the son of one of Charles I.'s cooks, and 
was apprenticed to a bookseller, who turned thea¬ 
trical manager. Betterton appeared at the Cockpit 
in Drury Lane in 1659, and he was soon after 
engaged by Davenant. His abilities as a tragedian 
won him the patronage of the king, who sent him 
to see how plays were mounted in France, and 
shifting scenes were introduced as the result of his 
visit. In 1693, though his fame was at its height, 
he was plunged in poverty, but funds were provided 
to enable him to open a theatre in Lincoln’s Inn 
Fields. He does not seem to have prospered, and 
at the age of seventy he retired. After this he 
performed occasionally, and his impersonation of 
Hamlet was noticed in the Tatler. He died in 
1710. As an interpreter of Shakespeare he un¬ 
doubtedly worked upon the lines of the great 
master's contemporaries, and handed down the 
earliest traditions of the English stage, but it is 
impossible to form a real estimate of his merits. 
His friend Cibber recorded some of the events of 
his life. 

Betting (probably from abet , to aid, to support), 
the staking of money or some valuable article on 








Betting. 


( 51 ) 


Beuthen. 


the issue of some event or contest. In some form or 
other it is very ancient ; it may originally have had 
some religious import, and it has been conjectured 
from a passage in Homer (Iliad xviii. 505) and 
certain features of early Roman legal procedure 
that fines in legal proceedings had their origin in 
the staking of money by tlie respective parties to 
prove the truth of their assertions. Horse-racing 
has been the chief field of betting in England for 
more than a century. Such betting may be divided 
into bookmaking and backing. The former consists 
in laying odds successively against all the horses 
entered in a given race, or as many as possible, it 
being theoretically the bookmaker’s object to lay 
an equal sum against each. The latter, which must 
always be a losing process in the long run, consists 
simply in taking the odds offered against a certain 
horse entered for a race. The bookmaker’s profit 
consists in the sums lost by the backers of the losers, 
minus the sum he has to pay to the backer of the 
winner; and the former, obviously, tends to be larger 
the more starters there are—or rather the more of 
them he is able to back. Could he always lay an 
equal sum against each, he must win in the long 
run. Bookmaking arose from the difficulty backers 
felt in finding anyone to bet with ; it has now be¬ 
come a less profitable trade than formerly, there 
being more bad debts; and the betting on great 
races not now commencing so long beforehand 
as formerly, there is less opportunity to lay against 
a large number of the starters. “ Hedging” (laying 
odds against a horse which the layer has previously 
backed at longer odds) is a mode of minimising the 
risk involved in backing. Betting on elections is 
common enough in the United States (though, at 
least in some States, its discovery entails disfran¬ 
chisement) and in parts of England ; and various 
forms of sport have from time to time attracted 
the professional betting man, particularly yacht 
racing, sometimes pigeon-shooting, and, it is said, 
football. Betting is sometimes spoken of as an 
Anglo - Saxon vice, and certainly betting on 
horse-races is nowhere so highly developed as in 
England and Australia. In France, the Argentine 
Republic, and the United States “ the turf” is to a 
great extent an introduction from England. But 
it must be remembered that other nations have 
their own forms of gambling—the lottery, for 
instance. 

English Legislation against Betting. Gambling 
debts are not recognised by law. Betting houses, 
where lists of the current odds were exhibited and 
money taken in advance, were made illegal in 1853 
by the Betting Houses Act, 16 and 17 Viet., c. 119. 
This does not affect private betting, and betting 
clubs, or bets where the money is not deposited 
beforehand. It did not extend to Scotland ; and 
on a revival of prosecutions under it in 1869 many 
betting agencies were opened in Scotland and at 
Boulogne." In 1874, therefore, an Act was passed 
extending' the former Act to Scotland, and 
making all advertisements of betting-houses illegal. 
It is now strictly enforced, but does not reach 
“ tipsters,” who advise how to bet. “ Welshing,” 
i.e. taking money to bet with and evading pay¬ 
ment of losses, has long been carried on by a 


well-known class of men on English racecourses, 
but was legally decided to be a felony in 1887. 

The pari-mutuel , the French system of betting, 
was started in 1886. Anyone may back a probable 
starter for any sum he pleases ; the sum he deposits 
is noted and put into a purse, there being a 
separate purse for each starter ; and at the close, 
all the money staked (less 10 per cent, for expenses) 
is divided among the backers of the winner. 
Recently it has been proposed to levy a tax on the 
gross receipts, for charitable purposes, and there are 
indications now (May, 1891) that this will soon be 
the only legal form of betting on racecourses in 
France. Laws have been passed against gambling 
in several of the United States, but appear to be 
a dead letter. Great efforts are being made to 
check it ; but it can hardly be reached by legal 
means. 

Bettws-y-Coed (pron. Betoos-y-co-ed, Welsh 
a pleasant spot in a wood), a village and parish, 
with a railway station, in the E. of Carnarvonshire, 
North Wales, 3£ miles from Llanrwst. It is a 
favourite resort of tourists and anglers, and is a 
convenient starting-point for ascending Snowdon 
from the east. 

Betty, William Henry, the son of an Irish 
doctor, was born at Shrewsbury in 1791, and 
appeared on the stage at Belfast before he was 
twelve. He then came to London in 1803, and as 
“the Infant Roscius” roused extraordinary enthu¬ 
siasm at Covent Garden and Drury Lane, the king 
even noticing him personally. In 1808, having made 
a good deal of money, he went to Cambridge. On 
his return to his profession he was received rather 
coldly, and in 1832 finally retired. He died in 
1874." 

Beust, Frederick Ferdinand, Count von, 
was born at Dresden in 1809, and entering the 
diplomatic service of the kingdom of Saxony, 
visited several foreign courts. In 1849 he was 
appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs as a decided 
Conservative, opposed to the revolutionary spirit 
then at work on the Continent. In 1853 he became 
Prime Minister, and somewhat relaxed his repressive 
policy. He stood forward as the champion of the 
smaller states, and morally supported Schleswig- 
Holstein against the encroachments of the Bund. 
After the war of 1866. seeing that Saxony 
was paralysed, he transferred his services to 
Austria, receiving the foreign portfolio. He now 
revealed himself as a strong Liberal, and being 
made Chancellor of the Empire, introduced many 
great reforms, conciliating Hungary, curbing the 
Ultramontanes, and putting the army on a sound 
footing. His sympathies were with France in the 
war of 1870, but he preserved strict neutrality, and 
on the proclamation of the North German empire 
held aloof from any alliance. From 1871 to 1878 
he was ambassador in London. His influence waned 
in later years, and he died in retirement in 1886. 

Beuthen, a town in Prussian Silesia, near the 
Polish frontier. It is the centre of an important 
mining district, and manufactures earthenware and 
woollen cloths. Nieder Beuthen, a smaller town, is 





Beveland. 


C 52 ) 


Beza. 


situated in the government of Breslau, on the river 
Oder. It was the capital of the principality of 
Carolatti-Beuthen. 

Beveland, North and South, two islands on 
the coast of Holland, lying in the estuary of the 
Scheldt a little E. of Walcheren, and forming part 
of the province of Zeeland. The northern island 
is low and swampy; the southern is the larger and 
more fertile, Goes being its capital. Their united 
area is 120 square miles. 

Beverley, a municipal borough and market 
town in the E. Biding of Yorkshire, 9 miles N.W. of 
Hull, and on the North-Eastern Railway. Until 
1885 it returned two members to Parliament, but 
now forms part of a division of the county. The 
minster, or collegiate church, dedicated to St. John, 
is a fine specimen of mixed Gothic architecture, and 
contains the tombs of the Percys and some 
remarkable carving. St. Mary’s is also a handsome 
Gothic structure, and the grammar school is 
ancient. The chief manufactures are agricultural 
implements, oil-cake, manures, cement, and iron 
castings. There is a large trade in corn, coal, and 
leather. The great drain known as the Beverley 
and Barnston Cut is in the neighbourhood. It 
gives the title to a suffragan bishopric. 

Beverly, a port on Ann Harbour, Massachu¬ 
setts, U.S.A., connected with Salem by a bridge, 
and 16 miles N.E. of Boston. The fisheries are 
valuable, and there is a considerable coasting 
trade. 

Bevis of Hampton, a legendary knight, 
whose exploits are related by Drayton in the 
2nd book of his Polyolbion. Southampton was the 
scene of his career, and Heylin asserts that he was 
an earl of that place. His statue adorns one of the 
gates, and he is generally regarded as having been 
of gigantic proportions. 

Bewcastle, a small town in the centre of the 
mines of coal and lead in E. Cumberland, 10 miles 
N.E. of Brampton. In the churchyard is a curious 
obelisk. 

Bewdley or Beaulieu, a market-town and 
borough with a railway station, in Worcestershire, 
on the river Severn, 3 miles S.W. of Kidderminster. 
It was once a place of sanctuary, and Henry VII. 
built a palace there for Prince Arthur, in which 
his marriage took place with Catherine of Aragon. 
Iron and brass wares, leather, combs, and malt are 
the chief manufactures. 

Bewick, Thomas, was born near Newcastle-on- 
Tyne in 1753, his father owning a colliery. He 
showed a taste for drawing, and was apprenticed 
to Beilby, an engraver at Newcastle. He spent a 
year in London, but returned to the north in 1777, 
and became Beilby’s partner. His famous History 
of Quadrupeds appeared in 1790, and established 
his reputation as the ablest wood-engraver of the 
day, and an artist of rare observation, skill, and 
humour. The History of British Birds was 
published in 1797, and he also illustrated in con¬ 
nection with his brother, John, the works of Gay, 
Goldsmith, Parnell and Somerville. His last com¬ 
plete work, JFsop's Fables , came out in 1818. He 


was engaged in conjunction with his son upon 
British Fishes at the time of his death in 1828. 
His work was appreciated from the first, and has 
steadily grown in estimation and value since Ids 
decease. 

Bey (also written Beg), a title of respect given 
to persons of importance in Turkey. 

Beyle, Marie Henri, better known under his 
pseudonym of De Stendhal, was born at Grenoble 
in 1783, and educated at the Ecole Polytechnique. 
After various essays in other careers he finally 
adopted literature as a profession. He spent much 
of his life in Italy, and was appointed French 
Consul at Civita Vecchiain 1830. His graver works 
include the Lives of Haydn , Mozart, and Metastasio , 
a History of Fainting in Italy, Rome, Naples, and 
Florence in 1817, the Life of Rossini, and Memoires 
d'un Touriste. But his fame rests chiefly on his 
two powerful novels, Rouge et Noir, and La 
Chartreuse de Parmc, in which his vein of irony, 
wit, and analytical observation is fully displayed. 
Balzac was influenced by his example. He was 
strangely averse to publicity, and wrote under 
many assumed names. He died suddenly in 1842. 

Beypur, or Baipur, a port in the Madras 
Presidency, British India, on the N. of the estuary 
of the Sherapoya. It has a fair harbour accessible 
to vessels drawing under 14 feet, and is connected 
with Madras by railway, iron ore is found in the 
neighbourhood. 

Beyrout, or Bairut, a fortified port on the 
coast of Syria, 57 miles N.W. of Damascus, to which 
it serves as a commercial depot. It is a very ancient 
place, the Berothah or Bervta, probably, of the 
Phoenicians. The walls are three miles in circum¬ 
ference, but the suburbs extend far beyond. The 
old harbour having silted up, a new one was con¬ 
structed in 1873, when waterworks were also 
established. There are many European churches, 
convents, and schools, and most of the powers are 
represented here by consuls. The local manufac¬ 
tures consist of gold and silver thread, silk tissues, 
and cotton goods. Sponges, galls, gums, madder, 
silk and wool are exported, and great quantities of 
goods from the West pass by this channel into Asia. 

Beza, or De Beze, Theodore, born at Vezelai 
in Burgundy, in 1519, was educated for the bar, and 
after a dissipated youth came under the influence 
of the Reformers, and went to Geneva, being subse¬ 
quently appointed professor of Greek at Lausanne. 
Ten years later he joined Calvin as his assistant in 
the newlv-founded church and university of Geneva. 
At the invitation of the King of Navarre he was 
present at a conference of orthodox divines, and 
iris arguments are said to have converted the royal 
listener. He accompanied Conde in the war of 
Ligne, and was present at the battle of Dreux. In 
1564 he succeeded Calvin as head of the Reformed 
church, and in 1571 presided over the Protestant 
synod at Rochelle. His activity and industry were 
marvellous, and he continued to look after the great 
interests confided to him until 1600. His death 
occurred in 1605. The chief of Beza’s numerous 
works are his metrical version of the Psalms, his 





Bezants 


( 53 ) 


Bhartrihari. 


translation of the New Testament, ancl his History 
of the French Reformed Churches. 

Bezants, which are of frequent occurrence in 
heraldry, are plain flat circular pieces of gold. They 
derived their name from the ancient gold coin of By¬ 
zantium (now Constantinople), the value of which is 
stated to have been £375 sterling, and from their 
Eastern origin are popularly supposed to owe their 
introduction, like many other figures, to the Crusades. 
Similar circular figures have a separate name for 
each individual colour ; but when of two tinctures 
(as is sometimes the case), or when the colour may 
not be known, the general term roundle is used 
(under which word each description is particu¬ 
larised). The term hezantee is used when the field 
or any charge is strewn promiscuously with bezants, 
without any number or particular position being 
specified. 

Beziers (classic Bcctona Sejdimanorum), a city 
in the department of Herault, France, on the left 
bank of the river Orbe, 38 miles from Montpellier. 
The town is surrounded by a towered wall, and has 
a fine Gothic cathedral, St. Nazaire, parts of which 
date from the twelfth century. The episcopal 
palace is used for government offices. There are 
remains of a Roman amphitheatre and of a cause¬ 
way over the marsh of Cap-estang. In 1209 Simon 
de Montfort destroyed the place whilst marching 
against the Albigenses, and 60,000 people perished. 
It suffered in the subsequent religious wars, and 
was dismantled in 1632. It enjoys a large trade, 
and manufactures gloves, silk hosiery, brandy, 
starch, leather, glass, etc. 

Bezique, a game of cards played with two 
packs, from which all the cards below the seven 
(excluding the ace) have been taken out. The 
object is to “declare” certain combinations of cards 
(bezique, double bezique, sequences, etc.), and to 
secure the aces and tens. Four, three, or two 
persons may play the game. 

Bezoar (from Persian pad-zalir, expelling 
poison), a stony concretion variously coloured, 
formerly in high repute throughout the world, and 
still highly esteemed in China as a drug, especially 
as an antidote to poison. It was said by some to 
be obtained from mines, by others from the heads 
of certain serpents, by others to grow in the eyes of 
stags which had devoured venomous snakes. The 
Oriental bezoar was said to come from China and 
Thibet, and was really a concretion formed in the 
stomach of some ruminant animal, generally a 
gazelle, from unknown causes, or else a urinary 
calculus. The Occidental bezoar was a similar 
concretion from the llama. Bezoars of various 
kinds were among the presents sent to Napoleon I. 
by the then Shall of Persia ; some were analysed, 
but thrown away on their nature being ascertained. 
As medicines they are simply inert. 

Bhagavat Gita (Sansc. the song of Krishna'), 
a song, consisting of eighteen lectures, relating a 
discourse of the god Krishna to Arjuna, his pupil, 
during a battle. ' It is very highly thought of by 
some critics, notably Schlegel, who published an 
edition of it with a Latin translation in 1846. 


Bhagirathi, a river in Garwhal State, North- 
West Provinces of India, rises from the Gangotri 
peak, and after joining the Alaknanda at Deoprayag, 
flows on as the Ganges. Though smaller than the 
Alaknanda, the Hindus yet regard it as the chief 
feeder of the latter stream. 

Bhamo, a Burmese town on the left bank of the 
Irawaddy. It is the chief centre of the trade with 
China, being only 40 miles from the Chinese 
frontier, and is the starting-point of caravans for 
Yunnan. 

Bhandara, the name of a district and town of 
British India in the central provinces. Its boundaries 
are—on the N.,the districts of Seoni and Balaghat; 
on the E., Raipur; on the S., Chanda; and on the 
W., Nagpur. Its chief river is the Wainganga, and 
it contains more than 3,500 lakes. The area is 
3,148 square miles, of which upwards of a third is 
under jungle, producing gums, fruits, honey, etc. 
The chief article cultivated is rice, though there 
are other crops of grain, oil seeds, sugar cane, 
cotton, vegetables, etc. Iron and stone are found, 
and its manufactures are chiefly hardwares and 
cloth. It became British property in 1854. The 
town of Bhandara is the chief in the district, 
trading principally in cotton and hardware. 

Bhang, or Hashish, a liquor or drug prepared 
from dried hemp leaves; it is intoxicating in its 
effect and is much used in India. 

Bhannagar, capital of the native state in 
Gujerat, is a seaport town with a good and safe 
harbour. 

Blianpura, a town of Central India, Indore 
state, on the Rewa river. It is surrounded by a 
wall, has an unfinished stone fort and palace, and 
the beautiful mausoleum of Jeswunt Rao Holkar. 

Bhartpur, the name of a native state and 
fortified town in Rajputana. The state is bounded 
on the N. by the district of Gurgaon, E. by the 
district of Muttra and Agra, S. and W. by the 
Rajput states. Amongst the hills which occupy 
chiefly the northern part of the state are found good 
building stone and iron ore. In the south is found the 
stone known as Upper Bhanner stone, of wdiich are 
built the most celebrated monuments of the Mogul 
dynasty. It is a poorly watered country, but being 
well-irrigated is made to yield good crops of wheat, 
maize, cotton, pulses, and sugar. Salt of an inferior 
quality is also produced. The town is situated on 
the road between Agra and Ajmere, and on the 
Rajputana state railway. The fortifications were 
built by Badan Singh in 1733. An interesting 
manufacture of chauries is carried on, the art of 
making this particular kind being kept a secret. 

Bhartrihari, an Indian poet of whom little is 
known. He is said to have been the brother of 
King Vikramaditya, who flourished b.c., and 
that after a licentious life, or in disgust at the 
infidelity of his favourite wife, he withdrew from 
the world and ended his days at Benares in devout 
contemplation. His Centuries of Verse are a mixture 
of the amatory, the worldly wise, and the religious, 
and were introduced to European readers in the 17th 






Bhatgaon. ( 54 ) Biafra. 


century. He is also said to have written a gram¬ 
matical work. 

Bhatgaon, a garrisoned town of Nepaul, and 
formerly the favourite residence of the Brahmans 
of the country. It is eight miles from Khatmandu. 
the capital of Nepaul, and does a trade in the 
making of cooking utensils, etc. 

Bhatti (Bhat), a widely-diffused Tibeto-Aryan 
race in Nepal, Rajputana, Bengal, Gujerat, Sindh, 
and elsewhere. They claim descent from Yadu, 
a legendary patriarch of the Yedic Aryans, but are 
certainly a mixed race, who at a remote period 
adopted the Hindu religion and the Sanscrit 
language; present speech, various modified forms 
of Hindi. 

Bhavabhuti, Indian dramatist with the title 
Sre-Kanta, meaning lie in whose throat is eloquence , 
was born some time in the 8th century in Beder or 
in Berar, and was a Brahman. He wrote the 
TJttara liana Char it, a, Malia- Vira- Cliarita , and 
Malati Madliava. Professor Wilson translated 
some of his dramas into English. 

Bheels. [Bhils.] 

Bhils (Sanskrit bhilla , wild, rude), a wide¬ 
spread non-Aryan ra.ce, Central India, chiefly in 
the Vindhya hills, Malva, Mevar, Kandesh, Gujerat. 
etc., bordering east on the Gonds and intermingled 
here and there with the Kols, with whom they 
seem to be fundamentally connected; are still 
semi-independent in the so-called “Bheel tract,” 
Bagar, under their own ravats (chiefs). Two main 
divisions : Ujvala (“ bright,” that is, “ white ”) and 
Kola (“ black ”), the latter pure, the former mixed 
with Aryan elements. Speech of Ujvala, a corrupt 
Hindi, of the Kala, a doubtful Kolarian dialect. 
Numerous clans, but no castes ; type medium height, 
straight eyes, slightly prominent cheek bones, long 
and lank black hair, strong active figures. The full- 
blood Bhils are estimated at over a million, the half- 
breeds at many millions. The great majority of the 
Minas in Buncli (Rajputana) are of Bhil stock, and 
alliances between the Bhils and Rajputs date back 
to remote times, probably prior to the institution 
of the caste system. The term Bhilala is still 
applied to numerous low caste communities in 
N.W. India sprung from Rajput fathers and Bhil 
mothers. 

Bhiwani, a town in Hissar district, Punjab, 
and chief centre of trade in the district, which it 
owes to being chosen in 1817 as the site of a free 
market. The chief articles of trade are sugar, 
pepper, spices, metals, and salt. 

Bhod-pa, the collective national name of all 
the peoples of Tibetan stock in Tibet and along the 
southern slopes of the Himalayas, from bliod (bhot, 
bhud, but, bhod, etc.,) = land, and pa — people, 
in the sense of autochthones, aborigines; hence 
Bhutan , and Bhotiya the name applied by the 
Hindus to all Tibetan peoples. The word occurs 
in early Sanscrit writings under the form of Bhoja, 
and the inhabitants of Bhojpur are still called 
Bhojas. In the Vedic poems the Bhdjas are always 
represented as Aryans, but only in a religious, not 


in an ethnical sense. Like all the pre-Aryan peoples 
they belonged to the Mongolo-Tibetan race origin¬ 
ally, and in their features they still show traces of 
Tibetan blood. 

Bhopal, name of a native state in Central 
India, and of a town. The state is bounded on the 
N. and W. by Scindliia’s territory and one or two 
petty states of the Central India Agency, E. by 
the British district of Sugar, and S. by the Ner- 
budda and by Holkar’s territory of Aimawar. Its 
area is 6,870 square miles. The Bhopal dynasty 
was founded by Dost Mohammed, and has always 
been friendly to the British Government. The town 
is surrounded by a wall two miles in circuit, and 
has two forts. It is supplied with water from two 
artificial lakes. 

Bhotiya. [Bhod-pa.] 

Bhuias, collective name of numerous non-Aryan 
or mixed low-caste peoples, North India, from 
Gondava and Orissa to West Assam, in Chota 
Nagpor, Bengal, etc. Four main divisions: Mai or 
Desli, Dandsena, Khatti, Rajkal; speech, Oriya, 
Bengali, Hindi, according to the localities, the 
primitive Kolarian tongues being long extinct. 

Bhuj, chief town of the state of Cutch, stands 
at the base of a fortified hill. In it are monuments 
of archeological interest, a mosque, and mauso¬ 
leums of the Raos of Cutch. 

Bhumaputra (j-c. sons of the soil , aboriyines), 
the general name of the non-Arvan hill and 
forest tribes, North-West India. The word is of 
great antiquity, occurring in the early Rajput 
records, and particular tribes between the Ganges 
basin and the Deccan are still called Bhumyas, 
Bhoimiahs, Bhumijis, Bhumyars, words simply 
meaning aborigines, and unknown to the tribes 
themselves. 

Bhuiider, [Macaque, Rhesus.] 

Bhutan, or Bootan, an independent kingdom 
in the Eastern Himalayas. It is bounded on the N. 
by Tibet, E. and S. by Assam, and W. by Sikkim. 
Its area has been variously estimated at ten. fifteen, 
and twenty thousand square miles. Its surface is 
rugged and mountainous, in the northern part re¬ 
posing in the region of perpetual snow. Forests of 
oak and pine and other trees, and the ordinary 
agricultural crops, are found in its more genial 
districts. The rulers of the Bhutanese, who are 
Bhuddists, are named Bliarm Rayah , the spiritual 
j head, and I)eh Rajah , the temporal head. These 
are controlled by a body of permanent ministers. 
Polygamy and polyandry prevail, and the people 
are in a backward and degraded state. Among the 
exports of the country are horses, musk, salt, and 
silk. Its chief towns are Poonukkaand Tassisudon. 

Biafra, Bight of, is a large bay in the 
Atlantic Ocean, at the eastern part "of the Gulf of 
Guinea, between Capes Formosa and Lopez. The 
delta of the Niger is between it and the Bight of 
Benin. It receives also the Calabar rivers, the 
Cameroon and the Gaboon. In it are the islands 
Fernando Po, Prince’s, and St. Thomas’s. 









Bialystok. 


( 55 ) 


Bible, 


Bialystok, a fortified town of Russia, in the 
government of Grodno, formerly in the Polish 
province of Podlachia. It was transferred to 
Prussia on the partition of Poland in 1795, and by 
the treaty of Tilsit to Russia. Situated on a 
tributary of the Narew, it is well built, and has 
beautiful pleasure grounds connected with the 
castle, formerly the property of the Counts Braniski, 
and styled the “Versailles of Poland,” but now 
under the municipality. It has an active grain 
and timber trade and manufactures in textiles, 
leather, soap, tallow, etc. 

Biancavilla (meaning white villa), a Sicilian 
town on the southern slope of Mount JEtna, from 
which it is about 10 miles distant. It trades 
chiefly in cotton, grain, and silk. 

Bianchini, Francesco, astronomer, was born 
in 1662 at Verona. He was educated at Padua, 
and though he took holy orders he devoted his 
attention chiefly to science. In 1684 he removed 
to Rome, and was appointed librarian to Cardinal 
Ottoboni, afterwards Pope Alexander VIII. He 
became secretary of a committee appointed for the 
reform of the calendar, was engaged to draw a 
meridian line through Italy, and superintended the 
antiquities and monuments of Rome. He died at 
Rome in 1729, a monument being erected to his 
memory in Verona cathedral. 

Bianconi, Charles, was born in 1786 at 
Tregolo, a village in Lombardy. Going to Ireland, 
he there, in 1815, after being a seller of prints, a 
carver and gilder, and a dealer in bullion, started a 
public conveyance between Cahir and Clonmel. 
His business as a jobber grew to such an extent 
that his cars covered a distance of nearly 4,000 
miles per day. He was twice, in 1844 and 1845, 
mayor of Clonmel, and after he had purchased 
the estate of Longfield in the neighbourhood of 
Cashel he was appointed in 1863 a deputy-lieu¬ 
tenant. He retired in 1865, and died ten years 
later. His family was connected with O'Connell’s 
by marriage. 

Biarritz, a French bathing place in the depart¬ 
ment of Basses-Pyrenees on the Bay of Biscay. Its 
renown as a watering-place dates from the occa¬ 
sional residence there of Napoleon III. and the 
Empress Eugenie during the years 1855-70. It has 
some curious grottoes. 

Bias, of Priene, near Miletus in Ionia, who 
lived about 550 B.C., was one of the traditional 
Seven Sages of ancient Greece. Many aphorisms 
are attributed to him—“ Power shows the man,” 
“ Know and act,” and others : but they mostly bear 
the stamp of a later origin, and many were pro¬ 
bably invented to display the independence of 
worldly g'oods and cares which after Socrates’ time 
was part of the character of the typical philosopher. 

Biaxial Crystals are such as possess a cer¬ 
tain definite optical property. A wave of light 
emanating from a point within the crystal, which 
must be transparent for such waves, will divide 
into two parts, as is usual with all substances 


exhibiting the phenomenon of double refraction 
(q.v.). For any given direction in the crystal, each 
part of the wave will have a definite wave-velocity, 
and as a rule the wave-velocities for the two parts 
will be different. In biaxial crystals there are two 
definite directions in which the wave-velocities are 
equal; in uniaxial crystals there is only one di¬ 
rection in which the wave-velocities for the two 
parts are equal. As examples of the biaxial type 
we have borax, sugar, felspar, and nitre. [Polari¬ 
sation of Light.] 

Bib (Gadus luscus ), a small food-fish, common 
on the rocky parts of the British coasts, and rang¬ 
ing as far north as Greenland. The upper surface 
is light yellowish brown, lighter below, and tinged 
in places with bluish-grey. There is a spot at the 
base of the pectoral fin as in the whiting (q.v.), to 
which the Bib is closely allied. Called also Pout, 
Blebs, and Blinds, and all its popular names have 
reference to its power of inflating a membrane 
which covers the head. 

Bibsracll, a town of Wiirtemburg, in the circle 
of the Danube, situated at the junction of the 
Biberach with the Riss, a tributary of the Danube. 
It has an ancient church, dating from the 12th 
century, also a hospital and a college. It was a 
fine imperial city until 1802, when it came under 
the government of Baden, being ceded to Wurtem¬ 
burg in 1806. 

Bible. The word Bible is derived through the 
ecclesiastical Latin term bihlia , from the Greek 
&L/3\ia (biblia) meaning books, which it is believed 
was first applied to the sacred volume by John 
Chrysostom, patriarch of Constantinople from 398 
to 404 a.d. /3ij8Aia (biblia) is the plural of 
jii(3\iov (Jbiblion) — (1) paper, a letter. (2) a book. 
It is a diminutive of /StjSAos ( biblos) — the inner 
bark of the (3v(i\os (bublos) or papyrus (Cyperus 
papyrus or Papyrus antiquorum), of which paper 
was anciently made. The general adoption by the 
Greek-speaking Christians of Chrysostom’s word 
fiifixia (biblia), books, without any qualifying adjec¬ 
tive, as a sufficient designation for the sacred 
writings, implies that they concurred with him in 
thinking that these alone were worthy of being 
called books; or, at least, stood pre-eminent above 
all other literary productions. Whilst the Romans 
adopted the Greek term Biblia, they had also a 
word or words of their own, which, being more 
familiar, came better home to their hearts. Some¬ 
times they said Scriptural, i.e. writings, and some¬ 
times Scriptura, i.e. writing. Like Biblia these 
words implied the unique or pre-eminent value of 
the Bible above other writings, whilst Scriptura 
added to this a new idea absent from the Greek 
word. Biblia was a plural; Scriptura, a singular; 
the latter word, therefore, recognised that under 
the diversity of authorship there was an essential 
unity, produced by the controlling influence 
of One Directing Mind. The rich and copious 
English language deriving its names for the sacred 
writings from both the Greek and the Latin, recog¬ 
nises at once the diversity and the unity pervading 
the sacred writings, the terms Bible and Scripture 





Bible. 


( 50 ) 


Bible. 


pointing at the latter and Scriptures at the former. 
As, however, “Bible” is more frequently used 
than Scriptures, the ordinary English reader is 
continually in danger of forgetting the diversity 
and remembering only the unity. When note is 
taken of both, it is found that a remarkable phe¬ 
nomenon presents itself. 

If the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch or of 
any part of it be admitted, and the approximate 
accuracy of the received Hebrew chronology be 
allowed to pass unquestioned, then the period 
during which the Bible was in process of produc¬ 
tion exceeded 1,500 years. The sacred writers 
differed greatly from each other in station, in 
education, and in various other respects. Yet 
when all their writings are brought together, they 
are found to be pervaded by an organic unity. If 
they were produced by the operation of One Di¬ 
recting Mind, then that mind, living and acting 
through fifteen consecutive centuries, cannot have 
been human but must have been Divine. 

The Bible everywhere, directly or indirectly, 
claims to be a revelation from God, and it becomes 
at once the duty and interest of every human being 
to examine the evidence on which the claim is 
brought forward. The science instituted for the 
purpose is called Apologetics ; but almost at the 
threshold of the inquiry questions arise which 
fall under the province not of Apologetics*but of 
Biblical Criticism. They are these : What books are 
meant when the word Bible is used, and, when 
this point is settled, then what dependence can be 
placed on the text of these books, as we now have 
it, and if it has in any places become corrupt, are 
there means for bringing it nearer to its pristine 
purity ? The Bible, as the word is understood in 
England, is generally held to consist of 66 books-. 
These are naturally divided into two leading 
portions, the Old and the New Testaments. A 
third portion, the Apocrypha, intermediate between 
these two in date, is accepted as of Divine authority 
by the Church of Rome, but rejected by the Pro¬ 
testant churches ; the term Bible is used in this 
article in the Protestant sense. The designation, 
Old Testament, is the rendering of Vetus Testa- 
vientum in the Latin Vulgate translation of 2 Cor. 
iii. 14. Testamentum in Latin means properly the 
solemn declaration of one’s will; hence a will, a 
testament. The Greek Ata0^/O7 (Diatheke) has two 
meanings : ( 1 ) a will and testament, ( 2 ) a covenant. 
Here it seems to mean covenant, and is so trans¬ 
lated in the Revised Version. The Old and New 
Testaments, therefore, had better have been ren¬ 
dered the Old and New Covenants. 

Nearly the whole of the Old Testament is written 
in Hebrew, the trifling exception being that a few 
passages in the later books are in Aramaic. -* They 
are Ezra iv. 8 to vi. 18, vii. 12 to 26; Jer. x. 11 ; 
and from Daniel ii. middle of verse 4 to vii. 28. 

The Old Testament consists of 89 books ; Josephus 
reduced them to 22. This, however, is done arbi¬ 
trarily to conform them to the number of the 
primitive Hebrew letters. Probably he regarded 
the twelve minor prophets as one book, combined 
Ruth with Judges, 2 with 1 Samuel, 2 with 1 
Kings, 2 with 1 Chronicles, Nehemiah with Ezra, 


and Lamentations with Jeremiah ; this would take 
off 17 and make the number 22. 

The order of the Old Testament books with 
which we are familiar is not quite the same as that 
which exists in the Hebrew Scriptures, and some of 
the names have been altered from those originally 
given. The following is the order in the Hebrew 
Bible, and where the ancient (Hebrew) names have 
been altered, the meaning which they bore is ap¬ 
pended within parentheses:— 

1. Genesis (In [the] beginning); 2. Exodus (And these are 
[the] names); 3. Leviticus (And lie called); 4. Numbers (In [the] 
wilderness); 5. Deuteronomy (These [are] the words); 0. 
Joshua; 7. Judges; S. 1 Samuel (Samuel, Aleph, (A); 9. 
2 Samuel (Samuel, Beth, (B); 10. 1 Kings (Kings, Aleph, (A); 
11. 2 Kings (Kings, Beth, (B); 12. Isaiah; 13. Jeremiah; 14. 
Ezekiel; 15. Hosea; 16. Joel; 17. Amos; 18. Obadiah ; 19. 
Jonah; 20. Micali; 21. Nahum; 22. Habakkuk ; 23. Zeph- 
aniah; 24. Haggai; 25. Zechariah; 26. Malachi; 27. Psalms; 
28. Proverbs ; 29. Job ; 30. Song of Solomon (Song of Songs) ; 
31. Ruth; 32. Lamentations (How!); 33. Ecclesiastes 

(Preacher); 34. Esther; 35. Daniel; 36. Ezra; 37. Nehe¬ 
miah ; 38. 1 Chronicles (Daily Chronicles, Aleph, (A); 39. 
2 Chronicles (Daily Chronicles, Beth, (B). 

The names Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, 
Deuteronomy, and Lamentations, are either copied 
with or without modification, or are translated from 
those employed in the Greek Septuagint. The 
Hebrew designations of the same books are formed, 
as a rule, by taking the first two or three words 
with which each begins, and using them as a title. 
There are, however, two slight exceptions. In the 
case of Numbers, the words “ In (the) wilderness,” 
selected as a title, are not quite the first, though 
very nearly so ; .and in that of Lamentations, the 
initial clause, “ How doth the city sit solitary,” is 
cut down to the single word “ How ! ” These books 
the Jews divided into three groups :—(1) The 
rnin (Torah), or law, containing the five books of 
the Pentateuch. (2) The D’H'ap (Nebhim) or 
prophets, divided into the earlier prophets, Joshua, 
Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings; the 
later prophets (the greater, viz. Isaiah, Jeremiah, 
and Ezekiel; and the lesser, viz. the twelve minor 
prophets). (3) The cmns (Kethubhim), or Sacred 
Books, called by the Greeks 'A yioypaepa (Hagio- 
grapha), including Psalms, Proverbs, Job, the Song 
of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther. 
Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and 1 and 2 Chronicles. 

In the prologue to the apocryphal book of Eccle- 
siasticus, 290 to 280, or 170 to 117 (?) b.c., mention 
is made of “ the Law, the Prophets, and other books 
of our fathers.” In the New Testament our Lord 
spoke of “ the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the 
Psalms ” (Luke xxiv. 44). More generally the 
three divisions were reduced to two, “ the Law and 
the Prophets” (Matthew v. 17, vii. 12, xx. 40 ; Acts 
xiii. 15 ; Romans iii. 21). 

To the Jews were committed “ the oracles of God,” 
and they showed themselves worthy of the trust; 
they never attempted to falsify the Hebrew Scrip¬ 
tures, and when the Septuagint translation into 
Greek, begun, apparently at Alexandria, in the third 
century b.c., and the Samaritan Pentateuch of 
more doubtful date, but apparently about the 
same time, had been made and diffused abroad, 
any tampering with the sacred text would soon have 
been detected. 







Bible. 


( 57 ) 


Bible. 


Except perhaps the Gospel of St. Matthew, which 
may possibly have had a ‘‘Hebrew” or Aramaic 
original, the books of the New Testament are all 
but universally believed to have been composed, as 
we now find them, in Greek. The early Church 
carefully inquired into the claims of the several 
New Testament books. At an early period it 
accepted as canonical twenty, comprising, accord¬ 
ing to Gaussen, 7,051) of the 7,959 verses into which 
the modern New Testament is divided, or about 
eight-ninths of the whole. They were the four 
Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, the thirteen 
epistles of St. Paul, 1 Peter, and 1 John. Five of 
the remaining seven, James, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 
John, and Jude, were for a time considered doubt¬ 
ful, but were ultimately accepted, while the remain¬ 
ing two, Hebrews and Revelation, were received at 
first with unanimity, but subsequently for a time 
were regarded by some churches as doubtful, after 
which they again met with universal acceptance. 

The Greek manuscripts of the New Testament 
are of two kinds, Uncials and Cursives. If the 
word Uncial is not corrupt, it must be derived from 
the Latin uncialis , in the sense of an inch high. 
It is used of manuscripts in which all the letters 
are capitals, and which in general have no spaces 
between the several words. Uncial Greek writing 
began to decline in the sixth, and died out in the 
tenth century. Cursive is from the Low Latin 
cnrsivus, running, which again is from the classical 
Latin verb curro, to run. The letters in cursive manu¬ 
scripts are not capitals, and, as a rule, there are 
spaces between the several words. 

The leading Uncial Greek manuscripts of the 
New Testament, entire or somewhat incomplete, 
are the following five :— a.\ the Alexandrian ; b, the 
Vatican ; c, the Ephraem d, Beza’s and n (Aleph), 
the Sinaitic manuscripts. Of these, b is not more 
recent than the fourth century, and is perhaps older. 
ti is also of the fourth century, a and c of the 
fifth, and d of the sixth. Adding other uncials and 
the cursives, about 1,760 manuscripts of the New 
Testament, some complete, others defective, are 
known. Essentially agreeing, they yet differ in 
minute points so that the various readings amount 
to 150,000. Most of them are of no importance, 
and the remainder are most helpful in settling the 
original text. Ancient versions are also of use, 
especially the Syriac Peshito (simple) made in the 
second century, and the Latin version, revised by 
Jerome, in the fourth century ; this is now called 
the Vulgate. 

The division of the Bible into chapters is attri¬ 
buted to Cardinal Hugo in the thirteenth century, 
and that into verses was borrowed, it is believed, 
from the Jewish “Masorites” of the ninth. The 
verses of the New Testament as they now stand 
are due to Robert Stephens, the printer (1548 and 
1551). The Geneva Bible is the first English one 
with the present divisions of chapter and verse. 

During the period when Anglo-Saxon was the 
language of England, viz. from the time of the 
earliest Saxon settlement in the island till about 
a.d. 1150. and again subsequent to that period, 
when Middle English had become the language of 
the country, translations from the Latin into the 


vernacular of Scripture portions, especially the 
Gospels, but occasionally also the Psalms, and even 
the Pauline epistles, were made from time to 
time, but no translation of the whole Bible seems 
to have been attempted till Wvcliffe appeared. 
He was born about 1324, and died on December 
31st, 1384. About 1382 or 1383 he published a 
translation of the Bible and the Apocrypha made 
from the Latin Vulgate. That of the New Testa¬ 
ment seems to have been his own, but that of the 
Old. Testament with a part of the Apocrypha appears 
to have emanated from a coadjutor of his, Nicholas 
de Hereford. The language of Wycliffe’s Bible 
was close to the original, but somewhat unpolished. 
A second edition, not so literal as the first, but 
with more flowing language, was issued about 1388, 
the chief agent in its production being John Purvey. 
The work did much good at the time, but being 
written in Middle English, which prevailed till 
about 1500 A.D., it did not greatly affect the lan¬ 
guage of the modern English Bible. It was 
different with the next version. In 1525 William 
Tyndale published at Wittenberg a translation which 
he made from Greek into English of the New 
Testament. An improved edition appeared in 1534. 
In 1530 he issued a translation from the Hebrew of 
the Pentateuch, and next year one of Jonah, both 
being printed at Hamburg. In 1534 he was cruelly 
put to death at Vilvorde in Belgium, closing his life 
of piety and usefulness by a martyr death. By this 
time Henry VIII.’s quarrel with the Papacy had 
reached an advanced stage. In 1529 Cardinal 
Wolsey had been deposed from the chancellorship, in 
1531 Henry had been declared supreme head of the 
Church of England, and in 1533 he had married 
Anna Boleyn, about whom the quarrel with the 
Papacy had arisen. In 1535 Miles Coverdale, on 
whom the mantle of Tyndale had fallen, published 
the first complete English Bible, Lord Thomas 
Cromwell lending his patronage to the work. It 
was not translated from the original, but made 
from previous versions, Tyndale’s five books of 
Moses, an unpublished manuscript of his extending 
from Joshua to 2 Chronicles, his published Jonah, 
and his New Testament being embodied in the 
work. It was dedicated to Henry VIII., who 
allowed it to pass into circulation. The version of 
the Psalms which is still retained in the Prayer 
Book is from the translation of Coverclale’s, slightly 
modified by the Bishops’ Bible afterwards to be 
mentioned. To Coverdale we were indebted for 
some felicitous renderings in the modern English 
Bible. In 1537 there appeared another version of 
the English Bible dedicated, like Coverdale’s, to 
the king. It was translated nominally by “ Thomas 
Matthew?” really, it is believed, by John Rogers, 
who afterwards became the first martyr in Queen 
Mary’s reign. It was made up of Tyndale’s and 
Coverdale’s translations, though the former had 
never obtained legal sanction. It had introductions, 
summaries of contents, and marginal notes, not¬ 
withstanding which it obtained the royal licence to 
be circulated, nay, more, a proclamation was issued 
requiring a copy to be placed in each church. It 
was thus the first Authorised Version. It was a 
huge folio, and was often called the Great Bible. 






Bible. 


( 58 ) 


Bible Society. 


It appeared in 1537. It is the basis of the English 
text, both of the A.Y. and the R.V., one reason of 
the respect paid to it being that the translation 
was made not from previous versions, but from 
the Hebrew and Greek originals. The statements 
of “ Matthew ” were exceedingly bold, so much so 
that he himself modified them in a second edition 
issued in 1539. The same year Taverner issued 
his Bible, which was founded on those of Tyndale’s, 
Coverdale’s, and Matthew’s, especially on that of 
the last-named translator, whose views, however, 
when adopted, were more cautiously expressed. 

In 1539 a great Bible was issued with a prologue 
by Archbishop Cranmer. It was a huge folio, 
printed in excellent type, and with a fine engraving 
by Holbein on the title page. Three subsequent 
editions had the Archbishop’s name, and those of 
two episcopal coadjutors. The work was well 
executed, but the expense of the great volume put 
it quite beyond the means of ordinary people, and a 
smaller and cheaper production was required. This 
was supplied by the publication in 1557 of the New 
Testament, and in 15G0 of the whole Bible at 
Geneva, prepared by the English exiles, the veteran 
Coverdale among the number, who were there as 
refugees during the Marian persecution. The 
Geneva Bible w^as a small quarto ; it discarded black 
letter and adopted Roman type, borrowing at the 
same time from the Hebrew Scriptures the con¬ 
venient division into verses. It was the first Bible 
which omitted the Apocrypha. It had explanatory 
and dogmatic notes. It became extraordinarily 
popular, especially among the English Puritans 
and the Scottish Presbyterians, and during the 
succeeding half-century ran through eighty editions. 

The Geneva Bible not in all respects pleasing 
some of the higher Anglican dignitaries, Archbishop 
Parker planned a new version, which came out in 
1568 as a great folio, with engravings, and a map. 
There was an elaborate preface, and the division 
into verses was retained. Its size and expensive¬ 
ness limited its circulation, and notwithstanding 
its publication, the cheaper Geneva Bible held its 
ground. 

In the controversies of the Reformation the taunt 
was often thrown out that the Church of Rome 
declined to put the Bible into the hands of the 
people. As a reply to the charge, an English 
translation of the New Testament was published at 
Rheims in a quarto volume in 1582. In 1609 the 
Old Testament and Apocrypha were published at 
Douay, completing the work. There were explana¬ 
tory and dogmatic notes. 

When the seventeenth century opened, the 
dignitaries still held to the Bishops’ Bible and the 
common people to that issued at Geneva, while a 
few Hebrew and Greek scholars were dissatisfied 
with both, and wished a new translation. The 
Puritans, having Dr. Remolds, of Corpus Christi 
College, Oxford, as their spokesman, brought the 
subject of revision forward at the Hampton Court 
Conference in 1604, King James after a time support¬ 
ing their views. Action being resolved upon, fifty- 
four eminent Hebrew or Greek scholars were invited 
to undertake the work, and forty-seven actually did 
so. They were divided into six classes, two to sit at 


Westminster, two at Oxford, and two at Cambridge. 
Each member of a class was to give his transla¬ 
tion of all the portion of the Bible committed to 
that class. Then the translations were to be 
compared, and one more perfect than any of them 
taken separately to be made by selection from them 
all. Then other classes were to see if they could 
improve it, so that nothing should be published till 
it had received the imprimatur of the revisers as 
one body. They worked for four years, from 1606 
to 1610. The patentee, Robert Barker, paid all 
expenses, and in 1611 issued from the press what 
ultimately became ” the Authorised Version of the 
English Bible.” A revision nominally of the Bishops’ 
Bible, its pages were enriched by accurate or 
felicitous renderings from the previous versions', 
from that of Tyndale onwards. Though sanctioned, it 
was not enjoined to be read in churches, but gradu¬ 
ally it made way, displacing at last every other 
rival, not excepting even the popular Geneva Bible. 
It owes its success to its own great merits. It has 
become the first English classic, and helped to fix 
the English language, as Luther’s Bible did that of 
Germany. Its praise is throughout the world. 
But no human production is perfect, and from 
time to time during the present century wishes 
for revision began again to be expressed. In 
February, 1870, therefore, the Convocation of the 
Province of Canterbury resolved to take action in 
the matter. On the 3rd and 5th May principles and 
rules were agreed upon, one of which ran thus :— 
“ That it is desirable that Convocation should 
nominate a body of its own members to undertake 
the work of revision, and shall be at liberty to 
invite the co-operation of any eminent for scholar¬ 
ship to whatever nation or religion they may 
belong.” The greater part of two companies, the 
one for the revision of the Old and the other for 
that of the New Testament, was at once made up 
from members of the English Church, the remainder 
being composed of scholars belonging to the British 
denominations, the whole number of the revisers 
varying at different times from twenty-seven to 
twenty-four. The actual work of revision was com¬ 
menced June 22nd, 1870. After a time, the co-opera¬ 
tion of American Biblical scholars was sought and 
obtained. The Revised New Testament was published 
on May 17th, 1881. On May 15th, 1885, the first 
complete copy of the Revised Bible, containing 
now both Testaments, was presented to the Queen, 
the publication of the work following on the 18th. 
It is a great improvement on the Authorised 
Version, everywhere surpassing it in accuracy, 
though some of the new sentences are less beautiful 
and less musical than the old. Its publication was 
a conservative rather than a revolutionary act. 
After all changes which were required have been 
carried out, it is found that no doctrine has been 
imperilled by all this revision ; the foundations of 
the faith stand just as they did. 

Bible Society, any society which has for 
its specific object to circulate copies of the Bible. 
In the genesis and growth of Bible societies three 
distinct stages of evolution may be traced. In 
the first, commencing with the earliest Christian 





Bible Society. 


( 59 ) 


Bible Society. 


century, zealous individuals lent or gave away 
portions of Scripture to those in whose spiritual 
welfare they felt special interest. The prominence 
given to the Bibib by the Reformers of the 16th 
century lent an impulse to private effort of this 
nature, and it could now be carried on to a greater 
extent than in the early Christian ages, as the 
invention of printing in the fifteenth century had 
greatly reduced the price of the sacred volume. 
The second stage of evolution was reached when 
the circulation of the Bible had begun to be effected 
not so much by individuals as by societies, which 
had this for one of their objects. It commenced 
about the middle of the seventeenth century, when 
the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in 
New England, incorporated in 1649 and 1661, 
issued in 1663 a translation of the Bible into one of 
the North American Indian tongues. The society 
which did most for Bible circulation was that for 
Promoting Christian Knowledge, incorporated in 
1698. Among other services in this direction it 
issued four editions of the Bible in the Welsh 
tongue. The third stage of evolution was reached 
in 1870, when a society was formed in London for 
the circulation of the Bible not as one of its aims, 
but as its sole object. It was called the Naval 
and Military Bible Society. But its scope was 
limited, for its beneficiaries were but a small frac¬ 
tion of the population. When the progress of the 
first French Revolution, to which at first many had 
looked hopefully, began to be accompanied by san¬ 
guinary excesses, a feeling arose among religious 
men in England that a humanising and tranquilis- 
ing influence would be exerted if the Gallic nation 
could be brought back to the Scriptures, and a 
French Bible Society was formed in London in 
1792, but the breaking out of war between France 
and England in 1793 prevented it from even com¬ 
mencing its operations. 

There was then much spiritual life in Wales, but 
there was a dearth of Bibles in the Welsh tongue, 
though the Society for Promoting Christian Know¬ 
ledge had printed and sold four editions of the 
Welsh Bible. In 1787, and again in 1791, efforts 
were made to induce the Society to issue another 
edition. They were not, however, successful till 
1799, when 10,000 Bibles, 2,000 New Testaments, 
with Prayer Books and metrical Psalms were printed 
in Welsh. The supply of Bibles was still inadequate, 
and the Society was afraid to incur the risk of 
printing more. On December 7, 1802, a few 
Christian friends w r ere in conversation in London 
when Mr. Joseph Tarn complained that a great 
deficiency of Bibles still existed in Wales. He was 
supported by an eminent Welsh divine, the Rev. 
Thomas Charles of Bala, who had been much 
affected on finding that a Welsh girl was accus¬ 
tomed to walk seven miles to consult the Bible, 
that being the only copy to which she had access. 
He proposed that funds should be raised by volun¬ 
tary subscription, independently of the Christian 
Knowledge Society, for the circulation of the Bible in 
Wales. The Rev. Joseph Hughes, a Baptist minister, 
suggested that the sphere of operations should not 
be simply Wales but the world, the enlarged idea 
meeting with universal concurrence. Mr. Hughes 


was requested to issue an explanation and appeal, 
which he did. Samuel Mills, Esq., filled in the 
details of a scheme for the new society, which was 
to have been called the Society for Promoting a 
more Extensive Circulation of the Scriptures both at 
Home and Abroad. It was inaugurated at a public 
meeting held at the London Tavern, Bishops- 
gate, on March 12th, 1804, its name being changed 
to the British and Foreign Bible Society. At the 
very outset the sectarian difficulty threatened to 
arise, but was wisely met and surmounted by the 
establishment of a rule which has worked beauti¬ 
fully and is still in force :— 

Rule IX.—A Committee shall be appointed to conduct the 
business of the Society, consisting of 36 laymen, six of whom 
shall be foreigners, resident in London or its vicinity; half 
the remainder shall be members of the Church of England, 
and the other half members of other denominations of 
Christians . . . 

By its second rule it was to circulate the Scrip¬ 
tures not only through the British dominions, but 
“ other countries, whether Christian, Mohammedan, 
or Pagan” ; in short, its field was to be the world. 
Year by year its revenues and its operations had 
increased in magnitude, when a second great 
difficulty arose. On the Continent Bibles sold better 
if they had the Apocrypha bound up between the 
Testaments. This might be understood or misunder¬ 
stood to mean that the Apocrypha was considered 
to be a portion of the inspired Scriptures. 
Controversy arose on the subject, and continued for 
about five years—between 1821 and 1826. The 
Society at last yielded the point in dispute by 
adopting four new rules at its general meetings held 
in 1826 and 1827, excluding the Apocrypha from 
the Bibles which it circulated. From the first its 
growth has been continuous. Auxiliaries, branches, 
and associations of the Society have been formed in 
large numbers. Besides these, independent, though 
not hostile, societies have been formed in Scotland, 
in America, in Germany, and elsewhere. In its 
report for 1890 it is mentioned that there were 
then connected with the Bible Society in Great 
Britain and Ireland 1,100 auxiliaries, 471 branches, 
and 3,730 associations; total, 5,301. In Europe 
and the Colonies its auxiliaries were 136, and its 
branches 1,516; total, 1,652. Up to March 31st, 
1808, when the first summary was made, it had 
circulated from London 16,544 Bibles, 63,113 New 
Testaments, and 1,500 portions ; total, 81,157. Up 
to March 31st, 1890, it had circulated from Lon¬ 
don 29,614,856 Bibles, 32,521,067 New Testaments, 
and 12,099,772 portions ; and on the Continent, etc., 
7,345,379 Bibles, 25,100,876 New Testaments, and 
17,247,096 portions ; total, 123,929,046. These 
numbers do not include the circulation by kindred 
societies, amounting to 81,497,526 copies. When 
the Society began, there were many languages into 
which the Scriptures either in whole or in part had 
never been translated. There are fewer now, and in 
a little tractate, entitled The Gospelinmany Tongues, 
of which a new edition was issued by the Society in 
1890, specimens are given of Scripture passages in 
296 languages or dialects in which the Society has 
circulated the Bible or Scripture portions. During 
the first year of its existence (1804) the Society 







Biblia Fauperum. 


( 60 ) 


Bickerton. 


spent on the work it hacl undertaken £691 10s. 2d.; 
during its eighty-sixth year (1890) it expended 
£227,566 Os. 8d. The British and Foreign Bible 
Society has been like a seed of the banyan tree 
dropped into Indian soil ; it has sent forth over¬ 
arching branches, which have rooted themselves 
without detachment from the original stem. Seeds 
from it carried to other places are also growing up, 
and manifesting the same capacity for extension as 
characterised the parent tree from which they 
sprang. 

Biblia Fauperum ( the Bible of the Poor), a 
book which marks a stage in the history of printing. 
It was a “block book,” printed early in the 15th 
century from wood blocks, and contained forty 
engravings of scenes from the life of Christ, with 
explanatory inscriptions, printed from letters cut 
on the same block as the picture. Some of the 
chapel windows in Lambeth Palace are copied from 
some of the designs, and the work has been pub¬ 
lished in facsimile. 

Bibliography. The term (which means de¬ 
scription of books) was originally applied in France 
to that branch of knowledge which deals with the 
decipherment and peculiarities of ancient MSS., now 
called Paleography: but is now confined to the 
classification and description of books. In its 
widest sense it will cover cataloguing and indexing 
—both, especially the latter, highly developed and 
specialised arts: but it is also applied more es¬ 
pecially to the knowledge of books as such—taking 
no account of their contents except as a rough basis 
of classification, but dealing with their date and 
place of publication, typographical peculiarities, 
binding, differences of special editions or copies, 
etc. In this narrower sense it is an auxiliary to 
Bibliomania (q.v.). 

Bibliomancy, divination by means of a book, 
generally the Bible, although in the Sortes Virgili- 
ana a precisely similar method was adopted with 
Virgil’s works. The person who wished to employ 
bibliomancy opened the chosen book at random, and 
applied the first passage on which his eye fell to 
the particular point in which he was in need of 
guidance. 

Bibliomania, a mania or passionate desire to 
possess books, generally rare or curious copies. 
First editions of various works have frequently been 
the objects of the bibliomaniac’s passion, and fabu¬ 
lous prices have sometimes been paid for them. 

Bicarbonates, salts of the acid H 2 C0 3 , in 
which only one-half of the total quantity of 
hydrogen is replaced by a metal. The sodium salt 
NaHC0 3 is largely used, and is prepared by action 
of carbon dioxide upon ordinary soda (Na 2 Co 3 ), 
crystals. It is also the first product in the manu¬ 
facture of soda by the ammonia process. 

Bicellariidee, a family of Bryozoa, which 
includes Bugula, “ the bird’s head coralline,” and 
others of the best known of British forms of that 
order. 

Biceps (two-headed), the name of two muscles 
of the body, one in the arm, the other in the leg, 


and which are so called from the fact that in each 
instance the muscle has two heads of origin. The 
biceps of the arm is readily felt to contract if, for 
example, the right upper arm be grasped in the left 
hand, and the right fore-arm be then flexed on the 
right upper arm. Of its two heads the “ short-head ” 
arises from the coracoid process of the scapula and 
the “ long head ” from the upper margin of the 
glenoid cavity. The muscle is inserted below into 
the tuberosity of the radius. The heads of the 
biceps of the leg arise one from the hip bone and 
the other from the femur, the muscle being inserted 
below into the fibula. 

Bicetre, a celebrated hospital on the south 
side of Paris, on a hill overlooking the Seine. 
Originally built by Louis IX. as a Carthusian 
monastery, it was occupied b}^ John Bishop of Win¬ 
chester in 1290 (the name is a corruption of that of 
his see), destroyed in 1632 and rebuilt by Louis 
XIV. as a hospital for old soldiers. It is now used 
as a lunatic asylum for bad cases. 

Bichat, Marie Francois Xavier, physiolo¬ 
gist, was born in 1771 at Thoirette, in the depart¬ 
ment of Ain, France. He removed in 1793 to Paris, 
where he became one of Desault’s most brilliant 
pupils, and subsequently Desault’s adopted son. 
At the same time he began to lecture, and in 1800 
received the appointment of physician to the Hotel- 
Dieu, the year in which appeared his Becherches 
Physiologiques sur la Vie et la Mort, followed in the 
following year by his still more profound Anatomie 
Generate. Bichat’s death, which occurred in 1802, 
when he was scarcely 31 years of age, was due to over¬ 
work. During his illness he was attended by Desault’s 
widow, whom he had never left; and after his 
funeral his bust with Desault’s was placed in the 
Hotel-Dieu by order of Napoleon. 

Bickerstaffe, Isaac, dramatist, was born 
about 1735 in Ireland. He was a page at the vice¬ 
regal court of Dublin during Lord Chesterfield’s 
lieutenancy, 1746, then an officer in the marines, 
from which position he was expelled in dis¬ 
grace. When he died is not known. Among his 
friends were Garrick and Boswell. His pieces 
include The Maid of the Mill, The Captive, Love 
in a Village, The Hypocrite, etc. Steele and Swift 
both used the title as a now deplume. 

Bickersteth, Edward, was born in 1786 at 
Kirkbv Lonsdale, Westmoreland. While practising 
as a solicitor at Norwich he was ordained in 1815 as 
a deacon in the Church. The following year he 
went to Africa for the Church Missionary Society, 
and until 1830, when he was appointed rector of 
Watton, Hertfordshire, he was the society’s secre¬ 
tary. He was also one of the founders of the 
Evangelical Alliance. His best-known works are 
The Scripture Help, The Christian Student , and 
The Lord's Supper, The Restoration of the Jews, etc. 
He was also the editor of the Christian Family 
Library. He died in 1850. 

Bickerton. (1) Sir Richard, Bart., a British 
naval officer, after having received his education at 
Westminster school, obtained a lieutenant’s com¬ 
mission in 1746, and became a post-captain in 1759. 




Bicol. 


( «1 ) 


Biddle. 


In 1773 he was knighted, and in 1778 was made a 
baronet. In April of the latter year, being then in 
command of the Terrible , 74, he fell in, in company 
with the Ran Tillies, with a French convov of 30 
sail, of which 8 were taken ; and on July 27th 
following he was present at Keppel’s unsatisfactory 
action off Ushant with the Comte d’Orvilliers. On 
this occasion his ship lost 9 killed and 21 wounded. 
In 1781, as captain of the Fortitude , 74, he assisted 
in A ice-Admiral Darby’s relief of Gibraltar, and 
before the end of the year hoisted his broad pen¬ 
nant as commodore in the Gibraltar , 80. He sailed 
in 1782 with a convoy for India, and there joined 
Sir Edward Hughes, with whom he shared such 
credit as resulted from the action with the Bailli 
de Suffren, on June 20th, 1783. In this engagement 
his ship lost (1 killed and 40 wounded. In 1786 he 
was commodore in the Jupiter , 50, on the Leeward 
station, and in 1787 he became a rear-admiral. 
On February'28th, 1792, being then vice-admiral 
and commander-in-chief at Plymouth, he died of 
apoplexy. (2) His eldest son, Sir Richard Hussey, 
a very distinguished naval commander, was born 
in 1759, and entered the service in 1771. In 1777 
he was made lieutenant, and was first-lieutenant of 
the Jupiter , 50, when, in 1778, she most gallantly 
engaged the French line of battle-ship Triton. For 
this service Mr. Bickerton was promoted to be 
commander, and appointed to the sloop Stcallon •, 
in which he assisted in the capture of the large 
American privateer Black Prince. In 1781, Cap¬ 
tain Bickerton, still in the Swallow , was present at 
the capture of St. Eustatius, and in the same year, 
having in the meantime been posted, he took part, 
in the Invincible , 74, in Hood’s action off Martinique, 
on April 29th. His ship lost 2 killedjand 4 wounded. 
In 1792 Captain Bickerton succeeded to his father’s 
baronetcy, and from 1793 to 1799 served con¬ 
tinuously at sea. He was then promoted to be 
rear-admiral. In 1800, with his flag in the Swiftsure, 
74, he served under Lord Keith in the Mediter¬ 
ranean, and was detached for the blockade of Cadiz. 
In the next year he accompanied Lord Keith on 
the expedition against Alexandria, in which he 
behaved in the most meritorious manner, having 
his flag for the greater portion of the time in the 
Kent, 74. In 1804 he returned to the Mediterranean 
as second in command, with his flag in the Royal 
Sovereign , 100, but, after assisting in the blockade 
of Toulon, was obliged to invalid in 1805. In that 
year he became a vice-admiral, and in 1810 an 
admiral; and from 1807 to 1812 he was a lord of 
the Admiralty. In the latter year he was appointed 
port admiral at Portsmouth, in 1815 a K.C.B., and 
in 1818 a lieutenant-general of marines. He died 
in 1832 at Bath. 

Bicol, a large nation In Luzon, Philippine Islands, 
occupying most of the south-eastern peninsula, be¬ 
sides [the neighbouring islands, Catanduanes and 
Burias ; totarpopulation 800,000 ; speech interme¬ 
diate between the Tagal of Manilla and the Bisayan 
of the smaller islands between Luzon and Mindanao, 
spoken in its purest form in the province of South 
Camarines. The Bicols are semi-civilised agricul¬ 
turists, mostly nominal Roman Catholics. 


Bicycle, a form of velocipede (q.v.), consisting 
of two wheels, one of which is placed in front of 
the other. The wheels have varied considerably 
in size from time to time ; at one period the front 
wheel was very much larger than the other, while 
of late years fashion has favoured wheels of almost 
equal dimensions. The rider, in the latter case, is 
seated on a saddle placed between the two wheels 
(sometimes, indeed, the seat is upon the hind wheel), 
and he propels the machine by means of treadles. 
Considerable speed has been attained by experts in 
bicycle riding, the mile having been covered in 
less than two and a half minutes, and 100 miles in 
less than six hours. [Cycling, Tricycle.] 

Bida, a large inland town of Africa, capital of ’ 
the kingdom of Nyffe, lies 16 miles N. of the 
Niger in lat. 9° 5' N. and long. 6° 5' E. 

Biddeford, a city of the United States in 
Maine, on the Saco river, which, falling 42 feet 
here, provides excellent water power, driving many 
mills on each side. It has extensive manufactures 
in cotton and woollen goods, hardware, and iron. 

Bidding Prayer (from bid , summon ; see 
Beadle), a prayer, or more strictly an invitation to 
prayer, on certain specified subjects—for the 
welfare of the Queen and royal family, the 
Parliament, the magistrates, the universities, etc.— 
and also to thanksgiving for various temporal and 
spiritual blessings. There are several forms, one of 
which is ordered by the 55th Canon of the Anglican 
Church. It is used before university sermons 
(which usually are not preceded by a service), and 
occasionally in cathedrals and chapels royal. It is 
followed by the Lord’s Prayer, in which the congre¬ 
gation joins. The “ bidding of beads ” (or prayers) 
was an early custom in the Church. The priest 
invited the prayers of the congregation on special 
subjects, which were said in silence. [Beads.] 

Biddle, John, theologian, and called the 
father of English Unitarianism, was born in 1615 
at Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire. After 
graduating at Oxford he was in 1641 appointed 
master of the free school in Gloucester city. From 
this position he was dismissed in 1645 and arrested 
on account of the views put forward in his Twelve 
Arguments drawn out of Scripture, wherein the 
commonly received opinion touching the Deity of 
the Holy Spirit is clearly and fully refuted, which 
was ordered to be burned by the common hangman. 
After five years of imprisonment, during which the 
Westminster Assembly of Divines sought to com¬ 
pass his death, he was released by Cromwell, and 
allowed to reside in Staffordshire under surveil¬ 
lance. In 1652 the general Act of Oblivion restored 
him to complete liberty, and his followers, who 
were called Bidellians first, then Socinians, and 
finally Unitarians, began to meet regularly. In a 
year or two a storm of fury again broke over 
Biddle’s head by reason of further publications, and 
after a period of imprisonment Cromwell, to save 
his life, banished him to St. Mary’s castle in the 
Scilly Islands, and. gave him a grant of 100 crowns 
annually. In three years he was allowed to return 
by Cromwell, until whose death he preached in 







Bideford 


( ) 


Bijapur 


London. After the Restoration lie was again thrown 
into prison in July. 1662, where he died in September 
of the same year. 

Bideford, a seaport town in Devonshire, 
England, on the river Torridge. A bridge of 
twenty-four arches and dating from the fourteenth 
century crosses t he river here. Among its institutions 
are the grammar school, union workhouse, and 
hospital for the aged poor. Its manufactures in¬ 
clude earthenware, ropes, sails, leather, and ship¬ 
building. 

Bidpai, or Pilpai, supposed to be the author 
of a collection of Hindu fables, which have been 
widely known for many centuries, and which have 
been translated into more languages than any other 
writings except the Scriptures. The original 
source of the fables is the Pant chat antra or Five 
Sections , an old Indian collection in Sanscrit. The 
materials of the Pantcliatantra were worked up in 
the Hitopadesa (also in Sanscrit) or Book of Salutary 
Instruction, and became more widely known in 
Europe than the original. Of the translations may 
be mentioned those into Pehlvi in the sixth 
century, and another from the Pehlvi translation 
into Arabic, which became the medium of conveying 
these fables into Europe, and in which the author 
is first called Bidpai. The first English translation 
appeared in 1570. 

Bielefeld, a town of Prussia in Westphalia. 
It is touched by the Minden and Cologne Railway, 
and is the centre of the Westphalian linen trade, 
having extensive bleaching fields and manufactures 
of woollens, thread, leather, iron, meerschaum 
pipes, etc. 

Bielitz, a town of Austrian Silesia, on the Biala 
river. It is a railway terminus, and has a castle and 
hospital. It has manufactures in woollens, linens, 
and dyeworks. 

Biella. an Italian town in the province of 
Novara. It is the see of a bishop, and manu¬ 
factures hats, paper, and woollens. 

Bielopol, a town of Russia, in the government 
of Kharkov. Its chief manufacture is brandy. 

Bienne, a Swiss town in the canton of Bern, 
situated at N. end of Bienne Lake, and at the foot 
of the Jura. It was joined to Bern in 1815, having 
previously belonged to France. It manufactures 
watches, wire, leather, and cotton. Bienne Lake, 
1,420 ft. above sea level, is interesting chiefly from 
its island St. Pierre, where Rousseau resided in 
1765. On its shore also are prehistoric lake- 
dwellings. 

Biennials, plants that complete their life- 
cycle in two years or seasons, as in the case of the 
turnip. They commonly only produce root, stem, 
and leaf structures during the first season, though 
often storing up nutriment in fleshy enlargements 
of such structures. In the second season they 
produce flowers and fruit (“run to seed”) at the 
expense of such food stores, and die in completing 
this physiologically exhausting process. 


Bifilar Suspension, an arrangement adopted 
: in many electrical and other instruments for the 
: horizontal suspension of needles by means of two 
j parallel fibres. A needle thus hung, with the fibres 
fixed to it symmetrically, is subject to a definite 
controlling force. For if by electro-magnetic or 
other action a deflecting force causes the needle to 
turn out of its position of rest, it will be slightly 
raised, an action which is opposed by the weight 
of the needle. The closer the two fibres the less 
will be the lift of the needle for a given deflection ; 
hence the smaller the controlling force. [Galvano¬ 
meter.] 

Bigamy, the contracting of a second marriage 
by either husband or wife during the life of either 
of them (there having been no divorce pronounced 
of the previous marriage). The offence is a felony, 
and is punishable with penal servitude for not more 
than seven nor fewer than three years, or with im¬ 
prisonment with or without hard labour for any 
period not exceeding two years. 

This offence consists in going through the form 
of a second marriage while the first exists, for the 
former can only be a marriage in form, since a 
man by the English law cannot have two wives nor 
a woman two husbands at the same time. The princi¬ 
pal ground for criminally punishing a person con¬ 
tracting a second marriage is the wrong done to 
the deceived and injured party. 

Exceptions to the above — 

1. A second marriage contracted out of England 
or Ireland by any other than a subject of Her 
Majesty. 

2. If either husband or wife has been absent con¬ 
tinuously for seven years and has not been known by 
t he other to be living during that time, he or she is 
at liberty to marry again, and bigamy will not be 
committed, even though the fact prove otherwise. 

3. In case of divorce from first marriage (as 
already referred to). 

4. Where a former marriage has been declared 
void by a court of competent jurisdiction. 

The Scottish law presents some points of differ¬ 
ence to the above, but they are not of great import¬ 
ance. In the United States bigamy is criminal, and 
punishable by fine and imprisonment; a discre¬ 
tionary power as to t he extent of punishment being- 
possessed by the several States. 

Bigorre, an old district of south-western France 
in the province of Gascony. It now forms part of 
the Hautes Pyrenees. 

Big Sandy Kdver in Wyoming, United 
States. It is a tributary of the Ohio, and is 
navigable. It is nearly 100 miles in length. 

Bih<§, a South African district under the Portu¬ 
guese. Through it runs the only caravan route 
south of the Congo. The capital is Kaynomba. 

Bijapur, or Bijayanagur, meaning “ city of 
triumph,” is a city of Southern India in the Presi¬ 
dency of Bombay. It was founded in 1336, and was 
the capital of an extensive kingdom ; now it is 
deserted, and remarkable for its ruins of temples 
mosques, and other indications of former greatness. 








Bij awar. 


( 63 ) 


Bilharzia hsematobia. 


Bij awar, a native state of Hindustan in 
Bundelcund, covering an area of 900 square miles. 
Diamonds are found in it. The capital bears the 
same name. 

Bijnaur, a district and town in the North- 
Western Provinces of British India, covering an area 
of nearly 2,000 square miles. The town, which lies 
3 miles E. of the sacred Ganges, has manufactures 
in thread and cottons. 

Bikaner, a native state of Rajputana and 
capital of the same. The state covers an area of 
more than 22,000 square miles, and though it is a 
somewhat bare region, without a permanently run¬ 
ning stream, yet its cattle and horses are celebrated. 
From the wool of their sheep the inhabitants make 
every article of native dress and good blankets. 
The town is surrounded by a lofty wall 6 ft. thick 
and 3^ miles in circuit. Its industries embrace pot¬ 
tery, carving in stone, and the weaving of native 
wool into blankets. 

Bilander, a two-masted vessel, usually of 
small tonnage and used on the canals in Holland 
and elsewhere, having a mainsail bent along the 
whole length of a yard which hangs fore and aft, 
and which is inclined to the horizon at an angle 
of about 45°. The fore-end of this yard slopes 
downwards and comes as far forward as the middle 
of the ship, where the tack of the sail is secured 
to a ring bolt in the deck. The rest of the rig is 
that of a brigantine. 

Bilbao, one of the chief cities in Spain, and 
capital of the Basque province of Biscay or Bilbao, 
is situated on the Nervion, which is navigable up to 
the city, where it is crossed by four bridges. It is 
a commercial city, and in regular steam communi¬ 
cation with London and Liverpool. It has shipbuild¬ 
ing yards and manufactures in iron, pottery, glass, 
paper, cotton, etc. For its steel it was famous in 
Elizabeth’s time, when a rapier was called a “ bilbo.” 
It was founded in 1300 by Don Pedro Lopez de 
Haro, and suffered severely in the wars with 
France, who held it from 1808 to 1813. It with¬ 
stood an attack in 1835 from Zumalacarreguy, and 
again in 1874 from the forces of Don Carlos. It 
has a cathedral and several convents, but its public 
buildings are of little note. 

Bilberry or Whortleberry, the berry of Vac- 
ciniuvi Myrtillus , or the plant itself. This is a little 
erect branched shrub, related to the heaths, which 
is common in our woods. Its bright green leaves 
turn red in autumn before falling; and its small 
flowers have a pinkish globular corolla and anthers 
with appendages and with their lobes produced into 
tubes. The globular bluish-black berry, which has 
a bloom like that on a plum, is edible. 

Bilderdijk, Willem, poet, was born in 1756 
at Amsterdam. He studied law at Leyden, and 
while there, as well as when pursuing his calling as 
an advocate at the Hague, cultivated literature and 
the Muses. He left his country on its invasion by 
the French, and amongst other places visited 
London, supporting himself by lecturing. In 1806, 


when he went back to the Netherlands, Louis 
Buonaparte, who was now king, appointed him 
president of the new institute at Amsterdam, and 
he was otherwise well treated. Many of his publi¬ 
cations are translations or imitations; of his 
original pieces the best known are Rural Life and 
The Love of Fatherland. Besides some war songs 
he also wrote a geological treatise and a History of 
the Netherlands. He died in 1831 at Haarlem. 

Bile, the secretion formed by the liver, and 
discharged into the duodenum through the common 
bile duct. Human bile is a yellow viscid fluid, 
bitter in taste, possessing no appreciable odour, of 
specific gravity 1020 to 1025 (distilled water being 
1000). It accumulates during the intervals of 
digestion in the gall bladder, from which, as the 
stomach passes on its contents into the duodenum, 
it is gradually discharged. Its composition is as 
follows :— 

In 1,000 parts of bile there are — 


Of water about 

S59 parts. 

Bile salts ,, 

91 „ 

Fat ,, 

f> „ 

Cholesterin ,, 

3 „ 

Mucus and pigment ,, 

30 „ 

Mineral salts ,, 

3 „ 


The Rile salts are the glycocholate and tauro- 
cholate of sodium. Their main function is the 
promotion of the absorption of fatty substances 
from the intestinal tract. The test for the presence 
of bile salts is known as Pettenkofer’s (q.v.). 

Cholestcrin possesses a theoretical interest as 
being the only alcohol found in the body ; its 
practical importance arises from the fact that it 
sometimes forms the concretions known as gall 
stones. 

The yellow colour of bile is chiefly due to the 
pigment Bilirubin. In the green bile of the 
herbivora an oxydised form of Bilirubin called 
Biliverdin is present. The bile pigment is inti¬ 
mately related to Haemoglobin, the pigment of the 
blood. The retention of bile pigment causes 
jaundice (q.v.). The test for bile pigment is 
known as Gmelin’s (q.v.). The functions of the 
bile are : (i) As an excrementitious substance, it 
separates excess of carbon and hydrogen from the 
blood, (ii) To promote the absorption of the fatty 
elements of the food, (iii) It is a natural purga¬ 
tive, and to its action in hastening the progress of 
the contents of the alimentary canal is probably to 
be attributed the antiseptic action bile is said to 
possess, inasmuch as the prolonged stay in the 
intestines of material in process of digestion would 
favour putrefaction. 

Bilharzia haematohia, a parasitic worm 
belonging to the Trematoda, and nearly related to 
the liver fluke. Its presence in the human body 
gives rise to urinary troubles, particularly to 
luematuria, or the presence of blood in the urine, 
the favoured habitat of the Bilharzia being the 
small veins of the bladder, ureter, and pelvis of the 
kidney. The adult worm is about l inch in length, 
the sexes are distinct. The recognition of the ova 
in the urine is the means of demonstrating the 
presence of the parasite. The disease is practically 


/ 








Biliary Calculi. 


( 64 ) 


Bill. 


unknown in this country, but is common in Egypt 
and at the Cape of Good Hope. 

Biliary Calculi. [Calculus.] 

Bilin, Bile-salts. [Bile.] 

Biliousness, a popular term of which it is 
impossible to give the equivalent in precise 
language. Most disorders of digestion are explained 
by some people as resulting from “ biliousness,” 
from the “ liver being out of order,” from “ conges¬ 
tion of the liver,” and the like. The looseness of 
such phraseology will become apparent to anyone 
who acquires the most superficial acquaintance with 
the physiology and pathology of the unfortunate 
organ which is subjected to so much unmerited 
abuse. The most favoured application of the term 
“ biliousness ” appears to be to the headache, 
nausea, furred tongue, lack of appetite, and consti¬ 
pation, with which people are apt to wake in the 
morning after an over-indulgence in the good 
things of the table on the night before. A blue pill 
is a favourite remedy for this state of things ; but 
to persuade the patient to adopt preventive 
measures is of much more importance than to ply 
him with curative ones. 

Bill, the horny covering of the jaws of birds, 
often used to include the bones enclosed in and 
supporting this horny sheath. These bones consist 
of an upper and a lower half, technically called the 
superior and the inferior mandible respectively. 
The former is made up almost entirely of the inter¬ 
maxillary bones (which are greatly elongated) with 
the superior maxilla on each side. The latter is at 
first composed of twelve pieces, six on each side ; 


but in the adult bird these unite, and form a single 
bone, more or less resembling the letter V laid on 
its side ( <). The bill varies greatly in form and 
hardness in the different orders of birds, and even 
in the birds of some orders. These peculiarities 
will be described in treating of the groups in which 
they occur. The primary function of the bill is to 
take food, but it is also used as a weapon of offence 
and defence, to carry and arrange the materials for 
the nest, to dress the feathers, to feed the young 
brood, as a prehensile organ, and sometimes as an 
organ of touch. In this latter case (as in the 
ducks, snipes, etc.), the texture is moderately soft, 
and filaments of the fifth nerve ramify through it. 
At the base of the bill in some birds there is a fleshy 
scale called the “ cere,” which probably also serves 
as a tactile organ. The nostrils are placed at the 
base of the bill in most birds, but they may occur 
in almost any part of the upper mandible; in the 
apteryx they are at the extremity, and in the 
petrels they are tubular, and situated above and 
not in the bill. All living birds are toothless, but 


in some forms the bill is notched [Birds of Prey], 
and in others the margins of the bill are finely 
serrated as in some Divers. But the earliest forms 
known possessed true teeth [Archaeopteryx, 
Odontornithes], and traces of teeth (dental 
papillag) have been found in the young of certain 
parrots. 

Bill has numerous meanings in legal proceed¬ 
ings and otherwise, as: 

1 . Bill of Adventure , a signed declaration by a 
merchant that goods shipped in his name are the 
property of another person, for whom the goods 
are to be sold and whose “ adventure ” or speculation 
the business is. 

2. Bill of Complaint was a statement in writing 
declaring a wrong the complainant has suffered 
from the defendant, or some fault which he has 
committed against the statute law. Bills of this 
kind were addressed to the Lord Chancellor or 
others having cognisance of the matter. They are 
now abolished (but in name only ), all actions in 
the supreme Court being commenced by writ 
of summons followed in most cases by statement 
of claim. 

3. Bill of Costs. The statement of details of a 
solicitor’s charges against his client. [Costs, Bill 
of.] 

4. Bill of Exceptions to the ruling of a judge in 
his direction to the jury on a trial—either for 
mistake of law or fact. 

5. Bill of Exchange , a common engagement for 
money given by one man to another. [Exchange, 
Bill of.] 

G. Bill of Health, a certificate .signed by a consul 
or other authority, and delivered to masters of ships 
clearing for foreign ports, as to the state of 
health of the port from which the ship starts. 
When no infectious disorder is known to pre¬ 
vail, the bill is said to be “clean”; when its 
presence is suspected but not ascertained, the 
bill is “suspected” or “touched”; when it is 
known to be prevalent the bill is “foul.” 

7. Bill of Mortality, a return of the deaths 
within a certain district in a given time, specifying 
the diseases and age at death. On such returns, 
especially the “Northampton tables,” much of the 
actuarial calculations as to life insurance were 
originally based. The London “bills of mortality” 
begun in 1592, were continued till 1840, when they 
were superseded by the Registration Act. An 
allusion to them is preserved in the phrase “ within 
the bills of mortality,” an area which in the absence 
of municipal unity was taken as marking the 
extent of London. 

8 . Bill in Parliament. A draft of a new statute 
brought into either House of Parliament for adop¬ 
tion is termed “ a Bill.” [Parliamentary Bill.] 

9. Bill of Particulars is a statement of details 
of plaintiff’s demand in writing, its object being to 
furnish the defendant with a specific account of the 
plaintiff's claim against him. 

10. Bill of Peace was brought for the purpose 
of establishing and perpetuating a right claimed by 
the plaintiff, of a nature to be controverted by 
different persons at different times and by different 



BILl., SHOWING BOXES AND HORNY SHEATH. 










Billaud-V arenne. 


( 65 ) 


Billiards. 


actions (the design being to secure repose from 
perpetual litigation). The practice in this respect 
is now regulated by the Judicature Acts. 

11. Bill of Rights. The Act 1 William & Mary, 
stat. 2, c. 2, is so termed because it declares the true 
rights of British subjects. [Rights, Bill of.] 

12. Bill of Sale is a document given by one person 
to another assigning personal chattels or property 
by way of mortgage or absolutely. [Sale, Bill of.] 

13. Bill of Sight is given by Custom House 
authorities where the exact quantity or quality of 
imported goods is not known at the time. It must 
be perfected in three days. 

14. Bill of Victualling , a. list of necessary ships’ 
stores subject to duty and therefore shipped out of 
bond. Its object is to prevent smuggling, and it is 
made out by the master and countersigned by the 
Collector of Customs. Stores not on it are liable to 
destruction,under the Merchant Shipping Act of 1883. 

15. True Bill. In criminal matters when a grand 
jury have decided upon any presentment or in¬ 
dictment they write on it the words “ billa veraf 
i.e. a “ true bill.” 

Billaud-Varenne, Jacques Nicolas, revo¬ 
lutionist, was born in 1756 at Rochelle. He took a 
leading part in the murders and massacres that 
ensued on the destruction of the Bastille, and was 
notorious for his violent attitude to the royal 
family. He w r as president of the Convention in 
1793, and a member of the Committee of Public 
Safety. In 1795 he was banished to Cayenne, and 
in 1819 he died in Hayti. 

Bill-brokers, persons who sell <md buy bills 
of exchange (q.v.) and promissory notes. The busi¬ 
ness involves special knowledge of the rates of 
exchange, the state of the money market, and the 
prospects of various trades, as well as of the personal 
credit of the traders. Bill-brokers commonly confine 
their attention to the bills of some special trade, and 
very frequently also act as discount brokers, i.e. cash 
the bills offered to them, and hold them till maturity, 
deducting of course a commission for risk as well 
as the ordinary rate of discount. Here their special 
knowledge of personal credit enables them to com¬ 
pete with the banks. As some of the bills offered 
are accommodation bills (q.v.), both classes really 
at times serve as money-lenders. 

Bill Chamber, the term applied to that de¬ 
partment of the Court of Session in Scotland in 
which a judge presides at all times during session 
and vacation. The youngest judge is Lord Ordinary 
on the bills during session; the duty is performed by 
all the judges in rotation (except the two presidents) 
during vacation. All proceedings for summary 
remedies or in resistance to threatened process are 
initiated in the “ Bill Chamber,” such as prohibitions 
or injunctions against inferior courts, suspension 
of writs of execution, etc. Sequestration (which is 
analogous to bankruptcy in England) proceedings 
also originate in this department. Most of the 
proceedings therein are matters of form, requiring 
only the judge’s sanction, who is advised by the 
clerks on perusal of the papers presented if in proper 
form. On a question of law arising, the same is 

29 


remitted to the Court of Session, and the arguments 
brought forward and decided upon, as in an 
ordinary action. The Lord Ordinary on the bills 
represents the court during vacation time. A large 
portion of his duties is regulated by the statute 
1 & 2 Viet. c. 86. 

Billet, an ornament belonging to Norman 
architecture, resembling a row or pile of billets or 
logs of wood turned endwise to the spectator. It 
is formed by cutting portions out of a moulding, or 
several rows of mouldings. 

Billeting, a method of providing food and 
lodging for soldiers by quartering them on the 
inhabitants of a town, practised on the Continent 
during the annual military manoeuvres, and (under 
careful restrictions) occasionally in England. It 
has always been specially offensive to English sen¬ 
timent, and is attacked in one of the clauses of the 
Petition of Right (1628), and was prohibited by 
statute (if without the consent of the persons on 
whom the troops were billeted) in 1681. This pro¬ 
hibition, however, was a dead letter, and in 1689 
the Mutiny Act (q.v.) transferred the control of 
the practice to the municipal authorities. The 
liability is now limited by the Army Act of 1881 
to licensed victuallers and (for horses) to livery- 
stable keepers. The practice, however, is little 
resorted to since the development of railway 
communication, and the institution of military 
districts with barracks at head-quarters in which 
the militia can be accommodated has rendered it 
unnecessary during their annual training. 

Billiards. The origin of billiards is uncertain. 
At any rate nothing is known about it till nearly 
the middle of the 16th century. By some it is 
thought that it is derived from the French 
bille, a ball. French authors have credited the 
game to the English, while most English writers 
consider the game of French origin. The first 
mention of anything definite about it is in a work 
entitled The Complete Gamester , by Charles Cotton 
(1674), who in one part of his account speaks of it 
as of Italian origin, and in another part as of 
Spanish origin. Cotton states that the form of a 
billiard table is oblong, and he gives a sketch of 
two persons knocking about apparently round balls 
on a table with a raised edge to prevent the balls 
from rolling off, and having six pockets. There can 
be no doubt that the game originally was played 
with pockets, even in France. In the present day 
throughout the continent of Europe, and indeed 
throughout the greater part of America, the game 
is played on a table varying from 10 feet long by 

5 feet in width, to about 8 feet by 4 feet, having 
no pockets at all. This is generally called French 
billiards. It is played with three balls, one red and 
two white, larger than those used in English billiards. 
Each player has one white ball. They play alter¬ 
nately, the endeavour being for the player to cause 
his own ball to strike each of the other balls. This 
is called a cannon and counts one. After making 
a cannon the player continues till he fails to score. 

English billiards is played on a table 12 feet by 

6 feet, with six pockets, one at each corner of the 





Billings. 


( «« ) 


Bilney. 


table, and one in the middle of each 12-foot side. 
It is played with three balls, one red and two 
white. Each player takes one white ball. These 
are distinguished from each other by one having 
on it a small black spot; this ball is called the 
“spot white.” The diameter of the balls in 
English billiards is 2^ inch. The bed of a billiard 
table is of slate, with cushions all round of india- 
rubber; both are covered with fine green cloth. 
The pockets are little net bags. Each pocket should 
measure about 3f inches across at the fall. 

“The spot” is situated 12| inches from the 
centre of the face of the top cushion opposite to 
the baulk. At the commencement of each game 
the red ball is placed on the spot, and replaced 
there each time it runs into a pocket or gets 
knocked off the table. The “ pyramid ” or “ centre 
spot ” (where the red or opponent’s white is placed 
under certain circumstances) is at the centre of 
the top half of the table. 

The baulk is the space behind a line drawn across 
the table 29 inches from the face of the bottom 
cushion and parallel to it. At the commencement 
of each game, or after a player’s ball has gone into 
a pocket, each player has to place his ball in baulk 
in what is called the half circle, which has a 
diameter of 23 inches, the centre of which coincides 
with the centre of the baulk line. 

The players play alternately, and each one con¬ 
tinues to play on till he fails to score. Scores 
are made by means of winning and losing hazards 
and cannons. A winning hazard is when the 
player’s ball causes another ball to run into a 
pocket. A losing hazard is when the player's own 
ball runs into a pocket after first striking another 
ball. A cannon is when the player’s ball strikes 
each of the other balls. A cannon scores 2, a 
red winning or losing hazard 3, and a white 
winning or losing hazard 2. The “ spot stroke ” is 
a series of red winning hazards in the two top 
pockets, and the “all round’’game means the ordi¬ 
nary game when only two consecutive red winning- 
hazards off the spot are allowed as distinguished 
from the “ all in,” which includes any number of 
spot strokes. By far the largest “ breaks ” (or 
series of scores) have been made by these con¬ 
secutive red winning hazards. 

The cue is the stick used for the purpose of 
striking the balls. It is about 4 ft. 8 in. in length, 
and has one end thicker than the other. The 
small end of the cue is covered with a piece of 
leather called the tip. 

The great art of playing billiards well is : When 
you make a score, try also to leave the balls in a 
position where there is an easy score to make next 
time. Pyramids is played with 16 balls, 15 red 
and 1 white, and consists of winning hazards only. 
Pool (q.v.) is played by any number of persons up to 
12 or 13, each of whom has a ball of a different colour. 

Billings, Josh, the nom-de-plume of H. M. 
Shaw r , a humorous writer, was born in 1818. He was 
a land speculator in New York state, and died 1885. 

Billings, Robert William, architect, was 
born in 1813 in London. After an apprenticeship 
of seven years with John Britton, the well-known 


topographical draughtsman, he illustrated for 
George Godwin a history of St. Paul’s Cathedral in 
1837, and in 1839 The Churches of London. Mean¬ 
while in 1838 he had produced on his own account 
Illustrations of the Temple Church, London, which 
was followed by other more ambitious efforts, the 
greatest of which was Baronial and, Ecclesiastical 
Antiquities of Scotland, 4 vols., 1845-52. Besides 
his numerous publications Billings was also 
employed as a restorer—in this capacity doing the 
chapel of Edinburgh Castle, the Douglas room in 
Stirling Castle, etc. He died in 1874 at Putney in 
the Moulinere, a house once occupied by Sarah, 
Duchess of Marlborough. 

Billingsgate, the chief market for fish in 
London, is sit uated bet ween London Bridge and the 
Custom House, on the north bank of the Thames. 
By the Act of 1699 it was made a “ free market for 
fish,” and until 1846 it was merely a collection of 
sheds. In 1874 the present stone building was 
finished. The name Billingsgate is also given to 
coarse and low language. 

Billington, Elizabeth, singer, was born 
about 1768, in Soho, London. Her father’s name 
was Weichsel, a native of Freiberg, Saxony, and 
himself a musician. Her mother, too, w r as a singer 
of some distinction. Elizabeth was trained by her 
father, and made her first appearance on the stage 
at Dublin. Meanwhile she had been secretly 
married to James Billington, a double-bass in the 
Drury Lane orchestra. In 1786, after a twelve 
nights’ engagement, at Covent Garden, she was 
engaged from the end of February for the season 
at £1,000. After this she made a continental 
tour, singing with marked success at Naples, 
Florence, Leghorn, Venice, and Milan, where she 
was received by the Empress Josephine. In 1799 
she married again, a Frenchman, Felissent, whose 
ill usage compelled her to leave him. She returned 
to London in 1801, in which year she is said to have 
made as much as between £10,000 and £15,000. In 
1811 she retired, living in magnificent style at 
Fulham until 1818, when Felissent induced her to 
accompany him to the Continent. In that year she 
died near Venice, at the hands, it was suspected, of 
her base husband. In the opinion of many she was 
the greatest singer England ever produced. 

Billion, one million millions, represented in 
figures thus 1,000,000,000,000. It is often, especially 
in America, confused with the French billion, which 
is only one thousand millions. 

Billiton, or Blitong, an island in the E. Indies 
belonging to the Dutch, lies between Sumatra and 
Borneo, and has an area of about 20,000 square 
miles. From 1812 to 1824 it belonged to England, 
who ceded it to Holland. Among its products are 
tortoises, edible birds’-nests, rice, iron, tin, pepper, 
and timber. 

Bilney, Thomas, martyr, was born about the 
end of the fifteenth century, in Norfolk. He studied 
at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and was ordained priest 
by Bishop West at Ely in 1519. After some heart- 
searchings and spiritual struggles, he became 
converted to the Reformed doctrines, and in 1526 






Bilocation. 


( 67 ) 


Bimetallism. 


was brought before Wolsey on a charge of heresy. 
On taking an oath that lie would refrain from 
promulgating the doctrines of Luther, he was 
dismissed, but in the following year he was again 
arraigned and flung into the Tower for a year. 
After a period of despondency brought on by reflect¬ 
ing on his vacillation he again began to preach, was 
again apprehended, and condemned to be burned as 
a heretic at Norwich. The martyrdom took place 
in the Lollards’ pit on August 19th, 1531. 

Bilocation, a word adopted into English from 
the Eccles. Lat.. bilocatio— the power or state of 
being in two places at the same time. This power 
is said to have been possessed by many of the 
Roman saints, notably by St. Francis Xavier and 
St. Alfonso di Liguori; and in the case of the 
latter it is attributed to him in the office for his 
feast (August 2). On the subject of phenomena of 
this class Tylor remarks that the reception and 
explanation of them fit perfectly with the primitive 
animistic theory of apparitions. [Astral Body.] 

Bilston, formerly Bilsreton, a market town 
in S. Staffordshire, England, and united to the 
Parliamentary borough of Wolverhampton, from 
which it is only 24 miles distant. It is the centre 
of the English hardware trade. 

Bimana, an order of Mammals created by 
Cuvier for Man, but now only retained by the few 
zoologists who refuse to recognise the teachings of 
Evolution (q.v.). Johann Friedrich Blumenbach 
(1752-1840) appears to have first used the term in 
his treatise On the Natural Variety of Mankind , 
and as the authority of the Gottingen anatomist is 
so often invoked to defend the division of the 
Linnaean Primates (q.v.) into Bimana and Quadru- 
mana, the passage is here given :—“ From what has 
been so far said about the erect stature of man 
follows the highest prerogative of his external con¬ 
formation, namely, the freest use of two most perfect 
hands. . . . For in the anthropomorphous apes 

themselves, the principal feature of the hands, I 
mean the thumb, is short in proportion, and almost 
nailless, and, to use the expression of the famous 
Eustachius, quite ridiculous ; so that it is true 
that no other hand, except the human hand, 
deserves the appellation of the organ of organs with 
which the Stagirite glorifies it.” [Foot, Hand, 
Qua drum an A.] The reader should also consult 
Huxley’s Man's Place in Nature, and Mivart’s Man 
and Apes. 

Bimetallism, the name given to a system of 
coinage under which both gold and silver are legal 
tender, the value relatively to one another being- 
fixed at a certain ratio, that proposed being usually 
1 to 15f. At present, though both are used in the 
coinage of the more advanced countries, yet the 
basis"of the currency is usually gold only, silver 
being used as token money, with a conventional 
value. Thus 100 shillings are not the equivalent 
of so much silver bullion as five sovereigns will 
purchase, and silver is only legal tender in England 
for sums under 40s. 

As commerce is at present constituted, some 
nations tend naturally to use silver as a standard, 


others to use gold. Thus in most of the states of 
South America, where food is plentiful, wages and 
the prices of the necessaries of life low, and the great 
mass of the population has but few wants, a gold coin¬ 
age would hardly circulate at all, unless the pieces 
were too small to be of any practical use, because the 
number of people who want to spend a sum equal to 
10s. or £1 all at once is relatively very few. On the 
other hand, as a country becomes richer, it tends 
to adopt a gold standard, to save trouble in the 
carriage and handling of coin. Now in trade be¬ 
tween a country with a gold standard and one with 
a silver standard, in addition to all the ordinary risks 
of commerce there is the uncertainty arising from 
the fact that the existing market ratio between the 
values of gold and of silver is constantly fluctuating; 
and (with the narrow profits gained on modern com¬ 
mercial transactions, taken singly) the fluctuation 
may make the difference between profit and loss. 
Such fluctuation, it is alleged, discourages trade. 
Still more does it discourage investment of foreign 
capital in silver-using countries—silver, it must be 
remembered, having fallen in value almost steadily 
since 1872. A railway in Mexico, for instance, where 
silver is the basis of the currency, may be owned by 
English shareholders, and fix its rates and fares on 
the hypothesis that the ratio of gold to silver will 
be as 1 to 20. A very slight depreciation of silver 
may cause a loss on exchange sufficient to reduce 
the dividend seriously. And a company cannot re¬ 
adjust its whole tariff with every variation in the 
price of silver. Most of all, it is said, does the 
system affect the European producer of goods also 
produced in silver-using countries. The Indian 
wheat grower has been accustomed to sell his wheat 
for export for a certain amount of silver. Silver 
having fallen relatively to gold, this amount is 
obtainable by the European purchaser more cheaply 
than formerly; he therefore has an inducement 
to purchase more Indian wheat, and so the fall in 
the price of silver acts as a bounty on the import 
of Indian wheat, which competes with the wheat of 
Europe. The Government of India, again, raises 
its revenue in silver from the Indian people, but 
must purchase stores and make various other pay¬ 
ments in Europe in gold or its equivalent. Every 
fall in silver decreases its ability to do so ; and 
the capacity of the mass of the Indian people to 
bear taxation is already strained to its utmost 
limits. Indian officials, too, whose pay is estimated 
in silver rupees, but to a great extent remitted to 
England to make purchases, feel acutely the fall in 
silver, in consequence of which 13 or 14 rupees 
exchange for a sovereign instead of 10 as formerly. 

After the Franco-German war and the unifica¬ 
tion of Germany the silver coinage of that country 
was replaced by gold. Part of the demonetised 
silver was offered for sale—3,552,000 kilogrammes 
from 1873 to 1879 inclusive, while at the same 
time there was an increase of nearly 50 per cent, 
in the weight of silver obtained from the mines— 
chiefly in the United States—between 1876 and 
1885. Moreover, the demand at the same time 
decreased, partly from the cessation of free coin¬ 
age (or unlimited coinage on demand) in Ger¬ 
many, the Latin Union, and Holland; and from a 





Bimetallism. 


( «» ) 


Bingham. 


diminution in the Indian demand, due in part to the 
substitution of bills for silver in the remittances 
of the English Government to India, in part to the 
cessation of special causes which between 1857 and 
about 1871 stimulated an exceptional export of 
silver to that country. Thus, while in 1872 the 
market price of silver averaged over 59d. per oz., in 
1888 it fell below 42d. Along with this has gone 
“ tlie appreciation of gold ” (to use Mr. Goschen’s 
phrase), partly from increased demand by the 
countries which have substituted a gold for a silver 
standard, viz. Germany, Holland, and the Scan¬ 
dinavian countries ; partly from increased hoarding 
by individuals and governments, owing to the un¬ 
certainties of the political and commercial world ; 
partly from an increase in its use in manufactures ; 
partly from a decrease of supply. Hence there has 
been a general fall in the prices of commodities, 
that is in their values estimated in gold. (But 
no doubt much of this fall is due to increased 
supply consequent on improved methods of produc¬ 
tion, and to that temporary over-production which 
always results before the new methods and 
machinery have driven the old out of the field; 
and the relative degree in which it is due to either 
set of causes is one of the most hotly disputed 
points in the controversy.) 

The bimetallists therefore propose that the chief 
trading countries of the world shall agree to adopt 
a double standard—that is to allow free coinage (see 
above) of both silver and gold, fixing a ratio between 
them. That usually proposed is 15| to 1, or about 
the ordinary market ratio before the fall com¬ 
menced ; but some bimetallists are ready to accept a 
ratio of about 22 to 1, which more nearly represents 
the present state of things. The monometallists 
object that were both metals legal tender, debtors 
would at once hasten to discharge their debts in the 
cheaper metal, whenever a variation in the market 
ratio occurred. The bimetallists, however, reply that 
such a movement would at once check the variation ; 
the increased demand for silver if its value fell 
would check the fall; and that in any case an inter¬ 
national agreement would practically avail to keep 
up the ratio. Bimetallism indeed, they urge, did 
exist in some degree from 1868 to 1872, when the 
Latin Union—France, Belgium, Italy, and Switzer¬ 
land—practised the free coinage of silver as well as 
gold, coins issued in any one of the countries being 
legal tender in the rest, and the same agreement is 
practicable on a more extended scale. Moreover, 
the supply of gold is not likely to increase, while 
the supply of silver is ; and though in practice more 
than 99 per cent, of wholesale purchases are 
paid for not by gold but by bills, cheques, and other 
credit substitutes for money, yet the value of these 
depends on their convertibility into metallic stan¬ 
dard coin at will. Hence in any monetary crisis 
at present there is a sudden and severe demand 
for gold, if only as the basis of fresh issues of bank 
notes. Bimetallism, therefore, it is urged, would 
supplement the supply of metal available for coinage 
in a way impossible if gold is the only standard. 

It is, however, this increased supply of silver 
(probably capable of very great extension) which is 
the great difficulty of bimetallism. This part of 


the case against it has been effectually put by Mr. 
David A. Wells (.Recent Economic Changes'). Mr. 
Giffen’s Essays in Finance may also be consulted 
on this side. Professor Walker’s Political Economy 
gives a concise and impartial sketch of the theory, 
to which this article is considerably indebted. 
In its support much has been written, particularly 
by M. Cernuschi, Mr. H. Hucks Gibbs, and Mr. 
Samuel Smith. Professor J. S. Nicholson’s Essays 
on Money and Monetary Problems must also be 
mentioned, and a concise statement of “ The case for 
Bimetallism” will be found in Sir Louis Mallet’s 
Remains (1891). The report of the Gold and Silver 
Commission (1888), of which a useful summary 
has been published by the Bimetallic League, con¬ 
tains much valuable information. The commis¬ 
sioners were equally divided for and against bimetal¬ 
lism, and the controversy is still quite unsettled. 
Of course only a scanty outline of it has here been 
given. 

Binary Theory. The term salt was originally 
given to sea-salt only, and it was afterwards 
extended to many other substances resembling it 
more or less in taste and other characteristics. 
When it was found that bases and acids by their 
interaction gave rise to salts, different speculations 
regarding the nature of these compounds were 
brought forward. Berzelius stated that all com¬ 
pounds consisted of two parts, one electro-negative, 
the other electro-positive. In the case of salts of 
oxyacids, such as Na 2 S0 4 , he regarded the two 
parts as Na 2 0 electro-positive, and S0 3 electro¬ 
negative, i.e. an electro-positive basic oxide and an 
electro-negative acid oxide. Davy, however, re¬ 
garded all salts as compounds of a metal with an 
acid radical which might be an element, as in 
NaCl, etc., or a group of elements. Thus in the 
salt above, Na 2 S0 4 the two component parts would, 
according to Davy’s view, be Na 2 and S0 4 . This 
was called the Binary Theory of Salts, which was 
supported by many contemporary chemists, and 
afterwards by Liebig, Daniell, and Miller. 

Bindweed, the name commonly applied by 
farmers and gardeners to the small Convolvulus 
o.rvensis with pink and white flowers, a tiresome 
field weed; to the large Calystegia sc pinto, with 
large white flowers, in hedgerows; and to Polygonum 
Convolvulus, the climbing buckwheat or black bind¬ 
weed, an equal pest, only resembling the others in 
its twining mode of growth and in the shape of its 
leaves. 

Bingen (Lat. Bingiuni), a town on the left 
bank of the Rhine, in the grand-duchy of Hesse- 
Darmstadt, a province of Rhenish Hesse, Germany. 
It is pleasantly situated near the confluence of the 
Nahe, and does a good trade in wine, grain, and 
cattle, having factories also for tobacco, starch, and 
leather. Almost opposite, in the mid-stream of 
the Rhine, stands the Mause-Thurm, with which 
the myth of Bishop Hatto is associated, and a little 
lower is the famous rapid, the Bingerloch, no 
longer a source of terror. 

Bingham, Joseph, born at Wakefield, York¬ 
shire, in 1668. He became a fellow and tutor of 









Binnacle. 


( GO ) 


Biography. 


University College, Oxford, but was driven from his 
post by a charge of heresy unfairly urged against 
him for a sermon preached in St. Mary’s. Dr. Rad- 
cliffe gave him a living in Hampshire, where he 
spent his life in the composition of his learned 
work Origines Ecclesiastics. He lost his all in the 
South Sea scheme, and died in 1723. 

Binnacle (anciently Bittacle, from the French 
hdbitacle), the box or case which is intended to 
contain a ship’s compass and the light which at 
night illuminates it. 

Binney, Thomas, was born at Newcastle-on - 
Tyne in 1798, and began life in a bookseller’s shop. 
In 1824, having entered the Congregational 
ministry, he became pastor of Newport, Isle of 
Wight, whence he was invited in 1829 to the Weigh 
House chapel, near London Bridge. Here he 
founded a solid and deserved reputation, and 
gradually became the recognised leader of the 
Nonconformists as a body. Though strongly opposed 
to a State church, he was a man of broad culture 
and liberal sympathies, so that he lived on friendly 
terms with his ecclesiastical adversaries. He visited 
the United States, Canada, and Australia, and con¬ 
tinued preaching vigorously until 1871, when he 
retired. His influence was directed towards im¬ 
proving the external qualities of Congregational 
services, and to that end he wrote The Service of 
Song in the House of the Lord. Among his other 
books the most popular are, Is it Possible to mahc 
the Best of both Worlds? and Moneya Popular 
Exposition in Hough Notes. He died in 1874. 

Binocular, a microscope or telescope in which 
there are two systems of lenses, arranged one for 
each eye. [Opera Glass, Microscope.] 

Binomial Theorem, a famous theorem in 
Algebra, which gives any power of an expression of 
two terms in the form of a series. Thus the fifth 
power of the expression (a + b ) may be expanded 
to a series of six terms. Newton proved the 
theorem to be generally true, for powers fractional 
and negative, but it should be clearly understood 
that there are cases where it fails, as for instance 
in the expansion (1— a;)- 1 where x is any number 
greater than unity. The Binomial Theorem is only 
a special case of the much more general Taylor’s 
Theorem of the higher calculus. 

Bintang, an island to the S. of the Straits of 
Malacca. It, has an area of 440 square miles, and is 
swampy, but produces pepper, spices, and gambier , 
a plant used in dyeing. Though nominally a pos¬ 
session of the Sultan of Johore, it is practically 
under the control of the Dutch, who have built 
Riauw as a rival to Singapore on a neighbouring 
islet. 

Binturong, any individual of the genus Arct- 
ictis, of the Civet family, with a single species 
(A. binturong ), ranging from Nepaul to Sumat ra and 
Java. The binturong is a slow nocturnal arboreal 
short-legged animal, with a tapering prehensile 
tail, and having some external resemblance to the 
raccoons, with which it was formerly classed. 
Length about thirty inches from the snout to the 


insertion of the tail, which is about as much more. 
The fur is coarse and dark, with the exception of a 
white border to the long tufted ears. These 
animals are omnivorous in their diet, and are easily 
tamed. 

Biobio, a river in Chili, South America, which, 
rising in the Andes, flows N.W. between the 
provinces of Concepcion and Arauco, and empties 
itself into the Pacific after a course of some 200 
miles, at the port of New Concepcion. 

Biogenesis, the theory that living matter is 
never produced but by the action of previous living 
matter. [Abiogenesis.] (The names were first 
coined by Professor Huxley, at the British Associa¬ 
tion, 1870.) 

Biography (Greek, a description of life) is 
an account of the life and character of some actual 
person. The types of it are very various. A 
biography may be a mere chronicle of facts, like 
Marcellinus’ Life of Thucydides, or Cornelius Nepos’ 
lives (all but one of which, however, are abridgments); 
it may be written with a special purpose—thus, 
Xenophon’s Memorabilia is written to defend 
Socrates’ character, but not to describe his philoso¬ 
phical views; Sallust's Catiline is probably in¬ 
tended to whitewash Julius Caesar, and Plutarch’s 
lives have a religious and moral as well as a purely 
biographical purpose. Or it may consist largely 
of carefully selected table talk, as does Boswell s 
Life of Johnson— in many ways the most vivid of 
English biographies. Or it may describe not only 
the person, but his contemporaries of all sorts—like 
Masson's Life of Milton. Again, many modern 
biographies pay much attention to the ancestry 
and education of their subject, the. conditions 
which helped to form his character, etc. Those of 
Schopenhauer, the German philosopher, in whose 
family there was insanity, and whose character 
and education were both very anomalous, are con¬ 
spicuous instances. Probably the so-called “ scien¬ 
tific biography” of this type has a great future 
before it. But the artistic biography, when really 
well written, is often far more truthful and more 
permanently valuable than many far more laborious 
or detailed biographies, because the insight and 
sympathy of the author more than supply the place 
of much research. On the other hand there are 
many very valuable biographies in which the work 
of the biographer consists mainly of selection and 
arrangement; and the book is made up of letters, 
etc., connected by a thread of narrative. 

Biographical dictionaries deserve a passing men¬ 
tion. " The French Biographic Universelle of some 
35 vols. was published in France between 1830 and 
1835. A comprehensive dictionary of German 
biography is in progress, and so also is the English 
Dictionary of National Biography. Though pri¬ 
marily sources of information, these, especially the 
latter, possess some literary value. The same 
may be said of the biographies of men eminent 
in some special branch of art or science. Every 
great newspaper office contains many biographies 
of eminent living men, carefully. written and 
frequently revised, ready for publication simul¬ 
taneously with the announcement of their death. 







Biography 


( 70 ) 


Biology, 


These, too, are often of some literary value. But 
a fashion has arisen of late years of publishing 
the lives of eminent men in their lifetime. Mr. 
Gladstone’s character has been analysed in special 
works alike by friends and foes ; the same is true of 
Prince Bismarck, Lord Beaconsfield, and others ; 
and the ablest but most hostile account of Napo¬ 
leon III. was published in his lifetime in King-lake’s 
War in the Crimea. 

Much biographical matter is, of course, not bio¬ 
graphical in form— e.g. contemporary memoirs or 
histories of court and political life; or such col¬ 
lections of letters as those of Cicero and Madame 
de Sevigne; while such character sketches as 
are found in Shakespeare’s historical plays may 
often be more vivid and truthful than a formal Life. 
Much history, too, is inseparable from biography, 
though the student must not fall into the error of 
supposing, with the late Canon Kingsley, that 
“history is concerned with men and women, and 
with nothing else.” The modern scientific schools 
of historians would say that the reverse was nearer 
the truth; that the conditions which make the 
personages, geographical, economic, political, racial, 
etc., are more important, in so far as they can be 
assigned, than the personages by themselves ; and 
that economic history, constitutional law, and the 
social and intellectual life of the masses are of 
more substantial importance than the conspicuous 
personal traits and events which stand out from the 
history. 

Religious biographies, especially in modern 
times, are of special importance, partly from their 
numbers, and partly because they are one of the 
most conspicuous forms of the psychological type of 
biography. Unfortunately many of them are very 
inferior in execution, taste, and literary ability, 
and many of the personages are utterly unim¬ 
portant in history. 

But the most valuable type as a study of cha¬ 
racter is probably t he autobiography (Greek autos , 
self) for its self-revelations, conscious or uncon¬ 
scious, of the character of its author and subject. 
Such a work as Rousseau’s Confessions is a realistic 
study of a morbid, weak, restless, yet versatile and 
powerful mind. The Journal of Marie Bashkirtseff 
(q.v.) is a striking example of somewhat the 
same type. St. Augustine’s Confessions and Car¬ 
dinal Newman’s Apologia are conspicuous in¬ 
stances of religious mind-history; Goethe’s Aus 
vieinem Lehen is a sketch of the growth of the 
author's own culture and powers, of which, unfor¬ 
tunately, much is certainly fiction ; while two of 
the best of recent autobiographies are that of 
Mark Pattison and that of John Stuart Mill—the 
latter mainly as a history of the growth of the reli¬ 
gious and philosophical opinions of a man whose 
early training was both exceptionally severe and 
remarkably unsuitable. 

The question as to the degree of reticence a bio¬ 
grapher should observe as to his hero’s faults has 
been sometimes discussed. Most biographers have 
glossed them over, on the principle that nothing but 
good should be spoken of the dead. This, however, 
is hardly fair to posterity. Yet to mention them 
may be to give them an unfair prominence above the 


mass of unimportant detail which makes up most 
of every man’s life. Mr. Froude’s Carlyle is a con¬ 
spicuous instance of this latter extreme. 

Biology, from the Greek bids, life, logos , science, 
is a modern name for the science of living beings, 
whether animal or vegetable, expressing in its 
comprehensiveness the recently-acquired conviction 
of students of Nature that there is a fundamental 
unity in the life of plants and animals. Botany and 
zoology are but subdivisions of this science, and, as 
it is difficult to distinguish some of the lowest 
plants from the lowest animals, they are indefinite 
subdivisions. Modern biology concerns itself less 
with the detailed classification of plants and 
animals or with the study of their dead remains 
than with their life, growth, development, and 
mutual relations as living beings. We can here only 
indicate the leading questions or groups of ques¬ 
tions which form the subject-matter of the science. 

Firstly, in defining the province of biology we 
have to attempt to explain the nature of life itself 
[Life], which we do by investigating the general 
properties of living bodies, and especially those 
distinguishing them from non-living bodies. Thus, 
true or active vitality is unknown to us in the 
absence of a certain extremely complex chemical 
substance, or rather mixture of substances, contain¬ 
ing carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and traces 
of sulphur, and known as protoplasm (q.v.). This 
substance is unknown except in living beings. 
Protoplasm is during active life constantly decom¬ 
posing into such simpler substances as carbonic 
acid, water, and ammonia, which may be 
excreted by the organism. This decomposition, 
known as katabolism (q.v.), is, however, accom¬ 
panied by a power of self-restoration, by the taking- 
in of suitable simple nutritive matters and the 
building of them up (anabolism) into new proto¬ 
plasm. This is the chemical aspect of life, and such 
life can only occur at certain temperatures (varying 
with the kind of organism) and in the presence of 
moisture, oxygen, and other food-material. If the 
anabolism, or building up of protoplasm, does not 
equal the katabolism, we have death, local or 
systemic ; if it exceeds the katabolism, we have 
growth. The growth of living beings differs from 
that of inanimate matter (accretion) in that it 
almost invariably results in the production of a 
variety or heterogeneity of structure, which we term 
organisation, and this organisation is accompanied 
by a variety of function, or physiological division of 
labour. Living beings have commonly curved 
surfaces, which contrast with the plane faces of 
crystalline minerals. That division of biology that 
deals with form is termed Morphology (q.v.) ; that 
which deals with structure, Anatomy (q.v.) ; and 
that which deals with function, Physiology (q.v.). 
When the growth of a living being has reached a 
certain stage it may become discontinuous, the 
separated portion forming a new individual. This is 
Reproduction (q.v.). All t he functions of an organism 
may be classified as those of nutrition (including 
alimentation and growth), those of reproduction, 
and those of relation (including sensation, the 
senses and motion), which are subsidiary to the 







Biology. 


( 71 ) 


Birbhum. 


others, bringing the living being into relation with 
its surroundings. The latter, as more distinctive 
of animals, are sometimes called the animal 
functions. 

Whilst the protoplasm of living beings gives rise 
to many chemical compounds unknown in inanimate 
nature, a yet more striking characteristic which it 
generally exhibits is that of being divided up into 
more or less distinct minute masses or structural 
units known as cells (q.v.). Plants differ from 
animals in having their cells commonly enclosed by 
a membrane or cell wall of simpler composition. 
Similar cells maybe grouped together into what are 
termed tissues, and that branch of anatomy which 
deals with cells and tissues is termed histology 
(q.v.). 

The lowest plants and animals consist of a single 
cell, or are unicellular, and multiply by simple 
fission [Schizophyta], and the higher plants and 
animals all begin their individual existence as a 
single cell, ovum, or egg-cell. In these latter this 
cell by division gives rise to more complex struc¬ 
tures, certain parts or organs being gradually shaped 
for the performance of certain functions. Whilst 
the germs or embryos of large classes of plants or 
animals resemble one another, as they develop they 
become more and moi*e unlike, resembling, that is, 
the members of smaller and smaller sub-classes. 
This is Yon Baer’s law that ontogeny, or individual 
development, recapitulates phylogeny, or the history 
of the evolution of the race. It is no contradiction 
of this principle of progressive evolution that we 
find cases of degeneration (q.v.), parasites, for 
instance, often losing many organs which their easy 
mode of life renders superfluous. Thus biology has 
to deal with embryology (q.v.), and with classifica¬ 
tion (q.v.) as the tabulated result of phylogeny. 
This study is facilitated by that of the fossil 
remains of organisms now extinct, the ancestors of 
those now living. [Palaeontology.] 

Whilst nutrition serves to maintain the life of 
the individual, and reproduction to provide one or 
more new individuals to succeed it at its death, the 
increase thus brought about inevitably leads to dis¬ 
persal, and organisms have many structures, such 
as organs of flight, adapted to that end. Thus the 
struggle for existence has led to the existing geo¬ 
graphical distribution [Distribution] of plants 
and animals. 

Biology has also to deal with many complex 
questions as to the relations of different classes of 
organisms to one another, such as those of symbiosis, 
parasitism, protective mimicry, the pollination of 
flowers by insects, etc., referred to under these 
various heads. 

Lastly we have the great problems of (stiolofjy , or 
the causes of biological phenomena, such as the 
origin of living matter, the possibility of spontaneous 
generation or abiogenesis (q.v.) at the present time, 
and the origin of the existing specific differences 
between organisms whether by creation (q.v.) or by 
descent with variation. [Darwinism, Evolution, 
and Variation.] 

The practical study of biology in this country 
generally begins with the examination, both 
anatomical and physiological, of selected types of 


the great divisions of the animal and vegetable 

kingdoms, noting their likenesses and unlikenesses. 

\ 

Bion, the Greek bucolic poet, was born some¬ 
where near Smyrna, and was probably a contempo¬ 
rary of Theocritus, and somewhat senior to Moschus, 
who wrote a sketch of his life, which was apparently 
passed in Sicily. It is said he died of poison 
administered by jealous rivals. The fragments left 
of his works show little affinity with the pastorals 
of his brother poets. He is more thoughtful and 
refined, and hardly touches on rural matter. His 
Epitaph of Adonis, the longest and best known of 
his productions, has served as a model to many 
imitators. 

Bioplasm (from bios , life, and plasma , that 
which is capable of being fashioned), a term due 
to Professor Lionel Beale, signifying formative or 
germinal matter. 

Biot, Jean Baptiste, was born at Paris in 1774, 
and at first entered the artillery, but his fondness 
for science led to his being sent to the Ecole Poly¬ 
technique. He was presently appointed professor 
of mathematics at Beauvais, and became the friend 
of Laplace. In 1800 he was called to the chair of 
natural philosophy in the College of France. He 
assisted Gay-Lussac in his balloon experiments, and 
undertook with Arago the measurement of an arc of 
the meridian between the Pyrenees and Formentera. 
This he joined ten years later to the measurements 
effected in England and Scotland for the trigo¬ 
nometrical survey. In 1808 he devoted himself to the 
study of the phenomena of polarised light, making 
several important discoveries almost simultaneously 
with Seebeckand Brewster. He died in 1862. 

Biped, a term popularly applied to man, and to 
such of the lower animals as use only the pelvic 
limbs for progression on the ground. The term is 
sometimes used of any of the Chordata (q.v.), in 
which only two limbs are present (as in the Cetacea 
and Sirenia, and some lizards and fish), whether 
these limbs are pectoral or pelvic, i.e. corresponding 
to the human arm or leg. 

Bipinnaria, the common larva of the starfish. 

Biquadratic, an algebraic expression, in which 
the highest power occurring is the fourth. Simi¬ 
larly, a biquadratic equation is one in which the 
fourth power of the unknown quantity is the highest 
that occurs. The theory of equation then shows 
us that there are four roots to such an equation, 
all of which may be obtained by special methods. 

Birbhum, a district and town in the Bardwan 
division of Bengal, British India. The former lies 
S. of Bhagalpur, and N. cf the Bardwan district, 
from which it is divided by the river Ajai. The area 
is 1,344 square miles, and it is densely populated. 
Towards the E. extends the alluvial plain of the 
Ganges, producing abundance of rice, grain, sugar, 
oil-seeds, and silk.' Hilly jungles occupy much of 
the country to the W. and N. Coal and iron are 
found. The town, also called Suri, is only important 
as being the administrative centre. 








Birch. 


( 72 ) 


Bird Cherry. 


Birch, the general name for the trees and shrubs 
forming the genus Betula in the order Betnlacece. 
The genus includes some 25 species, natives of 
northern latitudes. They have slender branches; 
scattered, serrate, deciduous leaves ; and catkins 
both male and female produced on the same tree 
simultaneously with the leaves. The male catkins 

fall off whole, 
whilst the female 
ones come to 
pieces, liberating 
the little winged 
fruits. In most of 
the species, as in 
the common Bri¬ 
tish forms, the 
bark is marked 
by long trans¬ 
verse lenticels and 
flakes off in thin 
sheets. This ren¬ 
ders it a tree 
suited to smoky 
towns. Betula 
alba, our species, 
seldom exceeds a 
foot in diameter. 
It has deltoid 
leaves on long pe¬ 
tioles. It forms 
extensive forests 
in Russia and Si¬ 
beria, and extends 
far northward and 
to an altitude of 
2,500 feet in the 
Scottish High¬ 
lands. Its wood is 
used by turners, 
carriage -builders, 
and upholsterers, 
as firewood, and 
for charcoal; its 
branches for 
brooms ; its bark 
for roofing, for 
making boxes, jars, and shoes, for tanning Russia 
leather, and even by the Samoyedes as a bread¬ 
stuff ; its leaves by the Finlanders as tea; and its 
sugary sap, when fermented, as a wine or spirit. 
B. leyita, the black birch of Canada, reaches a 
height of 60 or 70 feet, and a diameter of 2 or 3 feet : 
B.papyracea, the canoe or paper birch of the same 
country, though becoming stunted beyond the arctic 
circle, grows in latitude 70° N., and the Himalayan 
B. Bhojputtra occurs at a height of 9,000 feet. 

Birch, Samuel, LL.D., was born in London in 
1813, being the son of a rector of St. Mary Woolnoth. 
He was educated at Merchant Taylors’ and other 
schools, and in 1834 was employed by the Commis¬ 
sioners of Public Records. Two years later he 
entered the Department of Antiquities in the British 
Museum, and in 1861 was appointed keeper of the 
Oriental antiquities. As an Egyptologist Dr. Birch 
acquired a high reputation, writing an Introduction 


to the Study of Hieroglyphics, a History of Ancient 
Pottery, and a Selection of Hieratic Papyri, besides 
translating Bunsen’s important work and editing 
other valuable publications. He contributed much 
to the study of Biblical archaeology. He never 
visited Egypt or the East, and so was not associated 
with any original discoveries. He received honorary 
degrees from Oxford and Cambridge and many other 
distinctions, and died in 1885. 

Birch, Thomas, was born in London in 1705, of 
a Quaker family, and was intended to make coffee- 
mills, as his father had done. However, his tastes 
lay in another direction, and by hard work he 
qualified as a clergyman of the Established Church, 
and, obtaining the patronage of Lord Hardwicke, 
received valuable preferments, the last being the 
rectory of Debden, Essex. He was also private 
chaplain to Princess Amelia. But it was as an anti¬ 
quarian and literary man that he acquired fame. In 
1735 he was made F.R.S., and from 1752 to 1765 was 
secretary to the Royal Society, of which he wrote 
a history. He was also a trustee of the British 
Museum, to which he left his library. His works 
were very numerous, and covered a wide range of 
subjects, but none of them possess lasting interest. 
He was killed by a fall from his horse in 1765. 

Birch-Pfeiffer, Charlotte, was born at 
Stuttgart in 1800, and first appeared on the stage 
at Munich in her thirteenth year. Marrying in 
1825 Mr. Birch of Copenhagen, she added his name 
to her own. She enjoyed considerable success as 
an actress, and in 1838 assumed the management 
of the Zurich theatre, and in 1849 took a permanent 
engagement at the theatre royal, Berlin. Many 
popular dramas, besides novels and sketches, came 
from her pen. She died in 1868. 

Bird, Golding, M.D., was born in 1815, and 
entered the medical profession, taking his degree 
at the university of St. Andrew's, and obtaining 
the fellowship of the College of Physicians, London. 
He was attached to the medical school of Guy's 
hospital, and in 1844 published a remarkable work 
on renal diseases and the functions of the kidney. 
His labours vastly extended the scope of diagnosis 
in disorders connected with that organ, and he at 
once sprang into a great practice, receiving, too, 
the fellowship of the Royal Society. Unhappily 
his overtaxed constitution was undermined by the 
very malady which he had made his special study, 
and he died in 1854. 

Bird, or Byrd, William, was born about 1540. 
and became in 1563 organist of Lincoln cathedral. 
He studied under Tallis, with whom in 1575 he was 
appointed organist to Queen Elizabeth and gentle¬ 
man of the Chapel Royal. He was the earliest 
English composer of madrigals, and he also wrote 
many sacred pieces, some of which appeared in 
Elizabeth’s Virginal Booh, others in independent 
collections. They are said to display remarkable 
freedom and elegance. To him is ascribed the 
well-known round or vocal canon Non Nobis Bomine . 
He died in 1623. 

Bird Cherry ( Cerasus Padus), known in Scot¬ 
land as the hagberry, is a small tree differing from 









Bird-lime. 


( 73 ) 


Birds. 


other British species of cherry in having its flowers 
in terminal racemes. Its fruit is small, black, and 
bitter. 

Bird-lime, a sticky, viscid substance, used by 
bird-catchers. The bird-lime is spread on twigs, 
and around a cage containing a decoy bird. The 
birds, attracted by the singing of the decoy, alight 
on the prepared twigs, from which they are unable 
to extricate themselves. It may be prepared by 
bruising holly bark, boiling with water, and allowing 
to stand for some weeks ; or from flour, by im¬ 
mersing in water in a calico bag, and squeezing out 
the starch ; also by boiling linseed oil until the 
desired consistency is obtained. 

Birds, the class Aves, as generally understood 
by systematic zoologists, but of late years classi¬ 
fied with the reptiles in one large order, Saurop- 
sida■ of Huxley. Although apparently so diffe¬ 
rent in external appearance from the Reptilia, 
birds are but highly modified reptiles, when the 
characters of their osteology and comparative 
anatomy are taken into account. The chief out¬ 
ward difference consists in the fact that birds have 
feathers, which no reptile possesses. Their young, 
likewise, are hatched from eggs, but this is by no 
means a character peculiar to birds, for it is now 
known that among the mammalia the Ornitho- 
rhynchus produces its young from an egg, while 
turtles and crocodiles and many snakes also 
lay eggs. Birds may, therefore, be described as 
warm-blooded, oviparous, vertebrate animals, 
clothed with feathers. 

The earliest fossil remains of any form of bird 
have been found in the Jurassic rocks of Bavaria 
(Arclneopteryx); they have also been discovered 
in the Cretaceous, Eocene, Miocene, and all the 
later deposits both of this country and abroad. 

It has been ascertained beyond all doubt that the 
most ancient birds possessed teeth, and that the 
feathers, though veritable plumes, were not quite of 
the same character as those observed in the birds of 
the present epoch. Thus the Archa-opteryx, the won¬ 
derful fossil form of extinct bird-life discovered 
in the lithographic slate of Solenhofen in Bavaria, 
had an enormously long tail, exceeding the length 
of the body itself, and furnished with lateral 
plumes along’ its entire extent. Hence it has been 
proposed by Professor Gill in America to divide 
birds into two main divisions, one of which would 
comprise the lizard-tailed Saururcc, represented 
bv ArcJireopteryx , while the great mass of birds 
would be called Euriphidura ?, or fan-tailed 
birds wherein the tail is spread, or at least 
arranged, on the plan of a fan. Two other groups 
of birds are recognised by naturalists, the Odont- 
ormce and the Odontoolere, both represented by 
extinct forms, which also possessed teeth. 

In the time of Linnaeus, and for a generation or 
two afterwards, the class “Aves” was arranged 
according to external and visible characters only. 
Thus an early plan was to separate the feathered 
tribes into “Land” birds and “Water” birds. 
Then followed the division into raptorial birds, 
perching birds, game birds, wading birds, swim¬ 
ming birds, etc., with many subdivisions such 


as fissirostral or wide-gaping birds, scansorial or 
climbing birds, etc. But as the study of science 
advanced many other characters were found to be 
of importance ; for instance, the pterylography or 
arrangement and structure of the feathers, the shape 
of the sternum, and the general osteology. A great 
influence for good was exercised by the publication 
of Darwin’s Origin of Species, and the geographical 
distribution of birds began to be zealously studied. 
In 1867 Professor Huxley published his classifica¬ 
tion of birds, in which many previously unknown 
characters were brought to light, and this im¬ 
portant publication underlies all the recent 
systematic work of ornithologists who have 
attempted to arrange the class “ Aves.” Much has. 
been done since by Parker, Garrod, Forbes, Fiir- 
benger and Gadow, to add to Huxley’s foundation ; 
and in all recent arrangements of the birds, osteo- 
logical and anatomical characters have been chiefly 
relied on, somewhat to the neglect of the external 
form and the habits of species, which are also of 
equal importance in determining what the affinities 
of a bird really are. 

Huxley divides the class “ Aves ” into three large 
orders :— 

1. Saururce (lizard-tailed birds -the fossil Arclueopteryx). 

2. Iiatitce (flightless birds which have no keel to the- 

sternum— Ostriches, llkeas, Emeus, Apteryx). 

3. Carinatce. All the remaining families of birds which 

possess a keel to the sternum. 

An exception is seen in the case of the owl- 
parrot of New Zealand ( Stringops habroptilvs ), 
which has completely lost the power of flight, so 
that the keel of the sternum, being no longer of 
use for the attachment of the pectoral muscles, has- 
become in process of time obsolete. 

The Ratiirc consists of the ostrich and its allies, 
le. the struthious birds as they are generally 
called. By many systematists they are considered 
to be the most ancient type of bird which survives, 
at the present day, and are supposed to indicate the 
forerunners of all the forms of bird-life now on the 
earth. That they are of ancient origin is undoubted, 
but it is more probable that they point to an early 
departure from the reptile-like birds of a long past 
epoch. They apparently spring from a stock which 
once had amply developed wings, which through 
disuse have gradually become aborted, development- 
of the legs and running power being correspond¬ 
ingly increased. It has been stated that in the 
embrvo ostrich the development of the wings pro¬ 
ceeds* at first as in other birds, but that after a 
time the growth ceases and the development of the 
legs proceeds at the expense of the wings. The 
kiwis (Apteryx') of New Zealand also belong to the 
struthious birds according to their osteology, but 
in habits thev are akin to rails ( Ralli ). 

Of the carinate birds, the Tinamous (Crypturf 
or Tinami) have a struthious palate, in which the 
vomer is united in front of the bioad maxillo- 
palatine plates, as in the Emeu; while its shape 
and attachment behind is also like that of the 
struthiones. This peculiarity has induced Huxley to 
call the Tinamous “ Dronueognathous.” 

A second arrangement of the palatine bones is 
called by Huxley “ Schizognathous.” In these 











Birds 


( 74 ) 


Birds. 


birds the vomer tapers to a point anteriorly, and 
divides the maxillo-palatine bones, which in conse¬ 
quence do not coalesce. Such are plovers, gulls, etc. 

The third arrangement of the palatine bones is 
“ Desmognathous,” and here the vomer tapers to 
a point anteriorly, but the maxillo-palatines are 
united across the middle line. Hawks, ducks, etc., 
are characteristic Desmognathous birds. 

Lastly, the great mass of passerine birds have an 
“ iEgithognathous” palate, intermediate in type 


at Budapest, held in May, 1891, the following linear 
arrangement:— 

CLASS AVES. 

Sub-class I.— Saurime. 

Order I.—Archaeopteryx (fossil). 

Sub-class II.—Ratita?. 

Order II.—Rheiformes (Rheas). 

,, III.—Struthioniformes (Ostriches). 

,, IV.—Casuariiformes (Casowaries and Emeus). 

,, V.—Apteryges (Kiwis). 



VENTRAL ASPECT OF SKULL 
OF TINAMOU, TO SHOW 
THE STRUTHIOUS PALATE. 



VENTRAL ASPECT OF SKULL 
OF GOLDEN PLOVER, TO 
SHOW THE SCHJZOGNATH- 
OUS PALATE. 



VENTRAL ASPECT OF SKULL 
OF COMMON TEAL, TO 
SHOW THE DESMOGNATH¬ 
OUS PALATE. 



VENTRAL ASPECT OF SKULL 
OF ROOK, TO SHOW THE 
yEGITHOGNATBOUS PAL¬ 
ATE. 


between the “Schizognathous” and “Desmogna¬ 
thous” forms. The vomer is truncated in front, 
unci deeply-cleft posteriorly, so as to embrace 
the sphenoidal rostrum. The maxillo-palatines 
do not unite with each other or with the vomer. 

As before mentioned, Huxley’s Dromceognathcv 
contain only the tinamous. The Schizognathce in¬ 
clude all the plovers and gulls, cranes, rails, petrels, 
divers, grebes, penguins, game-birds, and pigeons. 
The Desmognatlue comprise all the herons, storks, 
ducks, flamingoes, pelicans and allies, birds of prey, 
parrots, and the bulk of what are known as Picarian 
birds (cuckoos, kingfishers, trogons, etc.). The 
JEgitlioynatlice contain the passerine birds, with the 
swifts, humming-birds, and goatsuckers. 

Several classifications of birds have been 
proposed since Huxley’s time, but none have pro¬ 
duced such important alterations in the line 
of study. The most celebrated is that of Fiir- 
bringer, which is the result of many years of 
labour, and is the most comprehensive' work on the 
anatomy and morphology of birds. Dr. Bowcller 
Sharpe has recently passed in review all the 
schemes of classification published during the last 
twenty-five years, and, as a result, he has proposed 
to the meeting of the second Ornithological Congress 


Sub-class III.—Carinatae. 

Order VI.—Crypturiformes (Tinamous). 

,, VII.—Galliformes (Game-birds). 

Sub-order Megapodii (Megapodes). 

,, Craces (Curassows). 

,, Phasiani (True Game-birds). 

Family Pliasianidfe (Pheasants). 

,, Tetraonidae (Grouse). 

,, Perdicida* (Partridges). 

,, Numididae (Guinea-Fowls). 

,, Meleagrida (Turkeys). 

Sub-order Hemipodii (Hemipodes). 

,, Pteroeletes (Sand-Grouse). 

Order VIII.—Columbiformes (Pigeons). 

,, IX.—Opisthooomiformes (Hoatzins). 

,, X.—Ralliformes (Rails). 

Family 1.—Gallinulidae (Water-Hens). 

,, 2.—Rallidae (True Rails). 

,, 3.—Ortygometridae (Cranes). 

,, 4.—Podicae (Fin-Foot). 

Order XI.—Helicrnithiformes (Sun-Grebe). 

,, XII.—Podicipitidiformes (Grebes), 

,, XIII.—Colymbiformes (Divers). 

,, XIV.—Splienisciformes (Penguins). 

,, XV.—Procellariiformes (Petrels). 

Family 1.—Diomedeidae (Albatrosses). 

,, 2. —Proeellariidae (True Petrels). 

,, 3. —Pelecanoididae (Diving Petrels). 


















Birds 


( 75 ) 


Bird’s-foot Trefoil. 


Order XVI.—Alciformes (Auks). 

,, XVII.—Lariformes. 

Family 1.— Stercoraiiidae (Skuas). 

,, 2.—Laridae (Gulls and Terns). 

Order XVIII.—Charadriiformes. 

Sub-order Dromades (Crab-Plovers). 

„ Chionides (Sbeatb-bills). 

,, Attagides (Quail-Plovers). 

,, Charadrii (True Plovers). 

Family Haematopodidae (Oyster-catchers). 

„ Charadriidae (Plovers). 

,, Seolopacidae (Snipes). 

Sub-order Glareolae (Pratincoles). 

,, Cursorii (Coursers). 

,, Parrae (Jacanas). 

,, (Edicnemi (Thick-knees). 

, Otidides (Bustards). 

Order XIX.—Gruiformes. 

Sub-order Grues (Cranes). 

,, Aland (Courlans). 

,, Rhinoclietides (Kagus). 

„ Mesitides (Ground-Herons). 

,, Eurypygae (Sun-Bitterns). 

,, Psopliiaj (Trumpeters). 

,, Dicliolophi (Seriamas). 

Order XX.—Pelargiformes. 

Sub-order Ardea 3 (Herons). 

,, Ciconii (Storks). 

,, Balaenicipitides (Shoe-bills). 

,, Scopi (Umbres). 

,, Plataleae. 

Family Plataleidae (Spoonbills). 

,, Ibididae (Ibises). 

Order XXI.—Plioenicopteriformes (Flamingoes). 

,, XXII.—Anseriformes. 

Sub-order Anseres (Ducks and Geese). 

,, Palamedeai (Screamers). 

Order XXIII.—Pelecaniformes. 

Sub-order Phaetliontes (Tropic-birds). 

,, Sulae (Gannets). 

„ Phalacrocoraees. 

Family Phalacrocoracidae (Cormorants). 

„ Plotidae (Darters). 

Sub-order Pelecani (Pelicans). 

„ Fregati (Frigate-birds). 

Order XXIV.—Cathartidiformes (Turkey Buzzards). 
„ XXV.—Accipitriiformes. 

Sub-order Serpentarii (Secretary-birds). 

,, Accipitres. 

Family Vulturidae (Vultures). 

„ Falconidse (Hawks). 

Sub-order Pandiones (Ospreys). 

„ Striges (Owls). 

Order XXVI.—Coraeiiformes. 

Sub-order Steatornithes (Oil-birds). 

Podargi (Frog-mouths). 

,, Leptososmati (Kirombos). 

Coracise (Rollers). 

,, Halcyones (Kingfishers). 

,, Bucerotes (Hornbills). 

,, Upupae (Hoopoes). 

,, Meropes (Bee-eaters). 

Momoti (Mot-mots). 

,, Todi (Todies). 

Caprimulgi (Goatsuckers). 

Cvpseli (Swifts). 

Trocliili (Humming Birds). 

,, Colii (Colies). 

Order XXVII.—'Trogones (Trogons). 

,, XXVIII.—Coccyges. 

Sub-order Musophagi (Tourakoes). 

„ Cuculi (Cuckoos). 


Order XXIX.—Psittacifornies. 

Family Nestorida? (Nestors). 

,, Loriidae (Lories). 

,, Cyclopsittacidae (Lorikeets). 

,, Cacatuidae (Cockatoos). 

,, Psittacidae (True Parrots). 

,, Stringopidae (Owl-Parrots). 

Order XXX.—Scansores. ° 

Sub-order Rliampliastides (Toucans). 

,, Capitones (Barbets). 

,, Indicatores (Honey-Guides). 

Order XXXI.—Piciformes. 

Sub-order Pici (Woodpeckers). 

,, Buccones (Puff-birds). 

„ Galbulse (Jacamars). 

Order XXXII.— Menurse (Lyre-birds). 

„ XXXIII.—Eurylsemi (Broad-Bills). 

,, XXXIV.—Passeriformes. 

Section a.—O scines. 

Family 1 .—Corvidae (Crows). 

„ 2.—Paradiseidai (Birds of Paradise). 

„ 3.—Ptilonorliynchidfe (Bower-birds). 

,, 4.—Sturnidse (True Starlings). 

,, 5.—Eulabetida (Tree-Starlings). 

,, G.—Eurycerotidse (Blue-bills). 

„ 7 .—Dicruridae (Drongos). 

,, 8 .—Oriolidae (Orioles). 

,, 9 .— Icteridee (Hang-nests). 

,, 10 .—Ploceidae (Weaver-birds). 

„ 11.—Tanagrida? (Tanagers). 

„ 12.—Caerebidae (American Creepers). 

,, 13.—Fringillidse (Finches). 

,, 14.—Alandidae (Larks). 

,. 15. —Motaeillidae (Wagtail and Pipits). 

„ 1G.—Mniotiltidae (American Warblers). 

,, 17.—Certliiidae (Creepers). 

,, IS.—Meliphagidae (Honey-Suckers). 

,, 19.—Dice id a (Flower-Peckers). 

,, 20.—Zosteropidae (White-Eyes). 

,, 21.—Pari die (Ti ts). 

22 .—Regulidae (Gold-Crests). 

,, 23.—Laniidae (Shrikes). 

,, 24.—Artamidae (Swallow-Shrikes). 

,, 25.—Ampelidae (Wax-wings). 

,, 2G.—Vireonidae (Greenlets). 

,, 27.—Sylviidae (Warblers.) 

,, 2S.—Turdidae (Thrushes). 

„ 29.—Cinclidae (Dippers). 

,, 30.—Troglodytidae (Wrens). 

,, 31.—Mimidae (Mocking Birds). 

M 32.—Timeliidae (Bush-Babblers). 

,, 33.—Pycnonotidae (Bulbuls). 

„ 34.—Campopliagidae (Cuckoo-Shrikes). 
,, 35.—Muscicapidae (Flycatchers.) 

,, 36.—Hirundinidae (Swallows). 

Section b.— Oligomyodi. 

Family 1.—Tyrannidae (Tyrants). 

Jt 2.—Oxyrliamphidae (Sharp-bills). 

3.— Pipridae (Manakins). 

„ 4 .—Cotingidae (Chatterers). 

5 ._Phytotomidae (Plant-cutters). 

G.—Philepittidae (Velvet-thrushes). 

„ 7.—Pittida^ (Ant-thrushes). 

„ 8 .— Xeniscidae (Bush-wrens). 

Section c.—Traclieophonae. 

Family 1.—Dendrocolaptidae (Spine-Tails). 

)t 2.—Formicariidae (Ant-birds). 
n 3 .—Pteroptochidae (Tapacolas). 

Section d.— Passeres abnormales. 

Family 1.— Atricliiidae (Scrub-birds). 

Bird’s-foot Trefoil [Lotus cornicidatus ), a 
low-growing perennial leguminous plant, forming a/ 
useful ingredient in pasture vegetation. It has 
leaves of five leaflets, two of which are stipular, and 
an umbellate inflorescence of from five to ten yellow 













Bird’s-head Corallines. 


( 76 ) 


Birds of Paradise 


or orange flowers, followed by straight pods, the 
resemblance of which to birds’ claws gives the 
plant its popular name. 

Bird’s-head Corallines, bryozoa of two or 
three species of the genus Bugula, so named from 
the prominence of the bird’s-head processes found 
upon them. They are common on the English coast, 
growing as fan-shaped tufts, or as series of such 
tufts, rising as a corkscrew spiral to a height of 
two or three inches. 

Bird’s-head Processes are certain indi¬ 
viduals in a Bryozoan colony, which are modified 
into the shape of birds’ heads, and which are used 
as prehensile organs. They are technically termed 
avicularife. See also “ pedicellarise,” similar struc¬ 
tures in the Sea-urchins and Starfish. 

Birds of Paradise, the popular name of any 
species or bird of the Passerine family Para- 
diseidre, almost entirely confined to New Guinea 
and the adjacent Papuan Islands, a single species 
being found in the Moluccas and one in North 
Australia. Pigafetta, who accompanied Magellan, 
is said to have been the first to make Europeans 
acquainted with these birds, round which from the 
first a cloud of legend gathered. The Portuguese 
called them Passaros de Sol , or birds of the sun ; 
the Dutch traveller Linschooten (1553-1633) says 
that no one has seen these birds alive, for they live 
in the air, always turning towards the sun, and 
never lighting on the earth till they die, for they 
have neither feet nor wings. It was also gravely 
asserted that they lived on dew and nectar, that 
they took their rest “ suspended to branches of 
trees by those threads in their tails,” and that the 
young were hatched in a cavity on the back of the 
male. The legend that these birds were legless and 
wingless arose from the fact that those who first 
described them had only seen imported skins, pre¬ 
pared in native fashion by cutting off the limbs, 
skinning the body up to the beak, and taking out 
the skull, and Linnreus commemorated the fable in 
the specific name apoda — footless, which he gave to 
the Great Bird of Paradise. 

The Birds of Paradise are of moderate size, allied 
in structure and habits to the crows, from which 
they differ in the proportions of the toes, but 
characterised by an extraordinary development of 
plumage unequalled in any other family. The 
intensity of its colour and metallic lustre is not 
surpassed even by that of the humming birds. 
The family is usually divided into two groups—the 
Paradiseime, True Birds of Paradise, and the Epi- 
machime, Long-billed Birds of Paradise (q.v.). The 
following are the genera and species of the True 
Birds of Paradise, as given by Wallace :—-* 

1. Paradisea .—The Great Bird of Paradise (P. 
apoda), 17 in. or 18 in. from the beak to the tip of 
tail. Body, wings, and tail rich coffee-brown, 
deepening on the breast; top of head and neck 
straw-yellow, lower part of throat rich emerald 
with metallic lustre. The two middle feathers of 
the tail are webless, except at the base and tip, 
and spread out in a double curve. On each side 
beneath the wings there is an erectile tuft of golden 


orange plumes. The females and young males have 
the whole plumage coffee-brown. From the Aru 
Islands and Central New Guinea. P. novceguinea, 
from the south of New Guinea, is closely allied. 
The Lesser Bird of Paradise ( P.papuana ), probably 
ranging over New Guinea, is much smaller, of 
lighter brown hue, and with more yellow in the 
plumage. Its plumes are used for ladies’ head¬ 
dresses. P. Jinschi , from the south-east of New 
Guinea, the Red Bird of Paradise (P. rubra) from 
Waigiou and Batanta. P. decora , from the D’En¬ 
trecasteaux Islands. P. ragyiana, from the south¬ 
east of New Guinea, and P. Gulielmi II., from 
German New Guinea, are other forms. 

2. Cicinnurus. —The single species of this genus, 
the King Bird of Paradise ( C. regius — Paradisea 
regia, Linn.), ranges over the whole of New Guinea, 
Mysol, and the Aru Islands. Length about 6| in., 
head, throat, and upper surface glossy crimson red, 
breast and belly white, marked off from the red of 
the throat by a broad metallic green band. On each 
side beneath the wing is a tuft of ashy feathers 
bordered with green, which can be erected into a 
semicircular fan. The two middle tail-feathers 
are webless except at the extremity, where the 
emerald web is coiled into a spiral disc. The 
females and young males are of a dull earthv-brown. 

3. Biphyllodes. —The Magnificent Bird of Para¬ 
dise (P. speciosa), from the north-west of New 
Guinea and Mysol, has a curious mass of straw- 
yellow feathers on the upper part of the back. The 
two middle tail feathers are elongated, and, crossing, 
form two circles. In paying court to the females 
the males erect all their feathers, the skin of the 
neck is inflated, and the head seems like the centre 
of a glory, formed beneath by the expanded feathers 
of the breast, and above by those of the yellow 
mantle, which are spread out vertically like a fan. 
Other species are P. wilsoni, the Red Magnificent, 
from Waigiou ; P. chrysoptera, from the south-east 
of New Guinea; P. jobiensis, from Jobie Island; 
P. hunsteini, from the south-east of New Guinea ; 
and P. Gulielmi III., with a green-tipped erectile 
fan, from the east of Waigiou. 

4. Lophorkina. —The Superb Bird of Paradise 
(Z. afro), from the north-west of New Guinea. 
The plumage is of an intense black, with bronze 
reflections ; on the breast is a bluish-green shield 
shaped like an inverted V, and from the nape springs 
a larger Y-shaped shield of velvety black feathers, 
with purple and bronze reflections. L. minor , 
from the south-east, is another form. 

5. Parotia. —The Golden, or Six-shafted Bird of 
Paradise (P. sexpennis), from the north-west of New 
Guinea, is a small bird, with generally black 
plumage, glossed with bronze and purple. From 
each side of the head spring three shafts some 
6 in. long, with an oval web at the tip, and on each 
side of the breast is an erectile tuft of soft feathers. 
P. lamesi, from the south-east of New Guinea, 
differs slightly in the form of the breast plumes. 

6. Semeioptera. —The Standard-wing (S. irallacei) 
from Gilolo and Batchian, has ashy-olive plum&ee, 
with long creamy-white plumes springing fratp 
tubercles close to the upper end of the bend of 
each wing. 







Birds of Prey. ( 77 ) Birmingham. 


7. Paradisornis .—There is only one species 
(P. rudoljjhi), a form from the south-east of New 
Guinea, with bright blue side plumes, and the 
middle tail-feathers elongated and spatulate at the 
tips. [Manucode.] 

These birds are practically omnivorous, but fruit 
and insects constitute their chief food. Of their 
habits in a state of nature very little is known, 
beyond the fact that they are extremely active and 
more or less gregarious. The males of the Great 
Bird of Paradise hold what the natives call 
44 dancing parties” in trees, and then display their 
charms to the female birds. While they are so 
occupied the natives shoot them with blunt arrows, 
so as not to injure the plumage. There is every 
probability that the other species show themselves 
off in a somewhat similar manner. The Texans give 
the name of Bird of Paradise to Milvulus forficatus, 
the Swallow-tail Fly-catcher, or Scissortail (q.v.). 

Birds of Prey, the Aetomorphse of Huxley, the 
Accipitres and Raptores of older systematists. f he 
birds of this group have muscular bodies, short robust 
legs,generally with t hree toes in front and one behind, 
all armed with long curved claws ; the wings are 
of considerable size, for the most part pointed, and 
the flight is generally swift and powerful. The bill 
is strong, and sharply hooked ; the upper mandible 
is the longer, and is often armed with a projection, 
called by Owen a “ lateral tooth.” The Birds of 
Prey are monogamous, and the male is smaller than 
the female. They generally nest in lofty and some¬ 
times in inaccessible places ; the eggs are rarely 
more than four, and the young, when hatched, 
are covered with down and helpless. The order 
contains the Eagles, Falcons, Hawks and Vultures, 
sometimes called the Diurnal, and the Owls or 
Nocturnal Birds of Prey. 


Biretta, an Italian name for the old English 
barret-cap, the French barrette . the ancient academi¬ 
cal cap : a tall skull-cap of silk or velvet, the sides 
stiffened with pasteboard, and the upper part pinched 
into three or four ridges by which it can be held. 
Its present form, in which these ridges are stiff and 
the top surmounted by a button, dates from the 
17th cent ury (In the Roman Catholic Church that 
of priests is black, that of bishops purple, and that 
of cardinals red.) Occasionally it is worn by the 
Anglican High Church clergy. 

Birkbeck, George (1776-1841), the founder 
of the Birkbeck Institute, devoted himself to the 
medical profession, and in 1799 was appointed Pro¬ 
fessor of Natural Philosophy in Glasgow. He took 
a keen interest in the formation of Institutes for 
London Mechanics. 


Birkenfeld, a principality of W. Germany, as¬ 
signed to Oldenburg by the treaty of Vienna, but 
actually enclosed in Rhenish Prussia. The area 
is 143 square miles, most of it being covered by 
hills and forests. The principal river is the Nahe 
Cattle, hemp, flax, and oil seeds are the chief 
products, but coal and iron are worked to some 
extent. The chief town has the same name, and 
stands about 25 miles S.E. of Treves. It manufac¬ 
tures linen, woollen, and leather goods. 


Birkenhead, a municipal and parliamentary 
borough and market town of Cheshire, on the left 
bank of the Mersey, opposite to Liverpool, with 
which it is connected by steam ferries and a 
floating bridge. From a fishing village in 1821 it 
has become a verv large and thriving manufacturing 
town. The first dock was opened in 1847, and now 
the area of the basins is 170 acres, and the quay 
accommodation amounts to over 10 miles. Immense 
ship-building establishments have been created here 
—notably that of Messrs. Laird—and the largest 
iron vessels afloat are turned out from these yards. 
Other castings and forgings are executed on a large 
scale. A considerable general trade is also carried 
on in coal, guano, grain, etc. The town possesses 
a fine park and handsome public buildings, among 
them being the industrial schools raised in memory 
of Prince Albert. The Great Western and London 
and North-Western Railways have stations. here. 
St. Aldan’s theological college (Anglican) is in the 
suburbs. 

Birlas, a Tatarised Mongolian tribe, settled in 
Transoxiana since the twelfth century. Timur Beg 
(Tamerlane) was son of the chief of this tribe, who 
resided at Kesh, 30 miles S. of Samarkand, where 
Timur was born in 1330. 


Birmingham, a municipal and parliamentary 
borough in Warwickshire, 102 miles N.W. of 
London, with suburbs extending into Staffordshire 
and Worcestershire. It is in size and population 
the fifth town in the United Kingdom, having risen 
into importance since the great Civil war, owing 
to its proximity to the great coal and iron fleldsof 
the Midlands. The population in 1801 was 73,000, 
and it is now about half a million. It was not, how¬ 
ever, represented in Parliament until 1832, but since 
1885 has had seven members. The prosperity of the 
place mainly rests upon metal manufact ures, ranging 
from steamboilers and locomotives to pins and pens. 
Gun-barrels and swords are made in great quantit ies; 
brass-wares, jewellery, electro-plate, railway plant 
and stock tools of all kinds, screws, nails, pins, and 
bells are among the staple products. The manu¬ 
facturers of Birmingham at one time obtained a 
reputation for the production of counterfeit goods, 
owino- to the large number of electro-plate, etc. 
articles that issued from the town. Hence, the 
term “ Brummagem goods” came into use, “ Brum- 
magem ” being a corruption of Birmingham There 
are large glass and papier-mache works,and factories 
for dealing with wood and leather in connection wit h 
the leading hardware trades. An interesting factor 
in the development of these great industries has 
been the non-existence in the town of the gunds, 
companies, and other restrictive institutions that 
fettered freedom elsewhere. To this same cause 
must be attributed the independent and liberal 
spirit of the working-classes, and their generally 
prosperous and contented state. W hilst colossal 
fortunes have been comparatively rare, probably m 
no town have men risen more frequently from the 
humblest to the highest positions by thrift and 
industry. Among the names most intimately con¬ 
nected with the advancement of various branches 











Birmingham. 


( 78 ) 


Birs. 


of trade are Watt, Boulton, Wedgwood, Murdoch 
(the inventor of gas), Gillott (the pen-maker), El- 
kington, Mason, Chance, and Chamberlain. But it is 
the pride of Birmingham that science and art have 
always found a home there, and that literature has 
never been neglected in the zealous pursuit of busi¬ 
ness. Priestley, Erasmus Darwin, Herschel, Banks, 
Galton, Solander, and Fothergill are worthy repre¬ 
sentatives in the scientific sphere. Dr. Johnson was 
a frequent visitor to the place, and with the cultured 
social circle that existed, especially at Edgbaston, 
early in the century, are associated the Edgeworths, 
Dr. Parr, W. Hazlitt, Hutton, and many advanced 
minds of the 18th century. David Cox, the painter, 
Wilmore and Pye, the engravers, Rickman, the 



TOWN HALL, BIRMINGHAM. 


architect, and Baskerville, the printer, were Bir¬ 
mingham men. Music has long been enthusiasti¬ 
cally loved there, and the greatest modern composers 
have produced their works for the first time at the 
annual festivals. Political feeling for a century has 
run high in the midland capital. It is one of the 
few towns in which the local aristocracy of birth 
and wealth has hitherto been on the side of 
advanced Liberalism, though since the death of 
John Bright there are signs of a reaction. The love 
of religious liberty has here also been conspicuous, 
and Unitarians, scouted throughout England, have 
met with respect and encouragement. Birmingham 
early adopted such organisations for self-help and 
self-instruction as mechanics’ institutes, building 
and friendly societies, and savings-banks. Standing- 
on high ground, it is a healthy city, and of late 
years much has been done to beautify its streets 
and make its sanitation perfect. The town hall 
is a handsome building in Greek style, and cost 
£52,000. King Edward’s school, a valuable founda¬ 
tion, was rebuilt by Barry on Tudor lines. Mason’s 
College, Queen’s College, and the Exchange are 
good specimens of modem Gothic. The Midland 
Institute, the corporation buildings, the free libra¬ 
ries, the market hall, and the rooms of the Royal 
Society of Artists exemplify various forms of 
classical or Italian schools. Statues of Prince 
Albert, Nelson, Peel, Watt, Priestley, Rowland 
Hill, and other notabilities adorn the public 
places, while St. Martin’s church, the Catholic 
cathedral of St. Chad, and St. Philip’s church, are 


worthy of mention. There are five parks, the largest 
being in the pleasant suburb of Aston, and a hand¬ 
some picture gallery has recently been erected. Bir¬ 
mingham is the centre of a vast railwav svstem 
communicating with every part of the kingdom. 
Most of these lines, being part of the North- 
Western or Midland Railways, unite under the 
broad roof of the Central station, but the Great 
Western has a separate depot in Snow Hill. The 
canals, which served for traffic before steam loco¬ 
motion was introduced, still serve for the conveyance 
of enormous quantities of goods, and it has even 
been contemplated to put Birmingham in direct 
connection by water with the sea. The principal 
streets are New Street, Bull Ring, and Bennett’s 
Hill. 

Birnam, a village between Perth and Dunkeld 
in E. Perthshire, Scotland. Duncan's Camp is 
shown on a neighbouring hill, and it was hence, 
according to the legend adopted by Shakespeare, 
that his soldiers marched against Macbeth with 
boughs in their hands, and so fulfilled the prophecy— 
“ Macbeth shall never vanquished be until Great 
Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill shall come 
against him.” 

Birnee, Old and New, two towns in Central 
Africa. The former, once the capital of Bornu, is 
on the river Yeou, 70 miles from Lake Tchad, and 
covers an area of several square miles, having a 
large trade. The latter is 20 miles S. of Ivuka. 

Biron, Armand de Gontault, Baron de, 
was born in Perigord in 1524, and distinguished 
himself on the Catholic side in several battles and 
sieges during the Civil war, though he favoured 
the Huguenots at heart, saving several friends in 
the massacre of St. Bartholomew. In 1577 he was 
sent to the Low Countries as marshal of France to 
assist D’AlenQon, but he was defeated by Parma. 
He was one of the first to acknowledge Henry IV., 
fought for him in Normandy and at Paris, and was 
killed at Epernay in 1592. His habit of carrying a 
note-book to enter anything remarkable that came 
to his notice led to the proverbial expression : “You 
found that in Biron’s pocket-book.” 

Biron, Charles de Gontault, Duo de, son 
of the above, was born in 1562. He served under 
his father at Arques, Ivry, Paris, and Rouen, was 
loaded with honours by Henry IV., who saved his 
life in the battle of Fontaine-Frangaise, and was 
sent as ambassador to England. He seems to have 
lost his head through vanity, and, having entered 
into a conspiracy with Spain and Savoy to depose his 
master, was executed for treason in 1602. Several 
other members of the family were distinguished 
as soldiers or politicians in the two following 
centuries. [Lauzun.] 

Birs, or Birse, a river which rises in the N. 
slope of the Jura about 5 miles from Bienne, flows 
through the Valley de Montier, and, after a course of 
50 miles, joins the Rhine close to Basle. On its banks 
the Swiss suffered a severe defeat from the French 
in 1444, and in 1499 gained the crushing victory 
of Dornacli over the Austrians. In June, 1891, the 




































Birs Nimrod. 


( 79 ) 


Biscuit. 


collapse of a bridge over this river caused one of 
the most disastrous railway accidents that has ever 
occurred in Switzerland. 

Birs Nimmd. [Babel, Babylon.] 

Bisaglia, or Bisaglie, a port in the Terra di 
Barri, Italy, 21 miles N.W. of the capital of the 
province. The harbour is shallow and does but 
a coasting trade. There are several churches, a 
cathedral, the ruins of a pilgrims’ hospice used by 
the Crusaders, and tine reservoirs to store rain-water. 
Wine and currants are the chief products. 

Bisahiagar, a town in the dominions of the 
Gaekwar of Baroda, Western India, about 220 miles 
N.W. of the British cantonments at Mhow. A large 
through trade is carried on, and cotton goods are 
manufactured. 

Bisayas (Visayas), one of the great nations of 
the Philippine Archipelago, ranking in importance 
next to the Tagals, and occupying nearly all the 
central islands between Luzon and Mindanao 
(Samar, Ticao, Masbate, Leyte, Cebu, Bojol, Panay, 
Negros) and a large part of Mindanao itself. Total 
population nearly 3,000,000. The Bisayas, i.e. 
“ Tattooed” (hence by the Spaniards called Pinta¬ 
dos , or “ Painted ”), are an indolent people, mostly 
agricultural, but cultivating little more than is 
required for their own wants. The great majority 
are nominal Roman Catholics, who since their con¬ 
version have discontinued the practice of tattooing. 
Amongst them dwell numerous wild tribes collec¬ 
tively called Cimarrones, from the Spanish cima, 
hill-top, whence the English word Maroon. The 
Bisayas give their name to the province of Bisaya, 
one of the main administrative divisions of the 
Philippines. Their language, a member of the 
Malayo-Polynesian family, is cultivated, and was 
formerly written in a peculiar character of Indian 
origin now superseded by the Roman system. 

Biscacha. [Vjscacha.] 

Biscay, or Vizcaya, the most northerly of the 
old Basque Provinces (q.v.), Spain. It occupies a 
considerable coast-line between Guipuzcoa and Old 
Castile, and has an area of 833 square miles. The 
surface is very mountainous, but the valleys, watered 
by numerous swift streams, produce maize, vege¬ 
tables, chestnuts, and excellent fruits, whilst sheep 
and cattle are pastured on the slopes. The coast 
abounds with fish, which provide a hardy race of 
seafarers with a good livelihood. Iron, lead, sul¬ 
phur, alum, and marble are among the valuable 
mineral products, the chief mining centres being 
Somorostro and Mandragon. Bilbao is the capital. 
Portugalete, Durango, and Orduna come next in 
importance, but are small places. 

Biscay, Bay of (anc. Sinus Aquitanicus ), the 
name by which English geographers know the in¬ 
dentation on the W. coast of Europe that extends 
from Finisterre in France to Cape Ortegal in Spain, 
and is called by the French Golfc do Gascoyne. It 
has a breadth and length of about 400 miles, and its 
depth varies from 20 fathoms near Ushant to 2(H) 
fathoms off the rock-bound coast of Spain. I he 


chief ports are Nantes, La Rochelle, Rochefort, Bor¬ 
deaux, Bayonne, St. Sebastian, Bilbao and Santander, 
and the rivers Loire, Charente, Gironde, and Adour 
drain into it. As a vast mass of water is forced 
in this funnel-shaped recess by prevailing westerly 
winds aided by Rennel’s current, the waves occa¬ 
sionally run high, and ships are swamped or driven 
on to a lee shore. 

Bischof, Karl Gustav, was born at Nurem¬ 
berg in 1792, and after studying under Hildebrandt 
at Erlangen, became professor of technology and 
chemistry at Bonn. He wrote a Treatise on the 
Internal Heat of the Globe, an excellent Textbook of 
Chemical and Physical Geology, and various other 
works. His investigations into the explosive gases 
of mines were very highly appreciated. He died in 
1870. 

Biscuit (i.e. twice cooked'), a small thin form of 
bread baked so as to render it hard (at least ex¬ 
ternally), dry, and durable. For the last 30 or 40 
years biscuits have ordinarily been made in large 
factories, the dough being mixed, kneaded, rolled, 
and cut by machinery, and then passed through a 
“travelling oven,” during their passage through 
which they are baked. "This trade is peculiarly 
English and Scottish, and the export of “ biscuit 
and bread” from the United Kingdom in 1888 
amounted to 194,678 cwts., valued at £535,163, 
though Germany and the United States also manu¬ 
facture considerable quantities. The varieties have 
greatly increased of late years, and upwards of 
150 kinds are commonly sold. Meat biscuits con¬ 
tain either extract of meat or dry and pounded 
meat, or both, mixed with flour and other in¬ 
gredients ; a coarse kind (which also sometimes 
contains beetroot) is used to feed dogs : Digestive 
biscuits are so prepared as to contain diastase 
(q.v.), a nitrogenous substance which assists diges¬ 
tion by transforming starch into soluble sugar; 
Charcoal biscuits contain wood charcoal, which 
is alleged to absorb gases present in the stomach 
(but its moistened condition there probably pre¬ 
vents this result) ; while Diabetic biscuits contain 
bran and gluten, but not starchy or saccharine 
matter. Ship's bread or biscuit, a mixture of simple 
flour and water, cut or stamped into regular flat 
cakes, and so thoroughly dried by baking as to be 
capable of remaining good for many months or even 
years. Bread for the"Royal Navy was formerly made 
by hand, and was often very defective. It is now 
made entirely by machinery; and at the Royal 
Clarence Victualling Yard, Gosport, facilities exist 
for turning the unground wheat into biscuit by 
a continuous process which requires no human in¬ 
tervention. Fine flour and middlings, deprived of 
bran and pollard, are used. Each sheet of dough 
of a yard square is stamped hexagon-wise in such 
manner that it will break up into about 60 biscuits, 
and each biscuit prepared for the navy bears the 
Queen’s mark and the number of the oven to which 
it is to be consigned. The baking process occupies 
ten minutes. Upon being withdrawn, the sheets 
are broken up, and the biscuits are packed in sacks. 
The regular service allowance, when fresh bread is 
not obtainable, is 1 lb. per man per day. 









Bishari. 


( 80 ) 


Bishop. 


Bishari. [Beja.] 

Bishop, a dealers’ name for some species of 
Weaver-birds. The Napoleon Bishop is Euplectes 
afcr, the Orange Bishop E. franciscanus, the 
Oryx or Grenadier Bishop E. oryx, and the Red 
Orange Bishop E. Jiammiceps. [Weaver-bird.] 

Bishop (Greek episcopus, overseer, whence 
Anglo-Saxon biscop), a term originally applied to 
all who had the oversight of souls, as to apostles 
(Acts ii. 20), elders, and presbyters (Acts xx. 17; 
1 Peter v. 2), and even Christ himself “ the Shep¬ 
herd and Bishop of your souls” (1 Peter ii. 25). 
In the apostolic age there is no very definite trace 
of any clear distinction between bishop and pres¬ 
byter : the persons who approximately correspond 
to bishops are called evangelists (Acts xxi. 8) [per¬ 
haps] angels (Rev. x. 20 ; 1 Cor. xi. 10), rulers (Heb. 
xiii. 7), and by other titles. Seemingly, however, 
after the apostolic age a sort of deputy apostolate 
was formed with general powers to preach and 
visit the churches. By the side of these were 
superintendents of all the churches settled in a 
certain district, possibly identical with the “angels ” 
of the Apocalypse (though this is much contested) 
and similar to the “ Metropolitans ” of later date. 
Bishops were such superintendents specialised to 
one church or group of churches, afterwards called 
a diocese. But the subject has been involved 
in endless controversy. While the Roman and 
Eastern Churches and English High Churchmen 
regard bishops as the successors of the apostles, 
and invested with the powers conferred on the 
apostles, the Presbyterian Church and almost all 
Protestant and non-Episcopal Churches, with many 
Anglicans, regard the episcopate as a purely human 
institution, likely to claim sacerdotal and ex¬ 
aggerated powers, and therefore full of danger to 
the spiritual life of the Church. (The Methodist 
Episcopal Church [of the United States] has indeed 
itinerant bishops, but avowedly as a human institu¬ 
tion for convenience of superintendence.) The 
late Dr. Hatch in his Bampton Lectures produced 
evidence indicating that the title and some of the 
original functions are derived from the organisation 
of certain Greek friendly societies, which are known 
from inscriptions. Apart from medieval opinion 
and tradition there is no evidence in the earliest 
ages of the Church of a distinct “ threefold ministry ” 
of bishops, priests, and deacons. The epistles of t he 
New Testament, the Shepherd of Hermas, and 
the Teaching of the Apostles, discovered in 1877 
—the two latter probably the earliest known docu¬ 
ments of the post-apostolic age—give no indication 
of it, and represent a much less definitely organised 
church and hierarchy than the high Catholic tra¬ 
dition seems to indicate. There is, however, a 
distinct reference to the episcopate in a form 
analogous to its present one in the Ignatian epistles 
of the 2nd century, and it is found established by 
the time of St, Irenseus (90 A.D.), who, however, 
calls Polycarp indifferently “bishop” and presbyter. 
St. Jerome, too, seems to recognise that bishops 
were not originally distinct from presbyters, and 
the Council of Ancvra (314 A.D.) allowed presbyters 
to ordain other presbyters with the bishop’s sanction. 


Originally bishops were chosen by popular election ; 
but the right was gradually engrossed, first by 
the provincial bishops, then by the cathedral 
! chapter, and eventually by the Pope. Usually on 
the Continent the Crown now appoints Bishops. 
In England the Pope appoints Roman Catholic 
Bishops subject to a recommendation of the Chap¬ 
ter. In Russia the Czar nominates, usually from a 
list submitted by the Synod. In the Turkish Em¬ 
pire the Sultan confirms the election. 

In the Eastern and Roman Catholic Churches 
the power of the bishop is much as it was in the 
3rd century, subject to the rise of patriarchs and 
metropolitans, and, since the beginning of the 
present century, to the various concordats that have 
limited the power of the Roman Catholic Church in 
Western Europe. The bishop alone has the power 
of consecration and ordination. He must visit 
every part of his diocese once every two years. He 
has the general superintendence of divine worship, 
and makes regulations for his diocese subject to 
the common law of the Church. He can dispense 
from these, and in some slight degree from the 
laws of the Church. He decides, in the first in¬ 
stance, all ecclesiastical causes. He consecrates 
churches, and instruments of worship (e.g. chalices). 
He can suspend the clergy and excommunicate 
the laity of his diocese, and (except of course 
where the Church receives a subvention from 
the State in lieu of endowments, as in France 
and Italy) he administers the diocesan property 
subject to the Councils of the Church and the 
Metropolitan, and in the Roman Catholic Church 
to the Pope. His title is “ Most illustrious and 
reverend lord.” His insignia are pastoral staff, 
mitre (probably alluded to by Eusebius), ring, pec¬ 
toral cross, episcopal throne, pontifical vestments, 
gloves, and sandals. 

At the Reformation the Anglican and Scandinavian 
Churches retained some bishops when they broke 
with Rome, and the title has therefore been con¬ 
tinued in them. The Lutheran Church retained it 
for a time, and the modern “ superintendent ” 
exercises a kind of episcopal function. The “ Pro¬ 
testant Episcopal Church of the United States 
of America” (the American branch of the Anglican 
Church) had its first bishop, Seabury, consecrated 
in Scotland in 1784, and its next two, White and 
Provost (after some little difficulty owing to the 
rupture with England), at Lambeth Palace. The 
Scottish Episcopal Church has been a voluntary 
body since 1688, when all the Scottish bishops joined 
the Nonjurors (q.v.) ; the Irish Episcopal Church 
was disestablished by Mr. Gladstone’s Act in 18G8. 

Recent years have seen an immense development 
of the Anglican Episcopate. There are now 2 arch¬ 
bishops [Archbishop] and 32 bishops of English 
! sees, besides 74 colonial, Indian, etc., and 10 mission¬ 
ary bishops. The “ Church of England in Ireland ” 
has 2 archbishops and 11 bishops ; the Scottish 
Episcopal Church 7 bishops ; the “ Protestant Epis¬ 
copal Church ” of the United States 70 bishops alto¬ 
gether, including coadjutor and missionary bishops. 

In England the Act 2G Henry VIII. c. 14 pro¬ 
vides for the consecration of suffragan or assistant 
bishops to relieve those bishops of dioceses who are 







Bishop. 


( 81 ) 


Bismarck. 


overworked or infirm. This Act was revived in 
the present reign ; the number of suffragan bishops 
in addition to the above is now 16. In the Ameri¬ 
can Church it is also the custom to consecrate 
suffragan or coadjutor bishops, with the prospect, 
however, of succession to the see. Suffragan 
bishops in England have no seat in the House of 
Lords, and are not usually termed “ lord bishops.” 

Of the English sees, Gloucester, Chester, Peter¬ 
borough, and Oxford were created in 1541 ; Bristol 
in 1542 ; a see of Westminster was created in 1540 
but dissolved in 1550; Ripon was created in 1836, 
when Gloucester and Bristol were united. New 
sees have been recently created by voluntary effort: 
Truro and St. Albans in 1877, Liverpool in 1880, 
Newcastle in 1882, Southwell in 1883. Such crea¬ 
tion (by an Act of 1847) is not allowed to increase 
the number of lords spiritual. The two Arch¬ 
bishops and the Bishops of London, Durham, and 
Winchester, always sit in the House of Lords, 
and 21 of the remainder are summoned in order of 
seniority. For the mode of election see Conge 
d’elire. The dress of an English bishop consists 
of a rochet, which is practically a surplice without 
sleeves, over which is worn the chimere of black 
satin, with the well-known lawn sleeves. 

In 1850 a papal bull was issued appointing Roman 
Catholic archbishops and bishops with territorial 
titles in England. This caused great alarm, and an 
Ecclesiastical Titles Act was passed in 1851 by 
Lord John Russell imposing penalties for the 
assumption of such titles. But the Act proved a 
dead letter and was repealed in 1871. Previously 
the English Roman Catholic bishops had been, ac¬ 
cording to a usual custom, bishops in jxzrtibus in- 
Jidelium, with sees that were purely titular, e.g. 
Chalcedon, Gaza, etc. Thus episcopal functions 
are exercised in London by a prelate with the title 
of Bishop of Emmaus. 

Bishop, Sir Henry Rowley, born in 1786, 
was a composer of great merit and reputation. 
Ho became “composer in ordinary” to Covent 
Garden theatre, where he brought out The Virgin 
of the Sun. The Miller and his Men , Guy Manner- 
iny, The Slave , Maid Marian , and Clari , intro¬ 
ducing the well-known song Home , Sweet Home. 
He also undertook to improve Mozart and Rossini 
for the English stage. In 1824 he went, to 
Drury Lane." His Aladdin , intended to eclipse 
Weber’s Oberon, proved a dismal failure, and with 
The Fortunate Isles given at Covent Garden in 
honour of the Queen’s wedding in 1840 his operatic 
efforts came to an end. He was a director of the 
Philharmonic concerts, received knighthood in 
1842, and in 1848 succeeded Crotch in the chair of 
music at Oxford. He died a poor man in 1855. 
Bishop takes high rank along with Purcell, Arne, 
and other representatives of the English school as 
a tuneful writer of songs and glees, among which it 
suffices to mention Bid me discourse , Should he 
i upbraid , My pretty Jane , Mynheer Van Bunch , the 
wind whistles cold , The Chough and the Crow. 

Bishop-Auckland, a market-town in the 
county of Durham, situated at the confluence ot 
the Wear and the Gannlees, 11 miles S.W. of the city 

30 


of Durham, with a station on the North-Eastern 
Railway. It derives its name from the palatial 
residence of the bishops of Durham, established 
here in Edward I.’s reign. The modern town hall 
has a tower 100 feet in height, the streets are well- 
built and clean, and there are churches, chapels, 
and the usual public buildings. The manufacture 
of cotton goods and machinery employs most of the 
population, but there are large coal-mines in the 
neighbourhood. 

Biskra, or Biskara, a town and military post 
in the province of Constantine, Algeria, standing on 
the S. slope of the Aures Mountains, in a fertile 
valley watered by the Wady Biskra. It is an impor¬ 
tant depot for the caravan trade with the interior, 
has mines of iron and quarries of limestone and 
saltpetre, and is famous for its dates and carpets. 

Bisley, a town in Surrey, the site of the annual 
meeting of the Volunteers after their removal irom 
Wimbledon, where the competitions formerly took 
place. 

Bismarck, Otto Edward Leopold, Prince 
VON, belongs to an old and distinguished Prussian 
family settled in Pomerania and Brandenburg, and 
was born at Schonhausen in 1815. From 1835 to 
1839 he held subordinate positions in the Civil 
Service. In 1847 he married Julia %on Puttkamei, 
and entered the Prussian Landtag. He adopted 
Conservative views, which were strengthened by 
the events of 1848, and in 1819, as a member of the 
new Parliament, he stood forward as one of the 
most powerful opponents of revolutionary ideas, and 
in 1851 he became the recognised leader of his 
party. Bismarck’s programme, framed at this period, 
has been carried out with but little variation in 
detail until the present day. His aim was to sever 
the north German States from any dependence on 
Austria or any interference from foreign powers, 
and to weld them into a free, united nation with 
Prussia at its head. Thinking lightly of constitu¬ 
tions, parliaments, and other contrivances for stifling 
action in talk, he wished the cential power to be 
in the hands of a monarch, wise, vigorous, patriotic, 
such as the house of the Hohenzollern could supply. 
His policy must be supported both at home and 
abroad by sufficient military strength ; must aim 
at perfect justice and complete administrative effi¬ 
ciency 5 and must create and appeal to a popular 
sense of religion, loyalty, and military discipline. 
From 1851 to 1862 Bismarck was employed as envoy 
or ambassador at the Frankfort Diet, St. leteisbuig, 
Vienna, and Paris, acquiring valuable experience. 
At last William I. summoned him home to act as 
minister, president, and chief adviser of the Crown 
at a moment when a Liberal majority in the Landtag 
and the schemes of France and Austria threatened 
to postpone indefinitely the realisation of his hopes. 
His arbitrary methods made him unpopular at first, 
but his successful conduct of the Danish war and 
the consequent annexation of Schleswig-Holstein 
soon restored public confidence. A struggle with 
Austria then became imminent, and all Bismarck’s 
skill was exerted to prevent Napoleon III. from 









Bismarck. 


( 82 ) 


Bison. 


taking part in the fray. At this moment (May, 18(56) 
he narrowly escaped death at the hands of a fanatical 
assassin, Lionel Cohen. Then followed the Seven 
Weeks’ war, which saw Austria so speedily humbled 
at Koniggratz. The statesman rode by the king’s 
side over the field of battle, and completed the work 
of the needle-gun by skilfully negotiating the treaty 
of Prague. The Bund was broken up, and in its place 
stood the North German Confederation with Prussia 
at its head, Hanover, Schleswig-Holstein, Hesse, and 
part of Saxony being added to the Prussian kingdom. 
In 1867 Bismarck, now the idol of his nation, became 
chancellor of the Confederation. Napoleon III., 
bitterly disappointed at the issue of the war of 1866, 
sought various opportunities for beginning the strife 
on such terms as would secure the alliance of Austria 
and the South German States, if not of other powers. 
Bismarck adroitly contrived to make a deliberate 
insult to his sovereign the casus belli rather than 
the alleged candidature of Prince Leopold of 
Hohenzollern for the Spanish throne, and at the 
same time he published a proposal from France by 
which Belgium was to becorqe French territory. 
War was declared on July 19th, 1870, and Bismarck 
with the king was present at many of the battles, 
and on September 2 received in person the surrender 
of Napoleon, with whom he arranged for the capitu¬ 
lation of Sedan. In October be took up his quarters 
at Versailles, and it was there on January 18, 1871, 
that he saw the dream of his life fulfilled, when 
William I. was proclaimed Emperor of Germany by 
the assembled princes of the Confederated States. 
He himself received the appointment of Chancellor 
of the Empire, and in that capacity a few days later 
arranged the terms of peace with France. For 
twenty years the “ honest broker ” was now supreme 
at Berlin, and it might almost be said throughout 
Europe. At home he skilfully took advantage of the 
divisions of parties in the Reichstag to free himself 
practically from parliamentary control. Abroad he 
strove earnestly for peace, and attained his ends 
by playing off one power against another with 
cynical dexterity. He must be credited with having 
circumscribed the Russo-Turkish quarrel of 1877, 
and with having patched up the peace of Berlin. 
He drew himself closer to Austria in 1879 as a hint 
to Russia, and presently showed signs of cordiality 
to the Czar. He sided apparently with France in 
deprecating the British occupation of Egypt, and 
in various ways tried to lull into quiescence the 
keen spirit of revenge. In 1884 he began to take 
great interest in German colonisation, and this new 
departure brought him into collision with England 
as regards Africa and with Spain in the matter of 
the Caroline Isles. The dangers arising from this 
source were happily smoothed down, for a time at 
least, by diplomacy. In 1885 his seventieth birth¬ 
day was kept with universal rejoicing, and in 1887 
the twenty-fifth anniversary of his accession to 
power was celebrated with equal fervour. In this 
latter year the unsettled state of France during the 
Boulanger episode and the open sympathy shown by 
Russia to French Chauvinistes led Bismarck to seek 
alliance with Italy, and negotiations with Sig. Crispi 
resulted in an understanding which has never been 
fully disclosed, but it was followed by a large increase 


in the German army. The death in 1888 of his old 
master, William I., led to no immediate diminution 
of the chancellor’s influence, though it was expected 
that the well-known Liberal sympathies of the 
new kaiser’s wife would ruffle the relations between 
the court and the minister. These anticipations 
were multiplied by the hopeless illness and speedy 
decease of Frederick; but in the person of his 
son and successor rose up a fresh source of danger. 
William II., a young and vigorous man, had learned 
only too well Bismarck’s own doctrine of abso¬ 
lutism, and he resolved from the first to be the real 
head of the state. In March, 1890, an open rupture 
occurred on the question as to whether the sove¬ 
reign should communicate with his ministers di¬ 
rectly or t hrough the intermediary of the chancellor. 
Bismarck resigned, and his resignation was accepted 
in a way that was humiliating to himself, whilst his 
own conduct was not wholly free from insolence 
and want of patriotism. His fall provoked no storm 
in the empire, and for some months he retired into 
private life. His discontent with the new order of 
things was chiefly expressed, for some time after 
his fall, in unsigned but inspired articles in a Ham¬ 
burg and Munich paper. In 1891, however, he 
obtained a seat in the Reichstag, and his future 
conduct is at this moment a matter of anxious 
curiosity. 

Bismuth, a grey metal found native in Saxony, 
and as oxide (Bismuth ochre) and sulphide 
(Bismuth glance). It occurs in Cornwall as sulphide, 
associated with sulphides of lead and copper. The 
metal is obtained from its ores by roasting, and 
afterwards melting with charcoal and a little iron, 
under a layer of slag. The metal so obtained is 
slowly melted, and the bismuth, which fuses easily, 
is run off. and finally purified by melting with a little 
nitre. It is a very brittle and crystalline metal, 
fuses at 264°. It has at. wt. 210 ; sp. gr. 993. 
Its symbol is Bi. It is used as a constituent of many 
alloys. Fusible metal is composed of two parts 
bismuth, one part lead, and one part tin. This 
alloy melts at 96°, and has the property, like bis¬ 
muth itself, of expanding on solidifying. It forms 
two oxides, BiO ;? and Bi0 5 , and forms salts with 
different mineral acids. It shows close relationship 
to antimony (q.v.) in most of its properties. The 
subnitrate and carbonate of bismuth are both 
used in medicine ; being heavy insoluble powders 
they are usually “ suspended ” in mucilage when 
given in mixture form. There is also a soluble 
preparation, the Liquor Bismuthi et Ammoniae 
Citratis; and the subnitrate may be administered 
in the dry state in the form of lozenges, Trochisci 
Bismuthi. The subnitrate is one of the most valu¬ 
able drugs in the pharmacopoeia; in certain cases 
of vomiting and of diarrhoea the greatest benefit 
results from its use. The bismuth salts are also 
sometimes applied externally to sores and leigema- 
tous patches, and as a snuff in nasal catarrh. 

Bison, the popular name for two species of wild 
cattle (Uos europceus and li. americanvs ), sometimes 
made a distinct genus (Bison) of Bovidrn (q.v.). 
These animals differ chiefly from the common ox 
and other members of the genus Bos in the greater 








Bison. 


( 83 ) 


Bitehe. 


breadth and convexity of the frontal bones, in their 
longer limbs, in the presence of an additional pair of 
ribs (there being fourteen pairs in the bison and 
only thirteen in the ox), and in the much greater 
development of the spinal processes of the dorsal 
vertebrae, which serve as points of attachment for the 
muscles that suppor t the head, and with them form 
the hump so characteristic of these animals. The 
orbits are tubular, and the curved round horn-cores 
are placed considerably below the level of the 
occiput. The European Bison (-Z?. europceus') has 
been known from classic times. There is very 
little doubt that it is the bonassos of Aristotle, and 
the bison of Oppian ; it is mentioned by Pliny (lib. 
viii. c. 15), and contrasted with the urus (B.pri mi- 
genius'), with which it is often confounded, and the 
same contrast is made by Martial ( Lib. Spec. 23) in 
his epigram on the hunter Carpophorus, who was also 
a professional fighter with wild beasts in the arena. 
According to this author (i. 105) the European 
Bison was trained to draw chariots in the Roman 
spectacles. This species was formerly abundant 
over the central and eastern parts of Europe, but is 
now restricted to the Caucasus, and to the forest of 
Bialowicza in Lithuania, where it is protected by 
the Emperor of Russia. It is the larger of the two 
species, and the largest living European quadruped, 
standing about six feet at the shoulders and 
measuring some ten feet from the muzzle to the 
root of the tail, which is nearly three feet in length ; 
and the strength of the huge beast is proportional 
to its size. The general colour is dusky brown ; the 
hair on the forehead is long and wavy, and there is 
a kind of beard on the chin and breast. In winter 
the neck, hump, and withers are clothed with dark 
brown hair, with an undergrowth of soft fur , the 
former is shed in the summer, and renewed in the 
following winter. The cows are smaller than the 
bulls, and their manes and beards are not so thick 
and long; they carry their young (which do not 
attain maturity till their sixth year) for nine month*, 
the same period as the domestic cow, and the 
duration of life has been put at from thirty to forty 
years. Like the ox the bison grazes, but feeds also 
on brushwood, and the bark and shoots of young 
trees, especially of the ash, birch, poplar, and willow. 
It is extremely shy, and as its sense of smell is very 
acute, the hunter can only approach it from the lee 
side • and when provoked it is very formidable. It 
runs with great speed, but has little staying power, 
and holds "its head very low so that the hoots are 
raised above it in galloping. This form is repre¬ 
sented by a variety (v. priseus) in the Pleistocene ot 

Europe and Arctic America. . 

The American Bison (B. americanus) is some¬ 
what smaller than B. europceus , but with a much 
larger chest, a smaller and weaker pelvis, a shortei 
and smaller tail, shorter horns, more shaggy head 
and heavier beard. It formerly ranged in vast 
herds over North America, between the Great 
Slave Lake and the Mexican frontier ; :form- 
ino- the chief means of subsistence to tribes or 
Indians equally doomed to speedy extinction; 
now as a wild animal it has practically vanished, 
and only a few herds remain, in a more or less pro¬ 
tected condition. In 1886, when the authorities at 


the Smithsonian Institute wished to procure speci¬ 
mens for stuffing and mounting, their agents, aftei 
diligent search, were only able to bring back twenty- 
five. The flesh of old bulls was tough and hard, but 
that of young fat cows made excellent beef, and was 
dried or made into pemmican for future use, while 
the tongue and hump were reckoned special delica¬ 
cies, and the fat was rendered into tallow. The skins 
were dressed for robes or tanned for buff leatliei, 
the coarse wool was made into cloth, and the drop¬ 
pings—known as “buffalo-chips’ or bois-de-vaclie 
were utilised as fuel. No serious attempt has ever 
been made to domesticate this species, but Mi. 
Allen (to whose monograph all recent writers are 
indebted) thinks that the experiment “ would 
eventually yield a satisfactory and probably a profit¬ 
able result, with the possibility of adding another 
valuable domestic animal to those we already 
possess. It is probable that a mixed race might 
be reared with advantage.” B. latifrons, from the 
Pleistocene of Texas, is generally considered to have 
been the ancestor of this form. As the Euiopean 
species is misnamed the Aurochs, this animal is often 
wrongly called a “buffalo”—the particular bovine 
to which it is least related, and which it least re¬ 
sembles. In India the name “bison’ is commonly 
applied by the English to the Gaur (q.v.). 

Bissagos, or Bijuga Islands, a volcanic group 
off the W. coast of Africa, between the Gambia and 
Sierra Leone. The larger islets are about twenty in 
number, but there are many smaller ones, the 
French and British formerly had stations theie, but 
they are now in the hands of the Portuguese, and 
still serve as a depot for slaves. Bissao is the seat 
of the Portuguese settlement. There is a large negro 
population, and the products are maize, rice, wax, 
palm-oil, and hides. 

Bissen, Wilhem, born near Slesvig in 1798. 
studied sculpture in Rome under rhorwaldsen, and 
returned to Denmark, where he produced some fine 
works. In 1841 he was again in Rome, having 
received a commission from the Danish Government. 
A few years later he carved the Greek frieze that 
adorns the great hall of the palace at Copenhagen, 
where in 1850 he beccime director of the Academy of 
Arts. Thorwaldsen left to him at his decease the 
completion of his unfinished statue. His best-known 
works are Cupid shaipening his Atto?v, and Atcilcintn 
hunting. He died in 1868. 

Bistort (Polygonum Bistorta ), a pretty British 
plant often grown in gardens, named snake-weed, 
snake-root, or bistort (twice twisted), fiom. its 
twisted root-stock. It has stems 12 to 18 inches high, 
each bearing a spike about two inches long of 
small flesh-pink flowers. Its starchy astringent 
roots have been used both as food and as medicine. 

Bit the part of a bridle (q.v.) which is inserted 
in the’horse's mouth, together with the rings to 
which are fastened the reins and cheek-straps. It 
is made of metal. There are very many varieties 
of bits. [Bridle.] 

Bitehe, or Bitzche (anc. Bidiscum or Bicina ), 

a fortified town in German Lorraine, formerly in the 

department of Moselle, trance, and to the Is. o 















Bithur. 


( 84 ) 


Bittern. 


the Vosges Mountains. It was formerly named 
Kattenhausen, and was taken by France as part of 
the Duchy of Lorraine in 1738, and restored to 
Germany in 1871. The position is a strong one, and 
resisted the attack of Austria in 1793 and Russia in 
1797. and stood a long blockade in 1870-71. The 
chief industries are the manufacture of watch- 
glasses and matches, but there are ironworks and 
potteries. 

Bithur, a town in the North-West Provinces of 
India, on the right bank of the Ganges, 12 miles above 
Cawnpore. It was assigned as a residence to the 
last Peishwa, Baji Kao, on his surrender to the 
British, and there his treacherous son by adoption, 
Nana Sahib (q.v.), lived in great state, and, hatched 
the^conspiracy that took shape in the mutiny of 
1857. Havelock drove him out of the place, which 
is now a sacred bathing-place for Hindu pilgrims. 

Bithynia is the name by which the country 
that occupies the N.W. corner of Asia Minor was 
known to antiquity. It is said to have been called 
Bebricia in remote times until colonised by the 
Bithyni, a Thracian tribe. Though nominally 
subject in succession to Assyria, Lydia, Persia, and 
Macedonia, the native chiefs appear to have enjoyed 
considerable independence, and Nicomedes I. (278- 
250 B.c.), the founder of Nicomedia (Ismid). estab¬ 
lished a dynasty which struggled for some years 
against the rival kingdom of Pontus, and ultimately 
surrendered its territory to Rome (74 B.c.). Pliny 
the Younger was proconsul in 103 a.d. Prusias I., 
one of these sovereigns, sheltered Hannibal, and 
gave his name to the city of Broussa, destined to be 
the capital of the Ottoman Turks before the capture 
of Constantinople. Bithynia as a Roman province 
was bounded E. by the Parthenius (Bartan) river, 
and S.W. b}' the Rhyndseus, having an extensive 
coast-line on the Euxine and the Propontis, where 
the Greek colonies of Chalcedon, and Heraclea 
Pontica (Erekli) were early established. Nicam, 
which played so important a part in Church 
history, was then the rival of Nicomedia. The whole 
tract is intersected by offshoots of the Mysian 
Olympus (6,400 ft.) and the Ala Dagh range, but the 
valleys are exceedingly fertile. Towards the 
Bosphorus the ground is hilly rather than moun¬ 
tainous, and is densely wooded with valuable 
timber. The Sangarius (Sakaria) is the chief river, 
but there are many small and rapid streams. At 
the fall of the empire, the Oghusian Tartars held 
the province (1231 a.d.) for a time, but it finally 
passed into the hands of the Turks in 1327. 

Bitlis, a town in the pashalic of Van, Asiatic 
Turkey, 62 miles W. of the city of Van. It stands 
in a ravine 5,000 ft. above the level of the sea, and 
2,000 ft. above the valley below, and has mosques, 
baths, convents of howling dervishes, and caravan¬ 
serais for an extensive through trade. Red cotton 
cloths, arms, silver-ware, and tobacco are the staple 
products. In 1554 Solyman the Magnificent was 
defeated by the Persians in the vicinity. 

Bitonto (anc. Bntuntum), a fortified city in 
the province of Terra di Bari, Italy. It is the seat 


of a bishopric, has a fine cathedral, an ancient 
castle, and a considerable trade in olive oil and 
Zagarelle wine. Though an old town, it cannot be 
traced in classical times, and became known in the 
Middle Ages for its Accademia deyl'Infiammati. A 
pyramid marks the scene of the defeat of the 
Austrians in 1735 by the Spaniards, under Mor- 
temar. 

Bits, or Bitts, a frame composed of two 
strong upright pieces of timber with cross braces 
fixed in the fore part of a ship’s deck, and to which 
the cables are fastened when the vessel rides at 
anchor. In modern ships and especially in ships 
of considerable size, the bits are of iron. Smaller 
bits, constructed in nearly the same manner, are 
used for fastening topsail-sheets, etc., on deck and 
stand at the foot of the masts. 

Bitter Almond Oil, a volatile oil obtained 
from bitter almonds, consisting of benzaldehyde 
C 6 H 5 COH, also called benzoyl hydride. ( See 
Benzene.) It does not occur as such in bitter 
almonds, but is produced by the fermentation of 
amydalin, caused by a substance, em.ulsin, both of 
which are contained in the fruit. The fermenta¬ 
tion of the amydalin is represented by the equation : 
C 20 H 27 NO n + 20H 2 =C 6 H- 5 C0H+ HCN+ 2C 6 H ]2 0 6 , 
prussic acid, and grape sugar being also produced. 
It is also obtained from the stones of peaches, and 
from laurel, cherry, and peach leaves. To obtain it 
from bitter almonds, or any of these sources, they 
are ground, pressed, made into a cream with water, 
allowed to stand for one day, and the liquid then 
distilled bypassing superheated steam through it. 
r J he crude oil so obtained contains prussic acid, 
from which it is freed by fractional distillation or 
by shaking with milk of lime, and ferrous sulphate, 
and again distilling. It is a colourless liquid with 
an aromatic odour, boils at 179°. Is miscible with 
alcohol and ether, and slightly soluble in water. It 
has the general properties of Aldehydes (q.v.). ’ 

Bittern, the liquor left after the partial evapo¬ 
ration of sea water, and crystallisation of a great 
portion of the common salt. It contains, besides 
common salt, sulphate, chloride, and bromide of 
magnesium, and is chiefly used as a source of 
Bromine. 

Bittern, any bird of the genus Botaurus, of the 
heron family ( Ardeidce ), with six species, spread 
nearly over the globe. The bitterns differ from the 
true herons in having much longer toes and shorter 
legs and neck, the latter clothed in front and on the 
sides with long, loose, erectile feathers, and nearly 
bare or downy at the back. They are generally 
solitary birds, haunting wooded swamps or reedy 
marshes, lying close by day, and coming out at 
dusk to feed on fish and other aquatic animals, 
mice, and small birds. The common bittern 
(Botaurus stellaris ) is from 28 in. to 30 in. long • 
general plumage rich brownish buff, with irregular 
streaks and spots of black, dark brown, grey, and 
chestnut; under-surface buff, streaked with brown, 
beak greenish-yellow, legs and feet green. This 
bird affords a good example of protective coloration. 








Bittern. 


( 85 ) 


Bitzius. 


There is an instance on record of a sportsman who, 
having ‘hot a bittern, was unable to discover it for 
some time, though his dog made a dead point at it, 
so closely did the plumage harmonise with the dry, 
coarse grass in which the wounded bird lay. This 
species was formerly fairly common in the fen lands 
of England, but the reduction of these tracts to 
cultivation has driven it away, and the last recorded 



bittern (Botaurus stellaris). 


instance of its breeding in this country was at 
Upton Broad, Norfolk, in 1868. It was highly prized 
by falconers for the sport it afforded, though when 
attacked or wounded it is dangerous to approach it, 
for it throws itself on its back and tights vigorously 
with its claws and spear-like bill. Its flesh was 
eaten, and was esteemed superior to that of the 
heron. The nest of the bittern is a mere collection 
of sticks and rushes ; the eggs are greenish-brown in 
colour, and four or five in number. The booming 
cry of this bird, which is especially loud and pro¬ 
longed during the breeding season, has given rise to 
a number of expressive folk-names—Butter-bump, 
Bull-of-the-Bog, Mire-drum—and has been noted in 
English literature from Chaucer to Tennyson. 
Early naturalists thought it was produced by the 
bird putting its bill into a reed or into mud and 
water, and “ after awhile retaining the air suddenly 
excluding it again.” Sir Thomas Brown was the first 
to show that this was not the case, “ for some have 
beheld them making this noise . . . far enough 

removed from reed or water.” The American bittern 
(B. lentiqinosus ), an accidental visitor, may be 
readily distinguished from the European form by its 
smaller size, more slender legs and feet, and the 
uniform leaden hue of the primaries, which in the 
last-named bird are broadly barred with buff. The 
Australian bittern (B. poiciloptilus) closely resem¬ 
bles the European bittern in habits; the upper 
surface is purplish-brown, except the wings, which 
are buff marked with brown, throat and under 
surface deep tawny buff mottled with brown. The 
Little Bittern ( Ardetta minata ), an occasional 


summer visitor, forms a connecting link bet ween the 
bitterns and the herons. It is not more than 13 in. 
long; general plumage shades of buff, with the top 
of the head, shoulders, primaries, and tail feathers 
shining greenish-black. 

Bitters, the name given to a compound pre¬ 
pared from an infusion of bitter or aromatic herbs 
in spirits of wine. Hop litters is the most common 
variety, and is highly thought of by some, as an 
aid to digestion and a mild tonic. It is to the hop 
that beer owes its efficacy as a tonic. Other herbs 
frequently used are the gentian, wormwood, cas- 
carilla, and quassia. 

Bittersweet, a literal translation of the speci¬ 
fic name of Solanum Dulcamara , the woody night¬ 
shade, a common British plant clambering in 
hedgerows or by the waterside. It has drooping 
clusters of small bright purple flowers, resembling 
in miniature those of its congener the potato, which 
are succeeded by oval fruits becoming scarlet. Its 
young stems have been used medicinally, and have 
a taste at first bitter but afterwards sweet. It is 
often popularly confused with the deadly night¬ 
shade ( Atropa Belladonna ), an allied plant very dif¬ 
ferent in appearance. 

Bitumen is a general term for a number of 
natural inflammable pitchy or oily substances, con¬ 
sisting of hydrocarbons, generally to some extent 
oxygenated, and sometimes containing a little 
nitrogen. The liquid forms are called naphtha when 
thin and light-coloured, petroleum when less fluid 
and dark yellow or blackish brown, and maltha 
when very viscid. The solid forms are known under 
the general name asphalt (q.v.). They apparently 
originate, at least in some cases, from the natural 
distillation of organic matter, the petroleum of 
Pennsylvania coming from Old Red Sandstone or 
Silurian rocks, the most limpid and volatile oils 
from the deepest borings. The asphalt of Trinidad 
is derived from lignite beds in underlying clay. 
As colourless naphtha (CH 2 ) flows from the ground 
it partly evaporates, takes up oxygen and becomes 
brown and thick petroleum, or ultimately solid 
glassy asphalt. Related minerals are elaterite, 
elastic bitumen or mineral caoutchouc ; albertite. a 
brittle black asphalt; ozokerite, a native paraffin 
(CH); hatchettine, or mineral tallow; and tor- 
banite , or boghead coal. Solid paraffin and other 
pure hydrocarbons are obtainable from all these 
substances by fractional distillation. Solid bitumen 
was used by Niepce in his photographic printing 
process, which depended on the fact that after long 
exposure to light the bitumen became insoluble in 
its ordinary solvents, as oil of lavender. 

Bitzius, Albert, born at Morat, Switzerland, 
in 1797, and passed an uneventful life as a Protes¬ 
tant pastor. Under the nom-de-plume of Jeremias 
Gotthelf he wrote a number of tales that became 
very popular and spread wholesome lessons of piety 
and morality among the Swiss, in whose dialect 
they were written. He also collected national 
legends. His works were translated into German 
and thus got a wider circulation. He died in 1854. 






Bivalve. 


( 8(5 ) 


Black, 


Bivalve, a term applied to those animals in 
which the shell consists of two separate halves or 
valves. Such are the Lamellibranchiata, in 
which the two valves may be equal, as in the 
cockle, or unequal, as the oyster ; the Brachiopoda, 
in which the valves are always unequal though 
each valve may be bilaterally symmetrical. Among 
the Crustacea there are the Ostracoda and some 
Phyllopoda. 

Bivouac (a corruption of the German beiwache), 
in military language, the encampment in the open 
air of a body of soldiers without tents. Each man 
remains dressed and has his weapons by him ready 
for a sudden attack. 

Bizerta, a seaport of Tunis, Africa, 38 miles 
from the capital, and occupying the site of the 
ancient Tyrian colony Hippo Zaritus. It stands on a 
lagoon which communicates with the fresh water 
lake of Gebel Ishkel. The Turks, as usual, have 
allowed the excellent harbour to become choked up, 
and trade, still considerable, can only be carried on 
now by small vessels. Fishing, and the preparation 
of Botarge from the roe of the mullet, are the only 
industries. 

Bizet, Georges, was born at Paris in 1838, and 
received a musical education at the Conservatoire 
under Halevy and in Italy. He came out first as 
an operatic composer with Les Pecheurs cle Perles, 
in 1863. In this, and in the Jolie Fille de Perth 
(1867), he showed that Wagner’s influence had 
extended into France. A little later he furnished 
the music for Daudet’s L'Arlcsienne, which was 
very popular with his own countrymen. By far his 
most brilliant and original work is Carmen , pro¬ 
duced in 1875. The work gave every reason to hope 
that greater things were in store, when the gifted 
author died suddenly from heart disease within a 
few weeks of the appearance of his piece. 

Bjela, or Biela, a town in the government of 
Siedlce, Russian Poland, on the river Krzna. There 
is a large trade in corn, and the Radziwill family 
have a palace here. 

Bjornson, Bjornstjerne, was born in 1832 
at Quickne, in Norway, where his father was pastor. 
He completed his education at the universities of 
Christiania and Copenhagen, and his first literary 
attempt was Kalborg, a drama which he did not 
allow to appear. In 1857 he made his initial 
success in another line with an idyllic peasant 
romance, Symiove Solbahken. Ole Bull made him 
manager of the Bergen theatre, and in 1858 he put 
on the stage Halte Hulda and Mellena Slagene 
(Between the Battles), besides writing his most 
popular story Arne. He then became a newspaper 
editor, but his religious views led to his leaving 
Norway, and for nearly twenty years he lived 
chiefly abroad. From 1876 to 1883 he settled near 
Lillehammer, and as leader of the “ Peasants’ 
Party ” had some influence in politics. His home 
is now in Paris. His best play is Sigurd the 
Bastard. He is a lyric poet of high order, and has 
even tried his hand at epic verse. It is impossible 
to give a list of his many novels and tales. In all 
his works he has striven to express the national 


spirit and to discountenance imitation of the 
French, and he has undoubtedly stimulated the 
revival of Scandinavian literature. 

Bjornstjerna, Magnus, Count, born in 1779 
in Sweden; was employed in negotiations with 
Napoleon in 1809, and fought at Leipsic in 1813. 
He concluded the treaty which united Sweden and 
Norway in 1814, and from 1828 to 1846 was Swedish 
Ambassador in London. He died in 1847. Among 
other works he wrote an account of the Hindu 
theogony. 

Black signifies the entire absence of colour- 
sensation. An object appears black when no appre¬ 
ciable amount of light comes from it to the eye of 
the observer. This may be because (1) the object 
emits no light and no other source is available, as 
for instance, objects in a dark room which are then 
all black; (2) it absorbs all the light which falls on 
it without reflecting any back, like lampblack in 
the daylight; or (3) the light reflected is not 
reflected to the eye of the observer. Thus black¬ 
ness is not an intrinsic property of the substance. 
But none of these conditions are ever perfectly satis¬ 
fied ; thus lampblack does not absorb absolutely all 
the light received upon it. [Colour, Reflection.] 

Black, Adam, publisher, was born in 1784 in 
Edinburgh, apprenticed as a bookseller for five 
years, and after serving two years as an assistant 
in London, started for himself in 1808 in Edin¬ 
burgh, where with his nephew he founded the 
house of Adam and Charles Black. In 1827, after 
Constable’s failure, the Blacks purchased the copy¬ 
right of the Encyclopaedia Britannica , and in 1851 
the copyright of Sir Walter Scott’s novels—two 
ventures that brought fame and fortune to the 
firm. Adam Black took a keen interest in local and 
general politics, and after serving twice as Lord 
Provost in his native city, represented it in Parlia¬ 
ment from 1856 to 1865 in the Liberal interest. 
His death occurred January 24, 1874. 

Black, John, journalist, was born in 1783 near 
Dunse, Berwickshire. After acting as a clerk in 
Dunse and in Edinburgh, he removed in 1810 to 
London, and was appointed parliamentary reporter 
for the Morning Chronicle , of which he became 
practically the editor in 1817. He was greatly 
assisted in this position by the advice and inspira¬ 
tion of the Mills, and under him Charles Dickens 
began his newspaper career. In 1835 he fought a 
duel with John Arthur Roebuck, who had published 
a pamphlet accusing him of cowardice. His 
editorship ended in 1843, when his friends, he 
having saved no money, bought him an annuity of 
£150 a year. Besides some translations from 
Italian, French, and German authors, Black also 
wrote a Life of Tasso. He died June 15, 1855. 

Black, Joseph, chemist, was born in 1728 at 
Bordeaux of Scottish parentage. He studied in 
Belfast, Glasgow, and Edinburgh, where his cele¬ 
brated graduation thesis, Be humore acido a cibis 
orto, et magnesia alba , was presented to the medical 
faculty June 11, 1754—a thesis that revolutionised 
chemistry and paved the way for Cavendish, 









Black. 


( 87 ) 


Blackburn. 


Lavoisier, and Priestley. After this came his dis¬ 
covery of latent heat (q.v.), of which, however, he 
failed to publish a detailed account. In 1756 he 
had been appointed to the chair of anatomy and 
chemistry in Glasgow university, but exchanged 
duties with the professor of medicine on account 
of the anatomy, which he felt he was not sufficiently 
qualified to teach. In 1766 he received the appoint¬ 
ment to the chair of medicine and chemistry in 
Edinburgh, where he chiefly devoted himself to his 
professional duties and made his class the most 
popular in the university. Though M. Deluc, a 
Frenchman, in 1788 claimed to be the author of the 
theory of latent heat, yet it is upon this discovery 
that Black’s fame chiefly rests. He died in 1799. 

Black, William, novelist, was born in 1841 in 
Glasgow. Taking up journalism as a profession, 
he in 1866 acted as war-correspondent for the 
Morning Star in the Austro-Prussian war. After 
this he became editor of the London Review and 
assistant editor of the Daily News , which position 
he resigned in 1875. His first hit as a novel-writer 
was made by A Daughter of Ueth, published in 
1871, his previous efforts having failed to attract 
very wide attention. The Strange Adventures of a 
Phaeton (1872) and A Princess of Thule (1873) 
are among his best known works, his latest being 
Donald Ross of Heimra (1891). 


Black Art, magic, especially the power of 
exorcising evil spirits. The term “black ’ was 
applied because proficients in the art were supposed 
to be in league with the powers of darkness. 

Black Assize, the name given to an assize 
which was held at Oxford in 1557. The High 
Sheriff and 300 others caught an infectious disease 
from the prisoners, and all perished. 

Black Baboon ( Cgnocephalus niger), a small 
aberrant form, from Celebes and some of the 
neighbouring islands, where it was probably intro¬ 
duced by man. The general form of the skull 
agrees best with that of the mandrill, while the 
position of the nostrils brings it nearei to the 
macaques. It is frequently seen in captivity, but 
nothing is known of its habits in a wild state. 


Blackband, an iron ore consisting mainly of 
ferrous carbonate. Bituminous matter is also always 
present, frequently in such amount as to render 
the use of charcoal in calcination unnecessary. 


Black Bear ( Ursus anxericanus), a North 
American bear, differing from the brown bear (q.v.) 
of Europe in the colour of its fur, more rounded 
skull, and smaller size, rarely exceeding five feet in 
length. It is practically vegetarian in diet, and 
rather timid, rarely attacking man unless it is 
wounded and brought to bay, or in defence of its 
young. The fur is used for rugs, trimmings, etc., 
and for bearskin caps, holsters, and other military 
accoutrements. The name is also applied to U. 
tibetanus , the Himalayan Bear, or Indian Black 
Bear, about the size of the American form, but 
with a white chin, a collar of long hair, and a 
broad Y-shaped mark on the breast. 


Black Beer, a kind of beer largely made in 
Dantzic in Prussia. 

Blackberry, the fruit of the brambles, species 
formerly united under the name Rubus fruticosus. 

It is known technically as an etasrio of drupels, 
consisting of a number of distinct (apocarpous) 
carpels, each of which is a drupel or miniatuie 
drupe,with polished skin or epicarp, fleshy mesocarp, 
and stone (endocarp), containing one seed, but 
differing from a plum in having a persistent style. 
The calyx and stamens also persist in the fruit 
stage. Blackberries are largely collected in England 
for puddings, jam, and jelly. [Bramble.] 

Blackbird ( Turdus merula ), one of the best 
known British song-birds, breeding in every county, 
occurring also nearly all over Europe (in some paits, 
however, only as a winter visitant), and in the north 
of Africa and the Azores. The adult male is about 
ten inches long, plumage glossy black, under¬ 
surface of wings greyish-black, bill and edges ot 
eyelids gamboge-yellow 5 in the female the upper 
plumage is umber-brown, with some darker spots, 
belly, sides, and lower tail-coverts hair-brown, bill 
dusky brown. In very old birds the featheis of the 
hind-neck are tipped with fine hairs. Albino, pied, 
and cream-coloured specimens are met with fiom 
time to time. Blackbirds pair early in spiing, and 
often rear two broods—a fact noted by Aiistotle. 
The nest is formed of small sticks and root-fibres, 
plastered inside with mud and lined with soft dry 
grass, and is generally built in a thickset hedge 01 
close bush or tree. The eggs are four or five in 
number, bluish-green with brownish markings ; and 
the male assists his mate in feeding the brood. 
The food of the blackbird is very varied in charac¬ 
ter ; in summer it commits great depredations in 
fields and gardens, making some amends, however, 
by the number of snails, slugs, and beetles which it 
consumes in the winter. Its natural song is loud 
and clear ; it can be taught simple airs and to articu¬ 
late short sentences. In Old and Middle English the 
blackbird was often called the Merle, a name now 
confined to provincial English or archaic litera¬ 
ture. In America the name is loosely used for 
many birds of sable plumage. [Ring-ouzel, 
Savannah Blackbird, Thrush.] 

Black Book, the name given to the collection 
of the reports furnished by the emissaries of Henry 
VIII. in 1536, who had been sent to discover grounds 
for the suppression of the monasteries. 

Blackburn, a town of Lancashire, England, 
and the leading centre of the cotton industry, is 
situated on a branch of the Ribble, called in 
Domesday Book “ Blackeburn.” It was incorpora¬ 
ted as a' municipality in 1851, though as far back 
as the 16th century it had acquired importance as 
a market town. Amongst prominent names in the 
history of the cotton manufacture,associated with 
Blackburn, are those of Peel, and Hargreaves, the 
inventor of the spinning jenny. Its educational 
institutions comprise a grammar school, established 
bv Queen Elizabeth in 1567, and a technical college ; 
and among its notable buildings are the very 










Blackburne. 


( 88 ) 


Black Death. 


ancient church of St. Mary’s, the town hall, and 
exchange. Other amenities are its parks—the 
Corporation Park, of 50 acres, and the Queen’s 
Park, of 85 acres. 

Blackburne, Francis, Lord Chancellor of 
Ireland, was born in 1782 at Great Footstown, 
County Meath. He entered Trinity College, 
Dublin, in 1798, kept his terms at King’s Inn, and 
thereafter proceeded to Lincoln’s Inn, London. In 
1805 he was called to the bar, and in 1822 adminis¬ 
tered the Insurrection Act in the city and county 
of Limerick. In 1830 he became attorney-general 
for Ireland, under Earl Grey, and again in 1841 
under Sir Pobert Peel, succeeding Sir Michael 
O’Loghlen as Master of the Rolls in Ireland in the 
following year. His subsequent appointments were 
in 1846 to the chief-justiceship of Queen’s Bench, 
in 1852 and 1866 to the Lord-Chancellorship by 
Lord Derby, and in 1856 Lord Justice of Appeal by 
Lord Palmerston. He was for several years vice- 
chancellor of Dublin University, and in 1867, the 
year of his death, he declined the offer of a 
baronetcy by Lord Derby. 

Blackcap, or Blackcap Warbler (Sylvia 
atricapilla), a migratory bird, resident in the 
warmer parts of Europe, arriving in Britain about 
the middle of April and leaving in September, strag¬ 
glers occurring sometimes during the winter. The 
adult male is nearly six inches long, has the top of the 
head black, neck ash-grey, rest of upper surface 
greenish-grey, tail barred with a darker shade, under 
surface ash-grey. The female is somewhat larger, 
and has the top of the head reddish-brown, and "the 
rest of the plumage more tinged with brown than 
the male. These birds feed on insects, berries, and 
fruit, especially red currants and raspberries ; and 
the male takes part in the task of incubation. The 
song of the blackcap is sweet, loud, and wild, 
according to Gilbert White, superior perhaps to 
any of our warblers, the nightingale excepted. 
[Chickadee.] 

Black Cap, the cap of black colour worn by an 
English judge when he is about to pass sentence of 
death on a criminal. 

Blackcock, Black Game, Black Grouse, or 
Heath Fowl (Tetrao tetrix ), a British game bird 
of the same genus as the grouse (q.v.). The adult 
male is about 22 inches in length, and weighs from 
4 lbs. to 4^ lbs.; general plumage bluish-black, 
secondaries tipped with white, and forming with the 
neighbouring coverts a band across each wing, 
under tail-coverts white ; legs furnished with dark 
brown hair-like feathers speckled with white, toes 
pectinated ; the outer tail feathers are much longer 
than those in the middle, and bend outwards on 
each side; there is a patch of bare scarlet skin over 
each eye, and this is inflated in the breeding sea¬ 
son. The female, or grey hen, is a much smaller 
bird, little more than 2 lbs. in weight; general plum¬ 
age rusty brown, barred and mottled with black or 
dark brown ; under tail-coverts white, tail orange- 
brown, with slight tendency to become curved. 
The plumage of the young birds is like that of 


the females. The males are polygamous, and 
during many weeks they congregate in numbers 
to fight together, and to display their charms before 
the hens. The hen lays from six to ten eggs, 
white, speckled with orange-brown, in a rudely 
constructed nest, generally among long, coarse 



blackcock (Tetrao tetrix). 


grass in some marshy spot. The male takes no 
part in incubation. These birds feed on the seeds 
of rushes and other plants, the shoots of heath, 
berries, worms, and insects, and often visit corn¬ 
fields and stubble for grain. In winter they eat the 
tops and buds of birch and alder, and the tender 
shoots of young firs. They are highly esteemed for 
table. The shooting season opens on August 20th 
and closes December 10th, with some slight local 
variation. The blackcock was formerly common 
in the south of England, where now it is becom¬ 
ing rare. It is more common in the north of 
England, and abundant in Scotland. It is found 
in Scandinavia, on the mountain ranges of central 
Europe, and through Siberia to Manchuria and the 
north of China. Cases of hybridism between the 
blackcock and other game birds are recorded. 

Black Corals. [Antipatharia.] 

Black Death, the name applied to a series of 
epidemics which occurred during the fourteenth 
century. The disease seems to have originated in 
the East, it raged in Southern Europe during 1346 
and 1347, and first appeared in England in 1348. 
From 1349 to 1357 a large mortality was attributed 
to the Black Death in this country. It is not certain 
whether the epidemics of later years, 1361 and 1368, 
were of the same or of different nature. According 
to some authorities the Black Death was the disease 
now known as Oriental Plague. [Plague.] The 
symptoms appear to have been in many respects 
similar to those of this disease, and glandular 
swellings or buboes were common; but in Black 
Death there was apparently a greater tendency to 
haemorrhage than in true plague, and particularly to 
haemorrhage from the lungs. [Haemoptysis.] The 
purpuric blotches which were seen on the skin gave 
rise to the name Black Death ; such petechiae are by 
no means uncommon in severe cases of true plague. 
The mortality in England has been variously 
estimated at from ^ to of the entire population ; 







( 89 ) 


Blackie. 


Black Draught. 


100,000 deaths are said to have occurred in London 
alone. Certain it is that the number of deaths was 
so large as to completely revolutionise the social 
economy of the time. The reign of Edward III. is 
regarded by modern economists as one of the 
critical periods in the history of labour, and it can¬ 
not be doubted that the alteration brought about, 
by the enormous mortality, in the value of labour, 
was the main cause of the social disturbances of 
the close of the fourteenth century. 

Black Draught, the name applied to a purga¬ 
tive mixture, the main ingredients of which are 
infusion of senna and sulphate of magnesia. 

Blackfeet. 1. A Dakota tribe whose real name 
is Sihasapa, one of the original members of the 
“ Seven Great Council Fires,” now divided, but famous 
in tradition and known to the early white pioneers. 
[Dakota.] 2. A warlike Algonquin nation, western¬ 
most branch of that family, south of the Saskatche¬ 
wan, and as far west as the Rocky Mountains; 
formerly also in Wyoming, where the curious picto- 
graph carvings on a rock near Fort Washakie about 
the headwaters of Sage Creek, were probably exe¬ 
cuted by them. The Blackfeet domain, over 130,000 
square miles in extent, was conterminous south- 
eastwards with that of their hereditary foes the 
Prairie Crees, whom they drove from the north fork 
of the Saskatchewan southwards to the Red Deer 
affluent of the south fork. Three main branches, 
Blackfeet proper [Satslka or Sinika ), 4,000 ; Piegans, 
2,000 ; and Blood Indians (Kena ), 1,500 ; total 
population (1890), 7,500. The Blackfeet were essen¬ 
tially a hunting people, and their territory has been 
much reduced since the disappearance of the bison. 
Many have become Christians, but the Piegans—a 
word said to be a corruption of the English Pagan 
—are still nature worshippers ; their chief deity is 
Nat/ls , the Sun. See Reports of the Bureau of 
Ethnology for 1882-3, Washington, 188G. 

Blackfish, a popular name loosely applied to 
several fish of black or dusky hue, and sometimes 
improperly used to denote small whales and dolphins. 
In England the name is chiefly given to Centrolo- 
pl/us pompiIns. a percifonn fish of the acantho- 
pterygian family Stromateidge, found in European 
seas, and occasionally reaching our south coast. 
Yarrell records a specimen 32 inches in length, and 
14 lbs. in weight, but individuals of this size are 
rare. There is another British species (C. britanni- 
cus ). In America the name is given to the genus 
Centropristis, and to the Tautog (q.v.). 

Black Forest, a range of wooded mountains 
called in German Schwarzwald from the dark 
foliage of its trees, is situated in the S.W. part of 
Germany in Baden and Wurtemberg. Its length is 
about 90 miles, and breadth from 18 to 30 miles. 
Its southern and western sides bound a portion of 
the Rhine basin, and it is the source of the rivers 
Danube, Neckar, Murg, Kinzig, Elz, Enz, and 
Wiessen. In the south is the Feldberg, the 
highest summit of the range, reaching an eleva¬ 
tion of nearly 5,000 feet; other high points 
are the Belchen and the Kandel. Geologically the 
Black Forest is chiefly composed of granite, and 


there are silver, copper, iron, lead, and cobalt mines. 
It is noted also for its mineral waters, those of 
Baden-Baden and Wildbad being especially famous. 
Its trees comprise fir, suitable for masts in ship¬ 
building, pine, beech, and maple. At the foot of 
the mountains are many picturesque valleys, of 
which the Murgthal and the Hollenthal are distin¬ 
guished for their natural beauties. Villages are 
interspersed throughout, the inhabitants being 
mainly engaged in the rearing of cattle and the 
manufacture of toys, especially wooden clocks. 
The district is now traversed by railways, some 
remarkable for their engineering. 

Black Friars, the name given to monks of the 
Dominican order (q.v.). The term is also applied to 
a district of London first inhabited by these friars, 
and situated between St. Paul's and the Temple. 

Black Friday, a term applied to various days- 
on which some calamity has happened, or some- 
bad news has been announced. Perhaps the best 
known is the 6th of December, 1745, when the 
tidings of the Pretender’s arrival at Derby reached 
London. 

Black Flux consists of a mixture of crude 
tartar, saltpetre, bottle glass, and a little borax, 
melted together and finely powdered. It is largely 
used in assaying. 

Blackguard, originally a scullion or humble 
servant in a wealthy household, whose duty it was 
to clean and pi'otect the pots and pans. Later, 
the term was applied to one of low moral character. 

Blackheath, a suburb in the S.E. district of 
London, near Greenwich Park. The heath itself 
covers an area of about 70 acres, and was the first 
ground in England that the game of golf was. 
played on. Among its historical associations are 
the risings under Wat Tyler and Jack Cade. It 
was also a favourite haunt of highwaymen. 

Black Hole of Calcutta, an unvent dated 
room 18 feet square, into which 146 English pri¬ 
soners were thrust on June 20th, 1756; only 23. 
survived the night, all the rest being suffocated. 

Black House, the name given to a rude kind 
of dwelling common in the islands of Lewis and 
Harris, and less so in Scotland, and so called to 
distinguish them from white stone houses. These 
houses are built of rough stones, and consist of a 
main portion and a wing on each side. In the 
smaller wing is the door with a passage containing 
a quern and a stall for calves and lambs, and lead¬ 
ing to the central part in which are the larger 
cattle, separated from the human inhabitants by a 
line of rough stones. The farther wing is used as 
a barn and sleeping place. There are no windows; 
their seats are planks placed on sods or simply 
piles of sods, with a three-legged stool for the wife. 
The beds consist of four rough uprights, bound 
together with side pieces, and having a wooden 
bottom covered with loose straw. 

Blackie, John Stuart, scholar, was born in 
1809 at Glasgow. He studied at Aberdeen and 
Edinburgh, and in Germany and Italy. In 1841 he 






Blacking. 


( 90 ) 


Black Bod. 


became professor of humanity in Marischal College, 
Aberdeen, and in 1852 of Greek in Edinburgh 
University, which position he resigned in 1882. 
Amongst his varied works the chief is Self Culture, 
published in 1874; others are a metrical transla¬ 
tion of Goethe’s Faust, 1834 ; of JEscliylus, 1850, 
Homer and the Iliad, with a translation of the 
Iliad in ballad measure, 1806; War Songs of the 
Germans, 1870; a Life of Burns, 1888; contribu¬ 
tions to philology, etc. He is a strong advocate of 
a reform in the pronunciation of ancient Greek. 
The foundation of a chair of Celtic in Edinburgh 
University is due to his exertions, and he is an 
ardent supporter of the preservation of Scottish 
nationality in all its forms. 

Blacking, a polish employed chiefly for boots 
and shoes ; introduced into this country from Paris 
in the 17th century. Many different varieties of paste 
and liquid blackings exist, generally consisting of 
bone black with fatty matters, and frequently some 
treacle and sulphuric acid added. Liquid black¬ 
ings for kid shoes, etc., are generally some form of 
spirit varnish coloured by aniline black. 

Black Jack, the name by which blende (q.v.) is 
known amongst miners. 

Black Lead. [Carbon.] 

Black Letter, the name given to the old Eng¬ 
lish character, because of its blackness. [(3TI)iS is 
priutrtr tn 33lark Xcttcr.] 

Black List, the name specially given to lists 
of bankrupts or insolvents published in London 
generally once a week. Societies also exist of a 
more private nature for furnishing information con¬ 
cerning persons of shady character or doubtful 
honesty, with the view of protecting traders, etc. 

Blacklock, Thomas, clergyman, was born in 
1721, at Annan. While still an infant he lost his 
sight. His father, a bricklayer, used to read to 
him such books as Spenser, Milton, Prior, Pope, etc. 
He, too, began to write poetry, which attracted the 
attention of Dr. Stevenson, an Edinburgh physician, 
by whose assistance Blacklock received a good 
education, and became a licensed minister in the 
established kirk in 1759. After two years as 
minister of Kirkcudbright, he resigned in 1704 on a 
small annuity, which he eked out by teaching in 
Edinburgh. It was a letter from him that induced 
Burns to give up his intention of going to the West 
Indies ; a conversation between Blacklock and Dr. 
Johnson is also given in a Tour to the Hebrides. 

Blackmail, money paid by property owners 
to freebooters and robbers as the price of protection 
from pillage. The system of blackmail existed 
until the middle of the 18th century in the High¬ 
lands of Scotland. Later, the term gained a wider 
significance and is applied to all payments which 
are extorted by threats of exposure, etc. 

Blackmore, Sir Richard, physician and 
writer, was born at Corsham, Wiltshire. After 
being educated at Westminster school and Oxford 
he became a schoolmaster. He then spent some 


time on the Continent, taking the degree of M.D. 
at Padua, and on his return to England being 
admitted fellow of the Royal College of Physicians 
in 1687. In 1097 (having pronounced strongly in 
favour of the Revolution) he was appointed one of 
the king’s physicians and knighted by William.. He 
also continued to be one of the court physicians 
under Queen Anne. Meanwhile, between 1095 and 
1723, he had published seven epics, viz. Prince 
Arthur, King Arthur, Eliza, Creation, Bede motion, 
Nature of Man, and Alfred, all of which are now 
regarded as insufferably dull. He also wrote some 
theological works and medical treatises. He died 
in 1729 at Boxted, Essex. 

Blackmore, Richard Doddridge, novelist, 
was born in 1825 at Longworth, Berkshire. Educated 
at Tiverton school and Exeter College, Oxford, he 
graduated B.A. in 1847. In 1852 he was called to 
the bar at the Middle Temple. Amongst his novels 
the best known, Lorna Boone: a Romance of Exmoor, 
was published in 1869. He has also published 
some poems and a translation of Virgil's Georgies. 

Blackpool, a town of Lancashire, England, is 
on the west coast, north of the estuary of the 
Ribble. It is chiefly noted as a bathing place, and 
is sometimes called the “ Brighton of the North. 

Black Prince, The, the name by which 
Edward, Prince of Wales, son of Edward III., is 
usually known, was born in 1330 at Woodstock. 
He early distinguished himself as a soldier in the 
wars with France, leading a division at CreQy 
when only sixteen. In 1350 he won the battle of 
Poitiers, taking King John and his son prisoners, 
with whom in the following year he entered London 
in triumph. In 1361 he married Joan, the lair 
Maid of Kent, widow first of Sir Thomas Holland, 
and next of the Earl of Salisbury ; and having been 
created Duke of Aquitaine, settled in 1363 at Bor¬ 
deaux. His next exploit was an expedition in 
support of Pedro the. Cruel, who had been deposed 
from the Castilian throne by his brother, Henry of 
Trastamare. The Black Prince, crossing the Pyre¬ 
nees, defeated Henry at Navarette ; but Pedro, who 
had promised to pay the expenses of the expedition, 
failed to do so, and the Prince was obliged to tax 
his subjects. This led to a fresh rupture between 
England and France, and during the hostilities that 
ensued occurred the capture of Limoges, at which 
the Prince cruelly ordered the massacre of every 
soul found within its walls. This is the only stain 
on his chivalrous character ; it was also the crown¬ 
ing act in his military career. In 1371 he returned 
to" England, broken in health, and died at West¬ 
minster in 1376, being interred in Canterbury 
Cathedral. 

Black Quarter (Charbon symptomatique, 
Rausch brand), a disease of cattle, between which 
and true anthrax (q.v.) some confusion has arisen. 
A bacillus has been found in cases of charbon 
symptomatique resembling, but not identical with, 
the bacillus antliracis. 

Black Bod, fully designated Gentleman 
Usher of the Black Rod, an official of the House 
of Lords, who acts as messenger to the Upper 









Black Sea. 


( ) 


Blackthorn. 


House, summons the House of Commons to hear 
royal assent given to bills, takes into custody any 
peer who is charged with a breach of privilege or 
contempt, etc. He carries a black rod surmounted 
by a gold lion. 

Black Sea, or Euxine (ancient name Pontus 
Euxinus), lies between Europe and Asia, with Russia 
on its N. and E., and Turkey on its S. and W. Its 
area is estimated at about 170,000 square miles, 
its greatest length being 700 miles, and greatest 
breadth 400 miles, and coast line 2,000 miles. 
As to its depth it increases uniformly with the dis¬ 
tance from the shore, and in the centre the bottom 
has not been reached at 1,070 fathoms. It receives 
from Europe the waters of the Danube, Dniester, 
Bog, Dnieper, and Don, and from Asia the Kizil- 
Irmak and Sakaria, draining an extent of territory 
in Europe and Asia of about 1,000,000 square miles, 
one of the largest drainage preas in the world. On 
the S.W. it communicates with the Mediterranean by 
the Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmora, and the Darda¬ 
nelles ; and on the N.E. with the Sea of Azof by 
the Straits- of Yenikale. It has only one island, 
Serpent Isle. Odessa is its chief port from a com¬ 
mercial point of view; others are Kherson, Eupa- 
toria, Sebastopol, Batoum, Trebizond, Sinope, and 
Varna. Of its peninsulas the most celebrated is the 
Crimea, on its N. shore. There is no noticeable tide 
in this sea, but strong currents are occasioned by 
the large bodies of water that flow into it, and these 
set for the most part towards the Bosphorus. Its 
waters are not so salt as the ocean, and easily 
freeze, the northern ports being blocked for several 
months in winter time. Though there are great 
varieties of fish, yet the fisheries are unimportant, 
being confined mainly to sturgeon in the Straits of 
Yenikale. The Black Sea has long been known to 
navigators, and has played an important part in 
ancient as well as modern times. At one time 
Russia endeavoured to close it against the ships of 
other nations ; since the Crimean war, however, it 
has been open to all trading vessels. In 1856 it 
was neutralised by treaty, and interdicted to war¬ 
ships with certain trifling exceptions. In 1870, 
during the Franco-German war, Russia announced 
that she would no longer be bound by these restric¬ 
tions, and they were abrogated in 1871. 

Black Snake, a popular name for several 
snakes, from their coloration. In America it is 
applied to (1) Coluber constrictor , a large non- 
venomous snake found in the Mississippi valley and 
to the eastward; uniform lustrous black above, 
varying to olive or leaden below, chin and throat 
white. It feeds on birds, frogs, and small mammals, 
and is the deadly foe of the rattlesnake, which it 
boldly attacks and crushes in its folds. (2) Elaplds 
obsoletus, also harmless, found east of the Rocky 
Mountains; light reddish-brown, darkening with 
age till nearly or quite black. Both species run into 
varieties The black snake of Australia ( Pseudechis 
porphyriacus), black above and red beneath, is closely 
allied to the cobra (q.v.), and is very venomous. 

Blackstone, Sir William, one of the most 
eminent of judges and the most important English 


legal text writer of the 18th century (if not of 
all time). He was the writer of the commentaries 
on English law, known as Blackstones Commen¬ 
taries , which to the present day retains its sterling 
value as an authority in the profession of the law. 
There have been many editions of this impor¬ 
tant work by legal writers of great ability; in the 
best of such editions the very text of the original 
work has been retained (enclosed in brackets) 
adding, of course, the modern law and altera¬ 
tions or improvements on each particular subject. 
Stephens’ Blackstone's Commentaries is the last 
edition of this work, and is on the lines stated. 

Sir William Blackstone was the son of a silk 
mercer, and was born in London in 1723. He was 
educated at the Charter House ; at 15 years of age 
he was at the head of that school, and in his 16th 
year went to Pembroke College, Oxford. He after¬ 
wards entered the Middle Temple and wrote The 
Lawyer's Farewell to his Muse , as also several 
small pieces of verse, and obtained the gold medal 
for verses on Milton. In 1743 he was elected 
a Fellow of All Souls’ College, Oxford, and three 
years afterwards was called to the bar. He after¬ 
wards withdrew to Oxford, purposing to lead an 
academic life, but in 1749 he was appointed Re¬ 
corder of Wallingford, Berks, on the resignation 
of his uncle. In 1758 was appointed the first Vinerian 
Professor, in which character he delivered a course 
of lectures at Oxford on Law, which attracted many 
students, among whom was Jeremy Bentham. He 
happened to get engaged as counsel in a contested 
election case concerning the rights of copyholders, 
and he afterwards published his opinion on the 
subject. He denied these rights ; in the result an 
Act of Parliament was passed doing away with 
them. He became so popular from his lectures and 
a new edition which he wrote of the Great Charter , 
and Charter of the Forest, that he ultimately 
found his way to the law courts in the metropolis, 
and obtained extensive practice. He became 
member of Parliament for Hindon in 1761. In 
1762 he was granted a patent of precedence as 
king’s counsel, and in the next year he became 
solicitor-general to the queen. The first volume of 
the original commentaries on the laws of England 
was published at Oxford in 1765, the other three 
volumes appeared at intervals shortly afterwards. 
In 1770 he was made one of the justices of the 
Court of Common Pleas (which position he filled 
till his death in 1780). He was t he author of an 
Analysis of the Laws of England, a distinct work 
from the Commentaries , also of some law tracts and 
volumes of reports. As a judge he had great 
respect for the traditions of the bench, and his 
political opinions were moderate. The University 
of Oxford contains several memorials in his honour. 
In 1784 a statue of him by Bacon was erected in 
All Souls’ College. He had nine children, seven of 
whom survived him. 

Blackthorn {Prunus spinosa), a straggling 
shrub, common in hedgerows, with spinous 
branches. It is “ precocious,” producing its small 
white flowers on its blackish branches before the 
appearance of the leaves. Its wood is hard and 


/ 






Black Watch. 


( 92 ) 


Bladderwort. 


tough, taking a fine polish, and is used for walking- 
sticks, and, in Ireland, for shillelaghs. The leaves 
were formerly used to adulterate tea. The small, 
round, harsh fruit, which is a plum in miniature, 
with a bloom on its surface, is known as a sloe, and 
is used in rustic distillery. 

Black Watch (from the black colour of their 
tartan), the name given to the companies of High¬ 
landers raised to preserve peace in the Highlands 
after the rebellion of 1715. In 1739 they were 
formed into the 42nd regiment, which in 1881 
became the first battalion of the Black Watch 
(Royal Highlanders). 

Blackwater, the name of several rivers in 
Ireland. 1. Rises in the S. of county Tyrone, 
which it divides from Monaghan and Armagh. It 
flows into Lough Neagh. At one time it was the 
boundary between the English Pale and the Tyrone 
O’Neills. 2. Rises on the borders of Kerry and 
Limerick. Its course is for the most part easterly, 
and it falls into St. George’s Channel through 
Youghal harbour. It is celebrated for the 
beauty of its scenery. There are many other 
streams with this name. 

Black Water, a disease of cattle which derives 
its name from the fact that dark-coloured blood is 
found in the urine of affected animals. 

Blackwell, Alexander, physician, was born 
in Aberdeen about the beginning of the 18th 
century. About 1730 he seems to have been a 
printer in London, becoming bankrupt in 1734, and 
being cast into a debtor’s prison, where he was 
supported by his wife Elizabeth Blackwell (q.v.). 
He afterwards wrote a book on agriculture, which 
attracted the notice of the king of Sweden, and led 
to his removal to that country. Here he was con¬ 
victed of conspiracy against the royal family, and 
beheaded in 1747. 

Blackwell, Elizabeth, wife of the preceding, 
was the daughter of an Aberdeen stocking 
merchant. In 1737 she published A Curious 
Herbal, containing Fire Hundred Cuts of the most 
Useful Plants which are now used in the Practice of 
Physic, and with the proceeds freed her husband 
from prison. 

Blackwell, Elizabeth, was born in 1821 at 
Bristol. In 1831 she accompanied her family to 
America, where her father dying and leaving her 
mother destitute, she opened a school at. the age of 
seventeen, devoting her leisure to the study of books 
on medical subjects. She applied to the medical 
schools of Philadelphia and Boston for admission as 
a student, but was in each instance refused. Ulti¬ 
mately, however, she succeeded in gaining admit¬ 
tance to the medical school of Geneva, N.Y., 
and graduated M.D. in 1849. She then visited 
Paris and London, being admitted in the former 
place to the Maternite hospital, and in the latter to 
St. Bartholomew’s. Returning in 1851 to New York, 
she there set up a practice as a doctor; published 
in 1852 The Laws of Life ; and in 1854 with a sister 
opened the New York Infirmary for women and 
children. 


Blackwood, The Hon. Sir Henry, fifth son of 
Sir John Blackwood, Bart., was born in 1770, and 
having entered the navy, was senior lieutenant of 
the Invincible, 74, in the action of the glorious 
First of June, 1794. As captain of the Penelope, 
36, he particularly distinguished himself in the 
capture of the Guillaume Tell, 84, on March 31, 
1800. In 1801 he participated in the operations 
in Egypt; and at Trafalgar, in command of the 
Euryalus, 36, acquired deserved fame. In 1807, in 
the Ajax, 80, he accompanied Duckworth to the 
Dardanelles, but had the misfortune to lose his ship 
by fire. He was promoted to be rear-admiral in 
1814; from 1819 to 1822 he commanded in the 
East Indies ; and from 1828 to 1830 his flag was 
flying at the Nore. He died a vice-admiral in 1832. 
He was one of the captains in whom Nelson reposed 
the utmost confidence, and as a frigate commander 
he was in his day unrivalled. 

Blackwood, William, publisher, was born in 
1776, at Edinburgh, where after an apprenticeship 
with a bookseller, and further experience in Glasgow 
and London, he in 1804 started for himself. On 
April 1st, 1817, he issued the first number of the 
Edinburgh Monthly Magazine, which on October 1st 
was issued as Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine. 
Among Blackwood’s principal advisers and con¬ 
tributors were Professor Wilson and Lockhart, and 
the new publication was immediately successful. 
Among publications that have issued from the 
house founded by William Blackwood are the 
Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, edited by Sir David 
Brewster, and begun in 1810, Sir Archibald Alison’s 
History of Europe, and George Eliot’s novels. He 
died in 1834. 

Bladder. The urinary bladder is a hollow 
receptacle in which the urine accumulates between 
the intervals of micturition. Into it open the 
ureters, and from it passes the urethra. The adult 
bladder is capable of holding about one pint ; it lies 
in the pelvis, to the walls of which it is attached by 
various ligaments. Lining the interior of the 
bladder is a mucous membrane, and this is envel¬ 
oped by a muscular coat, and finally the bladder is 
invested in part by peritoneum. The upper part of the 
bladder is called the apex, the portion adjoining the 
urethra is termed the neck, and the triangular area 
mapped out by the orifices of the two ureters and 
the urethra is called the trigone. Inflammation 
of the bladder is called cystitis. Tumours may 
develop, too, in connection with this viscus. For 
stone in the bladder, see Calculus. The bladder 
sometimes requires to be punctured to relieve dis¬ 
tension in cases of retention of urine. 

Bladder-nut, a name applied to Staphylea 
jnnnata and S. trifoliata, shrubs belonging to the 
sub-order Staphylece in the order Sapindaceae. They 
have opposite, stipulate, pinnate leaves, and pendu¬ 
lous clusters of small white flow'ers succeeded by an 
inflated capsule of two or three partly-united 
carpels. Their geographical distribution is wide, 
and they are grown for ornament in our shrubberies. 

Bladderwort, the popular name for the species 
of the interesting genus of dicotyledonous plants, 





Bladder-wrack. 


( 93 ) 


Blake. 


Utricnlaria. They are aquatic plants with little 
or no roots, and with submerged leaves, much 
divided, and bearing numerous small bladders or 
“ ascidia.” These have a trap-door opening inwards, 
and are lined by four-rayed hairs. Numerous small 
aquatic animals, water-fleas, etc., enter these 
bladders, and are apparently suffocated, the hairs 
absorbing the liquid product of their decay as a 
manure. There is no true digestion. The bladders 
<lo not serve as floats. The flower is personate, and 
in some foreign species large and ornamental. 
Utricnlaria nelumbeefolia, a native of Brazil, which 
has round peltate leaves, lives in the water in the 
hollowed leaves of a Tillandsia. There are about 
120 species in the genus, four of which are British, 
and these and others are widely distributed over the 
globe. They sometimes bear tuber-like structures. 

Bladder-wrack, the popular name for those 
olive-brown algae of the genus Uncus, which have 
air-bladders or floats hollowed out in the tissue of 
their frond-like thallus. Fucus vesiculosus, with a 
midrib and its bladders in pairs on each side of 
it, and F. nodosus, with a narrow thallus, no midrib, 
and bladders arranged singly, are the commonest 
sea-weeds on our coasts, where they were formerly 
collected as kelp, and are still used for manure and 
for iodine baths. F. vesiculosus is the essential 
constituent in the remedy for obesity known as 
“ anti-fat,” and owing to the iodine it contains has 
been used, in a charred condition, for tumours, 
under the name of “ vegetable ethiops.” 

Blaen, Willem Janszoon, map-drawer, was 
born in 1571, at Alkmaar, Holland. He executed 
terrestrial and celestial globes in a manner that 
had never been approached. His death occurred 
in 1638. 

Blaen, Jan, son of the preceding, published 
Atlas Major (11 vols.),alsoa series of topographical 
plates and views of towns. 

Blaine, James Gillespie, statesman, was born 
in 1830, at Brownsville, West Pennsylvania. For 
a time he was professor in small colleges, to which 
his subsequent title of “ the scholar in politics” is 
doubtless due. In 1854 he was a journalist at 
Augusta. Maine, and from 1858 to 1862 sat in the 
State legislature, from 1862 to 1876 in the House 
of Representatives. In 1876 he was elected United 
States senator for Maine. In 1884 he was nomina¬ 
ted for the presidency, but was defeated by Cleve¬ 
land. In 1886 he accepted under President Harrison 
the secretaryship of state, a position he had held 
under President Garfield. He is the author of 
Twenty Years in Conyress. 

Blainville, Henri Marie Ducrotay de, 
naturalist, was born in 1778 at Argues., lhiough 
Cuvier he was led to take an interest in natuial 
science, and in 1812 was appointed to the chair of 
anatomy and zoology in the I aciflty of Sciences, 
Paris, succeeding Cuvier in the professoi ship of 
comparative anatomy at the Jardin des Plantes. 
He died in 1850. His success in authorship was as 
pronounced as in teaching, and amongst his best 
known works are l)e l Gryanisation des Animaux, 
on Principec d'Anatomie Comparee , 1822 ; (Jours de 


Pkysioloyie Generate, 1833; Usteoyraph ie, 1839- 
1864, etc. 

Blair, Hugh, clergyman, was born in 1718 at 
Edinburgh, where he studied, and after occupying 
the established pulpits of Collessie, Fifeshire, 
Canongate, Lady Yester's, and the High church, 
Edinburgh, he was appointed, in 1762, professor of 
rhetoric at the university. He wrote a Dissertation 
on the Poems of Ossian, published his Lectures and 
Sermons, which attracted the notice of George III., 
who conferred on Blair a pension of £200 a year in 
1780. He resigned his professorship in 1783 and 
died in 1800. 

Blair, Robert, Scottish divine, was born in 
1699 at Edinburgh. Educated for the church, he 
was appointed in 1731 minister of Athelstaneford, 
where he wrote his well-known poem, The Grave, 
published in 1743, and where he died in 1746. 

Blair-Athole, Scottish village in Perthshire, 
at the junction of the Garry and Tilt, 30 miles 
N.N.W. from Perth and 20 N.N.W. from Dunkeld. 
Near it is Blair Castle, the seat of the Duke of 
Athole. 

Blake, Robert, one of the greatest com¬ 
manders that have served England, was born in 
1598 at Bridgwater, Somersetshire, where his father 
was a wealthy merchant. From 1615 to 1622 young 
Blake, who ‘ had previously been educated at 
Bridgwater grammar school, was at Wadham 
College, Oxford, where he took his B.A. degree in 
1617. Upon leaving Oxford he appears to have 
devoted himself to elegant pursuits and the life of 
a country gentleman, until, in 1640, he was elected 
member of Parliament for his native place. W hen 
the Civil war broke out he linked his fortunes with 
those of the Parliament, and, having raised a troop 
of dragoons, became in 1645 governor of Taunton. 
He was there beseiged by Lord Goring, but, amid 
great disadvantages and discouragements, defended 
the place until the siege was raised. He did not, 
however, agree with all the actions of the Republican 
party, and strongly disapproved of the execution of 
the king. Not until February, 1649, did he become 
associated with the service in which he was destined 
to gain undying renown. In that month he was 
appointed a commissioner of the navy, and soon 
afterwards he was sent with a force in pursuit of 
Prince Rupert’s semi-piratical squadron. He shut 
the prince up in Kingsale harbour, and followed 
him closely when he broke the blockade. Rupert 
then took refuge in the Tagus, where the Portuguese 
afforded him protection in spite of Blake’s remon¬ 
strances, whereupon Blake, in retaliation, attacked 
the home-coming Portuguese fleet from Brazil and 
took or destroyed 20 sail of it. Having carried 
home his prizes," he returned to pursue Rupert, whom 
he chased into Carthagena and thence into Malaga, 
where he fell upon him, destroyed three of his ships, 
and obliged the prince to retire to the court of 
Spain. Blake continued in the Mediterranean until 
1651, making the flag feared and respected there, 
and taking many prizes. Upon his return he was 
appointed warden of the Cinque Ports. In 1652, 
just before the outbreak of war with Holland, which 






Blake. 


( 94 ) 


Blanc. 


was then the most formidable naval power in the 
world, Blake was created admiral for nine months. 
Lying with but 20 ships in the Downs, he began 
the war by attacking Tromp, who came there with 
45 sail and who refused to strike his flag to him. 
Being fortunately reinforced, he drove off the 
Dutch with a loss of two of their ships. This was 
on May 18. In July Blake met and took the 
whole 'Dutch fishery fleet and its convoy, and in 
September he chased De Witt and De Huy ter in 
running fight from the Kentish Knock into Goree, 
capturing or destroying several of their vessels. 
Blake went back to the Downs, where, in a short 
time, he found himself with only 40 ships. In this 
situation he was furiously attacked by 80 vessels 
under Tromp, and was, as might be expected, badly 
beaten. He lost 6 ships, but on the other hand he 
destroyed at least one of the enemy. His temerity 
in accepting battle on this unfortunate occasion 
must, upon the whole, be blamed; but it was 
Blake’s sole tactical mistake of any importance, 
and, happily, the great leader was soon able to win 
a compensating advantage. By February, 1653. he 
had managed to increase his fleet to 80 sail. With 
Monk and Deane as his associated “ Admirals and 
Generals at sea,” he sighted Tromp, who had nearly 
100 sail, and on February 18th defeated him, though 
not decisively, off Portland. Following up his 
success, he chased the Dutch to their coasts. In 
April, 1653, Cromwell, much apparently to Blake’s 
disappointment, assumed supreme authority; but 
the admiral, who fully realised that, after all, the 
external troubles of his country were its more 
serious ones, had long since ceased to take an 
active part in politics. “ It is not,” he said, “ the 
business of a seaman to mind state affairs, but to 
hinder foreigners from fooling us. Disturb not one 
- another with domestic disputes, but remember that 
we are English and our enemies are foreigners; 
enemies which, let what party soever prevail, it is 
equally the interest of our country to humble and 
restrain.” A very few days after Cromwell’s as¬ 
sumption of power Blake again drove the Dutch 
into the Texel, and there blockaded them, until, 
hearing that Tromp was at sea with 120 ships, the 
admiral went in search of him. He found him on 
June 3rd, 1653, off the coast of Essex, and having 
fought him for two days, gained a considerable 
success, though not without the loss of Deane, who 
was killed by a cannon-shot. In the next year a 
new field was found for Blake’s energies, in the 
Mediterranean, where Algiers was intimidated and 
Tunis forced into surrendering all English captives. 
In 1656, the admiral, there being war with Spain, 
cruised in the neighbourhood of Gibraltar ; and in 
1657, having heard of the presence of a Spanish 
treasure-fleet at Santa Cruz, Teneriffe, he went 
thither, and, in a manner which for conduct and 
gallantry has never been exceeded, not only silenced 
the numerous and heavily-armed batteries on shore, 
but also destroyed every one of the galleons. It 
was a glorious exploit, and it was a fitting close to 
a glorious career. Returning in his flagship, the 
St. George, Blake, whose devotion to his country’s 
welfare had seriously undermined his health, died 
on Aug. 17th, 1657, as his fleet was triumphantly 


entering Plymouth Sound. His body was worthily 
buried in Henry VII.’s Chapel at Westminster ; but, 
to the eternal disgrace of all concerned, it was, at 
the Restoration, taken up and thrown into a pit in 
St. Margaret’s churchyard. Since then, however, 
no one has dared to attack his memory. He was 
one of the greatest and the bravest of Englishmen : 
he first made the English flag generally respected, 
at sea ; and in the whole of her history Britain 
has had no sea-captain of whom, in all respects, 
she can feel prouder. Indeed he is one of the 
very few great commanders whose characters 
appear to be without flaw. 

Blake, William, painter and poet, was born in 
1757 in London. At the age of 14 he was appren¬ 
ticed to an engraver for seven years, proceeding in 
1778 to the school of the Royal Academy, where he 
studied from the antique and began to draw from 
the living model. In 1780 he exhibited his first 
picture, The Death of Earl Godwin , in the Royal 
Academy’s first exhibition in Somerset House ; and 
after marrying in 1782 Catherine Boucher, who 
proved of great assistance to him in his work, he 
opened a printseller’s shop in Broad Street in 1784. 
Meanwhile, in 1783, he had published Poetical 
Sketches , which marked him as a coming poet. 
For his Songs of Innocence he -was unable to find a 
publisher, and hit upon a plan of producing them 
himself, revealed to him in a dream, he used to say, 
by his dead brother Robert. Besides revealing the 
poet, this publication exhibited an inventive artist 
in decorative design. Among Blake’s other best 
known works are : Booh of Thel , 1789 ; Marriage of 
Heaven and Hell , 1790 ; Gates of Paradise , 1793 ; 
Songs of Experience , 1794; The Book of Urizen y 
1794 ; The Song of Los, 1795 ; The Booh of Ahania, 
1795, etc. He illustrated Young’s Night's Thoughts , 
Blair’s Grave and The Booh of Job. The strength of 
his genius lay in the vividness of his imagination. 
Though he commanded the patronage of the public 
to a very limited extent during his lifetime, his 
genius did not fail to attract friends whose kindly 
assistance relieved his declining years, which were 
passed in poverty. He died in 1827 at No. 3, 
Fountain Court, Strand, whither he had removed in 
1820, and was buried in Bunhill Fields. 

Blanc, Jean Joseph Louis, historian and 
socialist, was born in 1811 at Madrid. He began 
his career as a journalist at Paris, and in 1839 
founded the Bevue du Progres, in which appeared 
his principal Socialistic work, De VOrganization du 
Travail. This gained for the author a wide popu¬ 
larity amongst the working classes, and on the out¬ 
break of the revolution, of 1848 he was chosen a 
member of the provisional government and 
appointed president of the commission of labour. 
Accused of being implicated in the disturbances of 
the summer in the same year, he escaped to London, 
where he remained until the downfall of the 
empire. On his return to Paris he was elected to 
the National Assembly in 1871, and afterwards 
became a member of the Chamber of Deputies. 
Besides the work already mentioned, his writings 
embrace Histoire de Dix Ans (1841-4), Histoire dc 
la Devolution Francaise, Lettres sur VAngleterre 







Blanchard. 


( 95 ) 


Blasphemy. 


(18G5-7), Histoire de la Revolution de ISjS , 1870, 
etc. He died in 1882 at Cannes. 

Blanchard, Lamaist, journalist, was born in 
1804 at Yarmouth. In 1827 he was appointed 
secretary to the Zoological Society, and in 1831 
became editor of the Monthly Magazine. His Lyric 
Offerings , dedicated to Charles Lamb, and published 
in 1828, received high commendation from Allan 
Cunningham and Lamb. In 1845, his mind having 
become unhinged through the death of his wife, 
he committed suicide. 

Blanch-holding, or Blench-holding, in 
Scottish law, a tenure by which the tenant is 
bound to pay only a nominal yearly duty, e.g. a 
peppercorn, to his superior as an acknowledgment 
of the latter’s right. 

Blanching, in Horticulture, a method of ren¬ 
dering plants white, and of depriving them of 
coarseness and bitterness, by growing them in a 
dark place. Seakale and rhubarb are reared in 
this way. 

Blancmange, a table-dish made of dissolved 
isinglass or gelatine, of arrowroot, ground rice, etc., 
boiled with sugar, milk, and flavouring substances. 
Blancmange used to contain fowl, meat and eggs. 

Blanco, Cape, i.e. White Cape, on the west 
coast of Africa, is a rocky projection from the 
Sahara, and lies in lat. 20° 47' N. and long. 16° 
58' W. 

Blandford, an English municipality, in Dorset¬ 
shire, stands on the Stour. Near it is Lord 
Portman’s seat, Bryanston Park, and from it the 
Duke of Marlborough derives his title of Marquis 
of Blandford. 

Blandrata, Giorgio, was born about 1515 at 
Saluzzo, Piedmont. In 155G on account of his 
advanced religious views he had to take refuge in 
Geneva and ultimately in Poland, where he sowed 
the seeds of Unitarianism, dying about the end of 
the lGth century. 

Blane, Sir Gilbert, physician, was born in 
1749 at Blanefield, Ayrshire. After graduating 
M.D. he became physician to the fleet in the West 
Indies under Admiral Kodney. In 1783 he was 
appointed physician to St. Thomas’s Hospital, 
London, bringing out in the same year his treatise 
On the Diseases of Seamen, and in 1795 was one of 
the commissioners on the Navy Medical Board. In 
this latter capacity he was instrumental in intro¬ 
ducing lime-juice as a preventive of scurvy on board 
ship. Among his publications the chief was 
Elements of Medical Logic , 1872. He received his 
baronetcy in 1812, and died in 1834. 

Blanket, a large piece of loosely-woven woollen 
stuff, used as a covering either for a bed or for a 
horse. Uncivilised people, such as the N. American 
Indians, use them as garments. In America very 
fine, expensive blankets are used. 

Blank Verse, a kind of verse without rhyme, 
but possessed of rhythm. The term is usually 
applied in England to the iambic pentameter, which 


is mainly used in English dramatic poetry and 
epic poetry. All Shakespeare’s plays are in blank 
verse, as is Milton’s Paradise Lost. 

Blanqui, Jerome Adolphe, political econo- 
nomist, was born in 1798 at Nice. While a student 
at Paris he acquired the friendship of J. B. Say, 
through whom he was induced to study economics, 
and whom in 1823 he succeeded as professor at the 
Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers. He was an ad¬ 
vocate of free trade doctrines. His chief work is 
Histoire de VEconom ic Polit ique en Europe, depuis les 
anciensjusqu'd nos jours (5 vols. 1837-42). He died 
in 1854 at Paris. 

Blanqui, Louis Auguste, revolutionary so¬ 
cialist, brother of the preceding, was born in 1805 
at Nice. He was a leading figure in all the revolu¬ 
tionary movements of his time, and spent half his 
lifetime in prison for his extreme conduct. He died 
in 1881. 

Blaps, the name of the type genus of a family 
of beetles, Blapsidcc, of 
which B. mortisaga, the 
common Churchyard 
Beetle, is the best 
known ; their wings are 
generally obsolete, and 
when attacked they 
emit a liquid with an 
unpleasant odour. 

Blarney, flattery, 
cajolery, extravagantly 
complimentary language. 

The term is derived 
from the Blarney-stone, 
a stone in a village in 
county Cork in Ireland, 
which is fabled to en¬ 
dow with wonderful 
powers of flattery the person who succeeds in kiss¬ 
ing it. 

Blasius, St., Bishop of Sebask, Armenia, 
suffered martyrdom in the persecution of Licinius, 
31G. He is titular patron of the woolcombers, 
who claim him on the ground that his flesh was 
torn by iron combs. His festival is February 3. 

Blasphemy, according to Blaehstone's Com¬ 
mentaries, an offence against God and religion, 
consisting in the denying the being or providence 
of God, or in contumelious reproaches of our Lord 
and Saviour Jesus Christ, and profane scoffing 
at Holy Scripture, or exposing it to contempt and 
ridicule. These offences are punishable at common 
law by fine and imprisonment, or other infamous 
corporal punishment. The Blasphemy Act, passed 
in 1G98, enacts “that if any person educated in 
or having made profession of the Christian reli¬ 
gion should by writing, preaching, teaching, or 
advised speaking deny any one of the persons of 
the Holy Trinity to be God, or should assert or 
maintain that there are more Gods than one, 
or should deny the Christian religion to be true, 
or the Holy Scripture to be of divine authority, 
he should upon the first offence be rendered 



BLAPS. 

( 73 . mortisaga), with larva. 





Blast Furnace. 


( % ) 


Blasting Gelatine. 


incapable of holding any office or place of trust; 
and for the second, incapable of bringing any 
action, of being guardian or executor or of taking 
a legacy or deed of gift, and should suffer three 
years’ imprisonment without bail,” but the pro¬ 
secution must be commenced within four days of 
the blasphemy spoken, and is to be desisted 
from and all the penalties to be removed upon 
the defendant’s renunciation of his heretical 
opinions. An act passed in 1813 excepts from 
these enactments persons denying as therein men¬ 
tioned the Holy Trinity. In an important case 
occurring in the year 1867 the court reaffirmed a 
previous declaration of Chief Justice Hale, viz.:— 
That Christianity was part of the Law of England 
(to be found in Blachstone's Commentaries'). 

The commissioners on criminal laws (6th report) 
remark, that “ although the law forbids all denial 
of the being and providence of God or the 
Christian religion, it is only when irreligion assumes 
the form of an insult to God and man that the 
interference of the criminal law has taken place.” 

In Scotland the punishment for blasphemy was 
formerly death. By an Act of Charles II., any person 
who, “ not being distracted in his wits, should curse 
God or any person of the Blessed Trinity,” was punish¬ 
able with death ; and by a statute passed in 1695 
in King William’s reign, any reasoner against the 
being of God or any person of the Trinity or the 
authority of the Holy Scriptures or the providence 
of God in the government of the world, was to be 
imprisoned for the first offence until he should give 
satisfaction in sackcloth to the congregation; to 
be punished more severely for the second offence, 
and for the third to be doomed to death; but by 
an Act passed in 1826, amended in 1837, blasphemy 
was made punishable by fine or imprisonment or 
both. 

In the United States punishment is attached 
not only to this offence as above indicated, but to 
any language calculated to sap the foundations of 
society. [Cursing, Swearing.] 

Blast Furnace, the furnace used for the 
smelting of iron, i.e. the extraction of the metal 
from its naturally occurring compounds or ores. 
In shape, size, and proportions, blast furnaces vary 
considerably according to the nature of the fuel, 
the character of the ores, etc., employed. The 
general shape may be described as of two truncated 
cones, united at their bases, the angular junction 
being rounded off, forming the boshes. The furnace 
is built of firebricks ; outside this, and separated by 
a space filled with sand, etc., is another layer of 
firebricks, and surrounding all are wrought iron 
plates united by rivets. The part of the furnace 
above the boshes is known as the stack; and the 
top portion of the stack forms the throat , which is 
generally capable of closure, to admit of the col¬ 
lection of the gaseous products. The bottom of 
the furnace constitutes the hearth , around which 
are openings through which the twyers , or pipes 
from the blowing engines, deliver the blast. In 
most cases the hot gases passing off from the fur¬ 
nace are utilised for the purpose of heating the 
blast. The front of the hearth is continued forward 


beneath an arch of the walls— the tying) arch —to 
form a cavity known as the fore-hearth. In front 
this is dammed by a block of firebrick supported 
by a metal damplate. On the top of the dam is 
a groove known as the cinder notch , through which, 
when the furnace is working, the slag runs into 
trucks placed to receive it. In the dam also is the 
tapping hole , wdiich, except when open for the 
purpose of allowing the molten metal to flow out, is 
closed by a tightly rammed plug of clay. The 
height of such furnaces is about 70 feet. When 
starting the furnace, wood and coke are intro¬ 
duced, then layers of limestone and coke with small 
quantities of the ore, till the furnace is about one- 
third full. The wood is then ignited, ore, fuel, and 
limestone (the flux) being added lightly, and the 
blast slowly increased, the normal condition not 
being reached for some days. It is then kept con¬ 
tinuously working or “ in blast f by filling in from 
the top the mixture of ore, fuel and flux. The slag 
runs off as before stated, and the iron is tapped 
when necessary. The furnace itself remains in 
blast frequently for years without intermission. 
For the chemistry of the process see Iron. 

Blasting, an operation of much practical im¬ 
portance in mining and civil engineering, for the 
removal of obstruction by explosives such as gun¬ 
powder, guncotton or other special preparations of 
nitro-glycerine. [Explosives.] Thus in tunnelling 
through hard rocky material, holes of 1 to 1^ inch 
diameter are bored by hand or machine to the 
depth of a few feet, a cartridge of the explosive is 
pushed to the farther extremity of each hole, which 
is then tamped or blocked up with sand or clay suf¬ 
ficiently firm to prevent the explosion simply act ing 
in the directly outward direction. A fuse leads 
from without to the embedded cartridge, and takes 
a known time to carry ignition to it; during this 
time the workmen retire and wait for the explosion 
in a sheltered spot. It is often expedient to fire a 
number of such charges at the same time, in which 
case electricity lends itself readily for the simul¬ 
taneous heating of the fuses. Thus in the mine- 
system of blasting, where it is necessary to remove 
very large masses such as reefs or islets that ob¬ 
struct ship-way, the rock is honeycombed with 
small tunnels, charges of the explosive are placed 
all over the area to be acted upon, and the fuses 
are connected by wires which lead to a safe distance, 
from which the firing may be effected by the passage 
of the electric current round the circuit. The best 
instance of this kind is that of the blasting away 
of a reef at Hell Gate, Long Island Sound, New 
York, where a charge of 120 tons of rapid explosive, 
distributed through about 20 miles of drill-holes, 
was fired in a single operation. 

Blasting Gelatine is an explosive, or rather 
a class of explosives, consisting essentially of the 
combination of nitro-glycerine and nitro-cotton. 
It is manufactured by dissolving finely divided 
nitro-cotton in heated nitro-glycerine. The result 
is a gelatinous-looking mass. It is made up for 
use according to the purposes for which it is de¬ 
signed. For blasting it takes the form of solid 




Blastoccele 


( 97 ) 


Bleaching 


cylindrical cartridges ; for gun charges it takes the 
form of thin cord-like filaments or of small cubes. 
One variety of it is known as Cordite; another as 
Maxim Smokeless Powder. Specially strong de¬ 
tonators are required to explode it, and confinement 
is needed to develop its power. It is unaffected 
by water; and if a little camphor or benzole be 
added to it in course of manufacture, it may be 
rendered almost insensible to explosion by shock 
or blow. 

Blastocoeie. [Blastosphere.] 

Blastoderm, the term applied in Embryology 
(q.v.) to the flattened disc of cells resulting from 
the segmentation of the ovum, and in which the de¬ 
velopment of the embryo proceeds. The blastoderm 
divides into two layers, epiblast and hypoblast; and 
a third layer, the mesoblast, subsequently appears. 
From the epiblast are developed the cutaneous and 
nervous systems, from the hypoblast the epithelium 
of the alimentary tract with its ducts, and all other 
tissues of the body are derived from mesoblast. 

Blastoidea, an extinct class of Echinodermata 
belonging to the group in which the body (calyx) 
is usually supported on a stem ; in many of the 
Blastoids, however, this structure is absent. The 
calyx is small and ovoid or globular, and formed of 
a series of plates of which tire most important are 
arranged in three zones : the lowest consists of three 
“ basal ” plates, above which is a circle of five radials, 
and partly between but mainly above these is a circle 
of five “ interradial ” plates. The radial plates are 
forked, and in the angle of each is the ambulacral 
field; at the sides of these are rows of pores which 
open below to a series of chambers known as the 
“ hydrospires,” which may be respiratory, repro¬ 
ductive, or both. The mouth occurs in the centre' 
of the upper part of the calyx, and is surrounded 
by a circle of apertures, known as the spiracles, 
which lead to the hydrospires. The anus also 
opens in this circle. The group lived in the Silu¬ 
rian, Devonian, and Carboniferous periods, and in 
the last it obtained its maximum development and 
became extinct. The typical genus Pentremites is 
not found in England, the forms referred to it be¬ 
longing really to the genus Granatocrinus. 

Blastomere. [Blastosphere.] 

Blastopore, the opening by which the central 
cavity of an embryo, when in the blastosphere (q.v.) 
stage, communicates with the exterior. This may 
persist either as the mouth in most worms and 
molluscs, or as the anus in Serpula (q.v.) and the 
limpet 5 or as both mouth and anus in some sea- 
anemones (e.(/. Peaclvia ); or it may be closed 
entirely, and the permanent openings formed else¬ 
where ; or, as in the case of insects, it may ne\er 
be formed at all. 

Blastosphere, or Blastula. After the fertili¬ 
sation of an ovum or egg it commences development 
by dividing into two ; each half again divides, and 
these parts continue to sub-divide into 8 , 1(5, 32, 
and so on, till the ovum is composed of a mass of 
a large number of cells. In this stage it is called a 
« morula,” and each of these cells is a blast out eve. 

31 


In most cases these blastomeres arrange them¬ 
selves in a single layer called the blastoderm , 
forming a spherical shell enclosing a central 
cavity. In this stage it is a blastosphere , and the 
cavity in it is the blastocoeie , and it usually opens 
to the exterior by an aperture known as the blasto¬ 
pore. In some cases this pore may persist through 
life as either the mouth or anus of the adult, but 
in most cases it closes and the permanent openings 
form elsewhere. In some rare cases the blasto¬ 
ccele may remain as the body cavity of the adult. 

Blastostyle, the stalk which bears the re¬ 
productive buds (gonophores) in some Hydroidea. 

Blastula, the same as Blastosphere. 

Blatta, or Periplaneta, the cockroach, an 
insect belonging to the order Orthoptera, so that 
it is not a true beetle, though popularly known as the 
“ black beetle.” The body is invested in a hard 
brown coat or cuticle; it is divided into a number 
of distinct segments grouped into three divisions, 
head, thorax, and abdomen ; the first bears two 
large eyes and a complex masticatory apparatus. 
The thorax is of three segments, and in the male 
bears three pairs of legs and two of wings ; the 
front pair of the latter are hardened into elytra or 
wing cases, which, when the animal is at rest, 
cover and protect the soft flying wings. The 
female is wingless. The abdomen is of ten seg¬ 
ments, and the only appendages are two small 
ones on the last segment. The animal breathes by 
a series of tubes ramifying through the body, and 
which open to the exterior by 20 pairs of “spiracles.” 
The heart is a straight tube running along the 
back. The alimentary system is very well deve¬ 
loped and complex. The nervous system consists 
of a ganglion above the mouth, from which pro¬ 
ceeds a double chain of ganglia along the ventral 
side. As its name ( Periplaneta orientalis ) implies 
it is not indigenous to England, but has been im¬ 
ported from the East. The West Indian “ Drum¬ 
mer,” which belongs to the same family ( Blattidvc ) 
also occurs occasionally in England. The cock¬ 
roach takes about six years to reach maturity. 

Blauw-Bok (Dutch = blue buck), a South 
African antelope (vEgoceros leucophaus) living in 
small herds in the open plains. It is about six feet 
in length, and stands somewhat less than four feet 
high at the shoulder. The hide is black, and it is 
this colour, reflected through the ash-grey hair, that 
has given rise to the popular name used by the 
Dutch settlers, and to that of Roan Antelope by 
which the animal is known to sportsmen. The 
horns are long, curved, and marked with rings to 
within six inches of the tips. 

Bleaching, in its wider sense, the elimina¬ 
tion of colour from a substance, but in a restric¬ 
ted sense the destruction of the colour of 
organic fibres or fabrics by chemical means, so as 
to° leave them white in appearance. The agent 
most commonly employed is chlorine, bleaching 
powder (q.Y.) being used as the source of this 
element. The general mode of operation may be des¬ 
cribed in the case of cotton fabrics. Before bleaching, 
the separate pieces are stamped f.or purposes of 








Bleaching Powder. 


( 98 ) 


Bleeding. 


identification, then stitched together, and the loose 
fibres singed. They are thoroughly washed with 
water, mechanical contrivances being arranged for 
this as for all other processes. After washing 
they are subjected to the lime boil, i.e. passed 
through milk of lime and boiled with water. They 
are next passed through dilute hydrochloric acid, 
again washed, boiled with soda, some resin being 
also added, and subjected to another thorough 
washing with water. These operations have for 
their object the removal of mechanical, fatty 
and other impurities. The fabrics are now ready 
for treating with the bleaching liquor —chemicking 
—and are immersed for six or eight hours in a 
solution of bleaching powder which it is necessary 
should be perfectly clear. The bleaching powder 
itself produces no decolorisation, and subsequent 
treatment with a dilute acid is necessary, which 
liberates the chlorine contained in the bleaching 
powder. The fabric is therefore immersed in 
dilute sulphuric acid and finally thoroughly washed 
and dried. 

In the case of linen, which does not bleach with 
the ease and rapidity of cotton, the operations of 
chemicking and washing with acid have to be re¬ 
peated two or three times. Wool and silk are not 
bleached with chlorine, but by means of a solution 
of sulphurous acid (H 2 S0 3 ), being first, as in the case 
of cotton, well washed and cleansed from all im¬ 
purities. 

Bleaching Powder is prepared by the 
action of chlorine on slaked lime. The lime should 
be free from iron or manganese, which are frequent 
impurities, and is slaked with water, great care 
being needed, as too much or too little is detri¬ 
mental to the final product. It is then spread in 
thin layers over the floor of the “ chambers,” which 
are made of lead or stone. The chlorine is then 
passed over, the supply being regulated so as to 
keep the temperature below 60°. The constitu¬ 
tion of bleaching powder has been the source of 
much discussion among chemists. The formula 
Ca(OCl)Cl probably expresses it better than any 
other yet suggested. By the action of dilute acids, 
as vinegar, chlorine is liberated: 

CaOCICl + 2HC1 = CaCl 2 + OH 2 + Cl 2 . 

This chlorine is the active bleaching agent, and so 
the “ bleach” is generally valuated by the amount 
of “ available chlorine.” 

Bleak (Albumins lucid us), a small British fresh¬ 
water fish of the Carp family; found also in most 
European rivers north of the Alps. It is rarely 
more than 7 inches long, greenish or brownish above, 
and silvery white below. The upper jaw is pro¬ 
tractile, but does not extend as far as the lower jaw. 
Bleak are cooked like sprats; and the crystalline 
deposit beneath the scales is used in the manu¬ 
facture of artificial pearls, hollow glass beads being 
washed in the interior with this substance and then 
filled with white wax. 

Bleeding, or Haemorrhage. External hfemo- 
rrhage, or bleeding from a wound, is a condition 
which anyone maj 7 be required to treat, and in which 
everything depends upon prompt and intelligent 


action. The bleeding may be arterial, venous, 
or capillary. If the first, bright red blood escapes 
in a forcible stream, and in spurts corresponding 
with the heart beats; in venous haemorrhage 
the blood is darker and the stream continuous ; 
while in capillary haemorrhage there is a loss of 
blood by gradual oozing from the wounded 
surface. If the flow is at all considerable no time 
must be lost in controlling the bleeding point ; this 
is readily done by applying pressure. The forefinger 
firmly compressed upon the spot from which the 
blood comes will at once temporarily arrest 
haemorrhage, even from a large vessel ; such 
pressure must be steadily maintained until skilled 
assistance can be procured. If an artery of one of 
the limbs is injured, a handkerchief maybe tightly 
tied above the wound, or digital pressure may be 
made in the course of the vessel involved, this latter 
procedure requiring, of course, some anatomical 
knowledge. In bleeding from a vein the pressure 
requires to be applied on the side of the wound 
which is more remote from the heart. A useful 
mode of applying pressure with a handkerchief is 
to tie it somewhat loosely, and then insert a stick 
between it and the limb, twisting the stick round 
until the requisite degree of tightness is attained. 
A graduated compress, made with pieces of lint of 
increasing dimensions, forming a sort of cone, the 
apex of which is applied to the point where pressure 
is to be made, is of value where bleeding has to be 
controlled for some period of time; but after all, 
the main thing to rely upon in emergency is the 
tip of the finger, making, sure that this is pressed 
upon the bleeding point. 

The various surgical means of arresting hfemorr- 
hage are as follows :—• 

Pressure, invaluable as a temporary expedient, is 
the sole means relied upon in many wounds in¬ 
volving the scalp or palm of the hand. For applying 
pressure in the course of an artery, see Tourniquet. 

Cold excites contraction of the muscular fibres 
of blood-vessels; cold injections are of use in 
bleeding from the nose. 

Heat. Very hot water, as hot as can be borne, is 
of use in capillary oozing. The actual cautery is 
sometimes employed to check haemorrhage ; it used 
to be largely used in bygone days before the liga¬ 
ture came into general use ; its main application at 
the present time is in the oozing from the cut 
surface of bone. 

Styptics (q.v.), of which perchloride or persul¬ 
phate of iron are the best. 

Acupressure (q.v.). 

Torsion and Ligature, the end of the wounded 
vessel being seized with artery forceps and either 
twisted, or else secured by tying a ligature round it. 

In all cases of serious bleeding the patient should 
be kept perfectly quiet, lying on the back; stimu¬ 
lants should be avoided, and only given under 
medical advice. When practicable the bleeding area 
may be raised, so as to secure the aid of gravity in 
opposing the blood flow. 

Hannorrhnge from various internal organs will 
be discussed under the following heads :—Bleed¬ 
ing from the nose, see Epistaxis; from the lungs, 
see Hemoptysis ; and from the stomach, see 







Bleek. 


( 09 ) 


Blenheim Palace. 


H.rmatemesis ; also see Meljena, Piles, Meno¬ 
rrhagia, Hematuria. 

Bleeding, Blood-letting . When a vein is opened, 
the process is termed venesection or phlebotomy ; 
when an artery, arteriotomv. Other methods of 
abstracting blood are by means of leeches, or 
cupping, or the artificial leech. 

Venesection was at one time in the history of 
medicine an everyday occurrence in medical prac¬ 
tice ; particularly was it deemed advisable to 
abstract blood in inflammations and fevers. In such 
conditions the blood often coagulates slowly, allow¬ 
ing a partial subsidence of the red blood corpuscles 
to occur, and there is consequently formed an upper 
almost colourless “buffv coat,” or “ crusta 2 >h lo¬ 
gistic a." composed of white corpuscles entangled in 
fibrine. This condition of blood was held at one 
time to imperatively demand venesection. But 
blood-letting was in old days by no means confined 
to cases of this kind; it was considered right by 
some practitioners to bleed people as a matter of 
routine, whenever they were a little out of sorts ; a 
man was bled before he made a mountain ascent, 
and so on. Cupping was a thriving profession, and 
leeches were used in such profusion as to make the 
leech trade quite an important industry. Nowa¬ 
days, such are the changes of fashion, venesection is 
but rarely practised, and even the application of 
leeches is becoming a rarity. There can be little 
doubt that in avoiding the one extreme medical 
science has rushed into the other. Of the use of 
leeches in the relief of pain there can be no question, 
and venesection itself seems to be of undoubted 
service in certain cases of apoplexy and of engorge¬ 
ment of the right side of the heart. 

In practising venesection the median basilic vein 
at the bend of the elbow is the vessel usually opened. 
The arm is allowed to hang down, the patient being 
sometimes directed to grasp a staff with the hand, 
while a handkerchief is tied round the arm just 
above the elbow to “ make the veins stand out. The 
incision into the vessel requires to be made with 
caution, so as not to injure the underlying artery. 
After sufficient blood has been allowed to flow, a 
compress is applied and the arm bandaged up. 

Bleek Friedrich, Biblical critic, was born in 
1793 at Ahrensbok in Holstein. In 1818 he became 
a tutor at Berlin university and in 1823 a theological 
professor, which position he was appointed to at 
Bonn in 1829. His Introduction to the Old Testa¬ 
ment, 1860, and Introduction to the New Testament 
are his chief works and those by which he is best 
known to English readers. He died in 1859. 

Bleek, Wilhelm Heinrich Immanuel, philo¬ 
logist, son of the preceding, was born in 1827 at 
Berlin. He applied himself to the study of the 
languages of South Africa, and in 1855 accompanied 
Bishop Colenso thither. In 1860 he was appointed 
librarian of the Gray Library, Capetown, where he 
continued his philological investigations until his 
death in 1875. His chief works are Ihe Lan- 
,tuages of Western and Southern Africa, 1856, 
Reynard the Fox in South Africa: Hottentot 
Fables and Tales, 1864, A Comparative Grammar of 
South African Languages , 1862. He also began a 


Bushman-English and English-Bushman Diction¬ 
ary, which was considered of such importance that 
after his death the Cape Colony Assembly appointed 
a successor to continue the work. 

Blende, the name of which mineral signifies 
blind or deceptive, is known to English miners as 
“ black-jack,” and, though containing no lead, some¬ 
times resembles galena, lead sulphide. Formerly 
considered worthless, blende, which is zinc sulphide 
(ZnS), is now the chief commercial ore of zinc. 
Iron and cadmium are often present in this ore, and 
the rare elements, lithium, indium, thallium and 
gallium, have been detected in it, especially in its 
darker varieties. Blende only fuses on thin edges 
alone, but decrepitates before the blowpipe. With 
carbonate of soda it gives a green flame, and when 
intensely heated it yields the white incrustation 
characteristic of zinc, that becomes green with 
cobalt nitrate. It dissolves in concentrated nitric 
acid, leaving the sulphur as a residue, and in hydro¬ 
chloric acid with disengagement of sulphuretted 
hydrogen. This and its greater softness distin¬ 
guishes it from tinstone, which it often resembles 
in its adamantine lustre and black and brown colour. 
Its hardness is between 3 - 5 and 4, and its specific 
gravity 3-9 to 4-2. It is very brittle. It may be 
colourless or white and transparent yellow, green, 
or red, but is more often opaque and dark. It 
crytsallises in tetrahedra and other forms in the 
cubic system ; but may be fibrous or compact. It 
is abundant in Cornwall, Alston Moor, and elsewhere, 
associated with galena; at Ammeberg on Lake 
Wetter, in gneiss; in Asturias, with liquid enclo¬ 
sures ; in Missouri; and in Franklin co., New Jersej', 
where the finest colourless crystals are found. 

Blenheim, a Bavarian village on the Danube, is 
memorable through the famous battle in which 
Marlborough brilliantly defeated the French and 
Bavarians during the war of the Spanish succession, 
August 13th, 1704. Opposed to Marlborough, who 
had 52,000 men under him, was a force of 56,000 
men. Of these last 40,000 were either killed or 
captured, while of the victors only 12,000 were killed 
or wounded. For this achievement the estate of 
Woodstock was conferred on Marlborough, £50,000 
voted him to erect a family seat, and a perpetual 
pension of £4,000 per annum. 

Blenheim Palace, the seat of the Duke of 
Marlborough, near Wbodstock, Oxfordshire, was 
erected at the public expense during the time of 
Queen Anne, the architect being Sir John Van¬ 
brugh, and the style Italo-Corinthian. In it were 
stored, amongst other celebrated pictures, Ihe 
Young St. Augustine and Pope Gregory, by Titian ; 
Europa, Esther, and The Massacre of the Innocents, 
by Veronese ; Tintoretto’s St. Jerome, Rembrandt’s 
Isaac Blessing Jacob, etc., portraits by Rubens, 
Vandyck, etc. The collection was disposed of by 
auction in 1884, when Raphaels A ns/del Madonna 
was bought for the National Gallery at £70.000. 
The Titian Gallery was burnt down in 1859. 
The grounds of Blenheim cover an area of 2,700 
acres, and are adorned with, amongst other things, 











Blenheim Spaniel. 


( 100 ) 


Blight. 


a pedestal 130 feet high, surmounted by a statue of 
the Duke of Marlborough. The plantations are 
said to represent the positions of the troops on the 
battlefield of Blenheim. 

Blenheim Spaniel, a small variety of 
spaniel, differing from the King Charles in colour, 
which should be pure white, with orange or ruby 
markings. The dogs are named from Blenheim Park, 
where the breed was formerly in high repute, and 
are sometimes called Marlborough dogs from the 
title of the owners of that seat. 

Blennorrhoea, a disease accompanied by 
profuse discharge from a mucous membrane. The 
term is not now often used, and when it is employed, 
is generally limited to mucous discharges from 
either the conjunctiva or the genito-urinary mucous 
membrane. 

Blenny, any fish of the genus Blennius, often 
extended to the family (Blenniidse) of which this 
genus is the type, and sometimes to the Blenniiform 
division of Acanthopterygian fishes (containing 
six families, having the body long, low, and com¬ 
pressed, very long dorsal fin, generally long anal fin, 
ventral fins, if present, on or under the throat). In 
the family the body is naked or covered with small 
scales; there may be one, two, or three dorsal fins 
occupying the whole back, and the ventral fins are 
under the throat, or rudimentary, or absent. There 
are numerous genera freely distributed in temperate 
and tropical seas; all are carnivorous, and the 
majority are small shore fishes, many living in 
brackish, and others in fresh, water. In some the 
ventral fins are reduced to mere stylets, and are 
used as locomotive organs, by means of wdrich the 
fishes move along the bottom or among seaweed. 
The largest Blenny is Anarrhichas lupus, the sea- 
cat or sea-wolf; and to the family belong the 
Butter-fish (q.v.), and the Viviparous Blenny 
(.Zoarces viviparus ), and some other forms that 
extrude the young alive. Of the true Blennies 
(Blennius) there are some forty species, of which 
the following are British : B. gattorugine, some 
12 in. long; B. pliolis (the Smooth Blenny or 
Shanny), about 5 in. long, olive-green marked 
with black ; and B. oscillaris (the Butterfly Blenny), 
about 3 in. long, with a black spot banded with 
white on the dorsal fin. In most of the species 
there is a tentacle over the eye. 

Blessington, Margaret Power, Countess 
OF, novelist, was born in 1799, at Knockbrit, Tip¬ 
perary. Marrying first at the age of fourteen, she 
lived only three months with her husband, but on his 
death married in 1818 the Earl of Blessington. She 
became an intimate friend of Lord Byron, who 
addressed several poems to her, and alludes often 
to her charms in his Diary and Letters. On her 
husband’s death in 1829 she became the mistress of 
a large fortune, and her house at Kensington Gate 
became the resort of men of distinction of every 
country. Amongst her writings are The Idler in 
France, The Idler in Italy , Conversations with Lord 
Byron, Victims of Society, The Lottery of Life, etc. 
She was also the editor of Heath’s Book of Beauty 
and the Keepsake. She died in 1849, in Paris, 


whither she had fled with Count D'Orsay from 
creditors. 

Bletchley, a junction of the London and 
North Western Railway, connecting the main line 
with Oxford and Cambridge. 

Blewfields, or Bluefields, a river and town 
in the Mosquito territory, Nicaragua, Central 
America. The river has an easterly course of 
several hundred miles, and flows into the Caribbean 
Sea. The town is at its mouth, and has a good 
harbour. 

Blicher, Steen Stensen, poet and novelist, 
was born in 1782 at Vium, a village of Viborg. His 
poems are national and vigorous, and his novels 
give vivid pictures of rural life in Jutland. He 
translated Ossian and The Vicar of Wakefeld. He 
died in 1848 at Spendrup. 

Blida, or Blidah, a fortified town in Algeria, 
in the Metidjah, and 30 miles inland from Algiers. 
It is situated in a flourishing district, where oranges 
are largely produced, and is the centre of a con¬ 
siderable trade. 

Bligh, William, who was born about 1753, 
entered the Royal Navy and served under Captain 
Cook in 1772-74. As a lieutenant he was present 
in 1781 at Hyde Parker’s action with the Dutch 
on the Dogger Bank, and in 1782 at Howe’s relief 
of Gibraltar. He was appointed in 1787 to the com¬ 
mand of the Bounty and directed to endeavour to 
introduce the bread fruit tree from the Pacific to the 
West Indies. In April, 1789, when the ship was not 
far from Otaheite, the greater part of the crew, led 
by Mr. Christian, mate, mutinied, and putting the 
officers and the rest of the hands into an open 
boat, set it adrift, with but little provisions 
and water and no fire-arms. Captain Bligh and his 
17 companions made their way, after terrible suffer¬ 
ings, to Timor, which they reached on June 14th, 
and where they were hospitably received by the 
Dutch governor. Pi'omoted in 1790 to be post¬ 
captain, Bligh commanded the Director, 64, at 
Duncan’s victory off Camperdown, and the Glatton, 
54, at Nelson’s destruction of the Danish fleet at 
Copenhagen in 1801. In 1805 he was sent out as 
captain-general and governor of New South Wales, 
but he was so unpopular and arbitrary that after 
a stormy rule of about eighteen months he was 
forcibly deposed and sent home. He became a 
rear-admiral in 1811, and a vice-admiral in 1814, 
and died in 1817. He was an officer not devoid of 
merit, and certainly possessed both courage and re¬ 
source, yet he betrayed a singular capacity for 
making himself disliked by his subordinates. 

Blight, a term in popular use, signifying inflam¬ 
mation of the conjunctiva. [Conjunctivitis.] 

Blight is the name applied to a number of 
plant diseases. The term is best restricted to those 
due to the attacks of large numbers of minute 
animals or fungi. Of the animal blights the most 
important in England are ApmDiE, or plant lice, 
which, owing to their enormous powers of repro¬ 
duction, can do serious damage to any crops they 
attack; this group includes the Phylloxera, which 




Blind. 


( 101 ) 


Blind Worm. 


lives on the vine. Most of the orders of insects 
supply cases of blight: thus among the Diptera 
there is the genus Cecidomya (the corn midge and 
Hessian fly) ; among the Coleoptera, Ifaltica, the 
turnip fly ; among the Hvmenoptera, besides the 
Aphides , there are the Cynipidce or gall flies; 
amongst the Lepidoptera various caterpillars swarm 
in such number as to be included in this category. 
Amongst other classes of animals that act as 
blights, there are the Pliytoptidce , a family of 
Acarina, which cause galls on plants; and some 
species of worms as Anguillula tritici which causes 
the “ ear cockle ” of wheat. Sultry weather is 
favourable to the development of insect pests, 
and thus the belief has arisen that the hazi¬ 
ness of the air overladen with moisture is itself a 
blighting substance. The name points to a common 
effect of fungus growth, viz. the bleaching or yellow¬ 
ing of leaves by the destruction of their clilorophyll. 

Blind, Karl, revolutionist and journalist, was 
born in 1826 at Mannheim. While still a student 
at Heidelberg and Bonn, he joined revolutionary 
societies, and in 1847 was imprisoned on account 
of a pamphlet he wrote, German Hunger and 
German Princes. He was again arrested in 1848 
as a participant in the risings in South Germany at 
the time and sentenced to eight years’ imprison¬ 
ment, but was liberated by the populace. 
Ultimately he was forced to seek an asylum in 
England, where by his pen he has continued to 
advocate the freedom and unity of the German 
people. 

Blind Pish, a popular name for any fish in 
which the eyes are rudimentary or absent. It is 
chiefly applied to the blind fish of the mammoth 
cave of Kentucky ( Amblyopsis spelceus'), which 
occurs also in the subterranean rivers of the central 
portion of the United States. It is about 5 inches 
long, quite colourless, and destitute of external 
eyes. Forms without ventral fins have been made 
a distinct genus (Typhlichthys) Chologaster, an 
allied form, with small external eyes, has been 
recorded from a rice field in South Carolina. In 
Lucifuga dentata, from the subterranean waters 
of caverns in Cuba, the eye is absent or quite rudi¬ 
mentary. [Degeneration, Environment.] 

Blindness. In Great Britain one of every 
1,100 to 1.200 persons is blind, and thus in England 
and Wales there are some 80,000 blind people. The 
advances which have been made in ophthalmic 
surgery have considerably lessened the number of 
cases of loss of sight occurring in the course of a 
year, and this improvement has been specially 
marked within quite recent times. Still much 
remains to be done; too many people are still to be 
seen whose blindness is due to causes which might 
have been prevented had the mischief been dealt 
with in time. 

Perhaps the most important of the preventable 
causes of blindness is the ophthalmia of infants. 
The neglect of inflammation of the eyes in the 
newborn child too often leads to blindness ; and yet 
if the necessity for careful treatment be recognised 
from the very commencement of the affection, no 
impairment of vision should result. Neglect and 


want of cleanliness can work in this disease a life¬ 
long mischief, in the course of a few hours. 

Sympathetic ophthalmia is another form of 
ocular disease which used to be accountable for 
many cases of blindness. An injury of one eye 
may set up “sympathetic” inflammation, as it is 
called, in the other, and so lead to loss of sight in 
both. In the case of so important an organ as the 
eye, the advisability of at once seeking competent 
advice, even in what may appear a trivial affection, 
cannot be too strongly insisted upon. 

Fortunately the dense corneal opacities so often 
seen in former years as the result of smallpox are 
now quite a rare phenomenon. Glaucoma still 
claims a certain though a reduced number of 
victims. Sight is not often actually lost, but in an 
enormous number of cases it is considerably im¬ 
paired, by the neglect on the part of parents to 
recognise the fact that their children require a pair 
of glasses. Reiterated complaints of headache in 
a child should always cause suspicion to fall upon 
the eyes; and again, the fact that a child holds its 
head close to its book and has indifferent vision for 
distant objects should be held to demand prompt 
attention. If the evil be recognised, it is most im¬ 
portant to obtain the right glasses and not be 
content with a rough and ready trial. Skilled 
advice should be obtained at the outset, and on no 
account should a child be allowed to run the risk 
attendant upon wearing a pair of spectacles simply 
because they appear to suit the eyes. 

The education of the blind has received much 
attention during the present century. M. Haiiy 
conceived the idea in 1784 of enabling blind people 
to read by passing the finger over letters raised in 
relief. Many forms of type have been tried, among 
which maybe mentioned those of Frere, Lucas,and 
Moon. The last named form is in most general 
use. Blind people are taught various trades, 
especially those of rope, brush, broom, and basket 
making. Pianoforte tuning has been suggested as 
an employment for the blind, and found eminently 
satisfactory. For information on these subjects see 
Education and Employment of the Blind , by Dr. 
Armitage. 

Blindness, Colour. [Colour Blindness.] 

Blind Worm ( Anguis fragilis ), a limbless 
lizard of the family Scincidae [Skink], without 
external limbs, occurring in Great Britain, dis¬ 
tributed over Europe except in the extreme north 
and in Sardinia, and found also in Africa and 
Western Asia. It is usually from 10 inches to 14 
inches long (though larger specimens are recorded), 
of nearly uniform thickness throughout, but with a 
slight taper towards the tail. The colour is 
brownish-grey, with a silvery lustre, and there is a 
black line down the centre of the back. The 
popular name is misleading, for the small, bright 
eyes are distinctly visible. These reptiles are shy 
and timid, passing the day in their holes and 
coming out at night to feed on worms, insects, and 
small slugs. Country people consider them 
venomous, but as they have no poison-fangs their 
bite is innocuous, and their teeth are too small to 
draw blood. Blind worms are easily frightened, 






Blistering. 


( 102 ) 


Block System. 


•and then contract their muscles so forcibly as to 
render the body rigid, and in this condition they 
are easily broken in two by a slight blow, or by an 
attempt to bend it. Some writers say that “ a 
sudden fright is sufficient. While you are looking 
at the tail wriggling and jumping about, the body 
quietly makes its escape.” The females are ovo- 
viviparous, and the young—from seven to twelve or 
more in number—are generally born in the summer. 
These animals pass the winter in a torpid condition, 
several of them occupying one hole. [CECILIA.] The 
name Slow-worm is generally said to refer to its 
tardy motion; it is really from A.S. sld myrm, the 
slav-worm, and embodies the old belief in its 
poisonous character. 

Blistering. Blister. Certain irritant sub¬ 
stances are employed in medical practice to set up 
inflammation of the skin overlying diseased organs 
or in the neighbourhood of diseased parts. As the 
result of such irritation, a blister, i.e. an accumula¬ 
tion of serous fluid beneath the cuticle, is produced. 
Thus in inflammations of deep seated organs, as, for 
example, the lungs, it is sometimes deemed advis¬ 
able to apply blistering agents to the skin of the 
chest. Again in neuralgias, in certain eye affections, 
and in joint troubles, blisters are often used. The 
exact cause of the beneficial actions of the counter 
irritation produced by blistering is obscure ; certain 
it is that blisters do relieve pain and hasten the cure 
of some inflammatory affections. They must not, 
however, be indiscriminately employed, and are 
peculiarly unsuitable in the case of children. The 
blistering ointment and blistering fluid of the 
British pharmacopoeia are preparations made from 
the Spanish fly ( Cantharis vesicatoricc). 

Blizzard, a gale or storm accompanied by 
great cold, and fine, driving snow. It is common in 
America, where it not infrequently proves fatal to 
many men and beasts. In 1888 the severest yet 
recorded visited Texas and Dakota and caused 
great destruction of life. 

Bloch, Marcus Elip^zer, naturalist, was born in 
1723 at Anspach, Bavaria. He is known from his 
ichthyological treatise, Allgemeine Naturgeschichte 
der Fisclie (1782-95). He died in 1799 at Berlin, 
where he had practised as a medical man. 

Blockade, the attempted prevention, by a fleet 
or squadron, lying off a town or a length of coast, of 
the ingress and egress of shipping. In order to be 
internationally recognised, a blockade must be 
effective. Otherwise, in accordance with the terms 
of the Declaration of Paris, it is not to be respected 
by neutrals. In any event it must be officially 
notified to neutral powers. It is generally believed 
that an effective blockade will in the future be 
difficult if not impossible to maintain, save by 
means of overwhelming forces. 

Block and Tackle, an arrangement of pulleys 
for the purpose of lifting heavy weights. It is an 
example of the so-called mechanical powers, in which 
extra force is obtained at the expense of speed. In 
the example shown we have two blocks A and b, 
each holding three pulleys. A rope is fixed at one 
end to the upper block, and passes round the 


pulleys in the lower and upper blocks alternately 
till the last pulley is used, and the rope passes 
to the hand of the operator. The weight is hooked 


(l) 




Block axd Tackle. 

on to the lower block, and in the case shown will 
be supported by u w, since there are six cords 
supporting it and each cord sustains y W. For the 
tension produced by the pull of the operator is trans¬ 
mitted throughout the cord. The second figure 
shows the arrangement more generally adopted, 
exactly the same in principle and in action, but 
more compact. 

Block-printing, the art of printing from 
blocks of wood instead of from movable type. It 
is said to have originated in China about the sixth 
century. Block-printing is now chiefly used in 
calico printing and printing of paper-hangings. 

Blocks. A block is a pulley, or system of 
pulleys, mounted in a frame. A block consists of 
the shell or frame; the sheave or wheel on which 
the rope runs ; the pin or a,xle on which the sheave 
turns ; and the strap or part by which the block is 
made fast to any particular station. This last is of 
either rope or iron, the other parts may be of either 
iron or wood. A single block contains but one 
sheave; a double block has two sheaves, one above 
and one below. Blocks are of many sizes and 
varieties, and wooden ones with iron fittings have 
since 1804 been very generally made by machinery, 
which was originally designed in 1802 by Mark 
Isambard Brunei, and which was first erected at 
Portsmouth, where it has ever since been in use. 

Block System, a method of working trains on 
a railway to ensure that a definite distance exists 
between consecutive trains. The line is divided 
into sections, and no train is allowed to enter on 
any single section till the train in front has left it. 
The signals are worked by telegraph at each end of 
each section. [Railways.] On Electric Railways, 
worked by conductor methods, an automatic block 
system is possible. The existence of a train on one 
section of the line may be made to prevent any 
motive power being transmitted to another train on 
the same section, and so may render any nearer 

























Blois. 


( 103 ) 


Blood. 


approach impossible till the first has passed off. 
[Electric Railways.] 

Blois (anc. Blessa), the capital of the depart¬ 
ment of Loir-et-Cher, France, is prettily situated 
on the right bank of the Loire, 35 miles S. of Orleans, 
and communicates by a bridge with the suburb of 
Vienne on the opposite side. Blois is not known 
in history before the 6th century of our era. Until 
1391 it was the centre of a county, but being bought 
by Louis XII., became a favourite residence of 
Francis I., Charles IX., and Henry III. The castle, 
a splendid structure recently restored in good taste, 
dates from the 13th century with many subsequent 
additions. Within its walls the Due de Guise was 
assassinated (1588) by order of Henry III., and 
Marie de Medicis was imprisoned. In 1814 Marie 
Louise took refuge there. The hotel de ville, the 
old episcopal palace, now the prefecture, the churches 
of St. Vincent and St. Nicholas, and the modem 
cathedral of St. Louis possess features of interest. 
Water is still supplied by an aqueduct cut in the 
solid rock by the Romans. The town is the seat of 
an archbishopric, and has the law courts, colleges, 
schools, and other institutions of a provincial capital, 
and a large garrison is maintained there. Many 
ancient houses remain in the streets that climb by 
steps from the Loire. The chief manufactures are 
pottery, gloves, and hosiery. A large trade is carried 
on in corn, wine, brandy, timber, and agricultural 
products. 

Blomefield, Francis, was born at Fersfield, 
Norfolk, in 1705, and taking holy orders, became 
rector of his native place, and afterwards of Brock- 
dish. The work of his life was the compilation 
of his History of Norfolk , in which he gathered 
together an enormous quantity of material, though 
it is not always accurate or well-digested. In the 
course of his inquiries he discovered the Paston 
Letters (q.v.), part of which he published, but died 
in 1752 before completing his task. 

Blomfield, Charles James, D.D., was born at 
Bury St. Edmunds in 1786, and distinguished him¬ 
self at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he held a 
fellowship. He edited several plays of iEschylus, 
the poems of Callimachus, and the literary remains 
of Porson. In 1819 he became rector of St. Botolph’s, 
Bishopsgate, and in 1824 was made Bishop of Chester, 
being translated to the see of London in 1828. He 
resigned in 1856, and died in the following year. 
His exertions were devoted chiefly to the extension 
of the Church at home and in the Colonies, and 
more churches were built in London during his 
episcopacy than under any bishop since the Restora¬ 
tion. He also took a strong part in the religious 
controversies that began to stir the nation in his 
day, his views being opposed to those of the Tract- 
arians, but in favour of church reform. 

Blommaert, or Bloemaert, the name of a 
Flemish family distinguished in the arts of painting 
and engraving. Abraham Blommaert flourished 
as a landscape painter from 1565 to 1647. His son 
Cornelius established himself in Paris in 1630, 
and executed the plates for Marolle’s Temple (les 
Muses, besides several fine reproductions of works 


of A. Carracci and Rubens. He established a school 
of French engravers. 

Blommaert, Philippe, born at Ghent in 1809, 
spent most of his life in collecting the fast decaying 
fragments of popular Flemish poetry. He translated 
the Nibelungen Lied into the language of his coun¬ 
try, and wrote a valuable History of the Belgians , 
in which he advocated the distinct nationality of 
his native country. He died in 1871. 

Blondel, the famous troubadour of the lltli 
century, was born at Nesle in Picardy, and attached 
himself to the service of Richard I. of England, 
whom he followed in his various expeditions. The 
story of the minstrel's discovery of his master by 
singing outside the prison into which the latter 
had been thrown by Leopold of Austria belongs to 
historical fiction, and is first found in the Chronicles 
of Bheims, no earlier than the 13th century. 
Several songs attributed to this personage are ex¬ 
tant, but some critics believe that Robert Blondel, 
the chaplain to Marie d’Anjou (1400-1461), was 
really their author. 

Blondel, David, was born at Chalons-sur-Marne 
in 1591, and entered the Protestant ministry. He 
was appointed historiographer to the French king, 
and afterwards became the successor of Vossius as 
professor at Amsterdam. He is best known for his 
exposure of the myth of Pope Joan. 

Blondin, Charles (whose real name is Emile 
Gravelet), was born at St. Oraer, France, in 1824, 
and made his debut as an acrobat and rope-dancer 
at Lyons. He next went over to America, where 
his skill and courage were highly appreciated. In 
1859 he undertook to cross on a tight rope the 
Falls of Niagara, and performed the feat before a 
huge crowd. He subsequently crossed blindfold, 
and again on stilts, and he also carried a man over 
upon his back. The Prince of Wales witnessed his 
exploit, but declined his offer to be wheeled over in 
a barrow. Blondin visited England and all the 
principal cities of Europe, and having lost, it was 
said, the fortune he had acquired, was performing 
as recently as 1888. 

Blondin, Pbter, born in Picard in 1682, became 
a pupil of Tournefort, the botanist, and received the 
curatorship of the Royal Gardens in Paris. He left 
valuable collections at his death in 1713. 

Blood, the viscid red fluid which circulates 
through the heart, arteries, capillaries, and veins of 
the body. It ministers to the wants of the several 
animal tissues, which all draw upon it according to 
their needs ; it takes up oxygen from the lungs and 
nutrient materials from the capillaries of the ali¬ 
mentary canal, and it receives the contents of the 
thoracic duct (q.v.) and the lymph of the right 
lymphatic duct. Again, from the blood the secreting 
glands elaborate their several secretions, and the 
kidney, lungs, and cutaneous glands remove certain 
excretory substances. Thus each portion of the 
animal body takes up nutrient material from the 
blood and discharges waste products into it, and 
the maintenance oi the circulation ensures the 
distribution of suitable nourishment to all the 






Blood. 


( 101 ) 


Blood. 


tissues, and the final elimination from the body of 
such substances as are of no further use in the 
animal economy. In spite of this continual inter¬ 
change of such varied materials between the blood 
and the tissues the composition of the blood 
remains singularly uniform. In the matter of oxy¬ 
gen, it is true, there is a noticeable difference. The 
bright red arterial blood coming from the lungs is 
in striking contrast to the bluish red venous blood 
which has given up a part of its oxygen to the 
tissues. But while the carrying of oxygen forms the 
most obvious and most important function of the 
blood, it must not be forgotten that the debtor and 
creditor account of the circulating fluid is concerned 
with innumerable other substances; and it is not a 
little remarkable that the chemical composition of 
the blood should remain so constant in spite of 
variations in diet, climate, habit of life, and other 
external conditions. It must be borne in mind that 
blood is not the only fluid which circulates in vessels 
within animal bodies. The lymph (q.v.) also plays 
an important part in transferring the products of 
tissue change from place to place. The lower we 
descend in the animal scale the more insignificant 
becomes the part played by circulating fluids; and, 
indeed, among invertebrates there are but few 
types in which there exists a fluid corresponding to 
the blood of backboned animals. In all the verte- 
brata, however, a circulating medium exists 
which is made up of two parts : first, the plasma 
or liquor sanguinis, and secondly, the blood 
corpuscles. The plasma is well-nigh colourless ; 
it is a faintly alkaline fluid containing certain 
albuminous substances, fats, extractive bodies, and 
mineral salts. The corpuscles are of two kinds, the 
red corpuscles and the white corpuscles or leuco¬ 
cytes. The former are much more numerous than 
the latter ; roughly speaking, about 400 red corpus¬ 
cles are found for every white corpuscle in human 
blood, but this ratio is by no means a constant one ; 
considerable deviations from it are met with at times 
in healthy persons. After a meal, in particular, the 
white corpuscles are found to be present in greater 
numbers. When, however, the leucocytes are so 
numerous as to nearly equal in quantity the red 
corpuscles present, the blood is diseased, and is said 
to be leucocythsemic. [Leucocyth^emia.] 

It has been estimated that a cubic millimetre of 
human blood contains on an average 5,000,000 red 
corpuscles. In amernia (q.v.) the number present is 
much less than this. The red corpuscle of human 
blood is a circular, biconclave disc measuring 
Woo to Woo in diameter and about tWoo i n - i n 
thickness. It is made up of a colourless elastic 
framework or stroma, the substance of which is 
infiltrated with the remarkable colouring matter 
called hgemoglobin (q.v.). An individual corpuscle 
seen under the microscope is of a pale yellowish or 
straw colour; when, however, light passes through 
plasma containing large numbers of corpuscles, i.e. 
when several layers of these pale yellow bodies are 
traversed by the light before it reaches the eye, the 
deep red colour which we ordinarily associate with 
blood appears. It is noteworthy that the limitation 
of the htemoglobin to the stroma of the blood 
corpuscles explains the opacity of blood. For the 


light is scattered by the multitude of minute 
coloured bodies which lie in the colourless plasma. 
If the htemoglobin be diffused uniformly throughout 
the substance of the blood, instead of remaining 
confined to the corpuscles, a much more trans¬ 
parent fluid results. Blood in which this change has 
been effected is called “laky.” Shaking with 
alcohol or ether and alternate freezing and thaw¬ 
ing reduce blood to this “ laky ” condition. 

The human red corpuscle possesses no' nucleus. 
Speaking generally of the five groups into which 
backboned animals are divided, four, viz. fish, 
reptiles, amphibia, 
and birds, have 
nucleated red cor¬ 
puscles ; in the 
highest group, 
mammals, no nu¬ 
cleus is present. 

Moreover, while 
in mammals, with 
the exception of 
the camel tribe, 
the red corpuscles 
are circular, in 
the other four 
groups they are 
oval discs. In a 
drop of blood 
viewed under the 
microscope the 
coloured corpuscles usually adhere together, like 
coins piled one on another, in little heaps, which 
are called rouleaux. The addition of saline solu¬ 
tion to human blood makes the discs swell up, 
producing the horse chestnut-shaped or “crenate” 
condition. 

Red corpuscles are formed in the red marrow of 
bones, and perhaps in the liver and spleen ; their 
term of existence is a limited one ; after a time 
they are destroyed, mainly, it is supposed, in the 
spleen. 

The white corpuscle is a nucleated cell ; its 
protoplasm is possessed of that form of mobility 
which is known as “amoeboid” [Amoeba], and its 
shape is consequently continually changing. In size 
it is a little larger, as a rule, than a red corpuscle. 

The great constituent of the coloured corpuscles is 
htemoglobin (q.v.), and their chief function is to 
carry oxygen. The functions of the white corpuscles 
are less clearly understood; probably they play an 
important part in coagulation, and their number is 
largely increased in inflammatory conditions ; 
indeed, many theories have been put forward with 
respect to the influence of leucocytes in disease 
processes. [Inflammation, Pus, Phagocytosis.] 

Coagulation. Living blood, it has been said, 
consists of plasma and corpuscles ; on removal from 
the body, however, an important change occurs in it. 
A new body, fibrin, appears as a network of delicate 
fibres, which entangle the corpuscles and hold them 
as in a meshwork ; and thus a jelly-like, semi-solid 
substance is formed, the crassamentum or clot, and 
the blood is said to have coagulated. The fluid in 
which the clot floats is called serum ; thus while 
living blood consists of plasma and corpuscles, 



Human Blood. 

a. Rouleaux of reel corpuscles. 

b. Rod corpuscle seen in profile. 

c. Red corpuscle seen from its broad 

surface. 

d. White corpuscles. 




Blood. 


( 105 ) 


Blood Stains. 


clotted blood is made up of serum and clot. This 
coagulation is of the first importance in the pre¬ 
vention of bleeding from injured vessels ; were it 
not for this remarkable phenomenon the slightest 
scratch or surface abrasion would be attended with 
most serious consequences. Again, clot formation 
plays a part in certain diseases. [Phlebitis, 
Aneurism.] Many attempts have been made to 
explain how coagulation comes about. The modern 
view is that there exists in the plasma a complex 
substance allied to albumen, which is the antecedent 
of the fibrin, and that under certain circumstances 
this fibrin generator, “ fibrinogen,” as it is called, is 
converted by the agency of another substance, the 
fibrin ferment, into fibrin. Coagulation may be 
delayed by cold, by exclusion of air, by contact 
with living tissues, by addition of solutions of 
neutral salts, and by introducing certain substances 
into the circulation before the blood is shed. It is 
hastened by access of air, moderate warmth, and 
contact with foreign substances. 

Tests for blood, (i) Microscopic examination of 
suspected fluids with a view to detecting the 
presence of corpuscles, (ii) Guaiacum reaction. 
A few drops of freshly prepared tincture of guaiacum 
are shaken up with the solution to be tested, and 
some ozonic ether added; the latter floats at the 
top, and at the line of junction of the lighter and 
hea vier fluids a blue ring appears if blood be present. 

(iii) Formation of lnemin crystals. [PLemin.J 

(iv) Spectroscopic test. [Blood Stains.] 

Blood, Thomas, Colonel, was born in Ireland 
in 1628. Entering the Parliamentary army, he 
served under Cromwell, and was appointed a justice 
of the peace in Ireland by the Protector’s son. A 
needy, reckless, unprincipled adventurer, he turned 
Royalist at the Revolution. He twice attempted 
(1663 and 1670) to seize and assassinate the Duke 
of Ormond, Viceroy of Ireland, and escaped punish¬ 
ment. In 1671, dressed as a priest, he gained 
admission to the Tow r er, and nearly succeeded in 
carrying off the Crown jewels. He was brought 
before Charles II., and boldly admitted his 
guilt, and confessed that he had even formed a 
design against the king’s life, but had been over¬ 
awed by the royal presence. He was pardoned, 
and received a pension of £500 a year. After the 
fall of the Cabal ministry his influence waned, and 
he was sent to the King’s Bench on a charge of con¬ 
spiracy. He died in 1680 after being released on 
bail. 

Blood Bird {My zomclcb sanguineo lent a), an 
Australian honey-eater (q.v.), named from the rich 
scarlet plumage of the male. 

Blood Covenant, a covenant cemented by 
blood, in very many cases by the sacrifice of a 
victim. One of its most widely known forms is the 
rite of blood-brotherhood, mentioned by Herodotus 
(iv. 70), in which two persons actually mix their 
blood as a sign of lasting peace or friendship, and 
this rite is supposed to constitute real relationship 
between them. Accounts of such a ceremony are 
frequent in narratives of African exploration. 


Blood Feud, a primitive system of rude justice 
by which every member of a stock or clan is bound 
to avenge personal injury done to anyone connected 
with him by blood-relationship. The vendetta (q.v.) 
is a particular case of the blood-feud. 

Bloodhound, a large variety of hunting dog, 
the original stock from which the staghound, fox¬ 
hound, harrier, beagle and other hounds have been 
obtained, and probably identical, or nearly so, with 
the old Southern Hound or Talbot; called also the 
Sleuth-hound (from Icelandic sloth ; the mediaeval 
English word survives as slot = the track of a deer). 
This dog stands about 28 inches high at the 
shoulder, but some breeders put the standard 
rather higher ; the head is dome-shaped and noble; 
ears large, soft, and pendulous, long enough to meet 
in front of the square jowl; flews well-developed; 
nose broad, soft, and moist. The eyes are lustrous 
and soft, and the “ haw,” or nictitating membrane, 
is visible. The colour should be a uniform reddish 
tan, with a black saddle, becoming lighter on the 
lower parts and extremities; any admixture of white 
is generally considered to be a defect. The blood¬ 
hound is remarkable for its keen scent and its 
pertinacity in following up a trail. It is now 
scarcely ever used for hunting (though the late 
Lord Wolverton kept a pack), but is sometimes 
used to single out deer. Great caution, however, is 
required in the operation, as this dog can with 
difficulty be prevented from satisfying its desire 
for blood, when the opportunity presents itself. 
Bloodhounds were formerly kept for the pursuit of 
thieves, and especially sheep-stealers; and trials 
were made with a view to their employment in 
tracking the Whitechapel murderer. The Cuban 
bloodhound, said to have a strain of bulldog blood, 
was kept for tracking criminals and fugitive slaves. 
It was proposed to use these dogs against the 
Marooners in Jamaica in 1796, but the dread they 
inspired rendered their employment unnecessary. 

Blood-money, the price paid for bringing 
about the death of another, as by giving testimony 
such as will lead to his condemnation. 

Blood Poisoning, a term applied in popular 
usage in a very indiscriminate manner. [Pyjemia.] 

Blood Stains. In criminal trials it is some¬ 
times a matter of importance to determine the exact 
nature of stains on clothing, knives, etc., and in 
particular to ascertain whether the discoloration 
in question is a blood stain. In investigations of 



Spectrum of Oxy-H.f;moglobin. 


this kind the ordinary tests for blood [Blood] are 
employed. A microscopical examination is made, 
the guaiacum test applied, and an attempt made to 
obtain haemin crystals. Perhaps the most valuable 
means of diagnosis at disposal, however, is afforded 
by the spectroscope. The spectrum of oxyhemoglo¬ 
bin when examined in appropriately dilute solution, 
presents two absorption bands—a narrower band in 
the yellow part of the spectrum and a broader one 

















Blood-stone. 


( 106 ) 


Blowing Machine. 


in the green. On shaking up the solution with a 
reducing agent, such as sulphide of ammonium, 
the two bands become replaced by a single band 
in the yellowish-green. This test for blood is an 
extremely delicate one. 

Various stains may be confused with blood stains, 
e.g. certain x - ed dyes and iron rust; none of these, 
however, give the characteristic reactions of blood 
when examined spectroscopically. It must of 
course be remembered that the blood of any verte¬ 
brate animal will give the haemoglobin spectra, and 
it is, as a rule, impossible to say to what species of 
animal the blood originally belonged. 

Blood-stone, or Heliotrope, a variety of 
quartz, crypto-crystalline in texture and dark green 
in colour, with small spots of red jasper scattered 
through it, so as to resemble drops of blood. The 
name heliotrope, applied to a somewhat different 
stone, is explained by Pliny as due to the stone giving 
a red reflection of the sun’s light when thrown 
into water. Blood-stone is found in the Isle of 
Rum, in Kintyre, and in the Deccan. It is chiefly 
used for signet-rings. 

Blood-vessels. [Blood.] 

Bloodworm, the red worm, like the larva of 
Chironomus giluvLOSUS, one of the gnats ; it is com¬ 
mon in ponds. 

Bloomfield, Robert, the son of a village 
tailor, was born at Honington, Suffolk, in 1766, and 
was brought up first as a farm labourer, being after¬ 
wards (1781) apprenticed to a shoemaker in London. 
His latent poetical genius was stirred by reading 
Thomson’s Seasons , and two of his compositions 
found a place in the London Magazine. He now 
devoted some years of labour to a more ambitious 
effort, and it was not until 1798 that his master¬ 
piece, The Farmer's Boy , was completed. It was 
printed in 1800 at the expense of Mr. Capel Lofft, 
and had a large sale, being translated, too, into 
French and Italian. Bloomfield, after the custom 
of the times, obtained a small post in the Seal 
Office, but had to resign it on account of ill-health. 
His later poems, except Wild Flowers, did not win 
popular favour, and he sank into great poverty, 
dying of brain-disease at Shefford, Bedfordshire, 
in 1823. 

Bloomington. 1. the capital of Monroe 
county, Indiana, U.S.A., is situated 46 miles S.W. 
of Indianapolis. It is unimportant, save as being 
the seat of the university of Indiana. 

2. The capital of M’Lean county, Illinois, U.S.A., 
125 miles S.S.W. of Chicago; is an important- 
railway centre, and has large works and also coal¬ 
mines. Educationally it, too, is a place of im¬ 
portance, containing a Wesleyan university, the 
Normal university of Illinois, a Roman Catholic 
academy, and a women’s college. 

Blount, Charles. [Mountjoy.] 

Blount, Charles, the younger son of Sir 
Henry Blount, was born at Holloway in 1654. He 
dabbled in politics, but such fame as he possesses 
rests on his books attacking revealed religion. 
Animci Mundi, Life of Apollonius Tyaneus, and 
Great is Diana of the Ephesians, were the chief of 


these publications. His pamphlet basing the claim 
of William III. on right of conquest was burned 
by the hangman. Wishing to marry his deceased 
wife’s sister, he wrote rather an able letter on 
that still vexed question, but failing,to procure an 
alteration of the law committed suicide in 1698. 

Blouse, a loose upper garment, generally blue, 
made of linen or cotton, worn by the working-men 
of France. 

Blow, in Dynamics, means the sudden change of 
motion given to a body by the impact of another, 
of a mallet on a chisel for example. It is measured 
by the total momentum produced, and the effect is 
equivalent to that of a large force acting for a very 
brief interval. The average force during the blow 
is found by dividing the momentum produced by 
the short interval of time during which the impact 
lasts. The duration of the blow depends on the 
shape, mass, and material of the two bodies. 

Blow, John, Mus.Doc., was born at Cottingham, 
Notts, in 1648. An early promise of musical ability 
led to his being included amongst the first batch of 
“ children of the Ro} r al chapels,” and at the age of 
twenty-one he became organist of Westminster 
Abbey, resigning in 1680 in favour of Purcell. In 
1685 he was appointed composer to the king, and 
held various other appointments. On the death of 
Purcell he resumed his office at the Abbey. He 
published a collection of his compositions under the 
title Amphion Anglicus in 1700, and died in 1708. 
Though decried by Burney, many of his anthems, 
hymns, and songs show considerable talent. 

Blowfly, the popular name for two species of 
Diptera. Callipliora erytlirocephala is the com¬ 
monest species; it is also known as the blue¬ 
bottle.” 

Blowing Machine is the general term for any 
force-pump arrangement to produce a current of 
gas. The chief types of blowing machines are on the 
principle of the common bellows, the ordinary pump, 
the fan, or the injector. In the ordinary bellows a 
flexible-sided chamber is made of wood and leather, 
and is provided with a nozzle, a flap-valve, and a 
handle or lever to enlarge and diminish the cavity 
alternately. When the cavity is enlarged, the flap- 
valve opens and air rushes in ; when the air is com¬ 
pressed, it closes the flap-valve and is forced out at 
the nozzle. Thus a succession of intermittent puffs 
is given. The employment of two air-chambers in 
the double bellows enables us to obtain a continuous 
blast instead of the series of puffs. Blowing ma¬ 
chines on the pump principle are much used in 
blast-furnaces and in the Bessemer process. They 
consist essentially of an air cylinder and a large 
air-chamber. In the former a piston is worked 
backwards and forwards by a separate steam- 
engine, and alternately draws air into the cylinder 
and forces it into the air-chamber, whose function 
is to act as an accumulator and ensure a steady 
blast. From this the air passes out by pipes to the 
furnace or to the converter, at a pressure of from 3 
to 30 lbs. per square inch. In the fan, which is much 
adopted for the ventilation of mines, ships and 
public buildings, for forge fires and for the melting 







Blowpipe. 


( 107 ) 


Blue-bird. 


of pig-iron, we have a wheel supplied with vanes, 
rotating inside a cylindrical chest at a speed of from 
600 to 2,000 revolutions per minute. Air is drawn 
in at the centre of each face of the chest, and is 
forced out tangentially through a suitable exit-pipe. 
The fan is analogous in principle to the centrifugal 
pump. The trompe is a blowing machine on the 
injector principle (q.v.) employed in France, Spain 
and America, where a head of water is available. 
Water flows out from a cistern through a nozzle at 
the bottom, and then into a vertical pipe of some¬ 
what larger dimensions. Air is drawn into the pipe 
at the nozzle by the flowing water; it is carried 
down to a cistern below, and is forced out at a suit¬ 
able orifice. 

Roots’s rotary blower has a chamber in which two 
solid pieces rotate together in such a way as to 
make always a close fit with each other and with 
the sides of the chamber. A volume of air is drawn 
in on one side of the rotating pieces during part of 
a revolution, and is forced out at the other side 
during the rest of the revolution. 

Blowpipe, an instrument used for directing 
a blast of air into a flame. A convenient form of 
mouth blowpipe consists of a tube, fitted at one 
end with a mouthpiece, and inserted at the other 
into a small metal cylinder, from the side of which 
issues, at right angles, a short tube with a brass or 
platinum nozzle. To use the blowpipe well, consi¬ 
derable practice is required. A continuous blast is 
needed, and for this the cheeks should be kept dis¬ 
tended all the time, respiration being performed 
through the nose. By regulating the flame, and the 
blast, an oxidising or reducing flame can be pro¬ 
duced at will. It is largely used in qualitative 
chemical analysis, and for fusions and glass-blow¬ 
ing. For this latter purpose some of the different 
forms of foot blowpipes are employed. 

Bliicher, Gebhard Leberecht Yon, Field 
Marshal and Prince of Wahlstadt, was born at 
Rostock in 1742, and at the age of fourteen enlisted 
in the Swedish service. He was taken prisoner by 
the Prussians and induced to join their ranks. Dis¬ 
gusted at not getting promotion he retired for 
fifteen years to his estates in Silesia, and only re¬ 
turned to his regiment on the death of Frederick 
the Great. He now speedily earned distinction by 
his gallant conduct in the campaigns of 1793-94 ; 
and in 1802 he took Erfurt and Muhlhausen. After 
the disaster at Jena he led a masterly retreat to 
Lubeck, where he was captured after a bloody and 
obstinate fight. Having been exchanged for 
General Victor, he again resumed his duties in the 
field, and was actively employed in Pomerania until 
the peace of Tilsit. Napoleon's influence led to his 
temporary retirement, but when Prussia took up 
arms again in 1813 he was recalled, and in spite of 
his age displayed great vigour at Lutzen, Bautzen, 
Katzbach, and Mackern, playing moreover a con¬ 
spicuous part in the final victory at Leipzig, where 
he received his baton as Field Marshal. In 1814 
he entered France at the head of the Silesian 
army, and after successful engagements at Nancy. 
La Rothiere, and Laon, he entered Paris, and 
would have sacked the city but for Wellington’s 


intervention. “ Marshal Vorwarts,” as he was now 
nicknamed, received every honour that could be 
bestowed upon him, and the Iron Cross was insti¬ 
tuted for his special distinction. He visited Eng¬ 
land during the brief spell of peace, and is said to 
have exclaimed in admiration, on seeing London, 
“ What a place to sack ! ” In 1815 he was once 
more called from his Silesian farm to command the 
Prussian army in the Waterloo campaign. Defeated 
after a stubborn fight at Ligny, “the old devil,” as 
Napoleon called him, narrowly escaped with his 
life, but arrived forty-eight hours later in time to 
put a finishing stroke to Wellington’s great victory. 
Once more he marched as a conqueror to Paris, 
where he remained for several months. He died 
in 1819 at Kublowitz. Bliicher is said to have been 
absolutely ignorant of the science of war, and to 
have been intellectually incapable of forming or 
criticising any strategical plan, but his courage, 
tenacity, and activity made him a very useful 
commander under the control of skilled advisers. 
Blue. [Pigments.] 

Bluebeard, whose edifying history as a stern 
corrector of conjugal indiscretion has been so 
useful in guiding children to a perception of moral 
truth, first appears in his familiar shape as the 
Chevalier Raoul in Perrault’s Contes de Fees (1697). 
Some have supposed that Henry VIII. or the in¬ 
famous Gilles de Retz, of Machecoul in Brittany, 
suggested the leading features of the narrative, 
but probably it is to be traced to a more remote 
antiquity in the folk-lore that has been inherited 
by all races from a primitive age. The tale under 
various guises appears in Greek. Italian, French, 
Gaelic, Basque, and several Scandinavian languages, 
the entry of a forbidden room being a common 
feature in all cases. Bluebeard has for a century 
at least been a household word throughout Europe, 
and his adventures have supplied matter for 
numberless burlesques, as well as for Gretry's 
Opera of Itaoul and Tieck’s Pliantasus. 

Blue-bell, the popular name in England of the 
wild hyacinth (&•cilia nutans ), and in Scotland of the 
hare-bell or round-leaved bell-flower (Campanula 
rotund ifolia). 

Blue-bird, any bird of the American genus 
Sialis. The species, named from the general colour 
of their plumage, are about the size of robins, and 
are as great favourites with the Americans as robins 
are in Britain. The adult male of S. sialis, the 
Eastern blue-bird, from the eastern States of North 
America, is rather more than 6 in. long ; azure 
blue above, reddish brown beneath, belly and 
under tail-coverts white. S. mexicana, the 
Californian blue-bird, ranging from the Rocky 
Mountains to the Pacific, is slightly smaller, bright 
azure blue above, with more or less chestnut on the 
back, sides dark reddish-brown, rest of under¬ 
surface pale bluish. 8. artica, the Rocky Mountain 
blue-bird, is the smallest species; greenish-azure 
with white belly. The females are duller in colour 
than the males; the young are spotted and 
streaked with white. These birds feed on small 
beetles and the larvae of the smaller butterflies and 
moths. 






Blue-book. 


( 108 ) 


Blue-stocking. 


Blue-book, a book containing statistical re¬ 
turns, reports of Parliamentary commissions, Acts 
of Parliament, etc. So called because many papers 
published by order of Parliament are bound in blue 
covers. 

Blue-bottle Fly. [Blowfly.] 

Bluecoat School, the name generally given 
to Christ’s Hospital school, London, founded in the 
reign of Edward VI. The scholars wear a dis¬ 
tinctive dress, consisting of a long dark-blue coat, 
a leather girdle, knee-breeches, and yellow stock¬ 
ings. They generally wear no caps at all. 

Blue-eye, the colonial name of Entomyza 
cyanotis, sometimes called the Blue-faced Honey 
Eater. This bird seems to be confined to New 
South Wales ; it is found almost exclusively among 
the blue-gum trees, and feeds on insects and honey. 
Head and back of neck black; bare space round 
the eye rich deep blue; upper surface golden 
olive, under-surface white. The blue-eye often 
resorts to the deserted nests of an allied species 
to deposit its eggs. The cry is loud and monoton¬ 
ous. [Honey-eater.] 

Blue-fish, the American name of Temnodon 
saltator, a fish allied to the Horse-mackerel, 
distributed over nearly all tropical and sub-tropical 
seas. It is abundant on the shores of the United 
States, where it is highly valued for the sport it 
affords, and as a food fish. It is carnivorous, and 
exceedingly rapacious, destroying many more fish 
than it can devour. Specimens of 5 feet in length 
are recorded, but the majority caught are not half 
that length. Called also Skip-jack. 

Blue-gown, a pensioner, who formerly, in Scot¬ 
land, used to receive on the king’s birthday a blue 
gown, a purse with a certain sum of money in it, 
and a badge. They were also known as the 
king's bedesmen. The practice of appointing blue- 
gowns was done away with in 1833. 

Blue Gum ( Eucalyptus globulus), one of the 
most valuable and best-known species of a large 
genus of myrtaceous trees, most of which are 
natives of Australia. It was discovered by Labil- 
lardiere in Tasmania, in 1792, but was not grown in 
Europe until 1861. In its native country it reaches 
400 or 500 feet in height and more than 80 feet in 
circumference, and its growth is wonderfully rapid, 
trees eleven years old reaching 60 feet in height and 
3^ feet in girth. As fuel, it has yielded a net annual 
profit of over £4 per acre. Its wcfod when mature 
takes a good polish, is hard, durable and nearly equal 
to oak. Its leaves are glaucous and turn edgewise, 
so that it gives but little shade. When rubbed 
these leaves are aromatic, and by distillation an 
essential oil is obtained from them which is largely 
employed for diluting attar of roses, and for scenting 
soaps. By its rapid growth this tree is certainly 
useful in draining pestilential swamps, for which 
purpose it has been employed in Italy, and its per¬ 
fume and an alcoholic extract of the leaves are 
believed to be remedies for intermittent fever. The 
Blue Gum cannot withstand the frosts of northern 
Europe. 


Blue Jay ( Cyanura cristata), a North Ameri¬ 
can jay, about twelve inches long, shades of blue 
above, wings and tail banded with black, and 
tipped with white ; white beneath, tinged with 
blue on the throat and brown on the sides ; a black 
crescent on the breast passing round to the back 
of the neck. These birds are omnivorous, preferring 
animal food, and repaying the farmer for the fruit 
and grain they eat by the quantities of caterpillars 
they devour. In mimicry the Blue Jay is scarcely 
surpassed by the mocking-bird (q.v.). 

Blue-john, a common name for Fluor Spar 
(CaFo), which is found to a large extent in Derby¬ 
shire. Used for ornamental purposes. 

Blue Mountains. 1. A range which runs 
through Jamaica from E. to W., and divides the 
island in two, attaining in parts an elevation of 
7,000 ft. On the N. side the ascent is gradual 
through an undulating and healthy country, but 
the S. aspect is wild, rugged, and precipitous. 

2. A range in New South Wales, Australia (lat. 
30° to 34° S., long. 150° to 151° E.). It has an eleva¬ 
tion here and there of 3,400 ft., and consists to a 
large extent of sheer cliffs enclosing vast valleys, 
both the upper and the lower lands being thickly 
wooded. Several rivers have their sources here, 
and either join the Macquarie or fall into the sea 
at Broken Bay. 

Blue Nile. [Nile.] 

Blue Pill, mercurial pill (pilula bydrargyri), 
has the following composition: Mercury, 2 parts ; 
confection of roses, 3 parts; powdered liquorice 
root, 1 part. It is employed as a purge in 5 gr. or 
10 gr. doses ; and is also used to produce mer- 
curialism, being then administered in small and 
repeated doses, and usually in combination with a 
small quantity of opium to prevent purgation. 

Blue-ribbon of the turf, the “ Derby” stakes 
(q.v.). The term blue ribbon is apphecl to any 
great prize. The Blue Ribbon Army is the name 
adopted by an association of total abstainers who 
wear a piece of blue ribbon as a badge. 

Blue Ridge, or South Mountains, is the name 
given to the E. branch of, the Alleghanies, U.S.A. 
Starting in N. Carolina it stretches across Virginia 
as far as the Susquehanna river in Pennsylvania. 
It is about 130 miles from the sea, and its highest 
point is 4,000 feet. 

Blues, a group of butterflies including eight 
British species. Polyommatus corydon, the “ Chalk 
Hill Blue,” is a well-known species, but P. iearus 
is the commonest. The females of most species 
are brown, and in some individuals two of the 
wings are blue and two brown ; in such cases they 
are said to be hermaphrodite. 

Blue-stocking, a literary lady; the term is 
generally used in derision. The name derives its 
origin from certain assemblies at the houses of 
different ladies, held about 1750 in London, where 
a certain Mr. Stillingfleet attended who was in 
the habit of always wearing blue stockings. The 
term thus got to be applied to those who fre¬ 
quented the meetings. 




Blue-throat. 


( 109 ) 


Bluntsckli. 


Blue-throat ( Ruticilla suecica), a beautiful 
singing bird, closely allied to the Redstart (q.v.), 
visiting Europe, and occasionally Britain, in the 
summer. These birds feed on earthworms, insects, 
and berries, and the song is sweet and varied. 
Length of adult male about 6 in. ; upper surface 
and two central tail feathers rich brown, other tail 
feathers bright chestnut at lower half, rest black; 
belly greyish-white; chin, throat, and upper part 
of breast brilliant blue, bordered below with black, 
and then a line of white. Three forms exist: (1) 
with a large spot of bright bay in the centre of the 
blue ; (2) having the bay spot replaced by white; 
and (3) with the throat entirely blue. 

Blue-winged Teal {Querquedula dlscors ), an 
American species distinguished by the blue wing- 
coverts and green speculum bordered above with 
white, and ranging from Saskatchewan and the 
58th parallel to Guiana and the West Indies, 
breeding principally in the north and west of the 
continent. When the first frost comes on these 
birds travel south, and are then found abundantly 
in the inundated rice-fields of the Southern States. 
They frequent muddy and reedy shores, flying out 
from cover with great rapidity, and when they 
alight they drop suddenly like snipe or woodcock. 
The note is a low rapid quack. The adult male is 
about 18 in. long ; general plumage on upper sur¬ 
face brownish and blackish green; wings, shades 
of blue; head, black on crown ; sides and neck, 
purple-green; a crescent-shaped white patch in 
front of each eye; under surface, orange-red 
marked with black. In the female the head and 
neck are dusky. These birds are highly esteemed 
for the table, and they might readily be domesti¬ 
cated. [Teal.] In India the name is applied to 
the garganey (q.v.), which occurs in that country 
as a winter visitor. 

Blum, Robert, born at Cologne in 1807, of poor 
parents, was apprenticed to a trade, but became a 
clerk, and in 1831 was appointed secretary of the 
Leipzig theatre. He then engaged himself actively 
both in literature and politics, writing several 
books and starting the Schiller-Verein, the Litera- 
tur-Verein, and other societies. His influence 
with the people prevented an outbreak at Leipzig 
in 1845, and after the revolution of 1848 he was 
sent as a democrat to the National Convention. 
He joined the besieged insurgents in Vienna later in 
the year, was made prisoner, and shot. He has 
since been regarded as a martyr in the popular 
cause. 

* # 

Blumenbach, Johann Friedrich, was born 
at Gotha in 1752, and evinced in childhood a taste 
for anatomy, having begun at the age of ten to 
form his great museum. He studied at Jena, and 
becoming professor at Gottingen in 1776, he held 
the post for nearly sixty years. Among his many 
works may be mentioned the Institutiones Physio¬ 
logical, a Manual of Natural History , a Manual of 
Comparative Anatomy and Physiology (translated 
into all the chief languages of Europe), and the 
Collectio Craniorum Divers arum Gentium , which 
gave great impulse to the study of craniology. He 


twice visited England. In 1835 he was forced by 
age to give up lecturing, but he survived until 1840. 

Blumenthal, Jacob, was born at Hamburg in 
1829, and studied music under Herz in Paris,"be- 
corning a very skilful pianist. At the age of 20 
he came to London, and was appointed pianist to 
Her Majesty. He has been very successful as a 
performer, a teacher, and a composer of songs and 
fugitive pieces, of which My Queen and The 
Message are fair samples. 

Blumenthal, Leonard von, Field Marshal, 
was born at Schweldt on the Oder in 1810, and 
entered the Prussian army in 1827. After serving 
for 22 years with various regiments he was put on 
the general staff, of which he became afterwards 
the chief. He distinguished himself in the 
Schleswig-Holstein campaign of 1849, and in the 
course of the next few years was frequently sent 
on missions to England, with which country he 
was connected by marriage. In the Danish war 
of 1863-64 he was chief of the general staff, and 
earned high honour for his courage and ability. 
In 1866 he accompanied the Crown Prince through¬ 
out the Austrian campaign, as chief of the staff, 
and in the war with France was again attached in 
the same capacity to the heir-apparent when he 
commanded the third army. In 1878 he was 
present at the autumn manoeuvres in England, and 
in 1888 received the field-marsbars baton. 

Blunderbuss, a short gun, formerly in use, 
with a wide bore, capable of firing many balls or 
slugs at once. It was only of use for short range. 

Blunt, John Henry, D.D., born at Chelsea in 
1823, was brought up as a wholesale chemist, but 
in 1850 went to Durham University and was 
ordained. In 1873 he was appointed to the Crown 
living of Beverstone, and died in 1884. He was 
a voluminous and popular writer on ecclesiastical 
subjects. His best known work is a History of the 
English Reformation (1868), but his Dictionary of 
Doctrinal and Historical Theology , Dictionary of 
Sects and Heresies , and Annotated Booh of Common 
Prayer are exceedingly useful publications. 

Blunt, John James, born in 1794, was educated 
at St. John's College, Cambridge, where he took a 
fellowship. After holding a rectory in Essex till 
1839, he was appointed Lady Margaret Professor 
of Divinity at Cambridge, and died there in 1855, 
having refused the bishopric of Salisbury in the 
previous year. He was the author of several theo¬ 
logical works, among which Undesigned Coincidences 
may be regarded as important. 

Bluntschli, Johann Kaspar, born at Zurich 
in 1808, became professor of law in the university 
there. He took an active part in Swiss politics first 
as a Liberal, but after 1839 as a Conservative, 
though he presently adopted a middle course and 
endeavoured to form a Liberal-Conservative party. 
In 1848 he went to Munich as professor of civil and 
international law, and in 1861 transferred his home 
to Heidelberg. He wrote a history of Zurich, and 
another of the Swiss Confederation, and various 
treatises on legal subjects, the chief being his 







( no ) 


Boar. 


Blushing. 


Allgemeines StaatsrecJit. He was an ardent sup¬ 
porter of religious liberty, and as president of the 
Protestantenverein had just delivered an address at 
the general synod, when he died suddenly in 1881. 

Blushing, the reddening of the face which 
accompanies certain mental states is due to relaxa¬ 
tion of muscular fibres of small arterioles, allowing 
of an increased flow of blood to the affected part. 
It is a curious example of the involuntary influence 
of the mind upon vasomotor nerves. Blushing is 
confined to the human subject, and is more com¬ 
mon in women than in men. The face, ears, and 
neck are alone affected, as a rule, but in rare 
instances blushing has been noted as extending to 
other parts of the body, and it is said that in some 
savage races blushing involves a much larger area 
of the skin than among civilised communities. 
Many facts concerning blushing and a theory with 
respect to its causation will be found set forth in 
Darwin’s work on the Expression of the Emotions. 

Boa, a name loosely applied to any large snake 
that kills its prey by crushing. Properly the term 
is confined to serpents of the family Bo'idm (from 
tropical America and the Eastern Archipelago), 



Boa (Boa constrictor). 


distinguished from the pythons of the Old World 
bv the absence of teeth on the premaxillae, and by 
the single row of inferior shields on the tail. The 
boas have nn enormous gape, and the small teeth 
all point invards. The tail is prehensile, and the 
rudiments of hind limbs which end in horny anal 
spurs assist these animals to suspend themselves 
from branches of trees whence they swoop down on 
their prey, which consists of small mammals ; rats, 
according to Wallace, being their favourite diet. 


In captivity they are fed on ducks, pigeons, and 
guinea-pigs, and after a meal they require a long 
period of digestion. The young are extruded alive, 
the eggs being hatched within the parent. The 
largest species is the Anaconda (q.v.). The common 
boa ( Boa constrictor') is said to attain a length of 
20 feet, and specimens of from 12 to 14 feet are 
often met with. The colour is a reddish-grey with 
wavy longitudinal stripes. Wallace {Travels on the 
Amazon) says that boas “ are not at all uncommon, 
even close to the city (Para), and are considered 
quite harmless. They are caught by pushing a 
large stick under them, when they twist round it, 
and the head being cautiously seized and tied to 
the stick, they are easily carried home.” 

Boabdil (Arab. Ahu-Ahdallali or Ez-Zogoiby, 
the Unlucky) was the last occupant of the 
Moorish throne of Granada, from which he drove 
his father Abdul-Hassan in 1481. He was captured 
in 1483 by the King of Castile, and made a nominal 
tributary, returning to Granada to resume his 
struggles against his father and uncle. In 1491 
the Moorish capital fell to Ferdinand, though 
Boabdil fought with a courage strangely at variance 
with his infirmity of purpose. As he rode away to 
the coast he halted on a ridge at Padul, still called 
El Ultimo Sospiro del Moro (The Moor’s last sigh), 
to take a farewell look at the Alhambra, and burst 
into tears at the sight. Whereupon his mother is 
said to have thus reproached him : “ You may well 
weep like a woman for what you could not defend 
like a man.” He died shortly afterwards on the 
field of battle in Africa. 

Boadicea, the wife of Prasutagus, king of the 
ancient British tribe, the Iceni, whose territories 
lay on the E. coast. Her husband, on his death¬ 
bed (60 a.d.). left his property to her and his two 
daughters jointly with the Emperor Nero. The 
Romans, however, seized all, and when Boadicea 
complained, scourged her publicly, whilst the 
daughters were outraged. This infamy roused the 
Britons, and they found a courageous leader in the 
queen. Roman soldiers and colonists were being 
massacred freely, and there was every prospect of 
the whole province being lost to the empire, when 
Suetonius Paulinus landed with an army from 
Mona (62 A.D.), and in the district between 
Colchester (Camalodunum) and London defeated 
the queen, who soon afterwards poisoned herself. 
The story preserved by Tacitus and Dio Cassius 
furnished Cowper with a theme for a spirited 
poem. 

Boar, the male of the Swine (q.v.). The Wild 
Boar (Sus scrofa), from which most of the domesti¬ 
cated varieties are probably derived, is a large, 
fierce animal, usually measuring between 3 ft. and 
4 ft., exclusive of the short tail, though greater 
measurements rest on good authority. The general 
hue is dusky brown, or greyish with a tendency 
to black, sometimes diversified by black spots or 
patches. The head is elongated, the neck short 
and thick, and the body massive and muscular. 
In the males the canine teeth, or tusks, form 
terrible weapons of offence and defence, projecting 










r 

l 





ANIMAL KINGDOM.—II. 

1 Boa. 2 Lizard. 3 Turtle. 4 Crocodile. 5 Archaeopteryx, 0 Apteryx. 7 Emu. 
11 Kangaroo. 12 Opossum, 13 Wombat. 14 Sloth. 15 Horse. 1(3 Manatee. 
21 Chimpanzee. 22 Man. 

5 


8 Eagle. 9 Ornithorhyncus. 10 Echidna. 
17 Lion. 18 Seal. 19 Whale. 20 Lemur. 














































































* 





Boarding-out System. 


( m ) 


Boat. 


considerably beyond the jaws. In the domesticated 
variety these teeth are much reduced in size. The 
hairs of the body are coarse, and mixed with a 
kind of wool; those on the neck and shoulders are 
long enough to form a kind of mane, which the 
animal erects when enraged. The female is smaller 
than the male, and has much less prominent tusks ; 
she bears from four to six at a litter, and the young 
are yellowish, with longitudinal reddish-brown 
stripes. These animals are, in general, vegetable- 
feeders, though they devour snakes and lizards— 
the semi-feral pig of the Western States of America 
is the deadly foe of the rattlesnake—and when 
pressed by hunger they will even feed on carrion. 
They are nocturnal in habit, and their practice of 
ploughing long furrows in the ground in search of 
roots inflicts much damage on farmers, gardeners, 
and vine-dressers. There are three types or races of 
Wild Boar, which some naturalists have dignified 



Wild Boar (Sus scrofa). 


with the rank of species—the European, the 
African, and the Indian. The first is found in 
Central and Southern Europe ; the second in the 
forests north of the Sahara 5 and the third in 
Central and Southern Asia, as far east as New 
Guinea. The chase of the Indian Wild Boar is 
in high favour with Europeans: the hunters 
are mounted and armed with spears, and the sport 
is popularly known as “ pig-sticking. Ihe W ild 
Boar was formerly common in Britain, but became 
extinct towards the end of the 17th century. 
Attempts have been made by sportsmen to intro¬ 
duce these animals once more, as beasts of chase, 
but in at least one case “the country rose upon 
them and destroyed them ; ” and in another, the 
sportsman who made the experiment was so 
enraged bv a favourite horse being wounded by 
a wild boar, that he caused the whole herd to be 
destroyed. [Hog, Pig, Swine.] 


Boarding-out System, a system by which 
workhouse children are placed in the house* of 
poor people, to whom a certain sum is paid tor the 
maintenance of the children, and who adopt the 
children practically as their own. The supporters 
of the system maintain that it effectually does 
away with all the associations of the workhouse, 
and tends to make the children ordinary members 


of society. The opponents urge, however, the 
temptation afforded to the persons with whom 
the children are lodged, to ill-treat the children, 
for whom they can have no feelings of parental 
affection. This danger is, however, partly provided 
against by a systematic inspection. The boardinff- 
out system is gaining ground in England, and is 
frequent in Scotland. 

Boardman, George Dana, was born in the 
state of Maine, U.S.A., in 1807, and educated for 
the Baptist ministry. He went out to Burmah as 
a missionary in 1825, and, having mastered the 
language, worked with great success for some years 
in the^Moulmein district. Overwork in a trying 
climate undermined his health, and he died in 1831. 


Boar Fish, a popular name for any fish of the 
genus Capros , of the Horse-mackerel family. The 
body is compressed and elevated, like that of 
the' Dory, but there are no spines at the base of 
the dorsal or anal fin. The single species ( C . aper), 
about 6 inches long, carmine above, lighter below, 
is common in the Mediteranean, and has been taken 
on the south coast of England. 

Boat. The length and approximate weight of 
the principal classes of boats which are used in the 
British navy, and to a great extent also in the 
mercantile marine, are as follows :— 


Pulling or Sailing Boats :— Length, 

feet. 

Dingey. 

Dingey -. 

Whale Gig (life).27 

Whale Gig.25 

Whale Gig.27 

Cutter Gig.20 

Gig - - - -.22 

Gig - -.24 

Gil.26 

Gig.2S 

Gil.30 

Gig. 3 - 

Joilyboat.lb 

Jolly boat.IS 

Cutter (life), cork lined- - - - 28 

Cutter (life), cork lined- - - - 32 

Cutter.25 

Cutter - - - -.- 26 

Cutter.2S 

Cutter. 30 

Cutter.- * ‘ 32 

Pinnace.30 

Pinnace.32 

Launch, unsheathed- - - - - 40 

Launch, unsheathed.42 

Steam Boats (with machinery) : 

Cutter.2S 

Pinnace.30 

Pinnace - - - -.3i 

Launch. 4 - 


Weight, 
cu ts. qrs. 

3 1 

4 2 



7 1 

7 1 

7 3 

8 0 

5 3 

9 0 

6 0 
8 0 

20 0 
20 3 

15 0 

16 0 

16 3 

IS 2 
19 3 

41 0 

43 2 

67 2 

75 0 

45 0 

60 0 
105 0 

14S to 155 C\vt. 


Boats are found to gain in weight each year 


of usage. Barges are cutters or gigs < never 
rowing less than ten oars. A longboat is the 
largest of a ship’s sailing boats. Boats are either 
clinker or carvel built. In clinker-work each 
plank overlies the plank next below it ; in 
carvel-work the edges of the planks meet flush 
together, and are caulked. Of boats which are 
not ship’s boats there is an almost endless variety. 
The wherry is a light sharp boat, chiefly used 
for passenger and small luggage traffic in ineis 
and harbours. Punts are oblong flat-bottomed 

































Boat Bill. 


( 112 ) 


Boccaccio. 


boats. Out-rigged racing boats were introduced 
about the year 1840, and were first used in the 
annual Oxford and Cambridge races in the year 
1840. Those of that date, however, were compara¬ 
tively heavy and cumbrous, and it was not until 
1857 that the present style of boats without keels 
was used. The further improvement of sliding 
seats was introduced in 1878. For lifeboat, see the 
article Life Saving at Sea. 

Boat Bill (Cancroma cochlearia), a short¬ 
legged bird of the Heron family, deriving its 
popular name from its bill, which has been com¬ 
pared to two boats laid gunwale to gunwale, the 
ridge and hooked point of the upper mandible 
lending force to the comparison. This bird, about 
the size of a common fowl, is confined to South 
America: it haunts marshes, swamps, and the 
banks of rivers, feeding on fish and Crustacea, and 
capturing its prey like the Kingfisher. General 
plumage grey, washed with misty red, under¬ 
surface whitish, belly rusty red. The male has an 
erectible black crest. 

Boat-low?ring Apparatus, apparatus for 
lowering a boat, by which it is always kept in a 
horizontal position, and when it reaches the water 
it is detached simultaneously at both ends from the 
supports. 

Boat-racing. [Rowing.] 

Boatswain, an officer who has special charge of 
a ship’s boats, sails, colours, anchors, rigging, cables, 
and cordage. It is likewise his business to summon 
the crew to their duty, and for this purpose he 
uses a whistle of peculiar form. In the royal 
navy the boatswain is a warrant officer, ranking 
immediately above a midshipman, and his pay may 
vary from £100 7s. Gd. to £150 11s. 3d. a year, and 
he may obtain, on retirement at the age of 55, or 
earlier by necessity or special permission, a maxi¬ 
mum pension of £150. If, however, he be in the 
meantime promoted to be chief boatswain, his 
maximum pension becomes £150, and he may 
obtain on retirement the honorary rank of lieu¬ 
tenant. 

Bobadil, the name of a swaggeringbut cowardly 
captain in Ben Jonson’s comedy of Ever)) Man in 
his Humour. So cleverly is the character drawn 
that the word has passed into a generic term for 
military braggarts. It may have been derived 
originally from Boabdil (q.v.), the story of whose 
weakness was familiar to writers of the period. 

Bobbin, in Spinning, a spool with a head at¬ 
one or both ends to hold yarn. The term is also 
applied to the weights used to steady the threads 
in pillow-lace making. 

Bobolink, Bob-o-link, Boblink (Dolichongx 
oryzh'orus), the popular name of the single species 
of Dolichonyx, a genus of Hang-nests (q.v.). It is 
a migratory bird, found in the summer all over the 
American continent, from Canada to Paraguay, 
passing the winter in the West Indies, where, in 
some parts, it is known as the Butter-bird, from 
its plumpness, and, as in America, is highly valued 
for the table. These birds arrive in the Southern 
States about the middle of March, and then do 


good service to the farmers by destroying worms, 
insects, and larvae. They continue their flight 
northwards, and rarely breed south of 40° N. On 
their return journey south they commit great 
depredations in the rice-fields, especially before 
the grain has fully ripened. At this time 
they are in excellent condition, and are shot in 
great numbers for the market. From their fre¬ 
quenting the rice-fields they are known as Rice- 
birds, Rice-buntings, or Rice-troopials. The male is 
rather more than 7 inches long, and in his summer 
plumage has the head, fore part of the back, 
shoulders, wings, tail, and under-surface black, 
scapulars, rump, and upper tail feathers white, 
patch of yellow on the nape. From its black and 
white plumage it is sometimes called the Skunk- 
bird, apparently for no better reason than that its 
coloration resembles that of the unsavoury quadru¬ 
ped. After the breeding season the male assumes 
the plumage of the female—brownish-black above, 
dirty yellow beneath—and the young males are 
like the females. The ordinary popular name is 
derived from the note of the bird, which has 
considerable vocal power, and is often kept as 
a cage-bird in the United States. 

Bobruisk, fortified town in the government of 
Minsk, Russia. It is situated at the confluence of 
the rivers Bobruiska and Beresina. Until the 
beginning of this century, when the fortress was 
built, it was a place of small importance. There 
is some trade with the south by the river which 
is navigable, and pottery is made there. Until 
recently the Jewish element formed half of the 
population. 

Boca Tigre, Bocca Tigris, or “ The Bogue ” 
(Chin. Hu-viun, tiger’s mouth), a name of Portu¬ 
guese origin given to the mouth of the Canton 
river known to the Chinese as Choo-Kiang or 
Pearl river. “ The Outer Waters ” or broad 
estuary extending southwards is blocked to some 
extent about 45 miles below Canton by five islands, 
all of which were strongly fortified to check any 
advance by water to Canton. The “Bogue’’forts 
were captured by the British in 1841 and in 185G, 
and were completely dismantled. 

Boca, signifying mouth, has been applied by 
the Spaniards and Portuguese to many straits and 
rivers, e.g. Boca Chica in New Granada, Boca de 
Novios at the outfall of the Orinoco, Boca Grande 
and Boca del Toro in Costa Rica. 

Boccaccio, Giovanni, the illegitimate son of 
a Florentine merchant and an unknown French 
lady, was born, probably at Certaldo, near Florence, 
in 1313. Little is certain as to his early life, but 
he appears to have been carefully brought up by 
his father, who destined him for commerce, but 
finding that career distasteful allowed him to study 
law. Giovanni, however, from the age of seven 
conceived a passion for the Muses, and in 1333, 
having given up legal pursuits for some mercantile 
position at Naples, he came in contact with 
Petrarch, afterwards his life-long friend, and he 
also (1341) fell in love with Maria, a natural 
daughter of the king. Both of these circumstances 










Boccaccio. 


( 113 ) 


Bocholt. 


stimulated the young man to cultivate poetry and 
literature. Fiammetta, as he styled his lady-love, 
at once encouraged him, and supplied, like Beatrice 
and Laura, a source of inspiration, though of a 
less ideal kind. At her bidding he composed his 
first prose romance, Filocopo, relating the familiar 
adventures of Florio and Biancafiore in rather 
heavy style. Then followed the Testicle, a heroic 
poem dealing with the story of Palamone and 
Arcito, and remarkable as being the earliest 
example of the ottava rima, and as having provided 
material for Chaucer and Dryden. About 1341 
Boccaccio was recalled to Florence by his father, 
and whilst parted from his mistress, wrote Anuto, 
half in prose, half in verse, introducing her among 
the characters, and L'Amoroso, Visione, an acrostic 
of portentous dimensions, writing a poem to her 
under her real name. L'Amorosa Fiammetta, which 
next appeared, describes the emotions of the lady 
on parting with her swain. In 1344 he managed 
to get back to Naples, where the beautiful, brilliant, 
but dissolute Joanna I. was now reigning. The 
queen gave every encouragement to the young 
poet, and at the court he wrote most of the stories 
comprised in the Decamerone, as well as Filostrato, 
known to English readers through Chaucer’s un¬ 
acknowledged adaptation. Returning to Florence 
in 1350 on his father’s death, he was well received 
and employed in various foreign missions. It was 
by his urgent advice that Petrarch was invited to 
take a leading position in the newly-founded 
university. He devoted himself eagerly to the 
study of the classics, learned Greek, and with his 
own hands laboriously copied many manuscripts 
rescued from the monks. In 1353 appeared the 
first edition of the Decamerone, putting before 
Italians a model of prose style that time has not 
yet impaired in any degree. Dante’s Vita Nuova 
and the Cento Novelle Auticlie had revealed already 
some of the power of the language, but Boccaccio 
was the first to impart to his native tongue that 
ease, flexibility, and subtle charm which made it 
so delightful a vehicle for description, narrative, or 
playful wit. The Decamerone, not in itself original 
as regards matter, has been to succeeding writers 
a quarry from which they have freely hewn the 
stones of which their own poetical structures have 
been built, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dryden, Keats, 
and Tennyson, among others, being indebted to this 
source. To a critic of Teutonic race and modern 
culture nothing seems more astounding and un¬ 
intelligible than the way in which Boccaccio blends 
the deepest pathos with the cynicism of a voluptu¬ 
ary, and the appreciation of moral virtue with the 
grossest indecency. But it must be remembered 
that he lived in a licentious age when hypocrisy 
was less esteemed than at present, and, like 
Chaucer and Shakespeare, he will be found to have 
raised rather than lowered the ethical standard of 
his contemporaries. Until 1360 Boccaccio lived at 
Florence, and occasionally served the state in 
negotiations abroad. He then retired to Certaldo, 
and a religious change came over him, inducing 
him to take nominal orders in 1362. Next year he 
visited Naples again to write the exploits of the 
Seneschal Acciaj uoli, but he was not well received, 

32 


and does not seem to have performed his task. 
Until 1373 he was either at Florence or Certaldo, 
spending also much of his time in visits to Petrarch 
or other friends, and composing several Latin 
treatises on historical, mythological, and geo¬ 
graphical subjects as well as II X inf ale Fiesolano, 
a love-story in verse, and a number of Rime. He 
was not wealthy, but he appears to have been a 
liberal buyer of books, and to have been quite 
independent of patrons. The University of Florence 
having founded a chair for the study of Dante, he 
delivered an able series of lectures on the Divina 
Commedia. The loss of Petrarch in 1374 was 
a severe shock to his friend, whose health was 
already failing, and he died at the close of 1375 
with the consolations of the church. He was 
never married, but had several natural children, 
none of whom survived their father. 

Boccage, Marie Anne Figuet du, was born 
at Rouen in 1710, her maiden name being Le Page, 
and married in her childhood a French employ^ at 
Dieppe, who soon left her a widow. Migrating to 
Paris, she was welcomed there both for her literary 
tastes and her agreeable person. Her chief works 
were La Colombiade, a quasi-epic, in ten cantos, 
Les Amazones, a tragedy, Le Paradis Perdu, a 
feeble imitation of Milton, and La Mort cl'Abel, a 
no less dull reflection of Gesner. Her Letters are 
interesting, as she lived in a society of which 
Fontenelle and Voltaire were the leaders. She 
- died in 1802. 

Boccherini, Luigi, born at Lucca in 1740, and 
carefully trained as a musician by his father, who 
followed that profession, associated himself as a 
composer with Manfredi, the violinist. They went 
to Paris together (1770) and there Boccherini’s 
Divertissements were first printed with great 
success. The two friends next visited Spain, and 
were cordially welcomed, but though he held ap¬ 
pointments at the Court, Boccherini appears to 
have lived in poverty and obscurity, dying in 1805. 
His works were very numerous, and show much 
fluency and ease combined with a sound knowledge 
of instruments, especially of the violoncello. He 
has been styled “ the wife of Haydn.” 

Bochart, Samuel, was born at Rouen in 1599, 
and showed early great aptitude for Greek and 
Latin scholarships. His studies were pursued at 
Paris, Sedan, Leyden, and Oxford. When he 
became Protestant pastor at Caen at the age of 
four-and-twenty he had acquired a considerable 
knowledge of Hebrew and other Oriental languages. 
It was not, however, until 1646-7 that he published 
Phalecj and Canaan, forming together a treatise on 
sacred geography that won him the fame of being 
among the most learned men of Europe. In 1652 
Christina, Queen of Sweden, invited him to Stock¬ 
holm, but no good came of the visit. Returning to 
Caen he brought out his Hierozoicon, which was 
printed in London, and in 1667 fell dead whilst 
arguing some archaeological point before the 
Academy of Caen. 

Bocholt, a town in the circle of Borken and 
government of Munster, Prussian Westphalia. It 







Bochum. 


( 114 ) 


Bodleian Library. 


is situated on the river Aa, 44 miles W. of Munster, 
and has manufactories of cotton, woollen, and silk 
fabrics, and hardware, with some distilleries. 

Bochum, the capital of the circle of the same 
name in the Government of Arnsberg, Prussian 
Westphalia, 26 miles N.E. of Diisseldorf, and on 
the railway from Duisburg to Dortmund. There 
are coal-mines, large steel works, and factories for 
making woollen cloths, carpets, kerseymeres, and 
hardware, especially lamps and coffee-mills. 

Bocland, or Book-land, in Anglo-Saxon times, 
was land held by deed or charter. It w r as analogous 
in some degree to our modern freehold (q.v.), while 
folcland (q.v.) was the common land. 

Bode, Johann Elert, the son of a school¬ 
master, was born at Hamburg in 1747, and from 
childhood devoted himself to mathematics and as¬ 
tronomy. His first work w r as a brief essay on the 
solar eclipse of 1766, and this was followed by his 
Introduction to tlw Knowledge of the Starry Heaven. 
In 1772 Frederic II. invited him to Berlin as 
astronomer to the Academy of Sciences, and in 
1774 he began his famous Astronomical Year-hook , 
which is still published. His Ur a nog rap Ida (1801) 
gave three times as many stars as had ever been 
recorded before. He died in 1826. His name is 
perpetuated in “ Bodes Law” (q.v.). 

Bode, The Barons de, for many years made a 
claim on the British Government for a share of the 
indemnification which was paid by the French in 
1814 to satisfy the demands of British subjects 
whose property had been confiscated during the 
French Revolution. Charles de Bode, a baron of 
the Holy Roman Empire, married an Englishwoman, 
and had a son born in England, and Clement, the 
son of the latter, a French subject, tried to recover 
on the strength of this descent. The claim was 
finally rejected by Parliament in 1852. 

Bodenstedt, Friedrich Martin, was born at 
Peine in Hanover in 1819, and brought up as a mer¬ 
chant. He abandoned this calling for literature, and 
became for a time tutor in Prince Galitzin’s house at 
Moscow. Later on he kept a school at Tiflis, edited 
the Austrian Lloyd at Trieste and the Weser-Zeitung 
at Bremen, finally settling at Munich as Sclavonic 
Professor—a position which he exchanged for the 
management of the Court theatre at Meiningen. 
His works include several volumes of poems, some 
on Oriental themes, an account of the Races of the 
Caucasus , and A Thousand and one Days in the East , 
which has been translated into English. He has 
written some useful critical remarks on Shakespeare. 

Bode’s Law, named after the astronomer, is a 
connection bet ween the distances of the planets from 
the sun. It was first observed by Kepler, and was 
employed by Bode to predict the existence of a 
planet between Mars and Jupiter. The discovery 
of the asteroids was practically the fulfilment of 
his prediction. No physical explanation has yet 
been afforded of the rule, which is therefore purely 
empirical. It may be stated thus :—Add 4 to each 


of the numbers 0, 3, 6, 12, 24, 48, and so on in 
geometrical progression, and we obtain the relative 
distances of the planets from the sun. Thus— 

Mercury. Venus. Earth. Mars. Asteroids. 

4 (3 9) 7 (7-2) 10 16 (15-2) 28 (27H) 

Jupiter. Saturn. Uranus. Neptune. 

52 (52-9) 100 (95-4) 196 (192) 388 (300) 

The numbers in brackets represent the relative 
distances as obtained by actual measurement, that 
of the earth being taken as 10. 

Bodin, Jean, was born at Angers in 1530, and 
after studying and lecturing on law at Toulouse, 
started as an advocate in Paris with such meagre 
success that he took up literature for a livelihood. 
His first important work was entitled Metliodus ad 
Facilem Historiarum Cognitionem (1566), and his 
admirers claim that it lays the foundation of a 
science of history. A discussion on the rise of 
prices directed his attention to political economy, of 
which science he was a pioneer. In 1576 Henry III. 
made him his attorney at Laon, but his oppo¬ 
sition to the League and to the king’s claim to 
alienate the royal demesnes soon lost him his post. 
This year witnessed the publication of Les Six 
Livres de la Rejniblique, a splendid attempt to 
build up a science of politics, based partly on 
Aristotle, but displaying great observation, liberality 
of mind, and dialectical skill. Yet he was an ardent 
believer in witchcraft, joined readily in persecuting 
the wretched victims of that superstition, and 
wrote a book called Demonomanie des Sorciers. In 
1581 he visited England with his patron, D’Alemjon. 
His closing years were passed at Laon, where he 
died of the plague in 1596, his Universale Naturale 
Theatrum appearing just before his death ; a re¬ 
markable colloquy which he left on religious 
toleration was not published until 1857. 

Bodleian Library, the University Library at 
Oxford. The original nucleus was chiefly the books 
of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, which were 
placed in the room over the Divinity school in 1480. 
These, however, were dispersed (partly by the 
Puritans of Edward YI.’s time), and the library was 
restored by Sir Thomas Boclley (q.v.), who, while 
employed in diplomatic missions on the Continent, 
in Queen Elizabeth’s reign, had collected a valuable 
library, which he presented to the university in 1598. 
The building was opened in 1603 with about 2,000 
volumes, and soon required enlargement. Much of 
the present edifice dates from 1634-1638. Arch¬ 
bishop Laud, Sir Kenelm Digby, John Selden, the 
jurist and antiquary, and Burton, the author of the 
Anatomy of Melancholy , were among its earlier 
benefactors. Malone’s books on Shakespeare, and 
valuable collections of coins and prints, partly 
formed by Francis Douce, are among its greatest 
treasures. It has extremely valuable Hebrew, 
Rabbinical and Oriental, as well as classical and 
other MSS., and is rich in autograph letters. It 
opens at 9 a.m. daily, and closes during the three 
winter months at 3, in February, March, August, 
September, and October at 4, and in the summer at 
5 p.m. It is, however, closed on certain Church 
festivals, the first week in October, and the last week 







Bodley. 


( H5 ) 


Boeckh. 


of the year. It may be used by all Masters of Arts 
of the university, and other persons can easily 
obtain admission as readers. Parts are open to the 
general public. The Radcliffe Library, or Camera 
Bodleiana, has sibce 1861 been used as a reading 
room in connection with it, and portions of the 
Sheldonian theatre and the “ Old Schools ” have 
recently been acquired to meet its growing needs. 
Books are lent out under special and very restricted 
conditions. A librarian and two sub-librarians 
manage the library, with a considerable but hardly 
adequate staff. The library, with those of the 
University of Cambridge, and of the British 
Museum, is entitled by law to a copy of every book 
published in the United Kingdom—a right origin¬ 
ally secured to it by the founder, by grant from the 
Stationers’ Company in 1610. It possesses upwards 
of 400,000 printed volumes, and about 30,000 
in MS. 

Bodley, Sir Thomas, Knt., was born at Exeter 
in 1544. His father, a Protestant, took refuge at 
Geneva during Mary’s reign, and in that city the 
young Bodley got an excellent education. He took 
his degree at Magdalen College, Oxford, became 
fellow of Merton, and for ten years led the life of a 
16th century “ don.” In 1576 he made the tour of 
Europe, but some five years later entered Elizabeth’s 
service as gentleman-usher, and was employed on 
various foreign missions. Disgusted with Court 
intrigues, and provided for by a wealthy marriage, 
he gave up official life in 1597, and began the 
formation of the famous library at Oxford, to which 
he bequeathed most of his fortune when he died in 
1612. He was buried in Merton College chapel, 
where his effigy remains. 

Bodmer, Johann Jacob, born at Greifensee, 
near Zurich, in 1698, and trained not merely in 
classical, but in French, English, and Italian 
literature, devoted himself to criticising and im¬ 
proving the German language. He founded what 
was known as the Swiss school of reformers, and 
by his editions of the Nibelungenlied and other 
specimens of older poetry, as well as by his 
introduction of a higher standard of taste, did 
much to put German on a level with the more 
cultured tongues. Among his works maybe named 
Discourse der Metier, Kritische Briefe, Noachide , an 
epic, and several mediocre poems. He died at 
Zurich in 1783. 

Bodmin, a market town and municipal borough, 
which has now superseded Truro as capital of the 
county of Cornwall. It formerly sent a member to 
Parliament, but the representation is now merged 
in the E. division of the county to which it gives its 
name. It is situated on the Great Western Railway, 
30 miles beyond Plymouth, and is important as an 
agricultural centre, but possesses no manufactures 
save that of shoes. The town is said to have sprung 
up around a monastery in the 10th century, and the 
church of St. Petrock (1472) belonged to the same 
establishment. The town hall, too, occupies the 
site of a convent of Grey Friars. The religious 
feeling of the population led to their taking up 
arms against the reforms of Edward \ I. Several 


large fairs for cattle, horses, and sheep are annually 
held here. 

Bodtclier, Ludvig, born at Copenhagen in 
1793, passed much of his life in Italy, where he 
wrote some of the choicest lyrics, principally on 
amatory themes, that the Danish language possesses. 
He returned to Denmark in 1835 and died in 1874. 

Body Cavity. In the article on blastosphere 
it was shown that a central cavity is formed in an 
egg in an early stage of its development; this 
cavity is known as the “ blastoccele ” and it usually 
communicates with the exterior by a “ blastopore.” 
In some of the lower coelenterata (see e.ej. Actinia 
and Hydra) the blastocoele is the only body cavity 
and the blastopore remains as the mouth and anus. 
But in that division of the animal kingdom known 
as the Coelomata this simple body cavity is usually 
obliterated, though remnants of it may persist in 
the adult as in the head cavities of some worms 
(see Archiannelida) and in the Rotifera (q.v.) ; 
such are known as “ archicoeles.” But in most cases 
the conspicuous body cavity of the adult has no 
connection with this primitive “ blastocoele,” but has 
been formed by the excavation of a series of spaces; 
such are known as “ pseudocoeles ” or false coelomes, 
and examples are met with among the mollusca, 
arthropoda, and the remarkable Peripatus ; in the 
prawn, however, it has been proved that a large 
true archicoele is also present. A third type of 
body cavity is the “ enterocoele ” of Starfish, 
Balanoglossus, etc., which is formed from an out¬ 
growth of the primitive alimentary canal (archen- 
term) of the embryo. In the vertebrates and 
many worms the body cavity is of a similar origin, 
but as the development is shortened it is known 
as a “ cryptenteroccele.” 

Boece, or Boyce, or Boys, Hector (known as 
Boethius), was born at Dundee of a noble Scottish 
family about 1465. His education was finished in 
the university of Paris, and he became a professor 
in the college of Montaigu, where he acquired the 
lasting friendship of Erasmus. About 1500 he 
returned to Scotland as principal of the newly- 
founded Kiug’s College, Aberdeen, at a salary of 
forty-four shillings per annum, but he was also 
canon of the cathedral, and held other preferment. 
In 1522 appeared his Lives of the Bishops of Aber¬ 
deen, in Latin, and his famous History of the Scots 
in the same language was published in 1527. The 
style of this composition is elegant, if not quite 
correct, but as regards matter his patriotism outruns 
his veracity, and he seems not only to have invented 
facts, but to have supported them by fictitious 
authorities. He probably died at Aberdeen in 
1536. 

Boeckh, August, was born in 1785 at Karlsruhe, 
and educated there and at the university of Halle, 
studying theology under Schleiermacher, and phil¬ 
ology under F. A. Wolf. He was for a short time 
professor at Heidelberg, but in 1811 received the 
chair of ancient literature in the new university of 
Berlin, where he spent the rest of his life. Following 
Wolf he forced into the service of philology the 
whole range of classical knowledge, historical, 




Boehm. 


( H6 ) 


Bceotia. 


antiquarian, and philosophical. He laboured as¬ 
siduously in this wide field, and the first result was 
his fine edition of Pindar with a dissertation on 
metres which threw a new light on the subject. 
Next came Die Staatshaushaltung der Atliener , a 
minute and critical account of the political economy 
of Greece, followed by treatises on the naval affairs, 
money, weights, and measures of Athens. Lastly, 
he edited for the Berlin Academy of Sciences the 
Corpus Inscriptionum Grcecarum. In his minor 
writings there is scarcely a topic connected with 
Greek life on which he did not touch. He was an 
authority on chronology, on Platonic doctrine, on 
ancient astronomy, and on the science of education. 
He edited and translated the Antigone , and collected 
the doubtful fragments of Philolaus. He died in 
1867. 

Boehm, Sir Joseph Edgar, was born in 
Vienna of Hungarian parentage in 1834, his father 
being director of the Austrian Mint. He was in 
England to pursue his studies as a sculptor from 
1848 to 1851, but it was not until 1862, after he had 
distinguished himself at home, that he permanently 
settled in London. His natural abilities, aided by 
Royal patronage, soon brought him to the front. 
He had in 1867 executed a colossal statue of the 
Queen, and several of his works, including the 
memorials of Princess Alice, the Prince Imperial, 
and the Emperor Frederick, are to be seen at 
Windsor. Among other specimens of his skill the 
most noteworthy are the statues of Sir John 
Burgoyne, Lord Lawrence, and Lord Napier of 
Magdala, in Waterloo Place, and of William Tyndal 
and Thomas Carlyle on the Thames Embankment, 
of Lord John Bussell in Westminster Hall, of the 
Duke of Wellington at Hyde Park Corner, and of 
John Bunyan. Boehm cannot, perhaps, be ranked 
among the greatest sculptors, for he seldom at¬ 
tempted more than the elevation of modern 
portraiture to a decent artistic level, but he suc¬ 
ceeded admirably in what he undertook. He was 
appointed Sculptor in Ordinary to the Queen in 
1881, and Royal Academician in 1882. He died 
very suddenly on December 12th, 1890, and at Her 
Majesty’s desire was buried with full honours in 
St. Paul’s Cathedral. 

Boehme, or Behmen, Jakob, was born at Alt- 
Seidenberg, a village near Gorlitz, Prussia, in 1575, 
where he was apprenticed to a shoemaker, pursu¬ 
ing the business till he had made a competency. 
From infancy he appears to have been subject to 
peculiar mental phases, which he regarded as 
spiritual revelation, and in 1612 he ventured to 
write, but not to print, a treatise Morgenrothe 
in Auff'gang, better known as Aurora , in which 
he endeavours to set forth bis insight into the 
divine nature. The chief pastor denounced his 
doctrines, and he was silenced for some years. 
In 1618 he again resumed his attempts to put his 
views into words, but published nothing until 1624, 
when his Way to Christ appeared, consisting of 
sundry devotional tracts. These he had to defend 
before the Consistorial Court at Dresden, and on 
his return thence he died in November, 1624. His 


posthumous works contain something approaching 
a systematic exposition of his mystical theosophy, 
setting forth (1) the nature of God in himself ; (2) 
the manifestation of the Deity in the physical 
world ; (3) the life of God in the soul of man. Many 
of his speculations are derived from earlier thinkers 
and put together in a strange philosophical jargon 
invented by himself, but when he gives way to the 
expression of his own simple feelings his utterances 
rouse sympathy and veneration. He has exercised 
a powerful influence on Protestant mystics, and the 
sect of Behmenists, merging into the Quakers, 
survived for over a century in England and Holland. 
Hegel acknowledges him as one of the fathers of 
German philosophy, though his mind was not by 
any means of a philosophical turn. 

Boehmeria, a genus of the nettle tribe, grow¬ 
ing in tropical and subtropical climates, and 
differing mainly from the nettles in not having 
stinging hairs. Several of the species yield valuable 
fibres. B. nivea , the tchou-ma of China, the rhea 
of Assam, yields the China grass-cloth, a fabric 
rivalling the best French cambric. It is a perennial 
shrub, four to six feet high, with heart-shaped 
leaves covered with silvery-white down on their 
under surfaces. The inner bark of young stems 
yields the best fibre, the outer part being coarser 
but useful for cordage. Rhea fibre has nearly 
double the tenacity of Russian hemp. It is largely 
cultivated in India and the Southern United States, 
and, though susceptible to frost, might be grown in 
Europe. B. Puya, of Nepaul and Sikkim, with 
broadly lanceolate leaves, yields Puya fibre, and 
B. albida is used for textile purposes in the 
Sandwich Islands. 

Boeotia, a country of ancient Greece, having 
the Gulf of Corinth, Megaris, and Attica to the S., 
Attica and the Euripus to the E., the Locri 
Opuntii to the N., and Phocis to the W., with an 
area of about 1,119 sq. m. Pent in to the landward 
by mountains, Bceotia is roughly divided into the 
valley of Lake Copais, and the valley of the river 
Asopus, with the Theban plain between them, and 
the coast district stretching from Mount Helicon to 
the Corinthian Gulf. The former valley had no 
outlet for the waters of the Cephisus except 
natural underground passages (Katavothra), until 
some primitive race, probably Minyans, made huge 
drains into the Euboean Sea. Then the district 
became noted for its fertility, as were also the 
Theban plain and the basin of the Asopus, but 
neglect has now reduced much of the lowlands to 
marshy water. The heavy moist air was supposed 
by the ancients to blunt the intellects of the 
inhabitants, and the name Boeotian was synony¬ 
mous with blockhead. Still Pindar, Hesiod, and 
Plutarch were Boeotians. In prehistoric times the 
country is said to have been possessed by various 
tribes, but soon after the Trojan war an iEolian 
immigration swept these away, and established a 
sort of federal union with Thebes as its centre and 
a common temple at Coronea, the administration 
being conducted by elected Boeotarchs. This 
confederacy existed nominally until the Roman 







Boerhaave. 


( 117 ) 


Bogardus. 


emperors. Thebes, Plataea, Thespiae, Orchomenus, 
and many other cities flourished in early times, but 
all had dwindled into insignificance when Rome 
became supreme. Under the Turks Livadia was 
erected into the capital. Bceotia now forms one 
Nomos w r ith Attica, and is largely peopled by 
Albanians. 

Boerhaave, Hermann, was born at Vorhout, 
near Leyden, in 1668, and intended for the pastorate 
of which his father was a member. He distinguished 
himself at the university of Leyden under 
Gronovius and other eminent teachers, philosophy 
and mathematics being his strong points. At his 
father’s death he took up medicine, and in 1701 
was appointed lecturer on that subject, and on 
botany at Leyden. In 1714 he became rector of 
the university, and professor of practical medicine, 
and four years later he occupied the chair of 
chemistry. As a clinical teacher and an in¬ 
vestigator of disease his fame was deservedly great, 
and to his professional talents he added piety, 
grave, yet cheerful manners, and a considerable 
knowledge of languages. His chief works were 
Institutioncs Medico-, Aphorismi de Cognoscendis 
et Curcundis Morins, Libellus de Materia Medica et 
Bemcdiorum Formulis, and Institutiones Cliemicae. 
He died in 1738, after a long illness. 

Boers (pron. Burs), the Dutch, as opposed to 
the English-speaking settlers in South Africa, w r ho 
are mostly peasant farmers; hence the name, 
which is the same as the German Bauer, and the 
English boor in its undegraded original meaning of 
a free peasant, from a Teutonic root bu, as in Anglo- 
Saxon buan —to till, cultivate. The first permanent 
Dutch settlement (at the Cape of Good Hope) dates 
from the year 1652, after which they were joined 
by many German and French (Huguenot) immi¬ 
grants, who all ultimately adopted the Dutch 
language, and thus became merged in the general 
Boer population. The Boers are at present chiefly 
centred in the western districts of Cape Colony 
proper (about 200,000), and in the two Dutch re¬ 
publics of the Orange Free State (50,000) and 
Transvaal (62,000). But the English language is 
almost everywhere steadily encroaching on the 
Dutch, which is not cultivated, and is consequently 
gradually sinking to the position of a provincial 
patois. Recently the term Boer has been somewhat 
superseded by Afrikander, which has a broader 
meaning, comprising both the English and Dutch 
elements, merged together in a common South 
African nationality irrespective of race or language. 

Boetius, Anicius Manlius Severinus, was 
probably born about 457 a.d. at Rome, where his 
father was consul in 487 under the rule of Odoacer. 
Little is known of his early life, but he appears to 
have lived in the highest society, and was a favour¬ 
ite with Theodoric, Odoacer s successor. He 
married a senator’s daughter, and had two sons. 
He was consul in 510, and his sons held the office 
jointly in 522. His opposition to official injustice 
led his enemies to bring against him a false charge 
of treason. He was imprisoned by Theodoric, and 
after some delay was put to death in 522. During 


his imprisonment he wrote his famous book Be 
Consolatione Philosophia-, in five parts, using prose 
and verse alternately. In a dialogue with personi¬ 
fied Philosophy the problems of the moral govern¬ 
ment of the universe are discussed reverently and 
intelligently, but not a symptom of Christian 
belief can be detected throughout the book, which 
is largely indebted to Seneca for language and 
matter. Gibbon praised it highly, and, oddly 
enough, the Church of Rome conceiving that 
Boetius must have been orthodox as Theodoric 
was an Arian, treated the author as a martyr, and 
canonised him as Saint Severinus. Boetius, through 
his admiration for Greek literature, which led 
him to translate and comment on some treatises of 
Aristotle, exercised a favourable influence during 
the Middle Ages, and kept alive some slight know¬ 
ledge of ancient philosophy. The Christian treatises 
ascribed to him are of doubtful authenticity. 

Bog, an area of porous soil insufficiently drained 
so that it becomes more or less saturated with 
w r ater. Bogs may occur at any altitude, often 
occupying ledges on mountain sides or depressions 
in upland moors where there is a high rainfall. 
They may consist mainly of wet sand almost 
destitute of vegetation (quicksands), or their depth 
and extent may be largely added to by the growth 
and decay of certain aquatic plants. A forest 
stream, for instance, obstructed by a tree blown 
down by the wind, may expand into a pool, and 
from the sides of this, or any other body of stagnant 
water, the growth of bog-moss (q.v.) or similar 
plants may extend until they occupy the whole 
area, and then by displacing the water, expand the 
pool, undermine surrounding trees, and convert a 
wide tract of forest into a treeless swamp. The 
peat-bogs of Ireland commonly occupy the sites of 
lakes, and have layers of fresh-water shell-marl 
below the peat-moss. The decaying vegetation in 
a bog produces black carbonaceous matter or peat, 
colours the water, and charges it with acids known 
as humic acids, the chemistry of which is little 
known. Having a great affinity for oxygen, these 
acids have a reducing effect upon salts of iron, 
converting the sulphate into sulphide, rendering 
the peaty water chalybeate, and so causing it on 
evaporation to deposit bog iron-ore (q.v.). Though 
it is a laborious process, bogs may be reclaimed 
and converted into valuable agricultural land. 
Draining, turning down the heathy sod to decay, 
and dressing with a hot mixture of four tons of 
lime and five cwt. of salt and then with guano, 
produced good crops of potatoes and oats on Chat- 
Moss, Lancashire. 

Bogardus, James, 1800-1874, an American in¬ 
ventor, was a watchmaker’s apprentice. He began 
by improving the construction of eight-day clocks, 
and afterwards invented an engraving machine, a 
dry gas-meter, a transfer machine for producing 
bank note plates from separate dies, apian—adopted 
by the British Government—for making postage 
stamps, a pyrometer, a deep-sea sounding apparatus, 
and a dynamometer. He also improved the manu¬ 
facture of indiarubber goods. 




Bogatzky. 


( ns ) 


Bogomili 


Bogatzky, Karl Heinrich von (1G90-1744). 
German theological author, born at Jankowe in 
Lower Silesia. He studied divinity at Halle from 
1715 to 1718, and was for some time in the service 
of different Silesian nobles. He afterwards 
organised an orphanage at the Silesian village of 
Glaucha. In 1746, at the death of the Duke of 
Sachsen Saalfeld, in whose family he had lived, he 
retired to Halle and gave his time to writing 
devotional books. His best known work is The 
Golden Treasury . He also wrote hymns and an 
autobiography. 

Bogdanovitch, Hippolyte (1743-1803), a 
Russian poet, called by his fellow-countrymen “ the 
Russian Anacreon.” He studied at the university 
of Moscow, and was intended for the army. The 
frequenting dramatic performances gave him an 
irresistible turn for literature. His best known 
work is a poem, Psyche, which, in an agreeable 
and simple style, describes in a succession of 
allegories the dissolute manners of the Russian 
aristocracy. 

Bogermann, Johann (1576-1633), President 
of the Synod of Dort. He studied at Heidelberg 
and Geneva, and then became pastor of Leeuwarden, 
and took an active part in religious controversy, 
especially in that against Arminius. He was elected 
President of the Synod of Dort in 1718. He was 
professor of divinity at Franeker. His principal 
work was the translation of the Bible into Dutch, 
the edition which he superintended soon becoming 
the standard one. 

Boghead Coal, Torbanite, or TorbaneHill 
Mineral, is, or rather was, a valuable source of 
paraffin. It is amorphous, yellow or light-brown, 
soft and light, its hardness being P5 to 2, and its 
gravity P28. Its composition is 60 to 65 per cent, 
carbon, 9 hydrogen, 4 or 5 oxygen, the remainder 
being aluminium silicate, and the microscope shows 
it to consist of granules of a yellow wax in shaley 
matter. It yields a larger amount of luminous 
hydrocarbons than any cannel coal, giving upwards 
of 120 gallons of crude oil from a ton. It occurred 
at' Boghead, Torbane Hill, and elsewhere in 
Linlithgow, where since 1860 it has been nearly 
exhausted; in the Lower Greensand in the Isle of 
Wight; at Pilsen in Bohemia, and in Russia. In 
1853 it gave rise to a lengthened lawsuit, involving 
the definition of the term coal. 

Bog-iron Ore is an earthy form of limonite 
(2Fe 2 0 3 + 3H 2 0) or other hydrous iron-oxide, 
with hydrous manganese-oxide iron-phosphate, 
and other substances frequently mixed with 
clay or sand, yellow, brown, or black in colour. 
It is precipitated by the oxidation of iron- 
salts in solution in the water of peat on its exposure 
to the air. It may be deposited in situ, as in the 
“ moor-band pan,” a layer of hard ironstone forming 
on an impervious subsoil under peaty ground, or it 
may be carried by streams into lakes, forming the 
lake-ore (sumpferz) of Scandinavia. Though decay¬ 
ing vegetable matter plays an important part in 
reducing these iron-salts in solution, there is 
apparently no foundation for Ehrenberg’s opinion 


that the rapid precipitation of lake-ore is due to the 
action of diatoms. 

Bog-moss (Sjjhaynum), a large genus of mosses 
of world-wide distribution, having a structure 
specially adapted to their aquatic mode of life. 
They only possess roots when young, the base of the 
stem decaying into peat while its upward growth is 
continued by a succession of side shoots or “ inno¬ 
vations.” The stem has externally several layers of 
large cells destitute of protoplasm, with large 
perforations, by which water rapidly rises through 
the plant. The leaves also, which are only one cell 
thick, have similar cells surrounded by meshes of 
smaller ones containing chlorophyll. On removal 
from the water the whole plant rapidly dries and 
bleaches. It is extensively employed in packing 
plants and in cultivating orchids and bog-plants. 

Bog-myrtle ( Myrica ), a widely-distributed 
genus of small, mostly dioecious, catkin-bearing 
shrubs, the type of the order Myricacece. They have 
simple, scattered leaves, and numerous resin glands, 
the secretion of which is fragrant. Our British 
species, M. Gale, is known as sweet gale, and is the 
badge of the clan Campbell. The drupaceous fruit 
is coated with wax, whence the American names of 
candleberry and waxberry applied to other species 
of the genus. 

Bognor, a watering-place in Sussex, a little over 
9 miles S.E. of Chichester. Its development is quite 
recent. It has an iron pier 1,000 ft. long, and a good 
esplanade. It is of some geological importance as 
the seat of the Bognor beds of London clay. 

Bog-oak, the wood of the common British oak, 
when, having fallen into peat, it has become stained 
a deep black by the action of a natural ink formed 
by the action of the tannin which it contains upon 
the iron-salts in the peat. It is obtained in con¬ 
siderable quantity below the peat both in Ireland 
and Scotland, and is used for ornaments. The wood 
of yew under similar circumstances becomes a deep 
brown. 

Bogodukhof, a town of Russia in Europe, on 
the right bank of the Merl, in the government of, 
and about 43 miles from, Kharkof. There are 
tanneries, and the district is noted for its fruit 
crops ; and the town has a trade in grain, cattle, and 
fish. It was taken by Menschikoff in 1709 ; and its 
ramparts and ditches may still be traced. 

Bogomili (from Slav, words meaning Gods' 
mercy), a religious sect which arose in the 12th 
century at Philippopolis in Bulgaria, under a monk 
named Basil. Their theology was dualistic. From 
the Ultimate Reality proceeded a good and an evil 
principle, the latter—conceived as the creator of 
the world—being finally overcome by Christ. They 
were extreme ascetics, and rejected the Church, 
with its priesthood and other sacraments. Their 
leader was burnt by the Emperor Alexius Comnenus, 
but the sect continued to exist in Bosnia, where its 
presence tended to facilitate the reception of 
Mohammedanism upon the Turkish conquest by 
the Turks. 






Bogos. 


( H9 1 


Bohemia. 


Bogos (properly Bilin), a Hamitic nation north 
of Abyssinia, about the river Anseba, where their 
chief settlement is Keren, recently occupied by the 
Italians from Massawa. Their language, spoken 
by about 20,000, is akin to the Agau of Abyssinia, 
but the differences are so great that the two peoples 
cannot converse together. A branch of the Bilins 
on the east side of the Upper Anseba call them¬ 
selves Sanahib. The government is patriarchal, 
each village being ruled by elders, and all profess 
the Christian religion, recognising the Abuna of 
Abyssinia as the head of their church. See Mun- 
ziger, Sitten unci Heel it der Hoc/us (1875), and 
Professor Reinisch, St. Mark's Gospel in Bonos 
(1884). 

Bogota, river of South America, in the Grenadine 
Confederation. Rising in Lake Guatavista 15 
miles N. of Santa Fe de Bogota, it flows past that 
city, and after a course of 125 miles falls into the 
Magdalena. Into the Lake Guatavista the natives 
are said to have thrown their treasures when they 
were invaded by the Spaniards. At the cataract of 
Tequendama the waters fall over a precipice 700 
feet high, and have hollowed out the rock below to 
a depth of 130 feet. Near the fall is the natural 
bridge of Icononzo. 

Bogota, Santa Fe de, town in South America, 
near the river Bogota, and on a table-land 8,694 feet 
high, which separates the basins of the Magdalena 
and Orinoco, capital of the Republic of Colombia 
(formerly New Granada) and of the State of Candina- 
marca. It is the seat of government and of an arch¬ 
bishopric, and of the supreme court of justice. It 
possesses a university, colleges, library, museum, 
botanical gardens, observatory, school of painting, 
and mint. Among its industries are manufactures of 
soap, cloth, and linen, and die preparation of leather. 
Printing and working in the precious metals are 
also carried on. The climate is wholesome and 
agreeable although very damp. There are frequent 
earthquakes, and the houses are in consequence 
mostly one-storeved. Founded in 1538, Bogota was 
for three centuries the seat of the Spanish vice¬ 
royalty, and having been taken (1816) by the 
Spaniards after the declaration of independence, it 
was retaken by Bolivar (1819), and became the 
capital of the republic of Colombia till 1831, when 
that republic was subdivided. At that time Bogota 
was made the capital of New Granada, and since 
1858 has remained the seat of government. The great 
drawback to its prosperity is the difficulty of trans¬ 
port ; but a railway has been projected, and the 
neighbouring mountains give much promise of 
mineral wealth in the shape of iron, coal, and salt; 
while gold, silver, copper, and emeralds are also 
said to exist. 

Bog Plants belong to many very different 
groups. The bulk of peat though generally com¬ 
posed of Sphagnum [see Bog Moss], may be made 
up of rushes and sedges, as in the Cambridgeshire 
Fens, or of golden saxifrage ( Clirysosplenium ) or 
other plants. On wet sand or the spongy sides of 
slaty or limestone mountains, where there is no 


organic matter in the soil, the sundews ( Brosera ) 
and butterworts ( Pinguicula ), which get their 
nitrogenous food from captured flies, will flourish, 
and it is noticeable that all insectivorous plants are 
either bog-plants or water-plants, whilst many of 
them possess but very small roots. We may 
perhaps trace a connection between the presence of 
an abundance of small flying insects over bogs and 
the occurrence of many small flowered but beautiful 
plants in such places, such as the bog-asphodel 
(Narthecium), bog-pimpernel ( Anagallis tenella), 
ivy-leaved bell-flower ( Wahlenberyia hederacea ), 
marsh St. John’s-wort ( Hypericum elocles), grass of 
Parnassus ( Parnassia ), and the plants already 
mentioned. Most bog-plants can be grown in 
sphagnum, if kept constantly moist; but the use 
of two porous pans, one inside the other, avoids the 
danger of decay from absolute stagnation. 

Bog Spavin, the name given to a form of 
disease occurring in the horse, affecting the joint 
known as the “ hock.” 

Bogue, David (1750-1825), was born in Cold- 
ingham parish, Berwickshire. After studying 
theology in Edinburgh he was licensed to preach 
in Scotland, and in 1771 he went to London. From 
London he went to Gosport, where he was minister 
of an Independent chapel, and tutor in an Inde¬ 
pendent theological college. This became a great 
school of missionaries, and the nucleus of the 
London Missionary Society, in whose foundation 
David Bogue had a great hand. He would have 
gone himself as a missionary to India had not the 
East India Company refused their consent to his 
scheme. He was concerned in founding the British 
and Foreign Bible Society and the Religious Tract 
Society. He collaborated with Dr. Bennett in 
writing a History of the Dissenters ; and among his 
other writings is an Bssay on the Divine Authority 
of the New Testament. 

Bohemia, a province of the Austro-Hungarian 
monarchy [Austria], situated between lat. 48° 33' 
and 51° 4' N., and between long. 12° 5' and 
16° 25' E. Its area is 19,983 square miles. 

Mountains. These lie chiefly around the borders 
of Bohemia, the principal ranges forming, in fact, 
the boundaries of the State. Thus the Erzgebirge 
separates it from Saxony in the N.W., the Riesenge- 
birge from Prussia (Silesia) in the N.E., the 
Moravian Hills from Moravia in the S.E., and the 
Bohmerwald from Bavaria in the S.W. These 
have already been 1 escribed under Austria. 

Rivers. The Elb* rises in the Riesengebirge, and 
flows in a somewhat circuitous course through 
Northern Bohemia, passing through the mountains 
at Tetschen into Prussian territory. Together 
with its tributaries, the Adler, the Iser, the Moldau, 
the Eger, and others of minor importance, the 
Elbe drains the whole country, which thus forms 
the upper portion of its basin. The climate is 
generally healthy, while cold as compared with other 
parts of the empire, and the soil is remarkable for 
its fertility. 

Mineral springs are plentiful. Some of the best 
known are at Carlsbad, Teplitz, Marienbad, and 







Bohemia. 


( 120 ) 


Bohemia. 


Franzensbrunn, all of which are much frequented 
by invalids seeking a “ cure ” from their waters. 

Population. At the end of 1880 the number of 
inhabitants was 5,560,819. Of these 96 per cent, 
were Roman Catholics, 2-15 Protestants, and 17 
Jews. 

Educat ion. Of public elementary schools (Volks- 
und Burgerschulen) in 1888 there were 4,867, be¬ 
sides 282 private schools. The number of teachers 
employed is about 19,500, of whom 4,500 are women. 
The attendance of children of school age reaches as 
high as 98 per cent., the actual figures for 1888 (the 
latest available) being: Children liable to attend, 
995,574; children attending, 973,894 ; of these only 
25,399 were in private schools. German is the lan¬ 
guage ordinarily used in 2,156 of the schools; the re¬ 
maining 2,711 employ the “ Czecho-Slav,” which is 
still the mother-tongue of the Bohemian people. 
The schools of handicraft (Gewerbeschulen) number 
223, with 25,210 scholars ; these figures are consider¬ 
ably higher than those of any other part of the 
Austrian dominions. There are 34 schools for the 
study of agriculture of various kinds, having 977 
pupils. The “middle schools” comprise 53 
“Gymnasien” and 17 “ Realschulen,” 38 of the 
former and 12 of the latter being maintained by 
the State, and the remainder by their respective 
communes, with the exception of two “ Gymnasien” 
supported by the clergy, and one private “ Real- 
scliule.” In Prague are technical high schools for 
German and Bohemian-speaking pupils, attended 
by 184 of the former and 348 of the latter. 

The University of Prague is among the oldest 
and most renowned in Europe; it was founded in 
1348 by the Emperor Charles IV., and has played a 
prominent part in some of the most stirring scenes 
of European history. 

Like most other educational foundations in 
Bohemia, it has distinct establishments for the two 
languages. On the German side there are 160 
professors and teachers, with about 1,600 students; 
on the Bohemian side, 130 professors, etc., and some 
2,400 students. 

There are four theological colleges in Bohemia, 
with a total staff of 30, and an attendance of 433. 
There are also 13 training colleges for male and 4 
for female teachers. 

History. The early history of Bohemia is 
obscure, and probably, in part at least, mythical. 
The name is derived from the Boii, the first 
inhabitants of whom we have any record. They 
are said to have been of Keltic race, and to have 
been supplanted in the time c Augustus by the 
Marcomanni, and the chief oj I'onents of Marcus 
Aurelius in Germany. 

Early in the eleventh century Boleslaw Chrobry, 
Duke of Poland, conquered Bohemia, but after 
struggling for fourteen years against the Emperor 
Henry II., he was compelled to give up his claims 
and to do homage to the Emperor. 

Charles the Great (Charlemagne) subdued, among 
other inhabitants of the lands on his eastern 
borders, the Czechs, who then dwelt in Bohemia. 

Frederick Barbarossa raised Wladislaw, Duke of 
Bohemia, to the rank of king, as a reward for faith¬ 
ful services. 


About the year 1230 we find Ottocar, King of 
Bohemia, taking part with the knights of the 
Teutonic Order in their singular crusade against 
Prussia. A granddaughter of this king became 
the wife of John of Luxemburg, son of the 
Emperor Henry VII., in whose family the crown 
remained for several generations. Charles, the son 
of King John, was elected emperor, as Charles IV. 
Though not altogether successful as emperor, 
he was one of the best of the kings of Bohemia, 
and devoted much care to the improvement of 
Prague, where he founded a university; he died 
in 1378. 

In 1415 occurred the burning of John Huss (q.v.), 
and, in the following year, Jerome of Prague, 
another preacher of Wyclif s doctrines, shared the 
same fate. These events caused intense excite¬ 
ment, which culminated in the outbreak of the 
Hussite war (1419). This sanguinary conflict was 
carried on for fifteen years. The Protestant party 
gained many victories under their leader, the blind 
General Zisca (q.v.), and his successors, but were 
finally defeated, and the war terminated, by 
Meinhard of Neuhaus, at Lippau, in 1434. Sigmund, 
the persecutor of the Hussites, was then acknow¬ 
ledged as King of Bohemia ; he had been crowned 
emperor in the preceding year. 

In 1458 George of Podiebrad was elected king, 
and for some time held his own against Matthias 
Corvinus. His successor, Ladislaus, a Polish prince, 
was elected King of Hungary, thus uniting the two 
crowns. On the death of his son Louis, wdio fell 
fighting the Turks, at Mohacz, in 1526, the Arch¬ 
duke Ferdinand, son - in - law of Dadislaus, and 
brother of the Emperor Charles V., was elected 
and crowned king, and from thenceforth the 
throne was always occupied by the imperial house 
of Austria. 

Disturbances on account of religious persecutions 
led, in 1618, to the outbreak of the Thirty Years’ 
war, in which Bohemia suffered to an extent 
out of all proportion to its area. After the great 
defeat of the Bohemians at Weissenberg (the White 
Hill), near Prague, in 1620, Ferdinand II. visited 
his wrath upon the conquered country in a fashion 
without precedent in modern history. 

On account of its geographical situation, in the 
very midst of the rival German and Austrian 
states, Bohemia has been the scene of much 
fighting. As an instance, it may be noted that 
Prague, after being three times taken and re¬ 
taken during the Thirty Years’ war, has since been 
besieged or occupied no fewer than five times. 
The last occasion was at the close of the Austro- 
Prussian campaign, in 1866, the decisive victory 
which was gained by the Prussians on Bohemian 
soil, at Koniggratz. 

Industries. Coal-mining employs nearly 40,000 
persons, and more than 5,000 are at work in 
iron mines and works. Farming is fairly pros¬ 
perous. More cattle are raised here than in other 
parts of the empire, but sheep-farming does not 
seem to have advanced of late years. 

Woollen, cotton, and linen goods are manufac¬ 
tured ; the last in considerable quantities. 

Bohemian glass has long enjoyed a deservedly 






Bohemian Brethren. 


( 121 ) 


Boieldieu. 


high reputation. Its production gives employment 
to some 3,500 families, living, for the most part, 
on the wooded slopes of the Bohmerwald moun¬ 
tains. There are seventy-five glass houses, and 
twenty-two grinding and polishing mills. The 
principal centres of this manufacture are Liebenau, 
Adolfshiitte, Gablonz, Silberberg, Georgenthal, and 
Defereck. Most of the polishing is done at Leit- 
meritz. 

Brewing is carried on in 772 establishments, 
whose combined output is stated to amount to 
43 per cent, of the total production of beer in the 
empire. 31 per cent, of Austrian brandy also 
conies from Bohemia. 

The beetroot sugar industry is almost confined 
to Bohemia, which produces two-thirds of the total 
annual amount, and has 36,000 workpeople em¬ 
ployed in 130 factories. 

Inhabitants. The Marcomanni (see above) were 
in their turn expelled by the Slavs, who still form 
the majority of the population (3,600,000). The 
other chief element is the Germans (2,150,000), 
which with about 100,000 Jews and others make 
up the present population of 5,852,000 as estimated 
for January 1, 1891. The Germans are found in 
more or less numerous communities in every district 
except that of Tabor, but they form a compact body 
only in the three north-western districts of Eger. 
Saatz and Leitmeritz. At one time Bohemia seemed 
destined to become completely Teutonised, the Slav 
population being reduced at the close of the 18th 
century to the last stage of national degradation. 
But since then a remarkable revival has taken place, 
and the Czechs or Chekhs (Tsekhs), as the Bohemian 
Slavs are called, have completely recovered their 
ascendency both in a political, literary, and social 
respect. [Chekhs.] The “ Young Czechs,” the 
advanced section of the Nationalist party, have 
recently (1890-91) been actively agitating for the 
restoration of the Bohemian kingdom and the com¬ 
plete political separation of Bohemia from Austria, 
the Emperor of Austria to be King of Bohemia as 
he is King of Hungary. 

Bohemian Brethren were composed of 
remnants of the Taborites or extreme sect of the 
Hussites. These had formed themselves into an 
organised body, called the United Brethren, in 1455, 
and at one time numbered some 200 communities 
in Bohemia. They were broken up by the Thirty 
Years’ war, when the Protestants were expelled 
from that country, but afterwards met in secret, 
and in 1722 were permitted by Count Zinzendorf to 
settle on his land in Saxony. From this time they 
were called Moravians or Herrnhuters. 

Bohemond, Prince of Antioch, and son of 
Robert Guiscard, was a celebrated warrior of the 
beginning of the 12th century (died 1111). i rained 
in arms b} r his father, and following him in his wars, 
he imbibed all his enmity for the Greeks and their 
Emperor Alexis. At Robert Guiscard s death, 
Bohemond declared war against his brother Roger, 
the heir, and forced him to give up the principality 
of Tarentum. He, with his relative Tancred, joined 
the crusade of Godfrey de Bouillon, and having 
failed to persuade the latter to make war upon 


Alexis, he managed to take Antioch and to be 
nominated prince of it, a title which remained in 
bis family for 190 years. After a two years’ 
imprisonment among the Saracens, he married 
Constance, daughter of Philippe of France, and by 
aid of the French king made war upon Alexis. At 
length the plague in his army forced him to make 
conditions, and Anna Comnena has left us her 
impressions of him as she saw him at a conference. 
She was greatly struck by his fine appearance, in 
which something terrible was mingled with a 
charming sweetness. He was meditating another 
war against Alexis when death overtook him. 

Bohn, Henry George (1796-1884), publisher. 
Starting as a secondhand bookseller, he turned 
his attention to rare books, of which he soon 
possessed a great quantity. It was in 1846 that he 
began to issue the series of publications that has 
made his name famous. This series contained in all 
about 600 volumes. He also edited several other 
valuable works and translations, and had made 
considerable and interesting collections of china 
and objects of art. 

Bohun, a Norman family founded by Humphrey 
de Bohun, whose descendant in 1199 became Earl of 
Hereford. In 1380 the heiress of this earldom 
together with those of Essex and Northampton, 
married Henry Bolingbroke, afterwards Henry IY. 

Boiardo, Matteo Maria, a celebrated Italian 
poet, born 1430. Trained at the university of Ferrara, 
and being well read, especially in Latin, Greek, and 
Oriental languages, he became doctor of law and 
philosophy, and had the reputation of being one of 
the most learned men of his day, as well as an 
accomplished courtier. Becoming a soldier, he was 
appointedto important posts by the Dukes of Ferrara, 
among others to that of governor of Reggio, which 
he retained till the end of his life. His most cele¬ 
brated work is the Orlando Innamorato, in 69 cantos, 
first published in 1495. This poem marks an epoch in 
Italian literature as being the most striking of the 
Romantic poems before the time of Ariosto. Its 
subject is the supposed siege of Paris by the Sara¬ 
cens ; and introduces us for the first time to the 
Agramants and Astolfs and other typical personages. 
Ariosto’s continuation of the poem as Orlando 
Fnrioso and the recasting of it by Berni have had the 
effect of putting the original into the background. 
Among the other works of Boiardo are Carmen 
Bucolicon (1500,4to), Sonnetti e Canzoni (1499, 4to), 
'Union (a five-act comedy, 1500, 4to), and an Italian 
translation of the Golden Mss (1523, 8vo). 

Boieldieu, Francois Adrien, born at Rouen 
1775, died 1834, a French composer of note. His 
musical talent having been remarked by Broclie, 
organist of Rouen cathedral, this latter took charge of 
him and of his musical education. The master’s sever¬ 
ity drove the child to run away, and it was not till 
after four days that inquiries led to his being found 
on the road to Paris and to his being brought back. 
Returning to Broche, he soon after became en¬ 
amoured of the theatre, and when he had not money 
enough to pay for his seat at the opera, he used to 
slip into the theatre, and remain hidden all day. He 
was one day discovered, and the director, learning 





Boii. 


( 122 ; 


Boiler, 


who he was, made him free of the theatre. In 1793 
he produced a piece at the theatre at Rouen, and 
its success led him to go and try his fortune in 
Paris. After many vicissitudes, he saw represented 
in 1801 the first of his popular operas, The Caliph of 
Bagdad. His most celebrated work is La Lame 
Blanche , the production of which, in spite of his 
habit of repeated revision and rewriting which 
made the appearance of his pieces a question of 
years, was finished, rehearsed and played in the 
space of twenty-one days. 

Boii, a powerful Keltic people, originally said to 
have been settled in Gaul. At an early period they 
migrated in two great swarms—one to Germany, 
which is said to have given its name to Bohemia, 
the other to the district in North Italy, between the 
Po and the Apennines, where after a long struggle 
with the Romans, which indirectly had much 
influence on the course of the Second Punic war, 
they were finally subdued in 191 b.C. 

Boil, a localised inflammation of the skin and 
subcutaneous tissue, usually in connection with a 
hair follicle or with one of the cutaneous glands. 
Boils are frequently found in situations which 
suggest that friction has played a part in their pro¬ 
duction, as on the neck where the collar rubs 
against it, or on the forehead where the hat exerts 
pressure. The buttocks and back form occasional 
sites of boils. They occur by preference in young 
adults and during the spring, and often indicate 
“ poorness of bloocl,” as in diabetes and albuminuria, 
or result from errors of diet or faulty habits of life. 
A boil commences as a small painful induration 
of the skin, which subsequently suppurates and 
bursts, discharging a “ core ” of dead tissue. If 
the boil disappears without reaching the stage of 
suppuration it is called a “blind boil.” Micro¬ 
organisms can usually be detected in the matter of 
a boil, and possibly they form the real source of 
mischief in many cases. A boil may sometimes be 
checked by counter-irritation ; as a rule, however, 
the best local application to employ is a poultice. 
The most important matter, however, is to look for 
hygienic defects which may constitute the origin 
of the trouble. Regulation of diet and exercise, 
and the administration of tonics, are indicated. 
Crops of boils are sometimes associated with faulty 
drains. 

Boileau, Nicolas (1636-1711), French critic, 
born at Paris. He studied both law and theology, 
but on coming of age and inheriting property he 
abandoned both for literature. In French literature 
he holds a well-defined place as having on the one 
hand reduced versification to rule, and as having 
polished and refined both prose and poetical styles ; 
and on the other as having robbed French poetry 
of much of its fire and power, and having cramped 
and crippled French drama and given it a stilted, 
artificial character. His Art Poetique is founded 
upon the Ars Poetica of Horace, and aims at doing 
for the French language what Horace’s essay did 
for the Latin. Pope’s essay on Criticism is an 
imitation of this, just as L,e Lutrin gave Pope a 
model for the Pape of the Loch. Among his works 
was a translation of Longinus on the Sublime, and 


his satirical prose Dialogue des Heros de Roman 
gave a deathblow to the elaborate romances of the 
time upon which they were a satire. The first piece 
that showed his peculiar powers was Adieux d’un 
Poete a, la ville de Paris. Boileau obtained the 
favour of the king, and was associated with Racine 
as court historiographer, as well as being the reci¬ 
pient of several pensions. On the whole his mission 
appears to have been to serve as a sort of sieve or 
filter for purifying and arranging the flood of new 
ideas and works that the 16th century had brought 
into France. 

Boiler, in Mechanical Engineering , is a vessel 
for the generation of steam from water, and is an 
essential accompaniment to every steam-engine. 
The build of the boiler depends on the pressure at 
which the steam is to be produced, on the position 
it is to occupy, on its being stationary or locomotive, 
on the nature of the water supplied and of the coal 
burnt in the furnace, and on other circumstances. 
Hence the different types of boiler are very nume¬ 
rous, and definite classification is difficult. The 
efficiency of the boiler is measured by the number 
of pounds of steam generated per pound of coal 
employed in the furnace. The coal, or other fuel, 
should therefore be burnt efficiently, and the boiler 
should have a large surface in contact with the 
furnace, the hot gaseous products of combustion 
passing off to the chimney. The intensity of natural 
draught is regulated by the height of the chimney, 
but if this cannot be made sufficiently great, a forced 
draught is effected by injecting the exhaust steam 
into the chimney through a contracted nozzle. 
This we have on an ordinary locomotive, where the 
chimney cannot be made very long. 

The Cornish and Lancashire boilers are the most 
common forms used for stationary engines. The 
Cornish boiler is a horizontal cylinder, through 
which runs another of three-fifths its diameter. A 
part of the front end of this inner tube is arranged 
as a furnace, terminated by a transverse bridge, 
of fire-brick or hollow metal, towards which the 
fire-bars slope downwards from the front. The 
steam of hot gases passes along the tube or inside- 
flue to the end, then through external flues in con¬ 
tact with the outside of the boiler, and then up the 
chimney, at the lower end of which a damper is 
placed to vary the draught when required. In the 
Lancashire boiler there are two long internal flues 
instead of one passing through the shell, the dia¬ 
meter of each being two-fifths that of the shell. 
Galloway tubes, forming passages for the water 
from one side of the flue to the other, possess the 
advantages of increasing the heating-surface, pro¬ 
ducing beneficial eddies in the flow of gases, and 
of considerably strengthening the flue. The same 
advantages are partially gained by the use of 
corrugated flues. 

If instead of one or two large flues a number of 
small tubes are employed, we have a multitubular 
boiler, much stronger, having much more heating 
surface, but more expensive than the simpler form. 
Such boilers are extensively used for locomotives, 
marine-engines, and other cases where compactness 
and economy of fuel have to be considered together. 







Boiling'. 


C 123 ) 


Bcissy d’AngPas. 


For many small purposes vertical boilers are em¬ 
ployed ; the}’ are generally tubular. 

Boilers are built of plates of mild steel or of 
wrought-iron, the first being much more extensively 
used now than formerly, as it may be produced cheap¬ 
ly and of fairly uniform quality. Steel boilers are 
as strong as wrought-iron boilers of about If times 
the thickness, and may therefore be made thinner. 
This is a distinct advantage from the heating point 
of view, for thick plates do not conduct heat so 
well as thin plates. The quality of the metal must 
be well tested, especially for those parts subjected 
to the action of the flames. The fire-box of a 
locomotive is made of copper, the tubes of copper, 
brass or iron. 

The chief boiler appendages are the dome , which 
gives additional steam-space and enables dry steam 
to enter the steam-pipe, which opens here; the 
•manhole, an opening to the boiler, closed by a tight- 
fitting bolted cover, for a man to enter when cleaning 
out or repairing is required; the Mom-off cock, near 
the bottom of the boiler, for the discharge of muddy 
water and sediment; the feed mater pump ; the 
pressure-gauge for showing the pressure of the steam 
within the boiler, this pressure varying in different 
cases from 30 to 150 lbs. per square inch; the glass 
mater-gauge, to show the level of the water within; 
and the safety-valve to provide an exit for the steam 
when its pressure exceeds a certain limit. [Steam, 
Locomotive, Marine-Engines.] 

Boiling, or ebullition, signifies the transition 
of a substance from the liquid to the gaseous state. 
As the temperature of the liquid rises, its particles 
as a rule exhibit a greater inclination for free 
motion, till at last a temperature is reached when 
the vapour pressure within the liquid is sufficiently 
great to overcome the external pressure. This 
temperature is called the boiling-point of the liquid 
at that particular pressure. Bubbles of vapour then 
begin to form in the liquid; they pass to the surface 
unless cooled by transit through colder layers of 
the liquid, and are given off as gas into the air. It 
is evident that the temperature at which this takes 
place must depend on the external pressure, the one 
increasing with the other. Thus, water at ^ atmo¬ 
sphere pressure boils at 82° C., a fact that may be 
verified by placing a vessel of water at this tem¬ 
perature within the receiver of an air-pump, and 
gradually diminishing the pressure therein. Water 
under 1 atmosphere pressure boils at 100° C. or 
212° F.; and under 2 atmospheres, at 120° C. The 
connection between the boiling-point and pressure 
is known accurately for water by experiments of 
Regnault. Thus, by determining the boiling-point 
of water we can estimate the external pressure, a 
principle employed for the measurement of heights 
by the hypsometer (q.v.). 

The following are the boiling-points of the more 
important liquids:— 


Sulphurous anhydride 

s-oo° C. 

Ether - 

34-89 

Carbon bisulphide - 

- 48-05 

Acetone - - - - 

56*28 

Bromine - - - - 

- 63-00 

Wood-spirit 

65 "50 

Acetic ether 

- - - 1 3*83 


Alcohol - 

- 

. 

- 

- 

- VS-39 

Benzole 

. 

. 


- 

- SO-44 

Water 

- 

- 

_ 

. 

- ioo-oo 

Acetic acid 

- 

- 

- 

_ 

- 117-28 

Sulphuric acid - 

- 

- 

- 

- 

- 337"77 

Mercury - 

- 

- 

- 

- 

- 350-00 


Boisgobey, Fortune du, born at Granville in 
Normandy. After several campaigns as army pay¬ 
master in Algeria, he tried his fortune as a novelist 
and made his debut in the Petit Journal. His 
sensational stories, which are in some respects 
modelled upon those of Gaboriau, but do not approach 
the dramatic fitness and keeping of the latter, have 
achieved a certain amount of popularity even in 
England, where translations have appeared. Some 
of his works are — L'Homme sans Norn ; Le Format 
Colonel; JJ As de Cceur ; Les My stores de Nouveau 
Paris; Lc Crime de VOpera; and Le Secret de 
Berthe. 

Bois-le-Duc, n town of Holland, chief town 
of the province of North Brabant, arrondissement 
and canton, 45 miles S.E. of Amsterdam, at the 
confluence of the Aa and the Dommel. The town 
is protected by a citadel, and the neighbouring 
country can be easily laid under water. Founded 
in 1184 by Godfrey, Duke of Brabant, upon the site 
of a hunting-lodge in the midst of a wood, it was 
called Hertogen’s Bosch, from which the French 
Bois-le-Duc. It was enlarged by Philip the Good 
(1453), taken by the Germans (1629), occupied by 
the French (1794), and restored to Holland (1814). 
The early 12th century Gothic cathedral (Johannis- 
kirche) is one of the finest churches of the Low 
Countries, and the Hotel de ville, designed by Van 
Carnpen, has a fine set of chimes. The industries 
of Bois-le-Duc are varied and considerable, and it 
possesses an arsenal. Erasmus attended the school 
here. 

Boisseree, Sulpiz, 1783-1854, German architect 
and antiquary. Together with his brother Melchior he 
made a magnificent collection of German pictures. 
This collection he sold in 1827 to the King of 
Bavaria for 120,000 thalers, and it is now in the 
picture gallery at Munich. Melchior Boisseree, 
brother of the above (1786-1851), discovered the 
means of painting on glass with the brush alone, 
and has copied by this process the best of the 
pictures above mentioned. 

Boissonade, Jean Francois, Greek scholar and 
French man of letters (1774-1857). His early educa¬ 
tion was disturbed by the revolution. Although be¬ 
longing to the aristocratic party—of which, however, 
he retained nothing but the elegance and politeness 
—he obtained employment under the republican 
government, losing it, however, under the suspicion 
which his aristocratic birth brought upon him. 
Nominated again to political employment by Lucien 
Bonaparte in 1801, he soon entirely abandoned 
politics for letters, and devoted himself more par¬ 
ticularly to grammar. 

Boissy d’Anglas, Comte de (1756-1826), 
French statesman. Boissy D’Anglas has gained to 
some extent the reputation of being a political 
trimmer, but it may be questioned whether he was 
not steady to his own principles throughout. 





/ 


Boito. ( 124 ) Bolan Pass. 


Already a barrister, he was a moderate supporter of 
revolutionary ideas, and his views as to religious 
freedom gained for him at the hands of the 
royalists the accusation of wishing to establish a 
Protestant ascendency. As procureur syndic of the 
Ardeche he showed much courage in defending 
some Catholic priests. As a, member of the 
National Convention he was opposed to the execu¬ 
tion of the king, and he joined the silent party 
during the Terror. He came to the front again after 
the fall of Robespierre, and earned much popular 
odium for his mismanagement of the measures 
undertaken for relieving Paris during a scarcity 
which was called in ridicule the “ Boissy Famine.” 
He gained some reputation for the dignity with 
which at the Convention, during an inroad of the 
populace, he sat, said an eyewitness, “ like the 
Roman senators who awaited death in their curule 
chairs.” He served under Napoleon, under 
Louis XVIII., again under Napoleon, and again 
under the king. As an orator and as an author he 
was but second-rate. 

Boito, Arrigo, Italian composer and poet. 
Born at Padua 1842. Besides writing his own 
librettos, he has published songs, novels, and lyrical 
dramas. After studying at the Conservatorium at 
Milan, he produced, but without success, in 18G8 
the opera Mejistofele. In this the influence of 
Wagner may be traced, and it has since grown more 
popular. He has also composed Ero e Leandro , 
Nerone, and Oda all'Arte. 

Bojanus, The Organ of, is the name of the 
excretory gland of many mollusca. 

Bokhara, a country and Khanate of Independent 
Tartary, between lat. 37° and 41° N., and long. 
62° and 69° E. Its original proportions have 
been much reduced by Russian conquests in the 
north, and Afghan encroachments on the south. 
Its area is about 90,000 square miles, and its 
population is considered to be somewhere about 
two millions. Except in the neighbourhood of the 
river very little cultivation is possible, and the soil 
is composed of stiff clay, with here and there low 
sand hills. The most important of the rivers are 
three, the Amu or Oxus, which flows from S.E. to 
N.W., and varies in width from 300 to 800 yards, 
and finally empties itself into the Sea of Aral. 
The Zarafshan, the neighbourhood of which is 
more populous and more fertile than that of the 
Amu, rises in the highlands east of Samarcand, 
and used to form a large lake about 25 miles long 
in the province of Karakul. Irrigation works have, 
however, lessened the volume of the lower course to 
fertilise the valleys of the upper, and the river now 
loses itself in the sands, as does also its northern 
branch. The Ivarshi, too, loses itself in the desert 
after a course of about 60 miles. The climate of 
Bokhara varies from about 100° F. in summer to 
frosts in winter, which freeze over the Amu so as to 
allow of the passage of caravans over the ice. 
Earthquakes and violent storms and tornadoes are 
not infrequent. Though the sands of the Oxus 
yield gold, minerals are generally scarce. Alum, 
sal-ammoniac, salt, and sulphur are found. Rice, 


cotton, wheat, barley, beetroot, vegetables, hemp, 
silk, and tobacco are among the products ; and 
fruits are abundant. Sugar is manufactured from 
the camel thorn. The horses of Bokhara are cele¬ 
brated for strength and endurance, and the asses 
are large and sturdy ; and a great number of sheep 
and goats are reared. The mulberry is abundant on 
the banks of the rivers, being planted for the use of 
the silkworms. Bokhara has the transit trade 
between Russia and S. Asia, and the Transcaspian 
railway will develop still more its commercial 
resources. Conquered in the 8th century by the Arabs, 
and passing through various hands in the succeed¬ 
ing centuries, Bokhara became a coveted object to 
England and Russia in 1826. But Russia has gained 
the ascendency, and the country seems likely before 
long to be absorbed in Russian Turkestan. 

Bokhara, the capital, is in a fertile plain near the 
Zarafshan, and is surrounded by trees and gardens. 
Its circumference is about 9 miles, and it is girt by 
embattled earthworks about 24 ft. high, and having 
11 gates. The town is the centre of the religious 
life of Central Asia, and is said to possess 365 
mosques. The population is decreasing owing to 
the lessening of trade, which has followed upon 
the gradual drying up of the river. A canal passes 
through the town. There are manufactures of 
swords, silks, and woollens, and the bazaars are 
numerous. The Transcaspian railway connects 
Bokhara with Merv and the Caspian ports. 

Inhabitants. Lying on the parting line between 
the Aryan and Tatar ethnical domains, Bokhara 
has for ages been occupied in varying proportions 
by representatives of both races. Although now 
inferior in numbers and position, the Aryans ap¬ 
pear to be the primitive element; but for several 
centuries the Tatars have been the dominant class 
politically. The two elements present the sharpest 
contrasts intheir physical appearance, speech, usages, 
pursuits, in fact in every respect except religion, 
all being Mohammedans, mainly of the Sunni sect. 
The Aryans, here called Tajiks, are sedentary, tillers 
of the soil, artisans and traders, of Persian speech ; 
the Tatars, here called Uzbegs, are nomad pastors, 
residing in tents, devoted to stock-breeding and the 
military profession, and speak Tatar (Turki) almost 
exclusively. The Uzbegs with the kindred Turko¬ 
mans number 1,700,000, the Tajiks with the kindred 
Persians and Afghans 700,000. Other minor 
groups are the Arabs (50,000), Kalmucks (20,000); 
Kirghiz and Kara-Kalpaks (6,000), Jews (4,000), 
Gypsies (2,000). [Tajiks and Uzbegs.] 

Bolan Pass, a narrow, precipitous gorge 
between Sind and Candahar, and leading to the 
plateau of Dasht-i-Bidaulat, in Beloochistan. It 
rises 5,500 ft. in 55 miles, giving an average of 
90 ft. per mile, its outlet and entry being 5,800 ft., 
and 800 ft. above sea-level. A torrent flows along 
the bottom of the pass, bridged in many places by 
a military road, and there is a railway 56 miles 
long. The road is bounded by cliffs, which in some 
places almost touch each other, and are in places 
800 ft. high. In 1839 a British column marched 
through the pass in six days. Quetta, a British 
fortress 25 miles away, commands the road. 







Bolas. 


( 125 ) 


Bolivar. 


Bolas (Spanish balls), a weapon consisting of 
two (or sometimes three) balls of stone or metal 
connected by thongs or ropes, which are thrown at 
animals in such a way as to entangle their feet 
and bring them down. It seems to be a native 
Patagonian weapon, and is also used by the Gauchos 
of the South American Pampas. 

Bolbec, a French town (Seine Inferieure), the 
head of an arrondissement and of a canton; on a 
river of the same name, 23 miles N.E. of Havre. 
The town has considerable tanneries and paper- 
factories, and there is much weaving and manu¬ 
facture of calicoes, linen, flannel, and blankets. 

Boletus, a genus of fungi belonging to the class 
Hymenomycetes, having a thick stem and rounded 
mushroom-like cap or pileus, on the under surface 
of which numerous tubes take the place of the gills 
of the mushroom. The tubes are very distinct 
both from the cap and from one another, and are 
lined by the hymenium, or spore-bearing surface. 
There are numerous species, B. edulis (with sulphur- 
yellow tubes) and others, being edible, whilst B. 
Satanas and others, with red tubes, are poisonous. 
In some the flesh rapidly turns to a deep blue when 
broken. 

Boleyn, Anne (1507-1536), second wife of 
Henry VIII. of England, daughter of Sir Thomas 
Boleyn and Elizabeth Howard, daughter of the 
Duke of Norfolk. She spent three years of her 
early youth at the French court, and on her return 
to England her hand was sought by Henry Percy. 
This match was broken off by Wolsey, probably at 
the king's suggestion, and the king himself began 
to woo her, she being then a maid of honour of 
Katherine of Aragon. She was already Henry’s 
mistress, and kept almost the state of a queen when 
the divorce of Henry from Katherine of Aragon 
was pronounced in 1533. The Princess Elizabeth 
was born in September, 1533, Anne Boleyn having 
been crowned and publicly married in April of that 
year. In 1536 the birth of a still-born child roused the 
superstitious fears of the king and gave an impetus 
to his passion for Jane Seymour. The queen was 
arrested on a charge of adultery with divers people, 
including her own brother, and of conspiring against 
the king’s life, and having been adjudged guilty, was 
beheaded on the 19th of May—those accused with 
her being also executed. The question of her 
innocence or guilt can never be settled, since none 
of the evidence remains. In answer to a proposal 
of Henry that she should confess on the chance of 
receiving pardon, a letter she wrote from the Tower 
strongly affirms her innocence. The fact that her 
father and her uncle were instrumental in her 
death does not prove that they believed in her 
guilt. Dread of Henry’s anger and the fear of 
losing their possessions and lives may have been 
their governing motive. Little is known of Anne 
Boleyn’s married life, further than that she 
countenanced the Reformers and interested herself 
‘in the translation of the Biole. 

Bolingbroke, Viscount of(HarrySt. John), 
English statesman and political writer (1678-1751). 
His first appearance in Parliament was in 1700, 


when he ranged himself upon the Tory side. In 
1704 he became Secretary of State, and was a 
minister for four years, until Horace Walpole and 
the Whigs came into power. The two years’ 
interval that now followed was of the greatest 
service to him, as giving him leisure for perfecting 
by study and reflection his political and his philo¬ 
sophical principles. Queen Anne regretted her 
Tory Government, and intrigued with Harley and 
Bolingbroke for the return to power of the party. 
This was accomplished in 1710, and as Foreign 
Secretary, and fully convinced of the evils of con¬ 
tinuing the war, Bolingbroke did not rest till he 
brought about the peace of Utrecht, in spite of 
opposition abroad, the weakness of the queen, and 
even the envy of his own colleagues. He went to 
France to negotiate this treaty—the crowning act 
of his political life—and was most flatteringly 
received by Louis XIV. The accession of George I. 
drove the Tories again out into the cold, and it is 
at this period that Bolingbroke entered upon the 
questionable course of joining the exiled Stuarts, 
and then turning them into ridicule. Allowed to 
come back from exile, and restored to his property, 
he descended again into the political arena so far 
as was in his power, and attacked Walpole in the 
famous letters which upheld the rights of the 
country against the oppressions of a ministry at 
once corrupting and corrupted. Death found him 
writing his Reflections on the Present State of the 
Nation. As a philosopher, though classed by many 
as an atheist, he was rather the exponent of that 
vague and indeterminate theism which was known 
later in France as “ Voltaireism,”and it is from the 
arsenal of Bolingbroke’s writings that the writers 
of this school drew their most pointed and telling 
weapons. As a man of letters Bolingbroke held his 
own with Swift, and he gave his intimate friend 
Pope the idea of his Essay on Man , and is said to 
have aided him to carry it out. 

Bolivar. 1. A state of Colombia W. of the 
Magdalena. Area, 21,345 sq. miles. The surface 
is low and swampy, and the climate in parts hot 
and unhealthy. Chief port, Barranquilla ; capital, 
Cartagena. 

2. One of the United States of Venezuela, 
stretching across the centre from Colombia to the 
Atlantic. Area, 88,383 sq. miles. Capital, Ciudad 
Bolivar. 

3. A national territory of Colombia, 

4. An agricultural settlement for emigrants in 
Venezuela ; 30 miles N.E. of Caraccas. 

5. A new territory of Buenos Ayres, 170 miles 
S.W. of the capital. Area, 2,070 square miles. 

Bolivar, Simon, surnamed ‘‘El Liberador,’’ 
statesman and general—the Washington of South 
America—born at Caraccas (Venezuela) 1783. 
After studying at Madrid he travelled in Europe, 
and having imbibed the revolutionary principles 
which were triumphing in France he returned to 
his country with the determination to free it from 
Spanish domination. In 1812 he embarked on the 
war of Independence, taking service as colonel 
under Miranda, Failing at first, he eventually 
gained several victories over General Monteverde, 




Bolivia. 


( 126 ■; 


Bolivia. 


and finally drove him out of Venezuela. Made 
Dictator of this province, he had a severe struggle 
with the bands of slaves and brigands who infested 
it, and above all with the Haneros—those Tartars 
of the American steppes—whom the Spaniards had 
succeeded in enlisting against the cause of Inde¬ 
pendence, and it was not till 1819 that he was able 
to free New Granada and Venezuela and see them 
united under the name of the Columbian Republic, 
of which he was made President with dictatorial 
power. At the summons of the revolted Peruvians 
he drove out the Spaniards and set free Upper Peru, 
which now received the name of Bolivia, and the 
grateful Peruvians also made him Dictator. In 
1824 the freedom of the South American Republics 
was consolidated by mutual alliances and by their 
official recognition by Great Britain, Holland, and 
the United States. In 1824 Bolivar summoned a 
congress of the States at Panama, hoping to form a 
powerful confederation of Republics. In this hope 
lie was disappointed, and his latter days were 
embittered by the occurrence of internal struggles 
and factious struggles in Colombia, and the envy 
of his foes caused him to be accused of tyranny. 
Several times he laid down his dictatorship and 
was forced by the people to resume it ; but at last, 
disgusted and wearied out by their caprices, he 
determined to resign it once and for all, and to 
leave his country. “ The presence,” said he, “ of a 
successful soldier, however disinterested he may 
be, is always dangerous in a State that is new to 
freedom.” He had already made all his prepara¬ 
tions for departure when he died of fever at Santa 
Marta, 17th December, 1830. Perhaps Bolivar’s 
greatest quality was his spirit of self-sacrifice. Far 
from reaping a rich harvest from the civil com¬ 
motions, like many of his contemporaries, he lost 
his own patrimony by spending it for the State 
and turning his slaves into soldiers and citizens; 
and as Dictator, far from enriching himself, he 
reduced his own salary, and devoted the half of 
what remained to the widows and children of his 
dead comrades, and he also aided, with purse and 
influence, Mr. Lancaster in his efforts to establish 
his system of education in Colombia. As a soldier 
he was remarkable for his indomitable pluck and 
elasticity in reverses; and for his audacious 
rapidity of movement, and the various types of 
soldier over whom he held wonderful sway, he has 
not inaptly been compared with Hannibal. As a 
statesman he laid the foundation of Colombian 
credit and political power, and had it not been that 
his creative genius was far in advance of his 
country and his times, the lot of the South 
American Republics might have been a far happier 
and more united one than we see it now. 

Bolivia, deriving its name from the statesman 
and dictator Bolivar, is a republican state in 
western South America ; from 8° to 23° S. lat., 
and from 57° 30' to 73° W. long., and enclosed by 
Peru, Brazil. Paraguay, the Argentine Republic, and 
Chili. The Argentine frontier is undetermined, and 
the coast provinces were added to Chili in the 
Peruvian war of 1879-83. Area, 438,175 sq. miles. 
Pop. nearly 2^ millions. Formerly called Upper 


Peru, and being part of the viceroyalty of Buenos 
Ayres, Bolivia declared its independence, and 
adopted its new name in 1825. The constitution 
prepared by Bolivar, which it then adopted, has 
since been greatly modified. Its history has been a 
series of useless revolutions. The terms of peace 
with Chili not only deprived Bolivia of its sea-board, 
but also of its stores of guano and nitre, and 
included a heavy war indemnity. The state is 
divided into fourteen provinces ; and the seat of 
the government, formerly at La Paz, is now at 
Sucre. The chief towns are La Paz (26,000), Cocha¬ 
bamba (14,705), Sucre (12,000), Potosi (11,000). 

The executive government is entrusted to a 
President (constitutionally to be elected every four 
years—a provision seldom attended to), two Vice- 
Presidents, and two Chambers—the Senate and the 
House of Representatives—elected by universal 
suffrage. The ministry is divided into five depart¬ 
ments. The Andes proper no longer form part 
of Bolivia, but are the western boundary; but it 
contains the lofty plateau of Oruro, averaging 
13,000 ft. in height, and having 150 miles breadth, 
and includes the volcanoes of Sahama, Illampu, 
and Illimani, over 21,000 ft. high. Of the two parts 
of the great plateau, the northern is the more popu¬ 
lous, owing to the presence of Lake Titicaca, and of 
well-watered valleys around it. Lake Titicaca has 
an area of 3,200 sq. miles, and is 720 ft. deep, and 
contains several islands, the largest of which was 
the original home of the Incas. Lake Titicaca is 
connected with the salt lake and swamps of Paria 
by the Rio Desaguaders, 160 miles long ; and to the 
west is the Laguna de Soiposa, which is covered in 
the dry season with a crust of salt. The southern 
table-land is a desert, where the streams alternately 
flood the pampas in the rainy season, and lose 
themselves in the sand in the wet one. On the north, 
the Cordillera Real system,with the peaks of Illimani 
(21,300 ft.) and Sorata (24,800 ft.) reaches above the 
line of perpetual snow, while in the east it forms a 
series of terraces, which sink gently to the plains of 
Eastern Bolivia, which belong in the north to the 
basin of the Amazon, and in the south to that of 
La Plata, both of which rivers have their feeders in 
this district, the Rio Grande, which, uniting with 
the Beni, forms the Madeira, and the latter the 
Pilcomayo, which through the Gran Chaco forms 
the Paraguay. The plateau of Titicaca is the highest 
in the world except that of Thibet, and yet unlike 
this which has only mountainous sheep-runs, the 
former has populous cities, bounteous crops and 
harvests, and numerous herds of cattle and flocks of 
sheep. Although it is within the tropics, its variety 
of elevations gives Bolivia a great range of climates 
and productions. The districts over 11,000 ft. are 
called punas, and the region of snow and ice over 
12,500 ft. the puna brava. The climate of this 
region, owing to the rarity of the atmosphere and to 
the winds, is cold and dry but healthy, with scanty 
vegetation of coarse grasses, barley, and potatoes. 
The rainy season is from November to March. 
The heads of the valleys descending to the lowlands 
vary in climate from temperate to sub-tropical, and 
the productions have a corresponding variation 
from wheat and maize to tropical fruits." The plains 








Bolkhof. 


( 1-7 ) 


Bologna. 


below the 5,000 ft. limit lie east of the inner 
Cordillera, and are called yungas. These are well- 
watered, and have a luxuriant vegetation, with fine 
forests in the north and wide savannahs in the 
south. Most tropical productions are to be found 
here, and the copal and caoutchouc trees abound. 
The overflowing rivers and swamps of the north give 
rise to fevers. The rainfall is uncertain. The 
alpaca, guanaco, llama, vicuna, and the chinchilla 
are abundant in the punas. The fauna of the east 
is the same as that of Brazil, and includes jaguars, 
pumas, tapirs, and other wild animals. Besides 
being valued for their skins, the three first-named 
animals are useful beasts of burden. Chinchilla 
skins are a valuable article of commerce, and the 
vicuna yields a long, fine wool. The highlands 
abound in sheep, and the lowlands in herds of 
cattle. 

But most attention has been given to developing 
the mines of Bolivia, and although transport is diffi¬ 
cult, great profit attends the working of the gold, 
silver, copper, and tin. Potosi, which is said to have 
produced since 1545 over six hundred millions 
sterling, still produces 2,800,000 oz.; Oruro the same, 
and Huanchaca more than twice that amount. The 
silver mines in all are calculated to produce over 
£3,000,000 a year. Gold mining is abandoned, 
but a little is washed out of the rivers at the foot of 
the Cordillera Real. The copper mines are not much 
worked. Lead and quicksilver are found to some 
extent along with the silver. 

The difficulties of transport present great 
obstacles to foreign trade, but there is now 
some prospect of railways being largely used 
to enable Bolivia to have her own Pacific 
trade. The great need for the country is a 
stable government and a steady credit. The present 
amount of the public debt is unknown, and is 
variously estimated, and of the revenue two-thirds 
is expended on the standing army. Much attention 
and capital are being bestowed on the coca and 
cinchona plantations, which seem to promise well. 

The population of Bolivia is much mixed, and 
about one-third of it live in the cities. Besides half- 
castes, and descendants of the former negro slaves 
—slavery was abolished in 1836—there are the 
Indians, who are divided into three classes—the 
civilised Indians, who are descended from the 
Incas, and have 50 per cent, of pure blood ; the 
semi-civilised Indians of the north-east llanos, who 
retain part of the 17th century civilisation of the 
Jesuits; and the wild Indians, who, though hating 
the Spanish race, are comparatively harmless. It is 
to the half-breeds of Spanish and Indian blood that 
Bolivia chiefly owes her independence. The 
religion is Roman Catholic, but tolerance of other 
religions prevails. There are four dioceses. Of 
three universities, two are for law. Only 5 per cent, 
of the children go to school, and literature is at a 
low ebb. 

Bolkhof, town of Russia in Europe, on the 
Nougra, in the government of and 30 miles N. of 
Orel, head of the district of Bolkhof. The chief 
industries are tanning, and trading in leather, hemp, 
and tallow. 


Boll (possibly a Scandinavian word), a local 
measure of grain ; usually in Scotland six imperial 
bushels, but in England varying from that amount 
to two imperial bushels, or 16 gallons (the “new 
boll”). A boll of flour is a measure of weight 
= 140 lbs. 

Bologna, a province of North Italy; area, 1,385 
square miles. It is a fertile plain watered by 
tributaries of the Bologna, and separated from 
Tuscany by the Apennines. Besides abundant crops 
of rice, barley, wheat, pulse, hemp, flax, olives, 
grapes, figs, almonds, chestnuts and other fruits, 
the province abounds in cattle, and swine. Great 
numbers of silkworms are also reared. 

Bologna, an ancient city of Italy—the Felsina 
of the Etruscans, and the Bononia of the Boii 
—which the Romans took and colonised 189 B.c. 
After the fall of the empire it belonged successively 
to the Longobards and the Franks, and Charlemagne 
made it a free city. Becoming a papal possession, 
it was taken by the French in 1796, and formed the 
capital of the Cisalpine Republic. Reverting to the 
Pope in 1815, it was taken by the Austrians in 1849. 
In 1860 Bologna voted by an overwhelming majority 
for annexation to the kingdom of Italy. 

Bologna is on a plain at the foot of the lower 
Apennines, 82 miles N. of Florence and 135 miles 
S.E. of Milan. It is an irregular hexagon of 5,026 
yards round, enclosed by a high brick wall with 
twelve gates. The canal of Reno passes through 
the city, and the rivers Reno and Savena flow by it. 
The older part of the town has narrow, dirty streets, 
but the newer parts are well built and well paved, 
and are sheltered from the weather by colonnades. 
There are fine palaces rich in fresco paintings of the 
great masters, especially the Palazzo Pubblico and 
the Palazzo del PodestA The latter contains the 
city archives, and was the prison of Enzio, son of the 
Emperor Frederick II. Bologna contains more than 
70 churches, of beautiful architecture and rich in 
art-treasures. The largest, San Petronio, has many 
great sculptures and pictures, and a meridian traced 
on the floor by Cassini the astronomer. San Ste- 
fano is rich in Madonnas and Byzantine frescoes of 
the 11th and 12tli centuries. San Domenico has 
the tomb of the founder of the Order, ornamented 
by Michael Angelo; and St. Peter’s cathedral has 
many works of art. There are two leaning-towers 
in the centre of the city, one 272 feet high, the other 
138 ft.; one inclining 3| ft., the other 9 ft. The uni¬ 
versity of Bologna claims to be the oldest in Europe, 
and to have been founded in 425. As a law-school 
it dates from the 11th century. It is noted as 
having been a great school of anatomy, and as 
having for ages had female professors. Galvani was 
a professor here. Rossini studied at the academy 
of music here. There is a fine university library 
containing rare MSS., and a large city library. 
The Academy of Fine Arts—once a Jesuits’ college 
—has a fine collection of paintings, chiefly of the 
Bolognese school, which takes its name from the 
town. Besides its sausages, its soap, and a kind 
of confection, Bologna manufactures crape, glass, 
paper, silk, and wax candles. Domeniclio, Guido 







Bologna Phial. 


( 128 ) 


Bomba. 


Reni, the Caraccis, Benedict XIV., and seven other 
popes, and numerous cardinals, were born here. 

Bologna Phial, a short, narrow glass vessel 
open at one end only, made by the glass-blower to 
enable him to judge of the quality or material of 
the glass he is about to use. Being unannealed and 
suddenly cooled it is very friable, and though it will 
stand a fall on a brick floor, it will fly to pieces if 
a small hard body is dropped into it. 

Bologna Stone, natural sulphate of Barium 
(BaS0 4 ), by partial reduction on charcoal gives a 
phosphorescent mass of sulphide and sulphate of 
Barium, known as Bolognian phosphorus. 

Bolometer (Greek bole, ray ; ballein, to throw; 
and metron, measure ; also called actinic or thermic 
balance), the invention of an American, Professor 
S. P. Langley, in 1881, for measuring very minute 
amounts of radiant heat. A strip of platinum forms 
one arm of an electric balance. Change of tempera¬ 
ture in this, even if extremely minute, alters the 
degree of its electrical resistance, and the alteration 
is then registered by a delicate galvanometer. The 
instrument will indicate changes of temperature of 
less than -0001° Fahr. 

Bolsena, a small town in Italy, on the E. 
shore of the Lake Bolsena, and 15 miles N.W. of 
Viterbo, is prettily situated on a height which is of 
great geological interest on account of the curious 
assemblage of basaltic materials that compose it. 
Here it was that in 1263 the miracle, painted by 
Raphael, of the Bleeding Host is said to have taken 
place. Bolsena is probably identical with Volsi- 
nium, an important Etruscan town where was a 
temple to the ancient cult of the goddess Nortia. 
Tiberius’s minister, Sejanus, came from Bolsena. 

Bolsena, Lake, whose waters are emptied into 
the Mediterranean by the little river Marta, is 
thought to occupy the crater of an extinct volcano. 
Its waters are beautifully clear, and its shores are 
crowned with fine oaks, but the malaria prevents 
all habitation on them. Of two little islands in the 
lake, one has still the ruins of a little castle where 
the only daughter of Theodoric the Goth was im¬ 
prisoned by her husband. The fish of the lake are 
renowned, and it was the excellence of its eels that 
caused Pope Martin IV. to be sent by Dante to 
purgatory. 

Bolton, or Bolton-le-Moors, a parliamentary 
and municipal borough, and manufacturing town of 
S. Lancashire, 11 miles N.W. of Manchester, and 
situate upon the river Croal, which divides it into 
Great and Little Bolton. Cotton and woollen manu¬ 
factures, introduced by the Flemings of the 14th 
century, had already made it famous in Henry VIII.’s 
time. French and German immigrants introduced 
new manufactures, and the 18th century improve¬ 
ments in cotton- spinning gave great impetus to the 
trade. Arkwright resided in Bolton, and Crompton 
was born here, but it was long before the prejudices 
of the mill-hands would allow the adoption of the 
frame and the mule. Bolton now contains more 


than 100 mills, and about four million spindles. Its 
chief manufactures are fine calicoes, dimities, mus¬ 
lins, quilts, counterpanes, and the like ; and there 
are large foundries and iron-works, bleaching-mills, 
dye-works, chemical works, and paper-mills ; and 
the neighbourhood is full of coal-pits. The public 
institutions are fine and numerous, and there is a 
park and recreation grounds. The water is brought 
from the hills five miles off, and rises by natural 
pressure to a height of 80 feet, and is in the hands 
of the corporation. A canal goes from Bolton to 
Manchester. The town was stormed in 1644 by 
Prince Rupert and the Earl of Derby ; and Ainsworth 
and Lempriere—of dictionary fame—were masters 
at the grammar school, founded here in 1641. 

Bolton Abbey, on the river Wharfe, 6 miles 
E. of Skipton, and 18 miles N.W. of Leeds, was 
founded for Augustinian canons (1150). The remains 
are Early English and Decorated. The nave of the 
church has been restored for service, and the old 
abbey barn is still used. The gateway—painted 
by Landseer—is now part of Bolton Hall. Bolton 
Abbey is familiar to most people from Wordsworth’s 
White Doe of Rylstone, and The Force of 
Prayer, where the founding of the Abbey is said 
to have commemorated the death of young Romilly 
in the Barden Woods, where he was checked in a 
leap over the Strid by the hanging back of his 
greyhound, and was drow;ned. 


Bolus, a term applied in pharmacy to a softened 
mass not too large to be swallowed whole. A pill 
on a magnified scale. 

Bomarsund, a Russian fortress on the Island 
of Aland, Gulf of Bothnia. On June 21st, 1854, it 
was bombarded by the Hecla, Valorous, and Odin, 
and after being further attacked by the British and 
French fleets, surrendered on August 16th, 1854, 
and was destroyed by the Allies. Russia was bound 
by the treaty of Paris not to restore it. 

Bomb, in Artillery, a spherical iron shell, which, 
being filled with gunpowder and fitted with a time¬ 
fuse, was fired from a gun or mortar, and exploded 
after the lapse of a given period. The name bomb 
is now obsolete, and the modern equivalent for the 
bomb is simply called a shell. Spherical bombs, 
such as were used up to about 1860, were of many 
sizes, but the following particulars concerning some 
of the more commonly used varieties will give some 
idea of the force of any such missiles :— 


Diameter of 
Bomb, in inches. 

13 - 

10 - 
8 - 


Peight of Bomb, 
in lbs. 

- 195 - 

89 - 

- 40 


Usual bursting 
charge, 
lb. oz. 

7 S 

- 3 4 

- 2 0 


Small bombs, which might be thrown by hand, 
were called grenades. [Shell, Mortar, etc.] 

Bomba, II Re, signifies King Bomb, or King 
Shell, and is the contemptuous name applied 
by the Italians to Ferdinand II., king of the Two 
Sicilies, as a reminder of his cruelties, and of the 
bombardments of revolted towns that took place 
under his orders, or at any rate during his reign. 





Bombardier. 


( 129 ) 


Bombay. 


Bombardier, in the British army, the name 
for a corporal of artillery. 

Bombardier Beetles are a group of beetles 
belonging to several genera, such as Bracliinus and 
Aptinus ; their common name is derived from their 
habit when attacked of violently ejecting a drop 
of a stinking excretion accompanied by a slight 
report. 

Bombardment, the throwing of bombs or 
shells at high angles into a fortress or other place 
in order to demolish it or to expel its defenders; 
or the battering down of defences by direct fire 
from heavy guns. According to the Declaration of 
Paris, the bombardment of open places—unless, 
indeed, they offer resistance—is at variance with 
the principles of international law. Military usage 
requires that due notice shall be given of the open¬ 
ing of a bombardment, in order that civilians may 
have an opportunity of retiring, but such notice is 
not obligatory. Neither is it likely that in warfare 
the provisions of the Declaration of Paris will ever 
be adhered to, if by bombarding an open place 
a commander believes that he can inflict a commen¬ 
surate injury or annoyance upon the enemy. 

Bombay, the western Presidency and Governor¬ 
ship of British India. Including Sind and Aden, 
it contains twenty-four British districts and nine¬ 
teen feudatory States; area, 197,877 square miles; 
population, 23£ millions. Bombay is divided into 
two parts by the Nerbudda, the northern part 
being the alluvial plains of Guzerat, with the 
peninsulas of Cutch and Kathiawar; and to the 
south the Mahratta country, including parts of the 
Deccan, Carnatic, and coast-districts. The Portu¬ 
guese have the small territories of Goa, Daman, 
and Diu, with an area of 1,062 square miles. The 
irregular coast-line is broken by the Gulfs of 
Cambay and Cutch, and there are several good 
natural harbours, of which Bombay and Kurrachee 
are the chief. The Indus waters and fertilises 
Sind ; the Nerbudda flows west into the Gulf of 
Cambay, and the Subarmati and the Mahi flow 
through N. Guzerat. The Tapti flows through the 
Khandesh district into the sea above Surat. The 
hill streams which dry up during the hot season 
become torrents during the monsoons. The 
mountains run mostly north and south. The 
Khirthar Mountains are in the north; the IV. 
Aravalli range in the south-east; and south of the 
Tapti the Western Ghats run almost parallel with 
the coast. The Satpura range, running east, 
separates the waters of the Tapti from those of the 
Nerbudda. There are few minerals and no coal, 
though some iron is found in Dharvar, and there is 
a gold-producing quartz. The presidency derives 
its salt chiefly from the Runn of Cutch, which is 
about 8,000 square miles in area. There is good 
building-stone, lime, and slate. The mean tempera¬ 
ture in Lower Sind is 98° during the hottest 
months, though in the dry sandy districts it some¬ 
times reaches 130° in the shade. In Cutch and 
Guzerat the heat is slightly less; and the climate 
of the Deccan table-land is agreeable, except 
during the hot season. The coast districts have a 

33 


rainfall in the rainy seasons of 300 inches, and are 
hot and moist. There is a bishop, and there are 
over 6,726 schools aided or inspected by the 
Government. There is a university, founded 1857, 
and there are many newspapers. The headquarters 
of the army is at Poona, and the province has now 
more than 3,500 miles of railway, the first Indian 
railway having been opened in India in 1853. 
There is a telegraph cable from Bombay to Aden, 
and Karachi (Kurrachee) is the headquarters of 
the Government Indo-European telegraph depart¬ 
ment. The cotton famine during the American 
Civil war gave a great impulse to the trade 
of Bombay, and now competes with Man¬ 
chester in the Indian market, and exports its own 
manufactures to the extent, in 1887, of nearly 
£4,000,000 sterling. In 1887 there were in the 
presidency 14,926 looms and nearly two million 
spindles. Opium, wheat, and seeds are largely 
produced, and the Government draw a clear 
revenue of two millions from the opium trade. The 
other exports are chiefly drugs, fibres, raw wool, 
woollen shawls, sugar and tea, and the exports 
amounted in 1887 to over 5|- millions sterling. 
Among the imports are coal, liquors, machinery, 
metals, and there is a considerable trade in Arab 
horses. Ahmedabad, Nasik, Poona, Surat, have 
silk-weaving ; Ahmednagar makes carpets ; leather- 
work and pottery are carried on in Sind ; armour, 
cutlery, and gold and silver work are made in 
Cutch, and Bombay city, Nasik, and Poona are 
noted for brass-ware. The Hindu race forms an 
overwhelming majority in the population. 

Bombay, the town, occupies the breadth of the 
S.E. end of Bombay peninsula. It touches Bombay 
harbour on the E. and Back Bay on the S.W. 
The island, connected with the mainland by cause¬ 
ways and breakwaters, constitutes a district 11 
miles long, 3 or 4 broad, and having an area of 22 
square miles. The harbour is one of the finest in 
the world, and has 14 miles by 5 available for 
shipping. Bombay is European in appearance, 
having wide streets and extensive lines of tram¬ 
way. Many bungalows and villas are built on the 
Malabar Hill, forming the western arm of Back 
Bay, and on Breach Hill, the continuation of the 
ridge to the north. Most of the inhabitants of 
Bombay are Hindus and Mohammedans, and the 
Parsees reckon next to the English in influence and 
position. Most of the public buildings are on the 
esplanade facing Back Bay. The G. I. P. railway 
terminus is a magnificent building which cost over 
£300,000. Other handsome buildings are the cathe¬ 
dral, the post-office, the university, etc. The old 
fort on the east of Back Bay is now only a garrison, 
the harbour being defended by rock-batteries and 
two ironclads. Of the extensive docks Princes 
Dock is the chief, and cost over a million, and the 
British Government are going to build a dock large 
enough to hold the largest ironclad. The city 
water-supply is drawn from Yihar lake, 15 miles 
N. Bombay has become the chief Indian port for 
foreign trade, and her share of Indian trade as com¬ 
pared with Calcutta is as 42'78 per cent, to 36 9 per 
cent. The chief industries are cotton-spinning 






Bombay Duck. 


( 130 ) 


Bonaparte. 


and weaving, in which its competition is severely 
felt by Lancashire, and dyeing, tanning, and metal 
working. 

Bombay Duck (Harp agon neltereus), an 
East Indian fish of the family Scopelidse. The 
elongated body is covered with thin transparent 
deciduous scales. These fish are natives of the 
Indian seas, and are taken in large quantities, 
salted, dried, and exported from Bombay and the 
Malabar coast. They are well known as a breakfast 
relish. 

Bombazine, a rather fine twilled cloth made of 
a warp of silk and a weft of worsted, formerly 
often used as mourning, but now seldom made. 

Bombproofs, in fortifications, buildings pro- 
tected against shot and shell by earth and solid 
masonry, or sometimes by armour plates—the 
magazines and casemates (q.v.) of a fort, for 
instance. 

Bombyx. [Silkworm.] 

Bona, seaport town of Constantine in Algeria, 
on a bay of the Mediterranean, near the mouth of 
the Sebus, 220 m. W. of Tunis. The town, which lies 
at the foot of a hill in a beautiful but unhealthy 
district, is divided into Upper and Lower Bona, 
and is defended by a citadel and several forts. 
The French occupation has much improved Bona, 
which has now a fair harbour. There is a telegraph 
cable to Marseilles. There are a Catholic church 
and a convent of Sisters of Mercy. There are 
manufactures of saddlery, tapestry, and burnooses 
and a commerce in coral, corn, hides, wax and 
wool. Near by are the ruins of Hippo, the see of 
St. Augustine. 

Bona Dea, an Italian goddess, especially 
patronised by the women of Borne, who from very 
ancient times celebrated her rites, men being 
most rigidly excluded from all participation in 
them ; and even the portraits of men being veiled. 
She was the goddess of fertility, and has been 
described as wife, sister, or daughter of Faunus. 
High-born vestals conducted her rites, which took 
place on the 1st of May at the house of the Consul. 
It was at Caesar’s house (in 62 B.c.) that Clodius 
took part in-’the rites disguised as a musician. Her 
sanctuary was a grotto on Mount Avernus, and 
the healing serpent was her symbol. 

Bona fides. Good faith, i.e. honesty without 
fraud, collusion, or participation in wrong-doing— 
as opposed to malafides or bad faith. The phrase 
“ want of good faith ” indicates a kind of fraud 
which renders an agreement voidable between the 
parties to it, and it also indicates that sort of 
knowledge which disentitles one party to claim 
against the other, who would otherwise be liable to 
him. The term bond fide is often ambiguously 
applied. A bond fide traveller is one entitled to 
be served with refreshment within the prohibited 
hours under the Licensing Acts 1874, by section 10 
of which it is enacted that “no person is to be 
deemed a bond fide traveller unless the place where 
he lodged during the preceding night is at least 


three miles distant from the xflace where he de¬ 
mands to be supplied with liquor; but although a 
man is not a bond fide traveller unless he has 
travelled the three miles, he does not necessarily 
become so by merely having travelled the three 
miles.” 

Bonald, Vicomte de, publicist and philo¬ 
sopher, 1754-1840. An aristocrat of the aristocrats, 
he became a Mousquetaire under Louis XV., and 
stayed in the corps till its suppression in 1776. 
Then quitting public life he retired to his native 
place. In 1790, being then member of the Depart¬ 
mental Assembly, he thought himself in honour 
bound to share the lot of the “Emigres”; and he 
established himself at Heidelberg, where he devoted 
himself to the education of his two sons. Here he 
wrote his theory of Political and Religious Power 
in Civil Society, a treatise which gives the keynote 
of his character, which remained unchanged 
throughout his life. His theory was that pure 
royalty and the Catholic religion are the two 
indispensable conditions of society. He is perhaps 
better known as the consistent opponent of divorce, 
and the principal cause of its long disappearance 
from the French statute-book. Bonald was held 
in great honour both by the Bonapartes and by 
the Bourbons. As a philosopher he is chiefly noted 
for his theories that speech is innate, and that 
there is a medium between cause and effect. 

Bonanza (Spanish a fair wind,'prosperity'), a 
term originally applied in California to very rich 
mines, afterwards to other lucrative enter prises. 

Bonaparte (formerly written Buonaparte, in 
accordance with the Italian origin, until Napoleon 
decided in favour of the French orthography) is 
the name of an Italian family which appears to have 
played a not inconsiderable part in Italian history, 
and one branch of which had established itself in 
Corsica in 1612, when it was a leading patrician 
family of Ajaccio. The most noted member of the 
family is, of course. Napoleon (q.v.), who of all men 
had the least need of ancestry, but could say, “ I 
am an ancestor myself; ” albeit he has left no 
posterity save his deeds. All kinds of fanciful 
genealogies were created for him by his admirers, 
who traced him back to the Comnenus and Palaao- 
logus families of Greece, and legitimatised him as a 
Bourbon by making him a direct descendant of the 
Man in the Iron Mask. He himself stigmatised 
these genealogies as puerile, and said that to any¬ 
one asking the origin of the Bonaparte house, the 
answer was very simple—“ It dates from the 18th 
Brumaire.” Napoleon had the courage of his 
opinions. He thought that the world could not have 
too much of a good thing, and that the Bonapartes 
were a good thing ; so he practised nepotism on a 
magnificent scale, and endeavoured to supply 
Europe with a full and complete set of Bonaparte 
kings. This has given the other members of the 
family an importance which they might not other¬ 
wise have possessed, and if they were not born great, 
they certainly had greatness thrust upon them. 

From Charles Bonaparte, of Ajaccio, and Letizia 
Ramolino, his wife, sprang five sons :—first, 
Joseph, sometime king of Spain ; second, Napoleon ; 






Bonaparte. 


( 131 ) 


Bonaventura. 


third, Lucien ; fourth, Louis, king of Holland ; fifth, 
Jerome, king of Westphalia. To these may be added 
the names of three daughters—one of whom married 
Marat, king of Naples—and the Beauharnais whom 
Napoleon adopted on his marriage with Josephine, as 
making up the family group who have chiefly figured 
in the world. The father, Charles Bonaparte, after 
having come to Paris as a member of a deputation of 
Spanish nobles, and laid the foundation of his son’s 
military greatness by obtaining his admission to the 
military school of Brienne, returned to Corsica in 
1779, and died in 1785. Madame Bonaparte, who 
lived long enough to see the rise and the downfall 
of the dynasty, bore her good fortune with modesty 
and her reverses with dignity. In 1804, when her 
son was crowned, she received the title of Madame 
Mere, and a style and state suitable to the mother 
of the Emperor. “Who knows,” she used to say in 
half-prophetic jest, “ if I may not one day have to 
give all these kings bread ? ” After the second 
abdication of Napoleon she retired to Rome, accom¬ 
panied by the sympathy and respect of all Europe, 
and died in 1836, in her 86th year. Joseph, the 
eldest son, after reading law at Marseilles, with a 
view to taking care of his younger brothers and 
sisters, was successively member of the Council of 
Five Hundred, French ambassador to Rome, and 
plenipotentiary to the United States ; concluded 
the treaty of Luneville with Austria 1801, signed 
the Concordat with the Pope, and the treaty of 
Amiens in 1802 with Lord Cornwallis. In 1805 
his brother nominated him ruler of the two 
Sicilies, and in 1806 king of Naples, transferring 
him in 1808 to the throne of Spain. He was 
hardly the man for his brother’s purposes, being 
much too humane, and after the battle of Yittoria 
he returned to his estates in France. After 
Waterloo he went to the United States, and be¬ 
came an American cititzen, returning to Europe 
a few years later. He is said to have lived for 
a time at Brettenham Hall, in Suffolk. He died 
in Florence in 1844. What his exact relations were 
with the Emperor is not quite clear. Some French 
writers consider that he could not submit to exclu¬ 
sion from the heritage, but this view is hardly 
consistent with the regard in which Napoleon 
held him, or with the constant devotion that 
Joseph showed to his brother’s fortunes. 

The third brother Lucien, born at Ajaccio in 1775, 
became a member of the Council of Five Hundred, 
and on the 18th Brumaire, as its President, he con¬ 
tributed much to Napoleon’s success, but afterwards 
his republican notions and his marriage to a stock¬ 
broker’s widow stood in the way of his advancement. 
He retired to his estate in Italy, where he enjoyed 
the friendship of the Pope, who made him Prince of 
Canino, and devoted himself to scientific pursuits 
and to art. He eventually died at Viterbo in 1840. 
Of his sons the eldest was the well-known naturalist 
and ornithologist; the second, Paul, died in 1827 ; 
the third became a linguist and literary man of 
world-wide reputation; the fourth, Pierre, created 
some sensation as well as embarrassment for his 
cousin Napoleon III., by shooting the journalist 
Victor Noir, in 1870. The affair arose out of a 
journalistic controversy. The Prince was tried and 


acquitted. He died in 1881; and the youngest, 
Antonio, died in 1883. 

The fourth son of Charles Bonaparte was Louis, 
afterwards king of Holland, who died in 1846. 
His chief claim to notice lies in the fact that by his 
marriage to Hortense Beauharnais, the daughter of 
Josephine, he became the father of Napoleon III. 
(q.v.). Napoleon III.'s son, Napoleon Louis, Prince 
Imperial (q.v.), was killed by the Zulus, in a 
skirmish in 1879. 

The fifth son, Jerome, king of Westphalia, was 
in his early life a sailor. He was perhaps a failure as 
a king, but was devoted to the Emperor, and fought 
by his side at Waterloo. A marriage that he made 
in America with an American lady was annulled by 
Imperial decree, and he afterwards married a 
daughter of Frederick, king of Wurtemberg, and 
became (in 1822) the father of Napoleon Joseph 
Charles Paul, commonly known as Prince Napoleon, 
who fought in the Crimean war, and in 1859 mar¬ 
ried Princess Clotilde, a daughter of Victor Em¬ 
manuel. He died March 17, 1891. Able, cultivated, 
and intellectual, his notorious cowardice and his 
cynical disregard for ordinary conventionalities 
made his prospects of the succession hopeless, and 
when the Prince Imperial was killed in Zululand in 
1879, he was passed over by the party in favour of 
his son Victor, the present heir of the Napoleonic 
dynasty. 

There is a pretty story which reads like a prose 
idyll, and ought to be true if it is not, of a cure , a 
great uncle of Napoleon, who lived simply with his 
sacristan Tommaso, his god-daughter Mattea, and 
his white hen Bianca, and refused, with true Napo¬ 
leonic obstinacy, all attempts of the Emperor to 
draw him from his retirement. 

Bonar, Dr. Horatius (Rev.), born 1808 at 
Edinburgh, and educated at the High School. He 
was ordained at Kelso (1837) to a ministry in the 
Free Church, and remained here for many years 
till he left it for an appointment to the Chalmers 
Memorial Free Church at Edinburgh. He is re¬ 
nowned for his Hymns of Faith and Hope, which 
are used extensively, and has published many other 
religious works. He has also edited the Christian 
Treasury, the Presbyterian Review, and the Quar¬ 
terly Journal of Prophecy. 'He died in 1889. 

Bonasia. [Grouse.] 

Bonassus, Bonasus. [Bison.] 

Bonaventura, St., a great mediaeval mystic 
theologian (1221-1274), commonly known to his 
time as the “ Seraphic doctor.” His real name was 
John Fidenza. His name is said to be derived from 
an exclamation of his mother’s—“ O buona ventura!” 
at his almost unhoped-for recovery from a childish 
illness. At the age of 22 he became a monk, and 
went to study philosophy and theology at the 
University of Paris. In 1256 he became head of his 
Order, and showed himself a severe disciplinarian. 
Iir 1265 Pope Clement offered him the Archbishopric 
of York, which he refused, but in 1272 he accepted 
a Cardinal’s hat from Gregory X., who summoned 
him to the council held in 1274 at Lyons, to bring 




Sonchamp 


( 132 ) 


Bondu. 


about a reconciliation with the Greek Church. 
During the session of this council, at which he made 
the opening speech, he died. He was canonised in 
1482 by Sixtus IV., and in 1587 Sixtus V. decreed 
him a double. St. Bonaventura had a great share 
in advancing the cult of the Virgin ; but his chief 
characteristic was his zeal for mystic theology. His 
central position was that knowledge of truth flows 
from a close union with God, and that this union is 
a return, so far as is possible, to the state of man 
before the Fall. This return, which is only to be 
arrived at by a life of purity, prayer and holiness, 
has three phases, which are, as it were, the three 
steps of a ladder. First, the footsteps of God, 
material objects, next His images, the intellect 
and the soul, while divine contemplation is the 
t bird step. We begin by studying t hings outside our 
self, then we enter into our own souls and examine 
them, and then we contemplate. Corresponding 
with these three steps, our nature possesses three 
faculties—sensibility, intelligence, and reason. The 
work setting forth these views is the Itinerarium 
Mentis in JDeum. Another work, Commentary on 
Peter Lombard's Book of Sentences , contains some 
striking arguments for the immortality of the soul. 
A follower of St. Francis of Assisi, and having more 
than a tinge of Platonism, St. Bonaventura was 
more than half poet, and exhibits signs of being 
attached to those principles of evangelic socialism 
which seem to have been a special characteristic of 
the Franciscan order. He may, in some sort, be 
looked on, too, as a forerunner of St. Ignatius 
Loyola. 

Bonchamp, Charles Melchior Artus de 
(1760-1793), a Vendean general who gained his first 
experiences of arms in the American War of In¬ 
dependence. At the outbreak of the revolution he 
was a captain in the Aquitaine regiment. He 
resigned his commission and retired into the country 
until duty called him to take place among the 
leaders of the Vendean movement. Although firmly 
attached to the principles of monarchy, and although 
a brave and skilful general, he appears to have 
entered on the struggle without any deep en¬ 
thusiasm, and was in consequence sometimes accused 
of indecision by his colleagues. He received his 
death-wound at the battle of Cholet. Tradition 
says that just before death he learned that his 
soldiers intended to put to death 5,000 prisoners 
who were shut up in the Abbey of St. Floi'ent, and 
that with his last breath he ordered that their lives 
should be spared. Whether true or not, this tra¬ 
dition has been perpetuated by a sculpture of 
David of Angers in the church of St. Florent at 
Bonchamp. 

Bond. 1. Edward Augustus, born 1815, at 
Hanwell, entered the British Museum in 1838, and 
from being keeper of MSS. became chief librarian 
in 1878. He has done much useful work in the way 
of publishing catalogues and facsimiles of MSS., 
and is founder and president of the Paheographic 
Society, for which he has edited facsimiles. He is 
LL.D. of Cambridge, and a C.B. Besides work of 
an antiquarian interest, he has edited for the 


Hakluyt Society the Speeches at the Trial of Warren 
Hastings. 2. William Crancii (1789-1859), an 
American astronomer, who, then a clockmaker, had 
his attention turned to astronomy by an eclipse in 
1806. He was one of the first American observers 
to announce the comet of 1811, and was later the 
first to employ photography as an instrument of 
astronomical research. In 1838 he was appointed to- 
the duty of making a series of observations in the 
exploring ship commanded by Captain Wilkes. In 
1840 he was appointed director of the observatory 
of Harvard College. 

Bonded Warehouses are warehouses ap¬ 
proved by the revenue authorities (in the United 
Kingdom by H.M. Commissioners of Customs or 
Inland Kevenue) for the storage of dutiable goods. 
These may be deposited in them without payment 
of duty, and withdrawn gradually in small quanti¬ 
ties, the duty being paid on each portion as it is 
taken out, or the goods can be re-exported without 
payment of duty at all. Thus merchants are able to 
transact their business with less capital than they 
would otherwise require, and the price of the goods 
to the public is not raised, as it would otherwise be, 
by the interest on such additional capital. The 
warehouse is under supervision by the revenue 
officers, and a bond is given by the warehouse 
keeper for exportation or payment of duty. Wines 
and spirits may be blended, fortified, and otherwise 
dealt with in the warehouse under defined condi¬ 
tions. The Customs or Inland Revenue authorities 
are not liable for any damage caused to the goods 
by accident while in the warehouse. The system 
was part of Sir R. Walpole’s abortive Excise scheme 
in 1733, but was only adopted for the British 
Customs in 1802, and for the Excise in 1823. The 
practice of the two services was partly assimilated 
in 1882. 

Bondi, Clement (1742-1821), an Italian poet, 
who became a Jesuit shortly before the dissolution 
of the Order, and afterwards librarian to the Arch¬ 
duke Frederic at Brunn, and in 1815 professor of 
literature and of history to the Empress at Vienna. 
He has been called the Delille of Italy, and like the 
French poet, he made verse translations of Virgil, 
and wrote a poem on Conversation , and he sings the 
praises of a country life. He is pure and elegant in 
style, but of no great inspiration or force. Among 
his works are: Poemetti e varie rime; Giornata 
Villereccia: Poesie ; Cantate : la Felicita ; 
Sentences , Proverbs , Epigrams, and Apologues. 

Bondu, a kingdom of Africa, in Eastern Sene- 
gambia, between lat. 14° to 15° N., long. 13° to 14° W. 
Inhabited chiefly by Foulahs. The capital, which in 
Park’s time was Fatteconda, is now Boulibane, on 
the Falame. The country is on the left bank of the 
upper Senegal, and its chief valleys are well watered 
and fertile. The land generally is mountainous and 
picturesque, but not very productive. Cotton, fruits, 
indigo, maize, rice, and resin are the main produc¬ 
tions ; and the people, who are of gentle manners, 
breed a few horses, cows, and goats. There is a 
considerable transport trade in slaves, salt, iron, 
vegetable butter, and gold dust. 








Bone. 


( 133 ) 


Bone. 


Bone. Bones form the supporting basis of 
the body in most vertebrate animals. The bones 
of limbs serve as levers, which are acted upon by 
the various muscles, while the osseous framework 
of the skull and thorax protects the important 
structures inside those cavities from injury. Bone 
combines in a remarkably perfect manner the 
properties of hardness, lightness, and elasticity. 

Structure of Bone. Bones are covered externally 
with a vascular fibrous membrane called the 
periosteum, the blood-vessels of which minister 
to the nutrition of the bone. Internally lies the 
medullary cavity of the bone, containing the 
marrow. The bone substance itself is either dense 
and “ compact,” as it is called, or it is “ cancel¬ 
lous,” i.e. made up of more loose-textured spongy 
material. In the long bones, compact bone is the 
rule ; while in flat bones, cancellous bone is found, 
with an outer protecting shell of compact sub¬ 
stance. A transverse section of a long bone shows, 
on miscroscopic examination, a large number of 
rounded spaces, about which concentric lamellm 
of osseous substance are disposed. Each central 
space corresponds to a canal, running in the 
direction of the long axis of the bone, and con¬ 
taining a blood-vessel concerned with the nutrition 
of the surrounding lamell®. These canals are 
called Haversian canals, and, with the concentrically 
arranged layers of bone, constitute the Haversian 
systems. Lying between the lamellae are found 
cells termed bone corpuscles, the processes of 
which penetrate some little way into the sur¬ 
rounding bone. The spaces in which the corpuscles 
lie are called lacunae, and the channels branching 
out of them into which the processes penetrate are 
termed canaliculi. The lacunae communicate by 
means of the canaliculi with the central Haversian 
canal, and thus nutrient material obtains access to 
all parts of even the densest bone. In spongy bone 
there are no typical Haversian systems; there are 
delicate trabeculae or bars of osseous material 
enclosing comparatively large spaces filled with 
marrow. Thus the blood supply of the bone 
comes in part directly from the periosteum, again 
from the bone marrow, and, in the case of long- 
bones, from the vessels running in the Haversian 
canal. 

Chemical Composition. Bone contains about one- 
third part by weight of animal or organic matter, 
and two-thirds of earthy or mineral substance. 
These two constituents are blended with one another 
in the most intimate matter. By immersing a 
bone in dilute acid all the mineral part can be 
gradually dissolved out and removed, and yet the 
remaining pliable animal matter perfectly retains 
the original shape of the bone. Again, by exposure 
to heat the animal portion can be completely 
burnt off, leaving a firm calcareous mass, the 
mineral part, which again exactly retains the 
form of the bone from which it is obtained. 
The animal matter is converted, by boiling, into 
gelatine, hence the use of bones in cookery in the 
making of jellies and soups. The mineral salts 
present in bone are the phosphate, carbonate, and 
fluoride of calcium, with a little phosphate of 
magnesium. Calcium phosphate makes up the 


main bulk of the earthy matter present, and forms 
more than half the total weight of a bone. An 
adequate supply of this salt to young animals, in 
which the osseous system is undergoing rapid 
development, is therefore of paramount importance. 
Such supply is perfectly afforded by the natural 
diet of new-born mammals—milk—for calcium 
phosphate is the chief salt in milk, just as it is 
in the bone into which the milk is converted. 
Rickets (q.v.), unhappily a very common disease 
in young children, affects in a marked degree 
the growing bones, which bend and give rise 
to numberless deformities; and in the case 
of rickety children there is almost always to 
be elicited a history of a departure from the 
natural infant dietary, the child being fed 
upon farinaceous and other foods containing 
much less calcium phosphate than milk does. 
There are two varieties of marrow. Yellow 
marrow, found in long bones, consists mainly 
of fatty tissue. The red marrow of can¬ 
cellous tissue contains some fat, but, in addi¬ 
tion, many “marrow cells,” resembling lymph 
cells in structure. The red marrow is largely 
concerned, too, in the manufacture of red blood 
corpuscles. 

Development of Bone. The long bones are 
developed from rods of cartilage. At certain 



TRANSVERSE SECTION OF BONE. 

(Magnified GO diameters.) 


points in the cartilage, called centres of ossifi¬ 
cation, there ensues increased vascularity with 
deposit of lime salts from the blood, a process 
termed calcification. By means of this process 
the growing ends of the bone continue to add to 
its length, until the adult condition is attained. 
All the calcified cartilage becomes, however, re¬ 
placed by spongy bone, and ultimately this, too, 
is absorbed, and the true bone, formed beneath the 
periosteum, is laid down. The bone thus increases 
in thickness, and, the central portions entirely 
disappearing, it results that the marrow cavity of 
an adult bone would readily enclose the rod of 
cartilage from which its development originally 
proceeded. This development of bone in cartilage 
does not obtain in the case of flat bones, which 
are developed in membrane, In the membrane 
bones of the skull, for example, there is no car¬ 
tilage from first to last, the osseous material is 
formed from the periosteum. 

Diseases of Bone. Ostitis is inflammation of 
bone; periostitis, inflammation of the enveloping 
periosteum, and in osteomyelitis the diseased 









Bone Ash. 


( 134 ) 


Bonfire. 


process mainly affects the medullary cavity and 
Immediately surrounding parts. As the result of 
periostitis, thickenings, called nodes, may be left 
on the surface of bones. Ostitis deformans is a 
singular and rare disease affecting mainly the 
long bones. As the result of inflammation a large 
piece of bone may perish ( necrosis), or a smaller 
portion of dead bone may be separated ( seques¬ 
trum ). Caries is a gradual eating-away or ulcera¬ 
tion of osseous substance ; strumous caries is very 
apt to affect the vertebrae, leading to angular cur¬ 
vature. Syphilis and cancer may both affect bone. 
Besides the important degeneration processes in 
bone associated with rickets, another, fortunately 
much rarer affection, known as mollifies ossium or 
osteomalacia , may be referred to. Exostosis is a 
dense osseous outgrowth sometimes found growing 
from a bone. [ See also Fracture.] 

Bone Ash consists chiefly of a mixture of 
calcic-phosphate (Ca 3 P 2 0 8 ) with some calcic car¬ 
bonate (CaC0 3 ), obtained by calcining bones in open 
furnaces. It is employed in manufacture of cupels 
and artificial manures. 

Bone Black, a mixture of charcoal (10 per 
cent.) with various inorganic salts, chiefly calcic 
phosphate, known also as “ animal charcoal,” and 
obtained by heating bones. The bones, preferably 
sheep or ox bones, are first boiled for some time to 
remove fatty matters, then dried and heated 
strongly in iron retorts. Gases pass off, some of 
which condense forming bone oil (q.v.) ; the uncon¬ 
densed portion, after purification, may be employed 
for illuminating or heating purposes. The bone 
black is left in the retorts, is taken out, crushed and 
ground between stone or steel cylinders. It is 
largely used in the manufacture of blacking, in 
sugar refining, and as a pigment. . 

Bone-caves are caverns, occurring mostly in 
limestone, from which bones of animals, the more 
interesting of which are no longer living in the 
same area, have been obtained. "The caverns are 
the result of the solvent action of water charged 
with carbon-dioxide from the air and from vege¬ 
table mould, acting along joints (q.v.) or other 
fissures in the limestone. Their roofs often fall in 
at some points, forming natural pitfalls into which 
numerous animals may have fallen. From a cavity 
25 feet by 18, at Castleton, Derbyshire, 6,800 bones 
of bison, reindeer, bear, 'wolf, fox, and hare were 
obtained. In other cases bones have been washed 
into the cave with silt carried by a flood. Many 
caverns have, or had, mouths opening on the 
sloping sides of valleys, where the streams, which 
sometimes issue from them, run into some river. Here 
animals may find an entrance. Bone-caves are 
divided into fissure-caverns , into which bones have 
been, washed; dens, into which carnivors, such as 
the lion, bear, and in England especially the hyaena, 
in Ireland the wolf, and at the present day the 
fox, have dragged the carcases of their prey ; and 
shelter-sheds , into which old or infirm animals 
retire to die. In dens the bones often bear tooth- 
marks, and hyaena-dens contain large quantities of 
album gratcum, the dung of that animal. In Syria 


at the present day nomad hunters drive out the 
hyaenas and temporarily occupy their dens, and so 
it seems to have been in prehistoric times in 
Britain. In some cases rude chipped flint im¬ 
plements (palaeolithic) are found in the lowest 
deposits, and others more highly finished and 
polished (neolithic), with bone needles and fish¬ 
hooks, and even relics of the bronze and iron ages, 
in higher layers. The bones and other relics are 
either on the dry floor of the cave, or in cave-earth, 
a red clay residue from the dissolved limestone, or 
a fine silt washed in through fissures, or in stalag¬ 
mite (q.v.), the carbonate of lime left by evapora¬ 
tion on the floor, often several feet thick, or in 
bone-breccia, mixed with fallen fragments of the 
roof and cemented by stalagmite. Human bones 
are but rarely met with among the oldest deposits, 
but his implements show man to have lived in 
Britain with Machairodus, the sabre-toothed tiger, 
the mammoth elephant, the great Irish deer, the 
grizzly bear, and the hyaena. Among the most 
important bone-caves in Britain are the systema¬ 
tically explored Kent’s-Hole, Torquay, and those 
at Cae Gwyn, North Wales, the deposits in which 
are- supposed to be partly Pre-glacial. In those of 
the Dordogne and elsewhere in the south of France, 
numerous reindeer bones are found with those of 
man, and incised representations on bone and 
ivory of the reindeer and the mammoth. There is 
evidence in South Devon and elsewhere of consider¬ 
able changes in physical geography, such as the 
deepening of river-channels, since the caves were 
first inhabited. 

Bone Manures, artificial manures obtained 
either by the simple grinding of bones to a flour¬ 
like powder, or by first treatment with sulphuric 
acid. Bone black after use for sugar refining is 
often so treated and employed as manure. Bone 
manures owe their value chiefly to the phosphate 
present. 

Bone Oil, obtained during the manufacture of 
“bone black” (q.v.), is a dark brown liquid with 
an offensive odour. By redistillation a large number 
of organic substances are obtained, chief amongst 
which being pyrol and pyridine, of which sub¬ 
stances it is an important source. After distilla¬ 
tion a black tarry liquid is left, known as Bruns¬ 
wick Black. 

Boner, Ulrich, a German fabulist and Domini¬ 
can monk, who lived at Berne in the 14th cen¬ 
tury. Not very much is known of his life ; but he 
left behind him a collection of fables called Der 
Edelstein (The Jewel), the first edition of which was 
published in folio at Bamberg in 1461. Only two 
copies of this are known to exist, one of them being 
in the library at Wolfenbuttel. There is a good 
edition, with glossary (Berlin, 1816), and there is 
an edition of 1844. 

Bonfire (lit. a bone-fire, for so the Northern 
form bane-fire is glossed in the Catholicum Angli- 
cum, an English-Latin word-book, dated 1483), any 
large fire kindled on a high or open space, origin¬ 
ally as an act of worship, and later as an act of 
commemoration or rejoicing, generally of a public 







Bonheur. 


( 135 ) 


Bonito. 


character. The kindling of bonfires as a religious 
act is certainly pre-Christian, and there seems to 
have been some special significance in Jewish 
times in the burning of human bones (1 Kings 
xiii. 2; 2 Kings xxiii. 20; 2 Chron. xxxiv. 5; 
Amos ii. 1). 

Bonheur, Kosa, French female painter, born at 
Bordeaux in 1822. She lost her mother when she 
was seven, and a reverse of fortune made it necessary 
for her father to separate from his children, and 
roly on his brush for his and their support. Rosa’s 
extraordinary talent had already shown itself, and 
its increase made her father resolve to teach her 
himself. She is said to have studied in the Paris 
slaughter-houses, and, to avoid notice, to have 
adopted male costume for her visits. In 1840—her 
eighteenth year—she was for the first time able to 
exhibit, showing The Two Rabbits. In 1845 she 
received a third-class medal, and in 1848 a first 
class. But the French complain that the English 
carried off all her pictures, and that she exhibited 
very rarely at the Salon. The best known of her 
works are probably the Horse Fair —now in America 
—and the Hay Harvest in Auvergne. Through the 
exertions of the Empress Eugenie, Rosa Bonheur 
received the Cross of the Legion of Honour. 

Boni, a native state in the island of Celebes, on 
the east coast; about 800 miles long and ranging 
from 40 to 80 miles in breadth. 4 he Dutch have a 
nominal suzerainty over the state, which is in¬ 
habited by an enterprising race. The capital is 
Bayoa, and there is also a town Boni on a bay of 
the same name on the south coast of the island. 
The soil is fertile, and produces among other things 
cassia, rice, and sago. 

Boniface, the name of nine Popes of varying 
historic importance. Boniface I. [St.] (418-422) 
was supported by the Emperor Honorius against 
his rival Eulalius. It was to this pope that St. 
Augustine dedicated his work against the Pelagians. 
Boniface II. (530-532); Boniface III. (607-608) 
obtained from the Emperor Phocas an acknowledg¬ 
ment of the title of universal bishop as the right of 
the pope. Boniface IV. (608-615) transformed the 
Pantheon into a church. Boniface V. (619-625) 
maintained the rights of sanctuary. Boniface VI. 
(896) only reigned a fortnight. Boniface VII. (984) 
is considered by some writers as an anti-pope. 
Boniface VIII. (1294-1303) was renowned for his 
struggle with Philippe le Bel over the question of 
supremacy. Dante has placed him in hell for 
simony. Boniface IX. elected at Rome (1389-1404) 
during the schism of Avignon. He was the first 
pope to wear the triple crown. 

Boniface, St., the great apostle of Germany 
(680 - 755) was born in Devonshire. His real name 
was Winfrid. Ordained priest at thirty, he deter¬ 
mined to devote his life to converting the heathen 
of Germany, and to this end he began his mission 
in 716 in Friesland, going on to Saxony, Thuringia, 
Hesse, and Bavaria; and founding churches and 
monasteries—notably the celebrated abbey of Fulda 
—and bishoprios. Gregory III. appointed him 


archbishop, primate of Germany, and legate of the 
Holy See, and he it was who consecrated Pepin le 
Bref, on behalf of the pope Zacharias. He was 
massacred with fifty-three companions by the 
savages of Friesland. He has left letters and 
sermons. 

Bonifacio, Straits of, separating Corsica 
from Sardinia, and having at the narrowest part 
a width of from six to seven miles. The straits 
derive their name from the town of Bonifacio in 
Corsica. The passage is very dangerous during 
the west winds, and was the scene during the 
Crimean war (January 15, 1855) of a disastrous 
wreck. The Semillante , with a crew of 350 and a 
body of 450 infantry on board, struck a rock and 
foundered immediately, not a man being saved. It 
is this wreck that Alphonse Daudet describes in 
one of his exquisite Lettres de mon Moulin. 

Bonin, a volcanic group of islands, of 32 
square miles in area, in the Pacific ocean, about 700 
miles S.S.E. of Japan ; lat. 26° to 27° N.; long. 155° 
to 159° E. They were discovered in 1639, and taken 
possession of for England in 1827, but in 1878 the 
Japanese government successfully claimed the 
sovereignty. 

Bonington, Richard Parkes (1801-1828), an 
English painter born at the little village of Arnold 
near Nottingham. His father, who taught him to 
draw, came in 1816 with his family to France, and 
here Richard Parkes Bonington entered into the 
studio of Baron Gros in 1819. Caring little, how¬ 
ever, for academic studies he soon quitted Gros to 
go and study the great Flemish landscape masters 
in the Louvre, and from them learnt that nature is 
the best master. He went into Normandy and 
brought back some fine water-colours, and at 
the Salon of 1824 he exhibited his water-colour, 
View of Abbeville —and four oil-colours, View 
in Flanders , A Sandy Shore, and two sea pieces. 
These works won for him a gold medal. After a 
trip to England he went in 1826 to Italy, and 
especially to Venice, where he painted what some 
consider his masterpieces— View of the Ducal 
Palace and View of the Grand Canal. At the 
height of his fame, when he was projecting a work 
on a large scale, he was seized by a brain fever, 
or, as some say, by sunstroke, and though he tried 
to work it down, his efforts were vain, and it killed 
him. Eugene Delacroix, in criticising his painting, 
cannot too much admire his wonderful grasp of effect 
and ease of execution, and M. Burger considers 
him little, if at all, inferior as a landscape painter 
in delicacy of touch and harmony of colour to 
Gainsborough, to Constable, or to Turner. 

Bonito, apopular name adopted from the Spanish 
for the following fish of the Mackerel family 
(Scombridge): Tliynnus pelamys, called also the 
Stripe-bellied Tunny, a tropical fish, 30 inches to 
36 inches in length, of a steel-blue colour, with 
four dark lines from the pectoral fins to the tail. 
It occasionally strays to the British coasts. The 
name is also applied to some other tropical species. 
[Tunny.] Pelamys sarda, the Mediterranean Bonito, 






Bonivard. 


( 136 ) 


Bonnet. 


about 2 feet long, a valuable food-fish, is closely 
allied ; it has the back and sides marked by dark 
oblique transverse bands, and is found on both 
sides of the Atlantic, and in the Mediterranean and 
Black Seas. Auxis rocliei, the Plain Bonito, from 
the Mediterranean Sea, and the Atlantic and Indian 
Oceans, is of uniform blue colour, and of little 
value for food. 

Bonivard, FRANyois de (1494-1571), historian 
of Geneva. Though’born in Burgundy, he iden¬ 
tified himself with the interests of his adopted 
country. He was prior of St. Victor, just at the 
gates of Geneva, and in the struggles that took 
place during the attempts of the townsfolk to resist 
the tyranny of Charles III., Duke of Saxony, he was 
taken prisoner, and confined in the castle of Chillon 
—in which connection Byron has immortalised his 
name by introducing an imaginary picture of his 
imprisonment for four years in the underground 
dungeons below the level of the waters of Lake 
Leman. When the Reformation gained the day 
at Geneva, he recovered his freedom but not his 
priory. However, the town gave him a pension, 
and he adopted Protestant principles, and was 
married four times. His reformed dress did not 
sit easily upon him, for he was summoned before 
the Consistory for lightness of conduct. His 
Chronicles of Geneva have been described as more 
remarkable for passion and brilliance of style than 
for truth, and he has been called the Montaigne or 
the Rabelais of Geneva. His treatise De VAncienne 
et Moderne Police de Geneve is of historic interest 
as throwing light upon the establishment of Cal¬ 
vinism. 

Bonn, a town of the Rhine province of Prussia, 
on the left bank of the Rhine, and some 15 or 20 
miles S.E. of Cologne. It has a cathedral and 
a bishop, a university, an academy of naturalists, 
an observatory, a botanical garden, scientific 
collections, a museum of antiquities, and a library 
of 200,000 volumes. There are also manu¬ 
factures of cotton, silks, soap, tobacco and 
vitriol, and some trade in grains, seeds, wines, 
and lead ore. The cathedral, restored about the 
middle of this century, is a good specimen of late 
13th century architecture, and is said to have been 
founded originally by the Empress Helena. On the 
cathedral square is a bronze statue of Beethoven, 
who w-as born at Bonn in 1770. There is also a 
statue of the antiquary, Winckelmann, and monu¬ 
ments of Niebuhr and Arndt. The university 
(founded in 1818) is in the ancient palace of the 
Electors of Cologne. The great hall has some 
remarkable frescoes emblematical of the four 
faculties, and the university is very rich in collections 
of different kinds, besides its library of over 200,000 
volumes. A Roman altar of Victory preserved here 
is thought to be the “ Ara Ubiorum ” mentioned by 
Tacitus (Annals), and the town, called Bonnaby the 
Romans, was one of the first strong forts erected on 
the Rhine by Drusus. It has suffered much in 
war at various times. A member of the Hanseatic 
league in the 13th century, its forts were dis¬ 
mantled in the 18th; but the town is regaining 


some of its ancient renown. It has been a strong¬ 
hold of the Old Catholics. 

Bonnat, Leon, a French painter, born at Bay¬ 
onne, 1833. After studying in Spain he exhibited 
for the first time in the Salon of 1857. He then went 
to Italy, and confined himself chiefly to imitating 
the old masters. In this and in some kinds of 
religious paintings he met with success. His 
Good Samaritan, at the Salon of 1859, showed 
progress, and his Adam and Eve finding Abel 
dead , and a little Italian sketch of a girl, 
Mariuccia , gained him a gold medal. But it 
was not till 1864 that Th. Gautier was able to con¬ 
gratulate him on having attained originality and a 
style of his own, in his Pilgrims at the Foot of 
St. Peter's Statue at Rome. His painting of an 
Italian beggar boy, Mezzo bajocco Eccellenza, is 
admired, as also his Italian Peasants before the 
Farnese Palace. 

Bonner, Edmund (1500-1569), educated partly 
at Oxford, where his achievements gained him the 
patronage of Cardinal Wolsey, who confided to him 
some important negotiations. After Wolsey’s fall 
he came into favour with the king, and even 
offended the pope by his zeal in Henry’s behalf. 
He was made Bishop of London, and was forced 
by his position to advance the punishment and 
persecution of the reformers. In Edward VI.’s 
reign he lost his bishopric and was imprisoned. 
Freed by Queen Mary four years later, he was 
again imprisoned by Queen Elizabeth for refusing 
the oath of supremacy, and finally died in the 
Marshalsea. He left some writings ; among others, 
Letters to Lord Cromwell. 

Bonnet, a head covering. The term was 
formerly applied in France and Scotland to some 
forms of male as well as female head-dress. For men, 
the bonnet was superseded by the hat in England in 
the 16th century. The “ bonnet rouge,” or cap of 
liberty, an imitation of the cap worn by the Roman 
slave on his emancipation, became, after 1791, the 
emblem of Republicanism in France, and later in 
the Republics (Helvetic, Ligurian, etc.) formed in 
imitation of it. It was, however, confined to men, 
women using the cockade. In Scotland bonnets 
were worn till the end of last century. The Low¬ 
land Scots bonnet was made of thick seamless 
woollen stuff covering the head and part of the 
neck; it was usually blue with a red tuft. The 
Highland bonnet was a large variety of the “ Glen¬ 
garry,” now familiar as the undress head-covering 
of the British infantry. The Balmoral bonnet was 
an intermediate form. As to ladies’ bonnets, 
Leghorn bonnets are made of a peculiar wheat- 
straw, grown in Tuscany for some 200 years. Split- 
straw bonnets have been made about Dunstable for 
over a century. Bonnets of other materials, e.g. 
silk or velvet, with .artificial-flower or feather 
trimmings, are largely made, or at least designed, 
in Paris. No article of dress, probably, is subject 
to such variations in size or form. 

Bonnet, Charles, naturalist and philosophical 
writer, was born at Geneva in 1720, never left his 
native country, and died in 1793. Nominally in 







Bonnet-piece. 


( 137 ) 


Bonstetten 


the legal profession, he early devoted himself to 
natural history. In 1740 he communicated to the 
Academie des Sciences his experiments on aphides 
(q.v.), showing their parthenogenetic reproduction. 
He then experimented on the reproduction of lost 
parts in worms, and the respiratory stigmata of 
insects, publishing in 1745 his Traite (VInsectologie, 
with an introduction on embryonic development, 
and the existence of a graduated scale of living 
beings. In 1754 he published his Traite de V usage 
des feuilles, in which he showed, among other 
points, the heliotropism and hydrotropism of 
leaves when growing. Failing eyesight caused 
Bonnet to turn his attention to speculative science. 
In 1754 he published Essai de Psychologic ; in 1760, 
Essai sur les facultes de VAme ; in 1762, Considera¬ 
tions sur les corps organises ; in 1764-5, Contempla¬ 
tion de la Nature; and in 1769, Palingenesie 
Philosophiquc. He held that a multitude of 
germs were originally created, containing in them¬ 
selves a power of advance towards, though not to, 
perfection ; that we have an immaterial mind, but 
that all knowledge originates in sensations, memory 
being conditioned by the increased flexibility 
produced in nerves by sensation; and that happi¬ 
ness is the end of human existence. 

Bonnet-piece, a gold coin of James V. of 
Scotland, now scarce and valuable, on which 
he is represented wearing a bonnet instead of a 
crown. 

Bonneval, Claude Alexandre, Comte de 
<1675-1747), a celebrated French adventurer, born 
of one of the first families of Limousin. Forced 
from the navy by the consequences of a duel, he 
entered into the French guards, and bought his 
regiment in 1701. He fought in the Italian wars 
and displayed singular courage, but for insulting 
Madame de Maintenon he fell into disgrace, and 
was obliged to take refuge in Austria. Here 
he served under Prince Eugene against France, 
with the rank of Major-General (1710-1712), 
returned to France, married, deserted his wife, 
and went back to Austria. After distinguish¬ 
ing himself in two battles, he insulted Prince 
Eugene, and was deprived cf his rank. He then 
took refuge in Turkey, and turned Mussulman. 
He became a general of artillery, a pacha, taking 
the name of Achmet, and tried hard to introduce 
European discipline and tactics into Turkey. He 
is said to have been contemplating a return to 
France when death put an end to his plans. 
Memoirs have been published in his name, but they 
are not genuine. 

Bonneville, Nicholas de (1760—1828), a 
French writer and student of German literature. 
He made a translation of Shakespeare, and pub¬ 
lished some German tales under the title of 
Nouveau Theatre Allemand. His moderation in 
politics seems to have been disagreeable to what¬ 
ever party was in power, for the revolutionists 
imprisoned him, and he could not make himself 
pleasing to Napoleon. 1!Histoire de VEurope 
Moderne , and EEsprit des Religions , are two 
of his works that have made some impression. 


Bonny, a river of Guinea, forming a mouth of 
the Niger and falling into the Bight of Biafra, 
lat. 4° N., long. 7° to 8° E. It is accessible to vessels 
of considerable burden, and it affords good anchor¬ 
age. The low swampy shores with their mud and 
mangroves and fevers will be familiar to readers 
of Michael Scott’s Cruise of the Midge , as will 
also the slave-dealing which prevailed there till 
far into the present century. Bonny is also the 
name of an unwholesome town upon the east of the 
river. It has little other trade than the exportation 
of palm oil. 

Bonomi. 1. Joseph (1789-1806), an architect 
born in Rome, settled in England, and was elected 
an A.R.A. 2. Joseph, son of the above, born 
also in Rome, 1796, made his studies in Lon¬ 
don, and gained renown as a draughtsman. 
He made a speciality of Egyptian subjects, and 
paid several visits to Egypt and the Holy Land, 
with a view to facilitate the illustration of the 
works of several Egyptologists which were en¬ 
trusted to him. He wrote a book on Nineveh, and 
died curator of Soane’s Museum in 1878. 

Bonpland, Aime (1773-1858), French botanist 
and traveller, studied medicine under Corvisart in 
Paris, and served as a surgeon in the French navy. 
He went with Humboldt in his five years’ research 
expedition in the Amazon and Orinoco country, 
in Mexico, and Colombia. As the fruits of this 
expedition Bonpland brought back and classified 
6,000 plants, till then for the most part unknown 
in Europe. After publishing some botanical works 
he tried to persuade Napoleon to retire to America. 
Not succeeding in this, he went himself (1816) to 
Buenos Ayres, taking with him various European 
plants. Elected professor of natural history, he 
soon threw up this employment in order to explore 
the centre of the continent, and projected an 
expedition up the Parana. In 1821 Dr. Francia, 
the dictator of Paraguay, arrested him as a spy, 
and kept him a prisoner for ten years at Santa 
Marta, where he interested himself in doctoring 
the poor of the neighbourhood. After being set 
free, he spent some years in the province of 
Corrientes, whose government showed its regard 
for him by giving him an estate. At Santa Anna, 
where he went in 1853, he cultivated the orange 
trees which he had introduced, and devoted him¬ 
self to scientific research, and here he died. 

Bonstetten, Charles Victor de (1745-1832), 
a Swiss publicist and judge, who was born at Bern. 
Soon after the age of fourteen he was sent to 
Geneva, where he imbibed principles hardly in 
keeping with the traditions of the noble family to 
which he belonged. His father recalled him, and 
finding that the dulness of Bern was unsettling his 
brain sent him to Leyden, from which place he went 
to England, and thence to Paris. After his father’s 
death he went to Italy, and on his return he 
received different judicial appointments in his 
native land. But his birth and connection on 
the one hand, and the views with which he was 
credited on the other, prevented his getting on 
with either party, and at the beginning of the 









Bonus. 


( 138 ) 


Book. 


political troubles he went to Copenhagen, and 
finally came back to Geneva, where he finished his 
life. He was not of any exceptional merit either 
as author or philosopher; but he was a good 
talker, and was the friend of many great men. 
His principal works are Hecherches sur la Nature 
et les Lois cle VImagination, Etude de l'Homme, 
L'Education Nationale, I! Homme du Midi et 
l Homme du Nord , and Pensees sur Divers Objets 
du Bien Public. 

Bonus ( Lat . good), a term usually applied to 
the share of surplus profits added from time to 
time to the value of policies of life insurance. 
(This surplus is partly due to the fact that the 
death-rates on which the ordinary life insurance 
tables are calculated are too high considering 
modern improvements in sanitation and medicine.) 
Also an extraordinary distribution of extra profits, 
or of additional shares, sometimes made by railway 
or other companies among their shareholders: 
or a present made by some shopkeepers to customers 
who buy a certain quantity in a certain time. 

Bony Fishes, a book-name for the Teleostei, 
the largest and most important sub-class of Fishes 
(q.v.). They appear first in the chalk, and, according 
to Dr. Gunther, stand in the same relation to the 
Palceiclithyes (q.v.) as placental mammals do to the 
marsupials. The chief characteristics of this sub¬ 
class are: A more or less complete bony skeleton, 
the centra of the vertebras being always ossified, and 
some portion of the cartilage of the skull replaced 
by bone ; the optic nerves cross ; the gills are free 
and covered by an operculum (q.v.) ; the branchial 
artery has a non-contractile dilatation in front of 
the heart; there is no spiral valve attached to 
the intestines. The Teleostei are divided into six 
orders:— 

1. Acanthopterygii. —Spinous rays on dorsals, and ventrals ; 
lower pharyngeals separate; air-bladder without duct. (Ex¬ 
amples : mackerel, mullet, perch, sea-bream.) 

2. Acanthopterygii Pliaryngognathi. —These differ from No. 1 
in having the lower pharyngeals united. (Examples: gold- 
sinny, tautog, wrasse.) 

3. Anacanthini. —Fins without spinous rays; ventrals, if 
present, on throat or breast, lower pharyngeals separate ; air- 
bladder without duct. (Examples : cod, haddock, hake, ling, 
sole, turbot.) 

4. Physostomi. —Fins without spinous rays; ventrals on belly; 
air-bladder with duct. (Examples : carp, pike, roach, salmon.) 

5. Lopliobranchii. —Gills composed of small rounded lobes; 
dermal skeleton of numerous pieces. (Examples: hippocampus, 
pipe-fish.) 

<j. Plectognathi.— A soft dorsal opposite the anal; ventrals 
obsolete or reduced to spines; skin armed with scutes or spines, 
or naked. (Examples : file-fish, globe-fish.) 

Bony Pike (Lepidosteus), a genus of Ganoid 
Fishes constituting a family (Lepidosteidae), dating 
back to Tertiary times in Europe and North Ame¬ 
rica, and now confined to the United States, 
Mexico, and Cuba. The body is elongated and 
sub-cylindrical, and covered with lozenge-shaped 
scales arranged obliquely so as to overlap, and form 
a bony armour; skeleton bony; and the vertebrae 
—round in front and hollow behind—allow great 
mobility; tail heterocercal; paired fins unlobed. 
The snout is produced, and the upper jaw is the 
longer ; teeth of unequal size in double rows, longer 
on the lower jaw. There are three species:— 


L. viridis, L. platystomus, and I. osseus (the 
commonest). The general colour is brownish or 
greenish - yellow, sometimes with black spots. 
These fish frequent shallow and reedy places, and 
to their form and voracity their popular name is 
due. They are called also gar-pike and garfish, 
but are not allied to the pike (q.v.) or true 
garfish (q.v.). 

Bonze, the European name (a Japanese word) 
of the Buddhist priests of China and Japan. 

Booby, the popular name for some species of 
Sula, a genus of diving-birds of the Pelican family, 
and especially Sula piscator, frequenting desolate 
islands and coasts in all tropical and sub-tropical 
regions, seldom wandering more than 20 leagues 
from land, to which it returns at nightfall. This 
uncomplimentary name is said to have been bestowed 
because these birds allow themselves to be killed or 
captured without attempting to escape, but Audubon 
denies this, and asserts that they grow wary by 
experience. The booby is about 30 inches long, 
allowing 5 inches for the straight conical bill, and 
10 inches for the tail, which, as in the cormo¬ 
rants, is stiff, and serves as a point of support for 
the bird on land : the female is rather smaller than 
the male. The plumage is dusky-brown above, and 
whitish beneath ; the young are spotted with white 
and brown. It is almost constantly on the wing, 
and swoops down on the fish that swim near the 
surface, rising almost immediately. The nest is 
a rude structure of dry sticks and seaweed, and 
never contains more than one egg. The flesh is 
dark and unsavoury, but is sometimes eaten by 
sailors. 

Book (German buck; A.S. boc: the term is 
by some connected with German biegen , to bend ; 
by others, with more probability, with buche, beech, 
on the bark of which runes (q.v.) were inscribed). 
A certain number of pages of an ordinary modern 
book are printed at once, and, until the intro¬ 
duction of rolls of machine-made paper, each set 
was printed on a separate sheet. From the 
number of pages on a sheet (four, eight, etc.) the 
size of the book, quarto, octavo, etc., formerly 
derived its designation; but the changes in 
modern printing have rendered this inexact and 
often misleading. [Bookbinding.] Probably the 
earliest form of book was a roll of papyrus, 
written on both sides, and mounted on two sticks, 
one at each end, so that it could be unrolled as the 
reader required. The earliest extant example, the 
Papyrus Prisse, containing two short ethical treat¬ 
ises, can hardly be later than 4,000 B.C., and is 
known to be a copy. Parchment or vellum was 
afterwards introduced when papyrus was scarce 
for a time—it is mentioned indeed by Herodotus, 
in the fifth century B.C., and was used by the 
Phoenicians — and probably, as its use became 
more common, the form of book familiar to us 
was adopted from the arrangement of the sets of 
oblong wax tablets used by the Romans for writing 
memoranda, probably during the first century 
a.d. Seemingly, however, the papyrus roll was not 
finally obsolete till the seventh century a.d. The 




Bookbinding. ( 139 ) Bookbinding. 


title-page of a modem book, containing the title 
and place of publication, as well as (usually) the 
date and author’s name, does not occur in printed 
books till after 1476. Instead there is (as in MSS.), 
a colophon, a sentence or short verse at the end, 
giving some particulars about the book and some¬ 
times the author. In the sixteenth and seven¬ 
teenth centuries title-pages were overloaded with 
detail, and until the present century books were 
commonly described as “ printed for ” a number of 
specified booksellers; and -they were not always 
accurately dated. Moreover, books which were 
supposed likely to be stopped by the authorities 
as containing prohibited doctrines, or as obscene, 
have often had false title-pages (thus an edition 
of Spinoza’s Ethica was issued as Daniel Heinsius ’ 
Poems'), or at least the place of publication has 
been misstated. Books published at the end 
of a year now often bear the date of the next, 
otherwise the tendency is in favour of accurate 
dating. The subdivision of a book into volumes 
has reference usually to the convenience of hand¬ 
ling, rather than to contents. (Volumes, however, 
are often subdivided into “books,” which usually 
has the latter significance, though it is sug¬ 
gested by the division of Greek and Latin works, 
which had the former.) In Germany it is a 
common practice to subdivide volumes (so- 
called) of a technical or scientific character 
into “ parts ” or half-volumes, and to publish 
each part separately, the later parts sometimes 
before the earlier — to suit the author’s con¬ 
venience. This is partly due to the custom of 
issuing revised and enlarged editions of standard 
works. 

An “edition” means the quantity of copies issued 
at one time—often 1,000—but it may be any 
number. “Editions de luxe” handsomely bound 
and finished, are often limited to a small number, 
each being sometimes signed by the author, and 
the type is then broken up to increase their rarity 
and value. In the second-hand book trade, “ uncut ” 
means that the margins have never been cut down 
by the bookbinder, “ curious ” is a euphemism for 
improper, while “ foxed ” means that the pages are 
spotted. 

Bookbinding may be conveniently classified 
into (a) the Fine Art, (b) the Bible and Church 
Service, ( c ) the Cloth Case, (d) the Paper-covered 
Departments. Of these the first is the most ancient, 
and is the modern form of the art which the monks 
of old carried on in their cells before even printing 
was invented. It was carried in the 15th century 
to a high degree of perfection in Italy and France, 
and in the latter country the most elaborate work 
still is done. In Germany also great skill in 
“blind tooling” has been exhibited since the 17th 
century. It is the custom on the Continent to 
issue most books, even the finest, in paper covers, 
and the purchasers have them bound according to 
their individual taste ; but in England books are 
supplied to the public permanently bound in cloth, 
so that the fine art department is chiefly patronised 
by connoisseurs and bibliophiles. The fine art 
binder (&) has, as a rule in Great Britain, to deal 


with a book which has been in use, and the paper 
and ink of which have long been dry and “ set.” 
The book, stripped of its boards, has to be reduced 
in bulk and made pliable by being beaten with a 
broad and slightly-rounded hammer. With the 
same object it is rolled in powerful machines and 
subjected to great pressure. It is then sewn, and 
sometimes silk thread is used. The back is ham¬ 
mered round. The string bands upon which the 
book is sewn and built up extend two or more 
inches on each side, and these ends are “ drawn- 
in ”—that is to say, passed through holes made in 
the millboards and then securely pasted down. 
Thus the boards are laced firmly to the book. The 
edges are then cut, gilded, marbled, or coloured, 
and the book is headbanded to strengthen the top 
and bottom of the back, which is stiffened with 
paper. Prepared leather, pared thin at the edge, 
is then pasted over the boards and back, and turned- 
over the edges or boards, providing a cover for the 
whole. To this stage the work is termed “ forward¬ 
ing.” The book then passes into the hands of the 
“ finisher,” who treats the surface of the leather 
with thin paste and size in order to fill up the 
interstices, making a ground for the ornament. 
The decorative design is executed with brass tools 
and gouges in a very delicate manner. The finisher 
must have the feeling of an artist to produce the 
desired effects, which are either in “blind,” i.e. 
plain, or in gold, and sometimes are varied by the 
inlay of differently coloured leathers. In “ calf ” 
binding the title panel is usually in another colour. 
Half-bound books have a strip of leather glued or 
pasted over the back of the book and turned in, 
and reaching about an inch and a half on the board 
on each side. Cloth or marbled paper is then 
pasted on, with the edges turned over the boards 
in the same way as leather. Triangular leather 
“ corners ” are added for ornament and strength. 
Leather binding is applied to Bibles and church ser¬ 
vices ( b ), but many of the hand processes have to be 
replaced by machines, the number dealt with being 
enormous. The machines and the methods, how¬ 
ever, do not necessarily correspond with those 
which belong to cloth work. The printed matter, 
as with publishers’ books in general, is received by 
the binder in sheets, with the pages so arranged 
that three folds will produce a section of sixteen 
pages, which is the most economical and usual 
form. On the first page of each sixteen, at the 
foot, is a letter, ora number, called the “ signature.” 
The book usually commences with B, the preface 
and table of contents, etc., being A. For work of 
good quality, hand-folding is imperative ; no folding- 
machine is sufficiently accurate. The folder, a 
woman, brings the numbers of the pages one over 
the other. This is called “ sighting.” She then folds 
the edge evenly with a folding-stick. The folded 
sheets are afterwards pressed to give solidity. 
Then they are laid in sequence upon a table, and 
from each pile, in turn, one sheet is “ gathered,” the 
collector thus getting together in her hands the 
printed matter for a complete book. After this 
gathering revision is required. A collator examines 
the books separately, making sure that each is 
complete, and they are again pressed. End-papers 






Bookbinding. 


( 140 ) 


Book-keeping. 


are afterwards pasted on them. Girls who sit 
before adjustable frames, upon which are stretched 
three or more vertical cords, then sew the book, 
section by section, to these cords. The cords are 
subsequently cut, leaving projecting ends, which 
at a later stage are pasted to the back of the book. 
The books having been again pressed, their edges 
are cut by machines and afterwards they are 
decorated. The books are formed into book shape 
by “ rounding” with a hammer, and they are then 
“ backed ” in a machine which nips the back, a 
roller passing over it and making a groove on each 
side. Into this groove, or “ joint,” the boards fit. 
These boards are cut to size, the leather case being 
made on the book itself, to secure an accurate “ fit.” 
The boards are slightly larger than the book inside, 
and the projecting edges are called “ squares.” The 
case— i.e. the two boards, the “hollow” or back, 
and their leather cover—is ornamented by means 
of blocking presses which expeditiously perform, in 
one or more operations, work which approximates 
to that accomplished by the fine art craftsman in 
minute detail. Upon the same lines in respect to 
folding, sewing, pressing, cutting, rounding, and 
backing, the cloth work (c) proceeds. Sewing is here 
done by machinery as well as by hand. After the 
book has been “formed,” as already described, the 
back is stiffened with a strip of “lining cloth,” 
which resembles canvas, and paper. These are 
glued to it, the cloth leaving a wide overlapping 
edge on each side. Meanwhile the case is also in 
course of making. The pair of millboards is 
covered with “ cloth,” which is a cotton fabric, 
loaded with starch, dyed or printed, and calendered.’ 
Occasionally it is used plain, but generally it is 
embossed or grained. Cloth work originally began, 
seventy years ago, with an intention to imitate 
leather, and it continued in this groove for many 
years. The cloth is glued over the boards, the 
edges being deftly turned in by the workman. The 
case is left plain or else treated in a more or less 
elaborate and artistic style. In the early stages of 
this modern development of the trade, blind block¬ 
ing with gold lettering only was in vogue, but 
after coloured cloths with gold ornament had been 
successfully tried, black ink was added, and, step 
by step, various improvements have been made, so 
that at the present time the designer can call to 
his aid not only differently-tinted and patterned 
cloths and gold and silver leaf, but, in addition, 
inks of every colour. These necessitate the em¬ 
ployment of registering engraved brass blocks, 
one for each colour or metal required. The 
requisite impression is imparted by blocking 
hand and power presses, which are heated. The 
gold leaf is applied to the design by “ layers on ” 
The case having been made to fit the book and the 
book the case, all that remains to be done is to put 
the book inside its case, and then to paste firmly 
to the boards not only the “ end papers,” but the 
overlapping margin of lining left for that purpose. 

1 hese strips, attached as they are to the back and 
to the boards, act as a hinge. The completed books 
still moist, are finally placed between wooden boards 
in hydraulic presses, and when quite dry they are 
ready for the publisher. In magazine parts, or 


books covered in paper (, d ), the sheets are stitched, 
sewn, or clamped together with wire stitches, and 
the paper cover is simply glued to the back. 

Book Club- [Hakluyt Society.] 

Book-keeping is the art of keeping a series 
of accounts relating to commercial transactions 
arranged in a systematic manner. The most rudi¬ 
mentary form of such an arrangement is to put the 
receipts on one of the pages of the book as it lies 
open, and the payments on the opposite page, 
so that they may run on side by side. The 
receipt side is called the “debtor,” and the 
payment the “ creditor ” side; and the account is 
said to be “ debited ” with what the person, to 
whose affairs it relates, receives, and “ credited ” 
with what he owes. Even in small businesses, 
however, it is usually found necessary to have a 
rough “ waste-book,” containing receipts and pay¬ 
ments as they occur, and a “journal,” in which 
they are more or less classified ; and generally the 
classification is carried further by the entry of 
various items in other books. But, of course, the 
complicated accounts of a large business comprise 
many classes of receipts and payments. There 
will be receipts from sales to customers : capital 
may be advanced by a bank; in some cases 
loans may be repaid, or there will be payments for 
rent, for rates, for goods purchased, for law ex¬ 
penses, for wages, etc.; there may be interest from 
investments; and the payments may be made in 
very different ways—by cheques, by drawing bills, 
in cash, and so on. Much more elaborate classifi¬ 
cation is, therefore, requisite, and a system has 
been worked out—first invented, it would seem, in 
the commercial cities of Italy, in the 15th century 
—of checking the possible errors in such compli¬ 
cated accounts by so keeping them that the 
general account can be checked by the various 
classified accounts, and vice versa. This is called 
“ book-keeping by double entry,” and proceeds on 
the principle, that as every payment of money or 
transfer of goods is a transaction involving two 
parties, accounts shall be kept from the point of 
view of both, and each transaction shall be re¬ 
corded in two accounts. And it is further 
simplified by personifying, as it were, the various 
sellers of goods to the firm, or the modes in which 
payment is made under single heads—thus “ Goods 
purchased,” « Cash,” “ Bank,” “ Bill,” etc., and hav¬ 
ing a separate account for each. Each of these 
persons, real or imaginary, is treated as a creditor 
for his outgoings, and a debtor for his receipts. 

1 hus if a merchant purchases iron for £1 000 
“Iron” is debited with £1,000, and is expected to 
meet it when the metal is disposed of, while the 
general account is credited with £1000 • and 

f. h u'n d » th ®,P7 ment '. , ? e made a bin o£ exchange! 

, . w1 . , e credited, and the general account 

debited with the sum paid for the bill. At any 
time then the state of the firm’s affairs can be 
ascertained by balancing all these accounts, and 
the correctness of the result tested by comparing 
w ‘ th result <rf balancing the general account! 
For further details see Cash Book, Waste Book 











Book Plates. 


( 141 ) 


Boom. 


Journal, Ledger, Balance Sheet, Profit 
and Loss Account. 

Book Plates, the labels often found inside 
books, bearing the owner’s name and coat of arms 
or other device. Many are curious specimens of 
engraving, and Albert Diirer, Hogarth, and Bewick 
have been among their designers. Of late years 
a fashion has grown up of collecting them; the 
Latin inscriptions on them, e.g. Ex Libris 6h.il, 
Stone (one of the books of William Stone) have 
suggested the French name of ex-libris. 

Book-trade. From the earliest scratching upon 
a beech chip to the latest edition de luxe is a far 
cry, and yet that is what an account of the book- 
trade would amount to if we take an historical or 
stratical view of it; while a topographical survey 
would imply a history of the whole process of 
book-making from its first inception as a germ in 
the author’s mind, to its final appearance fully 
clothed upon the clrawing-room table, with all its 
ramifications, and all the vexed questions that 
complicate it, including the agitating question of 
whether the author exists for the publisher, or the 
publisher for the author—a question about as 
easily solved as the other important question of 
Which was first, the egg or the hen ? 

The question of book-producing divides itself 
into two simple parts. The writing of the book, 
which is the author’s part of the matter, and would 
be the whole of it if the author did not desire to 
be read ; and the bringing the book to the public, 
or the public to the book, which is often the most 
difficult part of the process. It is to this part of 
the question, perhaps solely, to which a considera¬ 
tion of the book-trade ought entirely to confine 
itself. Shakespeare tells us that “that book in 
many’s eyes doth share the glory, that in gold 
clasps locks in the golden story ”—and it is certain 
that the success of a book—not merely as a paying 
speculation—does depend in a great measure upon 
accessories of type, paper, binding, convenience of 
handling, and the like. In the days before print¬ 
ing, when the copies of a book had to be laboriously 
made, slowly one by one, and when, as the wise 
man of old said, of making of books there was no 
end—books were a luxury of the great and rich, 
and as much attention was paid to the setting of 
the jewel as to the jewel itself. Hence the beautiful 
examples of type and binding, and of artistic 
accompaniments that made the reputation of 
the great printing and publishing houses of the 
Low Countries. Who, that has seen them, has not 
been lost in admiration before the exquisite plates 
of the Plantin Museum, as they lie just as the 
printer left them in his house three hundred years 
ago. And it is this wonderful artistic finish that 
leads to the enthusiasm of the book-collector, an 
enthusiasm looked on by some as the very acme of 
madness. 

The publishing of a book advances it one stage 
beyond the author; but much still depends upon 
the wholesale dealer, and as much more upon the 
retailer, to ensure its success, always supposing 
the book to be worthy of success, whether from its 
intrinsic value, or from its happening to hit a 


particular taste, or want, or from whatever cause. 
But all these various topics, as to what conditions 
should exist between author and publisher, bet ween 
publisher and wholesale dealer, and between the 
last and the retail trade, are far too complicated 
and involved to be treated otherwise than separ¬ 
ately. One great writer of the day has tried the 
experiment of being his own publisher. How far 
that is a success is unknown, but it would be a 
dangerous precedent to follow. At any rate, an 
author had better make sure of being as great a 
writer as the gentleman in question, and also wait 
till his reputation is established, before trying it. 

There is one part of the book-trade, and an im¬ 
portant one, yet to be mentioned. That is the 
secondhand trade. The secondhand book-stall 
plays a great part in real life, as well as in comedy 
and in romance, and embraces all kinds of business, 
from the Id. box up to the work of attending 
notable sales in all parts of the globe, and buying 
rare copies for thousands of pounds. Many of our 
greatest booksellers have begun from the second¬ 
hand book-stall, and many great book-makers have 
testified their gratitude to the odd minutes and 
half hours of gratuitous reading afforded by the 
bookstall. 

In the earlier days of literature the part of the 
publisher was in a great measure played by the 
noble or royal patron, who parted with his gold 
pieces, and took the risk attendant on all book- 
producing in return for the glory reflected upon 
himself by his connection with the book, but at all 
times there has been a considerable mixture of 
functions among the publishers, and booksellers, 
and book-writers ; and one has only to read of the 
transactions and literary meetings of Johnson and 
his contemporaries in their booksellers’ shops ; or 
of the relations of Scott, Thackeray, George Eliot, 
Miss Bronte, and others, with their publishers ; or 
of the many publishers and booksellers who have 
made themselves a name as writers, to see that, in 
spite of questions of conflicting claims and dis¬ 
putes, union of the three branches is as essential to 
a healthy strength as it was in the case of the 
bundle of sticks in the fable. 

Boole, George (1815-1864), English mathe¬ 
matician and logician, born at, Lincoln, spent his 
life in scholastic pursuits. He was appointed 
Professor of Mathematics in Queen’s College, 
Cork, in 1849. Besides many writings on various 
subjects connected with mathematics, he com¬ 
posed two systematic treatises, one on Differential 
Equations, and a sequel to it, on The Calculus 
of Finite Differences , which have become standard 
works. His Laws of Thought show logical power, 
but the attempt to represent logical processes by 
the symbolic treatment of mathematics is hardly 
likely to find favour except with mathematicians. 
Boole w r as well-read and interested in literature 
generally, and his private character endeared him 
to his friends. 

Boom (cognate with beam ) is a long stout 
spar run out from some part of a sailing vessel, 
to which the bottom of a sail is made fast in order 
to keep it extended. They have various names; 





Boom. 


( 142 ) 


Booth. 


according to the sails made fast to them—topsail- 
boom, jib-boom, spritsail-boom, etc. The term is 
also applied to the stout spars run out from the 
deck of a modern ship of war. to make boats fast 
to when in harbour, or to suspend nets from as a 
protection against torpedoes; to the barriers of 
floating timber lashed together, which formerly 
sometimes in war blocked the entrance to a har¬ 
bour, as at the siege of Derry in 1689 ; and to the 
dam of logs sometimes made by American lumber¬ 
men to obtain sufficient water to float down timber. 

Boom, an Americanism used both as a noun 
and a verb (active or neuter), to signify a rapid 
rise in prosperity or in value, or in the attention 
attracted by some subject. Thus a rapidly rising 
town in the western United States is said to be 
“ booming.” A movement to run General Grant 
for the Presidency of the United States for a 
third term of office was concisely called “the 
Grant Boom.” The word is said to be used in 
Western America to describe the rapid rising of 
a river, or it may be meant to suggest the noise 
and rush accompanying the discharge of a cannon 
ball. 

Boomerang, the throwing-stick used in war, 
•or hunting, by the Australian aborigines. It is of 
eucalyptus wood about 2 ft. 6 in. long and 2 in. 
broad, one side being flat with a sharp edge, the 
other thick and convex. It is thrown straight 
forward, but with a peculiar back-twist of the 
hand, the flat side being kept downwards : it soon 
rises in the air, whirls round and round and flies 
backward over the head of the thrower, striking 
objects behind or beside him with great force. 
Surprising accuracy of aim with it is obtained by 
the natives. No two boomerangs, it is said, are 
quite alike in their range or behaviour, or even 
have the same curve. The upward motion is due 
to the fact that the instrument from its shape 
strikes the air obliquely, and is lifted by it. “It 
may be tested,” Prof. Tylor says, “by cutting 
boomerangs out of a card and flipping them.” It 
•seems to be a native invention, though approaches 
to it are said to be found in ancient Assyria and 
•other parts of the East. The Bev. J. G. Wood 
regarded it as developed out of a flattened club. 

Boone, Daniel (1735-1820), an American pio¬ 
neer who has been the subject of many memoirs 
and of many romances. He, like the trapper to 
whom Fenimore Cooper introduces us, loved the 
wilderness and liked to avoid the haunts of men. 
North Carolina, to which he had emigrated early 
in life, was not wild enough for him, and he made 
for the Red River, a branch of the Kentucky. 
Here he was captured by Indians; but, escaping, lie 
fell in with his brother who was on his trail, and 
they spent a winter in a cabin. After a time he 
again went to the Kentucky country, and built 
a stockade fort which was twice attacked by 
Indians in 1777. The next year he was again 
•captured by Indians, but escaped to the fort, and 
with his men repelled another Indian attack. 

When Kentucky was joined to the Union, Boone’s 
title as squatter was not enough to secure him 


his land, and he retired into deeper wilderness. 
But in 1813 he was awarded a tract of land as an 
acknowledgment of his public services, and it was 
at Charette on the Missouri river that he died. 

Boorde, or Borde, Andrew (1490-1549), a 
native of Cuckfield, who, brought up to the Church 
and being a Carthusian, obtained a dispensation 
and became a doctor. Andreas Perforatus, as he 
punningly called himself, travelled widely in his 
Wanderjabr, and on his return to England was sent 
on a confidential mission by Cromwell. We then 
find him again gadding about the earth, at one 
time in Glasgow or Antwerp, at another in Rhodes 
or Jerusalem, and presently in the Fleet prison, 
where he died. It does not appear which of his 
vagaries led him to the Fleet, but he seems to have 
led a gay life. His Handbook of Europe and his 
Itinerary of England survive, and his Introduction 
of Knowledge contains the earliest known specimen 
of Romany. 

Boos, Martin (1762-1825), a Catholic priest of 
Bavaria who began a kind of Pietist religious move¬ 
ment. He had a good deal of influence among his 
fellow-religionists, including many priests; but he 
was relentlessly persecuted by the majority, though 
he appears to have been in essentials a staunch 
Catholic. In 1817 he was appointed professor of 
divinity at Diisseldorf, and in 1819 removed to 
Sayn near Neuwied. 

Boot, an instrument consisting of four long 
strips either of iron or of wood, fastened together, 
with space between, into a sort of case for the leg. 
Into the space wedges were inserted, and struck by 
the executioner with a hammer, so as to crush the 
leg. It was used in England in the 16th and part of 
the 17th century. In Scotland it was a familiar 
instrument in the persecution of the Covenanters 
by James II., but was finally made illegal on 
the union with England. It was used to extort 
confessions or other evidence. 

Bootes, son of Demeter and Iasi on, inventor 
of the plough and cultivator of the soil. He and 
his plough and his oxen were all taken up into the 
skies together, and they now form a constellation of 
which Arcturus is the brightest star. 

Booth (from a Norse word = to dwell), a 
structure, usually temporary and often of osiers, 
sometimes of timber, used at markets or fairs as a 
shop. Medieval booths were sometimes a sort of 
covered stall, with an open window, whose shutter 
was so divided midway that the top projected 
outwards and protected the goods arranged on the 
lower half, as on a counter. 

Booth, Barton (1681-1733), an English actor, 
son of a Lancashire squire. From Westminster he 
was to have gone to Cambridge, but took to the 
boards instead. On Betterton’s refusal to employ 
him, he played for two seasons at Dublin. In 1700 
Betterton gave him an opportunity, and he soon 
became a public favourite. He played the Ghost 
in Hamlet (1/08), and his Cato in 1713 brought him 
both gain and glory. Henry VIII., Othello, Brutus, 








Booth. 


( 143 ) 


Boracite. 


Hotspur, and Lothario were favourite characters 
of his. 

Booth, Edwin Thomas, son of Junius Brutus 
Booth, born in America 1833, a successful American 
actor who has also visited England, Australia and 
Germany. 

Booth, John Wilkes (1839-1865), son of Junius 
Brutus Booth, was unsuccessful as an actor, and 
in 1865 assassinated President Lincoln, and was 
himself shot soon afterwards during an attempt at 
his capture. 

Booth, Junius Brutus (1796-1852), English 
tragedian, son of a London lawyer, famous as 
Richard III. at Covent Garden. He emigrated to 
America. 

Booth, William, founder and so-called General 
( i.e . “ General Superintendent ”) of the Salvation 
Army (q.v.). Born in 1839 at Nottingham, he 
was a minister of the Methodist New Connexion, 
but is noW chiefly known as the originator of the 
Army, which was first established on a religious 
basis, but now includes a great social scheme. 
Mr. Booth gave his own views upon the subject in 
the Contemporary Review (Aug., 1882). His organi¬ 
sation resembles an army in this—perfect obedience 
to the commander is required. The social scheme 
is still in its infancy; upwards of £100,000 was 
collected for it at the end of 1890, after the 
publication of In Darkest England. Mrs. Booth, 
his wife, the “ Mother of the Army,” influenced to 
a large 'extent her husband’s work, and her death 
in 1890 was felt as a great loss to all the members 
of the organisation. 

Boothia, a peninsula of British North America, 
lat. 69° to 72° N. ; long. 92° to 97° W. It was dis¬ 
covered by Captain Ross (1830), and was called 
Boothia Felix after the fitter-out of the expedition, 
Sir Felix Booth. The north magnetic pole is situate 
in Boothia. It forms the west side of the Gulf of 
Boothia, from which the Prince Regent’s inlet leads 
into Baffin’s Bay. Lakes and inlets almost separate 
Boothia from the American shore, and it is separated 
from North Somerset Island by Bellot Strait. 

Booton, or Bouton, an island—1,700 miles in 
area—of the Malay Archipelago, separated from 
Celebes and from the Isle of Muna by a narrow 
strait, and lying to the S.E. of Celebes. The 
Malay inhabitants are under the suzerainty of the 
Dutch, and the Sultan who lives at Bolio is controlled 
by a Resident. The island is well wooded, and 
produces fine timber. Maize, rice, and sago are 
cultivated. 

Bopp, Franz, Sanscrit scholar and philologist, 
was born in 1791 at Mainz, on the Rhine. He was 
educated at Aschaffenburg, Bavaria, where his 
attention was drawn to the oriental languages by 
the lectures of Carl J. Windischmann. Removing 
to Paris, he there produced in 1816 his System of 
Conjugation in Sanskrit , showing the common origin 
of the Indo-European languages in their gramma¬ 
tical forms. A pension from the King of Bavaria 
enabled him to come to London, where he made 


the acquaintance, amongst others, of Colebrooke, and 
Wilhelm von Humboldt, and where he wrote Ana¬ 
lytical Comparison of the Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, 
and Teutonic Languages. Returning in 1821 to 
Germany, he was appointed professor of Sanscrit 
and comparative grammar at Berlin, an appoint¬ 
ment which he held till his death in 1867. His chief 
work, published in 1833-52, was Comparative Gram¬ 
mar of Sanskrit, Zend, Greek, Latin, Lithuanian. 
Old Sclav, Gothic, and German. He also wrote 
numerous treatises on ancient European and Asiatic 
dialects. 

Bopyridae, a family of Isopoda, parasitic in 
the branchial cavity of certain Crustacea, e.g. 
Bopyrus squillarum in that of the Prawn. The 
usual degeneration has followed the parasitism, and 
the body is discoid, and has lost its segmentation 
and eyes. 

Bora (Slavonic hura, storm), a strong, dry N.E. 
wind common in the N. of the Adriatic in winter, 
sometimes lasting several days. 

Bora, Katharina, wife of Luther, was born in 
1499 in Meissen. Entering a Cistercian convent, 
she “ with eight other nuns ” becoming dis¬ 
satisfied, applied to Luther for assistance, and 
through him they were liberated in 1523. Two 
years later she married Luther, and after his death 
kept boarders for her support. She bore him three 
sons and three daughters, and was to him, in his 
own words, “ a pious, faithful wife.” She died in 
1552 at Torgau. 

Boracic Acid, or Boric Acid, the acid derived 
from boric oxide (B 2 0 3 ) by combination with the 
elements of water. It may be prepared from borax 
by the action of a strong acid. It occurs in the 
lagoons formed by the condensation of the vaporous 
springs or “ soffioni ” in the Maremma of Tus¬ 
cany. From this source it is obtained to a very 
large extent by evaporating the liquid until the 
boracic acid crystallises out. Either in the form 
of lotion or ointment it constitutes a useful anti¬ 
septic application. Its main use is in cases of 
conjunctivitis and purulent ophthalmia, a solution 
containing 1 part of boracic acid in 20 of water 
being employed. A capital ointment is one made 
up of 3 parts of the powdered acid, 5 of paraffin, 
and 10 of vaseline. 

Boracite, borate and chloride of magnesium 
(6M g 0.8B0 3 + MgCl 2 ), in which the chloride 
amounts to 11 per cent., is a mineral which occurs 
associated with gypsum and rock-salt at Stassfurt 
in Saxony, at Kiel in Holstein, and elsewhere. It 
is slightly soluble in hot water, slowly so in acid, 
and fuses with difficulty into a yellowish bead which 
becomes white, opaque and crystalline on cooling, 
while the flame is coloured green. Its hardness is 
7, and its specific gravity nearly 3. It occurs in 
white, translucent crystals of the cubic system, 
commonly cubes combined with the rhombic dode¬ 
cahedron and the tetrahedron, and is chiefly in¬ 
teresting as being pyro-eleetric. The angles replaced 
by tetrahedral planes are the antilogous poles, 
exhibiting resinous or negative electricity when 
the mineral is being heated, vitreous or positive 






Borage. 


( 144 ) 


Bore. 


electricity when it is cooling', while the opposite 
unmodified angles exhibit opposite characters. 

Borage (Borrago officinalis), a European herba¬ 
ceous plant which gives its name to the natural 
order Borraginece. It is covered with rough, 
bristly hairs, as are most plants of the order, whence 
they have been called Asperifelice. Its leaves are 
scattered and its flowers polysymmetric, pentame- 
rotis, three-quarters of an inch across, and bright 
blue. Sprigs of fresh borage are commonly added 
to claret-cup; but cucumber is often substituted 
for it. 

Borax, hydrous biborate of sodium (N a2 B 4 0 7 ), 
occurs in nature and most commonly in commerce 
in oblique prismatic crystals, having ten molecules 
of water of crystallisation ; but is also manufactured 
with only five molecules, and is then known as octa¬ 
hedral or jewellers’ borax. Native borax is white 
or greenish, sub-transparent, resinous, soft, soluble 
and of a sweetish astringent taste. Before the 
blowpipe borax parts with its water with intu¬ 
mescence, melting into a clear, colourless glass which 
will readily dissolve many metallic oxides and 
exhibit characteristic colours. A bead of fused 
borax in a loop of platinum wire is therefore largely 
used in the blowpipe analysis of minerals. Borax 
used to be chiefly obtained from the evaporation of 
the waters of lakes in Thibet under the name of 
tincal. It is now obtained from Borax Lake, Cali¬ 
fornia, the bed of which consists of pure borax 
crystals, whilst its waters contain 535 grains of 
borax per gallon. Borax is also prepared by treat¬ 
ing boracic acid (q.v.) with carbonate of soda. 
Octahedral borax is precipitated at temperatures 
between 79° and 56° C. Borax is largely used as 
a flux, in soldering, in glass-making, in making 
fusible glazes and enamels for pottery and artificial 
gems, and to economise soap in washing, though 
it has a corrosive effect upon fabrics. The two 
pharmacopoeial preparations of it are the Glyce- 
rinum Boracis (1 oz. of borax in 4 fluid ounces of 
glycerine) and the Mel Boracis (56 gr. of borax in 
1 oz. of honey). These preparations are much used 
in stomatitis or thrush. A lotion of borax is also 
employed to allay irritation in some forms of skin 
disease. 

Borda, Jean Charles, mathematician and 
physicist, was born in 1733 at Dax, in the French 
department of Landes. He served in the army and 
navy, and introduced new instruments for naviga¬ 
tion purposes. He was also a useful member of the 
commission that framed the new system of weights 
and measures in France. He died in 1799. 

Bordeaux (Burdigala of the Romans), one of 
the finest commercial cities of France, is the capital 
of the department of Gironde and is situated on 
the left bank of the Garonne in an extensive plain, 
comprising the district of Medoc, celebrated for its 
red wines. The river, which is crossed by a magni¬ 
ficent stone bridge of seventeen arches, is lined with 
quays, and at the northern end of the town is a dock 
covering an area of 25 acres. Among the eccle¬ 
siastical buildings the principal are St. Andre, St. 
Michel, St. Croix, St. Paul, and the church of the 


College Royal, where is Montaigne’s tomb, whose- 
statue with Montesquieu’s adorns the principal 
square, Place de Quinconces. Bordeaux is the seat 
of an archbishopric, and its intellectual activity is 
shown by such institutions as its Academy of Science 
and Literature, theological, medical, art, and navi¬ 
gation schools, picture gallery, museum, and public 
library: and its theatre, the Grand, is one of the 
finest in France. Its chief manufactures are brandy,, 
sugar, liqueurs, vinegar, calico printing, woollens, 
earthenware, etc. In 1152 Bordeaux passed under 
English rule, through the marriage of Eleanor of 
Guienne to Henry of Normandy, afterwards Henry 
II., being returned to France three centuries later. 
In 1871, during the Franco-German war, the first 
sittings of the National Assembly were held at 
Bordeaux in the Grand Theatre. In Bordeaux were 
born Ausonius the poet, Richard II., and Rosa 
Bonheur. 

Borders, The, is the territory lying on both 
sides of the frontier line between England and 
Scotland. The counties bordering this frontier line, 
which runs for a distance of 110 miles from the Sol¬ 
way Firth to a point a little to the N. of the Tweed, 
are Cumberland and Northumberland on the S.,and 
Dumfries, Roxburgh, and Berwick on the N. These 
districts are celebrated for the struggles between 
different clans and families either for plunder or su¬ 
premacy, and are immortalised by Sir Walter Scott 
and by many a ballad and legend. The different 
events of importance connected with them will be 
found under their special names. 

Border Warrant. A process issued by a 
judge-ordinary on either side of the border between 
England and Scotland for arresting the person or 
goods of a person living on the opposite side until 
he find security. 

Bordighera, a town of N.W. Italy, in the 
Riviera, and on an eminence overlooking the 
Mediterranean, is a favourite winter residence for 
invalids. It has an English church. 

Bordone, Paris, Italian painter, was born in 
1500 at Treviso. A pupil of Titian and Giorgione, 
he was in 1538 invited to France by Francis I., 
whose portrait with that of the Duke of Guise, the 
Cardinal of Lorraine, and other personages, he 
painted. His most celebrated picture is the Gon¬ 
dolier presenting the Bing of St. Mark to the Doge. 
In the National Gallery he is represented by 
Daphnis and Chloe and A Portrait of a Genoese 
Ladg. He died in 1570 at Venice. 

Bore, Tidal, the heaping up of the tidal waters 
in a narrowing channel, generally the estuary of a 
river. In the Trent, where it reaches Nottingham, 
it is called the cegir , from a Scandinavian river-god. 
In the Severn it is a wave 9 feet high ; in the Seine, 
where it is called mascaret, 10 feet, with a velocity 
of 13 miles an hour; in the Amazon, where it is 
called p or or oca, 12 or 13 feet; in the Hooghly, 20 
to 25 feet; and in the Tsien-tang, 30 feet, with a 
velocity of 25 miles per hour. Notable bores also 
occur in the Elbe, Weser, Dordogne, Garonne, and 
Orinoco. 








Boreas. 


( 145 ) 


Boring 


Boreas, the name for the north wind as personi¬ 
fied in Greek. He is represented in mythology as 
son of Astrmus and Eos, and brother of Notns, the 
south, Zephyrus, the west, and Eurus.the east winds. 

Borelli, Giovanni Alfonso, mathematician, 
was born in 1608 at Naples. Educated at Florence, 
he taught mathematics at Pisa and medicine at 
Florence. He was the founder of the iatro-mathe- 
matical sect, or those who sought to apply mathe¬ 
matics to medicine as it is applied in physical 
sciences. Among his writings, the chief is Be 
Motu Animalium. He died at Rome in 1679. 

Borgerhout, a Belgian township adjacent to 
Ant werp, has bleach-fields, dye - works,' tapestry 
factories, corn mills, etc. 

Borghese, Camillo, in 1605 became pope and 
assumed the name of Paul V. He conferred upon 
his relatives wealth and honours, whereby they 
became among the most powerful of the Roman 
nobility. 

Borghese, Camillo Filippo Ludovico, Prince 
Borghese, was born in 1775, at Rome. In 1803 he 
married Pauline, sister of Napoleon, and widow 
of General Leclerc. In 1806 he was created Duke 
of Guastalla, and under the French empire was 
governor-general of the Genoese and Piedmontese 
provinces. On the overthrow of Napoleon he 
retired to Florence, where he died in 1832. He 
had previously separated from his wife. The 
Borghese Palace is one of the finest buildings in 
Rome, and has a rich collection of paintings. The 
Villa Borghese has also some valuable art treasures. 

Borgia, CAESAR, born 1476, was the fourth son 
of Pope Alexander VI. At the age of seventeen he 
was raised to the rank of cardinal, which he after¬ 
wards relinquished, and was made Duke of Valen- 
tinois by Louis XII., with whom his father had 
entered into an alliance against Naples. In 1499 
he married the Princess Charlotte d’Albret, sister 
of the King of Navarre. At the head of a body of 
mercenaries he then engaged, on behalf of the 
Holy See, in a series of petty wars, made himself 
master of Romagna, Perugia, Siena, Piombino, 
Urbino, and even threatened Florence, when his 
father died in 1503, and he himself fell ill. This 
was his enemies’ opportunity, and he was arrested 
and carried to Spain, whence in 1506 he contrived 
to escape, and took refuge at the Court of Navarre. 
He afterwards served in the King of Navarre’s 
army, and was killed in 1507 at the castle of 
Viana. Every species of crime has been ascribed 
to him, but whether truly or not it is difficult to 
say. Among his subjects he enjoyed the reputa¬ 
tion of being just and upright, while he encour¬ 
aged art and literature. It was Cassar Borgia that 
Machiavelli held in view when writing his Principe. 

Borgia, Lucretia, sister of Caesar, was born 
in 1480, at Rome. In 1493 she married Giovanni 
Sforza, Lord of Pesaro, but in four years her 
father, Pope Alexander VI., annulled this marriage 
and gave her to a nephew of the King of Naples, 
Alphonso, Duke of Bisceglia, who in two years 
was murdered by the hired assassins of Caesar 
34 


Borgia, She was next given to Alphonso d’Este, 
son of the Duke of Ferrara. Like her brother, 
Caesar, she has been accused of every kind of 
enormity—incest, poisoning, etc.—but modern re¬ 
searches make these imputations doubtful. She 
was much respected by her subjects, and patronised 
art and letters. She died in 1523. 

Borgognone, Ambrogio, painter, flourished 
1490-1535, was born at Fossano, in Piedmont. He 
is also called sometimes Ambrogio Stefani de 
Fossano. Not much is known respecting his 
career, his most certain production being the Coro¬ 
nation of the Virgin, at Milan. In the National 
Gallery he is represented by The Marriage of St. 
Catherine of Alexandria. 

Borgu, an African district intersected by the 
Niger. At one of the leading towns in this district, 
Boussa, Mungo Park lost his life in 1805. 

Boring, a process of cutting holes in wood, 
metal, rock, or other material, by means of special 
tools designed for the purpose. For small holes in 
soft material the tool merely forces its way into 
the substance, but generally the borer is a rotating 
piece with a cutting edge. Thus for hard wood 
we have the gimlet, a cylindrical screw tapering to 
a point at one end, and having its threads cut in 
such a way as to peel off little shavings as the tool 
penetrates the material. Of this type of cutter 
there are several varieties. The brace ' and bit 
dispenses with the cylindrical screw, consisting 
only of the cutting edge at the end. It may be 
employed for cutting very large holes in wood. 
Similar to the brace and bit is the ordinary boring 
machine used for iron and other heavy metal work. 
Requiring more power, the framework of the 
machine must be substantial and must have firm 
foundations. It is usually driven by steam. The 
drill is modified at its cutting edge to suit the hard 
material it has to cut; the metal comes away in 
small, thin chips. The speed of rotation must not 
exceed a certain definite limit, fixed for each type 
of metal, and much slower than that for wood. If 
this is exceeded the metal is torn away irregularly, 
and the tool is in danger of losing its temper and 
breaking. The work is fixed to a table that admits 
of adjustment in various positions relative to the 
tool, the feeding of which may be done mechani¬ 
cally or by hand. The borer does not always cut 
out the entire hole. Sometimes the hole is already 
cast or wrought, and only requires uniform cutting 
to the requisite dimensions, as in the case of steam- 
engine cylinders. For this work special cutters are 
arranged on to a cylindrical bar, which may be fixed 
while the steam cylinder or other piece of work may 
be made to rotate. A solid core may be cut out 
entire by aid of a trepanning bar —a hollow cylinder 
with cutters round the front edge. [Cannon.] For 
rock-boring diamond drills are most generally used. 
The cutting edges are supplied by black diamonds, 
or carbonados, fixed round the front edge of a 
hollow steel cylinder, as are the cutters in the 
trepanning bar. Lengths of iron tubing are screwed 
on to this as the crown is made to penetrate deeper 
and deeper into the soil. The nature of the cores 











( 146 ) 


Boro Budor. 


Boring Beetles 


of earth contained in the hollow rods shows 
exactly the disposition of the strata penetrated. 
The detritus is washed away by a current of water. 
Boring-rods act on the principle of augers, but 
are not so efficient as diamond drills. Nor are 
rope-borers so efficient, long used by the Chinese, 
and effective when the rocks are soft. In this case 
the cutter is attached to a rope, and descends by 
force of gravity, thus forcing its way through the 
earth. The detritus is lifted up by a scoop. 

Boring Beetles. [Xylophaga, Tomicus, 
Scolytus, etc.] 

Borisov, a town in the Russian government of 
Minsk, is on the Beresina, and near the scene of 
Napoleon's disastrous passage of that river in 1812. 

Borlase, William, antiquary and naturalist, 
was born in 1695, in Cornwall. After studying 
at Oxford he became rector of Ludgvan, and sub¬ 
sequently vicar of St. Just, his native parish. In 
1750 he was admitted to the Royal Society. His 
chief works are Observations on the Antiquities of 
Cornwall, 1754, and Natural History of Cornwall, 
1758. He died in 1772, having given his collection 
to the Ashmolean Museum. 

Born, Bertrand de, was born about 1145, at 
Perigord. He was a troubadour, and many of his 
songs are still extant. Richard Cceur de Lion is 
said to have aided his brother against him on 
account of his satires. Through his verses, too, 
which heightened the quarrel between Henry II. 
and his sons, he is placed by Dante in the Inferno. 
He died about 1209. 

Borne, Ludwig, political writer, w r as born in 
1786, at Frankfort. After studying medicine at 
Berlin (where he met the famous Henrietta Herz), 
and law and political economy at Heidelberg and 
Giessen, he received an appointment in the office 
of police of his native town. Thereafter he applied 
himself to literature, finally settling in Paris in 
1832, where he died in 1837. He was disappointed 
with the results of the French Revolution of 1830, 
having expected to find a new society according 
to his theories. He was an enthusiast and a 
radical, and between him and Heine there sprang 
up a bitter antipathy. His works comprise twelve 
volumes, and embrace satire, criticism, and wit; 
his strong point was sarcasm. 

Borneo, the third largest island on the globe, 
is situated in the Malay Archipelago, being bounded 
N. and W. by the China Sea and Gulf of Siam, 
S. by the Sea of Java, and E. by the Celebes 
Sea. It is divided into two almost equal portions 
by the equator, and covers an area of 283,000 
square miles. The coast line is little broken by 
bays and inlets, and the interior is only partially 
explored. The centre appears to be a plateau 
from which spread out various mountain chains, 
the chief running from S.W. to N.E. along the 
longest axis of the island. The island is plentifully 
supplied with rivers, some of which, though navi¬ 
gable, are yet shut off from the sea by the bars 
at their mouths. There are also a few lakes, the 
largest being Kinabalu. The climate is humid, 


and, notwithstanding the tropical position of the 
island, is in many places temperate. The vege¬ 
tation is rich and varied, and its forests yield 
teak, dye-woods, ebony, guttapercha, gums, resins, 
etc. Its mineral products embrace gold, antimony, 
diamonds, quicksilver, zinc, coal, copper, marble, 
etc.—for the most part very abundantly. Among 
its animals are the elephant, the panther, the 
rhinoceros, the bear, deer, monkeys, crocodiles, 
and a great variety of smaller animals. The in¬ 
habitants are chiefly Dyaks, the aborigines, Malays, 
Chinese, and Buginese. The western, south-east¬ 
ern, and part of the eastern coasts are Dutch 
possessions, and are ruled, for the most part, by 
native chiefs under the Dutch. Of the other 
political divisions of the island, the principal is the 
Malay kingdom, Borneo proper or Bruni, whose 
chief town Brunei is on the river of that name, and 
which is under the supremacy of the Sultan of 
Borneo, but, with Sarawak and British North 
Borneo, is under a British protectorate. On the 
west coast is the principality of Sarawak, made 
independent of the Sultan by Sir James Brooke, 
the noted rajah, and practically under English 
administration; while the island of Labuan off 
the N.W. coast is an English colony. In 1881 the 
British Government granted a charter to an English 
commercial company, which thereby exercises 
sovereign rights over the north of the island, now 
known as British North Borneo, and covering an 
area of over 30,000 square miles. Besides Brunei, 
other leading towns in Borneo are Banjermassin, 
Kuching, Pontianak, and Sambas. In British North 
Borneo the chief settlement is Sandakan or Elopura, 
the capital. 

Borneol. [Camphor.] 

Bornholm, a Danish island in the Baltic, covers 
an area of over 200 square miles, and is 90 miles E. 
of Zealand and 25 miles S. of Sweden. Excepting 
at Ronne, the capital on the W. coast, the island is 
destitute of good and safe harbours. It is fertile 
in the main, agriculture, cattle raising, and fishing 
being the staple support of its inhabitants. It 
yields also good building-stone, marble, porcelain- 
clay, and an inferior quality of coal. 

Bornu, or Bornoro, a Central African country, 
in the Soudan, lies on the W. side of Lake Tchad 
and on the S. of the Sahara. It is for the most 
part flat and fertile, and covers an area of about 
80,000 square miles. Its rivers, of which the Shary 
and the Komadugo Yaobe are the chief, flow into 
Lake Tchad, on the W. shore of which is Kuka, the 
capital, and one of the best markets in Central 
Africa. The chief products are barley, beans, c-otton, 
indigo, maize, and millet; and the wealth of the in¬ 
habitants lies mainly in slaves and cattle, the horses 
of Bornu being famed throughout the Soudan. 
The mass of the people are negroes, and the domi¬ 
nant race, called Shouas, are of Arab descent and 
Mohammedans. 

Boro Budor, the ruin of a Buddhist temple 
in the residency of Kadu, Java, is situated near the 
confluence of the Elio and Progo. It is the most 
splendid monument of Buddhist architecture extant, 








Boron. 


( 117 ) 


Borthwick Castle. 


and is referred by Javanese chroniclers to the 7th 
century. It is pyramidal in form, the sides at the 
base measuring over 500 feet each. It is richly 
ornamented in figures of Buddha, scenes from his 
life, and representations' of battles, processions, 
chariot races, and other designs. 

Boron (symbol B — 10’97), anon-metallic element, 
first isolated by Gay-Lussac and Thenard in 1808. 
It does not occur free in nature, but combined 
with other elements is found as boracic acid (q.v.), 
borax (q.v.), boracite (q.v.), borocalcite, and other 
minerals. It is a greenish brown powder, which is 
only obtained by difficult chemical processes. It 
forms an oxide (B 2 0 3 ), which by union with water 
forms boric or boracic acids. It also forms a number 
of compounds with other elements, but none of any 
commercial or industrial importance. 

Bororo, a large Brazilian nation occupying the 
whole region between Cuyaba and Goyaz. The 
Bororo were lately visited by Dr. Ehrenreich during 
his journey from Paraguay to the Amazon river, 
and are described by him in the Berlin Geographi¬ 
cal Society’s Proceedings for November, 1889. They 
are the chief nation in Matto-Grosso, and formerly 
ruled over a vast territory, but were reduced 
about the middle of the 17th century by Antonio 
Pires de Campo, who founded Santa Anna, Lo- 
nhosa, and other settlements in their domain. They 
were afterwards utilised to suppress the marauding 
expeditions of their hereditary foes, the powerful 
Cayapos of the Upper Parana basin. 

Borough. A borough is distinguished from 
other towns by possessing, or having at some time 
of its history possessed, the right of sending a 
member or members to Parliament, and where the 
right of election is by burgage tenure, that alone is 
a proof of the antiquity of the borough. At the 
present-day “ borough ” almost invariably means 
either a borough corporate (or municipal borough) 
or a parliamentary borough, most, if not all, 
municipal boroughs being also parliamentary. 

Borough-English, the name given to that 
mode of inheritance by which the youngest son in 
some parts of England succeeds to landed property 
to the exclusion of his elder brother. The term 
is derived from a report in the first Year-book of 
Edward III., where burgh-Engloyes is used to 
distinguish this right from burg-Francoyes, the 
right of the eldest son. Borough-English is some¬ 
times made to include analogous customs, by 
which preference is given to remote heirs, and for 
these customs Elton ( Origins of English History , 
ch. vii.) proposes to employ the term “ ultimogeni¬ 
ture,” as suggested by the Real Property Commis¬ 
sioners, or to coin a new phrase like “ juniority,” or 
“junior-right.” In Hampshire this custom is 
known as “ cradle-holding.” Many explanations of 
this mode of succession have been suggested, but 
none is satisfactory. 

Borovitchi, a Russian town in the government 
of Novgorod, is situated on the Msta, an affluent 
of Lake Ilmen. 


Borromean Islands, a group of four islands 
in Lago Maggiore, N. Italy. They are named after 
the family of Borromeo, one of whom—Vitelliano— 
in 1971 converted three of them into gardens. 
They are named : Isola Bella, the most celebrated, 
and having a palace of the Borromeo family with 
fine paintings and other works of art, and a re¬ 
markable garden, with rare exotic trees and shrubs; 
Isola Madre, the largest, Isola San Giovanni, and 
Isola Superiore or Isola dei Pescatori, inhabited by 
fishermen. 

Borromeo, (1) Carlo, saint and cardinal, was 
born in 1588 at Arona, on Lago Maggiore. After 
studying the civil and canon law he was in 1560 
appointed by his uncle, Pope Pius IV., apostolical 
prothonotary, and subsequently Cardinal and Arch¬ 
bishop of Milan. He was an important factor in 
the success of the Council of Trent, and principal 
contributor to the Catechismus Romanus. He 
founded and endowed colleges, seminaries, and 
communities, and devoted himself to good works, 
spending his revenues on the poor. He was inde¬ 
fatigable during the plague at Milan in 1576, going 
without any fear wherever he could afford relief to 
the sick. He died in 1584, and was canonised by 
Pope Paul V. in 1610. Besides the Nodes Vaticance, 
his literary remains comprised homilies, discourses, 
sermons, and letters, published in 1747. A colossal 
statue of him in bronze overlooks Arona. (2) Count 
Frederigo, nephew of the preceding, born in 1564, 
was also Cardinal and Archbishop of Milan, 1595- 
1681. He, too, was famous for his rigid adherence 
to duty, and founded the Ambrosian library. 

Borrow, George Henry, writer and philologist, 
was born in 1803 at East Dereham, Norfolk. His 
early career is known only as given in his book 
Lavengro, a gipsy appellation meaning “ word- 
master,” and which was early applicable to him. 
He was much addicted to associating with gipsies 
and became intimately acquainted with their 
manners and customs and their language. In 1833 
he became an agent of the Bible Society, and in 
this capacity visited Russia, Portugal, Spain, 
Morocco, and other continental countries. In 
1840 he married Mary Clark, the widow of a naval 
officer, and settled on her estate at Oulton, near 
Lowestoft, where the gipsies always had a welcome 
pitch for their tents. He was fond of open-air 
life, a lover of horses and boxing. Besides Lavengro 
he also wrote The Zincali, or Gypsies of Spain, 1840, 
The Bible in Spain, 1843, The Romany Rye , 1857, 
Wild Wales, 1862, and Dictionary of the Gypsy 
Language, 1874. He died in 1881 at Oulton. 

Borrowdale, a valley of W. Cumberland in the 
English lake district, celebrated for its beauty. It 
is five miles S. of Keswick at the head of the 
Derwent, and was once famous for its plumbago. 

Borsad, a town in India, in the N. division of 
the presidency of Bombay. 

Borthwick Castle, a ruined tower near 
Edinburgh, dates from 1430. It is 74 feet long, 
69 feet wide, and 110 feet high. Queen Mary and 
Both well resided here for a few days in 1567. 








Bory de St. Vincent. 


( 148 ) 


Bosnia 


Bory de St. Vincent, Jean Baptiste 
George-Marie, naturalist, was born in 1780 at 
Agen. While still a boy he attracted the attention 
of the Society of Natural History at Bordeaux, and 
in 1798 set out with Baudin’s expedition to Australia 
as naturalist, but left the vessel at Mauritius and 
explored Bourbon and other E. African islands. 
He was present at the battles of Ulm and Austerlitz, 
went in 1808 with Soult to Spain, and served as a 
colonel at Waterloo. In 1829 he led a scientific 
expedition to the Morea and in 1839 to Algeria. 
His chief works are Annales des Sciences Physiques 
(8 vols.) ; Voyage dans les quatre principales lies 
des Jlevs d' Afrique; Expedition Sdentijique dc 
JMoree ; L'Homme: Essai Zoologique sur le genre 
Humain. He died in 1846. 

Boscan-Almogaver, Juan, poet, was born 
about 1490 at Barcelona. Coming to Granada lie 
resided at the court of Charles Y. He is distin¬ 
guished as being the father of the Spanish sonnet. 
His poems were published first in 1543, the year 
after his death. 

Boscawen, The Hon. Edward, third son of 
Hugh Viscount Falmouth, by Charlotte Godfrey, 
niece of the great Duke of Marlborough, was born 
on Aug. 19th, 1711. Little is known of his earlier 
years, save that he went to sea as a midshipman at 
the age of twelve, became a lieutenant in 1732, and 
having been promoted to be captain in 1737, was 
soon afterwards given command of the Leopiard, 
50. In 1739, upon the outbreak of war with Spain, 
he commissioned the Shoreham and was sent to the 
West Indies, but, his ship being out of repair, he 
obtained permission to leave her and accompany 
Admiral Vernon as a volunteer in the successful 
attack upon Porto Bello. Returning in the Shoreham, 
he participated in the less fortunate attempt upon 
Carthagena in 1741, and there gained great distinc¬ 
tion. While engaged in this service he was trans¬ 
ferred to the Prince Frederick, 70, in which he came 
back to England in 1742. Thenceforward he 
cruised for about three years in the Channel, taking 
among many other prizes the French frigate 
Medea, commanded by M. de Hocquart, who, curious 
to relate, was twice subsequently captured by the 
same commander. Having for a season been cap¬ 
tain of the Royal Sovereign, he passed in 1746 to 
the Namur, 74, and, cruising again in the Channel, 
made many more captures. On May 3rd, 1747, he 
was present at Anson’s action with De Jonquieres, 
and was severely wounded. In the same year he 
became a rear-admiral, and was appointed com- 
mander-in-chief in the East Indies, as well as 
general of the land forces there. An attack which 
he made on Mauritius failed, as did also one on 
Pondicherry; and the disasters of the expedition 
culminated with the loss, in a hurricane, of the flag¬ 
ship Namur, the Pembroke, and the Apollo, with 
the greater part of their crews. The admiral 
returned to England in 1750. In the following- 
year he was appointed a Lord of the Admiralty, 
and in 1755 became a vice-admiral and was again 
given command afloat, this time in North America. 
In 1758 he reached the rank of full admiral, and, 
with his flag in a new Namur, 90, took command of 


the expedition against Louisbourg, for his success 
in which he received the thanks of the House of 
Commons. In 1759 he once more hoisted his flag 
as commander of a squadron destined for the 
Mediterranean. M. de la Clue, who commanded 
a French force in Toulon, had the temerity to 
venture out during Boscawen’s temporary ab¬ 
sence from off that port, and was on Aug. 18th, 
1759, brought to action and signally defeated, after 
a two days’ running fight. As a reward, Boscawen 
was appointed a general of marines with a salary 
of £3,000 a year. In 1760 he was again at sea, but 
was unable to effect anything of importance. On 
Jan. 10th, 1761, he died at his seat at Hatclilands 
Park, Surrey. He was buried in the church of St. 
Michael, Penkevel, Cornwall. 

Boscobel, famed in history for being the hiding- 
place of Charles II. after the battle of Worcester, 
1651, is on the eastern confines of Shropshire. The 
“ Royal Oak,” in which he hid himself, is represented 
now by a tree grown from an acorn of the original 
tree. Boscobel House still stands. 

Boscovich, Roger Joseph, mathematician, 
was born in 1711 at Ragusa in Dalmatia. He 
solved the problem of finding the sun’s equator, and 
calculated the time of its rotation by observations 
of the sun spots. After being appointed mathe¬ 
matical professor in the Collegium Romamim, he 
was employed by Pope Benedict XIV. in different 
undertakings, measured in 1750-53 a degree of the 
meridian in the States of the Church, visited London 
in 1760 on behalf of the interests of Ragusa, and in 
1764 became professor in mathematics at Pavia, 
which he held with the directorship of the obser¬ 
vatory of the Brera at Milan. He subsequently 
visited Paris, was appointed director of optics for 
the navy, and received a pension of 8,000 livresJ 
He died insane in 1787. His works comprise a 
great variety of treatises on mathematical and 
physical subjects. But he is probably best known 
by his theory that all bodies are composed of atoms 
or unextended centres of force, each of which 
attracts or repels all the rest. 

Bosio, Francois Joseph, Baron, sculptor, was 
born in 1769, at Monaco. He acquired a reputation 
through the figures he executed for the column in 
Place Vendome. Besides Napoleon, Louis XIII. 
and Charles X. also patronised him. He died in 
1845, while holding the position of Director of the 
Academy of Fine Arts in Paris. 

Bosna-Serai, or Seraievo, capital of Bosnia, 
is situated on the Miljatzka, a tributary of the 
Bosna, and is the centre of the trade of the 
province. It has a palace built by Mohammed II., 
and an old castle; formerly it was encompassed 
by walls. Since 1878 it has belonged to Austria, 
and manufactures articles in copper and iron. 

Bosnia, a Turkish province, placed by the 
treaty of Berlin in 1878 under the administration 
of Austria-Hungary, is situated in the north-west 
of the Balkan peninsula. Its surface, which, with 
Herzegovina, the southern portion, and Novi-Bazar, 
covers an area of about 24,000 square miles, is for 
the most part mountainous, and is traversed by 










Bosporus. 


( 149 ) 


Boston. 


the Dinaric Alps, which here attain their maximum 
elevation. Its chief rivers are the Save, Verbas, 
Bosna, Rama, and Drina. It is chiefly a pastoral 
country, tillage being confined to the valley of the 
Save. It yields coal, antimony, manganese, and 
iron ; and has industries in fire - arms, leather, 
woollens, cottons, and gunpowder. The inhabitants 
are Mohammedans for the most part, and of 
Slavonian origin. It passed under Turkish sway in 
1401, but the Sultan is now only its nominal head. 

Bosporus, or Bosphorus, a narrow strait 
about seventeen miles long, and from a third of 
a mile to two miles wide, connecting the Black 
Sea with the Sea of Marmora, and separating 
Europe from Asia. It is strongly defended by 
forts, and no ship of war belonging to any nation 
other than Turkey may pass through it without 
the permission of Turkey. On its W. side stands 
Constantinople on a gulf of the Bosporus called 
the Golden Horn. The banks of the channel 
present beautiful scenery, being lined with palaces, 
kiosks, villages, and beautiful residences, inter¬ 
spersed with magnificent gardens. From the north¬ 
east there is a continual surface-current, with a 
reverse uncler-current. The channel is about 30 
fathoms deep and the navigation safe. 

Bosquet, Pierre Francois Joseph, marshal, 
was born in 1810, at Mont de Marsan in Landes. 
He rendered signal services in the Crimea at the 
battles of Alma and Inkermann, and was wounded 
at the storming of the Malakoff. In 1856 he was 
made a marshal in the French army, and appointed 
a senator, and in 1861 he died. 

Boss (Dutch, baas , master, perhaps originally 
uncle; cf. German, base , aunt or female cousin). 
In American slang, a master or employer of labour 
—in this sense, no doubt, derived from the Dutch 
settlers in what w 7 as afterwards New York state. 
Also, the wire-puller of a political organisation. 
“Boss Tweed,” the leader of the corrupt and in¬ 
famous Tammany Ring, was a familiar figure in 
New York municipal politics in 1871. 

Bossuet, Jacques Benigne, orator and theo¬ 
logian, was born in 1627 at Dijon. Destined for 
the Church from an early age, he was educated in 
the Jesuits’ college at his native place, proceeding 
in 1642 to Paris, where he continued his studies at 
College de Navarre. Ordained priest in 1652, he 
became a canon of Metz, and soon distinguished 
himself by his Refutation du Catechisme de Paul 
Ferry , a Protestant divine. In 1669 he was ap¬ 
pointed to the bishopric of Condom, and in- 1670 
tutor to the Dauphin, for whose edification he 
wrote Discours sur VHlstoire Universelle , and other 
works. In 1680 he was elected to the Academy of 
France, and in the following year was raised to the 
see of Meaux. In 1682 his Exposition de la Doctrine 
Caiholique , which had been written in 1669, was 
published, and created great excitement in the 
Church. Made a member of the Council of State 
in 1697, he in 1698 became first almoner to the 
Duchess of Burgundy. The occupation of Bossuet’s 


life, which ended in 1704 at Paris, was controver¬ 
ting Protestantism, and defending the rights and 
liberties of the Gallican Church. 

Bossut, Charles, mathematician, was born in 
1730 near Lyons, and appointed professor at 
Mezieres in 1752. After the revolution he taught 
in the polytechnic schools, Paris. His chief work 
was Essai sur VHistoire Generate des Mathematiques. 
He also edited Pascal’s works. He died in 1814, at 
Paris. 

Boston (contracted from Botolph'$ Town, 
St. Botolph having founded a monastery here in 
the seventh century) is a parliamentary and muni¬ 
cipal borough in Lincolnshire, and is situated in a 
rich agricultural district on the estuary of the 
Witham, which divides the town into two parts, 
and is here crossed by an iron bridge. A leading 
feature in the town is the parish church of St. 
Botolph, with its tower, close on 300 feet high, 
which forms a landmark for miles round by land 
and sea. There is also a chapel, built by the 
citizens of Boston in America, to the memory of 
Thomas Cotton, a former vicar. The harbour 
accommodation has recently been greatly improved, 
ships of 2,000 tons being able to reach the centre 
of the town, and the commerce has correspondingly 
increased. Besides the railways, it has communi¬ 
cation with Lincoln, Gainsborough, Nottingham, 
and Derby, by river and canals. Its manufactures 
embrace ropes, sails, agricultural implements, 
leather, bricks, etc. It was the birthplace of Fox, 
the author of the Book of Martyrs , and of Herbert 
Ingram, founder of the Illustrated London News. 

Boston, in the United States, the capital of 
the New England State of Massachusetts, stands 
on a peninsula that projects into Massachusetts 
Bay at the mouth of the river Charles. Among 
its suburbs is Cambridge, the seat of Harvard 
University, and Charlestown, from which it is 
divided by the Charles river, was the scene of the 
battle of Bunker Hill. Boston enjoys good harbour 
accommodation, and is the termini of many lines 
of railway. Its trade is extensive, and its manu¬ 
factures varied. It is also among the best built of 
American cities, having spacious regular streets, 
parks, and many public buildings of architectural 
merit. It is well supplied, too, with religious, chari¬ 
table, and educational institutions; the latter 
comprising, besides 400 elementary and fifty gram¬ 
mar schools, theological, legal, medical, technical, 
and musical colleges, open, for the most part, to 
both sexes. Founded in 1630, Boston is associated 
with the leading events in American history. Here 
was published the first American newspaper in 1704, 
and here the British-taxed tea was thrown into the 
harbour in 1773. 

Boston, Thomas, divine, was born in 1677, at. 
Dunse, Berwickshire. Educated at the University 
of Edinburgh, he was, in 1699, appointed minister 
of a Berwickshire parish, and in 1707 of Ettrick, 
Selkirkshire. His chief works were Human Nature 
in its Fourfold State , The Crook in the Lot . and his 
Autobiography . Through their wide sale these 






Bostryx. 


( 150 ) 


Botany. 


books had a great influence upon the mind of the 
Scottish people. 

Bostryx, a form of inflorescence, sometimes 
called a helicoid cyme, in which there is a sym- 
podium or pseudaxis of successive flower-bearing 
branches so arranged in succession towards one 
side, either right or left, of the preceding one as to 
form a spiral. It occurs in the day-lily ( Hemero - 
callis), and in the secondary branching of the 
common St. John’s-wort ( Hypericum perforatum ). 

Boswell, James, biographer of Johnson, was 
born in 1740 at Edinburgh, where he was educated 
at the university and at Glasgow. He was always 
of a literary turn, and in 1762 published The Cub at 
Newmarket , a humorous poem, and in 1763 Letters 
between the Hon. Andrew Erskine and James 
. Boswell. In this same year he made the acquain¬ 
tance of Dr. Johnson in the back parlour of Tom 
Davies’s shop, in Russell Street, and a close intimacy 
at once sprang up between them. He then pro¬ 
ceeded to Utrecht to study civil law, where he 
received an allowance of £240 a year from his 
father, Lord Auchinleck, a judge of the supreme 
court in Scotland. After leaving Utrecht university 
he travelled on the Continent, visiting Voltaire and 
Rousseau, and returned in 1766 to England, where 
he published in 1768 his Account of Corsica , Journal 
of a Tour to that Island , and Memoirs of Pascal 
Paoli. In 1769, after various love affairs, Boswell 
married a cousin, Margaret Montgomery, a relative 
of the Earl of Eglinton, and in 1773 he removed to 
London, where he was admitted as a member of the 
Literary Club, and immediately set out with 
Johnson on the famous journey to the Hebrides. 
In 1785 appeared the Journal of a Tour to the 
Hebrides, the year after his last meeting with 
Johnson at Sir Joshua Reynolds’. His Life of 
Johnson appeared in 1791, and was rapidly bought 
up. Though on the death of his father in 1782 lie 
had fallen heir to an estate worth £1,600 a year, he 
was yet usually far from solvent, and after his 
wifes death in 1789 his drinking habits grew upon 
him. Towards his death, which occurred in 1795, 
he had become an habitual drunkard. 

Bosworth, an English town in Leicestershire, 
is celebrated as being near Bosworth Field, the 
scene of the termination of the Wars of the Roses, 
where Richard III. was slain in battle in 1485. 

Bosworth, Joseph, philologist, was born in 1789 
in Derbyshire. In 1817 appointed vicar of Little 
Horwood, Bucks, he gave special attention to the 
study of Anglo-Saxon. After other ecclesiastical 
appointments he became in 1858 professor of Anglo- 
Saxon at Oxford, and gave £10,000 to found a 
chair of Anglo-Saxon at Cambridge. His chief 
works are Anglo-Saxon Grammar , Dictionary of the 
Anglo-Saxon Language , and Compendious Anglo- 
Saxon and English Dictionary. He died in 1876. 

Boszormeny, a Hungarian town, capital of 
the Haiduck district, 14 miles N.W. of Debreczin. 

^ Botallack Mine, on the W. coast of Cornwall, 
England, seven miles W. of Penzance, yields copper 


and tin, and extends far under the sea. The 
neighbourhood is a favourite tourist resort. 

Botanic Gardens, gardens for the cultivation 
of plants for scientific study, have done much for 
the advancement of botany. They were originally 
“ physic gardens,” devoted mainly to medicinal 
plants, and either the private property of apothe¬ 
caries, or connected with the medical schools of 
universities. The earliest known public botanic 
garden, that of Padua, was founded in 1533 ; those 
of Florence and Pisa, in 1544; Bologna, in 1547; 
Zurich, in 1560 ; Paris, in 1570 ; Leyden, in 1577 ; 
Leipsic, in 1579 ; Upsala, in 1627 ; Oxford, in 1632 ; 
Edinburgh, in 1670; Chelsea, in 1673; and Kew, 
about 1730. Of late years many fine gardens have 
been established, especially in the capitals of our 
British colonies. 

Botany, from the Greek bbtane. a herb, is that 
division of biology (q.v.) which deals with plants. 

In endeavouring, therefore, to define the province 
of botany as a science, we have to attempt to dis¬ 
tinguish the essentials of plant-life from those of 
animal-life. There is, however, no recognisable 
line of demarcation between what are sometimes 
called the two kingdoms of organic nature. Like 
animals, plants consist largely of protoplasm (q.v.); 
but most plants differ from most animals in con¬ 
taining relatively less of this substance in an 
unaltered form and, as a consequence, less nitrogen. 
Whilst most animals are mainly built up of 
numerous cells not enclosed in any definite mem¬ 
branes, known as plastids (q.v.), most plants are 
made up of cells each enclosed in a definite cell- 
wall composed of cellulose (q.v.) (C 6 H 10 O 5 ) 7i , a com¬ 
paratively simple non-nitrogenous compound. The 
green colouring matter known as chlorophyll (q.v.), 
though present in most plants, is absent* in fungi 
and some others, whilst it occurs in a considerable 
number of the lower animals, so that it is not dis¬ 
tinctive, and the same must be said of both starch 
and cellulose. Nor is there any universal physiological 
distinction. Motion, characteristic of most animals, 
at least at some period in their lives, occurs in 
many of the lower plants, and though muscle and 
nerve, those highly specialised organs of motion, 
are confined to animals, they do not occur in all 
animals. The respiration (q.v.) of plants and 
animals only differs in amount, plants in this 
respect rather resembling cold-blooded animals ; 
but in the case of green plants in daylight the 
effect of respiration upon the air is masked by the 
far more active function of the chlorophyll. ' This 
chlorophyllian function, as it is called, consists in 
the taking in of considerable volumes of carbon-di¬ 
oxide (C0 2 ) from the air and the giving out of pro¬ 
portionately large volumes of oxygen. It is a 
purely nutritive, not a respiratory act, and occurs 
also in green animals. The chief contrast between 
plants and animals is undoubtedly in the nature of 
their food. Plants take in liquid food, generallv 
by roots from the soil, and gaseous food, mostly by 
their leaves, from the air, this food being inorganic 
and being built up in the plant into organic com- 
pounds. Animals take in solid food, but require it 






Botany. 


( 151 ) 


Botany. 



to consist of organic compounds. The exceptions 
to this rule are the insectivorous plants (q.v.) that 
digest solid organic food; fungi (q.v.), which cannot 
construct starch or sugar with the carbon dioxide 
of the air ; some parasitic plants ; some that are 
saprophytic, living upon decaying organic matter ; 
and the green animals already mentioned. 

We may define a plant as a living being of one or 
more cells, or partly of structures formed from cells, 
these cells being surrounded by a cellulose wall, 
the plant usually containing chlorophyll, subsisting 
upon inorganic food and not possessing the power 
of motion. 

Botany may be divided into Pure, Mixed -and 
Applied. Pure Botany, the study of plants in them¬ 
selves, can be considered 
under the two aspects of 
anatomy, or structure, and 
physiology, or function. 
Anatomy is perhaps most 
conveniently divided into 
histology, the science of 
tissues or of microscopic 
structure, and organogra¬ 
phy. that of external form. 

Though we cannot here 
enter into the details of 
the science, we may state 
some of the leading facts 
under each subdivision. 
Though most plants are 
made up of numerous cells, 
this description is inapplic¬ 
able to others, to which 
the name unicellular is 
commonly applied. These 
lowest forms, whether 
fungal, such as the Myxo- 
myeetes (q.v.) and Scliizo- 
phyta [Bacteria], or algal, such as Caulerpa, in 
which there is apparently a distinct root, stem and 
leaf, have no internal partitions of cellulose. Most 
plants, however, not only originate in a single egg¬ 
cell, ovum or oospore (q.v.), but, by its repeated 
division, become multicellular; and, at an early 
stage in their development, differentiation takes 
place, groups of similar cells forming tissues and 
performing special functions. Thus structural 
differentiation is accom¬ 
panied by physiological 
division of labour and 
there is an intimate 
connection between 
histology and function. 

The whole body of the 
embryo, or young plant, 
in its earlier stages, or 
the growing point of 
the root or stem of one 
of the higher plants, 
consists of a tissue of 
small, rounded cells, 
known as parenchyma, 
with thin walls, filled with protoplasm and thus 
capable of cell-division, or merismatic. An external 
cell-layer or epidermis of tubular cells without 


TYPICAL PLANT-CELL. 

p, Cell-wall, w. Protoplasm 
forming primordial utricle 
and strands, s. Vacuole 
filled with cell-sap. r, 
Chloro-plastid. k, Nucleus. 
kk. Nucleolus. 



DODECAHEDRAL PARENCHYMA. 


protoplasm is commonly soon differentiated, and in 
some cases also a central bundle of elongated cells 
(prosenchyma ), some of which may become fused 
together by the loss of their transverse partitions 
into vessels. The outer cell-walls in aerial structures 
commonly become corky or cuticularised, thus 



THALLOID STEM OF MARCHANTIA, WITH FEMALE BRANCHES. 


serving to check transpiration or decay from sur¬ 
rounding damp; whilst between certain superfi¬ 
cial cells ( guard-cells ) are adjustable openings 
[Stomata] regulating transpiration. The vessels 
just mentioned are essentially a conducting-tissue 
conveying the liquid food, their walls being 



THE SAME, WITH MALE BRANCHES. 


generally strengthened against collapse by internal 
thickening-bands of cellulose. Other tissues, of 
which wood is the best-known example, are termed 
mechanical, as adding to the rigidity of such 
structures as a stem. In a leaf, besides the 
epidermis with its transpiration-pores or stomata, 
we have (i) more rigid veins, made up of tough but 
flexible bast-fibres (mechanical) and spirally- 
thickened vessels (conducting); (ii) green cells so 
closely packed below the upper epidermis as to be 
called palisade-cells, specially adapted to assimila¬ 
tion, the building up of organic compounds from 
atmospheric carbon ; and (iii) loosely-arranged 
cells below these, giving the paler green colour to 
the underside of the leaf, with large intercellular 
spaces communicating with the lower stomata, the 
transpiration-tissue. 

As in the lowest plants or in the earliest stages 
of higher plants there is no histological distinction 
between such tissues as these, so too there is little 
or no distinction in external form or structure 
between various parts such as root, stem and leaf. 
















Botany. 


( 152 ) 


Botany 


Some of the larger sea-weeds, for example, may 
have root-like holdfasts, rounded stem-like parts, 
and others flattened and more leaf-like ; but the 
one passes into the other with no articulation nor 
any difference in internal structure. Such an 
indeterminate structure is termed a tliallus. and 
the plants which exhibit them, the Algae and Fungi, 
are called Thallophgta. 

Mosses are the lowliest plants in which we can 
be said to have a true distinction between the stem 
as an axis and the leaf as a ’ distinct lateral 
appendage to it; whilst not until we ascend to the 
still higher grade of the ferns do we meet with the 
root as a true axial absorbent organ. The parts of 
a plant considered from the physiological point of 
view of what function they perform are termed 
organs. From a purely anatomical point of view 
they may all be shown to result from the modifica¬ 
tion of a small number of primitive structures 
known as members , of which the chief are the 
thallus, axis, leaf and hair, sometimes termed 
respectively thallome, caulome, phyllome and 
trichome. Whilst parts performing the same 
function are said to be analogous , those referable to 
the same structural type or member are said to be 
homohrous. As it has been found necessary to 
base our system of classification upon structure 
rather than upon function, the study of homologies 
becomes of extreme importance. The spines of the 
blackthorn, for instance, are the ends of short 
branches; those of the Robinia, parts of the leaf 
(stipules), and the prickles of the rose, distinct 
superficial structures. The three structures are 
merely analogous. So too, whilst all tendrils are 
analogous, some, such as those of the vine, are stem- 
structures, others, such as those of the pea, are 
homologous to leaves. The term Organography is 
generally restricted to the description of the 
external forms of the parts of plants in general, 
the comparative study of their development 
(embryology) under certain general laws of form 
being distinguished as morphology (q.v.). Closely 
connected with organography are the rules and 
terminology employed in the scientific description 
of plants, the test of which is that an artist under¬ 
standing the terms should be able to draw the 
plant from the description. This is called Descrip¬ 
tive Botany. 

As our classification of plants depends upon 
structure, whilst organography deals with the 
structure of plants generally, there is a distinct 
department of anatomy known as Special Anatomy, 
which treats of those structures peculiar to each 
group. The rules for the classification of plants, 
or by some writers, the classification itself, are 
termed Taxonomy , closely connected with which 
are the rules of Nomenclature, or naming plants. 
As to the former we can only mention here that 
“ artificial ” systems of classification, such as that 
of Linnaeus (q.v.), based upon one set of characters, 
are being gradually superseded by an attempt to 
reconstruct the pedigree of the vegetable kingdom 
in a “ natural system,” taking all structural charac¬ 
ters into account. As to nomenclature, the main 
rules are, that every plant has two names, one 
generic , which it may share with other allied forms, 


and the other specific , peculiar to one form; and 
that the first name given to any species in its 
correct genus in, or after the publication of, 
Linnaeus’s Species Plantarum , is that by which it 
ought to be known. 

Passing on to Physiology, the second main divi¬ 
sion of Pure Botany, we may remark that the 
functions of the various parts of plants are almost 
all of them either nutritive or reproductive, the 
functions of relation, siich as motion, sensation, and 
the special senses, which are so important in the 
higher animals, being hardly represented among 
vegetables. The sensitive hairs on the leaf of the 
Venus’ Fly-trap are one of the most strikingly 
exceptional cases. Plant nutrition can perhaps be 
best understood by first considering the life of the 
individual cell (q.v.), after which the action of 
root and leaf as feeding organs and of the stem 
as an organ of food-transfer can be considered. 
Much light is thrown upon this study by organic 
chemistry (q.v.), the composition of "the soil, 
what different species remove from it, and the 
composition of the plants themselves and their 
various organs at various stages of development 
being most important. Experiments in mater- 
culture, or the growth of plants in solutions of 
known composition, have done much to show what 
chemical elements are, and what are not, essential 
to the life of the plant, substances physiologically 
useless being commonly taken in by roots. Whilst 
anatomy is a purely observational study, physiology 
may be largely experimental in all its departments, 
the placing the plant under known artificial con¬ 
ditions often explaining functions more clearly 
than mere observation of the same plant in a 
natural state can do. 

As the result of nutrition, growth is naturally the 
next subject of study, its rate, direction, and modi¬ 
fication bv external agencies being the chief heads 
under which it is considered. Knight’s machine, 
a revolving wheel, is a simple demonstration of the 
law of “ geotropism,” that roots grow towards and 
stems away from the centre of gravity; and it is 
important to bear in mind that though moisture, 
oxygen, and a certain warmth are necessary for 
growth, and light is necessary for the assimilation 
of inorganic carbon, light generally retards growth. 
Thus stems are generally heliotropic, bending 
towards the light, because their illuminated side 
grows more slowly. 

i’he movements of plants are partly connected 
with their unequal growth, as in the unfolding of 
buds and the “ nutation ” or nodding of leaves and 
shoots; and partly with reproduction, the latter 
class of movements being mostly ‘‘irritable,” or 
acting in response to a stimulus and not spon¬ 
taneously. 

Reproduction is either vegetative, as by bulbils, 
offsets, or runners, or sexual. The former is 
simply the discontinuous growth of one individual, 
so that the offspring precisely resembles its one 
parent. Sexuality, the fertilisation of an ovum or 
germ cell by a sperm cell, brought about by the 
most varied means, introducing the fluctuating 
influence of two parents, brings about the pheno¬ 
mena of variation among seedlings. In the lowest 









Botany. 


( 153 ) 


Botany. 


plants sexuality does not seem to have been 
attained, reproduction taking place simply by 
fission or bi-partition. Slightly higher in the 
series we have conjugation, the union, as in Nucor 
and Sgnrogyra, of two similar cells. In the bladder- 
wrack sea-weed, and apparently in most higher 
plants, we get the union of a relatively large germ¬ 
cell with numerous smaller sperm-cells. In several 
large groups of plants (Cryptogamia) these 
sperm-cells are detached portions of protoplasm, 
either free-swimming ciliated “ antherozoids ” (q.v.), 
or non-ciliate “ spermatia.” In flowering plants 
the male element is 
merely the formless pro¬ 
toplasm within a “ pollen- 
tube” emitted by a “pol¬ 
len-grain,” which be¬ 
comes detached from the 
male organ or “ stamen.” 

Lastly, we have many 
large groups, especially 
among fungi, in which 
sex seems to have been 
lost, some sexual organs 
still remaining. [Apo- 
GAMY.] In connection 
with this subject we have 
to consider the various 
agencies by which the 
pollen-grains are con¬ 
veyed to the female 
organ. These are chiefly 
wind and insects, and 
many subordinate parts 
of the higher plants, con¬ 
stituting the “ flower,” 
are specially adapted to 
secure their action. Thus 
wind - pollinated plants 
often flower when bare of 
leaves, having pendulous 
catkins of inconspicuous 
flowers with exposed sta¬ 
mens, yielding abundant 
fine-grained, round, and smooth pollen, and their 
stigmas, the sticky receptive surfaces of the female 
organs, feathery. Insect-pollinated flowers, on the 
other hand, are commonly conspicuous, bright- 
coloured or strongly scented, secreting honey from 
glands indicated by dots, lines, or other variegations, 
and producing large pollen-grains, the surfaces of 
which are commonly furnished with spines, knobs, or 
ridges, by which they are entangled in the hairs on 
the" insect’s body. Some plants again are adapted 
for self-pollination, and may even have some flowers, 
as in the violet, cleistogamous, i.e. fertilised without 
unfolding. Closely connected with fertilisation 
are the questions of hybridism, the possibility in 
many cases of obtaining fertile seed from the 
pollination of a flower by pollen from a distinct 
species. Bhododendron and Azalea, and many 
genera of orchids even produce bigeners or bigeneric 
hybrids, in which the parent species belong to two 
different genera, and the hybrid seedling may even 
be fertilised by a third genus, and so on. When, as 
the result of fertilisation, the ovule, or immature 


seed of a flowering plant, has developed into a 
seed with its store of food-substances, either in the 
embryo or in the surrounding tissue or albumen , the 
questions of seed-dispersal and of germination 
arise. Seeds are commonly furnished with a tough, 
impermeable outer coat, resisting even the action 
of sea-water or digestive acids, and checking pre¬ 
mature germination. If small, they may be carried 
by wind, and they may have tufts of hair, as in the 
willow, or wing-like membranes, as in the pine. 
The variously formed fruits in which they are 
enclosed may, if dry, be small and be similarly 

provided with a pappus 
of hairs, as in the thistles, 
or with wings, as in the 
sycamore ; or may adhere 
by hooks or bristles to 
the wool or fur of animals; 
or may burst elastically, 
as in the balsam ; or, if 
succulent, may attract 
birds or other animals, 
and be eaten, whilst the 
seed they enclose is re¬ 
jected undigested. 

In the ripe seed there 
is generally some store 
of starch, oil, aleurone 
(q.v.), or other food ma¬ 
terial. Under the suitable 
conditions of warmth, 
moisture and oxygen, the 
seed absorbs water and 
swells, and fermentative 
changes, such as the con¬ 
version of insoluble starch 
into soluble malt-sugar, 
take place within, and 
the radicle , or primary 
root of the embryo, bursts 
its way out, followed im- 
. mediately in some cases 
by the cotyledons , or 
embryonic leaves, and 
in others by the plumule or primary bud of the 
axis. 

Anatomy and physiology thus dealing with the 
entire structure and life history of plants, Mixed 
Botany, in which the science is mainly subsidiary 
to geography and geology, deals with the distribu¬ 
tion of plants in space and time. [Distribution.] 
In Palaeozoic rocks the only known plant-remains 
are Cryptogamia (q.v.), or flowerless plants, and 
Gymnospermia (q.v.), or cone-bearers, Angiospermia, 
or ordinary flowering-plants, apparently originating 
in the Secondary period, not till the close of which 
did Dicotyledons (q.v.) become numerous. This 
branch of botany is termed Palccobotany or Palcco- 
phytology. 

The science of botany is applied to various arts, 
plants and vegetable products being put to so many 
and so various uses. Thus Applied Botany is 
practically co-extensive with Economic Botany or 
Vegetable Technology. Vegetable products include 
food substances for men and animals, materia 
medica, oils, gums, dyes, tanning materials, fibres, 






















































Botany Bay. 


( 154 ) 


Botocudos. 


paper-materials, timbers and others, each class 
forming the subject of a separate department of the 
study. Materia medica or pharmaceutical botany 
lias been most carefully investigated from the 
points of view of both the chemist and the 
systematise The study of useful plants when 
alive, their cultivation, diseases, preparation, etc., 
forms the subject of agricultural, horticultural and 
arboricultural botany. [Agriculture, Aeboricul- 
ture, Horticulture, Vegetable Kingdom.] 

Botany Bay, an inlet on the coast of New 
South Wales, was discovered in 1770 by Captain 
Cook, and received its name from Joseph Banks, 
the botanist of the expedition, on account of its 
varied flora. In 1787 it was formed into an 
English penal settlement. The bay is only five 
miles S. of Sydney. 

Bot Flies, a family of flies known as the 
CEstrid;©, of which the larvm are parasitic on 
various mammals; thus Gastropldlus lives in the 
stomach of the horse, and tEstrus , the type-genus, 
in the nasal cavities of sheep. The common name 
is derived from the fact that the swellings known 
as bots on the skin of cattle are caused by the larva 
of Hypoderma , a genus of this family. 

Both, Andrew and John, painters, were born 
in 1609 and 1610 respectively at Utrecht. In Italy, 
where they became renowned, John painted land¬ 
scapes, and Andrew put in the figures, the whole 
appearing to be the work of one individual. 
Andrew was drowned in 1650 at Venice. John, re¬ 
turning to Utrecht, died a year later. 

Bothie, or Bothy, a Gaelic word for a hut; in 
Scotland usually the roughly-furnished dwelling 
provided for male farm-servants. In England the 
word is most familiar as part of the title of a well- 
known poem by A. H. Clough. 

Bothnia, formerly a province of Sweden, divided 
into E. and W. Bothnia by the gulf of that name. 
East Bothnia is now embraced in Finland, and West 
Bothnia in the Swedish province of Norrland. The 
Gulf is the northern part of the Baltic and is well 
supplied with harbours from which timber is largely 
exported. 

Bothriocephalus latus, a parasitic worm 
belonging to the class Cestoda. It is nearly allied 
to Taenia solium , the common tapeworm, but 
attains a larger size than that parasite ever does, 
some specimens being as much as 25 feet in length. 
The adult form occurs in man, in dogs, and in 
cats; it is, however, only met with in certain parts 
of Europe, particularly in Kussia and Sweden. 
Dr. Braem, of Dorpat, has shown that the embryo 
or cvsticercus form inhabits the muscles and 
viscera of certain pikes and eels; and if such 
infected fish be eaten by man in a half-cooked 
condition, the parasite obtains access to the human 
intestinal canal, where it undergoes its remarkable 
development. The embryo attaches itself by its 
booklets to the wall of the intestine, and rapidly 
increases in length by the growth of a series of 
segments. The adult worm has no booklets, but is 
provided with two suckers ; the segments are as a 
rule broader than they are long, and the genital 


sore is situated in the middle of the flat surface, 
and not laterally as in the common tapeworm. For 
the measures employed to expel such parasites, see 
Tapeworm. 

Bothriocidaroidea, an order of the Echin- 

oidea which is characterised by the possession of 
15 zones of plates instead of the normal 20 (cf. 
Echinus). It includes only one genus Bothrioei- 
daris, from the Silurian rocks of liussia. This is 
the oldest known Sea Urchin. 

Bothwell, a village in Scotland, Lanarkshire, 
is situated on the Clyde, about eight miles S.E. of 
Glasgow. The river is here crossed by Bothwell 
Bridge, the scene of the battle so named between 
Monmouth and the Covenanters in 1679. Near the 
village are the ruins of Bothwell Castle, a former 
stronghold of the Douglases, and Bothwellhaugh, 
whence was named James Hamilton, the regent 
Murray's assassin. 

Bothwell, James Hepburn, Earl of, was 
born about 1530. Until the-cleath of his father in 
1556 nothing is recorded of him. Four years later 
he appears to have gone on a mission to France, when 
for the first time he saw Queen Mary, who made 
him a privy councillor in the following year, 1561. 
After an attempt to abduct the queen in 1562 he 
had to seek refuge in France, not appearing at the 
Scottish court after Mary’s marriage with Darnley 
in 1565. In 1567, Feb. 9, after trying to induce 
Mary, during her visit to him at Hermitage Castle, 
to procure a divorce from Darnley, he murdered 
Darnley and carried off the queen to Dunbar Castle 
on April 24th. On May 15th they were married, 
and on June 15th the parting at Carberry Hill (q.v.) 
took place. Bothwell fled; but being ultimately 
captured was imprisoned in Draxholm Castle, where 
he died in 1577. Bothwell was described to 
Elizabeth by Throckmorton as “a glorious, rash, 
and hazardous young man, one whom his adversaries 
should have an eye to.” According to other ac¬ 
counts he was thoroughly selfish and brutal. 

Botocudos, a large wild tribe of the Brazilian 
coast range, between the Kio Dolce and Ilheos 
south and north, 
known from the 
earliest period of 
the discovery, 
and formerly 
very numerous, 
but now greatly 
reduced by the 
systematic 
butcheries of the 
Portuguese; type 
remarkably like 
that of the rude 
Mongolian peo¬ 
ple of Siberia— 
round flat fea¬ 
tures, small nose 
and oblique eyes, 

black lank hair, dirty yellowish complexion; wear 
round wooden disks as lip and ear ornaments, 
whence their name from the Portuguese botoque, a 



BOTOCUDO. 









Botryllidse. 


( 155 ) Boucher de Crevecoeur de Perthes. 


barrel plug; call themselves Nac-nanuk (Nac- 
poruk), sons of the soil, i.e. Aborigines. A few have 
become Mansos, i.e. half-civilised and settled ; but 
the great majority (12.000 to 14,000) are still bravos, 
i.e. “ wild,” at a very low stage of culture, using stone 
implements, living in wretched hovels of branches, 
seldom more than four feet high, treating their 
women with barbarous cruelty, feeding on berries, 
grubs, snakes, lizards and human flesh; they are 
demon-worshippers, and their language, unlike any 
other known tongue, has no word for any numeral 
beyond one (mocenani ); uruhu, said to mean two, 
really means “much” or “many.” See A. H. 
Keane, On the Botocudos (1883). 

Botryllidae, a family of Tunicates known as 
the “ Grape animals” from their resemblance to a 
bunch of grapes. 

Botta, Carlo Giuseppe Guglielmo, historian, 
was born in 1766 in Piedmont. Studying medicine, 
he entered the French army as a physician in 1794, 
and in 1799 was appointed by Joubert a member of 
the provisional government of Piedmont. Though 
he led an active political life in a stirring period, he 
wrote several works, the chief being his History of 
Italy, from 1789 to 1814. He also wrote poems. 
His death occurred in Paris in 1837. 

Botta, Paul Emile, traveller, son of the pre¬ 
ceding, was born in 1802 at Turin. Appointed 
French Consul at Alexandria in 1833, he journeyed 
to Arabia in 1837 and published his observations in 
Relation d'un Voyaye dans V Yemen (1841). In 1843 
he discovered the ruins of ancient Nineveh while 
consul at Mosul. These further explorations were 
published in Memoire de VEcriture Cuneiform e 
Assyrienne and Monuments de Ninive. Botta died 
in 1870, at Acheres, near Poissy. 

Bottesini, Giovanni, was born in 1823 at 
Crema, Lombardy. He became the greatest master 
of his time of the double-bass, and in 1846 was ap¬ 
pointed director of the Italian Opera in Barcelona, 
Havana, Palermo, and Paris. His Methode Complete 
de Contre-basse is a leading work. He died in 1889. 

Botticelli, Alessandro (1447-1515), a cele¬ 
brated painter of the Tuscan school, celebrated for 
the singular beauty of expression which he gave to 
his Madonnas and Venuses. He was a pupil of 
Lippo Lippi (q.v.), and in his latter years came 
under the powerful influence of Savonarola. Acting 
under this influence he destroyed many works 
which had for their subjects scenes from classical 
mythology. He died in great poverty at Florence 
in 1515. 

Bottiger, Johann Friedrich, alchemist, was 
born in 1682 in Reuss-Schleiz. After fruitlessly 
searching for the philosopher’s stone, the King of 
Saxony took him in hand, and made him experiment 
on porcelain, the result being the invention of the 
celebrated Meissen porcelain. He died in 1719. 

Bottle, a vessel with a relatively narrow neck, 
for holding liquids. The earliest bottles mentioned 
in literature were of skins. They are referred to 
in the Bible and by many Greek authors, and are 
often still used in S. Europe for wine : they are of 


considerable capacity. Hollowed gourds, too, are 
an early type of bottle—the neck being made by 
tying the young gourd round with a string near the 
stalk. It is possible that the earliest earthenware 
bottles were made by coating these with clay and 
subjecting them to the action of fire. Earthenware 
bottles are common in the East. Modern bottles 
are made of glass or stoneware. They have also 
been made (to some extent for temporary use, e.y. 
for sending home vinegar from the grocers’ shops) 
from paper in America of late years. 

Bottlehead, Bottlenose, or Beuked 
Whale, a popular name for either of the two 
species of the genus Hyperoodon, from the peculiar 
shape of the head, caused by the elevation of the 
bones of the upper jaw. These whales are found 
in the North Atlantic, frequenting the Spitzbergen 
seas in summer, and passing south in winter. They 
vary in colour, from black in the young to light- 
brown in the older animals ; all are greyish-white 
beneath. A large specimen may attain a length of 
30 feet. The oil from the head yields a kind of 
spermaceti when refined, and that from the blubber 
is scarcely distinguishable from sperm-oil. [Ceta¬ 
cea, Dolphin, Whale.] 

Bottomry. The contract of Bottomry is a 
pledge or mortgage of a ship to secure the repay¬ 
ment of money lent to its owner to enable him to 
carry on a voyage. It is usually in the form of a 
bond called a bottomry bond, the condition being 
that if the vessel be lost on the voyage, the lender 
loses the whole of his advance, but if the ship and 
tackle reach the destined port, they become imme¬ 
diately liable together with the person of the 
borrower for the money lent, and also for the 
premium or interest agreed to be paid upon the 
loan. Money is generally raised in this way by the 
master of a ship when lie is abroad and requires 
money to repair the vessel, or to procure other 
things necessary to enable him to complete his 
voyage. This is allowed to be a valid contract by 
all trading countries for the benefit of commerce, 
and by reason of the extraordinary hazard run by 
the lender. The practice of lending money on ships 
or their cargo and sometimes on the freight is very 
ancient. It was common in Athens and other Greek 
commercial towns. The speech of Demosthenes 
against Lacritus contains a complete Bottomry 
contract, which clearly indicates the nature of 
these transactions at Athens. 

Botzen, or Bozen, a town of Austria, is situated 
at the junction of the Talfer and Eisach, and con¬ 
nected by roads with Switzerland, Germany, and 
Italy. It is thus the busiest town in the Austrian 
Tyrol, and manufactures leather, linen, silk, etc. 

Boucher, Francois, painter, was born in 1703 
at Paris. He was painter to Louis XV. and was 
distinguished both for his landscapes and figures. 
Director of the French Academy, he died in 1 1 70. 

Boucher de Crevecoeur de Perthes, 

Jacques, anthropologist, was born in 1788 at 
Retliel in Ardennes. Napoleon, under whose notice 
he had been brought, sent him on various missions 
to Austria, Germany, Hungary, and Italy. He 






Bouches du Rhone. 


( 156 ) 


Bouguereau. 


wrote on various subjects, but his anthropological 
works only are of importance. He died in 1868 at 
Abbeville. 

"Bouches du Rhone ( i.e . Mouths of the 
Rhone) is a French department, and was formerly 
a part of Provence. Its capital is Marseilles, and it 
is divided into the three arrondissements Marseilles, 
Aix, and Arles. Its chief river is the Rhone with 
its tributary the Durance. Among its industries 
are coal-mines, marble, limestone, and gypsum 
quarrying. Figs, olives, nuts, almonds, etc, are 
also successfully produced, and its salt-works are 
the largest in France. Among other of its products 
are wine, brandy, vinegar, etc. 

Boucicault, Dion, actor and dramatic writer, 
was born in 1822 at Dublin. He produced his first 
drama London Assurance in 1841, and its success di¬ 
verted him from his intention of becoming an archi¬ 
tect and induced him to adopt the stage. In 1853, 
having already produced the Corsican Brothers 
and many other pieces, he went to America, and on 
returning in 1860 to England brought out The 
Colleen Bawn. In 1862 he opened a Westminster 
theatre—a venture that proved unsuccessful. In 
1875 appeared The Shaughraun, his most widely- 
known play. He wrote about 150 different pieces. 
He died in 1890. 

Bouet-Willaumez, Louis Edouard, Comte, 
a distinguished French naval officer, was born near 
Toulon on April 24th, 1808. In 1844, being then a 
captain, he was appointed Governor of Senegal, and 
in 1854 he was made rear-admiral and chief of the 
staff of the French fleet in the Black Sea. Five 
years later he commanded the squadron of blockade 
in the Adriatic. He became a vice-admiral in 1860, 
and a senator in 1865. On the outbreak of the war 
with Germany he was given command of the iron¬ 
clad fleet which was sent to the Baltic, where, how¬ 
ever, he was able to effect little or nothing. He 
died on Sept. 8th, 1871. Admiral Bouet-Willaumez, 
besides being an exceptionally good naval officer’ 
possessed great literary talent, and was the author 
of numerous books, pamphlets, and articles in 
technical periodicals. 

Boufflers, Louis Francis, Duke de, called 
also the Chevalier Boufflers, Marshal of France, was 
born in 1644. In 1662 he entered the army, serving 
under Conde, Turenne, and Catinat. In 1693 he 
was raised to the rank of marshal. His most 
famous exploits were the defence of Namur against 
William III. in 1695, and of Lille against Prince 
Eugene in 1708. His crowning achievement was 
at Malplaquet, where his skilful retreat was con¬ 
ducted without loss. He died in 1711. 

Bougainville, Louis Antoine de, the navi¬ 
gator, was born in Paris in 1729, and after having 
acted as Montcalm’s adjutant at Quebec, set out in 
1766 on a voyage round the world. This occupied 
him for two years and a half. After his return he 
commanded several line-of-battle ships in succession 
and was employed to assist the revolted North 
American colonies in their struggle against Great 
Britain. In 1780 he was made a field-marshal in the 
French army, but from that time forward he | 


withdrew into retirement, and when he died in 
1811 the world in general believed that he had 
already been dead for a quarter of a century. His 
great work, Description d'un Voyage autour du 
Monde, was published in 1772. 

Bougainvillea, a genus of climbing plants, 
natives of South America, belonging to the order 
Nyctaginaceoe. Their inconspicuous tubular flowers 
are in groups of three, enclosed by three large sub- 
membranous tracts of a rosy-pink colour. The 
genus is named after the French circumnavigator, 
Louis Antoine de Bougainville (1729-1811). 

Bough, Samuel, the artist, was born in 1822 
at Carlisle. His father was a shoe-maker, and he 
himself received no regular art instruction. In 
1845, however, he was employed in Manchester as 
a scene-painter, and subsequently at Glasgow, where 
Sir D. MacNee persuaded him to take up landscape 
painting. In 1856 he was made an associate of the 
Royal Scottish Academy, and in 1875 a full member. 
His chief works include Canty Bay, The Rocket 
Cart, St. Monance, London from Shooter's Hill, 
Royal Volunteer Review , which is in the Scottish 
National Gallery. He died in 1878 at Edinburgh, 
where he had been settled for twenty years. 

Bougie, a fortified seaport on the Bay of 
Bougie, Algeria, is an important trading centre. It 
was the Saida of the Romans, the capital of Genseric, 
King of the Vandals, and under the Arabs enjoyed 
the distinction of being named “Little Mecca.” 
The name “ bougie,” as applied to a wax candle, 
comes from this town. 

Bougies are flexible cylindrical rods of suitable 
length and diameter employed in surgery for 
passing through abnormal constrictions produced 
by disease in certain mucous canals. They are 
usually either made of vulcanite or of a substance 
called gum elastic, and are especially employed in 
diseases of the urethra, rectum, and oesophagus. 
Medicated bougies are sometimes used for locally 
applying remedies to diseased mucous surfaces. 

Bouguer, Pierre, mathematician, was born in 
1698 in Brittany. In 1729 he published Essai 
d Optique sur la Gradation de la Lumiere, showing 
the rate at which light is lost in passing through 
atmosphere. He was then made professor of 
hydrography at Havre, and succeeded Maupertius 
as associate geometer at the Academy of Sciences. 

In 1735 he accompanied Godin, La Condamine, 
and Jussieu to Peru to measure a degree of the 
meridian at the equator, and published an account 
of their labours in Tlieorie de la Figure de la Terre 
He died in Paris in 1758. 

Bouguereau, Guillaume Adolphe, painter, 
was born in 1825, at La Rochelle. After studying 
at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, and working under 
Picot, he gained, in 1850, the Grand Prix de Rome, 
his subject being Zenohie Trouvee sur les Bords de 
VAraxe. On returning from Rome, in 1855, he 
exhibited Le Triomphe du Martyre, showing the 
body of St. Cecilia being carried to the catacombs, 
a picture that was purchased by the State. His 
latest works, which illustrate the usual nature of 











Bouille. 


( 157 ) 


Boulevard. 


liis themes, are The Youth of Bacchus, 1884 ; The 
Adoration of the Magi, 1885 ; The Adoration of the 
Shepherds, 1885. He has also painted portraits, 
and done decorative work in the Hotel Pereire, 
Paris, the Bordeaux theatre, and the churches of 
St. Augustine and St. Clotilde, Paris. 

Bouille, Francois Claude Amour, Marquis 
de. French general, was born in 1739, at Cluzel 
castle, Auvergne. He signalised himself in the 
Seven Years’ war, became governor of the island 
of Guadeloupe, and commander-in-chief of the 
French forces in the West Indies. He was nomi¬ 
nated by Louis XVI. a member of the first 
Assembly of Notables, and in 1790 appointed to 
the command of the army of the Meuse, the Saar, 
and the Moselle. He did all he could to assist the 
escape of Louis XVI., and for this had to flee, 
entering the service of Gustavus III. of Sweden in 
1791. He ultimately came to London, and pub¬ 
lished his Memoirs of the French Revolution, and 
died in 1800. 

Bouillon, originally a German duchy, is now a 
district in Belgium in the Grand-duchv of Luxem¬ 
burg. It belonged to Godfrey of Bouillon, the 
celebrated Crusader, who pledged it to the Bishop 
of Liege in order to raise funds for his crusade. It 
was united to Belgium in 1837. The capital of the 
district is also named Bouillon, and is situated on 
the Semoy, nine miles north-east of Sedan. 

Bouilly, Jean Nicolas, dramatist, was born 
in 1763, at La Coudraye, near Tours. He was 
nicknamed the poete lacrymal from his excessi\e 
sentimentality. His chief works include Pierre 
le Grand, a comic opera, L'Abbe de VEpee, Les deux 
Journees , etc. He died in 1842, at Paris. 

Boulainvilliers, Henri de, Lord of St, Saire, 
writer, w r as born at St. Saire, Normandy, in 1658. 
He wrote numerous historical books, but all are 
marred by his class prejudice, and are now value¬ 
less. They include History of Mahomet, History of 
the Arabians, History of the Peerage of France, etc. 

Boulak, a town of Lower Egypt, on the right 
bank of the Nile, is the port of Cairo, from which 
it is distant about one mile. Its industries embrace 
cotton, paper, and sugar; it lias also the national 
museum of Egyptian antiquities. 

Boulanger, George Ernest Jean Marie, 
general, was born in 1837, at Rennes. Aftei sell ing 
in Algeria, Italy, and China, he rose to the rank of 
colonel during the siege of Paris, general of 
brigade in 1880, and minister of war in 1886. He 
also became chief of the anti-German paity, and 
after the fall of the Goblet ministry in 1887 was 
sent as commander of the 13th army corps at 
Clermont-Ferraud. In 1888 he was deprived of his 
command for remarks made on his successor at the 
war office. Resigning his seat, he was elected to 
the Chamber of Deputies for two depaitments, liz. 
the Nord and the Dordogne. His programme was, 
appeal to the people for revision of the constitution 
and abolition of the parliamentary system He 
attracted all those who were in any way discon¬ 
tented with the existing regime, which m 1887 had 
received a severe shock from the “ W ilson scandals 


affecting President Grevy’s son-in-law. In 1889 he 
again stood for three departments, the Nord, 
Somme, and Charente Inferieure, and for a division 
of Paris, and was elected in each case. Shortly 
afterwards, however, he was prosecuted for alleged 
misappropriation of public money while war 
minister, and, having lied the country, was con¬ 
demned by default. He then had to seek refuge in 
England, and he afterwards lived in Jersey and 
Brussels. 

Boulay de la Meurthe, Count Antoine, 
statesman, was born in 1761, at Chaumonzey, in 
the Vosges. He adopted the side of the Revolution, 
and afterwards of Napoleon, and took an active 
part in preparing the Code Civil. He wrote an 
essay on The Commonwealth in England, and died 
in Paris, in 1840. 

Boulder-clay, a clay containing boulders or 
fragments of various other rocks. Boulder-clays 
are of Pleistocene age, being either marine and 
stratified, in which case they, or the boulders they 
contain, are the result of floating ice, or terrestrial 
and unstratified, when they represent the ground- 
moraine of a glacier or ice-sheet. The boulders 
range in size from mere grit up to masses weighing 
many tons, the latter in Britain being more frequent 
in the north. From the abundance of pellets of a 
hard chalk, mainly derived from Lincolnshire, 
much of the boulder-clay of Suffolk, Essex, 
Hertfordshire, etc., is almost white and is known 
as the chalky boulder-clay. In Scotland boulder- 
clay is commonly known as till. Gravels and sands 
are commonly associated with the clay, sometimes 
as mere local patches lenticular in form, and some¬ 
times more extensive. Derived fossils, often ice- 
scratched, occur in the clay, and flint-implements 
have apparently been found under some layers of 
it; but the attempts to subdivide it and to correlate 
its divisions chronologically have not as yet been 
successful. The clay is sometimes remarkably 
contorted, as at Cromer and Sudbury, and may 
enclose large detached masses of older formations, 
and this disturbed character frequently extends to 
the upper part of the underlying rocks, suggesting 
a ploughing action of ice driven over the surface 
with enormous force. Boulder-clay varies in 
thickness from 80 or 90 feet downwards, being 
generally thinner on mountain-slopes. It occurs 
extensively in Scotland, England, north of the 
Thames, Scandinavia, North Germany, Northern 
and Central Russia, and in the northern half of 
North America. 

Boulevard (a French corruption of the German 
bolliverh, English bulwark), properly, the rampart 
of a fortified city. Part of the fortifications of 
Paris was removed in 1786, and the space con¬ 
verted into avenues flanked by two rows of trees. 
To these the term was applied, and it was after¬ 
wards extended to the similar streets (Boulewud 
des Capucines, des Italiens, etc.), formed under the 
Second Empire by Baron Haussmann, which are 
one of the most striking features of modern Paris. 
These of course are not on the sites of fortifications. 
They have been imitated in other French towns, in 
New York, and, to some extent, in London. 











Boulogne-sur-Mer. 


( 158 ) 


Boulton. 


Boulogne-sur-Mer, a seaport on the north¬ 
west coast of France, lat. 50° 43' N., long. 0° 43' 
W., in the department Pas-de-Calais, head of 
arrondissement and of canton, situated at the 
mouth of the Liane which flows into the Straits 
ot Dover. It presents three great points of interest: 
1st, it is the great seat of the French North Sea 
fishing trade; 2nd, as being one of the principal 
ports of debarkation from England ; 3rd, as likely 
to be, when the new harbour is finished, a very 
important naval station. 

The town, built upon the right bank of the Liane, 
is divided into the Upper and Lower towns. The 
Upper town is the ancient fortified Boulogne and 
is surrounded by ramparts, through which you 
enter by a fine old gateway into the Place Godefroi, 
where are the H6tel de Ville, and the cathedral- 
modern—which, with its dome 300 feet hio-h 
contains a miraculous image of the Virgin This 
image, according to tradition, arrived of its own 
accord in a boat at Boulogne, and has always been 
held m high veneration. The castle, built 1251 
wiH be remembered as the prison of Louis Napoleon 
after the failure of his noted Boulogne expedition, 
in 1840. The ramparts have been planted with 
trees and form a pleasant promenade around the 
Upper town. 

The Lower town contains the picturesque but 
somewhat dirty fishing-quarters, and the many 
hotels and shops which have grown out of the 
cross-channel traffic, and the great colony of Eng¬ 
lish, who, for divers reasons—more in former times 
than now—wished to be out of England, and found 
Boulogne a pleasant spot, and one not too remote 
rom their own shores. The fishing population 
form a striking feature in the daily life of Boulogne 
and few can visit the town without admirino- the 
spnngy walk and the quaint caps of the fishwives. 

^ Sh .° U 1 ld , n ? t 0mit to visit the °P en market, by 
, Nicholas church, in the steep Grand’ Rue which 
leads up to the ramparts, or the neighbouring 
village of Portaleis, with its distinct populace 
wtio retain their own peculiar costume. 

Three bridges over the Liane join Boulogne to 
its suburb of Capecure, where are the railway 
works and most of the factories. These are 
chiefly pottery, glass and tile works, salt and 
sugar refineries, spinning mills, steel pen factories, 
cement works, smelting furnaces, and iron foun¬ 
dries. There is an important iron foundry at a 
village a mile or two out of Boulogne. The new 
deep-sea harbour will be contained by a break¬ 
water of about 4,000 yards long, with a central 
mole of about 1,200 yards by 200 yards wide, and 
will accommodate the largest vessels at low water. 

the sands of Boulogne make a pleasant bathing- 
ground and lounge; and of late a doctor has put 
them to a new use, by bringing scrofulous and 
rachitic children to the sands, and making them 
take a daily sand-bath (so to speak) in the sun. 
Ihis has brought about some wonderful cures— 
whether they be the effect of the sand, or the sun 
or the air, or all together. The Tintelleries make 
a pretty garden and recreation ground, and it is a 
pleasant walk out over the cliff to the Napoleon 
Column, erected partly to commemorate the first 


distribution (1804) of the cross of the Legion of 
Honour by Napoleon, and partly to commemorate 
the celebrated camp which was pitched on this 
spot when Napoleon formed the project of invad¬ 
ing England by means of a flotilla of flat-bottomed 
boats. Boulogne is said to have been founded by 
Caligula, who built a lighthouse at Bononia. After 
different changes, it belonged, in 1435, to the Duke 
< ?,, 7 Bur £> an( ty’ an( ^ became a French possession in 
1477, under Louis XI. It was taken by Henry VIII. 
in 1544, but was restored to France in 1550. 
Godfrey de Bouillon was Count of Boulogne The 
underground parts of the castle are of great arch¬ 
aeological interest. 

Boulogne-sur-Seine, a town of France, in 

the Seine department, arrondissement of St. Denis 
on the right bank of the Seine, and about five 
miles from Paris. It lies between the Seine and 
the well-known wood called the Bois de Boulogne 
and is opposite St. Cloud. It is not without some 
connection with Boulogne-sur-Mer, since, in 1319, 
Philippe V. gave leave to Parisians and others who 
had made the pilgrimage to Boulogne-sur-Mer, to 
build a church at the village of Menus, by St. 
Cloud, and this church, becoming also the object 
a soon gave a new importance to 

the village. The Bois de Boulogne—called also the 
Torest of Bouvray, and, in old times, the Wood of 
bt. Cloud—is between Boulogne and Paris, and has 
been from time almost immemorial, and still is 
one of the chief pleasure places around Paris! 

A visit to Paris would be incomplete without a 
drive in the Bois ; and it is in some measure to 
Paris what Rotten Row is to London, save that it 
is more democratic and considerably more varied 
in its pleasures. It is now a gigantic park, with 
water, wood, lawns, fountains, avenues, and broad 
walks, having been made over to the city of Paris 
in 18o3. There was a royal castle here, said to 
have been built by Francis I., in remembrance of 
, c . astl « , where Chiles V. kept him prisoner; 
and the Bois was one of the scenes of the extra- 
vagant pleasures of the court and noblesse down 
to the Revolution, when it became equally the 
resort °f the dandies of the First Republic, and is 
stdi the necessity of life to fashionable Paris under 
the Ihmd Republic. The wood suffered in 1815 
when part of the army of occupation was en! 
camped there and military necessities played 

W n h during the sie S e of Pari s in the late 
Franco-German war of 1870. It would not be 

^ th /* 8 ? ject ° f Bou %ne-sur-Seine 
Without a word of tribute to the many laundresses 
for whom the town is famous. * ldunaresses 

Boulton, Matthew, English engineer and 
manufacturer (1728-1809). Born at Birmingham, 
he succeeded to his father’s important business 
as stamper and worker in metal, and having 
discovered a new method of inlaving steel, h? 
founded his afterwards famous factory at Soho 
near Birmingham. Seven years afterwards lie 
began to use steam, and went into partnership with 
James Matt. The two together made many im- 
m f.^e-building, and they applied 
feteam to the working of an engine for striking medals 














Boundary. 


( 159 ) 


Bourbon. 


and coining money. Very soon they were employed 
in minting silver and copper for the East India 
Company, for Sierra Leone, and others, and their 
principle was adopted at the Tower Mint. Boulton 
had also an important foundry at Smethwick for 
making the different parts of steam - engines. 
Paul I., of Russia, commissioned him to supply 
St. Petersburg with all apparatus necessary for 
two minting-houses. In 1773 he discovered a 
method of mechanically engraving two-coloured 
pictures. He was a member of the Royal 
Societies of London and Edinburgh, and did much, 
both by his own efforts and discoveries, and by 
his generous patronage, to advance mechanical 
knowledge and practice. 

Boundary, in Geometry, means the geometrical 
entity that separates any other geometrical entity 
from its surroundings. The four geometrical entities 
usually dealt with are solids, surfaces, lines, and 
points. A solid is bounded by surfaces, a surface 
by lines, and a line by points. If the surfaces 
bounding a solid be given, the solid is completely 
determined. But given the close curve bounding 
a surface, we may obtain an infinite number of 
other surfaces with the same boundary. So also 
an infinite number of different lines may be bounded 
by the same two points. [Geometry.] 

Bounding Charter. A term used in the 
Law of Scotland for indicating lands by their 
boundaries. A bounding charter passes the right 
to everything within the bounds therein set forth 
(hence the "term), but it does not permit the 
acquisition of anything outside such bounds. If the 
subject matter of the charter be bounded by walls, 
these do not, generally speaking, pass by the grant, 
and where a wall is intended for mutual use, this 
should be expressed. The boundaries described 
determines the extent of the grant, though its 
measurement may exceed the quantity stated in 
the grant. 

Bounds, Beating the, an old English custom, 
which has parallels in other countries. Usually at 
Whitsuntide the clergy, churchwardens, and boys 
of the parish school used to perambulate the boun¬ 
daries of the parish, the boys striking the boundary 
line from time to time with willow wands. Some¬ 
times the boys were whipped at important points, 
to fix the subjects in their minds. The custom 
lasted in some places far into this century. 

Bounty. 1- A sum given by a government, 
either directly or in the form of a remission of 
taxation, to encourag'e some branch of manufac¬ 
ture or production among its inhabitants. Such 
bounties were common in Adam Smith’s time, and 
the “ sugar bounties ” (which are a return of the 
tax paid on all such sugar as is exported) given by 
France, Germany, and other foreign nations for the 
manufacture of beetroot sugar, are a familiar 
modern instance. The main economic objection fo 
them is that they draw part of the capital of the 
country into a business which is not natuially 
profitable enough to attract it, but which is made 
attractive at the expense of the tax-payer. Thus 
the aggregate national capital does not increase so 


fast as it would were it left alone; and the greater the 
national capital the more employment for labour. 
Thus the bounty eventually defeats its own object. 

2. The sum of money paid to recruits on 
entering the service. In war time, in England and 
America, this has often been large. In the great 
French war it was sometimes upwards of £20. A 
bounty of £2 per annum is now given to each man 
in the militia reserve of the British army. 

3r The Royal Bounty is ( a ) an annual grant of 
£2,000 to the Church of Scotland, ( b ) the sum given 
in England for encouraging the breed of horses, 
hitherto usually expended in Queen’s Plates. The 
Queen’s Bounty is the sum, usually of £1 per child, 
given by Her Majesty to poor women who have 
three or more children at a birth. 

Bouquetin, the French popular name of the 
Ibex (q.v.), occasionally used in English literature. 

Bourbaki, Charles Denis Soter, French 
general, born at Paris 1816, of a Greek family. He 
entered the French army as sub-lieutenant of 
Zouaves in 1836, and went through the different 
steps to the rank of general-of-division, which he 
obtained in 1857. He took part in the Crimean 
war, and distinguished himself at Alma, Inker- 
mann, and the taking of Seba.stopol, and was also 
in the Italian campaign of 1859. He commanded 
the Imperial Guard atMetz in 1870,and afterwards 
under the Dictator Gambetta he commanded the 
army of the Loire. He failed to break through 
the Prussian line at Belfort, and met with other 
serious reverses, and his army, after much suffer¬ 
ing, was forced to cross the Swiss frontier near 
Pontarlier. He then attempted suicide, in despair. 
After commanding an army corps at Lyons for a 
few years, he retired in 1881. 

Bourbon, a French family name, which became 
that of the royal houses of France, of Spain, and of 
Naples and the Sicilies, besides having several 
collateral branches. When the Constable Charles 
de Bourbon was disinherited and died (see below) 
his possessions fell to a younger branch of the 
family, and so finally to Antoine (1537-1562), who 
by his marriage with Jeanne d’Albret became King 
of Navarre. Of this marriage were born Catherine 
de Bourbon and Henri de Bourbon, who, as Henry 
IV., became King of France, and the founder of the 
French royal house of Bourbon. It is impossible, 
in a limited space, to give more than the barest 
outline of each of the chief branches :— 

French Bourbons. 1. Henri IV. (1589-1610). 

2. Louis XIII. [his 2nd son, Philippe d’Orleans, 
was founder of the Orleans branch] (1610-1643). 

3. Louis XIV. (1643-1715) [his grandson, Philippe 
d’Anjou, was founder of the Spanish branch]. 

4. Louis XV. (1715-1774), grandson of Louis XIV. 

5. Louis XVI. (1774-1793), grandson of Louis XV., 
beheaded. 6. Louis XVII. (1785-179o), did not 
reign, died in the Temple (prison). 7. Louis XVIII. 
(1814-1824), brother of Louis XVI. 8. Charles X. 
(1824-1830), brother of Louis XVI. 9. Henri, 
Duke of Bordeaux, Count of Chambord, born 1820, 
never reigned, and died childless, 1883, thus ending 
the eldest branch of the French Bourbons. 









Bourbon. 


( 160 ) 


Bourdon de l’Oise. 


Orleans Branch. 1 . Philippe, Duke of Orleans, 
died 1701. 2. Philippe, regent, died 1723. 

3. Louis, died 1752. 4. Louis-Philippe, died 1785. 

5. Louis Philippe (Egalit§), beheaded 1793. 

6. Louis Philippe, king 1830-1848, died in exile 
1850. Louis Philippe left four sons, who, or their 
descendants, now represent the legitimate branch 
of the French royal house. 

Spanish Bourbons. This branch has hardly 
played a sufficient part in European politics to call 
for much notice. It begins with Philippe of Anjou, 
second grandson of Louis XIV., who was called to 
the Spanish throne by the will of Charles II., 
King of Spain, and was crowned as Philippe IV. 
L Philippe V. (1700-1746). 2. Ferdinand VI. 
(1746-1759), died childless. 3. Charles III. 
(1759-1788), son of Philippe V. 4. Charles IV. 
(1788—resigned his rights in 1808 to Napoleon I.). 

5. Ferdinand VII. (1814-1832), died without sons. 

6. Isabelle II. (1833, deposed in 1868) ; her right 
was disputed by her uncle Don Carlos, younger 
son of Charles IV. 7. Alfonso XII. (1874-1885). 
8. Alfonso XIII. (posthumous, 1886). 

The Neapolitan branch began with Charles III 
(a son of Philippe of Anjou, King of Spain) 1738, 
and ended with Francis II. (great-great-grandson 
of Charles III.), who was expelled in 1860, and the 
kingdom came to an end. 

Bourbon, Charles, Duke of, commonly 
called the Constable de Bourbon, Count of Mont- 
pensier and la Marche, warrior and adventurer 
(1490-1527). By birth the second son of the Count 
of Montpensier, he became possessed, first by the 
death of his eldest brother, and second by a 
marriage with his cousin, Suzanne de Bourbon, of 
the immense property of the Bourbons, includino- 
among other parts, Bourbonnais, half of Auvergne’ 
la Marche, and Beaujolais. Beginning his life of 
a, soldier as the companion in arms of Bayard, he 
lived to receive Bayard’s djdng reproaches for 
having deserted his country. It was his courage 
and coolness that chiefly contributed the victory of 
Agnadel (1513) and saved Burgundy from the 
Swiss. For this ^victory Francis I. made him 
Constable. In 1515 his almost mad courage gained 
for him the governorship of Milan and Lombardy 
Soon after, for some cause or other, whether, as 
some say, for being a rival in love of the king 
or whether, as others say, for disdaining the love 
of Sav oy (the queen-mother) he fell 
into disfavour, and the king heaped many slights 
upon him. Things went from bad to worse, till at 
last,, when Louise of Savoy laid claim to the pos¬ 
session of the Bourbons, he began to intrigue with 
Charles \ ., asking in marriage the hand of Eleanor, 
the Emperor s sister, and offering his aid in the 
invasion of France. His treachery was discovered 
and in lo23, instead of arriving in Germany as an 
important general, he reached it as a fugitive. The 
Emperor, however, gave him the post of lieutenant- 
general, and sent him to Italy, where he defeated 
and drove out the French under Bonnivet. It was 
at this point that he received the reproaches of the 
dying Bayard. He went on his course, and had a 
great share in the victory of Pavia—so disastrous 


to Francis I. (see Boulogne-sur-Seine), and 
then, perhaps thinking himself neglected, started 
a war on his own account in Italy, in order to make 
himself King of Milan. Played with on all sides— 
by the Spanish, by the Emperor, by Francis I.—he 
became desperate, and getting together an army of 
free-lances—such as we read of in Bulwer Lytton’s 
Rienzi — he attacked Rome and was mortally 
wounded, it. is said by Benvenuto Cellini, in the 
assault. His comrades buried him at Gaeta. 
An edict of parliament at Paris branded his 
memory, ordered his possessions to be forfeited, 
and his house to be painted yellow—the traitor’s 
colour. Charles V. had gratitude enough to insist, 
in the treaty of Cambrai, on a part of this sentence 
being remitted. 

Bourbonnais, an ancient province of France, 
once the duchy of Bourbon, belonging to the 
departments of the Allier, Puy-de-Dome, the 
Creuse, and the Cher, and lying to the north of 
Auvergne. The Loire bounds it on the east, and 
the Cher on the west, and the Allier cuts it into 
two unequal parts, called respectively Upper and 
Lower Bourbonnais. Its capital is Moulins, and 
among its great towns are Gannat, Montbichon, 
and Vichy. Bourbonnais produces wine, grains, 
hemp, and fruit; and has iron and copper mines, 
and coal pits, and also marble quarries. Its 
mineral waters are abundant and renowned. 


Bourdaloue, Louis (1632-1704), born at 
Bourges, died at Paris, great French preacher. 
Becoming a Jesuit novice at sixteen years old, he 
finished his course, and preached for some years 
in the provinces. He was called to Paris in 1670, 
when Bossuet was at the height of his fame. He 
succeeded Bossuet, whose other duties made him 
preach less often, and if he did not surpass Bossuet 
he suffered no loss by comparison* with him 
Madame de Sevigne was charmed with his preach¬ 
ing, and he was sent for to preach at Court ten 
times, wheieas a preacher hardly ever appeared 
there more than three times. Perhaps the greatest 
compliment to his talents was the exclamation of 
Marshal de Grammont— By God, he is rio-ht! ” 
Fenelon, strangely enough, condemns him pretty 
severely as an orator. Voltaire puts him alongside 
Pascal, the great opponent of the Jesuits. He has 
been called “ king of preachers, and preacher of 
kings. His pure morals and virtuous life did much 
to counteract Pascal s accusations against the 
Order. Bourdaloue died with calmness and resig¬ 
nation, in full harness, at the age of seventy-two 
Among his best sermons are those on The Concep- 
Uon The Last Judgment, and The For oneness 
of Injuries; and his masterpiece is thought to be 
that on The Passion, in which he shows that the 
death of Christ is the triumph of His power 


Bourdon de POise, Francois Louis (born 

about 1750, died 1797), a French revolutionist, and 
member of the Convention. He was born, near Com- 
piegne, of a family of farmers, and having read for 
the bar became an agent to the parliament of 
Pans. He threw himself with enthusiasm into the 
revolutionary cause, joined in the attack on the 











Bourdon Gauge. 


( 161 ) 


B our get. 


Tuileries, and was sent to the Convention by the 
department of the Oise, whose name he adopted. 
He voted for the death, without respite or appeal, 
of the king, and had a share in the fall of 
the Girondins. Shortly afterwards he fell out with 
Robespierre, who had him excluded from the 
Jacobins. From this moment he became more 
and more anti-revolutionist, and, as a member of 
the Council of Five Hundred, gave such offence to 
those in power that he was banished by the Direc¬ 
tory to Guiana, where he soon died. He was ac¬ 
cused of having made a fortune by trafficking in 
assignats and national property. 

Bourdon Gauge, an instrument for measuring 
gaseous or liquid pressure, very extensively adopted 
in mechanical engineering. If a bent tube be closed 
at one end, and then be subjected to internal fluid 

pressure applied at the 
other end, greater than 
that of the atmosphere 
outside, the tube will 
tend to straighten itself. 
An opposite effect mani¬ 
fests itself when the 
internal pressure is re¬ 
duced below that of the 
atmosphere. If one end 
of the tube be fixed, the 
motion of the other 
end may be made to 
record the difference between external and internal 
pressures. This is the principle of the Bom don 
gauge, a sketch of whose working parts, is heie 
given, t A is the bent tube, shown in section at s. 
It opens at T into the boiler, condensei, 01 othei 
vessel where the pressure is to be estimated. B is 
the closed end of the tube. Its motion is made to 
turn the needle B p, pivoted at c, by means of the 
small link A b. The motion may be more neatly 
magnified by means of spur-gearing. 

Bourgelat, Claude (1712-1779), founder of 
veterinary surgery in France. Born at Lyons, he 
became a barrister, quitted the bar for the army, 
where he became one of the first horsemen 
in Europe. Always fond of horses, and seeing 
that there was no method in farriery as then 
practised, he entered on a course of comparative 
anatomy, and with a view to the better under¬ 
standing of animals he made himself thoioughly 
acquainted with the human subject. The first 
veterinary school was opened in 1762 at Lyons, 
and attracted students from all Europe. The 
government made him inspectoi-general of all 
veterinary schools, and in 1765 he founded the 
school of Alfort, He was not only a thoroughly 
scientific man, but also an elegant and voluminous 
writer. He corresponded with many European 
celebrities, and there are extant two very inter¬ 
esting letters from Voltaire to him. touching 
chiefly on diseases of animals. Frederick the Great 
wrote to ask his opinion whether the gallop or the 
trot is the better pace for a cavalry charge. Bour¬ 
gelat decided in favour of the trot, 

Bourg-en-Bresse, a town of France, in the 
department of Ain, chief town of department, 

35 



arrondissement, and canton, on the left bank of 
the Reyssouse, thirty-seven miles north-east of 
Lyons, and about 200 miles south-east of Paris. 
The town is well-built and laid out, and has a 
fine church, in which are monuments to General 
Joubert and to Bichat the great anatomist, La- 
lande, the astronomer, was born here, as was also 
Michaud, the historian. Outside the walls is the 
fine Gothic church of our Lady of Brou. There 
are here manufactories of earthenware, pottery, 
and jewels; and a trade in corn, wine, horses, 
cattle, and the famous poultry of the place. 


Bourgeois Type. [Printing.] 

Bourgeoisie (German burg, town), in Trance 
of the last century, the professional and mercantile, 
and shop-keeping classes, as contrasted with the 
nobles and the peasantry. The term is now used 
by socialist writers specially for the capitalist and 
middle class as contrasted with artisans and 
labourers. Selfishness and narrowness are attributed 
by them to the “ bourgeois spirit, ’ 

Bourges, French town, department of Cher, 
head of department, arrondissement, and canton, 
at the junction of the Auron and Ye\re, about 
150 miles south of Paris. It is a town of con¬ 
siderable military importance, and contains an 
arsenal and cannon foundry. There aie cloth and 
blanket factories, cutlery works, . and nursery 
gardens, and there is a good trade in hemp, wine, 
wool and agricultural produce. The noble cathe¬ 
dral of St. Stephen is a fine specimen of thirteenth- 
century architecture. The Town Hall was^ the 
house of the famous Jacques Cceui, Chailes "V II.. s 
treasurer, and is a fine example of the domestic 
architecture of the fifteenth century. There are 
other good Renaissance houses. Bourges was 
the birthplace of Louis XI., and of Bourdaloue. 
Under the Roman occupation Bourges was called 
Avaricum, from Avara, the Italian name of the 
Yevre. Csesar, in his Commentaries, says it was 
one of the finest cities of the Gauls. It after¬ 
wards became the capital of Berry, and as such 
underwent many sieges. Charles YII. found a 
refuge here at the beginning of his reign, and was 
in consequence called the King of Bourges.. The 
university founded at Bourges in 1463 by Louis XL 
had a great reputation, and among its professois 
was the famous lawyer Cujas. 

Bourget, Ernest, French dramatic author, 
died 1864. His pieces, the chief of which is perhaps 
Le Sire de Franc-Boisy, have been extensively 
played at the Porte-Saint-Martin, the Bouffes- 
Parisiens, and other like theatres. He was one 
of the authors of Chansons Populaires de France. 


Bourget Paul. French novelist and essayist, 
born at Amiens 1852. His novels are of the modern 
school of psychological analysis and insearch, and 
are written in a clear and pleasing style. He is 
said to take peculiar pains in revising and polishing 
what he writes. His Nouvea,ux Essais de Psychology 
contemporaine are of much interest, and his nov.e s, 
Un Crime d'Amour and Mensonges, are favourites 
with some. 











Bourgueticrinidse. 


( 162 ) 


Bourrienne. 


Bourgueticrinidse, a family of Crinoideaorsea 
lilies, of which the type-genus Bourgueticrinus 
is a common fossil in the English chalk. 

Bourignon, Antoinette (1616-1680), a reli¬ 
gious visionary, who seems in part to have antici¬ 
pated Joanna Southcote, and in part the Salvation 
Army. Her extravagant ideas and utterances 
caused her to be driven from Flanders, Brabant, 
Holland, Holstein, and Alsace, and she finally died 
in Friesland. Among other curious speculations in 
which she indulged, was the nature of Antichrist, 
as to whose birth and appearance she was fully 
informed, even to his complexion and the colour of 
his hair. She also had a vision as to how Adam 
was shaped and formed before his fall. Her works 
were published at Amsterdam (1679-1684), in 21 
volumes, and some of the least entertaining have 
been translated into English. 

Bourmont, Louis Auguste Victor, Comte 
de Ghaisnes de (1773-1846), Marshal of France. 
Born at the castle of Bourmont, he was an officer 
of the French guards at the time of the revolution. 
He fought in the army of Conde, and with the 
royalists till the failure of the cause. For some 
time he remained in hiding at Paris, but is suspected 
of having done so with the connivance of the 
authorities, and to have played a double part. 
However that may be, he was imprisoned after the 
attempt to assassinate Napoleon. He escaped 
to Portugal, and was at Lisbon when Junot took it 
in 1810. He came back to France, and was made 
colonel by Napoleon. His courage and talent shown 
in the different campaigns advanced him to the rank 
of general of division. At Napoleon’s downfall he 
became one of Louis NVIII.’s generals, and, sent with 
Ney to bar Napoleon’s advance during the Hundred 
Days, he again took a command under the Emperor, 
who appointed him against Carnot’s advice, who 
distrusted Bourmont. This distrust seems to have 
been justified, for Bourmont soon deserted to Louis 
XVIII., who was at Ghent. At the restoration he 
received a command, fought in Spain in 1823, and 
in 1829 he became minister for war. In 1830 he 
commanded the army that conquered Algiers, and 
was made Marshal of France. At the revolution 
of July he refused allegiance to Louis Philippe, and 
was driven from the army. After trying in vain to 
raise a counter-revolution, he went to Portugal, and 
made an unfortunate campaign there for Don 
Miguel. He tried vainly to return to France in 1840, 
did return later, and finally died at his birthplace. 

Bourne, Hailbourne, or Winterbourne, an 
intermittent spring or stream, occurring commonly 
in chalk districts after an exceptionally wet season. 
They owe their origin to a general rise of water under¬ 
ground throughout the area, flowing out at all points 
where the level of the surface of the ground is lower 
than the level to which the underground water rises 
(saturation-plane). They therefore often flow along 
those “ dry valleys ” of our chalk downs which were 
probably permanent watercourses in a more pluvial 
period. They rise at Hemel Hempstead and Henley 
in the Chiltern Hills, at Croydon, Caterham, Mers- 
tham and Epsom in the North Downs, at Ashcombe 
near Lewes, and at Lavant in the South Downs, and 


also in Wiltshire and Dorsetshire. From the time 
of Werkworth in the 15th century, and the credulous 
John Aubrey in the 17th, to our own time, the out¬ 
break of these bournes has been popularly supposed 
to foreshadow national misfortune. 

Bourne, Hugh (1772-1852), founder of the sect 
of Primitive Methodists. He was a Wesleyan, but 
as his habit of open-air preaching and meeting did 
not meet with the approval of that body, he 
separated from them, or was cut off by them, and 
in 1810 founded the first community of Primitive 
Methodists. Although following his occupation of 
carpenter and builder, he found time to spread his 
principles in the British Isles and the United 
States. He seems to have led an exemplary life, 
and he was much esteemed by his sect. 

Bourne, Vincent (1695-1747), was educated at 
Westminster, and after graduating at Trinity 
College, Cambridge, and getting a fellowship 
there, he went back to Westminster as a master, 
where he gained much renown as a Latin versifier, 
writing some good original poems, and making 
happy Latin translations of English ballads. Cowper 
admired him, and translated some of his poems, and 
Lamb speaks genially and prettily of him. 

Bournemouth, a watering-place of Hamp¬ 
shire, come much into vogue of late as a health 
resort. It is noted for its sands, for its air, which, 
while not relaxing, is soft and agreeable to most 
invalids, for the beautiful scenery of the neighbour¬ 
hood and the pine-covered valley in which it lies. 
It has two piers, an aquarium, winter garden, town 
hall, sanatorium, and several hospitals. Godwin, 
Mary Wollstonecraft, and Mary Shelley are buried 
in the churchyard of St. Peters, Bournemouth. 

Bouroudjird, a Persian town, in the province of 
Irak-Adjemy, and capital of the government of the 
same name, on the road from Hamadan to Ispahan, 
and about 170 miles N.W. of the latter. It is well 
situated in a fertile plain, and watered by a river 
bordered by great trees. The town has a manu¬ 
facture of coarse cotton goods, and the land around 
is well cultivated. Saffron is grown; there are 
mulberry trees for the silkworms, and cotton, 
maize, sugar-cane, and potatoes are cultivated. 

Bourrienne, Louis Antoine Fauvelet 
(1769-1834), fellow-student and secretary of Napo¬ 
leon. He was at Brienne with Napoleon, and 
having followed diplomacy, he went to Italy with 
Napoleon and became his private secretary, and 
with Clarke drew up the treaty of Campo-Basso. 
He also went to Egypt with Napoleon, and stayed 
with him till 1802, when, becoming implicated in 
the questionable bankruptcy of a contractor, he 
was removed and sent as charge d'affaires to 
Hamburg, where in 1813 he was again mixed up in 
questionable speculations. He afterwards joined 
Louis-Philippe, and became a minister of State 
and deputy of the Yonne. The revolution of July 
drove him mad, and in this state he died. He 
wrote some memoirs in which he spoke very plainly 
of Napoleon, but his statements are not much 
trusted, and to correct them the Count of Aure 
wrote (1830) Bourrienne et scs Err curs volontaires 
et involontaires. 




Boussa. 


( 163 ) 


Bowdoin. 


Boussa, town of Central Africa, capital of 
kingdom of same name, on an island of the Quarra 
or Niger, lat. 10° Id' N. It is a fortified place, 
and the residence of the sovereign. Mungo Park 
was killed here as he was going up the Niger. 

Bouterwek, Frederic (1766-1828), German 
philosopher and poet. The disciple first of Kant, 
then of Jacobi, he was more distinguished for his 
skill in setting forth their doctrines than for any 
originality of his own. He did much for criticism 
and for literary history, and his History of Poetry 
and Eloquence among Modern Paces is of some 
reputation. His poetry is of little merit. He was 
councillor of the duchy of Weimar, and professor 
of philosophy at Gottingen. 

Bouts Biimes (Fr. rhymed ends'), a French 
literary pastime. Each player is supplied with 
four or more words, each two of which are similar 
in sound. These are supposed to be the endings 
of four lines of poetry, which he has to complete. 
The game is referred to in Addison’s Spectator. 

Bouvardia, a genus of plants of the order 
Rubriaceae, with bright scarlet flowers ; it is much 
used for borders. 

Bouvines, a French village, North department, 
arrondissement of Lille, from which it is distant 
8 miles. It is of no importance, except historically as 
having been the scene of Philippe Auguste’s victory 
over the Emperor Otho IV., in 1214. 

Bovate, or Ox-gang, was one-eighth of a 
carucate (q.v.). It was an old English measure of 
land, as much as an ox can plough in a season— 
from 8 to 18 acres, or more, according to the district. 

Bovidse, a family of even-toed ruminants, here 
used as the equivalent of Cavicornia or Hollow- 
Horned Ruminants. The term Bovidm has had 
various definitions, but in this sense embraces 
oxen, bisons, buffaloes, antelopes, sheep and goats, 
though these animals have been classed in three, 
and sometimes in as many as five different families. 
Many of the members of this group are widely 
dissimilar in external appearance, but the annec- 
tant forms are so numerous, and grade into each 
other by such imperceptible degrees, that it was 
found impracticable to frame satisfactory defini¬ 
tions for the smaller groups adopted by some 
naturalists. For this reason the larger definition 
of the family is the more general one, the antelopes, 
oxen, sheep and goats being considered as groups, 
each of which has too much in common with the 
others to be entitled to the rank of a family. In 
the Bovidm are included the typical ruminants, 
and those of most service to man for food, for 
beasts of burden and for the commercial im¬ 
portance of their skins, bones, horns, etc. There 
are six molar teeth on each side in each jaw; six 
incisors and two canines in the lower jaw, separated 
by a wide interval from the molars, and in the 
forepart of the upper jaw there is a horny pad, 
against which the incisors and canines of the 
lower jaw bite. The frontal appendages differ 
widely from those of the deer [Antlers], and con¬ 
sist of horn-cores (processes of the frontal bone), 
covered with a sheath of horn, never shed except 


by the American Prong-horn (q.v.). Generally 
speaking, horns are present in both sexes, some¬ 
times, however, only in the males. The feet are 
cleft, and there are generally accessory hoofs. The 
family is chiefly confined to the Old World, only a 
few forms being found in America. For the taurine, 
bisontine, and bubaline forms of typical genus Bos 
and its allies, see Cattle, Oxen, Bison, Buffalo ; 
see also Antelope, Goat, Musk-Ox, Sheep. 

Bow, the more or less rounded fore-end of a ship 
or boat, which cuts the water. The “starboard 
bow ” and “ port bow ” are respectively on the right 
and left hand side of the stem of the ship (q.v.). 

Bow, an instrument for projecting an arrow. It 
is usually made of a piece of wood, whose ends are 
connected by string. [Archery.] The term is also 
applied to the instrument which is used to set the 
strings of a violin, or the like, in vibration. 

Bowdich, Thomas Edward (1790-1824), Eng¬ 
lish traveller in Africa. Born at Bristol, in 
1814 he went to see a relative—Hope Smith— 
governor of the Cape Coast, who charged him in 
1816 with a mission to Guinea, to establish com¬ 
mercial relations. He penetrated as far as Coo- 
massie, and succeeded in his mission. He then 
returned to Europe, and went to Paris for the 
purpose of scientific study. In 1822 he with his 
wife undertook a new journey to Africa, and 
explored the mouth cf the Gambia. Here he died 
of malignant fever. He wrote several works. His 
Embassy to the Country of the Ashantis gave 
Europe its first knowledge of that country. Among 
other things he wrote a treatise on finding the 
longitude at sea by observation of lunar eclipses. 

Bowditch, Nathaniel, American astronomer 
(1773-1838). Born at Salem, in Massachusetts, and 
practising first the trade of a cooper and then that 
of ship’s chandler, he showed great aptitude for 
mathematics. He studied hard at the science, and 
made several voyages with a view to checking his 
theories by practical knowledge. He declined the 
offers of different professorships, and became the 
actuary of an insurance company. He was after¬ 
wards president of the Boston Academy of Sciences 
and Arts, and a member of the corporation of 
Harvard College. His best known works are the 
American Practical Navigator , and a translation 
of Laplace’s Mecanigue Celeste. 

Bowdler, Thomas (1754-1825), an English 
editor of Shakespeare and Gibbon, whose chief 
claim to note arises from the fact that his name— 
like that of Captain Boycott—has given the English 
language a new word. He made it his special 
province to look after the morals of his neighbours, 
and to this end issued an expurgated edition of 
Shakespeare; and in the latter part of his life 
he prepared a similar edition of Gibbon, from 
which all passages that he considered of an immoral 
or irreligious tendency were omitted. He was un¬ 
doubtedly a well-meaning man ; luckily his editions 
are not cheap, so people can let them alone. 

Bowdoin, James (1727-1797), son of a french 
merchant forced into exile by the edict of Nantes. 
Born in Boston, he was elected to the continental 






Bowels. 


( 164 ) 


Bowles. 


Congress in 1774, and the next year he was 
Governor of Massachusetts. He did much by speech 
and writing to advance the cause of American Inde¬ 
pendence, and when compelled by ill-health to 
resign his public functions, he gave himself up to 
science and literature. He was president of the 
Philadelphia Academy of Sciences and Arts, and 
fellow of the Royal Societies of London and Edin¬ 
burgh. Bowdoin College, in the state of Maine, is 
named after him. 

Bowels. [Intestines, Inflammation, etc.] 

Bowen, Richard, a very gallant naval com¬ 
mander, was born at Ilfracombe in 1761, and at 
the age of thirteen entered the merchant service ; 
but in 1778 he volunteered into the royal navy, 
and soon afterwards attracted the notice of Captain 
Jervis, who subsequently became Lord St. Vincent. 
He distinguished himself in Vice-Admiral Darby's 
action on July 29th, 1781, and on April 21st, 1782, 
at the capture of the Pegase, 74. For the latter 
service he was made an acting lieutenant; but he 
did not succeed in obtaining his actual commission 
until 1790. In the next year he commanded with 
great credit a division of transports which went to 
the relief of the colony in New South Wales, and 
returning in 1793, received the thanks of the Navy 
Board and of the Colonial Secretary. In 1794, as 
one of the lieutenants of the Boyne, 98, he again 
distinguished himself at the attack on Martinique, 
and especially in the capture, by boarding, of the 
large French frigate Bienvenue' This gained him 
his immediate promotion to the rank of commander, 
and he was very shortly afterwards posted. Having- 
been given command of the Terpsichore , 32, he was 
so fortunate as to be able to save the Dcedalus 
from capture by the hrencli in the Chesapeake. 
At the evacuation of Fort Matilda, Guadaloupe, he 
was severely wounded in the face ; but he refused 
to quit his command, and in 1795 and 1796 he 
rendered good service in the Mediterranean. On 
October 13th, in the latter year, off Carthagena, he 
met and engaged the Spanish frigate Mahonesa, 
32, a much larger and better manned vessel than 
his own ; and after an hour and forty minutes’ 
action he took her. He also took a large Spanish 
treasure-ship, and on December 13th, 1796, engaged 
and captured the Vestale, 36, after one of the most 
spirited actions on record. Three months later, 
having sighted the dismasted Santissima Trinidad, 
130, which had been badly mauled at St. Vincent, 
he bravely attacked her, but, of course, without 
success. On the 24th of July following this de¬ 
voted^ officer was killed by a grape-shot, at the 
storming of Santa Cruz, at the moment when 
Nelson received his wound. His elder brother, 
James, was master of the Queen Charlotte in the 
action of the glorious First of June, 1794 ; his second 
brother, George, became a post-captain in 1802 ; 
his youngest brother, Thomas, died as a midship¬ 
man of the Cumberland in 1790. 

Bower, Walter, called also Bowmaker (1385- 
1449), Scottish historian. Little is known of his 
life, except that he was Abbot of St. Columba’s, 
Inchcolm, in the Firth of Forth. He continued the 
history of Scotland—carried by Fordun down to 


the death of David (1153)—as far as the death of 
James I. (1437). As he was speaking of events 
contemporary or almost so, his work is entitled to 
credit. Like Fordun, he wrote in Latin, and the 
Scotichronicon has not been translated. 

Bower-bird, a name for any species or indi¬ 
vidual of a group of Thrush-like birds from 
Australia and the Eastern Archipelago, due to the 
fact that the majority of them erect bower-like 
structures of twigs, in which they disport, and in 
which the males display their love-antics. There 
are five genera—Sericulus, Ptilonorhyndhus, and 
Chlamydodera, confined to Eastern Australia, 
iE lured us (called also Cat-birds from their cry), 
ranging thence to the Papuan Islands, and Ambly- 
ornis, confined to New Guinea ; they were formerly 
made a sub-family (Tectonarchinre) of the Para- 
diseidae, but are now generally placed with the 
Babbling Thrushes (q.v.). The plumage of Sericulus 
chrysocephalus (the Regent Bird) is brilliant 
golden-yellow and black; that of the male of 
Ptilonorhynchus holoserieeus is glossy black, and of 
the female brown and green mixed; the species of 
Chlamydodera are clothed in brown, more or less 
spotted with buff, and generally have a nuchal crest; 
the Cat-bird (sBluredus smithii), is green, spotted 
with white, the ground-tint lighter on the under¬ 
surface ; in the other two species of the genus the 
upper-surface is green, and the under-surface 
yellow or buff, spotted with brown. The single 
species of Amblyornis, from New Guinea, is rufous- 
brown above, buff beneath. The bower-building 
habit seems to be confined to the first three genera, 
and it must be borne in mind that these bowers are 
in no sense nests. Of the nidification of these 
birds little is known ; the nest and eggs of JEluredus 
smithii have only recently been found. The 
boweis made by the various species differ somewhat 
in their form and ornamentation, but the general 
principle of construction is the same. They are 
decorated with gay feathers, shells, bleached bones, 
bright-coloured berries, and, in some cases, tall 
grasses, “ the whole showing a decided taste for 
the beautiful, and the bones and shells are often 
ananged so as to form a kind of pathway to the 
boweis, which are the most wonderful instances of 
bira-architecture yet discovered. 

Bowie Knife, a heavy knife with a long 
cun ed blade, familiar in literature dealing with 
the Western United States; named from its in¬ 
ventor, Colonel Jim Bowie, who was killed in the 
war of liberation of Texas from Mexico, in 1836. 

Bowles, WHlliam Leslie (or Lisle) (1762- 
1850), English poet. Born at King’s Sutton, 
Northamptonshire, where his father was vicar, he 
went to Winchester College, and then to Trinity 
College, Oxford, and afterwards became prebendary 
of Salisbury, and rector of Bremhill, Wiltshire. He 
is perhaps less known for his own poetrv than for 
his influence in forming the Lake School, and has 
been even more neglected than they now are. He 
inaugurated the poetry of nature ; and his criticism 
of Pope, in an edition he brought out in 1807, gave 
rise to a controversy with Byron and Campbell, in 
v hicli Bowles did not come off worst. 












Bowls. 


( 165 ) 


Box-tliorn. 


Bowls, an English game of some antiquity, still 
largely practised. A smooth level piece of turf 
about 40 yards square, surrounded by a shallow 
trench, is needed. Each player has two bowls, 
which he rolls so that they may lie as near as 
possible to a small white ball (the “ jack ”), which is 
first of all rolled to a distance of not less than 20 
yards from the players. Each bowl is biassed, so 
that some skill is required to excel in the game. 

Bowring, Sir John (1792-1872), the first editor 
of the Westminster Review, was distinguished both 
in literature and politics. He was a member of 
Parliament from 1835-1849, when he was made 
consul at Hong-Kong, while in 1853 he was appointed 
governor. In 1856 he ordered the bombardment of 
Canton, as a consequence of an insult to the British 
flag; a proceeding which roused much opposition 
at home. He retired in 1859. 

Bowsprit, a large boom or inclined mast 
projecting over the stem of a ship, to carry sail 
forward, and to support the foremast by confining 
the stays wherewith it is secured. The bowsprit is 
rounded, except at the outer end, and, in large 
vessels, is generally placed at an angle of about 
thirty-six degrees with the horizon. It should be 
two-thirds the length of the mainmast, and in 
thickness equal to the mizenmast. It carries the 
spritsail yard, and, at its outer end, the flying jib- 
boom. It also carries the jack-staff. The standing 
rigging attached to it includes the fore-topgallant 
stay, the fore-topmast stay, the fore-topmast 
preventer stay, the forestay, the fore preventer stay, 
the martingale stay, the bobstays, the bowsprit 
shrouds, and the bowsprit horse. 

Bowstring, a term applied to an old form 
of execution by strangling with a bowstring, once 
common in Turkey. 

Bowstring Girder, a special type of girder 
much employed in the construction of small bridges. 



The upper boom is curved to the shape of a bow; 
the lower boom is straight, and the bracing of 
various designs. The Saltash girder bridge on the 
Great Western Railway is an example. 

Bowyer, Sir George, third son of Sir William 
Bowyer, Bart., was born about 1738, became a 
lieutenant in the navy in 1758, and attained the 
rank of post-captain in 1762. In the Albion, 74, 
he was present in Byron s action with D Estaing 
on July 6th, 1779, at the attack on the French 
squadron in Fort Royal Bay, and in April, 1(80, 
in Rodney’s action with De Guichen, off Martinique. 
He also took part in the actions of May 15th and 
19th following; but his vessel lost very heavily, 
having 24 killed and 123 wounded on the two last 
named occasions. He continued to hold various 
commands, and in 1793 he hoisted his flag as a 


rear-admiral in the Channel fleet under Lord Howe. 
His flagship, the Prince, 98, was conspicuously 
engaged in the action of the glorious First of June, 
1794, when the rear-admiral, losing a leg, was 
incapacitated for further service at sea. As a 
reward he was created baronet, honoured with 
the thanks of both Houses, and given a pension of 
£1,000 a year. A month after the action he became 
vice-admiral, and in 1799 admiral. He had, in the 
meantime, on the death of a brother, succeeded to 
the family baronetcy in 1797. He died in 1800. 

Bowyer, Sir George (1811-1883), English 
writer and public man. He was born at Radley, 
in 1811, and was called to the Bar in 1839. For 
some time he edited The Guardian and was 
a regular contributor to its columns. Being 
converted to Catholicism in 1850, he became the 
defender of the establishment in England of the 
papal hierarchy, and published a pamphlet on 
The Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster and the 
New Hierarchy. He sat in Parliament for Dundalk 
(1852-68), and for Wexford (1874-80). He wrote 
some works on Civil and Constitutional Law, and 
a Dissertation on the Institutions of the Italian 
Republics. 

Bowyer, William (1699-1777), English printer 
and scholar. He was educated at Cambridge, and 
afterwards joined his father in business. He was 
appointed printer to the House of Commons, to the 
Society of Antiquaries, and to the Royal Society, 
and printer of the Rolls of the House of Lords, and 
of the Journals of the House of Commons. Besides 
writing essays on The Origin of Printing, and 
philological tracts, he issued an enlarged edition 
of Schrevelius’s Greeh Lexicon, an edition of the 
Greek Testament, with notes, several volumes of 
Swift’s works, and a translation of Rousseau’s 
Paradoxical Oration. 

Boxer Cartridge, a metallic cartridge 
invented in 1852 for the Snider rifle. It con¬ 
sisted of four main parts—the shell or case, 
the fulminate, the powder, and the projectile. 
The bullet, a conical one, had a wooden plug 
in its notch, and an aperture filled with clay 
at its base. The charge of powder was 75 
grains, and the weight of the entire cartridge 
and bullet 755 grains, the bullet of the per¬ 
fected (No. 3) pattern weighing 480 grains. 

Boxing Day, the 26th of December, when 
Christmas boxes are given in England, by custom, 
to the employes of tradesmen and others. 

Boxslaters, a family of Isopoda known as 
I doth ci da, which is characterised mainly by the 
lengthening of the bod}’ and the fusion of the hard 
parts of the hindmost segment into a tail shield. 
They are especially common in the Baltic. 

Box-thorn, a name applied to the various 
species of the genus Lyciuni, belonging to the order 
Solanacecc. They are shrubs, natives of the 
Mediterranean region and of tropical America, with 
funnel-shaped corolla, stamens opening lengthwise 
and a two-chambered nuculane with a persistent 
calyx. I. barbarum, with small lilac flowers, is 





























Boxwood. 


( 166 ) 


Boyer. 


known as the Duke of Argyll’s tea-tree, its leaves 
haying been recommended as a substitute for tea. 
It is often seen as an escape in hedge-rows. 

Boxwood, the wood of the Box, Buxus semper - 
virens , B. balearica . and B. Macomanii. Buxus is 
the type of the sub-order Buxinecv of the order 
Eupliorbiacea. It consists of woody plants with 
opposite, entire, evergreen leaves, monoecious flowers 
in axillary glomerules, each flower having four sepals 
and either four stamens or a three-st-yled ovary. The 
fruit is dry, dehiscent, three-chambered and six- 
seeded. The common, or evergreen box (B. semper- 
Virens') is a native of Japan, China, N. India, Persia, 
North Africa, and Europe south of lat. 52°. It is 
doubtfully indigenous at Boxhill in Surrey. The 
whole plant is bitter and poisonous. It may reach 
30 feet in height and its stem 10 inches in diameter. 
The leaves are leathery, dark green, shining, ellip¬ 
tical and less than an inch long. A dwarf variety 
is used as an edging for garden-borders. B. balea¬ 
rica, native of the Mediterranean region, reaches 
60 or 80 feet in height and has paler leaves three 
inches long. B. Macomanii, native of Cape Colony, 
has only recently been introduced into commerce. 
Boxwood from its hardness and closeness of grain 
is most valuable for walking-sticks, turnery, musical 
and mathematical instruments, and above all, for 
wood engraving. The best wood comes from 
Odessa, Constantinople, and Smyrna, in logs 4 feet 
long and 8 or 10 inches across, which are cut across 
the grain into slices type-high. Hawthorn, 
American dogwood {Cornus jtorida), several species 
of ebony ( Biospyros ) and the West Indian box-tree 
(Tecoma gientapliylla) are among the chief substi¬ 
tutes proposed, owing to the scarcity of box, but 
none of them are altogether satisfactory. Box is 
the badge of the clan M’lntosh; the variegated 
variety, that of the M’Phersons. 

Boyaca, a state of Colombia, bordering on 
> enezuela, area 33,351 square miles. It is crossed 
in the north-west by the Eastern Cordilleras, but 
the east is fertile prairie watered by the Meta, the 
Guaviar, and other tributaries of the Orinoco. The 
state derives its name from a victorv gained by 
Bolivar over the Spaniards in 1819, at the village of 
Boyaca, close to Tunja, the capital. The state 
produces fine emeralds, and there are coal, copper 
ore, iron, plumbago, and salt springs. 

Boyars, the old nobility of Russia, who 
practically controlled the Czar until their power 
was broken by Peter the Great. Also the landed 
aristocracy of Roumania. 

Boy Bishop. During the middle ages, both 
in England and on the Continent, it was customary 
on December 6, the festival of St. Nicolas, the 
great patron saint of children, for one of the 
choristers in cathedral and collegiate churches to 
be elected bishop by the rest. He then performed 
most of the usual episcopal functions, holding 
visitations, preaching sermons, and sometimes even 
leading mass. If he died during his episcopate, 
winch however, always terminated on the Inno¬ 
cents day ensuing, December 28, he was buried 


with episcopal honours. Archbishop Peckham in 
1279 limited the term of office to 24 hours, the 
election taking place on St. John the Evangelist’s 
day, December 27,^ and the practice was attacked 
by various ecclesiastical councils. It was abolished 
in 1541 by Henry VIII., but restored by Mary in 
1556, and John Stubbs, a chorister of Gloucester 
cathedral, who preached his sermon on Innocents’ 
day, 1558, was probably the last English boy 
bishop. The Eton Montem (q.v.) has been traced 
to the practice, which is said to exist now in the 
College of the Propaganda at Rome. 

Boyce, William (1710-1779), English composer. 
He was born in London, became a chorister of St. 
Paul's, was composer to the Chapel Royal (1736), 
and organist (1758). From 1755 he was master of 
the king’s band, and in 1749 he received the 
degree of Mus. Doc. from the University of Cam¬ 
bridge. He is best known by a collection he made 
of the church music of old masters. He also 
composed oratorios, symphonies, motets, and some 
theatrical music. Among the latter may be men¬ 
tioned the song, Hearts of Oak . which used to be 
sung on going into action by such crews as had not 
a band, during the naval wars of last century and 
the beginning of this. His services and anthems 
are still extensively used. 

Boycott. Captain Boycott, the agent of an 
Irish landlord in Connemara, having had disa¬ 
greements with the tenantry in 1880, the whole 
population of the neighbourhood refused to have 
any dealings whatever with him. Hence his name 
was applied both as a noun and a verb to this 
practice, common in Ireland during the agrarian 
agitation, 1880-1890, defined by Mr. Gladstone as 
“ exclusive dealing,” and by Mr. Parnell as “leaving 
severely alone.” It. speedily passed to the United 
States, and has since been a common feature of 
labour disputes. 

Boyd, Andrew Kennedy Hutchison, born 
1825, Scottish clergyman and man of letters. He 
was educated at King’s College, London, and 
Glasgow University. He is chiefly known as the 
author of a variety of articles in Fraser's Magazine, 
the chief of which have been collected and 
republished. His Recreations of a Country Parson 
Leisure Hours in Town, and his Sermons have 
attracted many readers. 

Boydell, John (1719-1804), English engraver, 
and publisher of prints. Although of no mean 
power himself as an engraver, it is as the patron 
enc< ? ura o er English print trade, which 

he found in a languishing state, and made it his 
business to revive—that he is chiefly known. He 
had engraved 96 plates in illustration of Sliakspeare, 
^rom paintings which he commissioned the first 
painters of the day to provide. He also illustrated 
Hume’s History of England with 196 plates. This 
work of art swallowed up his fortune, and landed 
him in considerable difficulties. He was Lord 
Mayor of London in 1790. 

Boyer, Alexis (1757-1833), a clever French 
surgeon and learned anatomist. He made his 











Boyer. 


( 167 ) 


Boyle. 


early studies under difficulties, introducing himself 
without authority into the anatomy schools and 
performing little services for the students, only 
demanding as reward legs and arms, and odd portions 
of subjects, which he dissected with ardent zeal. 
His passion for work met with its reward, slowly 
but surely, and his treatise on Anatomy , and his 
treatise on Surgical Diseases, became and long 
remained text-books. He was surgeon at the 
hospital La Charite, and Napoleon appointed 
him his own surgeon, and made him baron. After 
the downfall of Napoleon he became consulting 
surgeon to the king, and a member of the Institute. 
His fault was perhaps too great a conservatism, 
and opposition to all novelties. 

Boyer, Jean Pierre (1776-1850), patriot and 
President of the republic of Hayti. He was born 
of a negress and a Creole father, and was one of 
the first to take arms in defence of negro enfran¬ 
chisement. In the struggle between Toussaint- 
l’Ouverture and Rigaud he took part with the 
latter, and followed him after his defeat to France. 
Later he took part as captain under General Leclerc 
in the St. Domingo expedition, but when, on the 
submission of Toussaint-rOuverture, Leclerc showed 
that it was his intention to revive slavery, Boyer 
left him and, like Petion, joined his brother negroes. 
Under Potion’s presidency he was successively 
colonel and general of division. In 1818, on 
Petion’s death, he became president, and in 1820 he 
united the kingdom of King Christophe to the 
republic, and in 1823 he took possession of the 
Spanish port of St. Domingo. He also obtained 
the recognition of the independence of Hayti by 
France, on payment of a large sum. He was an 
enemy of all reform, and was not a popular presi¬ 
dent, being credited with a wish to advance his 
own personal views rather than to seek the good of 
the country. A revolution in 1843 drove him from 
his seat, and he retired to Paris, where he passed 
the rest of his life. 

Boyle, Charles (1676-1731), author, soldier, 
and statesman; second son of Roger, second Eail 
of Orrery. He was thrice member for Huntingdon, 
became Earl of Orrery in 1703, and being in favour 
with the queens ministry he was made major- 
general, and privy councillor in 1709. He was 
appointed royal envoy to Brabant and Flanders, 
and was created Baron Marston, in the peerage of 
England. Under George I. he fell into disfavour 
with the authorities, and was twice committed to 
the Tower. The Orrery was named after him by 
its constructor Gresham. He translated Plutarch s 
Lvsander, and an edition which he published of the 
Epistles of Phalaris involved him in a controversy 
with Bentley. 

Bovle, John (1707-1762), son of the Charles 
last mentioned, Earl of Cork and Orrery. He was 
educated at Christ Church, Oxford, but Ins poor 
health precluded him from adopting an acti\e life, 
and he devoted himself to literature, without, how¬ 
ever, producing work of any high order of merit. 
He was a friend of Pope and Swift, and published 
The Letters of Pliny the Younger, a Life of Swift, 


and The Memoirs of Pobert Carey, Earl of Mon¬ 
mouth. There was a posthumous edition of his 
Letters from Italy. 

Boyle, Richard (1566-1643), founder of the 
house of Cork and Orrery, born at Canterbury, of a 
Hertfordshire family, educated at Cambridge and 
at the Middle Temple, went to Ireland and, marry¬ 
ing well, bought large estates, and greatly improved 
them by prudent management. He also did much 
to develope manufactures and mechanical art in 
Ireland, and made a fortune by his efforts. Knighted 
in 1603, he was made Earl of Cork in 1620. He 
was in disfavour with Strafford, but held his own, 
and lived to extinguish a rebellion in his old age. 

Boyle, Robert (1626-1691), is perhaps the 
best known of the family, being, as was once said 
of him, with a curious mixture of literalness and 
metaphor, “ father of modern chemistry and 
brother of the Earl of Cork.” He was renowned 
as a natural philosopher, and was one of the 
founders of the Royal Society. Born the seventh 
son of Richard, Earl of Cork, he went to Eton 
while Sir H. Wotton was Provost. From Eton he 
went to Stalbridge, in Dorset, where he was for 
some time under a private tutor. After travelling 
and studying abroad he settled down in 1646 at 
Stalbridge, which estate had devolved upon him ; 
and in 1654 he began a fourteen years' residence 
at Oxford. His principle of philosophy was that 
interrogation of nature which Bacon had inaugu¬ 
rated, and he made some valuable expeiiments 
upon the nature of air and its conditions and 
properties. He did not confine his attention to 
natural philosophy. Theology occupied much of 
his time, and he was especially interested in 
Orientalism, and in the spread of Christianity in 
the East, His friends had tried to persuade him 
to take orders, but he preferred to remain a layman. 
He shared in translating the Scriptures, or parts of 
them, into Malay, Irish, Welsh, and Turkish ; and 
superintended the translation into Aiabic of 
Grotius’ De Veritate. In 1660 he published his 
New Physico - Mechanical Experiments touching 
the spring of air. In 1663 he was on the Council 
of the Royal Society, and in 1680 its president. 
In 1690 his health gave way, and he resigned his 
public employments, still, however, carrying on liis 
private researches. He died at the end of 1691, 
and was buried at St, Martin s-in-the-Fields. 
Like Newton, he turned his attention to alchemy, 
and seems to have had some belief in a possible 
transmutation of metals. His works are numerous, 
and he founded the lectures, which bear his name, 
for the defence of Christianity against its oppo¬ 
nents, atheistic, theistic, and others. 

Boyle, Roger (1621-1679), soldier and states¬ 
man, was the fifth son of the Earl of Cork. Having 
distinguished himself at Dublin University, he made 
a tour in France and Italy, and on his letum, aftei 
marrying Margaret Howard, sister of the Duke of 
Norfolk," he went over to Ireland and aided his 
father in his struggle against the rebels. He 
retired to his estates in England upon King 
Charles I.’s death, but tired of inactivity he had 







Boyle Lectures. 


( 168 ) 


Bracelet. 


resolved to go abroad and join in the attempts to 
restore Charles II. Cromwell, however, getting 
knowledge of his intention, and knowing his 
value, intercepted him at London, and prevailed on 
him to accept a general’s command in Ireland 
against the rebels. This he did, and served Crom¬ 
well faithfully, and was a member of his Privy 
Council during the Protectorate. On the death 
of Cromwell Robert Boyle left the falling house, 
and was instrumental in the restoration of 
Charles II., who made him Earl of Orrery. 
He had great influence in public affairs, but a 
quarrel with the Duke of Ormond brought him to 
England. He was impeached, but the prosecution 
failed; and though he had to give up his public 
employments he remained in great favour with the 
who often consulted him. He was a brave 
soldier and a good handler of troops. 


Boyle Lectures, a series of eight sermons 
against infidelity, to be preached in the Chapel 
Royal, Whitehall (now* closed), endowed by the 
Hon. Robert Boyle (q.v.), 1691. 


Boyle s Law, in Physics, states that if a given 
quantity of any gas be subjected to any variation 
in volume while its temperature is kept constant 
the pressure will vary in such a way that the pro- 
dnct of volume and pressure remains a constant 
thus if the volume v of a certain mass of hydrogen 
be 40 cubic centimetres, when its pressure p is 
equal to that of 76 cms. of mercury, then if the 
temperature is kept constant throughout vp = 
76 x 40= 3040 always. As a matter of fact the law 
is not perfectly obeyed by any gas, though the 
approximation becomes closer and closer as the 
temperature of the gas is taken farther from its 
P® 1 , n ^ ®^ liquefaction. Thus hydrogen and oxygen 
which at ordinary temperatures are both far from 
their points of liquefaction, follow Bovle’s law 
closely Carbon dioxide, which is more readily 
liquefied, shows an evident discrepancy at ordinarv 
temperature. [Gas.] 


Boyne, a river of Ireland, which, rising in the 
Bog of Allen, near Carbery, in Kildare, flows 
through that county, King’s county, Meath, and 
Louth, and enters the Irish Sea. It is navigable 
for barges up to about nineteen miles from its 
mouth, and for heavier craft as far as Drogheda, 
which is four miles up the river. Near this town is 
an obehsk marking the scene of the celebrated 
battle of the Boyne, fought in 1690. The chief 
affluents of the Boyne are the Mattock and the 
Blackwater. 


Bozzaris, Marcos, was born in 1788 at Suli 
Epirus. After a period of refuge in the Ionian 
Islands whither he with others had had to flee 
from Ah Pasha (q.v.), he headed in 1820 a 
force of his exiled countrymen in aid of their 

■ nh ioSo t0 ^ ag ' ainst the Turks - At Missolonghi, 
m 1823, he was commander-in-chief of the Greek 
forces, and made a daring and successful attack 
upon the Turkish vanguard, near Karpenisi. Boz- 
zaris himself fell in this encounter, but his memory 
lives in the patriot songs of Greece. 


Brabai^onne, the national anthem of Bel¬ 
gium, composed during the revolution of 1830. 
The words were due to Jenneval, a French 
actor, the music to Van Campenhout, afterwards 
choirmaster to the king. Other words have since 
been written to the tune by the composer and 
other writers. 


Brabant, the central district in the Nether¬ 
lands, extending from the Waal to the head of the 
Dyle, and from the Meuse and plain of Limburg 
to the Lower Scheldt, was formerly a separate 
duchy, but is now divided between Belgium and 
Holland. It comprises three provinces, viz • 1 
North or Dutch Brabant, area 1.960 square miles, 
where the inhabitants are mainly Dutch; 2, the 
Belgian province of Antwerp, area 1,095 square 
miles, where the inhabitants are mainly Flemings ; 
and 3, South Brabant, also Belgian, area 1,276 
square miles, where the inhabitants are mainly 
Walloons. As to the general aspect of the country, 
it is for the most part a plain sloping gently 
towards the north-west, with, in the south, a few 
low hills and the forest of Soignies, and in the 
north, level tracts. The principal rivers are the 
Meuse and the Scheldt with their tributaries. The 
soil is fertile and well cultivated, agriculture and 
cattle - raising being extensively engaged in. 
Chicory, hops, and tobacco, are also grown, and 
amongst the industries, besides the well-known 
Brabant lace, are the production of sugar from 
the beet, of earthenware, leather, salt, thread, 
woollens, etc. The chief towns are Brussels. Her- 
togenbosch Bergen-op-Zoom, Tilburg, Louvain, etc. 
[Belgium.] 


Braccio, Fortebracci, Count of Montone, was 
b ° r u Peru S ia - After military service 

on behalf of different causes he was entrusted with 
the command of his native city, being made bv 
Queen Joanna of Naples Count of Foggia and 
Prince of Capua. Aiming at the throne of Naples 

i 1 roI eC€ un ed « h u S • death w ound before Aquila, in 
1424, while fighting to attain his end. 


-—, wi oi.aj uj. Vfiuuus Kinas. in a 

square-rigged vessel a rope used for wheeling or 
traversing a sail upon a mast, in order to make 
it correspond with the direction of the wind or 
the course of the ship. It is fastened to the 
yard-arm The braces of all yards are double, 
except those of top-gallant and, when these are 
carried, spntsail and topsail yards. The mizen 
>ard has vangs, or fangs, instead of braces. A 
brace is also a piece of iron supporting, for ex¬ 
ample, a poop lantern, or a screwshaft. In Archi- 
rectnre it is a piece put across the angles of a 
building. [See also Bracket.] 

Bracelet (Old French, connected with bras 

nSi an p ® rnamental rin ? or band for the wrist, 
usually of gold or silver, sometimes set with gems 
A common variety is the Bangle (q.v.). Such 
bracelets as well as anklets, were worn by the 
ancient Persian kings and nobles. Greek and 
Roman ladies frequently wore bracelets, as did 
Roman men under the empire occasionally, and 











Brach. 


( 169 ) 


Brachyura. 


they were sometimes conferred on soldiers as a 
decoration for valour. Both Greek and Roman 
bidcelets were often of a snake form. Among 1 the 
Kelts bracelets were often worn bv men. Ironically, 
the term is sometimes applied to'handcuffs. 

Brach, Brache, an old name for a dog that 
1 unted bv scent; the word was afterwards re¬ 
stricted to denote a bitch. (See Lear i. 4.) 

Brachelytra, a section of beetles including 
two families of which the rove beetles, or Staphy- 
limdte, are the more important. The devil’s coach- 
liorse is the best known English species of this 
family. 

Brachial Artery, the name given to the 
chief artery of the upper arm. The subclavian 
artery of the neck is continued through the axilla 
or arm-pit. as the axillary artery, and after passing 
through this region, the further continuation of the 
vessel is called the brachial artery. It runs down 
the upper arm on its inner aspect, accompanied by 
two veins, and gives off several branches, mainly 
concerned in supplying muscles ; just below the 
bend of the elbow the brachial divides into the 
radial and ulnar arteries. 

Brachiolaria, the name of the type of star¬ 
fish larva which is provided. with a calcareous 
skeleton. It also differs from the Bipinnaria 
(q.v.) form by the possession of three additional 
arms. 

Brachiopoda (i.e. arm-footed), or “ lamp- 
shells,'’ a group of soft-bodied animals protected 
by a shell of two valves, and hence regarded as a 
close ally of the bivalved shell-fish (Lamelli- 
branchiata) (q.v.) which were included with it in 
the now obsolete division, the Conchifera. The 
group is one of great interest both to zoologists 
and geologists ; to the former, owing to the un¬ 
certainty as to its exact place in the animal 
kingdom, and to the latter, owing to the abundance 
of fossil forms. Though somewhat rare in existing 
seas, the brachiopoda were once extremely common; 
probably the oldest known fossil belongs to this 
class, and for a long period it was the predominant 
type of shell-bearing animals. The resemblances 
between these and the bivalved mollusca are quite 
superficial; when the anatomy and development 
of the recent brachiopods were studied, it was 
found that the two groups were so different that 
no close relation between them could be maintained. 
The shells can be readily distinguished from those 
of Lamellibranchs, since the two valves are never 
exactly equal, while they are always equilateral; 
whereas in the latter the valves are often equal, 
but never truly equilateral. The microscopic 
structure of the shells is also very different in the 
two classes, as is also the position of the valves in 
relation to the animal; thus in the Lamellibranch 
they are placed one on each side, whereas in the 
Brachiopod they are front and back, like the boards 
of a sandwich-man. It is now considered that the 
class is most closely related to the Bryozoa (q.v.), 
while the development (especially of Lingula) 
shows that it has affinities with the worms. The 
Brachiopoda are all marine, and most of them live 


at a considerable depth, fixed to other shells or 
rocks, either directly by one valve, or by a fleshy 
peduncle or stalk, which passes out through a 
fissure between the two valves, or more usually 
through an opening in the larger valve ; a few 
living species, however, burrow through sandbanks. 
In most forms there is an internal skeleton composed 
of a pair of supports, which are usually coiled, for 
the arms; the two arms are provided with small 
branches or cirri which serve for respiration. This 
structure is homologous (q.v.) with the lophophore 
of Bryozoa (q.v.). The nervous system consists of 
but one ganglion, another point of difference 
between these and the mollusca. The class is 
divided into two orders: the Articulata, including 
those with a hinge and support for the arms, but 
without an anus ; and the Inarticulata, those lower 
forms without the two first, but with the last 
structure. As regards their range in time, they 
commence at the very base of the fossiliferous 
series (viz. the Cambrian period), and attained their 
maximum in the Silurian, since which they have 
been dwindling in numbers. A few species occur 
in the deeper parts of the British seas. 

Brachycephalic, a term applied to races of 
man in whom the diameter of the head is not 
much less from side to side than from front to back, 
the ratio of these measurements being 4 to 5. The 
Mongolians are brachycephalic. 

Brachymetopus, a genus of Trilobites 
(family Proetidae ), of interest, as it was one of the 
last surviving genera: it occurred in the Carboni¬ 
ferous rocks. 

Brachypterse (i.e. having short wings), a 
name introduced by Cuvier for the Diving Birds: 
it is obsolescent, if not obsolete, 

Brachypyge, a fossil crustacean from the 
Carboniferous system ; it is of interest, as it may 
be one of the Brachyura. 

Brachyura (i.e. short-tailed), the highest 
sub-order of the Decapoda , an order of Crustacea : 
the crab is the best known example. The main 
character of the group is that the tail (or 
strictly the abdomen) is very short and tucked up 
closely beneath the body, so that it is useless for 
swimming and cannot be seen from above; more¬ 
over, the body is wide instead of long, so that the 
nervous “ ganglia ” or centres are connected more 
closely together than in such long-tailed, elongated 
forms as the lobster. The majority of the group 
are marine, living on the shore ; they rarely swim, 
but a few are enabled to do so by means of their 
flattened limbs ; they can live for some time out 
of water, and some families live on land and only 
go to the sea at breeding time. Such e.g. are the 
Land Crab of the genus Gecarcinus, or the West 
Indian Gelasimus. The Brachyura are world-wide 
in distribution, and are first certainly known from 
the Cretaceous ; but doubtful forms occur much 
earlier. A general account of the anatomy and 
life history is given under Crab (q.v.), and this 
should be compared with the article on Lobster, as 
the type of the long-tailed Decapods. 













Bracken. 


( no ) 


Bradford Clay. 


Bracken, or Brake, the common English name 
for Pteris aquilina, the commonest fern of Northern 
Europe, which is also widely distributed in 
temperate and tropical regions. It occurs on 
heaths and moors and in forests, with a creeping 
rhizome, tough tripinnate or quadripinnate erect 
fronds, 1 to 10 feet high, and sori or clusters of 
sporangia all along the recurved under margin of 
the pinnules. As these sporangia lie between two 
indusia or membranes, the species may have to be 
transferred to the genus Poesia. The complicated 
bands of dark selerenchymatous tissue in the stem 
and leaf-stalks are popularly known as King 
Charles’s oak. At the primary trifurcation of the 
fronds there are in the young stage glands exuding 
honey which attract ants. Bracken is the badge of 
the clan Robertson. 

Bracket, a shelf or support fixed to a wall and 
projecting at right angles to it. The name is also 
applied to the iron stays which sometimes support 
shelves, etc., to a gaslight projecting from a wall, 
and to the signs [ ] ( ) used by printers to enclose 

a parenthesis, as also to the sign j , denoting that 

the objects whose names it connects are to be 
taken together. 

Bract, a leaf in, or immediately below, an 
inflorescence, having in its axil either a flower-bud 
or a branch bearing flower-buds. The main 
function of the bract is to protect the young buds. 
It may be leafy, differing in no respect, save position, 
from an ordinary foliage-leaf, as in the dead- 
nettles ; or it may be rigid or glumaceous, as the 
so-called “ chaff ” in grasses and sedges ; or it may 
be thinner, brown or colourless and membranous, 
as in Pelargonium ; or it may be conspicuously 
coloured, so as to serve an attractive purpose such 
as is usually the function of the corolla, as in 
Poinsettia or Bougainvillea (q.v.). If a bract is 
large and encloses a whole inflorescence it is termed 
a spatbe, and spathes may similarly be leafy as in 
Arum maculatum, membranous as in palms, or 
coloured and fleshy as in Anthurium or Richardia. 
A circle or larger collection of bracts below an 
inflorescence is termed an involucre, as in the case 
of the three leafy bracts on the flower-stalk of 
Anemone nemorosa, the two circles of bracts, the 
outer recurved, in the dandelion, the fleshy-based 
bracts of the artichoke, the coloured circle of bracts 
of Astrantia, etc. The flower in the axil of a bract, 
if belonging to a dicotyledon, has often two smaller 
bracts or bracteoles placed laterally on its pedicel, as 
may be seen in violets. If a monocotyledon, there is 
only one bracteole on the pedicel on the side nearest 
the bract. The scales in the catkins of some trees 
and the husk that remains under the name of 
cupule round the fruit of others, as, for example, 
the “ cup ” of the acorn, are variously made up of 
confluent bracts and bracteoles, and the minute 
scales or palece among the florets on the common 
receptacle of some Composites may be looked upon 
as bracteoles. 

Bracton, Henry de, law writer, flourished in 
the 13th century. His birth-place is variously 
ascribed to Bratton Clovelly, near Okehampton, 


Bratton Fleming, near Barnstaple, and Bratton 
Court, near Minehead, Somersetshire. After study¬ 
ing at Oxford, and occupying the position of justice 
itinerant for the counties of Nottingham and 
Derby, he became, in 1264, archdeacon of Barn¬ 
staple, and chancellor of Exeter cathedral. It is, 
however, as the author of I)e Leyibus et Consuetud- 
inibus Anyliae, that he is distinguished. He died 
in 1268. 

Braddock, Edward, general, was born about 
1695 in Perthshire. Appointed major-general of 
the Coldstream guards in 1754, he commanded the 
British troops in America against the French. His 
disastrous attempt to invest Fort Duquesne in 
1755 resulted in 63 out of 86 officers, and 914 out 
of 1,370 men being either killed or wounded. He 
himself had four horses shot under him, and 
received a wound from which lie died in a few 
days. 

Braddon, Mary Elizabeth, novelist, is the 
nom- de-plume of Mrs. John Maxwell. She was 
born in 1837 in Soho Square, London. She brought 
out her first novel, Lady Audley's Secret, in 1862, 
and immediately achieved popularity. Quite as 
widely read was her next novel, Aurora Floyd, 
produced in 1863. She has gone on ever since 
producing books with great industry; she also 
edited Belgravia for a few years, and was an 
extensive contributor to Temple Bar, St. James's 
Magazine, and other periodicals. 

Bradford, a parliamentary and municipal 
borough of England in the West Riding of York¬ 
shire, is situated on a tributary of the Caire, and is 
connected by a branch canal with the Liverpool and 
Leeds canal. It is the chief centre in England of 
the spinning and weaving of worsted yarn and 
woollens, and also manufactures alpaca stuffs, silks, 
velvets, plush, cotton, etc. Near "it are coal and 
iron mines, and stone quarries. Among its public 
buildings are the old parish church of St. Peter, 
St. George’s hall, mechanics’ institute, markets, 
town-hall, public library, grammar school, and 
technical college. It has also five public parks, 
covering an area of over 200 acres. The town is 
also adorned with statues of Sir Robert Peel, Sir 
Titus Salt, S. C. Lister, etc. 

Bradford Clay, a local deposit of pale-grey 
calcareous clay, with seams of tough brown lime¬ 
stone and calcareous sandstone, occurring at 
various horizons near the upper part of the 
Bathonian or Great Oolite, and named from its 
occurrence at Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire. It is 
generally below the Forest Marble, and corresponds, 
no doubt, in part to the Blisworth or Great Oolite 
Clay of Northamptonshire. Its greatest thickness 
seems to be near Farleigh, where it is between 
40 and 60 feet. Its most characteristic fossils are 
Waldlteimia digona and Apiocrinus rotundas (or 
Parkinsoni). The latter is known as the Bradford 
or Pear Encrinite, its “calyx” or body much 
resembling a pear, whilst single joints of the stem 
are called “ coach-wheels.” In Wiltshire numbers 
of these encrinites may be seen attached to the 
upper surface of the underlying limestone where 






Bradford-on-Avon. 


( 171 ) 


Bradwardine. 


they lived until overwhelmed by the clayey sediment 
in which their remains are now imbedded. 

Bradford-on-Avon, or Great Bradford, 
an ancient town in England, in the county of 
V iltshire, is pleasantly situated on the Avon, which 
intersects the town. It contains many interesting- 
architectural remains, amongst them being the 
only perfect example of a pre-Norman building in 
England, viz. the Church of St. Lawrence. It 
used to be an important woollen manufacturing 
centre, and has stone-quarries in the neighbour¬ 
hood. 

Bradlaugh, Charles, M.P., was born in 
1833 in London. He led a somewhat chequered 
career, being errand-boy, small coal-merchant, 
pamphleteer, private soldier, clerk to a solicitor, 
etc. He advocated secularism and espoused the 
Radical movements of his time, establishing in 
I860 The National lie former, and writing and speak¬ 
ing under the name of Iconoclast. In conjunction 
with Mrs. Annie Besant he brought out in 1875 an 
old pamphlet, The Fruits of Philosophy, as a 
challenge on a point of law. For this they were 
sentenced to six months’ imprisonment and a tine 
of £200—a sentence that was reversed on appeal. 
In 1880 Bradlaugh was returned to Parliament for 
Northampton, and on account of his refusal to take 
the oath a long struggle between him and the 
House of Commons ensued. Northampton returned 
him four times as a protest against the treatment 
he received in Parliament, and not until the general 
election of 1885 was he allowed to take his seat. 
His Oaths Bill w r as made law in 1888. He died in 
1801, having previously won the respect of all 
parties in the House of Commons. Amongst his 
writings the most widely read was his Impeachment 
of the House of Brunswick, 1872. 

Bradley, Edward, was born in 1827 at 
Kidderminster. Educated at Durham University, 
he was presented to the living of Denton, Hunts, 
then to Shelton, near Oakham, and next to Lenton, 
near Grantham. He is best known as “ Cuthbert 
Bede,” his nom-de-plume, and as the author of 
Verdant Green, his most popular production. 

Bradley, James, astronomer, was born in 
1G92 at Sherborne. His mathematical bent 
attracted the notice of Halley, Sir Isaac Newton, 
and other leading scientists of the time, and in 
1721 he was appointed professor of astronomy at 
Oxford. A few years afterwards he published his 
discovery of the aberration of light, and in 1748 
his discovery of the varying inclination of the axis 
of the earth to the ecliptic. Meanwhile, in 1742, 
he had succeeded Halley as Astronomer-Royal at 
Greenwich. His astronomical observations, num¬ 
bering about 60.000, were published at Oxford in 
1805. He died in 1762 at Chalford, Gloucester¬ 
shire. 

Bradshaw, John, president of the High 
Court of Justice that tried Charles I., was born in 
1602 near Stockport, Cheshire. Called to the bar 
at Gray’s Inn in 1627, he became a bencher in 1645, 
and acted for some time as judge in the sheriff- 
courts of London. In 1649, when the trial of the 


king was decided on, he was appointed president 
of the High Court of Justice, receiving as a reward 
the presidency of the Council of State, and the 
chancellorship of the Duchy of Lancaster with 
estates worth £2,000 a year. He opposed the 
Protectorate subsequently, and got into disputes 
with Cromwell, who tried to deprive him of 
the chief justiceship of Chester. After Cromwell's 
death he became lord-president of the Council, 
dying in 1659. After the Restoration his body, 
which had been interred in Westminster Abbey, 
was disinterred and gibbeted with the bodies of 
Cromwell and Ireton. 

Bradshaw’s Guide. Mr. George Bradshaw, 
an engraver of maps at Manchester, published some 
maps of the canal systems of Lancashire, York¬ 
shire, etc., about 1830. On the rise of the railway 
system he performed the same service for it. His 
first railway publication (only four copies of which 
now exist) appeared October 1, 1839. It was a 
little book of 28 pp., bound in cloth, and consist¬ 
ing chiefly of maps of towns, with time-tables 
appended of the few railways then open. Later 
on, Bradshaw's Bailway Companion, also bound in 
cloth, was issued irregularly as an occasional 
publication. But the regular issue of the familiar 
Bradshaw began in 1841, at the suggestion of 
the London agent, Mr. W. J. Adams. It consisted 
of only 32 pages; the time-tables were also pub¬ 
lished in a broadsheet. Shortly afterwards the 
list of sailings and of steamers was added, and 
since then, despite much ingenious economising of 
space and weight, it has swelled to a book contain¬ 
ing as much type as twelve volumes of an ordinary 
8vo novel, and containing a mass of information 
nowhere to be found within the same compass. 
Bradshaw's Continental Guide began in 1847. The 
early guides (two of which have been recently 
reprinted in facsimile) are amusing to the modern 
traveller. Seats in the train were apparently 
numbered, and booked as in a coach. If a com¬ 
partment was taken by a party, the fares were 
reduced. “ Glass coaches ” were apparently one 
variety of first class carriage. Passengers were 
requested “ not to leave their seats when the train 
stops, to avoid undue delay.” Mr. Bradshaw was a 
member of the Society of Friends, and hence the 
date on the cover long had the form “ 1st mo. 
(January) 1850.” He died of cholera while on a 
tour in Norway, 1853. The Story of Bradshaw 
has been told by Mr. Percy Fitzgerald, and most of 
the above facts are taken from his account. 

Bradwardine, Thomas, Archbishop of Can¬ 
terbury, was born about 1290 at Hartfield, 
Sussex. Educated at Merton College, Oxford, he 
afterwards became chancellor of the University, and 
professor of divinity. As chaplain and confessor 
of Edward III. he accompanied that sovereign 
to France, and was present at Crepy and the 
capture of Calais. On the death of Stratford, in 
1348, Bradwardine was elected archbishop of 
Canterbury. He was on the Continent at the time 
of his election, and went direct to the papal court 
at Avignon for consecration. In 1349 he landed in 
England, and a few days after his arrival died of 






Brady. 


( 172 ) 


Brahma. 


the black death. He was named “ Doctor Pro¬ 
fundus,” from his treatise De Causa Dei contra 
Pelagium, et de virtute causarum. 

Brady, Nicholas, divine and poet, was born in 
1(559 at Bandon, county Cork. Educated at West¬ 
minster, Christchurch (Oxford), and Dublin, he 
subsequently held the rectorship of St. Catherine 
Cree, London, and then of ltichmond, Surrey. In 
addition to his metrical version of the Psalms, 
which was licensed in 169(3, he translated Virgil’s 
JLneid, and wrote some poems and dramas, now 
sunk into oblivion. 

Bradypus. [Sloth.] 

Braemar, a district of the Scottish Highlands, 
in the S.W. portion of Aberdeenshire, contains part 
of the Grampian range of mountains with the 
heights Ben Macdhui, Cairntoul, and Lochnagar. 
In it is situated also Balmoral on the banks of "the 
river Dee. It is much frequented by tourists and 
sportsmen. 

Braga, a Portuguese city and capital of the 
province of Minho, is situated on an elevated plain 
between the rivers Cavado and D’Este. It is the 
seat of an archbishop, and the residence of the 
primate of Portugal. It has a fine 12th century 
Gothic cathedral, and, as the Bracara Augusta of 
the Romans, remains of a Roman temple, amphi¬ 
theatre, and aqueduct. Its manufactures include 
linen and various articles of iron and steel ware. 

Braganca, (1) a Brazilian sea-port at the 
mouth of the Caite river. (2) A Brazilian town, 50 
miles N.E. of Sao Paulo, in a fertile inland district, 
which supplies the Rio Janeiro market with cattle 
and pigs. 

Braganza, a Portuguese city, and capital of 
the province of Tras-os-Montes on the Eerrenza, is 
the seat of the bishop of Braganza and Miranda, 
and gives its name to the house of Braganza, the 
reigning house of Portugal, John, eighth duke of 
Braganza, having in 1640 ascended the throne as 
John IV. In the town is a citadel, a college, and 
a hospital. It has also manufactures of silks and 
velvets. 

Bragg, Braxton, general, was born in 1817, in 
N. Carolina. After receiving a military training, 
he served in the Seminole and Mexican wars, and 
later was commander in several great battles of 
the Civil war. He died in 1876 at Galveston, 
Texas. 

Bragg, Thomas, brother of the preceding, was 
born in 1810. Governor of his native state, N. 
Carolina, from 1854 to 1858, he ultimately became 
attorney-general in Jefferson Davis’s cabinet, and 
died in 1872 at Raleigh. 

Bragi, a character in northern mythology, and 
son of Odin, the god of poesy and eloquence, is 
represented as an old man with a long, flowin' 7, 
white beard. Heroes that fall in battle are web 
coined by him on their reaching Valhalla. 

Braham, John, vocalist, was born in 1774 in 
London, of Jewish descent. In 1787 he made his first 
appearance in public at Covent Garden theatre. In 
1796, after his voice had broken, he made a hit in 


Storace’s opera Mahmoud at Drury Lane, and there¬ 
after set out upon a most successful continental 
tour. He returned in 1801, and continued to sing 
in public till within a year or two of his death, 
maintaining his supremacy as the leading vocalist 
in Europe. He accumulated a large fortune, 
purchased the Colosseum, Regent’s Park, and built 
St. James’s theatre. Sir Walter Scott described 
him as “ a beast of an actor and an angel of a 
singer.” He died in 1856 at Brompton, leaving six 
children, one of whom, Frances, married the Earl 
of Waldegrave in 1840, and became a notable 
figure in society. 

Brahd, Tycho, astronomer, was born in 1546 
at Knudstorp, in the county of Schonen. Sweden. 
He early exhibited a bent towards astronomical 
science, and though he was destined for the legal 
profession and sent to Leipsic to study for that 
purpose, he would yet, when his tutor had gone to 
bed, spend his nights in viewing the stars. At 
Rostock, in 1566, he lost part of his nose in a duel 
with a Danish nobleman, himself making good the 
defect with gold, silver, and wax. In 1672 he dis¬ 
covered a new star in the constellation Cassiopeia, 
and in the following year married a peasant girl 
much against the wishes of his relatives. So 
violent were the quarrels that ensued on this point, 
that the king was obliged to interfere. In 1580 he 
built an observatory on the island of Huen in the 
Sound, the site and money being provided by 
Frederic II., and here he pursued the observations 
that resulted in the planetary system associated with 
his name. After King Frederic's death the petty 
jealousy of the nobles obliged him to remove in 
1597 to Germany, where he enjoyed the patronage 
of Rudolph II., who provided him with a residence 
and a pension, which, however, he did not live to 
enjoy for long. He died at Prague in 1601. At 
one time Kepler was his assistant and owed much 
to Brahe's influence. 

Brahma. As a neuter noun, in Hindu theo¬ 
logy, the word signifies the world-spirit, eternal, all- 
pervading and infinite, out of which all things 
proceed, and into which they are eventually 
resolved. It is not worshipped, but is an object of 
that meditation practised by Hindu sages, with a 
view to their ultimate reabsorption into it. As a 
masculine noun, Brahma signifies the first person 
of the Hindu Trimurti or Trinity, the Creator, as 
contrasted with Vishnu the preserver, and Siva, 
the destroyer, who destroys in order that he may 
reproduce. According to one account this per¬ 
sonal Brahma arose from the water which was 
the first of existences : according to another, he 
came from a golden egg deposited by the im¬ 
personal Brahma, the world-spirit. Each day of 
his life lasts 2.160,000 years. At the beginning of 
every such day he creates the world, which, at its 
close, is resolved into its elements. Next day he 
creates it afresh, and so on till the end of his life 
of 100 years. Then, together with the gods and 
sages, who have survived the preceding destructions, 
and with Brahma himself, it is resolved into the 
original world-spirit. Brahma is especially the 
father of mankind, whom he begat by his own 










Brahmanbaria 


( 173 ) 


Brain. 


daughter Saraswati (Speech). He is represented 
as red in colour, with four heads and four arms. 
He is invoked in worship, but is not worshipped 
himself, except at Pokhar, near Ajmir, in Raj- 
putana. Indeed, some of his attributes and most 
of the honours paid him seem to have been trans¬ 
ferred in t lie course of time to Vishnu and Siva. 
Thus some accounts treat him as a mere form of 
A ishnu, and he is sometimes said to have sprung 
from a lotus flower which grew from the navel of 
that deity. [Vishnu.] 

Brahmanbaria, a town of Bengal, situated 
on the river Titas. Its chief trade is in rice. 

Brahmaputra, a large river in Asia, has its 
sources in Thibet. After flowing eastwards for 
1,000 miles under the name of the Sanpoo river, it 
turns southerly through the Himalayas, emerging- 
in the N.E. of Assam as the Dihong. Here it is 
joined by the Dihong and the Brahmakoonda, and 
the united waters now named Brahmaputra, i.e. 
Son of Brama, flow southerly through Bengal 
and join the delta system of the Ganges. In the 
rainy season the Brahmaputra rises as high as 
40 feet above its usual level, and irrigates the 
surrounding plains, which bear jute, mustard and 
rice. It is navigable to steamships for 800 miles 
from the sea, and its total length is estimated at 
1,800 miles. 

Brahmin Ox. [Zebu.] 

Brahmo Somaj (Church of the One God), a 
reformed Brahmin sect, originated in 1818 by 
Rammohun Bov, a wealthy and educated Hindoo, 
who was sent to England on a mission from the 
King of Delhi. It was stimulated more especially 
by Baboo Keshub Chunder Sen, who visited 
England in 1870, and died in 1884. It has had 
numerous branches, but there have been many 
secessions from it, and its actual members are not 
very numerous. It is an attempt at a reformed 
Hindoo Church, on the basis of pure Monotheism, 
and has some affinity with English Unitarianism. 

Brahms, Johannes, was born in 1833 at 
Hamburg, and after the death of Wagner was 
regarded as the greatest living composer in 
Germany. He was greatly praised in 1853 by 
Schumann, who predicted his greatness in an 
article in the Neue Zeitsclirift fur Musilt. But it 
was not until his visit to Vienna, in 1861, that 
Brahms found appreciation where, after occupying 
other positions, he conducted the famous concerts 
of the Gesellschaft der JSIusihfreunde. In 1868 he 
composed his Deutsches Requiem, and since then 
new compositions by him have been regarded as 
events in the musical world. 

Brahui, the dominant and most numerous race 
in Baluchistan, which ought to be called “ Brahui- 
stan ” (Pottinger). The Brahui differ profoundly 
from the Baluchi (q.v.), being chiefly highlanders of 
Mongoloid race and speaking an agglutinating 
language which shows some slight affinity to the 
Dravidian of Southern India. They regard them¬ 
selves as the true aborigines and look on all others 
as intruders, at least in the Sarawan and Jalawan 


uplands, to which region the race is chiefly confined. 
Type, short, thickset figure, round face, flat features, 
small eyes and nose, vellowish-brown complexion, 
long black hair, sparse and short beard. They are 
divided into a multitude of tribes, the royal sept 
being the Kambaran, of which the Khan of Kelat 
(paramount lord of Baluchistan) is a member. The 
Brahui are the Baralui of the early Rajput records. 
See Dr. Henry Walters, From the Indus to the Tigris 
(1874), and H. Pottinger, Travels in Beloocldstan, 
etc. (1816). 

Braila, or Bkahilor, a town of Roumania, of 
which it is the principal port, is situated on the left 
bank of the Danube. Its chief exports are grain 
and the products of the sturgeon fisheries. The 
Greek cathedral, is the chief among ecclesiastical 
edifices, of which there are twelve. 

Brain. The term applied to that portion of the 
central nervous system which lies within the cavity 
of the skull. At its upper limit the spinal cord is 
continuous with the medulla oblongata or bulb 
which passes upwards through the foramen 
magnum into the cranial cavity. On the dorsal 
aspect of the medulla lies the cerebellum, and above 
the limit of the bulb on the ventral aspect are seen 
the transversely running fibres of the pons Yarolii. 
Anterior to the pons the two crura cerebri diverge 
outwards passing into the cerebral hemispheres. 

The brain, like the spinal cord, has three enve¬ 
loping membranes, dura mater, arachnoid, and 



pia mater; the interval between the two latter is 
called the subarachnoid space, and is filled by the 
cerebro-spinal fluid. This fluid serves as a kind 
of packing material by which the delicate nervous 
structures are shielded from injury; in particular 
an accumulation of it at the base of the brain 
forms a sort of water cushion for its support. 
Another function of the cerebro-spinal fluid is to 
adapt the volume of the cranial contents to the 
unyielding walls of the cavity of the skull. When 
the amount of blood circulating in the brain is 
at a maximum, the quantity of cerebro-spinal fluid 
within the skull is at a minimum: and if on the 










Brain. 


( 174 ) 


Brain. 


other hand the supply of blood to the brain dimin¬ 
ishes, an increased amount of fluid accumulates 
in the subarachnoid space, and so compensates 
for the difference in the bulk of the anaemic as com¬ 
pared with the hyperaemic brain. The fluid of the 



THE BRAIN, VIEWED FROM BELOW. 


subarachnoid space is in direct communication with 
the fluid occupying the central canal of the spinal 
cord. 

The weight of the brain of an adult man averages 
about 50 oz., that of an adult woman about 45 oz. 
The human brain is heavier than that of any other 
animal, the elephant and whale excepted. The 
proportion of brain-weight to body-weight is also 
greater in man than in the rest of the animal 
kingdom, with one or two exceptions among small 
birds and small monkeys. The relation between 
brain-weight and intelligence is however not one 



THE BRAIN, VIEWED FROM THE RIGHT SIDE. 

which can be insisted upon. Probably the extent 
of infolding of the convolutions of the cerebral 
hemispheres is a factor of more importance than 
actual weight in highly developed brains. 

The cerebral hemispheres form the main bulk of 
the human brain; they are divided up by fissures 
into five lobes on each side, frontal , parietal , 
occipital and temqjoro-sphenoidal, with the island of 
Re'd. These lobes are further subdivided into 
convolutions by secondary fissures. The most 


important fissures are the Sylvian , between the 
parietal lobe, above, and the temporo-sphenoidal 
below, the fissure of Rolando on the outer aspect 
of the parietal lobe, and the parieto-occipital 
separating the parietal and occipital lobes on the 
median aspect of the hemisphere. A section of a 
cerebral hemisphere shows a mass of white matter 
ensheathed by a thin outer envelope, or cortex, of 
grey matter. This grey matter follows all the 
undulations of the convolutions, and thus the more 
fin-rowed by fissures a brain is, the larger is the 
area of grey matter exposed on its surface. 

Microscopical examination shows the white 
matter to be made up of medullated nerve fibres, 
while in the grey matter numerous ganglion cells 
are found. 

Running across the bottom of the fissure which 
separates the two hemispheres is the great white 
commissure, called the corpus callosum. A hori¬ 
zontal section of the brain made just below this 
structure reveals the so-called basal ganglia, the 



INNER ASPECT OF THE LEFT HALF OF THE BRAIN (RIGHT 
HALF BEING REMOVED). 

corpora striata anteriorly, and the optic thalami 
posteriorly. The two last-named bodies lie on 
each side of a cavity, called the third ventricle. 
This cavity communicates in front through the 
foramen of Munro with the lateral ventricles, 
which lie one in either hemisphere ; behind it is in 
communication through the aqueduct of Sylvius or 
iter a tertio ad quartum venzriculuui with the 
fourth ventricle, which lies on the dorsal aspect of 
the medulla oblongata. There is yet another cavity, 
that of the fifth ventricle (of different origin to 
the other ventricles), placed in the septum lucidum 
a partition separating the two lateral ventricles 
from one another. 

Sections made through the basal ganglia reveal 
certain important structures. The corpus striatum 
proves to consist of two main masses of grey 
matter, the nucleus caudatus near the middle line, 
and the nucleus lenticularis externally. Bounded 
internally by the nucleus caudatus in front and 
the optic thalamus behind, and externally by the 
nucleus lenticularis, is a portion of white matter, 
called the internal capsule , which presents an 
anterior limb and a posterior limb, united at an 
obtuse angle forming a bend, called the genu or 









Brain. 


( 175 ) 


Brain. 


knee of the capsule. The posterior limb of the 
internal capsule is now known to form the route by 
which motor impulses coming from the cerebral 
cortex pass downwards on their way to the crura 
cerebri, pons, medulla and spinal cord. Outside 
the nucleus lenticularis is another tract of white 
fibres, the external capsule, bounded externally by 
a stratum of grey matter, called the claustrum, 
while outside this, again, is the white matter abut¬ 
ting on the convolutions of the island of Reil. 

Immediately posterior to the third ventricle, and 
beneath the posterior end of the corpus callosum, 
is the pineal body, and below the third ventricle, 
visible on the inferior aspect of the brain, is the 
pituitary body. Just behind and below the pineal 
body are the corpora quadrigemina, which are con¬ 
cerned with visual sensations and are the homo- 
logues of the optic lobes of lower vertebrates. 

The Cerebellum consists of an elongated central 
lobe and two lateral hemispheres. The cerebellum 
is connected with adjoining structures by means of 
three pairs of peduncles, the superior peduncles 
pass upwards and inwards to the cerebrum, the 
inferior peduncles downwards and inwards to the 
medulla, and the middle peduncles communicate 
with the pons. The cerebellum, like the cerebrum, 
contains white matter internally, with an external 
grey cortex; in the latter are found peculiar 
ganglion cells, known as the cells of Purkinje. 

The Medulla oblonyata connects the brain with 
the spinal cord ; just above the cord on the inferior 
aspect of the medulla is seen the pyramidal decus¬ 
sation, formed by the crossing over of medullated 
nerve fibres from the anterior pyramids of the 
medulla on their road to the lateral columns of the 
cord, the right and left anterior pyramids going to 
the left and right lateral columns respectively. 

The central grey matter of the medulla is ex¬ 
posed on the upper surface by the opening up of 
the central canal of the cord into the fourth 
ventricle. In this grey matter lie important nerve 
nuclei, constituting the origin of cranial nerves 
from the fifth to the twelfth. Several outlying 
portions of grey matter are also found, the largest 
of which is known as the olivary body. 

Functions of the Brain. The Cerebral He¬ 
mispheres. The evidence with respect to the 
functions of these complex structures comes mainly 
from two sources—experiments upon lower animals 
and the study of disease in man. With regard to 
the former it is necessary to refer to the effects of 
removing the cerebral hemispheres, and to the 
evidence with respect to localisation of function 
derived from electrical stimulation of the cerebral 
cortex. 

Removal of the hemispheres in a frog or pigeon 
reduces the animal to a kind of automaton ; it is 
capable of performing complex movements in 
response to external stimuli, but if left undisturbed 
remains motionless and app<arently devoid of all 
power of volition. In animals of higher develop¬ 
ment the shock produced by an operation of such 
magnitude is too great to admit of recovery. As 
regards electrical stimulation. Fritsch and Hitzig 
showed in 1870 that the application of a galvanic 
current to certain parts of the cortex of one side 


was followed by movements of the opposite side of 
the body. Their results have been extended by 
Ferrier and others, and the result of recent work 
has been to map out certain parts of the grey 
matter into areas, stimulation of which causes 
definite muscular movements. In the monkey's 
brain the motor centres of the cortex, as they are 
called, are situated on each side of the fissure of 
Rolando, on the convex surface of the hemisphere, 
the centres for the face lying lowest down, then 
those for the arm, and uppermost those of the 
leg ; the muscles of the left-hand side of the body 
being represented in the right hemisphere, and vice 
versa. Further centres concerned with sight, 
hearing, taste, and smell, etc., have been described. 
To turn now to the teaching of disease in the 
human subject. Aphasia (q.v.) has long been 
associated with injury of a particular portion of 
the cerebral cortex, and it was noted from time to 
time that lesions of certain portions of the cortex 
were accompanied by palsies of definite muscles, or 
groups of muscles. Again, Dr. Hughlings Jackson 
traced certain convulsive phenomena to localised 
disease of grey matter (Jacksonian epilepsy). The 
two sets of facts, pathological and experimental, 
are found to be in the main confirmatory of one 
another, and by comparing the convolutions of the 
human brain with those of the monkey, and collect¬ 
ing the evidence obtained from post mortem 
examinations in man, it has been found possible to 
acquire a knowledge of cortical topography, which 
has been put to practical use in the treatment of 
disease. Of late years, in fact, it has been found 
possible, in several instances, to form an opinion as 
to the seat of the lesion from the symptoms of the 
patient, and the skull has been trephined and the 
mischief actually remedied by surgical treatment. 

It must, of course, be remembered that only a 
comparatively small part of the cortex has been, so 
to speak, “ used up ” in this scheme of localisation. 
A large portion, for example, of the grey matter of 
the frontal lobes is apparently insensitive to elec¬ 
trical stimuli, and extensive disease of the frontal 
lobes has been noted without any ascertained 
associated defect. 

The Cerebellum is probably concerned to a large 
extent with the co-ordination of muscular move¬ 
ments ; thus tumours of the cerebellum are asso¬ 
ciated with a peculiar staggering gait, and removal 
of the cerebellum in animals causes marked inco¬ 
ordination. 

The Medulla , besides serving as a link between 
the cord and brain, has most important relations 
with the respiratory and circulatory mechanisms. 
The whole brain above the medulla may be re¬ 
moved in animals, and respiration and life still 
continue, while, on the^ other hand, injury of a 
certain limited region in the medulla, which has 
been called the “nceud vital” (vital knot), produces 
instant death. Again, most important nerves origi¬ 
nate in the medulla. 

Diseases of the Brain. (For the results of violence 
see Head Injuries, for inflammation of the mem¬ 
branes of the brain see Meningitis.) Hydrocephalus, 
insanity, and certain general and functional cere¬ 
bral diseases are treated of in separate articles, e.y. 







Brain. 


( 176 ) 


Brama. 


Chorea, Tetanus, Epilepsy, Headache, Hydro¬ 
phobia, Alcoholism, etc., etc. It is necessary here 
to speak of the general symptoms pointing to 
disease of the brain, and of certain organic diseases, 
viz. Haemorrhage, Softening, Abscess, Tumour. 
Brain-fever is a term used popularly to denote any 
disease in which delirium and fever are prominent 
symptoms. 

Symptoms suggesting intracranial disease are :— 
Hemiplegia (q.v.), Convulsions (q.v.), Loss of con¬ 
sciousness and Apoplexy (q.v.), Headache (q.v.), 
Giddiness (q.v.), Delirium (q.v.), Aphasia (q.v.), 
Mental symptoms, Vomiting, and affections of 
cranial nerves, particularly Optic neuritis (q.v.); 
moreover, fever may be present, and certain char¬ 
acters of pulse and respiration ( see Cheyne Stokes 
On Breathing) suggest cerebral mischief. It is 
important to note that some symptoms point merely 
to disease in some part of the brain, while others 
are of value in localising the actual seat of disease. 
Thus a diagnosis of cerebral tumour may rest on 
the presence of the three cardinal symptoms of 
that disease—headache, vomiting, and optic neu¬ 
ritis, while it may be further possible to indicate 
where the tumour is, from the associated aphasia, 
or hemiplegia, or. convulsions, or in-coordination of 
movement, and so on, which may be also present. 

H&morrhage. The most characteristic symptoms 
of this disease are sudden loss of consciousness 
with hemiplegia. [Apoplexy.] The most common 
seat of haemorrhage is the corpus striatum, but 
the cortex, pons, or other parts may be the site 
of the lesion. Haemorrhage is much more common 
after 40 years of age than in younger subjects, and 
is particularly apt to be associated with granular 
disease of the kidney [Bright’s Disease], gout, 
and alcoholism. The longer the initial unconscious¬ 
ness is prolonged, the less, as a rule, is the chance 
of recovery, and if there is no sign of improvement 
after the lapse of twenty-four hours the case usually 
terminates fatally. 

Softening of a portion of brain substance some¬ 
times occurs from occlusion of a blood-vessel 
(usually an artery) and consequent interference 
with the circulation. The blocking of the artery 
may be due to the lodgment in it of a plug 
brought by the blood-stream from a distance, or to 
the formation of a clot in situ. The first condition 
is spoken of as Embolism (q.v.), the second as 
Thrombosis (q.v.). The most common cause of 
embolism is a diseased condition of the valves of 
the heart, particularly in the affections known as 
ulcerative endocarditis and mitral stenosis. A 
thrombus may originate from disease of the arterial 
wall. [Atheroma.] The symptoms of softening 
closely resemble those of haamorrhage ; the diagnosis 
between the two conditions is however often possible 
from an examination of the condition of the heart 
and blood-vessels. The term “softening” is popu¬ 
larly applied to almost any species of intracranial 
disease. 

Abscess. A collection of pus in the substance of 
the brain is occasionally met with as the result of 
disease of the bones of the skull, particularly in 
association with ear disease. The possible super¬ 
vention of this grave condition is one very adequate 


reason for treating with the greatest care all cases 
of “ discharge from the ear.” Aural mischief is too 
apt to follow after certain “ children’s diseases,” and 
the importance of not making light of deafness and 
purulent discharge from the ear in such cases can¬ 
not be too forcibly insisted upon. 

Tumour. New growths occasionally develop in 
the brain. The forms of most common occurrence 
are cheesy tubercular masses, syphilitic gummata 
and glioma (q.v.). Tubercle usually affects the 
cerebellum. The symptoms of intracranial tumour 
have already been briefly alluded to. 

Brainerd, David, missionary, was born in 1718 
at Haddam, Connecticut. Licensed to preach in 
1742, he went to convert the American Indians in 
Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. The 
story of his labours is published in his Wonders of 
God amongst the Indians and Grace Displayed. 
He died in 1747 in the house of Jonathan Edwards, 
who subsequently became Brainerd’s biographer. 

Brake, a contrivance for controlling or 
diminishing the speed of a carriage, train, revolv¬ 
ing cylinder, etc., by means of friction. Ordinarily 
we have a block of iron or hard wood pressing 
against the wheel tyres with force more or less 
regulated. The magnitude of the friction produced 
is very nearly proportional to the pressure applied, 
and levers are generally adopted to increase the 
applied force sufficiently. This force may be pro¬ 
duced by hand, by atmospheric pressure as in 
vacuum-brakes, or by steam pressure as in the 
Westinghouse-brake. The chief applications of the 
brake are on trains, whose motion requires most 
careful control. A train brake must be automatic, 
or self-acting, i.e. if the train or part of it suddenly 
tends to increase its speed unduly, the necessary 
check should be applied mechanically, without 
requiring a man to apply it. Also it should be 
continuous, durable, simple in construction, and 
powerful. In the chain-brake the brake-blocks are 
kept apart from the carriage-wheels by a long 
continuous chain kept stretched by means of a 
drum on the brake van. If the chain is slackened 
by breaking, or by turning the drum, compressed 
springs force the blocks against the wheel tyres 
and the brake is in action. In the vacuum-brake , a 
continuous pipe extends along the length of the 
train. By means of an air-pump on the locomotive 
a vacuum is maintained in this pipe and in a series 
of brake-cylinders connected with each carriage. 
Each brake-cylinder contains a piston which, with 
vacuum-pressure on each side, will not move. When 
air is let in on one side by fracture of the pipe, or 
by giving it convenient entry, the piston moves and 
actuates the brake-blocks. The Westinghouse- 
brake, which is the best example of the pressure- 
brake type, is noticed separately. 

Brama, a genus of acantliopterygian fishes 
allied to the Dolphins. There is but one species, 
Brama rail (Ray’s bream), from 12 in. to 2 ft. lone-.’ 
deep blue above, silvery below. The body is much 
compressed, pectorals long and narrow, ventrals 
small, tail large and forked. It ranges from the 










Bramah. 


( 177 ) 


Branching, 


South Atlantic to the Mediterranean, and sometimes 

to the British coasts. 

* 

Bramah, Joseph, inventor, was born in 1748 at 
Stainborough, a village near Barnsley, Yorkshire. 
After serving his apprenticeship as a carpenter, 
he obtained employment in London as a cabinet 
maker, and was soon enabled, through his in¬ 
genious inventions, to start in business for himself. 
His inventions referred to safety-locks, water-closets, 
pumps, fire-engines, paper-making, etc., and in 
1806 he patented a printing machine for numbering 
bank notes, which was adopted by the Bank of 
England. His main achievement was his Hydraulic 
Press (q.v.), which he patented in 1795. He died 
in 1814 at Pimlico. 

Bramante, Donato Lazzari, architect, born 
in 1444 at Casteldurante in Urbino. He first 
studied painting, and though successful in this 
sphere abandoned it for architecture. About 
1500 he went to Rome, where he was employed by 
Popes Alexander YI. and Julius II., for the latter 
of whom he planned the buildings connecting the 
Vatican with the Belvedere and designed the new 
church of St. Peter at Rome. He laid the founda¬ 
tion stone of St. Peter’s in 1506, but did not live to 
see its completion, which was entrusted to Michael 
Angelo, who departed widely from his designs. 
He died in 1514 at Rome. 

Brambanan, a ruined town of Java in the 
province of Surakarta, is celebrated for its remains 
of Hindu temples of hewn stone. Of these there 
are six groups, of which the most notable is the 
Chandi Sewu or “ The Thousand Pagodas.” There 
are also remains of edifices intended for residence 
and supposed to be monastic. 

Bramble, the popular name for the various 
forms of the genus Rubies, constituting the species 
JR. fruticosus of Linnasus. These all agree in 
having a shrubby stem, without the suckers familiar 
in the raspberry, leaves of three or five leaflets not 
arranged pinnately, and a black fruit. [Black¬ 
berry.] They differ in the presence or absence 
of bristles and glandular hairs on the stem, the 
number, form and regularity of the prickles, the 
form of the leaf, the colour of the corolla, which is 
white or pink, the presence or absence of hairs on 
the calyx, its being green or white, the number, 
size and shade of the drupels in the fruit, the 
presence of a bloom on them, as in the Dew¬ 
berry (q.v.), Rubus ccesius , the rounded or an¬ 
gular form of the stem, its rooting at its apex and 
such characters. The young shoots are very 
astringent, and are used, with the fruit, in pre¬ 
paring blackberry brandy, an effective rustic anti- 
dysenteric. 

Brambling {Fringilla montifringilla), a finch 
widely distributed over the north of Europe and 
Asia, visiting Britain in the autumn and remain¬ 
ing till spring. The male is nearly 7 in. long¬ 
head, neck, and upper part of back mottled with 
black and brown in winter, changing to glossy 
black in spring-; throat, breast, find wings fawn, 
the latter barred with black; belly and rump 
white; tail forked. These birds frequent stubble 

36 


fields and in winter feed on mast. The call note 
is a monotonous chirp. Called also Bramble-finch 
and Mountain-finch. 

Bramhall, John, prelate, was born in 1594. 
Educated at Cambridge, he was in 1684 appointed 
Bishop of Derry, having gone to Ireland in 1638 
as Went worth’s chaplain. He recovered large sums 
for the Church, and was very unpopular with the 
Catholics, In 1641 he had to flee to England, in 
1644 to the Continent. At the Restoration he was 
raised to the archbishopric of Armagh, which he 
held till his death in 1663. He is chiefly known 
through his ineffective arguments against Hobbes 
on the questions of necessity and free will. 

Brantflia, the technical name for gills (q.v.). 

Branchial Hearts are the expansions of the 
blood-vessels at the base of the gills ; they are well 
seen in the common Cuttlefish (q.v.). 

Branchiata, a synonym for Crustacea, a 
term of value, as it emphasises the fact that this 
group breathes by gills, while the allied air-breath¬ 
ing Arachnida and Myriapoda (centipedes, etc.), 
are grouped together as the Tracheata. 

Branching, in the widest sense of the term, 
applies to the production of any Lateral structures 
by any organ of a plant. Unicellular plants, such 
as yeast, branch by gemmation , each cell being capa¬ 
ble of putting out other cells as lateral pouch-like 
outgrowths, which may either be entirely separated 
by constriction, or may remain united so as to give 
rise to a branching chain of cells. Some of the 
simpler “ filamentous ” algre branch by producing 
innovations , one cell of the filament growing out 
laterally behind its junction with the next cell and 
outstripping that cell and undergoing cell-division. 
Such an innovation may become a new plant by the 
decay of its base of attachment. A similar mode of 
branching occurs in the far more highly organised 
stems of mosses. In Characeee (q.v.) the large 
apical cell divides transversely, each alternately 
formed half being nodal or inter-nodal respectively. 
The internodal cell divides parallel with its circum¬ 
ference, so as to form a cortical laager; and the 
production of both leaves and branches depends 
upon the outgrowth of certain cells in this cortical 
layer. Leaves in this group differ from branches 
mainly in their branching only proceeding to a 
limited extent. In the axes of the JPteridopliyta , 
or ferns and their allies, and in the leaves in some 
case, branching is chorisipodial (Greek, chorisis, 
division ; gmis, podos, a foot or basis), resulting 
from the repeated division of a large apical cell by 
oblique cell-walls, very commonly three in number. 
In flowering-pjants the one large apical cell is 
replaced by an apical primary meristem (q.v.), or 
group of small similar cells capable of forming 
new tissue bv repeated divisions. The lateral 
branches of roots in this group originate endoge¬ 
nously , i.e. beneath the thick cortical tissue ; those 
of leaves, exogenously , or from outer tissues, and 
basipetaMy, they being structures of limited growth 
with their apices formed first; and those of stems, 
exogenously and mainly acropetally, or from below 
upwards towards the apex whilst their growing 







Branching. 


( H8 ) 


Brande. 


points or apical meristems are always protected by 
overlapping rudiments of leaves, forming a bud 
(q.v.). In arrangement (caulotaxis or ramification') 
the primary lateral branches of roots (“ secondary 
roots ” of many writers) are acropetal, all of 
them originating in the pericambium (q.v.) oppo¬ 
site the bundles of wood, which are limited in 
number, so that these branches occur in a limited 
number of vertical rows ( orthosticities ). Subse¬ 
quently other roots are given off adventitiously, or 
in no definite order. Stems (as when they are 
pollarded or otherwise mechanically injured), and 
less commonly leaves, may also branch adventi¬ 
tiously ; but the main branches of the stem of a 
flowering-plant normally produced, and conse¬ 
quently much of the general outline of the plant, 
owe their arrangement to that of the leaves. [Phyl- 
lotaxis.] The stems of most monocotyledons, like 
those of ferns and cycads, are either unbranched 
or are chorisipodially dichotomous, as in Aloe 
dichotoma; but others, such as Asparayus and 
liuseus, branch freely. In the Coniferce the indefi¬ 
nite growth of the main stem or “ leader” forms 
much more wood than the lateral branches, many 
of which may die off if the trees are crowded, 
leaving “knots” in the timber, and the tree, at 
least when young, acquires a conical outline. The 
primary branches, though apparently in whorls, are 
truly at slight different levels. In Pinus short 
twigs of definite growth bear each two, three, or 
five needle-leaves, and in the larches similar 
branchlets bearing tufts of leaves elongate after 
these leaves have fallen. In the honeysuckle 
several branches spring from the axil (q.v.) of a 
single leaf ; but as a rule among dicotyledons only 
one does so, and the various methods of gemmary, 
or bud-produced, branching in this group are 
divided into two main types, the racemose and the 
cymose. Racemose, indefinite, monopodial, or 
acropetal branching, such as that of conifers, the 
flower-clusters of the grape-vine, or the wallflowers, 
cabbages, mignonettes, etc., consists in the continu¬ 
ous growth of a main axis by the partial unfolding 
of a terminal bud and the successive development 
of lateral buds from below upwards. If the main 
axis branches once only, it is simple; if more 
than once, compound. [Raceme.] Cymose, definite, 
polycltasial or centrifugal branching consists in the 
unfolding of the terminal bud of a stem into a 
flower or some other early termination to the 
growth of main axis, which is thus definite, its 
growth being continued by lateral axes that overt of 
it, so that “ the stem is lost in its branches,” and 
many axes, or chasia, are produced from the centre 
outwards. Such branching may be multilateral, 
two (dichasium) or three (trichasium) lateral 
branches of equal vigour being produced, as in 
Stellaria, Cerastium, or Datura; or it may be 
unilateral and sympodial, one branch at each 
forking being more strongly developed than the 
other, whilst the primary axis and its successive 
stronger-growing lateral axes, secondary, tertiary, 
etc., form a pseudaxis or sympodium. Unilaterally 
cymose branching may be either cicinnal, where 
the stronger branch originates first to one side of 
the direction of the main axis, and then alternately 


to the other, or bostrychoid, where the stronger 
branches form a spiral round the main direction or 
pseudaxis, as in the inflorescence of llemerocallis. 
Chorisipodial branching is similarly either poly- 
tomous, as in the stem of Marcliantia or the stamens 
of Ricinus, or unilateral and sympodial; and in the 
latter case it is either cicinnal or scorpioid, as in 
Selaginella, or bostrychoid or helicoid, as in the 
fronds of A diantum pedatum or other pedate leaves, 
such as those of the Christmas rose (Helleborus 
niger). [Inflorescence, Cyme, Raceme, Bos- 
TRYX, ClCINNUS, etc.] 

Branchiogastropoda, those Gastropoda 
which breathe by gills. 

Branchiopoda ( i.e . gill-footed), a subdivision 
of the Entomostraca, including the Cladocera, 
Phyllopoda, and Trilobita ; the characters 
possessed in common by these three orders are 
that the gills are borne on the legs, and that some 
at least of the legs are flattened out to serve 
as gills. 

Branchipus, one of the best known genera of 
the Phyllopoda ; it is common in the lakes and 
ponds of Germany. 

Branchiura, a sub-order of Copepoda includ¬ 
ing the family Argulidce, the members of which 
are parasitic on carp, etc. 

Branco, Rio, a river of N. Brazil and an 
affluent of the Rio Negro, has its sources near the 
borders in Venezuela in the Parima Mountains. 

Brand (Ger. brennen, to burn), a mark usually 
produced by fire. Herring casks are branded, 
under Government inspection, if the owners desire, 
to certify the quality of the fish. Each separate 
consignment in a ship’s cargo, if packed in cases, 
bags, or barrels, has usually its special brand, con¬ 
sisting of letters and geometrical figures variously 
arranged, to facilitate identification. Horses and 
cattle are often branded when kept in large herds 
(a practice customary in Greece, at least, as far 
back as the 5th century b.c.). Criminals have 
very frequently been branded, and deserters from 
the British army were branded with the letter D 
till 1870. The name is also (especially in America) 
applied to any trade mark, whether- burnt-in or not. 

Brand, John, antiquary, was born in 1744 at 
Durham. After graduating at Oxford, whither 
friends had sent him, he was in 1777 elected a 
fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and in 1784 
presented to the rectory of the united parishes of 
St. Mary-at-Hill and St. Mary Hubbard in the City 
of London. In the same year he was elected 
resident secretary to the Society of Antiquaries, 
an office that he held till his death, 180G. His 
Observations on Popular Antiquities is regarded as 
the leading book on this subject in the English 
language. 

Brande, William Thomas, chemist, was born 
in 1788 at London. After studying medicine he 
sent a communication in 1806 to the-Royal Society, 
which was published in their Transactions, and in 
1809 he was elected a Fellow and became Sir 






Brandenburg'. 


( no ) 


Brasses. 


Humphry Davy’s assistant at the Royal Institution, 
succeeding Davy in 1813. In 1825 he was made 
superintendent of the die department in the mint. 
Jrom 1816 to 1836 he was conjointly with Faraday 
editor of the Quarterly Journal of Science and Art; 
lie also published a Manual of Chemistry and other 
works. He died in 1866. 

Brandenburg 1 , one of the largest provinces of 
Prussia, covering an area of 15,500 square miles. 
Its boundaries are on the north, Mecklenburg and the 
province of Pomerania; east, Posen and" Silesia ; 
south, Silesia and the kingdom of Saxony; and west, 
Anhalt and the provinces of Saxony and Hanover, 
l or the most part it is a sandy plain, with here and 
there fertile districts and woodland. Its chief 
town is Berlin, and among its other leading towns 
are Potsdam, Frankfort, Brandenburg, etc. It is 
watered by the Elbe, the Oder, the Havel, and the 
Spree, with their numerous tributaries and canals. 
Besides agriculture and cattle raising, the inhabi¬ 
tants engage in the manufacture of "silks, cotton, 
wool, paper, brandy-distilling, and its mineral pro¬ 
ducts embrace coal, limestone, gypsum, etc. The 
piovince is divided into the governments of 
Potsdam and Frankfort, Berlin forming an inde¬ 
pendent jurisdiction, and its inhabitants are mainly 
Lutherans. Its connection with the Prussian 
monarchy dates from the time of Frederick I., 
Elector of Brandenburg. [Prussia.] 

Brandenburg 1 , a Prussian town in the province 
of Brandenburg and government of Potsdam, is on 
the river Havel and the Magdeburg and Berlin 
Railway. It is encompassed by walls and divided 
by the river into the old and new town, between 
which, on an island in the river, is the “ cathedral 
town,” called also “Venice,” with buildings of 
antiquarian interest and works of art. The town 
has a brisk trade and manufactures in woollens, 
linen, silks, hosiery, boat-building, leather, brew¬ 
eries, etc. 

Brandling, Branling, local Irish names for 
the Parr (q.v.). 

Brandon, a town of England in the county of 
Suffolk, is situated on the Little Ouse or Brandon 
river, and is the centre of the manufacture of gun- 
flints. Despite the introduction of percussion caps, 
flint-lock guns are still exported to Africa. 

Brandt, Sebastian, author, was born in 1458 
at Strasburg. After studying at Basel, he became 
one of the leading lecturers there, and the Emperor 
Maximilian appointed him one of his councillors. 
He is famous as the author of the Narrenschiff , or 
Ship of Fools, one of the most popular books of 
the time. It has been translated into all the 
languages of Europe. Brandt died at Strasburg 
in 1521. 

Brandy. An alcoholic liquor obtained by the 
distillation of wine. The taste and colour vary in 
brandies from different localities, owing to differ¬ 
ences in the soil and methods of preparation. It 
generally contains from 45 to 55 per cent, of alcohol, 
in addition to which are small quantities of acetic 
acid, tannin, colouring matter, and volatile oils. 


. Brandywine Creek, a small river of America, 
rises in Pennsylvania and after flowing through 
Delaware state joins the Christiana creek at 
M ilmington. It is interesting as giving the name 
to a battle fought on its banks on September 11, 
1777, between the British and Americans, in which 
the British were victorious. 

Brank, a sort of gag or bridle, once usual as 
a punishment for female scolds in Scotland and the 
North of England. Its use lasted on here and 
there until the present century. 

Brant, Joseph, Indian chief, was born about 
the middle of the 18th century. He proved a 
' aluable ally to the British in their American wars 
both with the reel-men and the colonists. Subse¬ 
quently he became a devout Christian, and trans¬ 
lated St. Mark’s Gospel and the Prayer Book of 
the English Church into Mohawk. He also visited 
England in 1786 to raise funds to build the first 
Episcopal church in Canada. A monument to his 
memory was erected at Brantford, Ontario. He 
died in 1807. 

Brantome, Pierre de Bourdeilles. Seig¬ 
neur de, historian, was born about 1540 in 
Gascony. After some experience in arms he retired, 
after Charles IX.'s death, from active life and 
devoted himself to the writing of his Memoires of 
the celebrated men and women he had met, 
Brantome died in 1614. 

Brash. [Waterbrash, Pyrosis.] 

Brasidas, Spartan general, signalised himself 
in the Peloponnesian war. Among his chief 
exploits were the relief of Megara in 424 B.C., his 
expeditions through Thessaly to Macedonia in 
the same year, and his defence of Amphipolis on 
the Strymon in 422 against Cleon and the flower of 
the Athenian army. Though victor, he was mort¬ 
ally wounded, and buried within the walls of the 
city. 

Brass. Any alloy of which copper and zinc 
are the chief constituents, but the name is 
frequently confined to the varieties possessing a 
yellow colour. It is harder than copper, is ductile, 
malleable, susceptible of a fine polish, and can be 
obtained of any shade of colour from white to 
orange red. It is eminently adapted for ornamental 
metal work, and the metal portions of scientific 
instruments. 

Brasses, engraved sepulchral tablets usually 
made of a fine kind of mixed metal called latten, 
and inlaid on slabs of stone, in a hollow called the 
matrix, made to receive them, either as part of the 
pavement of a church, or on altar tombs. 
Commonly they contain figures, sometimes crosses 
and decorative patterns, and sometimes inscriptions 
only. Occasionally parts of the engraved work are 
filled up with enamel. The oldest in England is 
that of Sir John d’Abernon, at Stoke d’Abernon in 
Surrey, dated 1277. One a little later in date exists 
near Cambridge. They are specially valuable as 
illustrations of mediaeval costume. Though England 
possesses the best and most numerous examples 










( 180 ) 


Bray. 


Brassey. 


extant, they are usually of foreign, probably French 
and Flemish, workmanship. 

Brassey, Thomas, railway contractor, was 
born in 1805 at Buerton, Cheshire. Apprenticed to 
a surveyor at 16, he acquired his master s business 
on the latter’s death, and his first engagement as a 
railway contractor came in 1835, when he under¬ 
took the execution of the Penkridge Viaduct on the 
Grand Junction Railway. He next had the com¬ 
pletion of the London and Southampton Railway. 
His subsequent operations extended to most 
European countries, to India, Australia, and 
America. He laid down the Grand Trunk Railway 
of Canada with its remarkable bridge crossing the 
St. Lawrence at Montreal. He died in 1870 at 
St. Leonards, leaving a large fortune. His son, 
Thomas, now Lord, Brassey was born in 1836, and 
from 1880 to 1884 was a lord of the Admiralty. 
His wife, who died in 1888, wrote The Voyage of 
the Sunbeam. 

Brassica, a genus of the order Cruciferre , having 
conduplicate cotyledons and a beaked apex to its 
siliqua, and including about 100 species. It in¬ 
cludes a large number of useful plants, many of 
which are but long cultivated races of a small 
number of wild species. B. oleracea, the cabbage, a 
biennial sea-side plant with glaucous fleshy undu¬ 
late leaves, is not only the parent form of all the 
various kales, broccoli, kohl-rabi, etc., but possibly 
also of B. campestris, which includes B. rapa, 
the turnip, B. napus , the rape or colza, and the 
apparently hybrid swede (B. campestris var. Napo- 
brassica). The sub-genus Sinapis, with sepals 
spreading instead of erect, includes B. nigra, black 
mustard, and B. alba , white mustard, British 
species, the crushed seeds of which yield the 
pungent “ flour of mustard,” whilst the young 
seedlings of the latter species are eaten with those 
of cress as a salad, B. juncea , a native of India 
yielding mustard-seed oil or “ soorsa,” largely used 
in Russia instead of olive-oil, and many other species 
employed in other countries. [Cabbage, Mustard.] 

Brathwaite, Richard, poet, was born about 
1588 in Westmoreland. After studying at Oxford 
and Cambridge, he removed to London, and in 1611 
published his first collection of poems under the 
title of The Golden Fleece. This was followed in 
1614 by three other works, and in 1615 by some 
satires. His most famous production, however, 
appeared in 1638, viz. Barnabae Itinerarium—a 
record of English travel in English and Latin 
doggerel verse. He died in 1673. 

Braun, August Emil, archaeologist, was born 
in 1809 at Gotha, Germany. After studying at 
Gottingen and Munich he went in 1833 to Rome, 
where he was appointed librarian and subsequently 
secretary of the Archaeological Institute. His 
works, which were written in English, German, 
and Italian, are numerous and highly valuable to 
archaeology and art. He died in 1856 at Rome. 

Braunsberg, a town of Prussia and capital of 
a circle in the government of Konigsberg, is 
situated near the mouth of the Passarge in the 
Frisclie Half. It is the seat of the bishop of 


Ermeland and has various educational institutions. 
Its industries embrace woollens, linens, tanning, 
etc., and it has a considerable trade in ship-timber, 
corn, and yarn. Till 1632 it was held by the 
Swedes. 

Bravura, in Music, an air containing florid 
passages, requiring force, spirit, and skill in its 
execution. 

Brawling, the offence of quarrelling or making 
a disturbance in the church or its appurtenances, 
and it was formerly punishable by cutting off the 
offender's ears. By a statute passed during the 
present reign—24 and 25 Vic., c. 32—the jurisdic¬ 
tion of the ecclesiastical courts in England and 
Ireland in suits for brawling was abolished as 
against persons not in holy orders ; and persons 
guilty of riotous, violent, or indecent behaviour in 
churches and chapels of the Church of England or 
Ireland, or in any chapel of any religious denomina¬ 
tion, or in England in any place of religious worship 
duly certified under the provisions of 18 and 19 
Vic., c. 81, or in church porches or burial grounds, 
on conviction before two justices were made liable 
to a penalty of not more than £5 or imprisonment 
for any term not exceeding two months. 

Brawn, the flesh of a pig’s head and feet, or 
of an ox’s feet, chopped small, boiled together and 
pickled. 

Bray, a fashionable watering place in Ireland, 
is pleasantly situated on both sides of the river 
Bray, which here separates the counties of Wicklow 
and Dublin. It is a neatly built town with several 
public institutions and a small harbour, and manu¬ 
factures in woollens and linens. 

Bray, a parish of England, in the county of 
Berkshire, is famous as the abode of the Vicar of 
Bray, well known through the ballad. According 
to it the vicar retained his living in the reigns of 
Charles II., James II., William III., Anne, and 
George I., by changing his faith to suit the changing 
circumstances of the times. 

Bray, Anna Eliza, authoress, was born in 1790, 
in London. Her maiden name was Kempe, but in 
1825 she married the vicar of Tavistock, the Rev. 
E. A. Bray. Her works, which are numerous, 
embrace historical romances, travels, etc., and 
among them the most valuable is The Borders of 
the Tamar and the Tavy, describing in the form of 
letters to Southey the legends and superstitions 
surrounding the town of Tavistock. Mrs. Bray died 
in 1883, in London. 

Bray, Thomas, divine, was born in 1656, at 
Marton, Salop. After studying at Oxford, he was 
appointed vicar of Over-Whitacre and rector of 
Sheldon. He was sent by Bishop Compton to 
Maryland to arrange the affairs of the church there, 
and exerted himself in colonial missions and in the 
establishing of parochial libraries, out of which grew 
the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. 
The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel also 
owes its existence to his labours. On returning to 
England in 1706 he received the living of St. 
Botolph Without, Aldgate. He died in 1730. 











Brayera Anthelmintica. 


( 181 ) 


Brazil 


Brayera Anthelmintica. The female in¬ 
florescence of an Abyssinian plant of this name is 
employed as a vermicide. [Cusso.] 

Brazil, the largest state in South America, 
extending from lat. 5° N. to 33° S., and from 
long. 35° to 74° W., with a length of 2,660 miles, 
and a breadth of 2,500 to 2,600, an area of close 
on 31 millions of square miles, and a coast-line of 
nearly 4,000 miles. For a comparison of size it may 
be remarked that Brazil is very little smaller than 
Europe. It is in great part both unsettled and 
unexplored, and lying almost entirely within the 
tropics, presents the ordinary features of tropical 
climate, scenery, and productions, both animal and 
vegetable, varied somewhat by the formation of the 
land. Brazil consists of a table-land in the east 
and centre, with low-lying plains and river valleys 
to the north and north-west and the south and 
south-west. There are three great river systems, 
that of the Amazon, which with its tributaries 
occupies the northern and north-western portion of 
the country, that of the Parana and the Paraguay 
to the south and south-west, and that of the San 
Francisco, which has its source and follows its 
course among the table-lands of the east, and forces 
its way through the mountains into the Atlantic. 
The great northern plain is so level that the Amazon 
at a distance of 1,500 miles from the sea is only 250 
feet above sea level, and the feeders of the Amazon 
and Orinoco not only join, but direct navigation from 
the ocean to the ocean by means of these two 
rivers is possible. The interior of the country is a 
series of lofty plateaux, broken and intersected by 
river valleys. The upper coast consists of low lands 
and isandy plains, and the southern extremity of 
rolling land ending in low sandy coast. The 
plateau land begins from the parallel of San Roque 
(lat. 5° S.) and extends southward and westward 
till it is lost in the great plain of the Amazons, 
which extends to the foot of the Andes in the 
west, and to the rising land towards Venezuela in 
the north. 

The mass of the table-land is not central. The 
two principal ranges of heights, from which many 
others radiate, are the Serra da Mantaqueira, and 
the Serra do Espinhaxjo, extending from lat. 18° 
to 23° S., and situated from the east coast at 
distances varying from 100 to 200 miles. The high¬ 
est point in this range is the Pico do Itatiaiossu, the 
height of which is variously estimated at from six to 
ten thousand feet. One effect of this range is to turn 
the course of the rivers inwards in the direction of 
the Amazon and the Plata, and so to render inter¬ 
course between the coast and the interior difficult. 
One range of high plateaux, with different names 
in different parts, forms a watershed between the 
north and south rivers. The highest part of this is 
the Monte Pyreneos in Goyaz, between the basins 
of the Tocantins and the Paramhyba, and it rises 
to a height of 9,000 feet. 

The climate varies from an unhealthy humidity 
in some of the lower parts of the coasts, and in the 
great river valleys which are rank with vegetation, 
and are kept almost perpetually moist by the east 
winds which come laden with vapour from the 


Atlantic, to a healthy dryness upon the breezy 
uplands; and while the northern parts have the 
alternate and regularly recurring wet and dry 
seasons of the tropics, the table-lands have four 
distinctly marked seasons, although they are not 
exactly similar to those of Europe. 

The vegetation of the vast forests in the Amazon 
and other river valleys is of great variety and 
luxuriance. Most people are acquainted from books 
of travel with the extensive virgin forests, with 
their variety of trees, festooned and bound together 
by lianas in such a way as to make progress through 
them a matter of difficulty and well nigh impos¬ 
sibility. Of the trees used in commerce the chief 
are, perhaps, the rosewood, the Brazil-wood, and 
other dye-woods, and the rubber tree. 

The fauna of Brazil is no less varied than its 
flora. The jaguar, puma, tiger-cat, ocelot, monkey, 
tapir, capybara, peccary, ant-eater, and sloth abound ; 
the woods are full of boa-constrictors and other 
snakes; the air is bright with parrots, humming 
birds, butterflies, and wild bees, and other insects— 
among them the cactus-loving cochineal insect— 
while the Amazons and other rivers teem with 
alligators, turtles, porpoises, manatees, and many 
other fish, among them the pira. 

The population of Brazil is generally estimated 
at from 10 to 12 millions, exclusive of about one 
million wild Indians. A gradual emancipation of 
slaves was begun in 1871, and various measures 
were introduced in the same direction down to 1888, 
when final and full emancipation was decreed, and 
thus far this act does not seem to have been 
followed by the same disastrous effects that 
followed sudden emancipation in the West Indies. 

The general religion of the country is Catholicism, 
though other religions were tolerated, and since the 
last revolution there is no State religion. Till 
lately the country was governed by an emperor, 
aided by a cabinet, and a legislature, consisting of 
a senate and a chamber of deputies; but in 
November, 1889, in a quiet business-like way, a 
republic was decreed, and on June 22, 1890, a new 
constitution was inaugurated, based upon that of 
the United States, the president’s term of office, 
however, being fixed at six years. There was little 
excitement about the revolution, things went on as 
usual, most imperial officials simply changed their 
names, and the only important changes were that 
Church and State were separated, civil marriages 
were made the rule, and education was secu¬ 
larised. 

At present the public debt of Brazil is about 120 
millions, and there is 25^ millions of revenue as 
against 29 millions of expenditure. 

The commerce of Brazil is not very considerable 
owing to a variety of causes, one of which is an 
excessive system of protection. Her chief exports, 
beyond the produce of the forest in the shape of 
dye- and other woods, are coffee, sugar, cotton 
(which is of fine quality and grows well on the dry 
table-lands, but is not well worked), tobacco, cocoa, 
rice, and tapioca, which is prepared from the 
manioc or cassava. 

But Brazil is an altogether undeveloped country. 
It produces diamonds, and other precious stones in 








Brazil-nut. 


( 182 ) 


Breaking-stress. 


great varieties, coal, sulphur, gold, silver, copper, 
and iron, and doubtless has a great future before it. 

Brazil-nut, the seed of Bertholletia (q.v.) 
excelsa, a native of north-eastern South America. 
The seeds are closely packed, 18 to 24 together, in 
the spheroidal woody capsular fruit, which is about 
six inches in diameter. The testa is brown, woody, 
and wrinkled and wedge-shaped, and the tegmen 
resembles the testa of many other seeds. The nuts 
are rich in a bland oil, known in Brazil as Castanlia 
oil, and used by artists and watchmakers. They 
form an important article of export from Para, being 
used not only as a dessert fruit, but now very 
largely in soap-making. 

Brazil-wood, the wood of Coesalpinia ecldnata 
and allied species, imported in considerable quantity 
as a source of red dyes. C. ecldnata is a Brazilian 
tree with prickly branches, bi-pinnate leaves, with 
elliptical-acute leaflets, racemes of yellow flowers 
and spinous pods. It is probably the Bresil de St. 
Martha, the source of the valuable Lima wood, the 
less valuable Nicaragua wood or Peach-wood. C. 
crista, a native of the West Indies, is another 
source of Brazil-wood and of Bahama Braziletto 
wood. Peltoplioruui Linncei, formerly known as C. 
brasiliensis, a native of Jamaica and San Domingo, 
is the source of Braziletto-wood, used as an orange 
dye and for violin bows and other small articles of 
turnery. 

Brazing, the soldering together of iron, copper, 
or brass with an alloy of brass and zinc. 

Brazos, a river of America, rises in the N.W. 
of Texas, and flowing for upwards of 900 miles in 
a S.E. direction, debouches into the Gulf of 
Mexico. 

Brazza, an island in the Adriatic, belongs to 
Dalmatia. It is mountainous and well-wooded, 
yielding marble, wines, oils, etc. Its area is 160 
square miles. Chief town, San Pietro. 

Brazza, Pierre Savorgnan de, explorer, was 
born in 1852, at Rome. After studying at Paris, he 
entered the French navy in 1870. In 1878 he was 
subsidised by the Government to explore the 
country north of the Congo, where he acquired 
grants of land for France, and established stations. 
In 1883 he returned to the Congo again, and 
extended still further the interests of France there. 
In 1886 he was made governor of the French 
dependency between Gaboon and the Congo—terri¬ 
tory that he himself had been instrumental in 
acquiring. 

Breach. 1. A gap, hole, or rent in a fortifi¬ 
cation, caused by battering guns or by mining. The 
object is to create an opening in the fortress for a 
storming party. 2. A violation or dereliction of 
duty or obligation. The following are the more 
important instances: (1) breach of contract; (2) 
breach of promise of marriage; (3) breach of the 
peace; (4) breach of trust; (5) breach of privi¬ 
lege. (See the various titles.) 

Breaching Tower, in the Middle Ages, the 
English name for the French beffroi, a movable 
tower of wood, covered with leather and mounted 


on four wheels, containing six or seven storeys. A 
battering ram was sometimes mounted on one of 
the lower storeys, while the upper contained slingers 
and archers to cover its advance or prevent defence 
of the wall. Froissart describes such towers, which 
were a legacy from the classical period. 

Bread is the article of food formed by baking 
the dough, or paste, made by the mixture of flour or 
grain with water. The primitive method consisted 
in simply this and nothing more, but now the 
kneaded mass of dough is universally brought to a 
spongy texture, the change being due to the forma¬ 
tion of carbonic acid in the mass, and is brought 
about in three ways :—(1) by the action of some 
ferment such as leaven or yeast; (2) by the addition 
of an acid (such as tartaric) and sodium bicar¬ 
bonate ; (3) by directly injecting the gas. The 
mechanical result in each case is the formation of 
innumerable cells within the dough, the whole being 
encased within the crust formed during - the baking;. 
The cereals from which bread is made may, for 
dietetic purposes, be said to contain constituents of 
the three following main groups:—(1) Carbohy¬ 
drates, i.e. the starches, sugars, and gums; (2) 
albuminoids or nitrogenous matters ; (3) ash, or 
mineral matters. The chief proteid present is 
gluten, a nitrogenous substance mixed with 
another called “gliadin,” which latter gives the 
characteristic adhesiveness to dough. In the first 
of the three processes mentioned above, the addition 
of the ferment partially converts the starch into 
maltose, which with the sugar becomes converted 
into carbonic acid and other products. When the 
fermenting process has gone on far enough, the 
dough is placed in the oven, where the heat soon 
stops the action of the ferment; the mass, however, 
keeps on expanding until the formation of the outer 
crust. In method (3) the flour is mixed under 
pressure with water charged with carbonic acid, 
and the resulting dough, on the removal of the 
pressure, becomes vesicular or spongy, and is then 
divided into loaves and baked. 

Bread-fruit, Artocarpus incisa, a native of the 
South Sea Islands, is a most valuable tree forming 
the type of the order Artocarpacea ?. The soft 
timber and fibrous bark are employed, and the 
latex containing caoutchouc is used as glue and for 
caulking boats. The leaves are large, dark-green, 
and lobed like those of its ally the fig, and they 
have large convolute stipules. The male flowers 
are in long club-shaped spikes, and the pistil-bear¬ 
ing ones in round heads. Each ovary is one- 
chambered and one-ovuled with two stigmatic 
lobes; but the whole female inflorescence, as in 
the allied mulberry, gives rise to one “fruit” or in- 
frutescence, of large size, green externally, but 
white and farinaceous within. The best varieties 
have no seeds, but are propagated by suckers. The 
fruit is roasted or baked for food, and forms the 
chief diet in the South Seas. The bread-fruit was 
introduced into the West Indies by H.M.S. Bounty , 
after Captain Cook’s voyages of exploration. 

Breaking-stress, in Engineering , means the 
load per unit of area that will cause fracture of 
any given material. Thus the breaking-stress of 







Breakwater. 


( 183 ) 


Breastplate. 


wrought-iron in tension is the load that would 
break a bar of that material one square inch in 
section, if hung on at the end so as to extend the 
bar. The load must be applied without jerk. 

Breakwater, a barrier in front of a harbour 
or anchorage, mainly for the protection of shipping. 
It may be of natural or of artificial formation, or 
advantage may be taken in its construction of 
natural partial barriers that exist. Breakwaters 
are of most importance where the harbours are 
much used, and where the position is exposed to 
heavy storms, as at Plymouth, Holyhead, Portland, 
or Cherbourg. The material employed varies with 
the locality. If good stone can be quarried in the 
neighbourhood, the breakwater is generally built of 
that material. Thus at Plymouth large blocks of 
limestone were quarried near, shipped, and dropped 
down as rubble in the required position; and at 
Holyhead the stone was cut from the Holyhead 
mountain, and run out to the sea on timber 
staging. In places where stone cannot be readily 
obtained, blocks of concrete have been satisfactorily 
employed instead. Usually the stone available is 
first deposited irregularly in a long mound as 
rubble, with a base of considerably greater width 
than the top. This mound is faced with masonry 
or concrete, to diminish the effect of the action of 
the waves. In some cases little more than a firmly 
built paving exists above the facing, as in the break¬ 
waters at Plymouth and Cherbourg; but the rubble 
is often surmounted by a masonry wall, as at Port¬ 
land and Holyhead. Where the breakwater is 
composed of concrete blocks, it is usual to build it 
up from the bottom as a wall with outwardly 
sloping faces, like that at Dover, where no stone is 
available in the neighbourhood. The depth of water 
on the site of the structure varies considerably in 
different cases, but rarely exceeds 100 feet; at 
Portland the water is about 50 feet deep at low- 
water spring tide, at Cherbourg about 60 feet. At 
Alderney the depth at the outer end of the break¬ 
water is 130 feet, but the difficulties of building and 
maintaining this outer portion have been so great 
that the original design of 1847 has not yet been 
carried out. Fuller accounts of the more important 
breakwaters are noticed separately. [Cherbourg, 
Dover, Holyhead, Plymouth, Portland.] 

Bream, any fish of the freshwater genus 
Abramis, of the carp family, found in the north 
temperate zones of both hemispheres. Two species 
are British : A. brama (the Common Bream) and 
A. blicca (the White Bream). The former is usually 
from 1 ft. to 2 ft. in length, with a weight of from 
two to four pounds, but much larger specimens occur. 
In colour it is yellowish-white, growing darker with 
age. This fish affords excellent sport, but the flesh 
is somewhat insipid. The latter species is rarely 
more than a foot long, silvery-white with a bluish 
tinge. Both feed on water-plants, worms, and 
insects. The so-called Pomeranian Bream is probably 
a hybrid bet ween the Common Bream and the Roach. 

Breast, or mammary gland, is the organ con¬ 
cerned in secreting milk. The gland substance 
proper is surrounded by connective tissue and fat, 
which forms a kind of packing and supporting- 


material. The gland itself is made up of a 
number of lobes, each lobe being further divided 
into lobules. These lobules are found on micro¬ 
scopical examination to be composed of a number 
of acini or hollow sacs lined by cubical epithelial 
cells which all open into a common duct. By 
the union of such lobular ducts, the main ducts 
of the gland, the lactiferous or galactophorous 
ducts, are formed ; these are about fifteen in number 
and, radiating towards the nipple, open by separate 
orifices upon it. Just before reaching the surface 
each main duct presents a dilatation, a sort of 
reservoir for the accumulation of the secretion. 
The nipple contains in addition to these termina¬ 
tions of the ducts a supporting framework of areolar 
tissue, unstriped muscle fibres, and numerous blood¬ 
vessels. It is surrounded by an areola of pink or 
brownish skin. In the female at the time of 
puberty the breasts enlarge; during pregnancy 
further development occurs, and culminates ulti¬ 
mately in profuse secretion of milk after childbirth. 

Diseases of the Breast. When the secretion of 
milk is first established certain troubles in connec¬ 
tion with the nipple occasionally present them¬ 
selves. It may be that the nipple is too short or 
that it is in some other way malformed. Such 
conditions usually yield to treatment with the 
breast pump. Cracks and fissures of the nipple 
are not infrequent sources of much discomfort, 
especially when suckling a first child. Scrupulous 
cleanliness, combined with the application of oxide 
of zinc, or of astringent lotions, and the use of a 
shield, are the measures adopted in such cases. 
Mammary abscess is apt to occur in connection 
with suckling, and may give rise to considerable 
constitutional disturbance. Treatment consists in 
evacuating the matter by a free incision radiating 
outwards from the nipple. Chronic abscesses some¬ 
times simulate tumours. Chronic induration, too, 
of parts of the mammary gland may occur and 
cause considerable apprehension to the patient, and 
yet completely yield under treatment without any 
recourse to an operation. Many forms of new 
growth have been met with in the mammary 
gland. Adenoma or mammary glandular tumour 
presents itself, as a rule, in young adults, and does 
not recur after removal. Sero-cystic tumour is 
another form of disease sometimes met with. 
The most dreaded form of diseases of the female 
breast is hard cancer or scirrhus mammce. It 
very rarely occurs under thirty years of age, and in 
most cases patients are between forty and fifty. A 
nodule of stony hardness is felt in one breast, 
shooting pains are experienced in relation with it, 
and if the disease is allowed to progress unchecked, 
the cancerous growth rapidly extends, involves the 
glands of the armpit, and renders vain all hope of 
cure from operative treatment. Removal of the 
growth in its earliest stage is urgently indicated, 
and hence the importance of consulting a medical 
man if there be even a suspicion of any trouble in 
connection with the breast. 

Breastplate, in ancient and mediaeval warfare, 
a plate of metal, usually brass or iron, protecting 
the breast of the wearer. 







Breastwork. 


( 184 ) 


Breed. 


Breastwork, a hastily constructed fortification 
thrown up to afford cover to infantry in the field, 
and reaching- about breast high, so that they can 
fire over it. 

Breath, Offensive. This is due, as a rule, to 
some local mischief in the mouth, throat or nasal 
passages. If the last-named be at fault, the condi¬ 
tion is called Ozaana (q.v.). If the breath exhaled 
from the mouth itself be offensive, the teeth and 
throat should fall under suspicion. Digestive 
troubles, too, may exist, and cause the mischief; 
and in exceptional cases the source of trouble may 
be in the lungs. 

Breathing. [Respiration.] 

Breccia (Ital. debris of broken rcalls), in 
Geology, a rock consisting of angular fragments of 
various stones and occasionally bones cemented 
together by some other material (e.y. lime). It is 
contrasted with conglomerate, in which the stones 
are rounded. Both are known under the generic 
name of “ pudding-stone.” 

Brechin, a Scottish borough, in the county of 
Forfarshire, is situated on the south Esk. It is an 
old town and has a cathedral, which now serves as 
the parish church, dating from the 12th century. 
Near the cathedral is a round tower, similar to those 
so common in Ireland and to the one at Abernethy, 
the only other example in Scotland. Brechin 
castle is the seat of Lord Dalhousie and stands a 
little to the south of the town. There are linen 
and paper manufactures, distilling, and brewing. 
Dr. Guthrie, the celebrated preacher, was a native 
of Brechin. 

Breckinridge, John Cabell, United States 
vice-president, was born in 1821, near Lexington, 
Kentucky. After practising law, he served as a 
volunteer in the Mexican war, sat in Congress from 
1851 to 1855, became vice-president in 1856 under 
Buchanan, stood as an opponent of Lincoln, on 
the slave question, for the presidency, and after 
fighting in the Confederate army, and being secre¬ 
tary for war in Jefferson Davis’s government, fled 
in 1868 to Europe. He died in 1875 at Lexington. 

Brecknock, or Brecon, a Welsh town, the 
capital of Brecknockshire, is situated at the 
junction of the rivers Usk, Honddu and Tarell. It 
lies in a valley amongst the finest mountain scenery 
of South Wales. It is an old town, dating from the 
time of the Conqueror, and used to be surrounded 
by a wall. In its vicinity are fine Roman remains. 
Its manufactures embrace iron work and textile 
fabrics. Mrs. Siddons and Charles Kemble were 
natives of Brecknock. 

Brecknockshire, or Brecon, is an inland 
county of South Wales, covering an area of 719 
square miles, and is thus the fourth largest county in 
Wales. Though it is the most mountainous county 
in the principality it is considerably under cultiva¬ 
tion or pasture, and yields, besides the ordinary 
grain crops, hops, fruit, cattle, butter and wool. 
Its chief rivers are the Wye, Usk, Yrfon, Elan, 
Claenven and Tawe; and amongst its lakes is 
Breckinioc Mere, the largest in South Wales. The 


principal towns are, besides Brecknock, the capital, 
Crickhowell and Builth. In the S.E. are extensive 
ironworks, and among its manufactures are woollens 
and hosiery. The prevailing language of the 
inhabitants is Welsh. Brecknockshire formed part 
of the territory of the Silures, famed for their 
stubborn resistance to the Romans, and it was in 
this county that Llewelyn, the last British Prince 
of Wales, was defeated and slain. 

Breda, a fortified town of Holland, in the 
province of N. Brabant, is situated at the junction 
of the Merk and the Aa. Its defences may be 
strengthened by flooding the surrounding country. 
It is a Catholic bishop's see and has a Gothic cathe¬ 
dral. Its castle, built in 1350, was for a time the 
residence of the exiled Charles II. of England, and 
from Breda he issued his declaration, promising 
liberty of conscience and a general pardon on his 
restoration. Breda is rich in historical associa¬ 
tions. It has manufactures of linens, woollens,, 
carpets, hats, leather, etc. 

Brederode, Henry, Count of, was born in 
1531 at Brussels. He led the malcontent nobles 
against Spain and was the author of the “ Com¬ 
promise of Breda” of 1566. He was latterly obliged 
to seek refuge in Germany, where he died in 1568- 
at Recklinghausen. 

Bree, Matthias Ignatius van, painter, was 
born in 1773 at Antwerp. His Death of Cato won 
for him the Prix de Rome. On his return to his 
native town in 1814 he was appointed director of 
the Academy of Fine Arts. His most noted picture 
is Patriotism of the Burgomaster at the Siege of 
Leyden, 1576, representing the Burgomaster Van 
der Werff offering the starving populace his body 
to be shared amongst them. 

Breeches Bible, SO called from the rendering 
“ breeches ” (replaced in the Authorised Version by 
“ aprons ”) in Genesis iii. 7. It was a translation of 
the whole Bible into English produced in 1560 by 
the English exiles who took refuge at Geneva in 
the reign of Queen Mary. 

Breechloader, any firearm, great or small,, 
the charge of which is admitted into the barrel at 
the rear and not at the forward end. The majority 
of modern rifles, sporting guns, machine-guns, quick- 
firing guns, and heavy guns are breechloaders. 
Breechloaders are not a modern invention. The 
Brit ish Government possesses a breech-loading 
forged iron patararo of about 1470, which is of 
about 2^ in. calibre, and weighs 125 lbs.; and Lord 
Nelson possessed a breechloading pistol. The first 
breechloading rifle introduced to the British service 
was the Snider, which was adopted in 1864 ; but the 
German army had used a breechloader, the famous 
needle gun, the invention of Dreyse in 1829, since 
1848, and certain troops were armed with it as early 
as 1841. Heavy breechloading guns did not come 
into favour until after the Crimean war. [Ord¬ 
nance, Rifle, Revolver, Quick-firing Gun, 
etc.] 

Breed, a race or sub-variety of animals capable 
of transmitting their distinctive characteristics to- 








Breed 


( 185 ) 


Bremen. 


their offspring. Some breeds have arisen from what 
are called “freaksof nature,” or pathological varia¬ 
tions. Of these the now lost Ancon sheep, the 
Mauchamp sheep, and turnspit dog [ see these 
articles] are examples. Others, as the “Wood 
Buffalo ”—a breed of bisons now extinct—were due 
to natural causes, uninfluenced by man. The artificial 
formation of breeds dates back to the time when 
man first reduced to subjection the progenitors of 
what are now our most useful domestic animals. 
When this process began no one can tell, but it 
must have been at a very early period of our race 
—as soon, indeed, as the wandering life of a 
hunter was exchanged for that of a nomadic 
herdsman. Then by degrees would come into 
operation the principle which Darwin calls Uncon¬ 
scious Selection. The pick of the herd would be 
chosen for sires and dams, and by the survival of 
the fittest the weakest of the offspring would be 
weeded out. This process, carried on through 
successive generations, would give rise to a race in 
which may be discerned the analogue of our modern 
breeds. The next step would be the reduction of 
this unconscious selection to some sort of system. 
Probably the earliest recorded instance of any 
attempt to bring man’s influence to bear on the 
result of coupling domestic animals is found in 
Gen. xxx. 37-42. In Lev. xix. 19 there is a direct 
prohibition of the practice of producing hybrids; 
and though mules were common among the Jews, 
these animals were bred and sold to them by their 
neighbours. Youatt examined all the references to 
breeding in the Hebrew Scriptures, and came to the 
conclusion that “ at that early period some of the 
best principles must have been steadily and long 
pursued.” Allusions will be found in Homer to the 
necessity of choosing good sires ; and the third 
Georgic of Virgil might be appropriately entitled 
“ A Treatise on Horse and Cattle-breeding, with 
some Remarks on Sheep and Dogs.” The precepts of 
Virgil—if, indeed, they were ever generally practised 
—were, however, gradually forgotten, and it was not 
until the close of the 18th and the early part of the 
19th century that anything like general methodical 
breeding took place. The first subjects systemati¬ 
cally experimented on were sheep and cattle ; and 
Darwin quoted Lord Somerville as saying with 
reference to what had been effected by breeders of 
sheep: “ It would seem as if they had chalked out 
upon a wall a form perfect in itself, and then had 
given it existence.” These breeders acted upon the 
principle which Darwin afterwards called Methodi¬ 
cal Selection—ox that which guides a man who 
systematically endeavours to modify an exist¬ 
ing breed, according to some predetermined 
standard. [See articles Cattle, Dog, and other 
domestic animals.] The laws governing the artificial 
formation of breeds may be formulated thus : 
(1) No two individual of any species, variety, or breed 
are exactly alike in all particulars. (2) Under certain 
circumstances constitutional variations may be 
transmitted to future generations. [Environ¬ 
ment, Heredity.] There is strong probability that 
in every case there is a latent tendency to transmit 
such variations, though this tendency may be over¬ 
ruled by other tendencies. (3) By persistently 


breeding from parents possessing any given consti¬ 
tutional variation, we may produce a race in which 
the variation will be so impressed upon the organi¬ 
sation as to be permanent. But, since the result 
of too long-continued in-and-in breeding is to pro¬ 
duce degeneration, this must be guarded against 
by judicious crossing to introduce new blood. 

In conclusion, it must be borne in mind that 
scarcely any two authorities will define a breed in 
the same or in interchangeable terms. We speak 
of “breeds” of cattle, and here the extension of the 
term is wide, for it covers all the strains of blood in 
the Shorthorns or Devons, while by the poultry 
and the pigeon breeder the term is often so limited 
as to mean no more than a strain or at most a sub¬ 
breed. [Species.] 

Brelim, Alfred Edmund, naturalist, was born 
in 1829 at Renthendorf, in Thuringia. He was a 
wide traveller, and in 1863 became keeper of the 
Hamburg Zoological Garden, founding the Berlin 
Aquarium in 1867. His chief work, Illustrirtes 
Thierlchen, was published in 1876-79, and comprises 
10 volumes. He died in 1884 at Renthendorf. 

Brehon Law, the customary law of ancient 
Celtic Ireland, embodied in a number of text books, 
of which the book of Aicill and the Sencltus Mor 
are the best known, and which have been translated 
and published with a commentary, by the Irish 
Government, at intervals since 1865. Sir Henry 
Maine describes it as consisting of a pre-Chris¬ 
tian element with a large admixture from the 
Scriptures, and in part from canon law, the 
whole being embodied in and extended by the dicta 
of famous Brehons or lawyers. These formed a 
separate literary and learned class, and may pos¬ 
sibly be the successors of the sacerdotal order 
noticed in Gaul by Caesar, and popularly known as 
the Druids. With their pupils, who were treated 
as their adopted sons, they formed a sort of guild 
modelled on the family, which soon, of course, 
became connected by blood relationship. Both in 
origin and nature the law presents some analogy 
to Hindu law, and to the earliest codes of other 
Aryan peoples. Sanctions, except so far as it coin¬ 
cides with spiritual law, are conspicuously absent; 
but it was probably enforced, partly by custom and 
partly by the traditional respect entertained for the 
Brehons. While occasionally it exhibits advanced 
conceptions of equity, much of it is said to be 
fanciful and unreal. It was strongly condemned 
by Edmund Spenser in his Present State of 
Ireland , and by English observers generally from 
the 14th to the 19th centuries. The “ historical 
method” in jurisprudence has caused a juster 
appreciation of it. See Sir Henry Maine’s Early 
History of Institutions, c. 1, 2. 

Breitenfeld, a village of Saxony, is four miles 
N. of Leipsic. It is noted as the scene of two 
battles in the Thirty Years’ war—in 1631, when 
Gustavus Adolphus defeated Tilly, and in 1642, 
when the Swedes were again victorious under 
Torstenson over Ai'chduke Leopold and Piccolomini. 

Bremen, one of the free cities of Germany, is 
situated on both banks of the river Weser—the Old 





Bremer. 


( 186 ) 


Brentano. 


town being on the right bank, the New on the left. 
The ramparts of the old town provide pleasant 
promenades, and it has public buildings of consider¬ 
able interest, such as the cathedral built on the site 
of Charlemagne’s wooden church, and with a leaden 
vault in which bodies may be kept for some time 
without decomposing, the Gothic town hall, in whose 
wine cellar is said to be hock of the vintage of 1624, 
and the observatory of Dr. Olbers (1724-1840), 
whence he discovered the planets Pallas and Vesta. 
The foreign trade of Bremen is extensive, and from its 
chief port at Bremerhaven it ships more emigrants 
to the United States than any other European port 
excepting Liverpool. It is the headquarters of 
the North German Lloyds steamship lines. Of its 
industries the chief is in tobacco, snuff, and cigars. 
It has also manufactures in cottons, linens, brewing, 
distilling, sugar-refining, and ship-building. In 788 
Bremen was made a bishopric by Charlemagne, and 
in 858 an archbishopric. In 1283 its citizens joined 
the Hanseatic league, and after various political 
vicissitudes it was taken in 1806 by the French. In 
1815, however, the Congress of Vienna restored it to 
independence. The territoi'y, of which Bremen is 
the capital, covers an area of 97 square miles, and is 
for the most part a sandy tract. 

Brsmer, Frederi ka, novelist, was born in 1802, 
near Abo, in Finland. Chiefly brought up in 
Sweden, whither her family removed on the cession 
of Finland to Russia, she in 1828 made her first 
public appearance as an authoress in Sketches of 
Eecry-day Life, which at once attracted notice, and 
won for her the gold medal of the Swedish 
Academy. Other works soon followed, and pro¬ 
cured for her a European reputation. Through her 
friend Mary Howitt her novels became known to 
English readers. In 1849 she visited America, and 
in 1853 published simultaneously in America, Eng¬ 
land, and Sweden, her Homes of the New World. 
Latterly Miss Bremer gave up fiction, and devoted 
herself to philanthropic work, and chiefly to the 
emancipation of women. Quitting Stockholm in 
1864, she retired to Arsta, where she had lived as a 
girl, and died in the following year. Her books 
have been translated into nearly every European 
language. 

Bremerhaven, the seaport of the free city of 
Bremen, stands on the right bank of the Weser, at 
the mouth of the Geest, and was founded by 
Bremen in 1830 for the accommodation of large 
vessels. It has an excellent harbour, large wet and 
dry docks, and is remarkable for its great hospitium 
for emigrants, where 2,500 persons can be lodged. 

Brendan, or Brenaum, St., of Clonfert, was 
born in 484 at Tralee, co. Kerry. After completing 
his studies he was ordained by Bishop Ere and then 
became possessed of a desire to go in search of 
“ the mysterious land far from human ken.” After 
years of unsuccessful wandering he returned home, 
only, however, to set out again. In 553 he founded 
a monastery at Clonfert and afterwards visited St. 
Columba at Hy. The Naviyation of St. Brendan 
was a popular book in France, Spain and Holland 
in the 11th century. St. Brendan’s death occurred 
in 577. His day in the calendar is May 16. 


Brenner Pass, situated in the Central 
Tyrolese Alps, on the road between Innsbruck and 
Botzen, is crossed by a railway that has now a 
competitor in the St. Gothard railway. Its highest 
point is at less altitude than the highest points of 
any other of the passes crossing the Alps. 

Brennus, the title of several Gallic chiefs, of 
whom the most famous led the Gauls across the 
Apennines into Italy and overthrew the Roman 
army on the banks of the Allia in 391 B.C. Had 
Brennus pressed on immediately, he would have 
had Rome entirely in his hands. As it was, the 
Romans gained time to put the Capitol in a state of 
defence. On the third day the Gauls entered the 
city and found it occupied only by aged patricians 
sitting in their official robes in the porches of their 
houses. These were slaughtered and the Capitol 
was beseiged for six months, being saved from a 
surprise attack by the cackling of the sacred geese 
in Juno’s temple. At last the Romans entered into 
negotiations with the Gauls, who agreed to accept 
a thousand pounds weight of gold to leave the city. 
While the gold was being weighed out, Brennus 
threw his sword into the opposite scale and 
exclaimed, Vae Viet is! —Woe to the conquered. 
Enraged at this insolence, Camillus, according to a 
legendary account, broke olf the negotiations, and, 
offering battle to the Gauls, totally defeated them. 
Another Brennus invaded Greece in 280 B.C. and 
attempted to plunder the temple of Delphi. The 
Delphians, however, aided by an earthquake and a 
thunderstorm, routed the Gauls, making Brennus 
himself a prisoner, who, unable to endure the pain 
of his wounds, took his own life. 

Brent Goose ( Bernicla Irenta ), an Arctic 
goose visiting the maritime counties of Britain, 
especially on the east and south coasts, in the 
winter. The adult male bird is about 21 inches 
long, the female a little smaller. Plumage of head 
and neck black, with a small patch of white on 
each side of neck ; back brownish black, upper and 
under tail-coverts white; upper part of breast 
black, rest of under surface slate-grey, legs and 
feet black. It is much esteemed for the table. 
[Barnacle Goose.] 

Brenta, a river of Italy, rises in the Tyrol and 
traverses Lombardy, passing the town of Bassano. 
After uniting with an arm of the Bacchiglione 
below Padua, it enters the Adriatic Sea at Brondolo. 

Brentano, Clemens, author, was born in 1777 
at Frankfort-on-the-Maine. After studying at 
Jena and spending some time successively at 
Heidelberg, Vienna, and Berlin, he withdrew in 
disgust at sublunary affairs to Diilmen in 1818. 
Meanwhile he had published various of his poems, 
the first in 1800, a collection of satires and poetical 
dramas. In 1804 appeared Ponce de Leon, in 1816 
Die (Trundling Prays, and in 1817 Victoria —his 
best pieces, and marked by strong dramatic power 
and rich humour. He also wrote novels, of which 
the most successful, History of Caspar the Brave 
and the Pair Annerl, has been translated into 
English. He died in 1842 at Aschaffenburg. 







Brentford. 


( 187 ) 


Brentford, in Middlesex, is situated on the 
Thames about seven miles west of London, and is 
intersected by the Brent, which here flows into the 
.Thames. A bridge across the Thames unites it 
with Kew. It is surrounded with market gardens, 
is the seat of the Grand Junction Waterworks, and 
has industries in distilling, brewing, soap-making, 
foundries, etc. It was at Brentford that Edmund 
Ironside defeated the Danes in 1016, and Prince 
Rupert the Parliamentarians in 1642. 

Brenton, (1) Sir Jahleel, British naval officer, 
was born in 1770, and became a lieutenant in 1790. 
He served in the Barfeur, 98, at the battle off Cape 
St. Vincent in 1797. He was promoted to the rank 
of commander in 1799 and to that of captain in 
1800, and in 1801 was Sir James Saumarez’s flag- 
captain in the Ccesar. 80, in the actions of the 6th 
and 12th of July. Two years later he had the 
misfortune to be wrecked in the Minerve, and taken 
prisoner, but, having been exchanged and appointed 
to the Spartan, he won in her a notable action 
with the Ceres and consorts in the Bay of Naples 
in 1810. In this gallant affair he was wounded. 
He was made a baronet in 1812, a rear-admiral in 
1830, and a vice-admiral in 1840, and died in 1842. 
(2) His brother, Edward Pelham, naval officer and 
historian, was born in 1774, became a captain in 
1808, and died in 1839. His Naval History of Great 
Britain from 1783 to 1822 was published in 1823, 
and his Life of St. Vincent in 1838. These officers 
were the sons of Rear-Admiral Jahleel Brenton, 
who died in 1802. 

Brenz, Johann, reformer, was born in 1499 at 
Weil, Swabia. He early became an adherent of 
Luther, and in 1536 was invited to head the Refor¬ 
mation in Wurtemberg. He was one of the authors 
of the Wurtemberg Confession of Faith, and his 
catechism ranked next after Luther’s amongst 
German Protestants. He was obliged to flee to 
Stuttgart on account of his opposition to the Interim 
of Charles V., and becoming superintendent there 
in 1553 died in 1570. 

Brescia, a town of Lombardy, capital of the 
province of Brescia, about 50 miles from Milan, is 
one of the finest towns of Lombardy. It is situated 
at the foot of a spur of the Rhsetic Alps, between 
the river Mella and the canal which falls into the 
Oglio. The town is in the shape of a parallelogram, 
about four miles in circuit, and is walled and 
defended to the N. by a fortress. It is the seat of 
a bishopric, and in its cathedral and fine churches 
are some good examples of the Venetian school of 
painting. It has a good library of about 30,000 
volumes, with some rare manuscripts and antiqui¬ 
ties. The trade has decayed. Its cutlery and its 
manufacture of arms once gained for it the epithet 
of “ Armataf Its linen and cotton weaving- 
industry is important, and silkworms are exten¬ 
sively bred in the neighbourhood. There is a 
considerable trade in arms, cattle, flax, linen, oil, 
wines, silk, and hardware. 

Brescia, in Latin Brixia, is thought to have been an 
Et ruscan colony. It was long allied with the Romans, 
till Julius Caesar incorporated it in the Fabian 


Bressay. 


tribe. Passing during the later troubles of the dis¬ 
trict from Ostrogoths to Lombards, and from these 
to Charlemagne, it became an independent republic 
in the 11th century, and joined Milan in its strug¬ 
gle against Frederick Barbarossa, Frederick II., 
and Henry VII. It afterwards fell into the power 
of the Visconti. In the 16th century it was twice 
taken by the French, and Bayard was wounded at 
the second siege. From 1796 it has shared the 
general fortunes of Lombardy. Among its monu¬ 
ments is the temple of Vespasian, which now con¬ 
tains a museum, where is to be seen, among many 
other valuable remains, the celebrated Greek bronze 
statue called the Winged Victory of Brescia. The 15th 
and 16th century town hall is a building of much 
interest. A fire which nearly destroyed it in 1573 
consumed three large pictures painted by Titian in 
his old age. In the Campo Santo outside the city 
the tombs are arranged against the wall like the 
ancient columbaria. 

Breslau, Prussian town about 200 miles S.E. of 
Berlin, capital of the province of Silesia, on the left 
bank of the Oder, is divided into the Old and the 
New town, and has seven suburbs. It is the seat of 
a prince-bishopric, and has some fine churches, 
besides the cathedral, a celebrated university, and 
many educational establishments. There are 
important manufactures, including cannon-found¬ 
ing, arsenals, goldsmiths’ work, engines, tobacco, 
spirits, liqueurs, and chemicals; and the trade of 
the city is remarkably active owing to its situation 
in the centre of the most productive manufacturing 
province of Prussia, and to the facility of communi¬ 
cation. The chief objects of commerce are metal 
ores from the Silesian mines, wood, cloth, wool, 
and linen. The June and October wool fairs of 
Breslau are the most important on the Continent. 
The 12th century cathedral of St. John is noted for 
the delicacy and graceful proportions of its archi¬ 
tecture. On the principal door of finely-carved oak 
is a representation of Joseph sold by his brethren ; 
and inside are some fine statues, including one of 
St. Elizabeth by Ercole Fioretti. The town hall is 
a curious example of 14th century architecture. 
Founded in the 10th century, Breslau was by turns 
Polish, Bohemian, and Austrian, till, in the 18th 
century, it was twice taken by Frederick II. In 
1807 the French took it, and blew up the fortifica¬ 
tions, whose site is now occupied by boulevards. 
From Breslau in 1813 Frederick William III. of 
Prussia issued his celebrated appeal to the Prussian 
people, which aroused them against the French 
domination. 

Bressay, an island of the Shetland group, of 
about 10f miles in area, about four miles in length, 
and from two to three miles broad. It has good 
peat beds, some fine slate quarries, and is a fishing 
station. Bressay Sound, between Bressay and the 
mainland, is a good anchorage, and whaling vessels, 
as well as those engaged in the herring-fishery, are 
to be found here. The harbour of Lerwick with its 
lighthouse is in this Sound. To the east of Bressay 
is the rocky isle of Noss, six miles round, and to a 
detached rock in its neighbourhood communication 
is made by means of a cradle running upon ropes. 







Brest. 


C 188 ) 


Bretwalda. 


Brest, a seaport of Finistere, in France, 
about 350 miles N.W. of Paris, capital of 
arrondissement and of three cantons. It is 
a garrison town and a naval station, and pos¬ 
sesses both arsenal and dockyards, and is a 
town of increasing importance as a military and 
naval port. Its trade is not very extensive. The 
chief export is corn, and the chief imports are 
colonial produce and naval stores. The roadstead 
of Brest is one of the finest and safest in Europe, 
and will hold more than 500 ships of war. The har¬ 
bour, formed by the Penfeld, includes the military 
harbour, and the old mercantile harbour ; while the 
new commercial harbour is in that part of the 
roadstead which lies to the S. of the town. The 
roadstead communicates with the sea by a passage 
about three miles long, and varying from 2,000 to 
4,000 yards in width, well defended by batteries, 
and well lighted by five lighthouses. The military 
harbour with its belongings is of vast extent and 
great importance, and is fitted with every appliance 
necessary for fitting out vessels of war. This 
harbour is defended by powerful batteries, and by 
a citadel called the “ Chateau,” which occupies the 
site of an old Romano-Gallic fort. The arm of the 
sea into which the Penfeld falls is crossed by a fine 
iron turning-bridge. The mouth of the Penfeld 
divides the town into Brest proper, and Recou- 
vrance, which was formerly only a suburb, difficult 
of access. A bridge now joins the two parts. Brest 
proper is built on the slope of a hill, and forms 
naturally a high and low town. Of these the latter, 
in the neighbourhood of the port, consists of narrow 
winding streets ; while in the former the streets, 
some of them, climb like veritable ladders, and the 
fifth storey of one house is on a level with the 
garden of another. Brest has no very remarkable 
monuments. The high altar of the church of 
St. Louis has a baldachin supported by four antique 
marble columns, which came from an ancient 
temple of Serapis at Lebedah. In the Middle Ages 
the possession of Brest was considered so impor¬ 
tant that there was a saying, “ He who is not lord 
of Brest is not duke of Brittany.” The English 
possessed it for a time, and vainly tried to take it, 
with Holland, in 1694, and alone in 1757. It was 
Richelieu who first determined to make it a marine 
arsenal. 

Brest Litovsk, a town of European Russia, in 
the government of, and about 120 miles S. of, 
Grodno, 132 miles from Warsaw, and 682 from 
Moscow, at the junction of the Moukhavetz and the 
Bong. It has, or had, a considerable proportion of 
Jews in its population. It is the seat of an Armenian 
Catholic bishopric, and has a fortress and military 
school. The town possesses cloth factories and 
tanneries. Souwaroff gained a victory here in 1791 
over the Poles. 

Bretigny, a French hamlet, in the arrondisse¬ 
ment of Eure and Loire, from five to six miles S.E. 
of Chartres, and 20 miles S. of Paris. Here in 1360 
was signed the treaty by which King John II. of 
France recovered his liberty, after four years’ 
imprisonment in England, Edward III. abandoning 
his claim to the throne of France upon condition of 


receiving a heavy ransom, and of having his rights 
to the English possessions in France recognised. 

Breton de los Herreros, Don Manuel, 

born 1796, Spanish poet and dramatic author. He 
is said to have composed poetry at the age of seven. 
Poverty brought him and his brother to Madrid to 
seek employment. Here the brother died, and 
Manuel was educated by the Christian Brothers. At 
18 he entered the army as a volunteer, and served 
till 1822, when he retired, and got some government 
employment. On the restoration of Ferdinand he 
lost his place, and took to literature as a means of 
support. His first dramatic work was produced with 
success in 1824, and ten years after, at the height of 
his literary career, he was appointed guardian of 
the national library. He lost this in 1844 for a 
poem he wrote in honour of Espartero. He was 
elected member of the Spanish royal academy in 
1837, and he was made commander of the Order of 
Charles II. He was a prolific writer, though much 
of his work was re-adapting already existing French 
or Spanish pieces. He excelled in the delineation 
of female nature, especially in its caprice and 
inconstancy; and it is in comedy and satire that 
he principally shows his qualities of style. There 
is a complete edition of his works. 

Bretschneider, Henry Godfrey von (1739- 
1810), German man of letters. He was son of the bur¬ 
gomaster of Gera, and entered the Count de Bruhl’s 
regiment as cornet, took part in the battle of Kolin, 
became a captain, and was taken prisoner by the 
French. He utilised his imprisonment in learning 
the language and studying the character of his cap- 
tors. After his return to Germany he was appointed 
Governor of Usingen, in Nassau, but this post being 
suppressed he went to London and then to Paris, 
where he found some diplomatic employment. In 
1772 he went again to-Germany, and after working 
at Coblenz for a time, he passed into the service of 
Austria, and finally settled down at Breda. Here 
his religious views and his satirical writings 
embroiled him with the ecclesiastical authorities. 
He left Breda, and became librarian at Lemberg. In 
1809 he retired with the title of Aulic Councillor, 
and went to Vienna, where he soon after died. Of 
a biting and satirical wit, his great object was to 
expose anything false, whether in art or in morals. 
Among his many writings may be cited the terrible 
story of the sad death of Werther, a satire upon the 
sentimental dreams, and the ideas of suicide, popu¬ 
larised in Germany by Goethe’s novel. 

Bretschneider, Karl Gottlieb (1776- 

1848), a German theologian, born at Gres- 
dorf. He was pastor successively at Schneeberg 
and Anneberg, and was invited in 1812 to take a 
chair of theology at Berlin. With the modesty that, 
sometimes goes with learning he declined this 
honour, and was appointed superior councillor of 
Consistory. He composed a great number of works. 

Bretwalda (possibly ruler of Britain, or 
widely ruliny, from Anglo-Saxon brytan, to dis¬ 
tribute), a title, given to seven Anglo-Saxon kings 
by Bede, and to another besides by the Anglo- 
Saxon Chronicle, apparently as holding a sort 




Breughel. 


( 189 ) 


Brewing. 


of primacy in, or headship of the confederacy 
of, Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. Their claims to it 
seem to have been but slight in some cases. 
In most cases (according to Stubbs) the headship 
of the Bretwalda was one of power and influence 
only, occasionally it was acknowledged by acts 
resembling formal commendation (q.v.), which thus 
paved the way for regular feudalism. Such acts 
implied that the weaker sovereign resigned the 
control of the foreign policy of his kingdom to the 
Bretwalda. Very possibly the relation was an 
imitation of that between the Roman emperor and 
some Of the so-called “ allied kingdoms” or “ subject 
allies.” (See Stubbs, Constitutional History , i. 
162, and Freeman, Norman Conquest , i. 542 seq.) 

Breughel, the name of a Flemish family of 
painters, derived from the village of Breughel, near 
Breda, from which they came. The most noted of 
them are :— 

1. Peter Breughel, the Elder (1510-1567, or 
according to some 1530-1600). He studied at Ant¬ 
werp and in Italy, and finally settled in Brussels. 
He was of the Flemish school, and chose for his 
subject those homely and humorous scenes of 
Flemish life which Teniers and Van Ostade have 
made us familiar with. He was fond, too, of Scrip¬ 
tural subjects, which, however, he made Flemish in 
costume and surroundings. 

2. Peter Breughel, the Younger (1565-1638). 
He lived chiefly at Antwerp, and was commonly 
called “Hell” Breughel, from his fondness for 
painting fires and other sombre or fiery subjects. 
His Fall of the Rebel Angels is in the Brussels 
Museum. 

3. John Breughel, brother of the last-men¬ 
tioned, and son of Peter the Elder (1569-1625, or 
1575-1642). He painted at Rome for Cardinal 
Borromeo, and among his subjects were Daniel in 
the Lions' Den, St. Jerome in the Desert, Antwerp 
Cathedral. He was a good landscape painter, in 
spite of his excessive use of certain pronounced 
colours, and is said to have painted still life in the 
compositions of Rubens and others. To distin¬ 
guish him from Peter, he was called elvet 
Breughel; but whether with reference to his dress 
or to his manner of painting is not clearly known. 

Breve, a name sometimes used for any of the 
Old World Ant-thrushes. [Ant-thrush, Bush- 
shrike.] 

Breve, in Music , a note equal to two semi¬ 
breves or four minims (q.v.). Formerly it was 
square (j — ~|), but it is now oval in shape ( f o) . 
It is seldom employed in modem music. 

Brevet, in military language, is an honorary 
rank in the British and United fetates army, con¬ 
ferred in the former by royal warrant. The brevet 
rank gives no right of command in the corps to 
which^ the officer belongs, nor does it now carry 
with it the right to advanced pay. 

Breviary, the ecclesiastical name given to the 
volume which contains the daily offices in the Roman 
Catholic Church, as distinct from those contained in 
the Missal, the Manual, and the Pontifical (q.v.). 
The recitation of the Breviary is at present imposed 


on all beneficed clergy, all persons in holy orders, 
and all “ religious men and women, professed for 
the duties of the choir.” Pope Gregory VII., in the 
eleventh century, is said to have been the first to 
settle the compilation of the Breviary, but since 
then it has undergone various changes. In 1536 a 
reformed breviary by Cardinal Quignonez super¬ 
seded the older one, and it is on this work that the 
English Prayer Book of the present day is, to a large 
extent, founded. In 1568, however, Pius V. im¬ 
posed a reformed edition of the old Breviary, and 
this is still generally in use in the Roman Church. 
The Breviary services are all in Latin, but an English 
translation has been made by the Marquis of Bute. 
The services consist of readings from the Psalms, 
the Old and New Testament, the Fathers, hymns, 
prayers, confessions, creeds, etc. 

Brevipennes, Cuvier’s name for what are now 
called the Cursorial birds (q.v.). 

Brewer, John Sherren (1810—1879), an Eng¬ 
lish man of letters. He was a member of Queen’s 
College, Oxford. He took orders, and was appointed 
professor of King’s College, London. l or twenty 
years he was employed in the Record Office, where 
he did much valuable work. His essays and re¬ 
views in English Studies show great knowledge and 
research, and are pleasant in style. He was elected 
Honorary Fellow of Queen’s College in 1870, and in 
1877 was nominated to the living of Topplefield, 
Essex. 

Brewing, or the manufacture of alcoholic 
beverages from grain, is almost universally prac¬ 
tised among the different races of mankind, and 
has been known since very ancient times. The 
necessary materials for the brewing of beer are 
water, hops, and malt. The water employed should 
be bright and clear, and should contain very little 
organic matter. The presence of different mineral 
salts, however, is necessary for the production of 
good ales. The hops for brewing are grown largely 
in Worcester, Sussex, Surrey, and Kent. They are 
picked about the beginning of September, taken 
direct to kilns and dried. They impart to the beer 
a pleasant taste and odour, and act also as a preser¬ 
vative. In this country barley is the grain always 
employed for conversion into malt. During this 
conversion a substance, “diastase,” is formed, 
which has the power of converting the insoluble 
starch of the grain into a soluble and fermentable 
sugar. The process of malting consists of the 
following operations The grain is first steeped in 
water for 40 or 70 hours— steeping. The water is 
changed at intervals of about 12 hours, and is 
finally run off, and the grain spread in thin layers 
over the floor— flooring —to germinate, being from 
time to time turned over with wooden spades, and 
the temperature regulated by altering the thickness 
of the layers. When germination has proceeded tar 
enough the seed is removed to kilns and. dried— 
kiln-drying. The malt is then stored in bins until 
required. The next process it undergoes is known 
as mashing, in which all the soluble constituents are 
extracted by water. It is first crushed by smooth 
rollers, and the ground malt and hot water are run 
into the mash-tuns —wooden or cast Jr on circular 









Brewster 


( 190 ) 


Bribery. 


tubs, provided with false perforated bottoms. The 
malt and liquid are well stirred by mechanical 
contrivances, the temperature being kept about 60° 
Fahr., and after a couple of hours the liquor— wort 
—is run off, and should be clear. The operation is 
repeated with a smaller quantity of water. The 
wort is then pumped into copper boilers, and boiled 
with the requisite amount of hops— boiling. From 
these it is run out into shallow tanks, the “coolers,” 
and frequently into refrigerators— cooling. It is next 
run into the “ fermenting tuns ” to undergo the last 
process —fermentation, which requires great care 
and attention. It is brought about by adding 
yeast to the wort, and allowing the liquor to stand, 
the temperature being kept at about 58° to G0° Fahr. 
until fermentation (q.v.) has proceeded sufficiently 
far. It is then “ cleansed ” to remove the yeast and 
scum, and run into casks. 

Brewster, Sir David (1781-1868), English 
physicist. Born at Edinburgh, he went at 12 
years old to the University of Edinburgh. He 
was educated for the Church, but timidity 
is said to have kept him from entering it. 
Jn 1802 he became editor of the Edinburgh 
Magazine , and in 1808 he was chosen to edit- 
the Edinburgh Cyclopaedia. In 1831 he had a hand 
in starting the British Association, and from 1859 
to 1867 he was the principal of the Edinburgh 
University. But his name is chiefly known by his 
services to science, and especially for his efforts 
towards the elucidation of the principles that 
govern the laws of optics. The kaleidoscope was 
his invention, and he made such improvements- in 
the stereoscope as almost amounted to a ■ new 
invention, while he shares with Fresnel the honour 
of applying the dioptric principle to the illumina¬ 
tion of lighthouses. His writings were numerous. 
Among them may be mentioned his Life of 
Newton and his Letters on Natural Magic addressed 
to Sir Walter Scott. There is a life of him edited 
by his daughter. 

Brian, surnamed Boru or Boroihme, i.e. the 
conqueror who "makes them pay tribute, an Irish 
king, who may be called the King Alfred of 
Ireland, both as to his conquests and his efforts for 
the improvement of his people. He succeeded in 
976 his brother, who was a petty kinglet. He made 
himself king of Cashel by his sword, and also made 
his rule felt in Munster, and in 984 was acknow¬ 
ledged king of Leinster. He established his chief 
seat of government at Killaloe, and had establish¬ 
ments at Tara and at Cashel. He allied himself 
with the Danes, and by their aid became King of 
Ireland. In this latter capacity he founded univer¬ 
sities and made efforts in all directions for the 
well-being of his people. In his old age he gave the 
Danes a crushing defeat at the battle of Clontarf, 
but paid for the victory with his life. King Brian 
is said to have introduced the patronymic prefixes 
“ Mac ” and “ 0,”the former to denote “the son of” 
and the latter to denote “ the grandson or further 
descendant of.” 

Brianchon, Charles Julien (1785-1865), 
French mathematician. He was born at Sevres 
and entered t lie ftcole Poly technique in 1808. He 


took part in the Peninsular campaign, and in 1815 
was appointed assistant-director in the government 
arms factory; and in 1818 was appointed pro¬ 
fessor of applied sciences at the school of artillery 
of the royal guard. He wrote many treatises, and 
gave a good deal of attention to the question of 
gunpowder, and the nature and conditions of 
explosions. 

Brianchon"s Theorem, in Geometry , is that 
the three diagonals of any hexagon circumscribed 
about any conic, pass through a point. The theorem 
is reciprocal to that of Pascal (q.v.), and may, 
therefore, be deduced therefrom by the principle of 
duality. 

Briancon, a French town of the Hautes Alpes 
head of arrondissement and canton, 162 miles N.E. 
of Marseille, on the right bank of the Durance. It 
has an arsenal, and is the military depot for the 
French Alps. Its chief industries are weaving, 
tanning, hat-making, knitting, and the working of 
a talc which goes by the name of Craie de Briancon 
(Briancon chalk). The neighbourhood also pro¬ 
duces medicinal and dyeing plants. The Guisanne 
and the Clairee unite to make the Durance, and 
there is a single-arch bridge of a considerable 
height above sea level. The town is situated on a 
very steep slope, and it has fine fountains and a 
pretty church. 

Brians]?, a town in Russia, on the Desna. 
77 miles west of Orel. Its chief industries are a 
cannon foundry and iron-works and glass-works. 
It also has some trade in grain, hemp, honey and 
wax. 

Briareus, in Greek mythology, a son of 
Ouranos and Gaia who had 100 hands and 50 heads. 
He was thrown into the sea by Poseidon, and then 
imprisoned beneath JEtna. Zeus took him from 
this situation for the sake of his aid against the 
Titans, and protected him from that time forward. 
The people of Chalcis honoured him under the 
name of iEgaeon. 

Briar-root, a name corrupted from the French 
bruyere, for the wood of the tree-heath, Erica 
arborea, which has of late years been largely em¬ 
ployed in the manufacture of tobacco-pipes. The 
violet-scented wood of Acacia homalophylla and 
other Australian species known as “Myall” (wild) 
wood is similarly employed. 

Bribery, in English law, has a threefold mean¬ 
ing, as follows:—(1) The offence of a judge, 
magistrate, or other person entrusted with the 
administration of justice, accepting a fee or reward 
of any kind from the litigant parties to induce a 
favourable decision ; (2) the receipt or payment of 
money to a public or ministerial officer with a view 
of inducing him to act contrary to his duty ; (3) the 
giving or receiving money to procure votes at 
Parliamentary or other elections to public offices of 
trust. (1) By a statute passed in the second year of 
the reign of Henry IV. “ all judges, officers, and 
ministers of the King convicted of bribery shall 
forfeit treble the bribe, be punished at the King’s 
will, and be discharged from the King's service.” File 








Brice. 


( 101 ) 


Bridge. 


person who offers the bribe is guilty of a misde¬ 
meanour. The corruption of our English judges in 
earlier times was notorious and indisputable. It is 
noticed by Edward VI. in a discourse of his published 
by Burnet, as a complaint then commonly made 
against the lawyers of his time (Burnet’s History of 
the Reformation , vol. ii., App. p. 721), and it pre¬ 
vailed to a much later period of our history, notably 
in the case of Lord Bacon, who confessed to the 
charge of bribery made against him, and by way of 
palliation referred to judicial corruption as being 
“the vice of the times.” Since the Revolution in 
1688 judicial bribery has been unknown in England, 
and no case is to be found in the Law Reports since 
that date in which this offence has been imputed to 
a judge in courts of superior or inferior jurisdiction. 
(2) Bribery in a public ministerial officer is a 
misdemeanour at common law in the person who 
takes and also in him who offers the bribe. Bribery 
with reference to particular classes of public officers 
has become punishable by several acts of Parlia¬ 
ment. (3) Bribery at elections vitiates the same. As 
to parliamentary elections, the subject is now 
regulated by the Parliamentary Elections Act, 1868. 
Since the introduction of the ballot system the 
offence has, of course, become much less frequent if 
not entirely obsolete, as no one can now, with any 
safety, ensure a vote by bribery. As to bribery at 
municipal elections, see the Municipal Corporation 
Act (5 and 6 William IV., c. 76). 

Brice, St., a Bishop of Tours and confessor of 
the 5th century. He was the disciple and successor 
of St. Martin, who converted him after a dissolute 
youth. His name is known in England chiefly 
from the fact that it was on his day, in 1002, that 
Ethelred II. ordered, or permitted, a general 
massacre of Danes ; and the vengeance of Sweyn 
for the slaughter of his countrymen, among whom 
was his own sister, changed the dynasty of 
England. 

Brick was made from clay in very ancient 
times, and is found in Babylonian and Egyptian 
ruins. All clays consist essentially of a hydrated 
silicate of aluminium with, usually, some free silica, 
iron, lime, magnesia and potash. The clay is mixed 
into a pasty condition with water in the “ pug 
mill,” and then moulded to shape, either in a wet 
plastic, or in a semi-dry condition. In the latter 
case they are taken direct to the kiln to be baked, 
in the former they require drying first. The time 
of baking or “ firing ” varies with different kinds of 
clay from 40 to 150 hours. The fire bricks for 
building furnaces, etc., require to be of very 
refractory clay and should contain but little iron or 
alkaline oxides. 

Bridewell, originally a well of St. Bride or St. 
Bridget, between Fleet Street and the Thames. 
There was originally a castle here, and a royal 
palace. This was rebuilt in 1552 for the reception 
of the Emperor Charles V. and his suite, and Henry 
himself occupied, or thought of occupying it. 
Bridewell gave its name to a parish, and Edward VI. 
gave the palace to the City of London as a House 
of Correction, under which character it was, till 
comparatively lately, well known. 


Bridge (A.S. brycy, Ger. briiche), a structure 
traversing a roadway, river, or other impediment, 
mainly for the purpose of providing a convenient 
passage across from one side to the other. An 
account of the more important bridges, taken in 
the order of their construction, will show the 
history of their development from the simplest 
types to the more highly differentiated forms of 
the present day, though it should be noted that 
this development has been much more rapid of 
recent years, since the introduction of railways, 
than ever before. Leaving the simple expedient of 
laying a beam of some sort across the gap that has 
to be traversed, we find that the cantilever principle, 
recently adopted on a gigantic scale at the Forth 
bridge, was known and adopted many centuries ago. 
Beams of timber were fixed in each bank of a stream, 
and made to project bracket-wise towards each 
other. A centre beam resting on their two ends 
effected the span. Built on this principle there 
exists an ancient bridge across the Sutlej of 200 ft- 
span. 

The arch was probably first introduced by the 
Romans, whose bridges generally consisted of 
semicircular arches supporting horizontal roadways, 
existing examples of which are afforded by the 
Ponte de Rotto, built 2,000 years ago, and the Pont 
du Gard at Nirnes. This latter is very remarkable 
both for its design and clever workmanship. It is; 
a combined aqueduct and viaduct. It consists first 
of a six-arch bridge, 465 ft. long, over the river 
Gardon. Then this supports a second series of 
eleven arches continued to the sides of the valley, 
and this, again, carries a third series of thirty-five 
arches, supporting a canal 850 ft. in length and 
190 ft. above the river. It is built of large stones 
correctly cut to the required form, and fixed together 
by iron cramps. 

The dynamics of the masonry arch are much more 
intricate than that of the cantilever, consisting as 
the former does of a large number of small’ 
elements that have to be built up together so as to- 
be mutually supporting. Each stone in the arch is 
acted on by its neighbours and by the weight it 
sustains. These forces must balance each other for 
every stone, and must remain in equilibrium when 
the load on the arch is varied. The compression 
due to the lateral forces on the stone must not 
exceed a certain limit, or the stone will crush. 
Also the resultant compressive force on any side face 
must act on the middle third of that face, or there 
will be a tendency to heave at parts in tension. 
Speaking generally, if the crown or topmost portion 
of the arch be too light the deadweight at the 
haunches or those parts springing from the piers 
will lift the crown, and the whole arch be reduced 
to ruin. And if the crown be too heavy the haunches 
will open up, the crown will sink, and the arch 
collapse. The lateral forces involved are larger 
when the arch is flatter, i.e. when it is semi-ellip¬ 
tical or a small segment of a large circle, than when 
it is semi-circular, with the same span. 

The centering (q.v.) or arrangement of scaffolding 
upon which the arch is built requires careful design¬ 
ing. It must be sufficiently strong to support the- 
unfinished work, it should be easily removable, and 




Bridge. 


( 192 ) 


Bridge. 


its total removal should cause no change of shape 
of the arch. 

The largest stone arch span in the world is in the 
Washington aqueduct. It was built by Meigs, and 
is of 220 ft. The second largest is that of the 
Grosvenor bridge, built by Hartley in 1832 over the 
Dee at Chester. It consists of a single segmental 
arch of 200 ft. span, with a rise of 42 ft., and is 
built of granite and sandstone. Another good 
example of single-arcli bridge is that over the Taff 
at Pontypridd in South Wales. It was built by 
William Edwards in 1750, with a span of 140 ft. 
and arise of 35 ft. The deadweight at the haunches, 
which in a bridge built previously by Edwards had 
been so great as to lift the crown up and ruin the 
bridge, is diminished by filling the internal spaces 
with charcoal and by having each side perforated 
by three cylindrical openings. 

Elliptical arches were introduced by Rennie, 
whose engineering skill has its permanent record in 
his magnificent bridges over the Thames. Waterloo 
Bridge, a finely-built structure of granite, has nine 
equal semi-elliptical arches of 120 ft. span, with a 
rise of 32 ft. The width of the bridge is 42 ft. and 
its length 1,380 ft., with 1,100 ft. of approaches. 
Cofferdams (q.v.) were employed in the building of 
the piers, with steam engines to pump out the 
water. London Bridge consists of five semi-elliptical 
arches, the centre one of 152^ ft. span, the two next 
of 140 ft., and the end two of 130 ft., thus giving a 
clear waterway of 692| ft. The width of the road¬ 
way is 52 ft., the rise of the centre arch 37^ ft., and 
the full length of the bridge 1,005 ft. The river has 
a soft alluvial bottom about 30 ft. deep at low 
water. The piers and abutments are supported on 
cofferdams, the floors of which rest on piles about 
20 ft. long. The restricted waterway due to the 
older bridge still remaining, 180 ft. lower down, 
while the new one was being built, tidal action and 
other causes supplied many practical difficulties, 
which, however, were all satisfactorily overcome, 
and the bridge was opened in 1831, having taken 
seven and a-half years to build. 

Arched bridges of cast-iron and of wood have 
been built. Southwark Bridge, over the Thames, 
like the previous two, designed and built by Rennie, 
is a fine instance of the cast-iron arch bridge. This 
was opened in 1824. There are three arches, each 
consisting of eight cast-iron ribs, the central arch of 
240 ft. span, with a rise of 24 ft., the two side arches 
of 210 ft. span, and rising 19 ft. Each rib is 2i-in. 
thick, and is built up in lengths of 13 ft., which are 
bolted together. The ribs are connected by trans¬ 
verse plates. The weight of metal in the central 
arch is 1,600 tons, in each of the side arches 1,460 
tons. 

The Newcastle-upon-Tyne high level railway 
bridge is composite in character, having arched ribs 
of cast-iron strengthened with ties of wrought-iron. 
It is, in fact, a form intermediate between the arch 
and the girder, to which latter type the chief 
railway bridges since that time have tended. 
Girders are more fully discussed separately, 
but it should be stated here that they are simply 
beams of wood, cast-iron, wrought-iron or steel, of 
such a section as to be best able to resist fracture 


due to bending or to shearing. The former of these 
two causes chiefly influences the shape and size of 
the top and bottom flanges or booms of the girder, 
the top boom being usually required to resist 
compression, the bottom boom to resist tension. 
The latter cause determines the nature of the web 
or bracing joining the two booms. If these are 
joined by cross-bars forming a lattice, the girder is 
called a lattice-girder. The girder may have two 
webs connecting the booms, one each side, and in 
this case it becomes a long box of rectangular 
section, the top and bottom parts of which are 
more substantially built than the sides. This form 
is known as the box-girder , a type of great interest 
historically. For the first wrought-iron girder 
bridge of large span the Britannia tubular bridge 
over the Menai Straits employed box-girders of 
special design successfully. This bridge was 
designed and built by Robert Stephenson, and 
opened for traffic in March, 1850. The girders in 
this case were made large enough for a line of 
railway to be laid inside each, thus rendering the 
bridge simply two long rectangular wrought-iron 
tubes laid side by side, and supported by masonry 
towers and abutments. Each tube is 14 ft. 8 in. 
wide, its height increasing from 22 ft. 9 in. at the 
abutments to 30 ft. at the centre, outside measure¬ 
ments being given in each case. The roof and floor 
of each tube is cellular, to increase its strength and 
stiffness. The bridge has four spans, two of 460 ft. 
over the straits and two of 230 ft. over land to the 
abutments. The tubes are supported by three 
masonry towers, and these end abutments at a 
height of 100 ft. above high-water level, cast-iron 
frames taking up their weight at the supports. The 
central tower rises to the height of 230 ft., and is 
built on the Britannia rock in the middle of the 
channel. The whole length of each tube is 1,510 ft. 
Each of the longer spans weighs 1,587 tons, the 
shorter 630 tons, thus making up 4,680 tons as the 
total weight of each tube. They are fixed to the 
central tower, but have roller supports on the side 
towers and abutments so as to admit of free expan¬ 
sion and contraction due to changes of temperature. 
Similar tubular bridges have been built on the 
Conway river, where the span is 400 ft., and on the 
St. Lawrence at Montreal, where the greatest span 
is 330 ft. The latter is a railway bridge nearly two 
miles long, and has its piers specially adapted to 
resist and break the ice that comes down the river 
in spring. Coming next to the lattice-girder 
bridges which are nowadays in such extensive use, 
we may instance the Charing Cross (South-Eastern 
Railway) bridge, recently doubled in width to suit 
the increase in traffic. This is 1,365 ft. long, and is 
built with nine spans, six of 154 ft. and three of 
100 ft. Two lattice girders 50 ft. apart are supported 
parallel to each other on piers of cast-iron or brick¬ 
work. The booms of these main girders are 14 ft. 
apart, and are built of plate-iron ; they are held 
together by vertical bars and by diagonal bracing. 
Transverse girders are fixed across below the lower 
booms, and carry four lines of rails between the 
main girders. They also project outwards beyond 
each main girder, the projecting parts carrying a 
footpath. A type of bridge very early employed is 










































































































)» 











































































































* 















/ 




I - ;• * | 





































BRIDGES. 

1 Waterloo Bridge (From a photograph by Messrs. G. W. Wilson & Co., Aberdeen). 2 Britannia Tubular Bridge. 3 The Great 
Crumlin Viaduct ( From a photograph by Messrs. Catherall & Pritchard, Chester). 4 Brooklyn Suspension Bridge. 
5 Kentucky Bridge. 6 London Bridge (From a photograph by Messrs. G. W. Wilson & Co., Aberdeen). 7 Grosvenor 
Bridge, Chester ( From a photograph by Messrs. Catherall £ Pritchard, Chester). 3 The Forth Bridge [From a photograph 
by Messrs. Valentine £ Sons, Dundee). 






































Bridge. 


( 193 ) 


Bridget. 


the suspension, bridge. Piers are built each side of 
the obstacle to be crossed, and chains firmly fixed 
at each end pass over these piers and carry a road¬ 
way by means of hanging rods. The chain takes 
up a definite curvature, parabolic if the roadway is 
of uniform weight all along, but altering when any 
extra weight comes on. The stress in the chain is 
greatest at its lowest part, and is much increased if 
the chain be pulled out flatter across the same span. 
Oscillations produced in the structure by a com¬ 
paratively light rolling load may by gradually 
increasing in magnitude become very dangerous. 
Hence the use of stiffened suspension bridges, in 
which the roadway is rendered more rigid bv 
bracing, the result being to distribute the effect of 
the rolling load over a greater length of chain. 

The Menai suspension bridge, close to the 
Britannia tubular bridge, designed and built by 
Telford, and opened in 1825, is a fine example of 
this type. Here the points of suspension are 580 ft. 
apart; two carriage-ways and a central footway 
are supported by four cables, each consisting of 
four chains, the composite links of which are built 
of flat iron bars 10 ft. long. The dip of the chain 
is 57 ft., the total length of the bridge is 1,710 ft., 
and the roadway is 100 ft. above high-water level. 
The largest simple suspension bridge in the world 
crosses the Sarine valley at Freiburg, in Switzer¬ 
land. Its span is 870 ft., and the roadway is 107 ft. 
above the river. Clifton bridge, over the Severn, 
built by Brunei, has a span of 702 ft., and is at a 
height of 250 ft. above the Severn. This bridge is 
stiffened by longitudinal girders and by braced 
handrailing. Many stiffened suspension bridges 
now exist, by far the largest being the Brookly n 
bridge, uniting New York with Brooklyn. 1 he 
central span .is of 1,000 ft., and there are two side 
spans over land, each of 980 ft. The towers are 
276ft. high, founded by caissons 80 ft. below the 
high-water mark. There are four suspending cables, 
15| in. in diameter, each built up of 5,000 steel wii es. 
The roadway is 80 ft. wide, and is in five parts, two 
for ordinary vehicles, two for cars, and a central 
one for foot passengers ; the weight of the structure 
hanging between the towers is 7,000 tons. 

The cantilever principle has recently been intro¬ 
duced in the building of girder-bridges of large 
span, by the successful erection of the r orth 
Bridge on the North British Railway at Queens- 
ferry. The engineers were Sir John howler and 
Mr. Benjamin Baker. At this place the estuaiy 
of the Forth is H miles wide, and in parts as 
much as 200 ft. deep, much too deep to allow piers 
to be built there. This led to the adoption of two 
large spans of 1,700 ft. each, effected by three 
cantilevers. The shore ends of each of these give 
spans of 675 ft., and the remainder of the bridge 
consists of fifteen small spans of 168 ft. each. 1 he 
centre of each big span is 152 ft. above high-water 
level, and the highest part of the cantilevers 361 ft. 
The piers upon which the big cantilevers are bull 
consist each of four cylindrical masonry columns 
36 ft. high, tapering from 55 ft. diameter at the 
bottom to 49 ft. at the top. They were founded by 
means of coffer-dams for the shallow parts and 
large caissons 70 ft. diameter for the deeper parts, 

37 


sunk about 40 ft. below the river bed, and resting 
on rock or boulder-clay. The general view of the 
arrangement of each cantilever is shown in the 
plate ; it may be said to consist of two enormous 
steel composite brackets placed back to back so as 
to balance each other, and forming a gigantic 
lattice girder one-third of a mile long, tapering 
each way from the middle outwards. The structure 
somewhat resembles the open beam of a chemical 
balance, each arm of which is over 600 ft. in length. 
The cantilevers also taper in plan so as to resist 
wind pressure more effectively, the width diminish¬ 
ing from 120 ft. at the piers to 32 ft. at the extremi¬ 
ties. The main columns from which the cantilevers 
spring are steel tubes 12 ft. in diameter, and all the 
compression and tension members in the structure 
are proportionately large. The work to be done was 
so unique in its great magnitude that special tools 
were in many cases designed for it. '1 here are 
45,000 tons of steel employed in the bridge. Its 
cost was £1,600,000. 

In many cases it is desirable to have the bridge 
movable, entirely or in part, as in the neighbour¬ 
hood of docks, canals, etc. The chief kinds of 
bridges designed for such purposes are draw¬ 
bridges, swing-bridges, traversing-bridges, and 
pontoons. In the first case the bridge is able to 
open by having part capable of turning upwards 
about a horizontal axis. Such drawbridges or 
bascules were in use centuries ago across the moats 
of old castles. Swing-bridges open by turning 
about vertical pivots ; traversing-bridges open by 
sliding backwards along one of the abutments. 
Pontoons are floating bridges built along a series of 
flat-bottomed boats of iron anchored firmly in 
position. The Tower bridge now being built across 
the Thames will be, when completed, the largest 
bascular bridge in the world. Two masonry towers 
divide the water-way into three parts. '1 he central 
part contains the double-bascule, and gives an 
opening 200 ft. wide and 135 ft. high when the 
bascule is up. The side spans are of 270 ft. each, 
and are to be half-suspension in design. The 
estimated cost is £750,000. 

*Rr*ift tfppnrt, city and port of Connecticut, V .S., 
at the mouth of the Pequannock, which flows into 
Long Island Sound. It is 57 miles N.E. of New 
York. It affords good harbourage for small vessels, 
and has a considerable coasting trade. It has 
pleasant surroundings. Its chief industries are the 
manufacture of carriages, harness, machine! y, 
metal cartridges and sewing machines. 

Bridget, St. 1. An Irish saint (453-523). 
She entered a convent at 14, and during her life 
founded four monasteries. She is one of the three 
renowned saints of Ireland, and was also muc i 
honoured in Scotland, especially by the Douglases, 
of whom she was the patron saint. Her name in 
its form of St. Bride is also to be found in Englant , 
c.q. Bridewell (q.v.). 

2. A Swedish saint (1302-1373). She was of 
the Swedish royal blood, and married young With 
her husband she made pilgrimages to St Olat at 
Drontheim, and to St. Iago of Compostella. In 












Bridgetown. 


( 194 ) 


Bridle. 


1844 her husband died, and she devoted herself to 
the religious life. She founded a new Order 
(Augustinian) with some additions of her own, and 
there were 74 monasteries of this order established 
in Europe. In 1349 she established a hospice for 
Swedes in Rome, and after a pilgrimage to Palestine 
she returned to Rome, where she died. She was 
canonised in 1391. 

Bridgetown, capital of Barbadoes, on the 
west coast of the island, and along the north side 
of Carlisle Bay. A breakwater called Mole Head 
protects the inner harbour. Bridgetown was 
founded in 1628, and is said to have derived its 
name from an Indian bridge in the neighbourhood. 
By a. singular coincidence it was almost burnt down 
in the year of the great fire of London, and again 
just 100 years after (1766). In 1831 a hurricane 
greatly damaged it, and in 1845 there was another 
fire. The Bishop of Barbadoes lives here, and the 
town possesses colleges, schools; a barracks and 
arsenal. 

Bridgewater, Francis Egerton, Duke of 
(1736-1803), chiefly remembered as the introducer 
of the English system of canals. In 1758 and the 
following years lie had constructed from the designs 
of Brindley the Bridgewater canal from Worsley to 
Manchester and Runcorn. A tunnel brings the canal 
out of the cliff at Worsley from the pits into a kind 
of open dock. The aqueduct that carried the canal 
over the river at Barton Moss was considered a 
wonderful piece of engineering, but is now to be 
superseded by the swing aqueduct which is being- 
established by the Manchester Ship Canal 
Company. It was, however, curious to see a horse 
towing a barge along the river, and to see at the 
same time another horse towing another barge 
overhead at right angles to the course of the river. 
The Duke had such faith in his canal scheme that 
he embarked in it all his wealth, and the result 
justified his confidence. The canal is now the 
property of the Manchester Ship Canal Company, 
who gave close upon two millions for it. 

Bridgewater, Francis Henry Egerton, 
Earl of (1758-1829), son of the Bishop of Durham, 
succeeded as eighth earl 1823, and died unmarried 
1829. He is chiefly remembered as the originator of 
the Bridgewater treatises. He had left £8,000 for 
the author of the best treatise On the Power, 
Wisdom, and Goodness of God as manifested in the 
Creation. The money was, however, in the discre¬ 
tion of the executor of the bequest bestowed upon 
the eight writers of eight separate treatises, which 
with different degrees of merit carry out the 
designs of their founder. Among these the most 
notable are, perhaps, that of Sir Charles Bell on the 
Hand, and that of Dean Buckland on Geology and 
Mineralogy. They are all to be found in Bohn’s 
Scientific Library. 

Bridgman, Laura, a celebrated and every¬ 
where-quoted example of a deaf, dumb, and blind 
child who learned to read, reason, and to more or 
less enjoy life. She was born in 1829, in New 
Hampshire, United States. There was nothing 
abnormal about her till her second year, when a 


fever destroyed her sight, hearing and smell, and 
partially taste. It was not till the age of eight that 
a serious attempt was made at an institution for 
the blind to educate her. The success of this 
attempt was so notable that Laura Bridgman may 
be said to have marked the beginning of the new era 
of education for deaf-mutes, which has advanced of 
late years to a point of perfection not even dreamt 
of at the beginning of the present century. Laura 
Bridgman made herself useful as a teacher of the 
blind and deaf and dumb. Dickens gives an inter¬ 
esting account of her in his American Notes. 

Bridgnorth, town and municipal borough of 
Shropshire, 19 miles S.E. of Shrewsbury. Of the two 
parts into which it is divided by the Severn, the 
Lower is on the river, the Upper is on a rocky sand¬ 
stone height about 180 feet above the bank. 
There was formerly a fortress on this height, 
but only a fragment of it now remains. 
The town formerly sent two members to Parlia¬ 
ment, and from 1868 till 1885 it still sent one. 
The chief industries are carpet and worsted 
making. There are two parish churches and a 
grammar school of Henry VIII.’s time. The castle 
was demolished and the High Town burnt by the 
Parliamentary forces during the Civil war. There is 
still to be seen a fine old Tudor house, which 
escaped the fire, and in this house Bishop Percy 
was born in 1728. 

Bridgwater, seaport and municipal borough 
in Somersetshire, six miles from the Bristol Channel 
(12 by river), and 29 miles S.W. of Bristol city. 
The river Parret divides the town, which is on 
the edge of the well-wooded plain which lies 
between the Mendip and the Quantock Hills. Ships 
of 700 tons can come up to Bridgwater, and a canal 
unites it with Taunton. There is a bore in the 
Parrett of 6 ft. or 8 ft., and the spring-tides rise 
36 ft. The principal industries are bath-brick and 
cement making, carriage-building, and potteries. 
There is a church with a spire notable for its grace. 
The name is said to be a corruption of Burgh- 
Waiter, from a certain Walter to whom William I. 
granted the manor. Bridgwater suffered much in 
the Civil war, and was one of the chief places to 
support Monmouth in his rebellion. It no longer 
sends a member to Parliament. 

Bridle, the instrument by which a horse is 
restrained, stopped, or guided. The use of bridles 
and bits may be traced as far back as the days of 
ancient Egypt and Assyria, and mention of a bridle 
bit is found in Xenophon. The ordinary bridle 
consists of a headstall and a snaffle-bit. The head- 
stall is composed cf a strap, which passes behind 
the ears, a front, which passes in front of the ears, 
a nose-band, a throat-band, and cheek-pieces. The 
bit is the most important part of a bridle. The 
different varieties of bits are almost numberless, but 
most of them are constructed either on the principle 
of the snaffle or on that of the curb, or a combina¬ 
tion of the two. The snaffle-bit consists of two bars 
jointed together in the middle, and is prevented 
from being pulled through the mouth by two 
perpendicular bars attached at each end and by a 





Bridlington, 


( 195 ) 


Brienz. 


pair of rings. It is connected with the reins and 
head-stall by means of two more rings fastened at 
each end. The curb-bit consists of two cheek-pieces 
and a mouth-piece, with a curve in the centre 
known as the port, and a chain which is attached 
to the cheek-piece, so that when the curb reins are 
pulled the chain presses on the animal’s chin, and 
draws down its lower jaw. The bearing-rein used 
in driving is a rein attached to the bit; its object 
is to divide the weight on the driver’s hands. It 
is very frequently abused, and converted into an 
instrument of torture. Other forms of bridles and 
bits are the "Weymouth, the Pelham, the Dwyer, the 
Chifney, etc. Blinkers, which form a part of the 
driving-bridle, are pieces of leather attached to the 
cheek-pieces of the head-stall to prevent the horse 
being easily startled by anything at the side or 
behind him. 

Bridlington, town of Yorkshire in the 
E. Riding, 23 miles S.E. of Scarborough and six 
miles S.W. of Flamborough Head. Bridlington is 
supposed to have been a Roman station, and the 
nave of the church is part of an ancient Augustinian 
priory of much importance. Bridlington Quay, 
one mile S.E. of the old-fashioned town, is the port 
of the town, and is a watering-place of some 
renown, with the usual accompaniment of sands, 
parade, and gardens. There is also a chalybeate 
spring. The bay has good anchorage, and stone 
piers enclose the harbour. The sea-view is often 
enlivened by vessels making for the anchorage at 
Flamborough Head. During the Civil war Brid¬ 
lington was cannonaded on account of Queen 
Henrietta, who took shelter here. The town gave 
the title of Earl of Bridlington to the Boyles, Earls 
of Cork. Beyond a corn trade, Bridlington has no 
special industry. 

Bridport, in Dorset, 16 miles from Dorchester, 
and two miles from the English Channel, at the 
junction of the Asker and the Brit. The harbour, 
at some distance from the town, will admit ships of 
250 tons burden, and there is some foreign and 
coasting trade. The town consists mainly of two 
streets at right angles to each other, and it has a 
town hall and an interesting church. Before the 
Conquest Bridport was of much importance, and 
possessed its own silver mint; but now almost its 
only industry is rope and cordage making. 

Bridport, Alexander Arthur Hood, first 
Viscount, one of the most distinguished of British 
naval officers, was born in 1727, and haying entered 
the navy at an early age, became a lieutenant in 
1746, and commander and captain in 1756. In 1757, 
with the Antelope , 50, he fought and drove ashore 
the Aquilon, 48 ; in 1759, in the Minerva, 32, he was 
present at Sir Edward Hawke’s crushing defeat 
of De Couflans ; and in 1761, in the same ship, he 
re-took the Warwick, 60, in a manner which gained 
him the highest credit. In 1778 he com¬ 
manded the Ilobust, 74, in Keppel’s unsatisfactory 
action with cTOrvilliers, off Ushant, and again by 
his gallantry brought himself into prominent notice. 
In 1780 he was promoted to be rear-admiral, and 
two years later he commanded a division of Lord 
Howe’s fleet for the relief of Gibraltar. In 1783 he 


was second in command at Portsmouth, in 1788 he 
entered Parliament for Bridgwater, and was made 
a K.B., and having in 1787 been promoted to vice- 
admiral, he was second in command in the Channel 
under Lord Howe at the outbreak of war in 1793. 
In the following year he became admiral, and, with 
his flag on the Royal George, was second in com¬ 
mand in the great victory of the glorious First of 
June, 1794. His ship had 20 men killed and 72 
wounded. For this service he was made an Irish 
peer by the title of Baron Bridport. In 1795, 
holding this time an independent command, he 
defeated the French off Groix on June 22nd, and 
took the Formidable, Alexandre, and Tigre. In 
1796 Lord Bridport was made vice-admiral of Eng¬ 
land and" an English peer, and from 1797 to 1800 he 
held chief command in the Channel. In 1799 he 
was made lieutenant-general, and in 1801 general of 
marines, and in the last-mentioned year he was also 
raised to the rank of a Viscount. He died in 1814, 
without issue, although he had been twice married. 
He was elder brother of Samuel, first Viscount 
Hood (q.v.). 

Brief, in legal phraseology, means a statement 
or epitome of the facts of a litigated case with a 
reference to statutes or decisions of the courts sup¬ 
posed to be applicable as indicating the law bearing 
on such facts. It is prepared by the plaintiff’s or 
defendant’s solicitor, and is delivered to his counsel 
for his instruction and guidance in conducting the 
case before the court. It is the practice to endorse 
on the brief the fee to be paid to the counsel or 
advocate, which is usually paid on delivery, or the 
solicitor becomes responsible to the counsel for the 
same, quite irrespectively of the result of the case. 
[Barrister.] 

Brieg*. 1- Prussian town of Silesia, 25 miles S.E. 
of Breslau, and on the left bank of the Oder. The 
general direction of Silesian mines and workshops 
is here, and its chief industries are weaving, metal 
button making, sugar refining, trading in cattle, 
and cultivating chicory and tobacco. 

2. A town at the foot of the Simplon Pass, in the 
Valais, Switzerland. 

Briel, in South Holland, 12 miles W. of Rotter¬ 
dam, and on the island of Voorne, near the mouth 
of the Maas, on the left bank. It is fortified, and 
its people are chiefly occupied in pilotage and fish¬ 
ing. It was the cradle of the United Netherlands’ 
liberty, for the taking of it by the refugees in 1572 
was the first act of open revolt against the Spanish 
rule. The admirals de Witt and Van Tromp were 
born at Briel. 

Brienne-le-Chateau, French town in the 
department of Aube, and on the right bank of the 
Aube, 35 miles N.E. of Troyes. Napoleon was at 
the military school here for five years, and here he 
was defeated in 1814. 

Brienz, town in Switzerland, at the foot of the 
Brienzergrat (Bernese Alps), on the N.E. of the 
lake of Brienz, and 30 miles from Berne. It is of 
wood, with picturesque houses, and from the ceme¬ 
tery may be had a good view of the lake, with the 
Giessbach and other falls, and of the snowy peaks 








Brierly Hill. 


( 196 ) 


Brighton. 


of the Faulhorn. The town is chiefly noted for its 
wood carvings, its cheeses, and its tourists. The 
church is on a rocky height, there are the ruins of 
a castle, and the Planalpbach fall is at the back. 

Brierly Hill, Staffordshire town, 2^ miles 
N.E. of Stourbridge. The neighbourhood produces 
coal, fireclay, and iron, and there are brick works, 
collieries, glass works, iron works, and potteries. 



BRIG. 


Brig, a two-masted vessel, square-rigged on 
both masts. 

Brigade, a portion of an army under the com¬ 
mand of a brigadier, an officer whose rank, which, 
in the British army, is only temporal or local, is 
next to that of a major-general. He is generally 
the senior colonel of a number of battalions which 
have been formed temporarily into a brigade. In 
the British army a brigade of infantry contains 
from three to six battalions; a cavalry brigade— 
three or more regiments. The term is also applied 
to the household troops, as the Household Brigade, 
and to the Bijle Brigade, which is composed of the 
four battalions of rifles. A brigade-major performs 
duties in a brigade analogous to those of an adju¬ 
tant (q.v.) in a regiment. 

Brigade-Major, Brigadier. [Brigade.] 
Brigands. [Mafia, Bushrangers, Dacoits.] 

Brigantine, a two-masted vessel, square- 
rigged only on the foremast, and fore-and-aft rigged 
on the mainmast. 

Briggs, Henry (1561-1631), an English mathe¬ 
matician, born at Warley in Yorkshire, and educated 
at Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. (1581), 
M.A. (1585), and was elected to a fellowship (1588). 
He became Linacre lecturer (1592), in 1596 first 
Gresham lecturer in geometry, and first Savilian 
professor of geometry at Oxford in 1619. He was 
renowned for his improved systems of logarithms as 
compared with Napier’s—an improvement admitted 
by Napier himself—and also for a treatise on the 
North-West Passage. 

Bright, John, English politician (1811-1889). 
His father was a cotton-spinner and manufacturer 
of Rochdale, at which town John Bright chiefly 


resided. A member of the Society of Friends, he 
was educated at their schools at Ackworth, Newton, 
and York. He first came into political prominence 
owing to his co-operation with Cobden in the 1 Anti- 
Corn Law League and the Free Trade agitation of 
1839. In July. 1843, he represented Durham in 
Parliament, and at once began to establish a repu¬ 
tation. In 1847 he was returned for Manchester, 
joined with Cobden in the movement for financial 
reform, and in 1852 aided in the reconstruction of 
the Anti-Corn Law League, to advance the cause of 
Free Trade. He also, with Cobden, was opposed to 
the Crimean war. Having been rejected by Man¬ 
chester, in consequence of his temporary retirement 
through ill-health, he was returned for Birmingham 
in 1867, and had a hand in the overthrow of Lord 
Palmerston’s Government. After the Indian Mutiny 
John Bright was in favour of transferring the Indian 
possessions to the Crown. In the American struggle 
he was an energetic and constant advocate of the 
North, and the Electoral Reform Act of 1867 owed 
much to his efforts. In 1868 he became president 
of the Board of Trade, but was forced by ill-health 
to retire in 1870. In 1873 he was again in office, 
and again in 1881, but in 1882 he retired from office 
over the Egyptian question. After that he appeared 
little in public, especially as he was strongly opposed 
to Mr. Gladstone’s Irish policy. His death in 1889 
caused universal regret, since not only was his 
eloquence greatly admired, but all parties had 
learned to value the moderation of his opinions in 
later years, and to respect the sturdy independence 
and sincerity of his character. As an orator he 
ranks high for the singular purity of his language 
and nervousness of style. 

Bright, Richard (1789-1858), an English 
physician, born at Bristol, studied at Berlin, Edin¬ 
burgh, and Vienna, and was connected with Guy’s 
Hospital. He is chiefly known as having con¬ 
tributed much to the knowledge of obscure diseases 
of the system, especially to those particular phases 
of kidney disease since known by his name. He 
also wrote a book of travels in Lower Hungary, in 
which he gives an account of the Gypsies. 

Brighton, a parliamentary and municipal 
borough and one of the “Queens of Watering- 
places,” of which there are as many as of the 
gypsies. It is just above 50 miles from London, of 
which it is at the present day as much a suburb as 
Croydon or Sutton, being hardly more distant by 
rail, and possessing over other suburbs the advan¬ 
tage of the sea-breeze and some other good qualities 
of sea-side places. Brighton in its present aspect 
is almost the growth of the past hundred years, 
even its name only dating from about 1800, up till 
when it was the little fishing-village of Brighthelm- 
stone. About the middle of last century a Dr. 
Russell brought it into notice as an easily 
accessible spot for sea-bathing, and the discovery 
of a chalybeate spring contributed to bring it into 
popularity. The fact of the then Prince of Wales 
taking a fancy to the place, and making the 
notorious Pavilion his residence, completed its 
claims to fashionable notice. But it was the con¬ 
struction of the Brighton railway, and the easy 














Brighton. 


( 197 ) 


Bright’s Disease 


accessibility from London, that have made it a 
place of popular as well as fashionable resort, and 
during the last forty years it has advanced by leaps 
and bounds; and bricks and mortar have already 
crawled inland so far as to swallow up the pretty 
outlying village of Preston, and along the coast 
westward almost far enough to make a continuous 
line to Kingston and Shoreham. Its spread due 
east is stopped by the Downs, which end 
in cliff, and have thus far marked the limit 
of building. Roughly speaking, Brighton 
may be said to have from three to four 
miles of sea-front, protected by a sea-wall 
of varying height, but rising at the east 
end to the height of 60 feet. Under the 
eastern part of the sea-wall is a promenade 
called the Madeira Road, of about a mile 
in length, and well sheltered by the wall 
and cliff from cold winds. There is a fine 
parade extending the whole length of this 
sea-front, and except for the presence of 
the sea, there is little to distinguish it from 
London, the shops towards the eastern part 
closely resembling those of Regent Street, 
and the squares and terraces of the western 
part being the counterpart of fashionable 
West End London. The town is clean, well 
paved and lighted, and its sanitary con¬ 
ditions are well looked after by the au¬ 
thorities. The sewage is carried by an 
elaborate system of intercepting sewers 
into the sea at a considerable distance east¬ 
ward of the town. Of the two piers, the older, 
called the Chain Pier, supported by chains from 
iron columns which rest on oak piles driven into 
the chalk, is now almost deserted for the more 
fashionably placed pier farther west. In the matter 
of public buildings Brighton contains nothing 
strikingly remarkable, unless it be the fantastic 
Pavilion, the best feature of which is the Dome, 
which does not fall far short in its proportions of 
that of St. Paul’s Cathedral. The associations with 
the Pavilion were not such as to endear it to the 
present Royal family, and many years since the 
buildings became the property of the corporation 
of Brighton, who have utilised them for various 
public purposes. Those who may have visited the 
Dome about 30 years ago, when it was used as 
stables for the cavalry stationed there, and have 
since attended a concert beneath it in later years, 
will probably think that the change has been for 
the better. The resemblance of Brighton to 
London would not be complete, did not the former 
possess some of the monster hotels which are a 
feature of our latest civilisation. But there are 
also some good old-fashioned hotels possessed of 
many almost historical associations. The Brighton 
Aquarium has for years been renowned as a well- 
arranged place of instruction, as well as amuse¬ 
ment, and has been the model in its main points for 
many similar ones at watering-places and elsewhere. 
Till lately Brighton had its one well-managed 
theatre, but now it is getting theatres and music 
halls, as becomes a London-on-Sea. Of the many 
churches, St, Nicholas, the mother church, is the 
only one with any pretensions to anything like 


antiquity. St. Paul’s was a good deal heard of a 
few years ago, but more for its interest as one of 
the homes of the then new High Church movement 
than for any other reason. Brighton possesses the 
usual complement of hospitals, and other public 
buildings ; and, of course, abounds in schools, where 
many another besides Paul Dombey and Mr. Toots 
have been taught or crammed. Of these, Brighton 


College is not without renown in the scholastic 
world. The races and the—now rare—volunteer 
reviews add much to the success of Brighton. As 
a sea-side place merely it is comparatively tame and 
monotonous. But when all else is cold and cheerless, 
one may sit sheltered by glass at the end of the 
West Pier, and look out upon the many-smiling 
water in a climate akin to that of Ventnor, while in 
half an hour one may be at the top of the South 
Downs and buffeted by a breeze as keen and 
bracing as can be desired. It is in its nearness to 
the unrivalled scenery of the country lying imme¬ 
diately beneath the northern escarpment of the 
Downs, and to its remarkably pure air, that Brighton 
owes its charm, at least for those who do not find 
it sufficient charm to carry about with them a bit 
of their beloved London. Old Brighton or Bright- 
helmstone, which now lies at varying depths 
beneath the beach under the east cliff, found its 
enemies in the Spaniards, Flemings and others, as 
well as in the sea which finally swallowed it up. 
This last enemy was also formidable to the new 
town, but has been almost circumvented by the 
construction of the sea-wall above mentioned, and 
by a thorough system of groynes, which counteract 
the ceaseless movement of the shingle eastward. 
Brighton has an excellent water supply, which is 
drawn from the chalk of the South Downs. 

Bright’s Disease. A name given to certain 
affections of the kidney. Dr. Blackall (1771-1860) 
first pointed out the frequent association of dropsy 
with a diseased condition of the urine (albuminuria), 
and following up the line of investigation pursued 


















Bright’s Disease. 


( 198 ) 


Brimstone. 


by Blackall, Dr. Richard Bright in 1830 demon¬ 
strated that the cause of the albuminous condition 
of the urine in cases of dropsy was traceable, in 
many instances, to inflammation of the kidneys. 
In the healthy body the albuminous substances in 
the blood and tissue fluids do not pass through the 
epithelium of the Malpighian corpuscles (q.v.) and 
urinary tubules (q.v.), and consequently the urine 
contains no albumen. When the epithelial cells are 
injured, however, in disease, they lose their power 
of keeping back the albumen, and albuminuria 
results. The term Bright’s Disease is a convenient 
one, and is still applied to certain inflammatory 
affections of the kidneys. 

Acute Bright's Disease. Acute parenchymatous 
or tubular Nephritis. Here the whole kidney is at 
times inflamed, though in some instances there 
may be a tendency for the epithelium of the tubules 
or of the Malpighian corpuscles to be specially 
involved. The most common cause is scarlet fever, 
after which disease albuminuria is apt to appear 
just when it is thought that convalescence is 
established. Again it may result from exposure to 
cold, or may be associated with pregnancy. The 
chief symptoms are albuminuria, dropsy and lumbar 
pain. The urine is scanty, high-coloured, and may 
contain blood ; dropsy is usually first recognised as 
a puftiness of the eyelids. There is slight feverish¬ 
ness, headache and nausea, and vomiting may 
occur. All degrees of severity are met with in the 
disease ; the albuminuria may never be considerable 
and may pass off entirely in a few days. More 
frequently a prolonged convalescence will be 
necessary, acute nephritis being very liable to leave 
chronic mischief behind it. Death may occur from 
oedema of the lungs or glottis, inflammation of 
serous membranes or uraemia (q.v.). The treat¬ 
ment consists in keeping the patient quiet and 
warm in bed, promoting the action of the skin, 
administering saline purgatives, applying counter 
irritation to the loins, and administering a slop 
diet, encouraging the drinking of simple fluids with 
a view to the diuretic effect they may produce. 

Chronic parenchymatous Nephritis is probably in 
most cases a sequela of the affection just described. 
It is characterised by considerable enlargement of 
the kidney with fatty degeneration, the epithelium 
of the tubules being particularly involved. The 
urine is scanty, of high specilic gravity, contains 
much albumen and granular or fatty “ casts.” 
Dropsy appears early, marked anremia usually 
develops, and inflammatory affections, dropsical 
effusions or uraemia may supervene. 

Chronic interstitial Nephritis (cirrhosis of the 
kidney) presents many points of contrast with 
parenchymatous nephritis. To begin with, as the 
names imply, in the one case it is the tubules and 
glomeruli, i.e. the parenchyma of the organ which 
suffer, in the other case the interstitial connective 
tissue is primarily involved, and its cicatricial con¬ 
traction only secondarily affects the parenchyma. 
Again, in interstitial nephritis the amount of urine 
passed is usually in excess of the normal amount, 
and of low specific gravity, the amount of albumen 
contained in it may be very small, dropsy is not an 
early symptom, and the kidney diminishes instead 


of increasing in size, and is red and granular, not 
pale and smooth. The most important point to be 
noted about interstitial nephritis is its association 
with general vascular changes, particularly hyper¬ 
trophy of the heart and thickening of the walls of 
the arterioles. These related conditions may, in¬ 
deed, give rise to symptoms and so first direct 
suspicion to the kidneys. For example, an attack 
of cerebral haemorrhage or the discovery of certain 
changes in the eye recognisable by means of the 
ophthalmoscope may afford the first hint of in¬ 
terstitial nephritis. The causes of cirrhosis of the 
kidneys are obscure. It is generally met with in 
men past the prime of life, is often associated with 
gout, and perhaps with the abuse of alcohol. 

Chronic Bright’s Disease, when unmistakably 
established, too often only admits of palliative 
treatment. Hence the paramount importance of 
the utmost caution after scarlet fever, and after 
even the mildest form of the acute disease. To 
deal with the treatment of symptoms is impos¬ 
sible here; it may be mentioned, however, that 
three drugs, opium, mercury, and cantharides 
require to be used, if at all, with the greatest 
caution in Bright’s Disease. 

Brihuega, a town in the province of 
Guadalajara, New Castile, Spain, on the river 
Tajuna, 20 miles N.E. of Guadalajara. It was here 
in 1710 that the rear-guard of Lord Stanhope’s 
army was captured by the Due de Vendome. There 
are some factories for linen and woollen goods. 

Bril, Paul, born in 1556, at Antwerp, accom¬ 
panied as a boy his brother Matthew to Rome, 
where the latter was employed in the mural 
decorations of the Vatican. Paul took up this task 
on his brother’s death, and was employed constantly 
by Sixtus V. and the next two popes. He excelled 
in landscapes with figures, possessing an admirable 
eye for broad effects, but was inclined to excessive 
softness of touch and too free a use of green. 
Tobias and the Angel , The Wayfarers to JEmmaus, 
and Syrinx transformed to a Deed are some of his 
most famous works in oil. He died in 1626. 

Brill (Rhombus loevis ), a food-fish of the same 
genus as the turbot (q.v.), but smaller in size, rarely 
exceeding eight pounds in weight, and of less deli¬ 
cate flavour. The upper side is dotted with reddish 
spots. The brill is common on the coasts of Britain 
and the continent of Europe. 

( Brillat-Savarin, Anthelme, was born at 
Belley, in 1755, and, having taken up law as a pro¬ 
fession, became a member of the constituent 
assembly, and held several judicial appointments. 
In 1793 he fled from the Terror to America, but 
returning in 1796, held a judgeship at the court of 
appeal until his death, in 1825. He wrote a few 
works bearing on law and politics, but his fame rests 
on the Physiologic du Gout , a treatise on gas¬ 
tronomy, full of wit and learning, which appeared 
anonymously after his death. 

Brimstone, or roll-sulphur, consists of sulphur 
(q.v.), mostly that obtained from pyrites, melted by 
a gentle heat and cast into sticks or rolls. 




Brimstone Moth. 


( 199 ) 


Brisbane. 


Brimstone Moth (Rumia cratcegata), a, 
common English moth of a brimstone-yellow 
colour with some reddish-brown spots. The cater¬ 
pillar is generally found in white-thorn hedges. 

Brindaban, or Bin drab an, an ancient town on 
the river Jumma, in the North-West Provinces of 
British India, 6 miles N. of Muttra. It possesses 
several temples, to which thousands of Hindus 
make annual pilgrimages, and, as at Benares, the 
river banks are lined by ghats, or ranges of steps. 
There are also three tanks held in high veneration, 
and several interesting buildings. 

Brindisi (cl assic Brundusium. or Brundisiuvi), 
an ancient fortified port in the province of Lecco, 
standing at the head of a bay in the Adriatic 45 
miles N.E. of Taranto. It was an important harbour 
in the best days of Rome, being the port of em- 
barcation for Greece and the Levant. Horace 
describes his journey thither (Sat. i. v.), and Virgil 
died there on his way home from Megara. Many of 
the Crusaders sailed thence to Palestine. For a 
long period it sank into neglect, and the harbour 
became choked up, but in 1870 the route to India 
via Marseilles being closed by the war, it w 7 as 
^elected as the starting-point of the British mail- 
steamers, and has served that purpose ever since. 
It is connected by railway with Turin, Rome, and 
Naples, and the accommodation for shipping, 
though still defective, has been greatly improved. 

Brindley, James, was born near Chapel-le- 
Frith, Derbyshire, in 1716, and in his early years 
followed the humble trade of millwright, in which 
he earned considerable local reputation. This led 
to his employment (1754) by the Duke of Bridge- 
water in the construction of his famous canal, and 
his services w T ere next engaged in the connection of 
the Severn with the Grand Trunk Canal. His 
success in these and similar undertakings put him 
at the head of this branch of the engineering 
profession, and he was consulted in all the projects 
for linking together by w r ater the chief industrial 
centres of the kingdom. He was quite uneducated, 
and overcame difficulties by rough and ready 
common-sense, rather than by scientific resources. 
It is said that when he had to face any task of 
more than usual magnitude, he went to bed and 
remained there until he had thought out his plans. 
Exhausted by a succession of arduous labours, he 
died prematurely in 1772. 

Brine-springs, springs saturated with com¬ 
mon salt (q.v.) or sodium chloride (NaCl), often in 
association with other substances, occur especially 
in districts w r here there are underground deposits 
of rock-salt (q.v.) from its solution by percolating 
sm'ing waters. Sometimes, as in Cheshiie, wheie 
the affluents of the river Weaver have found their 
way into old salt mines, it may be simplei to pump 
the salt to the surface as brine than to mine it as a 
solid. In the states of New York, Virginia, Ohio, 
Michigan and Kentucky salt is largely obtained 
from springs, and such waters may issue from deep- 
seated Triassic deposits, as apparently at St. 
Clement’s, Oxford, and perhaps at Swindon, Wilts, 
far from their outcrop. Brine is commonly pumped 


over faggots to precipitate any carbonate of lime it 
may contain. 

Brinjal. [Aubergine.] 

Brinvilliers, Marie Marguerite, Mar¬ 
quise de, the daughter of Dreux d’Aubray, a 
respectable French official, was born in 1630. She 
married the Marquis de Brinvilliers, but soon left 
him for a lover, Gaudin de Sainte-Croix, an officer of 
cavalry. The latter had learned from an Italian the 
art, then very fashionable, of preparing secret 
poisons, which probably had arsenic as their base. 
He communicated this knowledge to his mistress, 
and together they got rid of her father, her two 
brothers, and her sister, with a view to obtaining 
their property. In 1670 Sainte-Croix killed him¬ 
self whilst experimenting, and his papers revealed 
the crime. Madame de Brinvilliers fled to Liege, and 
took refuge in a convent, but a police-officer in the 
guise of an abbe contrived to bring her back to 
Paris, where, after terrible tortures, she was be¬ 
headed in 1676. 

Briquette, the name given to a kind of fuel 
made of coal-dust and pitch compressed together. 

Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, Australia, 
was founded in 1825 as a penal settlement, and 
derived its name from the then Governor of New 
South Wales. It is picturesquely situated on the 
river Brisbane, about 25 miles from its month in 
Moreton Bay,and 500 miles N. of Sydney. In 1842 
it was thrown open to free colonists, and in 1859, 
when the district was erected into a separate 
government as Queensland, it was chosen as the 
capital. The river divides North from South Bris¬ 
bane, and is spanned by the handsome Victoria 
swing bridge, a quarter of a mile in length. Kan¬ 
garoo Point and Fortitude Valley are also districts 
of the city, which has grown with scarcely less 
rapidity than marked the rise of Melbourne or 
Sydney, though it is rather a centre of trade and 
agriculture than of mineral industries. It is the seat 
both of an Anglican and a Romanist bishopric, and 
possesses fine cathedrals and churches. The houses 
of legislature, the vice-regal lodge, the post- 
office, and the school of art are fine public build¬ 
ings. The waterworks, a highly-important matter 
in a semi-tropical climate, are admirable, and all 
the other institutions of a colonial capital, such as 
banks, hospitals, museum, and colleges, exist here. 
Railways communicate with various parts of the 
colony, and there are regular lines of steamers 
running to Sydney and to the northern ports. 

Brisbane. 1- Sir Charles, a British naval 
officer of distinction, the fourth son of Admiral 
John Brisbane, who died in 1807, was born in or 
about the year 1769, and having entered the service 
in 1780, was a midshipman in the Hercules, 74, at 
Rodney’s action on April 12th, 1782, off Dominica, 
and was wounded. In 1790 he was promoted to be 
lieutenant, and in 1793, in the Meleager, he was 
present at the operations at Toulon, and subse¬ 
quently at those on the coast of Corsica. At the 
siege of Bastia he served under Nelson, and received 
a severe head wound, which involved the almost 







Brisbane. 


( 200 ) 


Bristol. 


total loss of the sight of his left eye. In 1704 he 
was promoted by Lord Hood to be commander of 
the Tarid on, and in her he was present on 
March 14th, 1795, in Lord Hotham’s action off Genoa; 
and in the following year, in the Moselle, he was 
able to obtain for Lord Keith the information 
which led to the capture, in Saldanha Bay, on 
August 18th, of three Dutch ships of the line, two 
frigates, and four other vessels. For this service he 
was posted into the Dortreclit, 66, one of the prizes, 
though his official commission, dated July 22nd, 
1796, was to the Nemesis. He was afterwards 
despatched in the Oiseau , 36, to cruise off the River 
Plate, where he most gallantly fought and beat off 
two Spanish 38-gun frigates. Having returned to 
the Dortreclit, he distinguished himself by his 
personal courage in quelling a mutiny on board, and, 
in consequence, he was transferred to the Tremen¬ 
dous, another mutinous ship, in which he was 
equally successful. In the Doris, 38, he assisted 
the Beaulieu and TJranie in cutting out the French 
ship Clievrette, in July, 1801. Thenceforward, for 
several years, he served in the West Indies, 
capturing the Mir/nonne and other vessels, and, as 
captain in 1805 of the Arethusa, 38, obtaining most 
valuable information concerning the movements of 
the enemy. In 1806, assisted by the Anson, he 
captured the Spanish frigate Pomona, 38, and 
destroyed nine out of twelve gunboats which were 
with her, and a castle under the guns of which she 
had sought refuge. Once more Captain Brisbane 
was wounded. Next year, at the head of a small 
frigate squadron, he very brilliantly attacked and 
captured Cura^oa, a service for which he was 
rewarded with a knighthood, a medal, and an 
augmentation of arms. In 1808 he was made 
governor of St. Vincent, in 1815 a K.C.B., and in 
1819 a rear-admiral. He died in 1829. 

2. His brother, Sip. James, fifth son of Admiral 
John Brisbane, was born in 1774. and entered the 
navy in 1787. He was signal midshipman of the 
Queen Charlotte, 100, flagship of Lord Howe on the 
glorious First of June, 1794, was promoted in the 
same year to be lieutenant, and as such was 
present at the reduction of the Cape of Good Hope 
and at the capture of the Dutch squadron in 
Saldanha Bay. For these services he was in 1796 
made commander. In 1801 he assisted in buoying 
the channel preparatory to Nelson’s attack on 
Copenhagen, and being in that year posted, he was 
appointed to the Saturn, 74, flagship in the West 
Indies. In the Belle-Poule, '38, he captured the 
Var, 32, under the guns of Valona, and assisted in 
the reduction of Zante, Santa Maura, etc., besides 
making many prizes. He served for many years in 
the Mediterranean, always with distinction, and in 
1816 was Lord Exmouth’s flag-captain in the Queen 
Charlotte, 108, at the bombardment of Algiers. He 
had already, in 1815, been made a C.B., and he was 
now knighted. He died in 1829 from the effect of 
disease contracted while he was employed in 
command of the flotilla engaged in the Burmese 
war. 

3. Another son of Admiral John Brisbane, 
namely, William Henry, who died in 1796, was a 
captain in the navy. 


Brisbane, Sir Thomas Macdougal, was 
born near Largs, Ayrshire, in 1773, and entering the 
army, served with high distinction in Flanders, the 
Peninsula, North America, and elsewhere. In 1821. 
after holding several colonial appointments, he was 
sent out as Governor of New South Wales. Here he 
discharged his official duties with zeal and success, 
but his great achievement was in the field of 
science. He established at his own expense the 
astronomical observatory at Paramatta, and made 
a catalogue of the stars of the southern hemisphere, 
for which he received the Copley medal of the 
Royal Society. On his return to England he re¬ 
sumed his work at Makerstown, and his magnetic 
investigations proved of great value. He succeeded 
Sir Walter Scott as president of the Royal Society 
of Edinburgh, and died in 1860. 

Brisinga is a genus of Starfish found off the 
north coast of Norway by Asbjornsen, and named by 
him after the breast ornament of the goddess Freya. 
It differed from all the living Starfish then known, by 
the possession of a central disc sharply marked off 
from the arms, while it has neither eyes, ampullm 
(i.e. the reservoirs which regulate the water supply 
to the tube feet), nor dermal branchim (the processes 
from the upper side of the body which play so im¬ 
portant a part in the respiration of most Starfish). 
In these points, and also in the arrangement of the 
reproductive organs, etc., it differs from the Star¬ 
fish and agrees with the Brittle-Stars (q.v.). It 
was therefore regarded as intermediate between 
these two classes, and has been made by some 
authors the type of a special order. It was also 
regarded as a close ally of some extinct genera of 
the Pabeozoic (q.v.) era. Many forms referable 
to the family Prising ida, of which this genus is the 
type, were found in the Challenger Expedition, and 
it is now agreed that Brisinga is a degraded rather 
than a primitive starfish. [See Asterias for terms, 
etc.] 

Brissot, Jean Pierre, the son of a pastrv- 
cook at Chartres, France, was born in 1754, and 
destined for the law, but he took to journalism and 
politics, editing the Courrier de VEurope at Bou¬ 
logne. When this was suppressed he settled in 
Paris and published his Theory of Criminal Laws, 
and other works inspired by Rousseau, with the 
result that he was imprisoned in the Bastille. He 
then went to England and started a democratic 
paper, which was seized, and he subsequently 
visited Holland and America. In 1789 he returned 
to Paris, brought out Le Patriote Francois, and. 
becoming a member of the Commune, drew up 
the famous petition for the abolition of royalty. 
Being elected to the Legislative Assembly and the 
Convention he actively supported the wars with 
Austria, England, and Holland (1792-93), and 
founded a party—the Brissotins—which stood half¬ 
way between the Girondists and the Montagnards, 
opposing the excesses of the latter. Robespierre, 
incensed at his policy, ordered his arrest, and he 
was guillotined in 1793. His Memoirs and Political 
B ill were published forty years later. 

Bristol, a city and port on the river Avon, six 
miles from its mouth, stands on the borders of 






Bristol. 


( 201 ) 


Britannia. 


Gloucestershire and Somerset, but by a charter of 
Edward III. forms a county in itself. It existed 
probably in Roman times, and is sometimes identi¬ 
fied with Caer Brito, one of the earliest cities of 
Britain. It appears in Domesday Book, and the 
castle that was founded by Geoffrey Mowbray, 
Bishop of Constance, and enlarged by Robert, Earl 
of Gloucester, existed up to 1654. From the time 
of John to Charles I. the town and castle were an 
appanage to the Crown, and played some part in 
the political and religious struggles of the 15th and 
16th centuries. Meanwhile its trade, especially 
with the West Indies and America, had grown im¬ 
portant, and both John and Sebastian Cabot started 
thence on their memorable voyages. The exactions 
of Charles I. drove the city to encourage the Rebel¬ 
lion, and in 1643 it was captured by Prince Rupert, 
but subsequently recaptured by Fairfax. Colston, 
whose “ day ” is annually kept by both political 
parties, was a munificent public benefactor at the 
close of the 17th and beginning of the 18th century, 
and Southey was a native of the place. Burke 
was member for Bristol from 1774 to 1780. In 
1703 a serious local riot caused some loss of life, 
but far more severe was the outbreak in 1831, 
nominally in support of the reform movement. 
The Great Western, the first steamer ever built 
for Transatlantic service, was launched here in 
1838. Ten years later Bristol became a free port, 
and with the improvement of its docks and quays 
it has recovered from the shocks to its prosperity 
caused by the abolition of slave-trade and slavery, 
and the development of Liverpool. The tonnage 
now entering the port amounts to nearly a million 
and a half of tons, nearly three times as much as 
in 1847. The city is intersected both by the Avon 
and its tributary the Frame, and in its streets are 
many relics of its great feudal lords, the Earls of 
Gloucester, the Berkeleys, and the Gaunts, and of 
its wealthy merchants, such as the Canynges, the 
Shipwards and the Framptons. The cathedral, 
originally a church of Austin Friars, 1148, was partly 
rebuilt in 1877. but retains its fine choir, gateway, 
and chapter-house, one of the most perfect Norman 
buildings extant. Memorials of the Berkeleys, of 
Bishop Butler, and of Sterne’s Eliza are within its 
walls. St. James's, St, Philip and Jacob’s, St. 
Stephen’s, and St. Mary Redcliff are noteworthy 
specimens of architecture. The latter, in the Per¬ 
pendicular style, was founded by William Canynge 
in 1375, and was pronounced by Queen Elizabeth 
“the fairest and most famous parish church in 
England.” Chatterton (q.v.) pretended that he found 
the Rowley poems in a chest preserved in the muni¬ 
ment room. There are the Cathedral school, the 
grammar school, Queen Elizabeth s hospital, the Red 
Maids school and various other educational institu¬ 
tions. Muller’s Orphan Asylum, accommodating 
2,000 children, deserves mention. The see of Bris¬ 
tol was created in 1540, and was united to that of 
Gloucester in 1836. The Hot Wells, so famous at 
the end of the last century, and immortalised in 
Evelina and Humphry Clinker , are now deserted, 
but an effort is being made to revive their popularity, 
whilst in their vicinity has sprung up the pretty 
and thriving suburb of Clifton. 


Two other Bristols are found, both in the United 
States. (1) A town on the Delaware river in 
Pennsylvania, the terminus of the Delaware Canal, 
and a place of some commercial and industrial 
importance. (2) A port in Rhode Island on 
Narragansett Bay, where ship-building, sugar-refin¬ 
ing and the making of rubber goods are carried On. 

Bristol Channel, the deep indentation on 
the south-west coast of England, which is formed 
by the estuary of the Severn, between South Wales 
and the counties of Devon and Somerset. It 
extends inland for 80 miles, varying in breadth 
from 5 to 43 miles, and having a depth of from 5 to 
40 fathoms. No inlet in Britain is so large, or so 
powerfully affected by tides, which rise occasionally 
to 70 feet, and meeting the outflow of some rivers 
produce a Bore, which is a source of danger to 
small vessels. The shores are mostly steep and 
precipitous, especially on the southern side. 
Caermarthen, Swansea, Cardiff to the N., Bideford. 
Ilfracombe, Minehead, Porlock, and Bridgwater to 
the S., are the chief harbours, and the rivers Towy, 
Taff. Usk, Wye, Avon, Axe, Parret, Taw, and 
Torridge, besides the Severn, discharge their waters 
into it". Lundy Island lies at its mouth, and some 
smaller islets obstruct the fairway between Bridg¬ 
water and Cardiff bays. 

Britannia, the name by which Great Britain 
was known to Caesar and subsequent Roman writers. 
Its origin is doubtful, but we find Aristotle speaking 
of the Nesoi Brettanikai, Albion and Ierne, as if the 
word were familiar at that time. The attempt to 
connect it with a Welsh britli, meaning “tattooed,” 
is fanciful. When Caesar invaded the country, the 
inhabitants, except a few settlers from Belgium on 
the coast, and perhaps some remnants of a primitive 
Euskarian race, were Kelts, and he probably came 
into contact only with the Cymric branch, the 
Gadhelic being settled in the more remote north 
and west. They appear to have been split up into 
tribes, very loosely federated, and the influence of 
the Druids, or priestly caste, was considerable. 
They wore their hair long, dyed their bodies with 
woad, clothed themselves in skins, and lived chiefly 
on milk and flesh. The Romans, even after four 
centuries, did but imperfectly civilise these people, 
though a hundred years sufficed to break the 
military resistance of Cassivelaunus, Caractacus, 
Boadicea, and other chiefs. Claudius (43 A. D.) first 
made Britain a Roman province, which was under 
one prefect. Severus (210) divided it into two 
parts, Brit. Superior, and Brit. Inferior. In 
Diocletian’s time there were four provinces, 1. Brit. 
Prima, S. of Thames. 2. Brit. Secunda, S. of Dee 
and W. of Severn. 3. Flavia Csesariensis, E. of 
Severn. 4. Maxima Cresariensis, N. of Humber and 
S. of Tyne. In 368 Yalentia, including the S. of 
Scotland as far as the wall of Antoninus, was added 
for a short time. We know little from historical 
records of the Roman government, but remains 
still extant prove that much comfort and even 
luxury was introduced by the conquerors, whilst 
Christianity was the recognised state religion as 
early as 324 a.d. Eboracum (York), Deva (Chester), 
and Isca (Caerleon) were the headquarters usually 










Britannia Metal 


( 202 ) 


British Museum. 


of a legion. There were at least fifty-six colonics or 
munictpia, and Eboracurn and Verulamium (St. 
Albans) enjoyed Roman citizenship. Of the break 
up of this government and the confusion that 
ensued, until a Teutonic race established itself as 
supreme, we are in almost total ignorance. The 
Roman occupation practically came to an end in 
410, and with it Britannia ceased to exist, except 
as a mythological personification in classical attire, 
for use as an emblem of national greatness. 

Britannia Metal, an alloy consisting chiefly 
of tin and antimony, very malleable, and easily 
cast, largely used for manufacture of spoons, 
teapots, etc. 

British Association for the Advance¬ 
ment of Science, a society founded mainly by 
Sir David Brewster, in 1831. As its name implies, 
its object is to assist the progress of discovery, to 
make known the latest results of scientific investi¬ 
gation and research, by bringing together eminent 
men belonging to all the various branches of 
science. Meetings are held annually, a different 
town being chosen each year; all the principal 
towns in England, as well as Montreal, in Canada, 
have at various times been the meeting-places. 
Lectures, excursions, soirees, conversaziones, form 
a contrast to the more serious portion of the 
business. The society is divided into eight sec¬ 
tions: (1) Mathematical and Physical Sciences; 
(2) Chemical Science; (3) Geology; (4) Bio¬ 

logical Sciences; (5) Geography and Ethnology; 
(6) Economic and Statistical Sciences; (7) Me¬ 
chanical Science; (8) Anthropology. Among the 
former presidents of the Association may be men¬ 
tioned Professor Huxley, Professor Tyndall, Sir 
Frederick Abel, etc. etc. 

British Columbia, together with Vancouver 
Island (q.v.), forms a province of the dominion of 
Canada, British America. It extends northwards 
from the 49th parallel of latitude, which marks the 
boundary of the United States, and lies between the 
Pacific Ocean on the W., the Rocky Mountains on 
the E., and Alaska to the N., having a total area, 
including Vancouver and Queen Charlotte Islands, 
of 341,000 square miles. Until the colonisation 
of Vancouver Island in 1849 it possessed no his¬ 
tory. The settlers soon afterwards spread to the 
mainland, and until 1871, when it was incorporated 
with Canada, the territory was a Crown colony. 
The name of British Columbia was given in 1856. 
The climate is excellent, and milder than the 
Atlantic coast on the same parallels. The harbours 
are numerous and convenient, and the soil in 
many parts is exceedingly fertile, and abounds in 
mineral wealth, gold being largely found over nearly 
the whole area. Coal, silver, iron, and copper are 
extensively worked in many districts. Valuable 
timber grows both on the islands and the coast. 
The Canadian Pacific Railway, with its terminus at 
Vancouver, on Burrard Inlet, has recently done 
much to open up these resources. From the Rocky 
Mountains flow numbers of impetuous rivers, of 
which the Fraser, with its affluent the Thompson, is 
the largest, being navigable for 90 miles. The Pease 
river and the Skrena are farther north, and the 


southern portion is drained by the Columbia. 
There are several narrow mountain lakes. Victoria, 
the capital, with its suburb Esquimault, is on Van¬ 
couver Island, as is also Nanaimo, the seat of the 
coal trade. New Westminster, another thriving 
town, stands at the mouth of the Fraser river, in 
the Gulf of Georgia. The fisheries are the richest 
in the world, and the export of tinned salmon 
exceeds £300,000 per annum. The province is 
administered by a governor, an executive council, 
and a legislative assembly, and sends three senators 
and six members to the Dominion parliament. 

British Museum. The germ of the present 
Museum was the collection of MSS. formed by Sir 
R. Cotton, and left by his grandson to the nation 
in 1700. In 1753 the rich collection of MSS. and 
curiosities belonging to Sir Hans Sloane, and the 
MSS. collected by Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, 
were left to the nation on condition of payments 
very much below their real value. An Act was 
accordingly passed to purchase these and to provide 
a general repository for them and the Cottonian 
library, the money being raised by a lottery. The 
trustees appointed for (he purpose acquired the 
ducal residence of Montagu House in Bloomsbury, 
which was then for sale, and the collections, 
thenceforward entitled the British Museum, were 
opened to the public early in 1759. The acquisition 
in 1816 of the Elgin Marbles, and in 1823 of the 
Royal library, rendered an increase of space im¬ 
perative ; and in the years 1823-45, Montagu House 
was gradually pulled down and replaced by the 
main portion of the present buildings, designed by 
Sir R. Smirke, and arranged in a hollow quad¬ 
rangle. The side facing Great Russell Street was 
adorned with a columnar facade, the pediment 
being occupied with sculpture by Westacott. To 
meet the great increase in the number of books, the 
present reading room was erected in the centre of 
the Quadrangle, after the plan of Sir A. Panizzi. In 
1880 the enormous increase of the natural history 
and archaeological collections led to the removal 
of the former to the Natural History Museum in 
Cromwell Road, South Kensington. Even then 
some of the departments suffered from want of 
room, but by the aid of a bequest from Mr. William 
White, which came into the hands of the trustees 
in 1879, a new gallery was built to hold the 
Mausoleum Marbles, and a new wing fronting 
Montagu Street, called the White Wing, giving 
space for a newspaper reading room, for the depart¬ 
ment of prints and drawings, and other purposes. 
A new storey is now (July, 1891) being constructed 
over one of the rooms devoted to Greek antiquities, 
which will serve as an extension of the department 
of coins and medals. 

An account of the Museum by departments 
follows. 

The Department of MSS. had its origin in the 
Harleian, Cottonian, and Sloane collections, to which 
have been added, among others: the Old Royal 
MSS. (1757); the King’s MSS., collected by George 
III.; the Birch MSS. (by the Rev. Thomas Birch, 
D.D.); the Lansdowne MSS. (of the Marquess of 
Lansdowne); the Arundel MSS. (of the Earl of 


i 









British Museum. 


( 203 ) 


British Museum. 


Arundel) ; the Burney MSS. (of the Rev. Charles 
Burney, D.D.) ; the Hargrave MSS. (of Francis 
Hargrave, Q.C.) ; the Egerton MSS. (of the Earl of 
Bridgewater); the Stowe MSS. (of the Marquess of 
Buckingham) ; and the “Additional ” MSS., a large 
collection made up of miscellaneous purchases, 
donations, and bequests. The department contains 
upwards of 55,000 volumes and about the same 
number of rolls and charters, besides 10,000 seals 
and casts of seals ; and one of its chief treasures is 
the unique MS. of the lost Treatise on the Consti¬ 
tution of Athens, ascribed to Aristotle, which was 
discovered on a papyrus brought from Egypt 
in 1889. 

The Department of Printed Books had its nucleus 
in the collections brought together in 1753, to which 
have been successively added: the Old Royal 
Collection, formed by English sovereigns from the 
time of Henry VII., and including the libraries of 
Cranmer and Isaac Casaubon ; the Civil war and 
Commonwealth Tracts, over 30,000 in number, 
collected by the Royalist bookseller Thomason, and 
after many strange vicissitudes presented by George 
III. in 1762 ; the collection of plays bequeathed by 
David Garrick in 1779 ; the choice collection of the 
Rev. C. M. Cracherode, bequeathed in 1799; that 
of Sir Joseph Banks, mostly works of natural 
history, acquired in 1820; the large library formed 
by George III. and presented by George IV. in 
1823, now known as the King’s Library ; and the 
very valuable library of the Right Hon. Thomas 
Grenville, received in 1847. Besides these additions, 
the operation of the Copyright Act, passed in 1814, 
which gives the Museum the right to a copy of 
every book published and offered for sale in the 
United Kingdom, adds largely to the library; 
many books are received by copyright from the 
Colonies, and by exchanges with foreign nations, 
and by gifts from all parts of the world, and con¬ 
siderable sums (at present about £10,000 a year) 
are devoted to purchases. 

The Library is computed to contain about 
1,600,000 volumes ; the additions during 1890-91 
comprised 32,000 distinct works (3,000 presented, 
12,000 received by copyright, 17,000 purchased), 
besides 2,400 complete sets of newspapers and 
4,000 books or pieces of music. This rate of pro¬ 
gress will, in a few years, place the Museum first in 
point of size among the libraries of the world, and 
ahead of its only rival, the Bibliotheque Nationale 
at Paris. A catalogue by authors’ names has been 
made of the whole library, pamphlets included. In 
about five years the printing of this from the MS. 
volumes will be complete, comprising about 600 
folio volumes. 

The Antiquities of the Museum were formed into 
a separate department in 1807, and in 1861 into 
the three departments of Greek and Roman Anti¬ 
quities, Coins and Medals, and Oriental Antiquities 
with British and Medieval Antiquities and Ethno¬ 
graphy. In 1866 the latter became a distinct 
department. The chief components of the anti¬ 
quities collections have been : the collection made 
by Sir William Hamilton while ambassador at 
Naples, purchased in 1772; the sculptures collected 
by Mr. Townley, including the celebrated Townley 


Venus, purchased in 1805 and 1814 ; the sculptures 
from the Parthenon at Athens, collected by the 
Earl of Elgin and bought of him in 1816 for £35,000; 
the Phigaleian marbles purchased in 1815-16; the 
marbles, coins, and bronzes bequeathed by Mr. 
Payne-Knight in 1826, and then valued at £60,000; 
the marbles from Lycia, found by Sir Charles 
Fellows in 1845 ; the remains of the Mausoleum in 
1845 ; and those of the Temple of Diana at Ephesus, 
excavated by Mr. J. T. Wood. Most of these 
collections contained coins, which have been added 
to from the Bank of England and India Office 
collections, and other sources. 

Egyptian antiquities were almost unrepresented 
in the Museum till 1801, when a quantity collected 
by the French in Egypt were handed over by them 
after the capitulation of Alexandria. Among these 
was the celebrated Rosetta Stone, bearing a Greek 
inscription, with translations in hieroglyphics and 
in the popular (demotic) Egyptian character, thus 
forming a key to the. deciphering of those 
characters. 

The Babylonian and Assyrian collections have 
been brought together in modern times by the 
exertions of Sir H. Layard, Sir H. Rawlinson, and 
others. 

The Semitic antiquities are as yet few. The 
department of British and Mediaeval Antiquities has 
been formed of : the Slade bequest, chiefly of glass ; 
the Henderson bequest of pottery and oriental 
weapons; the Burges and Meyrick collections of 
armour ; a large and curious collection of watches, 
clocks, and keys, bequeathed by Mr. Octavius 
Morgan; the Franks collection of pottery and 
porcelain; the Christy collection (formerly ex¬ 
hibited in Great George Street, Westminster) of 
prehistoric archaeology; and Canon Greenwell’s 
collection of antiquities from British barrows. 

The Ethnographical collection is based on Captain 
Cook’s collection, the Christy collection, and the 
objects found by Lord Lonsdale on his Arctic 
expedition. 

The Department of Prints and Drawings is one of 
the richest collections in Europe ; its resources are 
but faintly shown in the historical exhibition of 
sketches and drawings of all schools now on view 
(1891). 

The Natural History collections took their rise 
from the Sloane collection, and steadily increased 
till, in 1860, it was resolved to separate them from 
the rest. A new Museum was erected at a cost of 
£325,000, in Cromwell Road, South Kensington, on 
the site of the Exhibition of 1862, and the removal 
took place during 1881-86, the first gallery being 
opened April, 1881. Here are to be found all 
“products of natural forces,” while objects “that 
show the effect of man’s handiwork” are kept at 
Bloomsburj 7 . Sciences such as chemistry, which 
cannot be studied to advantage without experi¬ 
ment, find no place in the Museum. Its collections 
fall under the three heads of Mineralogy, Botany 
and Zoology, and Geology (i.e. palaeontology). In 
the fine Entrance Hall of the Museum is an Intro¬ 
ductory Collection, showing by types the scientific 
classification of natural objects, and serving as a 
key to the whole. 







Brittany. 


( 204 ; 


Brittany. 


Brittany, the old French province forming the 
extreme N.W. corner of France, now comprised in 
the five departments of file et Vilaine, Cotes du 
Nord, Finistere, Morbihan, and Loire-Inferieure. 
Clay-slate, schist, and granite are the prevailing 
rocks. Lead and silver mines have been worked 
near Rennes, at Huelgoat, and elsewhere, and a 
curious mineral, staurolite, occurs at Pleyben. A 
chain of hills, the Montagues Menez, an offshoot of 
the central watershed of France, runs through the 
country from E. to W., forming eventually two 
branches, the Montagnes d'Arree (N.) and Mon- 
tagnes Noires (S.), whose highest points are some¬ 
what over 1,200 ft. Spurs of these ranges run down 
to the coast, which is very rocky, and on the W. has 
fine cliff scenery resembling that of the Channel 
Islands. It is much indented by inlets, on which 
nearly all the ports are situate. Brest harbour and 
the Morbihan are the largest. The latter, a re¬ 
markable enclosed archipelago in the extreme S. W., 
contains a multitude of islands (365 according to 
local report), a few of which are inhabited, and some 
fifty cultivated. Some of the tidal currents between 
them run from nine to thirteen knots per hour. 
The principal rivers (apart from estuaries) are the 
Ille, Vilaine, and Blavet, which are canalised and 
navigable. The scenery of the Ranee is well 
known. Nantes and its port, St. Na zaire, are just 
within the province. Rennes, Brest, and Lorient 
are large modern towns : St. Malo, an important 
seaport; Vannes, Quimper, Morlaix, Hennebont, 
Treguier, of special interest to the antiquary. Dinan 
and St. Servan, near St. Malo, are resorts of 
English residents, while there are several well- 
known watering-places near the latter town. 
Large tracts/ especially in the interior, are barren 
heath and upland, and there are several large forests, 
among them those of Quenecan and Loudeac. 
Wolves still exist, and are regularly hunted. But 
there is much very fertile land; buckwheat and 
millet are among the cereals most frequently 
grown ; flax, too, is grown in some quantities, and 
the dairy produce is very important. Brittany 
butter is largely exported to Paris and England. 
Potatoes and other early vegetables are largely 
grown for export—the latter near Roscoff, on the 
N. coast, in the last century the centre of the 
smuggling trade with England. Direct trade with 
England is mainly conducted through St. Malo, 
which is also largely engaged in the Newfoundland 
fisheries. On the W. coast the sardine fishery is 
important, while lobsters and cray-fish are caught 
and stored in salt-water tanks for export, several 
thousand at a time being sometimes in store at 
Roscoff, as also at Concarneau. At the latter place 
is a well-known establishment for fish culture. The 
oyster beds of Auray and elsewhere are im¬ 
portant. There are many good trout streams, but 
little is done to preserve the fishing. 

Brittany contains the most numerous and striking 
examples of Megalithic Monuments (q.v.), 
especially near Locmariaquer and Carnac. It 
exhibits even now striking survivals of an earlier 
world. Large districts are purely Keltic in blood, 
as they were till quite lately in speech. The Breton 
or Brezonec, a Keltic tongue akin to Gaelic and 


Welsh, probably revived by immigration from 
Cornwall in the 3rd century a.d. (see below ), has at 
least four dialects, and a large ballad literature, 
partly collected by M. de Villemarque ( Barsaz 
Breiz, translated into English by Tom Taylor), but 
unfortunately somewhat adulterated in the collect¬ 
ing. The Revue Celtique, published at Paris, gives 
further information. Few parts of Europe have 
so much legend and folk-lore. The Arthurian 
legend is localised in Brittany as in Cornwall : 
fairies, witches, demons, play a large part in the 
popular -creed; no part of France has been more 
Catholic, nor taken into the Catholic faith more of 
pagan tradition. Local saints and holy wells 
abound ; the fisherman still believes that on All 
Souls’ Day the spirits of the dead moan in the Baie 
des Trepasses (near the Point du Raz), and are 
ferried over to the lie de Sein; idolatry was 
nominally abolished in Ushant only in the 17th 
century, and a little earlier a Gallo-Roman female 
statue, now at Quinipily, near Baud, was still 
worshipped with strange and obscure rites by the 
peasantry. Miracle plays survived into this century ; 
while the many “ calvaries ”—large solid stone 
erections, in the open air. supporting carved groups 
of stone representing the Crucifixion, and the many 
admirable cathedrals, as well as the superb churches 
of Creizker (at St. Pol de Leon) and the Folgoet 
near Landerneau, testify to the piety of the past, as 
the thronged “ pardons ” or pilgrimages do to that 
of the present. The most famous resort of pilgrims 
is the church of St. Anne d'Auray, which is most 
visited at the end of July, by peasants of all parts, 
often in costume. But every village almost has its 
“ par Jon." The great castles of Josselin (admirably 
restored). Tonquedec, Sucinio, Jugon, and Elven, and 
the abbey of St. Gildas de Rhuys, the retreat of 
Abelard, are also of much interest. 

Gloomy, silent, passionate, and profoundly re¬ 
ligious, the Breton has hitherto stood apart from 
the modern world. No part of France has so well 
preserved its modern costume, male as well as 
female. The long matted hair, the pleated linen 
knee-breeches or “ bragou bras,” the broad felt hats 
and large plated buttons of the men, are often seen ; 
while the fanciful caps of the women, differing in 
every district, and the gay festal costumes, are even 
more familiar from modern imitations. These caps 
conceal all the hair—whence much of the false hair 
worn has come from Brittany. Few parts of France 
have had stranger customs (though some of the 
stories about them must be received with caution). 
Marriages were often negotiated by the bazvalan, or 
itinerant tailor ; the women, though as a rule kept 
strictly in subjection, in some districts enjoyed the 
privileges of leap year in perpetuity; while near 
Morlaix there is a tradition of an annual marriage fair, 
where the marriageable maidens sat on the parapet 
of a bridge, and suitors passed them in review. The 
illiterate adults some years ago were over 50 per 
cent, of the population in some districts; while the 
box bedsteads, despite their elaborately-carved old 
oak doors, the mud floors, and black bread of the 
cottage interiors, do not indicate a high civilisation. 
But the country is now intersected by railways, 
which must soon destroy its old-world character. 




Brittle-Stars. 


( 205 ) 


Broad Arrow. 


History. In Cassar's time the most important 
tribe was the Yeneti (near Yannes), a very remark¬ 
able maritime people, who traded by sea with 
Britain. Their vessels had leather sails and chain 
cables. They revolted after submission to Caesar, 
and were all but annihilated b.c. 50. Local names 
and Roman remains show that the country was 
partly Romanised. In the 3rd century A.D. 
numerous Britons migrated from Cornwall to avoid 
the Saxon pirates, and in 390 A.D. the native 
governor appointed by the Romans declared him¬ 
self independent. Soon the country became a 
group of principalities, more or less under the 
suzerainty of the Lord of Rennes. Conquered in 
799 by Charles the Great, its subjection to his suc¬ 
cessors was merely nominal. Their rights (such as 
they were) were ceded by Charles the Simple to the 
Dukes of Normandy. For the last half of the 12th 
century the suzerainty was contended for by the 
kings of England and France. About 1213 it 
definitely passed to the latter, despite the murder 
of Arthur, the young duke, by his uncle, John king of 
England. The long war of succession between Jean 
de Montfort and Charles of Blois (whose general, 
Du Guesclin, is the great hero of Brittany), 1341- 
1364, was marked by the heroic defence of Henne- 
boht by Jeanne de Flanders, wife of De Montfort, 
till relieved by English troops under Sir Walter 
Manny. Charles of Blois fell at Auray in 1364, and 
the dukedom passed to the De Montforts. The 
marriage of the Duchess Anne with Louis XII. led 
to its union with the French crown. The privateers 
of St. Malo played an important part in the various 
wars with England. The atrocities of the Revolu¬ 
tion [Noyades] in no wise shook the Breton 
devotion to Catholicism. It was at Quiberon, in 
the S.W., that a body of Royalist exiles, with 
English aid, made a landing in 1795, but they 
were defeated, and the leaders shot near Auray. 
The “ Breton mobiles ” fought bravely in the 
Franco-German war of 1870, and at least half the 
families of Nantes, it is said, lost some members, 
Recent elections, however, indicate that the country 
is becoming Republican, and it must, no doubt, 
soon lose much of its distinctive character. 

Brittle - stars, the popular name for the 
“ Ophiuroidea,” a class of the Echinodermata. 
This name has been applied to them owing to their 
habit of breaking off their arms when alarmed. 
They resemble the Starfish (class Asteroided), in 
consisting of a central body, from which radiates a 
number of arms; but they differ from these (cf. 
Asterias) in that the arms are sharply marked off 
from the body, whereas in the Starfish the central 
disc appears to be formed merely by the fusion of 
the bases of the arms. The number of these is more 
constantly five than in the Asteroidea. The struc¬ 
ture of the arms is also very different in the two 
groups; thus in the Brittle-Stars they are more 
slender, and lack the furrow along the under-side ; 
further, they do not contain any prolongation of the 
stomach, but are mainly occupied by a row of 
ossicles or joints. Pairs of small tube feet occur 
along the under-sides, but locomotion is mainly 
effected by the use of the arms as limbs. Other 


differences from the true starfish are the absence of 
an anus, and the fact that the “ madreporite ” (the 
perforated plate which filters the water that enters 
the water-vascular system) is on the under-side; 
there may, however, be several of these plates. 
Further, around the mouth there is a complex 
arrangement of ossicles which acts as a masticatory 
apparatus. The reproductive organs are a series of 
glands discharging their products into chambers 
around the mouth, known as “ genital bursas ” ; 
these also serve for respiration. In most cases the 
larva is a Pluteus (q.v.), a free-swimming form, 
with a skeleton like an easel. In some cases, how¬ 
ever, there is no such metamorphosis, and the young 
at birth resemble the parents, which are, therefore, 
viviparous. They have long been known to reproduce 
by “ fission,” or the growth of the whole animal from 
parts. The class “ Ophiuroidea ” is divided into 
three orders : the Opliiurida , including the common 
English forms; the Euryalida, a series with simple 
or branched, and very flexuous arms; and the 
Protopldura, an extinct group confined to the 
Palaeozoic era. 

Britton, John, was born in a humble position 
near Chippenham, Gloucestershire, in 1771, and 
after being educated at the village school, was 
apprenticed to a tavern-keeper in London. His 
health broke down, and he took to literature for a 
livelihood, having a strong bent towards archaeology 
and topography. In 1801 he produced in conjunc¬ 
tion with Brayley, The Beauties of Wiltshire , and 
dealing with other counties in succession he com¬ 
pleted the work known as The Beauties of Buy land 
and Wales. His Architectural Antiquities of Great 
Britain appeared in 1805; his Cathedral Antiquities 
of England in 1825; and his Antiquities of Nor¬ 
mandy in 1827. Brayley was once more his partner 
in the History of the Houses of Parliament , com¬ 
pleted in 1830. Many other interesting pieces of 
descriptive writing came from his pen, and he did 
much to arouse a popular taste for antiquarian 
subjects. He died in 1857. 

Brixham, a port and market-town at the S. 
extremity of Tor Bay, Devonshire, 23 miles from 
Exeter. Its inhabitants are principally engaged in 
fishing, the soles and turbots caught off that coast 
being highly esteemed. Marble and ironstone are 
also exported. William III. landed here in 1688, 
and a monument commemorates the event. The 
parish church, dedicated to the Virgin, is a good 
example of the Perpendicular style. 

Brixton, a suburb in the S. of London, on the 
Surrey side of the Thames, and in the parish 
of Lambeth. Within the last half-century the 
district has been thickly built over, and is now 
the residence of many thousands of persons em¬ 
ployed in the City or West End—rent being lower 
there than in most of the outlying quarters of 
London. 

Broach. [Baroach.] 

Broad Arrow, R mark which is placed on 
Government stores, was originally the crest of 
Henry, Viscount Sydney and Earl of Romney, who 
was Master-General of the Ordnance from 1693 to 









Broadbill. 


( 206 ) 


Brockhaus. 


1702. The Broad Arrow is also placed upon build¬ 
ings, stones, etc., to which special reference is 
made on the maps of the Ordnance Survey of Great 
Britain. The height above the sea of these marks 
is usually given on the maps. 

Broadbill. [Shoveller.] 

Broad-bottom Administration, a name 
applied to Pelham’s ministry formed in 1744, 
because nine dukes were included among its mem¬ 
bers, who were supposed to represent all the power¬ 
ful parties in the State. 

Broads, The. a local name given in Norfolk to 
the extensive shallow lagoons formed by the Bure, 
the Ant, the Yare, and other rivers in their sluggish 
course through a level cotintrv to the sea. In 
other counties they are called “ meres.” Surrounded 
by trees, overgrown with reeds and water-plants, 
and linked together by winding channels, they 
possess a quiet picturesque charm that has grown 
to be much appreciated of late years. Moreover, 
they abound with fish and aquatic birds. Naviga¬ 
tion is carried on by means of “ wherries,” or broad- 
bottomed sailing boats with accommodation for the 
living and sleeping of several occupants. The chief 
of these lakes are Wroxham Broad, Bredon Broad, 
S. of Yarmouth, Hickling Broad (400 acres) near 
North Walsham, and Rockland Broad, 7 miles from 
Norwich. Hitherto there has been a free use of 
rights of way over them, but riparian proprietors 
are now beginning to assert their claims. 

Broca, Paul, was born in the department of 
Gironde, France, in 1824, and educated as a surgeon 
at Paris, where he became professor of pathology. 
He was an eminent practitioner, and wrote many 
works on professional subjects. His fame rests 
principally on his anthropological investigations. 
He was the founder of the Anthropological Society 
and Review, and the chief of French evolutionists. 
He died in 1880. 

Brocade, a kind of silken stuff, with embossed 
gold or silken flowers or other ornaments upon it. 
The manufacture of brocades was established at 
Lyons in 1757. The term is now confined to silks 
figured in the loom, as opposed to those embroidered 
after the weaving. 

Broch., Burgh, Brugh (from brough, the Scots 
form of A.S. burh, burg = a fort, a fortified enclo¬ 
sure), local names for the Scottish round towers, 
which figure in old antiquarian works as “Piets’ 
towers ” or “ Pictish towers,” and which are known 
to the Gaelic-speaking natives as “ duns.” They are 
all constructed on one plan. The circular base is 
about 60 ft. in diameter ; the walls are of Cyclopean 
masonry some loft, thick, sloping inwards as they 
rise, and enclosing a central area, in some cases 
containing a well, and always open to the sky. 
There is a single doorway, sometimes with a guard- 
chamber at one side or on both sides in the thick¬ 
ness of the wall, in which are also contained the 
chambers, stairs, and galleries, and all the openings, 
with the exception of the doorway, look into the 
central space. Dr. Joseph Anderson, who dealt 


with the subject in his Rhind lectures (Scotland in 
Pagan Times—The Iron Age), estimates that there 
are about 300 of these erections still standing in the 
five northern counties of Scotland and in the 
northern and western islands; beyond this area 
very few are to be found. The typical broch is 
that of Mousa, on a small island to the E. of 
Shetland, to which Erling, about 1150, carried off 
Margaret, mother of Harold, the then Earl of 
Orkney, who laid siege to the place, but being 
unable to take it, consented to the marriage. This, 
though the upper part is gone, is in better preser¬ 
vation than any other broch ; the remaining 
portion is about 40 ft. high, and has.six galleries in 
the thickness of the walls. The brochs differ greatly 
from the round towers of Brechin and Abernethy, 
and from the Irish round towers, all which have 
much greater elevation in proportion to their base. 
Sir John Lubbock compared the Scottish brochs to 
the nuraghe (q.v.) of Sardinia. There is, however, 
little in common between them except their shape; 
in internal plan they are entirely different. These 
buildings are peculiar to Scotland, and though they 
are generally considered to be of Celtic origin and 
post-Roman in date, not one has been found else¬ 
where, nor is any edifice with similar characteris¬ 
tics known outside the region inhabited by Celtic 
races. No record exists of their erection, but they 
were probably intended as strongholds to which the 
peaceful agricultural population might retire, with 
their cattle, when the Northmen descended to 
plunder and slay. Within recent years these build¬ 
ings have been examined, and, from the excavations 
made, objects have been obtained which show that- 
the people who built and used the brochs were 
agriculturists and herdsmen acquainted with the 
use of iron, possessing brass and silver, of which 
they shaped ornaments which prove that they had 
made some progress in the arts. 

Brocken, or Blocksberg, The (anc. Mans 
Bructerus or Melxbocus), the highest point in the 
Harz Mountains, 20 miles W.S.W. of Halberstadt in 
Prussian Saxony. It has an elevation of 3,740 feet, 
and its sides are cultivated almost to the summit. 
The valleys send up occasionally columns of vapour, 
leaving the space at the top of the mountain clear, 
and at sunset or sunrise the shadows of persons on 
this plateau, being cast upon the bank of cloud, 
produce the phenomenon known as “ The Spectre 
of the Brocken.” 

Brockhaus, Friedrich Arnold, was born at 
Dortmund, N. Germany, in 1772, and well educated, 
especially in foreign languages. He first started a 
store for the sale of English goods at Dortmund, 
but in 1805 began business as a publisher in Holland. 
Political difficulties drove him back into Germany, 
and. settling at Altenburg, he took up the Conversa¬ 
tions-Lexicon, as yet incomplete, and finished the 
first edition in 1811. This great encyclopaedia has 
since been through twelve editions. In 1817 he 
moved to Leipsic and founded a large establishment 
from which were issued many important historical 
and bibliographical works, as well as various 
periodicals. He died in 1823, but the business was 
carried on by his sons. 











Brodie. 


( 207 ) 


Broker. 


Brodie, Sir Benjamin Collins, Bart., was 
born in 1783 at Winterslow, Wilts, where his father, 
the rector of the parish, a man of culture and 
character, directed his education. In 1801 he was 
sent to London, and began the study of anatomy 
under Abernethy. Though not at first fond of his 
profession, he worked at it with patient assiduity, 
and in 1808 became assistant-surgeon to St. George’s 
Hospital, with which institution he was connected 
for more than thirty years. His fame as an eloquent 
teacher soon spread, and in 1810 he became a 
Fellow of the Royal Society, and next year received 
the Copley medal for his experimental investiga¬ 
tions as to the connection between the nervous 
system and the diffusion of animal heat. His other 
contributions to physiology dealt with the influence 
of the nerves on the heart and the secretions. He 
now acquired an enormous practice as a consulting 
surgeon and operator, and may be said to have 
originated the modern system of conservative 
surgery, writing various treatises on pathological 
subjects. In 1834, after acting as medical adviser 
to three sovereigns, he was created a baronet, and 
in 1858 he was President of the Royal Society. He 
was also first President of the newly-instituted 
Medical Council. Retiring in his later years from 
active work, he published anonymously an instal¬ 
ment of an interesting discussion entitled Psycho¬ 
logical Enquiries. He died in 1862. His son was 
an eminent chemist and professor of that science 
at Oxford. He died in 1880. 

Brody, a town in the circle Zloczow, and 
province of Galicia, Austria. It was founded in 
1679 under the name of Lubicz, and its proximity 
to the frontier gave it a large share of the trade 
with Russia and Turkey, so that a century later it 
was made a free commercial city. Jews form the 
bulk of the population, and it is known as the 
“ German Jerusalem.” The castle belongs to the 
famous Count Potocki. 

Broglie, Achille Leoxce Victor Charles, 
Due de, a peer of France, was born at Paris in 
1785. The family, of Piedmontese origin, had for 
two centuries served France with distinction in the 
wars of Louis XIV., the Seven Years’ war, and the 
struggle against the Revolution. His father, how¬ 
ever, had espoused republican principles, and sat in 
the constituent assembly, though his change of 
principles did not preserve him from death in the 
Reign of Terror. Young De Broglie was not 
deterred by his father’s fate from his faith in 
liberalism. Called to the chamber of peers in 1815, 
he voted alone against the murder of Ney, and 
joined the party of which Guizot and Royer-Collard 
were the leaders, allying himself also with the 
English opponents of the slave trade. He married 
a daughter of Madame de Stael. After 1830, as 
minister of foreign affairs, and chief of the cabinet, 
he negotiated the Quadruple Alliance, aided in the 
settlement of Belgium and Greece, and strove to 
preserve the peace of Europe. In 1836 he retired 
permanently from official life, but gave his nominal 
adhesion to* the Republic in 1848. He was a bitter, 
though impotent, foe to the Second Empire. His 
later years were devoted to literature and science, 


and lie was admitted to the Academy, though his 
published works are not of very high merit. He 
died just before the outbreak of the war in 1870. 
His son, Albert de Broglie, has achieved greater 
fame as a writer, and has taken an active part in 
politics, having been head of MacMahon’s cabinet 
in 1871. 

Brogue, a light, coarse kind of shoe formerly 
worn by the Irish and the Highland Scots. The 
term is now more generally used of the peculiar 
accent of the Irish. 

Broiling, the cooking of meat over hot coals or 
by placing it on a gridiron above the fire ; the meat 
thus cooked is very nutritious. 

Broke, Sir Philip Dowes Vere, Bart., born 
in 1776, entered the navy in 1793, and was present 
in 1795 at Hotham’s two actions in the Mediter¬ 
ranean, and in 1797 at the battle off Cape St. 
Vincent. He became a commander in 1799 and a 
captain in 1801. In 1806 he commissioned the 
Shannon , 38, and in her, on June 1st, 1813, met, 
fought, and in a few minutes captured the United 
States frigate Chesapeake, 44, off Boston Lighthouse, 
after one of the most brilliant actions on record. 
Captain Broke, who was severely wounded, was 
made a baronet in 1813 and a K.C.B. in 1815. He 
became a Rear-Admiral in 1830, and died in London 
on January 3rd, 1841. No other single-ship action 
in history ever made so much stir in the world as 
that between the Shannon and Chesapeake. It was 
entered into by both combatants under exception¬ 
ally chivalrous conditions, and it was most 
furiously fought; and it resulted in the triumph of 
the weaker, but more disciplined ship, over the 
stronger, but less practised one. 

Broken Knees. The “ knee ” of a horse, from 
its situation, is peculiarly liable to injury in the 
case of a fall. However slight the injury may 
appear, it demands careful treatment, as any 
lasting evidence of mischief in this part detracts 
from the value of the animal. If the joint be 
opened, lameness is almost sure to ensue, and if a 
fracture has occurred, the animal had better be 
destroyed. 

Broken Wind, a disease of the horse in which 
laboured breathing is the prominent symptom, the 
difficulty being rather with expiration than with 
inspiration. It proves usually an exceedingly 
intractable form of disease. 

Broker, in commerce, one who acts as an in¬ 
termediary between buyer and seller, bringing them 
together, and charging them commission on the 
value of the goods sold for his trouble. Thus a 
stockbroker, while not holding stocks or shares for 
sale himself, knows where to look for such descrip¬ 
tions as his clients may wish to buy. In commerce, 
brokers usually confine themselves to one special 
department, such as cotton or iron, and here 
acquire special knowledge of service to their clients. 
[Stockbroker, Shipbroker, Billbroker.] 
Furniture brokers and pawnbrokers have obscured 
the original significance of the name bv taking up 
other branches of business. In the City of London 






Bromberg. 


( 208 ) 


Bronchi. 


brokers must be formally admitted by the Corpora¬ 
tion, and pay a fee of £5 on admission and £5 
per annum. A list of such “ sworn broker's ” is 
published annually. Brokers who convert to their 
own use property entrusted to them by clients are 
liable by statute to penal servitude. 

Bromberg, the capital of a government of the 
same name in the province of Posen, Germany. 
Standing on the river Brake, it was in existence in 
the middle of the 13th century, and appears to 
have suffered at times from war, owing to its posi¬ 
tion near the frontier, but it also throve com¬ 
mercially through the same cause. It was taken 
by Prussia in 1772, and was restored to that country 
in 1815, having been assigned by the Treaty of 
Tilsit to the Duchy of Warsaw. The Bromberg 
Canal opens up communication between the Vistula, 
the Oder, and the Elbe, and railways connect the 
place with Berlin, Dantzig, and Warsaw. Woollen 
and leather goods, Prussian blue, tobacco, sugar, 
chicory, beer, and brandy, are produced, and there 
is a large transit trade. 

Brome, Alexander, born in 1620, and by pro¬ 
fession an attorney, made some name as a cavalier 
song-writer. After the Restoration his verses, 
epistles, and epigrams were collected and published. 
He also translated Horace, and wrote a comedy 
entitled The Cunning Lovers. He died in 1666. 

Brome, Richard, was originally a servant of 
Ben Jonson, but became his master’s rival, though 
with some interval, as a comic dramatist. His 
Northern Lass drew from Jonson commendatory 
verses, and his fourteen other plays all display 
originality of plot and character. He was highly 
appreciated in Charles I.’s reign. He died in 1652. 

Brome-grass, Brooms, a genus of grasses 
comprising about 140 species, mostly natives of 
temperate regions. Eight are natives of Britain. 
They have generally their spikelets in loose pani¬ 
cles, compressed and furnished with a long awn. 
The annual soft brome (It. mollis ) is common in 
meadow's, and the Australian Prairie-grass (B. 
schrddert) is a quick-growing forage plant. 

Bromide of Potassium, a drug largely used 
in certain forms of nervous disorder. In sleepless¬ 
ness it is sometimes of use, and has been found 
particularly valuable in cases where it is undesirable 
to administer opium; in sickness, particularly sea¬ 
sickness, it is also employed, and it has also been 
given to allay spasm in whooping-cough and asthma. 
The affection in which bromide is of most value is, 
however, epilepsy. In some patients it is absolutely 
curative, while even in the most refractory cases a 
course of bromide usually affords some relief. 
When taken in large doses for a considerable period 
the symptoms of “ bromism ” develop. A pustular 
eruption appears on the face, and the patient 
becomes dull and sleepy, and if the use of the drug 
is still continued, loss of memory and impairment 
of intelligence may result. 

Bromine (Br. 80), a non-metallic liquid 
element discovered by Balard in 1826. Is not 


found free in nature, but occurs as bromide in 
marine plants, sea water, many saline springs, and 
in considerable quantities in the salt beds at 
Stassfurt. It is a dark red liquid boiling at 59° and 
possessing a very offensive smell (/Spwfxos = stench), 
the vapour being extremely irritating to the mucous 
membrane of the nose, mouth and air-passages. In 
its chemical characters it resembles chlorine and 
iodine. It combines with hydrogen forming a 
monobasic acid, Hgdrobromic acid, the silver and 
potassium salts (AgBr., KBr.) of which are largely 
used in photography. It also forms oxyacids, which 
are not, however, of great chemical or industrial 
importance. [Halogens.] 

Bromley, a market-town in Kent, 10 miles S.E. 
of London. The parish is very extensive, including 
Plaistow, Sundridge, Bickley, Widmore, and other 
villages. Standing on high ground .above the 
Ravensbourne river, the place has during the last 
thirty years become a favourite residence, and the 
population grows rapidly. Bishop Warner’s College, 
founded in 1666, provides a home for clergymen’s 
widows, and the bishops of Rochester had a palace 
here, in the gardens of which was St. Blaize’s Well— 
a mineral spring once in high repute. The church 
is Gothic and contains good monuments. The 
locality is served both by the South Eastern and 
London, Chatham and Dover Railways. There are 
several other villages and parishes of the same name 
in various parts of England. 

Brompton. 1 . A western suburb of London 
included within the parish of Kensington, and 
lying N. of Chelsea and S. of the district popularly 
known as Kensington. The name, however, from a 
caprice of fashion is gradually dying out of use, 
South Kensington taking its place. Within recent 
years the semi-rustic houses w r ith gardens, that 
sheltered a large artistic colony, have been swept 
away, to make room for more pretentious mansions. 
The Consumptive Hospital, the Hospital for Women, 
and the Roman Catholic Oratory are the chief 
public buildings in this neighbourhood, but the 
Art Department of the South Kensington Museum 
was formerly regarded as a Brompton institution. 

2. A suburban ecclesiastical district carved out 
of the parishes of Chatham, and Gillingham, Kent, 
and almost wholly within the borough and fortified 
lines of Chatham. It contains the upper barracks 
and naval hospital, with other works and buildings. 

There are three parishes and townships of this 
name in Yorkshire, one in Shropshire, and two in 
Somerset. 

Bronchi. The trachea or windpipe, on its 
termination at the level of the third dorsal vertebra, 
bifurcates, and the two tubes into which it divides 
are called bronchi, right and left respectively. 
Each main bronchus is rather more than an inch in 
length, the right being placed more horizontally, 
and the left being somewhat narrower but a little 
longer than the right. At their termination these 
tubes in their turn subdivide, forming the smaller 
bronchi, until ultimately the smallest subdivisions 
called bronchioles communicate with the groups of 
air cells. [Lung.] The main bronchi are almost 





Bronchitis. 


( 209 ) 


Brondstedt. 


identical in structure with the trachea (q.v.); in 
the smaller divisions the cartilage is irregularly 
disposed, and the unstriped muscle fibres assume 
an increasing importance as a constituent of the 
lining wall of these smaller tubes. In the smallest 
bronchioles no cartilage is found. The mucous 
membrane of the bronchi is lined throughout 
with ciliated columnar epithelium. 

Bronchitis. Inflammation of the mucous 
membrane lining the bronchial tubes. The preva¬ 
lence of bronchitis in this country is testified to by 
the fact that more deaths are returned as being 
due to it than to any other form of disease. It must 
be remembered, however, that in many instances 
when death is attributed to it, the bronchial 
mischief is merely a complication superadded to 
some other disorder. Diseases of the heart and 
kidneys are especially apt to terminate fatally in 
this way, so in children are measles and whooping- 
cough ; again, gouty and tubercular subjects are 
particularly liable to bronchitic attacks. Further, 
when bronchitis becomes chronic, changes of a 
permanent character are set up in the lungs 
[Emphysema], and in patients so affected the 
fatal attack is only the last link in a long chain of 
diseased processes. In fact, uncomplicated 
bronchitis is very rarely fatal, save in children and 
old people. 

The disease often dates from exposure to cold, 
and the inhalation of irritant materials is doubtless 
a predisposing cause, but perhaps the most impor¬ 
tant factor is the existence of a tendency to bron¬ 
chitis. The fact that each attack causes subsequent 
attacks to be of more and more frequent oc¬ 
currence, causes immense importance to attach 
to the treatment of the first manifestations of the 
disease. 

The symptoms are first general and secondly 
local. The general symptoms are those of fever ; 
headache, chilliness, rise of temperature, acce¬ 
lerated pulse, thirst and loss of appetite, furred 
tongue and constipation. The general disturbance 
is more marked in acute than in chronic attacks. 
The local symptoms are cough and difficulty of 
breathing. The cough is at first dry, and then 
attended with mucous, and finally with muco-puru- 
lent expectoration. The secretion which accumu¬ 
lates in the tubes gives rise to the wheezing 
charactei of the breath sounds, and on the applica¬ 
tion of the stethoscope rlionchus and crepitation 
or mucous rales are heard. If the lungs become 
increasingly involved, lividity results from deficient 
aeration of the blood, perspirations break out, 
delirium and coma supervene, and the patient may 
die asphyxiated. Usually, however, after the lapse 
of a day or two, the breathing becomes more easy, 
the sputum gradually diminishes in amount, and the 
disease is at an end. 

The most dangerous variety of acute bronchitis 
is that in which the smallest tubes are chiefly 
involved. This capillary bronchitis, as it is called, 
is most apt to affect children, and is often accom¬ 
panied by little or no expectoration. 

The treatment of bronchitis comprises the 
methods of dealing with an acute attack, and the 

38 


hygienic rules to be observed by sufferers from the 
chronic form of the disease. 

The first thing to which to direct attention in 
acute bronchitis is the kind of air which is inhaled 
by the patient. Confinement to one room should 
be strictly enforced, and the air of that room should 
be maintained, as far as possible, at a uniform 
temperature of 65° F. This necessitates, of course, 
either the careful management of the fire, or, what 
is far better, the employment of some form of slow 
combustion stove. Ventilation must be so regulated 
as to ensure a constant renewal of air without 
draughts ; and, besides this, the atmosphere should 
be rendered sufficiently moist by the diffusion of 
steam throughout the room from a bronchitis kettle. 
Expectorant remedies, such as ipecacuanha and 
squills, are generally found useful, combined with 
either benzoin, tolu, senega, and a stimulant like 
the carbonate of ammonia, or some sedative, 
according to the condition of the patient. Counter 
irritation is often employed, and medicated inhala¬ 
tions frequently prove of service. Constipation is 
usually present, and a purge is generally beneficial 
at the onset of the disease. In severe attacks 
alcohol is invaluable and so is opium, but the latter 
particularly requires to be administered with much 
care, and should on no account be given save under 
the doctor’s directions. 

Chronic bronchitis is a disease in which much 
can be done if the patient’s temperament and cir¬ 
cumstances permit it. In cases where a winter 
cough has become a matter of course, it should be 
made an invariable rule to keep inside the house 
during the cold season of the year. This, or 
residence during the winter in some warmer climate 
than that of England, is a sine qua non in the 
treatment of chronic bronchitis. If a stop-at-liome 
policy is adopted, everything depends upon the 
patient’s self-control; the temptation to venture out 
in the evening, just for once, if yielded to, often 
undoes all the benefit derived from the self-denial 
of months. Throughout the winter the bedroom 
temperature should be carefully regulated, and care 
taken that sufficiently warm clothing is worn at all 
times. The carrying out of rules of this kind will 
do more in chronic bronchitis than can be effected 
by all the specifics. Tonic remedies have, however, 
their place in the treatment of the disease, and 
iron, quinine, or cod-liver oil, are capable of pro¬ 
ducing much benefit in appropriate cases. Chloride 
of ammonium, too, is a drug of value in many 
instances. 

Bronchoccele. [Goitre.] 

Brondstedt, Peter Oluf, was born at 
Horsens, Jutland, in 1781, and having been 
educated at the university at Copenhagen, visited 
France and Italy, afterwards going to Greece 
with other archaeologists. After three years of 
active research, the results of which were published, 
he came home to take the professorship of Greek at 
Copenhagen. With a view to completing his great 
work, Travels and Archaeological Researches in 
Greece, he was sent as Danish envoy to the Papal 
Court (1818), and remained abroad until 1832, 
visiting England in 1826. He was now made 





Brongniart 


( 210 ) 


Bronteus 


director of the royal museum of antiquities, 
professor of archaeology, and ultimately rector of 
the university. He died through a fall from his 
horse in 1842. 

Brongniart, Alexandre, the son of an 
eminent French architect, was bom in Paris in 
1770. He began life as a soldier, but having a taste 
for natural history, became professor of natural 
history in the College des Quatre Nations and of 
mineralogy at the School of Mines. He was one of 
the earliest systematisers of geology. In 1800 he 
was appointed director of the porcelain works at 
Sevres, and revived the decayed art of painting 
on glass, publishing in 1845 his Traite des Arts 
Ccramiques. He is known as the author of the 
division of reptiles into Saurians, Batrachians, 
Chelonians, and Ophidians. In 1810 he was elected 
to the Academy, and in later years he made scien¬ 
tific visits to Switzerland, Scandinavia, and Italy. 
He died in 1847. Along with Cuvier he wrote the 
Essaisur la Geographie Mineralogique des Environs 
de Paris. His son Adolphe Theodore (1801-70) 
was also a distinguished naturalist. 

Bronn, Heinrich Georg, born at Ziegel- 
hausen, Germany, in 1800, devoted his life to the 
study of nature, and produced several valuable 
works, the most striking of which are his Universal 
Zoology and Letluea Geognostiea. He was professor 
of physical and industrial sciences at Heidelberg, 
and afterwards zoological lecturer at Freiberg, and 
died in 1802. 

Bronolythe, an explosive invented by M. Bela 
de Broncs, consists mainly of the picrates of lead, 
sodium, and potassium, with the addition of nitro- 
naphthalin and soot. 

Bronte, or Bronti, a market-town in the 
province of Catania, Sicily, at the foot of Mount 
Etna. The territory, with the title of duke, was 
conferred on Lord Nelson by the Neapolitan king in 
1799 in return for his services against the French. 
These descended through Nelson’s niece to Lord 
Bridport, and still are attached to that title. The 
estates are famous for an excellent growth of wine 
and for the manufacture of woollen goods and 
paper. 

Bronte, the name of three gifted ladies who 
were the daughters of the Rev. Patrick Bronte, a 
clergyman of Irish extraction, who held in succes¬ 
sion several Yorkshire livings, settling finally, in 
1820, at Haworth, a bleak moorland parish, where 
his family grew up. 

1. Charlotte, the third child, was bom in 
1816, and having lost her mother at the age of four 
and her elder sister five years later, she had at the 
outset of her life to take charge of her brother and 
two younger sisters, Emily and Anne, neglected as 
they were by their invalid and eccentric father. 
Cut off from society, the young people grew up 
amidst the harsh surroundings of their north 
country home in a strange fashion. They all of 
them possessed strong imaginations, and from their 
infancy began to weave fictitious narratives and 
commit them to paper. In 1831 Charlotte enjoyed a 


year’s schooling at Roe Head, returning thither 
as teacher in 1835. After a brief experience of the 
life of a governess, she resolved to start a school, 
and from 1842 to 1844 went to Brussels with her 
sister Emily to learn French. On her.return she 
found to her distress that her brother Patrick had 
sunk into a hopeless drunkard, and he died in 1848. 
Meanwhile the three sisters had developed a taste 
for poetry, and in 1846 contrived to publish a small 
volume under the pseudonyms of Currer, Ellis, and 
Acton Bell, but their efforts attracted little or no 
attention. Nevertheless they set to work, each 
separately, on the composition of a prose romance, 
the result being The Professor by Charlotte, 
Wuthering Heights by Emily, and Agnes Grey by 
Anne. Strangely enough, the two last found a 
publisher, but the first was rejected. Nothing 
daunted, Charlotte persevered, and in 1847 gave to 
the world Jane Eyre , through the firm of Smith and 
Elder. The success was immediate, for though 
critics hesitated, the public at once appreciated the 
realistic vigour and rugged, unconventional force of 
the unknown author, whose name was concealed 
until the publication of Shirley in 1849, by which 
time her two sisters and her brother were in their 
graves. Charlotte Bronte now became famous, but 
her early training and weak health made her 
shrink from society. In the retirement of her 
father’s vicarage she slowly proceeded with what 
was destined to be her last work, Villette , which 
came out in 1853. The next year she married her 
father’s curate, Mr. Nicholls, but in less than ten 
months the fatal seeds of consumption that had cut 
off all her sisters worked their ravages on her en¬ 
feebled frame, and she died on March 31st, 1855. The 
Professor was published after her death. As might 
have been expected, there is a morbid element in all 
that Charlotte Bronte wrote, and the bitterness of 
a strong, proud, sensitive, and disappointed nature 
gives her stories a flavour that is often highly 
unpleasant. At times she is so ignorant or careless 
of the proprieties as to become coarse, and occasion¬ 
ally she is open to the charge of melodramatic 
sensationalism. Still, she expresses with rare 
literary skill just those phases of female character 
that are least on the surface; her plots are drawn 
with no little dramatic ingenuity; and her descrip¬ 
tions of the scenes with which she was familiar can 
hardly be surpassed for brilliancy and truth. Jane 
Eyre will always rank as the best of her produc¬ 
tions, though Shirley is more wholesome and more 
humorous, and Villette gives a deeper insight into 
the writer's own mind. 

2. Emily was rather a poet than a novelist. 
Unrestrained imagination is the chief characteristic 
of her one very remarkable book, Wuthering 
Heights, but the premature close of her career 
prevented the full development of her faculties. 

3. Anne must be regarded as in every way 
inferior to her elder sisters. Her only novel scarcely 
rises above the level of the ephemeral stories of the 
period, and gives little indication of true genius. 

Bronteus, a well-known genus of Trilobites, 
the type of the family Bronteidce, which is charac¬ 
teristic of the Upper Silurian and Devonian rocks. 








Brontotherium. 


( 211 ) 


Brooke. 



Brontotherium, one of the huge elephant- 
like ungulates allied to Deinoceras , and less 
directly to the tapirs, found in the lacustrine 
deposits of the White River group of Miocene 
rocks in the upper Missouri 
region. They are classed by 
Marsh as Delnocerata ; by Cope 
under the name Amblypoda. 


BRONTEUS. 


Bronze, an alloy in which 
copper and tin are the essential 
components. It was known to 
the ancients, and was largely 
used by the Greeks and Romans 
for statuary,coins,swords,bells, 
etc. Small quantities of phos¬ 
phorus improve its quality for 
many purposes, and phosphor 
bronze , containing | per cent, 
phosphorus, 90 per cent, cop¬ 
per, and 9 per cent, tin, is a 
very hard alloy used for axle- 
bearings, cog-wheels, etc. 


Bronze Age, a term denoting a bygone con¬ 
dition of races among whom bronze was the chief 
materials for weapons and tools, or the period in 
which it existed. Such a condition was by no means 
universal, but seems to have prevailed at one time 
in a great part of Europe and Asia; when it did 
occur it almost always followed the Stone Age 
[Flint Implements, Neolithic, Palaeolithic], 
and was followed by the Iron Age. It necessarily 
varied in duration, and some races seem to have 
passed from the use of flints directly to iron, as 
have some of the Pacific islanders in our own day. 
Moreover, when such a period did occur, it was not 
marked off sharply from that which preceded or 
followed it ; the use of bronze lingered on—though 
at last only for ceremonial purposes—long after iron 
was known, as may be seen from many passages in 
Virgil and Ovid. " In Europe the Bronze Age has 
been brought into prominence by discoveries in 
Denmark; the finds show marks of a higher 
state of culture than do those of the Stone Age, 
and progress may be traced in the bronze imple¬ 
ments and ornaments. Tylor is of opinion that 
bronze was used, even when iron was known, on 
account of the ease with which it could be cast. 
Lubbock thinks that the “ knowledge of metals is 
one of those great discoveries which Europe owes 
to the East,” and that the use of copper was not in¬ 
troduced into our continent until it had been ob¬ 
served that *•' by the addition of a small quantity of 
tin it was rendered harder and more valuable.” 


Bronze Wing, Bronze-winged Pigeon, a 
popular name for any bird of the genus Phaps, from 
Australia and Tasmania. They are of comparatively 
large size, with the wings generally long and strong, 
and having variegated plumage enlivened by 
brilliant metallic spots and markings. All are 
esteemed for the table. The common Bronze-wing 
(P. chalcoptera) lias the general plumage brown, 
with oval copper-bronze patches on the wings (less 
marked in the female). The name is sometimes 
extended to species of Geophaps and Ocyphaps, both 


confined to Australia. G. scripta is the Partridge 
Bronze-wing, and 0. lophotes the Crested Bronze¬ 
wing. 

Bronzing, the process by which a bronze-like 
surface is given to an object, which mayor may not 
be of metal. In the case of metals this is usually 
done by rubbing with various solutions, as dilute 
nitric acid, sal ammoniac and vinegar, verdigris and 
vinegar, etc. Wooden and plaster objects are 
generally bronzed by washing with a solution of 
water glass (sodium silicate), dusting on a bronze 
powder, shaking off the excess, and drying. 

Bronzite, MgO.SiO.,, one of the rhombic 
pyroxenes, differs from augite (q.v.)in crystallising 
in the prismatic or rhombic system. It takes its 
name from its bronze-like lustre, intermediate 
between pearly and metallic. [Lustre.] It has 
a foliated structure and occurs in serpentinite. 
Bronzite is extremely infusible, being only rounded 
at the edges of thin splinters by the blowpipe 
flame, and it is, therefore, taken as 6, the highest 
standard in Von Kobel’s scale of fusibility. 

Brooch, an ornamental clasp worn on the dress, 
to which it is fastened by means of a pin. Its use 
is now confined to women, but among the ancient 
Celtic and Scandinavian races brooches were 
frequently worn by men. The use of brooches 
dates back as far as the early iron age; very 
beautiful specimens have been preserved, especially 
of early Celtic brooches, the Tara brooch, the 
Ugadale brooch, and the Hunterston brooch being 
among the most celebrated. 

Brooke, Henry, author, was born at the begin¬ 
ning of last century, at county Cavan, where, at 
Rantavan, his father held lands. Coming to London 
to study law, he won the friendship of Pope, and in 
1735 published his Universal Beauty , which is said 
to have furnished the groundwork of Erasmus 
Darwin’s Botanic Garden. In 1739 appeared his 
tragedy Gustavus Vasa, which, after being re¬ 
hearsed for five weeks preliminary to being pro¬ 
duced at Drury Lane, was prohibited by the Lord 
Chamberlain. In 1740 he returned to Ireland, 
taking up his residence at Dublin, where he was 
appointed barrack-master, and where he wrote 
numerous works. He also appears to have been the 
first editor of the Freeman's Journal , founded at 
Dublin in 1763. He died in 1783 in a state of 
mental decay. The Fool of Quality, republished 
in 1859 with a preface by Charles Kingsley, is the 
only one of his works which can be said to be 
known to-day. 

Brooke, Sir James, Rajah of Sarawak, was 
born in 1803 at Benares, where his father was in 
the Bengal civil service. At the age of sixteen he 
was appointed a cadet in the East India army, and 
served in the Burmese war, where he received a 
wound in the lungs. In 1830 he resigned his post in 
the service of the East India Company, and after his 
father’s death in 1835, when he inherited £30,000, 
he sailed in 1838 for Sarawak in Borneo. He assisted 
the Sultan’s uncle, Muda Hassim, of Borneo, in 
putting down some rebel tribes, and was rewarded 
with the title of Rajah of Sarawak in 1841, the 





Brooke. 


( 212 ) 


Broom-tops. 


former rajah being deposed in his favour. He 
thenceforth set himself vigorously to work to reform 
the natives, made head-hunting a capital offence, 
got them to abandon their lawless and piratical 
mode of life, and to devote themselves to agriculture 
and trade. His efforts were strikingly successful, 
the chief town of his province under his administra¬ 
tion growing from a place of 1,000 inhabitants to 
a place of 25,000, and its exports to Singapore rising 
from £25,000 annual value to £300,000. He finally 
returned to England in 18G3, and in 1868 died at 
Burrator, Devonshire, being succeeded in the 
government at Sarawak by his nephew, Charles 
Brooke. 

Brooke, Stopford Augustus, divine, was born 
in 1832 in Letterkenny, Donegal. He studied at 
Trinity College, Dublin, became incumbent of St. 
James’s chapel in 1866, chaplain-in-ordinary to the 
Queen in 1872, minister of Bedford chapel, Blooms¬ 
bury in 1875, and in 1880, from conscientious 
scruples, severed himself from the English Church. 
Besides sermons, he has published a Life of Frederick 
Robertson of Brighton, Theology in the English Poets, 
English Literature , and Milton. 

Brook Farm, a socialistic community based 
on Fourier’s principles, was organised in 1840 by 
George Ripley. The farm, about eight miles from 
Boston, covered an area of 200 acres, and those 
who went to occupy it were educated men and 
women, who made up their minds to do each their 
own share of the work. Among them was Nathaniel 
Hawthorne, whose Blithcdale Romance is an account 
of the little colony. 

Brookite, a crystalline form of oxide of titanium, 
Ti0 2 , specific gravity 4-2; yellowish colour or 
colourless, and metallic lustre. Its crystalline 
system is not well established, either rhombic or 
monoclinic. This oxide is remarkable, as it 
crystallises in two other distinct forms, anatase and 
rutile (q.v.). 

Brooklyn, a city of the United States and 
capital of King’s county, New York state, stands 
on the west end of Long Island. The East 
river, a strait about three-quarters of a mile wide, 
separates it from New York city, with which it 
is, however, connected by about a dozen lines of 
steam ferries, and the East river suspension bridge, 
the longest of its kind in the world, being close on 
6,000 feet in length, completed in 1883, with accom¬ 
modation for foot, vehicular, and tramway traffic. 
In the city itself are, for internal communication, 
two lines of elevated railways, and numerous lines 
of tram cars. The Atlantic dock, covering an area 
of 40 acres, the Brooklyn and Erie basins, covering 
areas respectively of 60 and 40 acres, are among 
the largest works of the kind in the United States. 
There is also a United States navy yard, of about 
40 acres. Brooklyn has a water frontage of 10 
miles, a circumference of 22 miles, and an area 
of 25 square miles, and is the centre of an extensive 
trade as well as the seat of large and diverse in¬ 
dustries. It is also one of the first cities of the 
United States, being provided with straight and 
commanding streets—in many cases lined with trees. 
Among its amenities particularly worthy of note are 


the Greenwood cemetery, comprising an area of 400 
acres, and adorned with numerous fine monuments, 
and Prospect Park, of 570 acres, and laid out at a 
cost of about 12,000,000 dollars. It is often called 
the “ city of churches,” having close on 300 
churches of different denominations, and is well pro¬ 
vided with educational and charitable institutions. 
The first settlement of Brooklyn, or Brenkelen, as 
it was called originally by its Dutch founders, took 
place in 1636, and in 1834 it was incorporated as a 
city. Its site is associated with notable events of 
the revolution. 

Brooks, Charles William Siiirley, journalist, 
was born in 1815 in London, and began the study 
of the law. Captured, however, by literature, he 
became known as a writer of burlesque. He also 
wrote the Parliamentary summary for the Morning 
Chronicle , and in 1856 was sent to investigate the 
condition of the labouring classes in Russia, Syria, 
and Egypt, the results appearing in a volume 
entitled The Russians of the South. In 1851 he had 
become connected with Punch, for which he wrote 
the Essence of Parliament, and on Mark Lemon’s 
death in 1870 he became its editor. He also wrote 
several works, chief of which are Aspen Court, 'The 
Gordian Knot. The Silver Cord, and Sooner or Later. 
He died in 1874 in London. 

Broom, Sarothamnus scoparius, a common shrub 
of Western Europe, forming the type of a small 
genus of Lcguminosce, separated from Cgtisus (q.v.) 
by the very long curved style and minute stigma. 
The stems of the shrub grown in Algeria are 
imported for walking-sticks under the trade name 
of Black Orange. The twigs are made into 
baskets in Madeira; are used as winter food for 
sheep; and, as an infusion, are employed medi¬ 
cinally, as are also the seeds, in dropsy, being 
diuretic and laxative, or, in larger doses, emetic 
and purgative. The broom is the badge of the clan 
Forbes, and its golden-yellow blossoms have often 
been celebrated by poets. 

Broom-rape, the English name of the genus 
Orobanche, the type of the order Orobanchacece, 
parasitic plants closely related to the Scrophu- 
lariacecc, from which, indeed, they differ mainly in 
their parasitic habit and in their one-chambered 
ovary. The Orobanches contain little or no chloro- 
phyl, having fleshy brownish stems, leaves reduced 
to brown scales, and a spike of flowers with brown 
calyces, two-lipped pinkish or purple corollas, 
didynamous stamens, and numerous minute seeds. 
There are about seventy described species, natives 
of temperate and tropical climates, especially 
Eastern Asia and South Europe. There are six or 
eight British species, the roots of which, in 
germinating, attach themselves to those of various 
plants, especially clover, furze, broom, flax, thyme, 
and milfoil. The plants-apparently vary consider¬ 
ably according to the species of their host-plant. 
Broom-rape is seriously injurious to clover crops. 

Broom-tops (Scoparii cacumina, Brit. Phar- 
macop.). The flowering tops of the broom have a 
diuretic action, which renders them of much service 
in certain cases of dropsy. There are two officinal 
preparations: the decoction Decoctum Scoparii, 




Brose 


( 213 ) 


Broussais. 


dose 1 to 2 fl. oz., and the Succus Scoparii, dose 
1 to 2 fl. dr. 

Brose, a Scottish name for a kind of porridge or 
stirabout. 

Brosses, Charles de, historian, and first 
president of the Parliament of Burgundy, was born 
in 1709 at Dijon. Among his numerous works were 
Lettres sur Herculaneum, the first writings upon 
that interesting subject. He was the first also to 
introduce the names of Australia and Polynesia, 
and in a dissertation Sur le Culte des Bieux 
Fetiches, used the word fetish with the significance 
it now commonly bears. Though a busy writer, he 
never neglected his official duties, and died in 1777, 
while occupying the presidency. 

Broth., the liquor in which some kind of meat 
or vegetable has been boiled. Frequently both meat 
and vegetables are employed. [Beef-tea.] 

Brotherhood, in the Christian churches, a 
voluntary religious association for various purposes. 
In the widest sense the term includes the monastic 
orders [Dominican, Franciscan, etc.], the 
earliest of which probably were founded in the 
4th century, and also guilds (q.v.). But it is applied 
more especially to associations less strictly bound 
by rule than monastic communities, but having 
some religious or charitable object. The “ Confra¬ 
ternity of the Sacred Heart” is a familiar modern 
Eoman Catholic instance. In Southern France in 
the Middle Ages there was a brotherhood whose 
object it w r as to build bridges and maintain ferries. 
The “Cowley Brotherhood” is a modern Anglican 
example, and the “ Rauhes Haus ” at Hamburg is a 
German Protestant brotherhood. 

Brothers, Richard, was born in 1757, at 
Placentia, in Newfoundland. After serving in the 
British navy, he retii'ed in 1789 on a lieutenant’s 
half-pay, which, however, he forfeited through his 
inability, on conscientious grounds, to take the oath. 
Styling himself “ the nephew of the Almighty 
and Prince of the Hebrews appointed to take them 
to the Land of Canaan,” he came forth in 1793 as 
the apostle of a new religion. In the following year 
he published A Revealed, Knowledge of the Prophe¬ 
cies and Times, and for prophesying the death of 
the king was sent to Newgate in 1795. From here 
he was removed to Bedlam, being released in 1800. 
Believers in Brothers’s theory, that the English are 
the lost tribes of Israel, are not yet extinct, and 
in his own times his followers included Nathaniel 
Halker, M.P. and orientalist, and many others. He 
died in 1824. 

Brougham, a four-wheeled close carriage with 
two seats inside, each for two persons, with a raised 
seat for the driver outside. 

Brougham. Henry Peter, Baron Brougham 
AND Vaux, was born in 1778 in Edinburgh, where 
at the High school and university he was educated. 
Called to the Scottish bar in 1800, his fame as a 
lawyer extended to England, and in 1808 he began 
to practise in London. In the following year he 
was returned to Parliament by Camelford, a 
borough in Cornwall, and soon became one of 
the leading speakers on the side of the Whigs. 


Defeated by Canning at Liverpool in 1811. the year 
in which he successfully defended Leigh Hunt, who 
was prosecuted for the republication of an article 
on flogging in the army, he did not occupy a seat in 
Parliament until 1816, when he was returned for 
Winchelsea. He then advocated educational and 
social reforms with great vigour, joined,, in 1822, 
Birkbeck in the mechanics’ institute movement, in 
1826 associated with Knight in founding the Society 
for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, and took a 
prominent part in starting the London University. 
Meanwhile, in 1820, he had made his most famous 
and fearless appearance as an advocate in the 
defence of Queen Caroline, and this heightened his 
popularity to the highest pitch. In 1830 he de¬ 
nounced slavery in a powerful speech, and at the 
general election of that year was returned for the 
important constituency of the county of York. In 
the Reform ministry of Earl Grey he became 
Lord Chancellor and a peer, and in the House of 
Lords advocated with his usual force the necessity 
for reform. Thenceforth his influence waned, and 
when the Whigs went out, in 1834, Brougham’s 
official life came to an end. He did much for law 
reform, and in a six hours’ speech delivered in 1827 
enumerated the defects in the different departments 
of English law. He was also a powerful orator, 
being considered as a debater inferior only to 
Canning. He was a voluminous writer—wrote 
much for the Edinburgh Review, which he took the 
chief part in founding, for newspapers, encyclopre- 
dias, and several independent works. He also wrote 
an autobiography, which was published post¬ 
humously. He latterly resided at Cannes, where 
in 1835 he had built a chateau, and where in 1868 
he died. He was succeeded in the title by his 
brother William. 

Broughton, Rhoda, novelist, was born in 1837. 
Among her chief works are Not Wisely but Too 
Well, her first; Cometh up as a Flower ; Red as a 
Rose is She, etc. She is a clever and vigorous writer. 

Broughty-Ferry, a town of Scotland in 
Forfarshire, is situated on the Firth of Tay, and 
previous to the erection of the Tay Bridge was the 
route for travellers between Dundee and Edinburgh. 
It is a watering-place, and a favourite place of resi¬ 
dence for Dundee merchants. It has an old castle, 
built in 1498, and now one of the defences of the Tay. 

Broussa, Brussa, or Brusa, a city of Asiatic 
Turkey, in the province of Anatolia, is situated at 
the foot of Mount Olympus and about a dozen miles 
S. of the Sea of Marmora. It has about 200 mosques 
—some accounts place the number at 600—and a 
13th century citadel of Greek construction. Its 
industries embrace silk, wine, carpets, gauze, etc. 
Fruit also is largely exported. In the neighbour¬ 
hood are the celebrated baths of Broussa, which, 
fed by mineral springs, reach a temperature some¬ 
times of 180°. Meerschaum is also found. Broussa 
was anciently Prusa, the capital of Bithynia, and 
the residence of the Turkish sultans from 1329 
until 1365, when the seat of empire was removed 
to Adrianople. 

Broussais, Francois Joseph Victor, was 
born in 1772 at St. Malo. After studying medicine 









Brouwer. 


( 214 ) 


Brown. 


and graduating in 1803 M.D. at Paris, he became in 
1820 a professor at the military hospital, Val-de- 
grace, and in 1831 of general pathology in the 
academy of medicine, Paris. He promulgated a 
theory of medicine strongly resembling the 
Brnnonian system of John Brown (q.v.), and his 
followers assumed the name of the “ physiological 
school. ’ According to his theory, the fundamental 
fact in life is excitation or irritation, and disease is 
the result of over- or under- excitation. His chief 
work is the Examen de la Doctrine Medicate 
Generalement Adoptee, published in 1816. He died 
in 1838 at Vitry. 

Brouwer, or Brauwer, Adrian, painter, was 
born in 1608, at Haarlem. At Antwerp he came 
under the influence of Bubens and developed an 
admirable eye for colour. He was of dissipated 
habits, and as a result his favourite subjects are 
uproarious scenes from tavern life, which he 
depicted with great spirit, and which are the best 
of their kind. He died in a hospital at Antwerp, 
smitten by the plague, at the early age of thirty-two. 

Brown Bear ( Ursus arctos), a native of many 
parts of Europe, the north of Asia, Japan, and 
arctic America. It is about 6 feet long, stands 3 
feet or rather more at the shoulder, and is clothed 
in longish dark-brown woolly fur ; in habit it is 
solitary, in diet vegetarian or insectivorous, and 
rarely ventures to attack man unless first provoked. 
This species was formerly the victim of the mis¬ 
called “ sport ” of bear-baiting ; and is often trained 
by Savoyards to walk erect and perform a clumsy 
sort of dance. The Brown Bear was at one time a 
native of Britain. [Cave-bear.] 

Brown, Charles Brock den, novelist, was 
born in 1771, in Philadelphia. He abandoned law 
and devoted himself to literature, which he was the 
first American to adopt as a profession, his first 
novel, Wieland, appearing in 1798. In a later 
novel, Arthur Mervyn, he depicted with great force 
the ravages of the yellow fever in the year 1793, in 
Philadelphia. In addition to writing novels, he 
started and edited several American periodicals. 
He died in 1810 of consumption. 

Brown, Ford Madox, painter, grandson of 
Dr. John Brown (q.v.), was born in 1821, at Calais. 
He studied at Antwerp under Baron Wappers. In 
1844 he sent two cartoons to the Westminster Hall 
exhibition, preliminary to the mural decorations of 
the Houses of Parliament, and in the following year 
he again contributed ; but though his works won 
the encomiums of Haydon, they yet gained no 
prize. His Chaucer reciting his Poetry at the Court 
of Jut ward III. was exhibited at the Royal Academy 
in 1851, won the Liverpool prize of £50, and was 
shown at the Paris Exhibition of 1855. After other 
similar successes he held an exhibition in 1865 of 
his works in London. In his later life he was 
engaged in Manchester, decorating the town hall 
with a series of designs illustrative of the history 
of the city. Among his most characteristic works 
are Cordelia and Lear , Christ washing Peter's Feet, 
Work, The Last of England, Borneo and Juliet, The 
Entombment, and Cromwell. He is ranked generally 


among the pre-Rapbaelites, and regarded a# the 
master of Dante Gabriel Rossetti. His son, Oliver 
Madox Brown, a painter, poet, and novelist of 
extraordinary promise, died in 1874, at the age 
of 19. Gabriel Denver and The Divale Bluth are 
his best known works of fiction. 

Brown, Sir George, general, was born at 
Linkwood, near Elgin, in 1790. He served in the 
Peninsular war, in the American campaign of 
1814, and in the Crimean war, where he was 
severely wounded at the battle of Inkermann. For 
his services he was created a G.C.B. in 1855, and in 
the following year gazetted “ General for distin¬ 
guished service in the field.” He died in 1865 at 
his native place. 

Brown, George Loring, artist, was born in 
1814 in Boston, Massachusetts. He spent a long 
period in Europe studying, and gained a reputation 
as a landscape painter. One of his works, The 
Crown of JSew England, was purchased by the 
Prince of Wales. 

Brown, Henry Kirke, sculptor, was born in 
1814 at Leyden, Massachusetts. After a period of 
study in Italy he returned to America, where, at 
Brooklyn, he executed the first bronze statue cast 
in America. He died in 1886. 

Brown, John, was born near Abernethy, Perth¬ 
shire, in 1722. His parents were very poor, and 
after a meagre education he was set to herd sheep. 
While tending his flocks he studied Greek, Latin, 
and Hebrew, qualified himself to occupy the posi¬ 
tion of a schoolmaster, and ultimately was licensed 
to preach in 1750. He wrote numerous works, the 
chief being, The self-interpreting Bible, Dictionary 
of the Bible, Harmony of Scripture Prophecies, and 
some church histories. He died in 1787 at 
Haddington, where he was the minister of the 
Burgher dissenting congregation. 

Brown, John, D.D., grandson of the preceding, 
was born in 1784 at Whitburn, Linlithgowshire. 
After studying at the University of Edinburgh he 
became a schoolmaster, studying theology in the 
summer vacation. In 1806 he was ordained pastor 
of the Burgher congregation at Biagar, receiving a 
charge in Edinburgh in 1822. In 1834 he became 
professor of theology in the college of his denomi¬ 
nation. He wrote numerous religious works which 
attained a wide popularity, and on account of his 
utterances in the Atonement controversy of 1840-45 
a formal charge of heresy was preferred against 
him. He died in 1858. 

Brown, John, doctor and essayist, son of the 
preceding, was born in 1810 at Biggar. Educated 
in the Edinburgh High school and University, he 
graduated M.D. in 1833, and began to practise as a 
physician, devoting his leisure to literature. His 
writings, which comprise papers on art, medicine, 
poetry, and humorous and pathetic sketches, are 
collected into the two volumes of Horrc Subsecivce 
(leisme houis), and John Leech and other Papers. 
His most characteristic pieces are Bab and his 
Friends and Pet Marjorie. He died suddenly in 
1882 in Edinburgh. 










Brown. 


( 215 ) 


Brown. 


Brown, John, founder of tlie Brunonian theory 
of medicine, was born in 1735, in the parish of 
Bunkle, Berwickshire. Educated at the Dunse 
grammar school, he removed thence to Edinburgh, 
where he supported himself by private teaching and 
attended lectures at the University. In course of 
time he attracted the notice of Dr. Cullen, who 
employed him as a kind of assistant, and en¬ 
trusted him with the tuition of his children. 
Considering himself not fairly treated by Cullen 
in regard to his claims to a vacant professorship, 
Brown broke off the friendship and began to lecture 
•on his own account, advancing the system of 
medicine that is now associated with his name, and 
according to which all diseases are of two kinds, 
the sthenic and the asthenic, or those caused by an 
excess and those caused by a deficiency of excite¬ 
ment—the former to be treated by debilitating, and 
the latter by stimulating medicines. In 1780 he 
published an exposition of his system in Memento, 
Medicines, a treatise that was widely read on the 
Continent. Though he attracted a good many 
followers, he also roused a great deal of opposition. 
He also became pecuniarily embarrassed, and was 
lodged in prison for debt. In 1786 he removed to 
London, and just as his prospects began to brighten, 
he died in 1788. He also published in 1787, Obser¬ 
vations on tlie Present System of Spasm as taught 
in the University of Edinburgh, a scathing criticism 
of Cullen’s errors, and the year before he left 
Edinburgh, A short Account of the Old Method of 
Cure, and Outline of the New Doctrine. ■ 

Brown, John, abolitionist, was born in 1800 in 
Torrington, Connecticut. After several not very 
successful years in business as a tanner and a 
wool-dealer, he removed, in 1855, to Kansas, where 
with his four sons he headed the anti-slavery 
cause. In 1856 his house at Ossawatomie was 
burned and one of his sons slain. In 1859 he con¬ 
ceived the idea of liberating the slaves by a general 
uprising, and in pursuance of this seized the United 
States armoury at Harper’s Ferry. The negroes, 
however, were not responsive, Brown was taken 
prisoner, and on December 2nd of the same year 
was hanged at Charlestown, Virginia. His fate gave 
an immense impulse to the anti-slavery movement, 
which culminated during the war of Secession 
which broke out the next year. 

Brown, Robert, one of the greatest British 
botanists, was born at Montrose in 1773, and 
educated at Montrose grammar school, Marischal 
College, Aberdeen, and the University of Edinburgh. 
At Edinburgh his first paper, on the plants of 
Forfarshire, was read before the Natural History 
Society in 1792, and he became a correspondent of 
Withering. In 1795 he went to the noith of 
Ireland as ensign and assistant-surgeon in the 
Forfarshire Fencibles, in which Dugald Carmichael 
was captain, and by him Brown was introduced to 
Sir Joseph Banks. In 1798 he was made associate 
of the Linnean Society, and in 1801 started as 
naturalist with Flinders’s expedition to Australia, 
with Ferdinand Bauer as artist, and the future Sii 
John Franklin as one of the midshipmen. In 1805 
lie returned with 4,000 species of plants from New 


Holland, which he partly described in his Prodromus 
Fierce Novce Jlollandice, 1810-30, the first important 
work introducing the Jussieuian or Natural system 
of classification to English botanists. This work 
Brown recalled, its Latinity having been criticised. 
Brown became librarian to the Linnean Society 
and to Sir Joseph Banks, who at his death, in 1820, 
bequeathed him his house in Gerard Street, Soho, 
and his library and collections for his life. These 
were transferred to the British Museum in 1827, 
Brown becoming the first keeper of the botanical 
department. In 1811 he was made F.R.S.; in 
1832, D.C.L. of Oxford; in 1833, associate of the 
Institute of France; and from 1849 to 1853 presi¬ 
dent of the Linnean Society, of which he had been 
a fellow since 1822. In 1839 he received the Copley 
medal of the Royal Society, and he also received 
the Prussian order “ pour le merite.” He died in 
1858, and was buried at Kensal Green. There is an 
oil portrait of him by Pickersgill at the Linnean 
Society, and he was commemorated by Smith in 
the genus Brunonia. Humboldt styled him 
“ botanicorum facile princeps.” A collected edition 
of Brown’s miscellaneous botanical works was pub¬ 
lished in 1866. 

Brown, Samuel, chemist, grandson of the 
author of the Self -interpreting Bible, was born in 
1817 at Haddington. Educated at the Edinburgh 
High school and University, he graduated M.D. 
in' 1839. He devoted his attention chiefly to 
chemistry, and became possessed of the idea that 
elements usually considered simple and primary 
might be resolved into one another. He also con¬ 
tributed to general literature, publishing in 1850 
the tragedy of Galileo. His Lectures on the Atomic 
Theory, and Essays Scientific and Literary were 
published in 1858. He died in 1856 in Edinburgh. 

Brown, Thomas, metaphysician, was born in 
1778 at Kirkmabreck, Kirkcudbright. After a few 
years’ study at the University of Edinburgh he 
began the practice of medicine in 1806, and in 1810 
Dugald Stewart, professor of moral philosophy in 
the University, falling ill, he was chosen Stewart’s 
colleague and successor. Meanwhile he had dis¬ 
tinguished himself by his acute criticism on Dr. 
Darwin’s Zoonomia and his essay on Cause and 
Effect, the views in which were suggested by Hume. 
He also published some indifferent poems, but his 
leading work is his Lectures, which were brought 
out in book form after his death. His main addition 
to psychological science was his elevation of 
muscular sensation into the rank of the senses, a 
point that has been subsequently developed by 
Professor Bain. He died in London in 1820. 

Brown, Thomas, miscellaneous writer, was 
born in 1663 at Shifnal, Salop. He left Clnist- 
cliurch, Oxford, somewhat suddenly, through his 
irregularities, and perhaps also on account of his 
clever application of Martial’s epigram, “Non amo 
te, Sabidi,” etc., to the Dean of Christchurch, Dr. 
Fell. Brown rendered it thus:— 

“ I do not love thee, Dr. Fell, 

The reason why I cannot tell; 

But this I know, and know full well, 

I do not love thee, Dr. Fell.” 









Brown 


( 216 ) 


Browne. 


He came to London, where he made a precarious 
livelihood by writing poems of a satirical nature, 
pamphlets, letters, etc., witty, it is true, but coarse 
and scurrilous. He led a licentious life, w'hich 
terminated in 1704, and he was interred in the 
cloisters of Westminster Abbey, near his friend, 
Mrs. Aphra Behn. 

Brown, Sir William, was born in 1784 at 
Ballymena, co. Antrim. After a few years spent in 
the United States, he returned to Liverpool, and 
entered upon a singularly successful mercantile 
career as a general merchant. He took a keen 
interest in local affairs, among his most munificent 
gifts being the founding of the Liverpool public 
library, at a cost to himself of £40,000. From 
1846 to 1859 he represented South Lancashire in 
Parliament, and in 1863 was created a baronet. He 
was a strong advocate of a decimal coinage. He 
died in 1864 at Liverpool. 

Brown Coal. [Lignite.] 

Brown Powder is a special variety of gun¬ 
powder largely used for modern heavy ordnance. 
Its ordinary composition is: Saltpetre 79, sulphur 
3, and charcoal 18 parts, the charcoal being made 
from straw and carbonised by a secret process. 
The finished powder is made up into hexagonal 
prisms with an axial perforation. It gives high 
velocity combined with moderate pressure ; it does 
not readily ignite, and when unconfined it burns 
without explosion. Another name for it is Cocoa 
Powder. 

Browne, Hablot Knight, artist, was born in 
1815 at Kennington, London. After an apprentice¬ 
ship to an engraver, he in 1833 gained the Society 
of Arts’ medal for an etching of John Gilpin's 
Race, and in 1836 succeeded Seymour as illustrator 
of Pickwick Papers , and under the pseudonym of 
“ Phiz.” Besides being associated with Dickens 
throughout many of the latter’s novels, Browne also 
did illustrations for Lever, Ainsworth, Fielding, 
and Smollett. His work places him in the first 
rank of nineteenth century caricaturists, and 
although while his strength endured he was unceas¬ 
ingly active, lie was saved only from starvation at 
the end by an annuity from the Royal Academy. 
Struck with paralysis in 1867, he died at West 
Brighton in 1882. 

Browne, Robert, “the first seceder from the 
Church of England,” and founder of the Brownists, 
was born about the middle of the sixteenth century 
at Tolethorpe, Rutlandshire. Graduating at Cam¬ 
bridge in 1572, he became a schoolmaster in London 
and used to preach on Sundays in the open air at 
Islington. After a further stay at Cambridge he 
was ordained, and thereafter proceeded openly to 
preach “ against the calling and authorising of 
preachers by bishops.” He established a body of 
worshippers on congregational lines at Norwich, 
and in 1581, having to seek refuge in Holland, he 
gathered some followers there. He subsequently 
returned to England, and becoming reconciled to 
the Established Church, was appointed rector of 
Achurch, Northamptonshire in 1591. Notwithstand¬ 
ing this, the Brownists themselves continued 


staunch, and in process of time became known as 
Congregationalists or Independents. Browne him¬ 
self was imprisoned for assaulting a Constable, and 
died in Northampton gaol about 1633. 

Browne, Sir Thomas; writer and physician, 
was born in 1605 in London. Educated at Oxford, 
he studied medicine, graduating M.D. at Leyden in 
1633, and setting up in practice at Norwich in 
1637. It is, however, not so much as a doctor as 
the author of the Religio Medici or A Physician's 
Religion that Browne is best known. It is supposed 
to have been written in 1635, and the manuscript 
being passed about among his private friends, it 
was surreptitiously published in 1642. This com¬ 
pelled the author to publish an authorised edition, 
which was done in 1643. The book at once attracted 
the attention of the learned throughout Europe, 
being translated into various languages, and 
honoured with insertion in the Index Expurgatorius. 
Browne’s next book, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, or In¬ 
quiries into very many received Tenets and commonly 
presumed Truths , which examined prove but Vulgar 
and Common Errors , appeared in 1646, and heightened 
the author’s literary reputation as well as displayed 
his learning. In 1658 his Hydriotaphia, Urn 
Burial; or a Discourse of the Sepulchral Urns 
lately found in Norfolk , and The Garden of Cyprus , 
or the Quincuncial Lozenge, net-work Plantations of 
the Ancients , artificially, naturally , mystically con¬ 
sidered, , appeared—the former being a treatise on 
the burial, customs in different countries and 
different times, the latter being a fantastic attempt 
to show that the number five pervaded the horti¬ 
culture of the ancients, and recurred throughout 
plant-life. These works ranked him amongst the 
first antiquaries, and in 1665 he was appointed an 
honorary member of the College of Physicians. When 
Charles II. visited Norwich in 1671 lie conferred a 
knighthood on Browne. Other writings of his were 
published after his death, which occurred in 1682. 
He was buried in St. Peter’s, Mancroft, Norwich, 
and his coffin was accidentally split open by some 
workmen in 1840. The bones were found to be in 
good preservation, even the auburn hair being still 
fresh. His skull is now preserved under a glass 
case in the museum of Norwich hospital. 

Browne, Ulysses Maximilian, Count, was 
born in 1705 at Basel. Entering the Austrian army, 
he became a field marshal and commanded the 
Austrians at Lobositz (1756) in the Seven Years’ 
war. He received his death wound at the battle of 
Prague, and expired in 1757. 

Browne, William, poet, was born in 1591 at 
Tavistock. While still only twenty-two he published 
book i. of Britannia's Pastorals , which was well 
received, and still holds a distinguished place in 
English poetry. His next leading production was 
The Shepherd's Pipe, which appeared in 1614. 
Regarding Browne’s life little is known. In 
1624 he became tutor to Robert Dormer. Earl of 
Carnarvon, and subsequently entered the family of 
the Herberts at Wilton, where he “ got wealth and 
purchased an estate.” He died about 1640 at 
Dorking. 





Brownian Movements. 


( 217 ) 


Browning. 


Brownian Movements, the vibratory 
motions of small solid particles in liquid. They may 
be studied with a microscope by means of particles 
of gamboge suspended in water, which will be 
found to have this continual vibratory motion. 
The exact cause is unknown, but the degree of the 
effect depends on the surface tension of the liquid 
used. 

Brownie, a domestic goblin, common in Euro¬ 
pean folk-lore, supposed to do house and farm work 
at night in return for a bowl of cream, and on the 
condition that he was not watched. The gist of the 
legends concerning the Brownie will be found in 
Milton (JOAllegro, 105-114), and belief in him 
lingered till very recently—if, indeed, it is yet 
extinct—in the North of England, where he was 
known as “ Hob.” Dr. Atkinson (Forty Years in a 
Moorland Parish, 1891) tells of a farm in Cleveland 
where “ Hob,” so long as he was not spied upon, did 
much excellent work at night. 

Browning, Elizabeth Barrett (born 1806, 
died 29th June, 1861), more properly Elizabeth 
Barrett Moulton-Barrett Browning, was born in 
London, a daughter of Mr. Moulton, a wealthy 
Jamaica planter, who added the name of Barrett to 
his own. She began to write poetry at ten, and in 
1827 published anonymously her first volume of 
verses, an Essay on Mind, with a number of smaller 
poems. In 1833 she sent to press a translation of 
jEschylus’ Prometheus Bound and a collection of 
Miscellaneous Poems. She was already a student 
of Greek philosophy, as well as of Greek poetry; 
she also acquired a mastery of Hebrew, as well 
as of Italian and other modern languages, and 
all this notwithstanding her state of chronic ill- 
health. Though a delicate infant, she had grown 
to be a fairly-strong and high-spirited girl, when, 
at about the age of fourteen, she met with in¬ 
jury to her spine, which permanently under¬ 
mined her health. In 1837 a blood-vessel broke 
upon her lungs and endangered her life. This, 
however, did not prevent her from publishing The 
Seraphim and other Poems in the following year. 
In the summer of 1839 her health received another 
shock : her favourite brother and two friends were 
drowned before her eyes at Torquay. It was not 
till 1840 that she could be taken back to London— 
to Gloucester Place, where, in a darkened room, she 
lived in seclusion for six years, enduring much 
pain, but always writing or reading. In 1844 she 
published her touching Cry of the Children. In 
the following year she became acquainted with 
Robert Browning, and was married to him at 
St. Pancras church, on September 12th, 1846, in 
strict privacy. Her father never forgave her 
disregard of' his authority; but in every other 
respect the marriage abundantly justified itself. 
Her health gradually improved, and for some years 
she lived at a higher physical level. To this period 
belongs her best work. In 1850 appeared her 
Sonnets from the Portuguese, written some time 
before, in which she sings out her love under the 
thin disguise of a fictitious title. This was followed, 
in 1851. by Casa Guidi, and this in 1856 by her 
longest poem, Aurora Leigh, “ a novel in verse.” 


In 1860, the year before her death, came her Poems 
before Congress; her Last Poems were published by 
her sorrowing husband in 1862. The defects in 
Mrs. Browning’s work are occasional roughness of 
versification and forcing of phrase, lack of variety, 
want of humour, and—more serious still—absence 
of reserve. Its merits, however—its splendid 
pourtrayal of a romantic passion, strong yet pure, 
its wealth and magnificence of metaphor, its social 
enthusiasm, its spirit of freedom, its spiritual signi¬ 
ficance—are such as to give her indisputable right 
to the foremost place among poetesses. 

Browning', Robert (born 7th May, 1812, died 
12th December, 1889), was born at Camberwell, his 
father being a clerk in the Bank of England, while 
his mother was the daughter of William Wiedemann, 
a Hamburg-German shipowner, who had settled in 
Dundee and married a Scotswoman. His mother, 
while of saintly character, was not remarkable for 
mental gifts, and save his love of music, which he 
may have inherited from her, and a nervous im¬ 
pressibility which in him was heightened into the 
poetic temperament, the gifts of the poet, so far 
as they were hereditary, are to be traced rather to 
his father, who was a man of wide and curious 
reading and much general culture. Till nearly 
fourteen Robert went to a private school at 
Beckham, kept by the Rev. Thomas Ready; he then 
studied under a French tutor at home, and for a 
term or two attended a Greek class at University 
College, afterwards taking a continental tour. In 
his twelfth year he wrote a number of poems, which 
he and his friends sought, without success, to pub¬ 
lish, under the t itle Ineondita. At the age of eighteen 
he decided to take to poetry as a profession, and, as 
a preparatory measure, read through the whole of 
Johnson’s -Dictionary ! His first poem, Pauline, 
appeared when he was twenty-one, in 1833. Though 
little noticed, it was favourably reviewed in the 
Monthly Repository, by W. J. Fox, who was the first 
to “ discover ” the new poet. In 1835, having in the 
interval spent some time in Russia, he published 
his Paracelsus, a dramatic poem of nearly 4,000 lines, 
which attracted little more attention than Pauline. 
In 1837 he wrote his first tragedy, Strafford, for 
Macready, who produced it at Covent Garden on 
the 1st of May ; it went through five performances, 
which was for those days a respectable run. His 
next poem, Sordello, was kept back till 1840; it is 
quite the most obscure of his works, and probably 
injured the reputation he was by this time begin¬ 
ning to acquire. Between 1841 and 1846 he brought 
out" his Bells and Pomegranates, containing three 
plays, four tragedies, and a number of Dramatic 
Romances and Lyrics, including some of his most 
popular pieces. A Blot in the 'Scutcheon was pro¬ 
duced by Macready at Drury Lane on the 11th of 
February, 1843, but it was not a success, and was the 
occasion of lasting estrangement between Browning 
and his actor-friend. In 1846 occurred his marriage 
with Elizabeth Barrett (see above) ; thenceforward, 
for nearly fifteen years, Florence was his home, 
though lie occasionally visited England. In 1850 
two of his longest religious poems, Christmas Eve 
and Easter Day, saw the light; in 1852 he wrote 







Brownson. 


( 218 ) 


Bruce. 


a prose introduction to some Letters of Shelley, 
afterwards shown to be spurious; and in 1855 
appeared the poems by which, with some of the 
Dramatic Romances and Lyrics, he will probably be 
best known to posterity, his Men and Women. 
Dramatis Personte followed in 1864. In 1868 his 
longest work, The Ring and the Booh, in four vols. 
(21,116 lines), began to appear, being completed in 
1869. In 1871 he produced Nerve Riel, Balaus- 
t ion's Adventure, and Prince Nohenstiel-Schwangau; 
in 1872, Fifine at the Fair; in 1873, Red Cotton 
Night-cap Country ; in 1875, Aristophanes' Apology, 
and The Inn Album ; in 1876, Pacchiarotto, and 
other poems; in 1877, another translation, The 
Agamemnon of TFschylus ; in 1878, La Saisiaz, with 
The Two Poets of Croisic; and in 1879, the first set 
of Dramatic Idylls, a second series appearing in 
1880. In 1883 was published Jocoseria; in 1884, 
Ferishtah's Fancies; in 1887, Parleyings; and in 
1889, Asolando. The poet’s death took place at 
Venice, on the day Asolando appeared, but not 
before the news of its realised success had been 
communicated to him. As he could not be buried 
with his wife at Florence, he was brought home 
to England and interred in Westminster Abbey 
on the last day of the year. The time is not yet 
ripe, nor nearly ripe, for determining Browning’s 
precise place among English poets. It was not till 
more than a generation after the appearance of 
Pauline that he was accepted in England as a 
great writer of verse ; but for some years before his 
death he had come to be regarded as one of the 
two greatest Victorian poets. His works written 
for the stage, though vivid and sinewy, are often 
marred by over-subtlety, and are not likely to gain a 
foothold there. His genius probably touched its high- 
water mark in the Men and Women, for although 
The Ring and the Booh abounds with passages and 
even whole sections of rare splendour and power, the 
scheme of the poem is metaphysical rather than 
poetic. His workmanship was undeniably defective, 
although on the other hand it must be said that to 
him poetry is indebted for a new sense of the capa¬ 
bility of an important poetic form, the monologue ; 
and that his command of rhymes, and particularly 
of grotesque rhymes, was quite exceptional. What¬ 
ever be the rank assigned him by posterity in the 
poetic hierarchy, it is difficult, when we think 
of the number and quality and variety of his gifts, 
and of his amazing fertility, not to feel that in 
endowment, as distinct from achievement, he was 
superior to any English poet since Milton. 

Brownson, Orestes Augustus, writer, was 
born in 1803, at Stockbridge, Vermont. He adopted 
at different times various shades of religious opinion, 
being successively a Presbyterian, Universalist, 
Unitarian, and Roman Catholic. Amongst his 
writings were The Spirit-Rap per and The American 
Republic, its Constitution , Tendencies, and Destiny. 
He died in 1876 at Detroit. 

Bruat, Arm and J., French naval officer, was 
born in 1796. As vice-admiral he commanded the 
French fleet in the Black Sea, in 1855, and co¬ 
operated with Rear-Admiral Sir Edmund Lyons in 


the operations against Kertch, Yenikale, Berdiansk, 
Anapa, etc., and against Sevastopol; and was 
present at the capture of Kinburn. He died towards 
the close of the same year. 

Bruce, the name of a family descended from a 
Norman knight, Robert de Brus, who came over 
with the Conqueror, and who obtained extensive 
grants of lands in Northumberland. Later the 
family received additional grants in Annandale from 
David I., and so took rank among the territorial 
lords of Scotland. Among the more renowned of 
the Bruces were :—(1) Robert Bruce, who was 
born in 1210, and was the rival of John Baliol for 
the Scottish crown on the death of Margaret, “ the 
Maiden of Norway.” He claimed as the grandson 
of David, Earl of Huntingdon, by the second 
daughter Isabel, while Baliol claimed as the great- 
grandson by the eldest daughter. Edward I. 
arbitrated in favour of Baliol in 1292, and to avoid 
swearing fealty to Baliol, Bruce, who died in 1295, 
resigned his Annandale estate to his eldest son. 
(2) Robert Bruce, Earl of Carrick, eldest son of 
the preceding, accompanied Edward I. to Palestine 
in 1269, and fought on the side of the English in 
the battle of Dunbar, when he applied in vain to 
Edward for the Scottish crown. He married 
Marjory, Countess of Carrick, in 1271, and died in 
1304, the eldest son being (3) Robert Bruce, one 
of the most famous kings of Scotland. He was born 
in 1274. In 1296, as Earl of Carrick, he paid homage 
to Edward I., and in the following year assisted the 
English against Wallace. In 1298, however, he 
joined the national party, and in 1299 became one 
of the four regents of Scotland, of which John 
Comyn, nephew of Baliol, was the chief. For 
several years Bruce kept up an appearance of 
fidelity to Edward, and sometimes even resided at 
his Court, but the final severance came in 1306, 
when Bruce stabbed his rival Comyn. In the same 
year he was crowned king at Scone, and an English 
army was sent against him. Defeated twice, he 
disbanded his followers, and retired to Rathlin 
Island, on the N. coast of Ireland. Here he 
remained all winter, and he was supposed to have 
died, when suddenly in the spring of 1307 he landed 
on the Carrick coast and defeated the English at 
Loudon Hill. He soon cleared the English garrisons 
out of Scotland, excepting that stationed at Stirling 
Castle. It was to the relief of this garrison that the 
English forces were advancing under Edward II. in 
1314, when Bruce encountered them at Bannock¬ 
burn (q.v.) on June 24th. In 1317 he went to 
Ireland to the aid of his brother Edward, who was 
king of that country, and on his return made 
reprisals upon England for her inroads upon Scot¬ 
land during his absence. At last, in 1328, by the 
treaty of Northampton, the independence of Scot¬ 
land and Bruce’s right to the throne were recognised. 
He himself fell a victim to leprosy, and in 1329 died 
at Cardross castle, on the Firth of Clyde. He was 
married—first to Isabella, a daughter of the Earl of 
Mar, by whom he had a daughter, Marjory, the 
mother of Robert II. ; second to Elizabeth, daughter 
of Aymer de Burgh, Earl of Ulster, by whom he had 
a son, David II. 





Bruce. 


( 219 ) 


Briihl. 


Bruce, Edward, King of Ireland, and brother of 
Robert I. of Scotland, was in 1315 offered the 
crown of Ireland by the Ulster chiefs on condition 
of his aiding them against the English. After his 
successes he was crowned in 1316 at Carrickfergus. 
Two years later, however, he was slain at Dundalk 
in battle. 

Bruce, James, traveller, was born in 1730, at 
Kinnaird, Stirlingshire. Educated at Harrow and 
Edinburgh University, he began business in London 
as a wine merchant. In 1763 he became consul- 
general at Algiers, and in 1768 set out for Cairo, 
navigated the Nile as far as Syene, crossed the 
desert to the Red Sea, and after spending some 
months in Arabia Felix arrived at the Abyssinian 
capital, Gondar, in 1770. In the same year he 
reached the sources of the Abawi, which he 
mistook for the source of the Nile. After quite a 
couple of years’ enforced stay in Abyssinia, he 
returned to Cairo, and, visiting France and Italy, to 
Scotland in 1774. In 1790 his Travels to Discover 
the Sources of the Nile in the years 1768-73 were 
published, and excited the incredulity of many on 
account of the curious accounts of the manners and 
customs of the Abyssinians. Though he received 
the personal notice of the king, he was hurt, on 
his return, that no honour was conferred on him, 
and it was only the instigation of friends and the 
need of occupying his mind that induced him to 
write his travels. He died at Kinnaird of a fall on 
the stairs in 1794. 

Bruce, Michael, poet, was born in 1746 at 
Kinneswood, in the parish of Portmoak, Kinross- 
shire. Though only a weaver’s son and a herd boy, 
he yet in 1762 managed to go to Edinburgh Univer¬ 
sity. In 1765, his ultimate aim being the ministry, he 
became schoolmaster, but died in two years. His 
poems, of which the chief was the Elegy on his own 
approaching death, were published in 1770 by the 
Rev. John Logan. Among the collection was an 
Ode to the Cuckoo, which Logan claimed as his own, 
and the real authorship of which, whether Bruce's 
or Logan’s, is among the vexed questions of literary 
controversy. 

Bruchsal, a town of the Grand Duchy of Baden, 
is situated on the Salzbach, and is 14 miles from 
Carlsruhe. From the eleventh to the beginning of 
the present century it was the seat of the Bishop 
of Spires. It has an old castle of the twelfth 
century, now a prison, and does a considerable trade 
in cigars and wine. There is also a line palace 
belonging to the Grand Duke of Baden. 

Brucine, an alkaloid of composition Co.jHo (1 N 2 0 4 , 
found with several others in nux vomica and St. 
Ignatius’ bean. It crystallises in prisms, soluble in 
water and alcohol, and is characterised by giving 
a fine red colour with nitric acid. It is closely 
allied in its action to strychnine (q.v.), but is more 
readily soluble than the latter. 

Briickenan, a small town and watering-place 
of Bavaria, is situated on the Sinn, and is 16 miles 
north-west of Kissingen. The mineral springs are 
recommended mainly for nervous and cutaneous 
affections. 


Brueys, Francois Paul, a very gallant French 
naval officer, was born in 1753. In 1797, as rear- 
admiral, he cruised in command of a squadron in the 
Mediterranean, and in the following year, as vice- 
admiral, in the Orient , 120, commanded the fleet 
which was practically destroyed by Lord Nelson at 
the battle of the Nile on August 1st. In that action 
he was twice severely wounded, and later was almost 
cut in two by a round shot. He declined to go 
below, saying: “A French admiral should die on 
his quarter-deck; ” and in a quarter of an hour he 
breathed his last. 

Bruges, one of the most flourishing commercial 
cities of Belgium, is situated in a fertile plain which 
is intersected by the canals of Ghent, Ostend, and 
Sluys. These connect the city with the sea, which 
is about eight miles away, and over them are up¬ 
wards of fifty swing bridges to allow the passage of 
vessels. It is from the circumstance of having so 
many bridges that Bruges derives its name. It has 
also some remarkable buildings, not eworthy amongst 
which are the church of Notre Dame, with its lofty 
spire and tomb of Charles the Bold, the cathedral 
of St. Sauveur, containing the stalls of the Knights 
of the Golden Fleece, the Halles, in whose Gothic 
belfry are the finest chimes in the world, and the 
Hotel de Ville, with a library of 100,000 volumes. 
There are also interesting art works by Jan van 
Eyck, Mending, the Van Oosts, and Michael Angelo, 
to whom the sculpture of the Virgin and Child in 
the church of Notre Dame is attributed. Among 
its manufactures are lace, for which it is celebrated, 
linens, woollens, cottons, starch, distillery, sugar¬ 
refining, and shipbuilding; and its canal communi¬ 
cations and position at the junction of several 
railways make it a great trading centre. It dates 
from the third cent ury, and became a leading mart 
of the Hanseatic League, and the centre of the 
commercial world—a position that it lost through 
the blighting breath of religious persecution. It 
became incorporated with Belgium in 1830. 

Brugg, a Swiss town in the canton of Aargau, 
is situated on the Aar. It is near the site of 
Vindonissa , the leading Roman station in Helvetia, 
and also the Abbey of Konigsfelden, in whose 
vaults are interred many members of the House of 
Hapsburg. 

Brugsch, Heinrich Karl, Egyptologist, was 
born in 1827 at Berlin. He first went to Egypt in 
1853, and engaged in Mariettas excavations at 
Memphis. After a journey to Persia in 1860 he 
was appointed to the chair of Oriental languages at 
Gottingen. In 1869 he again returned to Egypt, 
not coming back till 1883, when he had been 
created a bey and a pasha by the Egyptian govern¬ 
ment. Among his numerous works, which are of 
the first rank, the chief are Geographische In- 
schriften altdg yptischer Denkmdler, Geschichte 
Egyptens unter den Pharaonen, Dictionnaire Gco- 
graphique de Vancienne Egypte, Travels in Egypt, 
Demotic Grammar, and Demotic and Hieroglyphic 
Dictionary. 

Briihl, Heinrich, Count von, statesman, was 
born in 1700 at Weissenfels. Having served as a 







Bruix. 


( 220 ) 


Brunelleschi. 


page to the Duchess of Saxe-Weissenfels, he rose 
by his tact to the position of prime minister of 
Augustus III., King of Poland, to gratify whose 
profligate wishes he recklessly squandered the 
resources of the state. Briihl also enriched him¬ 
self and lived in greater magnificence than even 
the king himself. His library of 62,000 volumes is 
now one of the chief features of the royal library 
at Dresden. He died in 1763. 

Bruix, Eustache de, a distinguished French 
naval officer, was born in 1759, and was a commo¬ 
dore in the first republican fleet that put to sea in 
1793. He was a rear-admiral in Yillaret’s fleet in 
the action with Lord Bridport off the Isle of Groix in 
1795, and next year commanded the fleet in Toulon. 
From April 28th, 1798, to March 14th, 1799, as vice- 
admiral, he was minister of mai'ine, and was ex¬ 
ceedingly active. In 1799 he commanded (with 
five rear-admirals under him) the fleet which left 
Brest on April 25th, and entered the Mediterranean. 
He was afterwards in command of the enormous 
flotilla which was destined for the invasion of 
England. He died in 1805. 

Brumaire, the name adopted in 1793 by the 
first French republic for the second month of the 
republican year, extending from October 23rd to 
November 24th. The eighteenth Brumaire of the 
eighth year of the republic (November 9th, 1799) was 
the date of the establishment of Napoleon’s power. 

Brummell, George Bryan, “Beau Brummell,” 
was born in 1778 in London. Educated at Eton 
and Oxford, he became acquainted with the Prince 
of Wales, afterwards George IV., and was made by 
him a comet in the 10th Hussars, the Prince’s own 
regiment. Under such a patron and with the 
assistance of £30,000 left him on his father’s death 
in 1794. he rapidly rose in society. At last he and 
the Pi'ince quaiTelled in 1813, and Brummell had to 
seek refuge fi*om his creditors in Calais, where he 
was partly supported by remittances from his 
friends and partly by the remains of his patrimony. 
In 1830 he was appointed consul at Caen, but on 
the post being abolished he was reduced to destitu¬ 
tion, and died in 1840, in the lunatic asylum of 
that city. 

Brunai, a territory of N.W. Borneo, covers an 
area of 18,000 square miles. The name of the 
capital is Brunai, or Brunei, and it stands on a river 
of the same name. The inhabitants are chiefly 
Mohammedans. [Borneo.] 

Brunanburh, the scene of a battle fought in 
937, between Athelstan and the Danes, Scots, and 
Celts. Its locality is not known, though an account 
of the engagement is preserved in the Anglo-Saxon 
Chronicle. 

Brunck, Richard Franz Philip, scholar, was 
born in 1729 at Strasburg. After some military 
service in the Seven Years’ war, he resumed his 
studies and became an able critic and commentator 
of the classics. He published useful editions of 
Virgil, Apollonius Rhodius, Anacreon, Aristophanes, 
Sophocles, etc. His studies were interrupted by 
the Revolution, and during the Terror he was 


imprisoned. After his liberation he was so reduced 
that he was obliged to sell his library. He died in 
1803 at Strasburg. 

Brune, Guillaume Marie Anne, French 
marshal, was born in 1763 at Brives-la-Gaillarde. 
Entei*ing the army in 1793, he saw service in the 
Vendean war, and in Italy under Massena. In 
1799 became commander of the army in Holland, 
from the northern part of which he drove the 
British and Russian forces. So signal were his 
services that in 1804 he received a marshal’s baton, 
and in 1807 became governor-general of the 
Hanseatic towns. On Napoleon’s return fi'om Elba 
he was placed in command in the S. of France, 
which he was compelled to surrender after 
Waterloo. Setting out for Paris, he was attacked 
by a mob of royalists, who brutally murdered him 
on August 2, 1815, at Avignon. 

Brunei, Isambard Kingdom, engineei', was 
born in 1806 at Portsmouth. At the age of twenty 
he assisted his father, Sir Marc Isambard Brunei, 
in the building of the Thames Tunnel; and as 
engineer to the Great Western Railway, to which 
he"was appointed in 1833, he carried out his plans 
for the broad-gauge system, and had the construc¬ 
tion of all the works on the line. Among his chief 
works were the Great Western , the first steamship 
employed in regular Atlantic service ; the Great 
Britain , the first large vessel with a screw propeller; 
and the Great Eastern. He also built Hungerford 
bridge at Charing Cross, the Clifton suspension 
bridge, and some of our principal docks. He died 
in 1859. 

Brunei, Sir Marc Isambard, engineer, was 
born near Rouen in 1769. Eai'ly exhibiting an 
aptitude for mechanics, he in 1786 entered the 
French navy. During the time of the revolution 
he found it necessary to flee for safety to the United 
States, and there, in 1794, his engineering career 
began in connection with the canal leading from 
Lake Champlain to the Hudson at Albany. In 
1799, coming to England, he was employed by the 
British Government in making block-pulleys for 
ships by machinery, according to plans of his own, 
instead of, as formerly, by hand. His machinery for 
this purpose—which was completed in 1806, and 
which on the first year’s work saved about £24,000— 
is still used ; and as a reward for his invention he 
received from Government £17,000. Besides being 
employed upon works of public utility, he also 
invented machines for making shoes without seams, 
wooden boxes, nails, and other minor ingenuities. 
His leading achievement, lxowevei*, was the Thames 
Tunnel, an undertaking twice previously attempted. 
This was begun in 1825, and completed in 1843. 
Amongst honours that befel Brunei wei'e his 
appointment as fellow of the Royal Society in 1814, 
and as vice-president in 1832, and a knighthood in 
1841 ; he also belonged to various foreign societies. 
He died in 1849. 

Brunelleschi, Filippo, architect, was born in 
1377 at Florence. After being a goldsmith and a 
sculptor, he turned his sole attention to architecture, 
and visiting Rome with Donatello, he became 





Brunhilda. 


( 221 ) 


Bruno. 


inspired with the traditions of the classical period, 
which he sought to revive in architecture. His 
great work was the dome of the cathedral of Santa 
Maria at Florence, founded in 1296, entrusted to 
him about 1407. The possibility of this dome—the 
largest diametrically in the world and the model 
followed by Michael Angelo in the construction of 
St. Peter’s—was denied by other architects, but, 
excepting the lantern in tiie summit, Brunelleschi 
lived to see it completed. Among other of his 
works were the Pitti Palace at Florence, the 
churches of San Lorenzo and Spirito Santo, and the 
Capella dei Pazza. He died in 1446, and was buried 
in the church of Santa Maria. 

Brunhilda, (1) in the epic poem, the Nibelun- 
genlied, the Queen of Iceland, and instigator through 
jealousy of the murder of her former lover Sigurd. 
(2) Wife of Sigebert, King of Austrasia. She, as 
regent for her grandsons, Theodebert II., King of 
Austrasia, and Theodoric II., King of Burgundy, at 
the beginning of the 7th century, shared with 
Fredegond, the former mistress of the King of 
Neustria, and regent for the young Clotaire II., 
and Brunhilda’s later rival, in the ruling of the 
whole Frankish world. In 613 she was overthrown 
by the Austrasian nobility and put to death. 

Bruni, Leonardo, scholar, was born in 1369 
at Arezzo, and is generally named, in consequence, 
Leonardo Aretino. He became in 1405 papal 
secretary, serving as such under four popes, and 
from 1427 till his death in 1444 was secretary to 
the Florentine republic. Besides his History of 
Florence and translations of leading Greek authors, 
he wrote biographies of Petrarch and Dante, and 
various other works of an historical character. 

Brunig, a pass in Switzerland, connects the 
Bernese Oberland and the Forest Cantons. A rail¬ 
way was opened through it in 1888. 

Brunn, city of Austria, capital of Moravia, is 
situated at the junction of the Schwarzawa and 
the Zwittawa, by which rivers it is nearly sur¬ 
rounded. Besides a cathedral and other interesting 
ecclesiastical edifices, it has on the Spielberg, a hill 
behind the city, the castle in which Silvio Pellico 
was confined for about eight years. It is also one of 
the chief centres of the woollen industry in Austria, 
and is thereby known sometimes as the Moravian 
Leeds. Its Stadttheater, opened 1882, is the first 
theatre on the Continent that was lit by electricity. 
It was Napoleon’s headquarters in 1805 before the 
battle of Austerlitz. 

Brunne, Robert of, a monk, belonged to the 
order of St. Gilbert of Sempringham, and flourished 
in the time of Edwards II. and III. His real name 
was Robert Mannyng, and his monastery was near 
the site of Bourn, Lincolnshire. He wrote amongst 
other things a book of moral anecdotes, entitled, 
Handlynge Synne , and is noted for his deliberate 
adoption of English instead of French, so that, as 
he said, the common people might “ haf solace and 
gamen in felauschip when tha sit samen.” 

Brunnow, Philip, Count von, diplomatist, 
was born in 1797 at Dresden. Entering the Russian 
service in 1818, he in 1839 was sent to London 


on special business, becoming the accredited 
Russian ambassador. Leaving London at the 
commencement of the war in 1854, he jointly with 
Count Orloff represented Russia in 1856 at the 
conference of Paris. At the London conferences of 
1864 and 1871 he was again Russia’s representative. 
He died in 1875 at Darmstadt. 

Bruno, Giordano (born about 1458 at Nola), 
an Italian free-thinking eclectic philosopher of the 
Renaissance. Partly adopting principles culled here 
and there from ancient philosophies, and partly 
working out a theory of his own, he was a determined 
opponent of the scholastic philosophy of the day. 
Very early in life he entered the Dominican order, but 
his advanced views soon caused his expulsion from 
the order and his flight from Italy. He tried to find 
refuge in Geneva, but found no favour in the eyes 
of the Calvinists, and wandered on, finally reaching 
Paris in 1579, where he was offered a chair of 
philosophy upon conditions that he did not see fit 
to accept, although he certainly delivered lectures 
there upon logic. In 1583 he went to England 
under the protection of Michel de Castelnau, the 
French ambassador, where he remained for about 
two years, and made the acquaintance of Sir Philip 
Sidney and other worthies. H*e was naturally little 
pleased with what he considered the pedantic 
devotion to Aristotle which prevailed at Oxford, 
and he held a disputation there as to the compara¬ 
tive merits of the Aristotelian and Copernican 
systems of the universe. In 1586 he returned with 
De Castelnau to Paris, but very soon wandered, or 
was driven, on to Marburg. Wittenberg, Prague, and 
Zurich, from which place he accepted an invitation 
to Venice. Here he fell into the hands of the 
Inquisition, and was brought to Rome in 1593. 
After seven years of imprisonment he was excom¬ 
municated, and is said, but the point is doubtful, to 
have been burnt at the stake in 1600. His system 
of logic, though it professed to be based upon 
rationalistic principles, shows traces of the 
Platonic theory of ideas, and is tinged with the 
colours derived from other systems. He was the 
forerunner of what has been called Spinozism, and 
his fundamental idea was to find the unity that lies 
at the bottom of all phenomena. Like most others 
who have thought and written upon philosophy, his 
ideas changed and developed. He appears to have 
changed from a kind of pantheism, in which matter 
and the informing intelligence are hardly distin¬ 
guishable, to a theory by which the phenomena of 
matter are the manifestation and realisation of a 
Divine intelligence. Among his chief works wei’e 
Asli- Wednesday Table Talk , an exposition of the 
Copernican theory; Expulsion of the Triumphant 
Beast; On the One Sole Cause of Things; On the 
Infinity of the Universe and of Worlds ; etc. 

Bruno, Saint (1040-1101), the founder of the 
Carthusian Order. He was born and educated at 
Cologne, and at Rheims was appointed rector of 
studies in the schools of the diocese. In 1084 he 
retired with six companions to a mountain solitude 
near Grenoble, where he and they entered upon a 
life of great strictness, living in cells apart, and 
only meeting upon Sunday. The rule they adopted 







Bruno the Great. 


( 222 ) 


Brush Turkey. 


was that of St. Benedict. In 1089 lie was sum¬ 
moned to Rome by Pope Urban II., who had been 
his pupil, and preferment was offered him, but he 
declined all honours, and withdrew to Calabria, in 
whose solitudes he founded the monastery of “ the 
tower” (Della Torre), where he died. His canoni¬ 
sation was in 1514. 

Bruno the Great (925-968) was the third son 
of the Emperor Henry the Fowler. In the reign of his 
brother Otho I. he became chancellor of the empire 
and Archbishop of Cologne, as well as Duke of 
Lorraine, and he was greatly devoted to the 
advancement of learning and the reformation of the 
monasteries. 

Brunswick, a duchy lying between Prussia, 
Hesse, Hanover, and Saxony, and divided into six 
administrative circles. The southern part of the 
state is mountainous, but much of the rest of it is 
level, and belongs to the basin of the Weser, with 
its tributaries the Aller, the Fuse, the Leine, and 
the Ocker. The Harz has a severe climate, and 
the harvests are a month behind the usual time, 
but in the other parts the temperature is milder, 
and the harvest, cattle-breeding, and the work 
necessary in the forests are the mainstay of the 
people. The Harz mountains produce gold, silver, 
lead, copper, iron, zinc, alum, vitriol, and salt, and 
Halmstadt and Scesen are noted for their mineral 
springs. The chief industries are spinning, weaving 
of flax, and brewing; and next come cloths, 
woollens, chemical products, and glass-work. The 
capital, Brunswick, is the chief seat of trade, and 
good roads, a railway line, and navigable rivers 
contribute to its convenience for commerce. 

The government of Brunswick is a hereditary 
monarchy, and there is a legislative assembly of 
representatives, and the duchy has two votes in the 
federal assembly. The railways and a large pro¬ 
portion of the mines and forests belong to the 
state. Most of the people are of Saxon origin, and 
the natural dialect of the state is Low German. 

The House of Brunswick was founded by Henry 
the Lion, and his grandson Otho, in 1235, was the 
first to hold the dukedom of Brunswick as a fief of 
the Empire. During the general upset of Europe 
consequent upon Napoleon’s actions the duchy 
of Brunswick formed part of the kingdom of 
Westphalia till after the battle of Leipsic, when 
the duchy was restored to Frederick William, son 
of Duke Charles William, who was killed at Auer- 
stadt, and for whom his troops adopted the mourn¬ 
ing uniform which gave them the name of “ Black 
Brunswickers.” On the death of Frederick William 
at Quatre Bras his possessions passed to his son 
Charles Frederick, who abdicated in 1831, and, 
after a life notorious for its many eccentricities, 
died childless in Geneva in 1873. At present the 
ducal seat is in abeyance, since, after the death, in 
1884, of the last Duke William the succession 
passed to the Duke of Cumberland, son of the de¬ 
throned king of Hanover, who refuses to recognise 
the new German constitution. In 1885 Prince 
Albrecht was made regent of the duchy. 

Brunswick, capital of the above-mentioned 
cluchy, is on the Ocker, 143 miles from Berlin, and 


37 miles S.E. of Hanover. It is an old city, once a 
Hanseatic town and of much importance while the 
Hanseatic league prospered. It is irregularly built, 
and was contained by fortifications which, as at 
Brussels, Antwerp, and elsewhere, have now be¬ 
come boulevards and promenades. It contains 
a university, an institute of forests and of agri¬ 
culture, and has an increasing trade in cloth, 
linen, gloves, mirrors, lacquer ware, tinplate, 
straw hats, tobacco, and beer, especially the beer 
called Mumme, which is a speciality of Brunswick. 
Of its public buildings the cathedral of St. Blaise, 
begun by Henry the Lion in 1176 and finished in 
1469, is notable. In it is the tomb of Henry the 
Lion and his wife Matilda, daughter of Richard 
Coeur de Lion. Some interesting wall paintings 
were discovered about forty years ago, buried 
beneath a coat of whitewash. The original ducal 
palace is now barracks, but there is a modern 
palace. The Rathhaus is an old Gothic building 
and has some interesting statues from Henry the 
Fowler downwards, and the Cloth Hall is a good 
specimen of mediaeval architecture. There are 
several other noteworthy churches in the town, 
among them St. Magnus’s (1031) and St. Andrew’s, 
with a spire of 318 feet. 

Brush, an instrument of varying sizes and 
shapes used for various purposes. When employed 
for the removal of dirt or dust, stiff hairs or fibres 
are generally used, hogs’ bristles, wires, vegetable 
fibres, strips of whalebone, etc., being the principal 
materials for manufacture. For soft-haired brushes, 
such as are used by painters, the hairs of the camel, 
squirrel, badger, goat, polecat, etc., are required. 

Brush Discharge, in Electricity , means the 
discharge of the electricity from a charged body 
into the surrounding air or other gas, by a process 
of connection. It will take place most vigorously 
at the points or corners of the body, for at such 
places on the surface of a conductor the density of 
the electrical charge is greatest. Particles of air 
near some such point are electrified by induction 
and drawn into contact with the conductor, there¬ 
by receiving part of the charge. Possessing this, 
they are repelled on account of the tendency for 
two quantities of electricity of the same kind to 
increase their distance apart. Thus the charge in 
the body is carried off by the air, currents of 
which may be readily observed to proceed from the 
sharp corners and points during discharge. The 
brush discharge is faintly luminous, very small 
sparks occurring at the contact of the air particles 
with the conductor. [Electricity, Induction, 
St. Elmo’s Fire.] 

Brush System. [Electric Lighting.] 

Brush Turkey, any individual or species of 
Talegallus, a genus of Megapodes (q.v.), with one 
species from East Australia and another from New 
Guinea. The popular name was conferred by 
the settlers on the first species from the sombre 
plumage and the wattles on the head and neck. 
These birds may be generally seen in the Zoological 
Gardens, Regent’s Park. 









Brussels. 


( 223 ) 


Brussels. 


Brussels, the capital of the kingdom of 
Belgium, and the chief town of South Brabant, is 
about 50 miles from the sea, 27 from Antwerp, and 
193 from Paris. It is on the top and sides of a hill 
sloping down towards the little river Senne, which 
is now arched over; and besides being the centre 
of the Belgian railway system, which keeps it in 
touch with France, Germany, and England, it has 
canals connecting it with Charleroi and the Sambre, 
and with Ant werp by way of the Rupel, which com¬ 
municates with the Scheldt at Rupelmonde a few 


is sometimes called a miniature Paris, and Paris 
is the city whibh it takes as a model; and 
though the park at Brussels with its Wauxhall 
cannot rival the Bois of Paris, it is not without its 
charms. The Grande Place, with its market and 
its noble town hall, and surrounded by buildings 
dating from the Spanish occupation, was the scene 
of the execution of Counts Egmont and Hoorn, and 
the Place des Martyrs contains the monument com¬ 
memorating those who fell in the revolution of 
1830. The king’s palace is near the park, and a 



HOTEL DE VILLE, BRUSSELS. 


miles above Antwerp. The cradle of the city was a 
little marshy island called Broeksel, close to the 
Senne, where there was a church in 610; but it has 
now grown and extended so as to form with its 
suburbs a population of 450,000. The town is 
divided into the Old or Lower Town, and the new 
or Upper, which is approached by the street Mon¬ 
tague de la Cour. The lower town is the more 
ancient, and from an archaeological point of view 
the more interesting, and naturally the more un¬ 
healthy ; the Upper Town contains most of the 
public buildings, and the fashionable part of the 
community. The old fortifications now form a 
series of boulevards surrounding the town, and a 
circular railway leads from the chief stations of 
the north and south to the station de Luxembourg, 
which terminates the line from Namur, Arlon, 
and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. Brussels 


fine street leads from the Place Royale to the new 
Palais de Justice, one of the finest buildings in 
Europe, which cost more than £2, 000,000. Its 
surroundings are not yet all that could be desired, 
since it is situated in a somewhat squalid part of 
the city; these are being gradually cleared away, 
and doubtless the quarter will try to live up to 
the Palais. The terraces of the Palais command 
a splendid view of the country round Brussels 
especially in the direction of Soignies, Groenendael, 
and Waterloo. The Place de la Monnaie contains 
the Mint, the Exchange, and the Theatre de la 
Monnaie. The church of St. Gudule is of the 13tli 
century, and was the scene of the meeting of the 
first chapter of the Golden Fleece. Its carved 
pulpit is a wonderfully elaborate structure, and is 
considered to be the masterpiece of Verbruggen. 
Brussels has many good fountains and other public- 






















Brussels Sprouts. 


( 224 ) 


Brydges. 


monuments, among which is the quaint little 
Mannekin Pis, who is said to be the oldest citizen 
of the town, and wears a special dress upon gala 
days. The Allee Verte in the Lower Town is an 
agreeable promenade, which runs parallel with the 
Mechlin canal, and leads towards Laeken, where 
the royal family chiefly reside. A visit to Brussels 
would not be complete without seeing the Musee 
Wiertz, in the Quartier Leopold, containing the 
weird pictures of the most eccentric of Belgian 
painters. The Quartier Marollien, too, is worth a 
visit if it is only to hear the curious patois, said to 
be a mixture of Spanish, Flemish, English, and 
Walloon, and throwing a curious light on the past 
history of Brussels. The town is of considerable 
manufacturing importance, among its industries 
being the making of steam-engines and railway 
material, refining of sugar, the working of cotton 
and wool, porcelain, and the brewing of beer, 
especially the noted Lambic and Faro. The 
Brussels carpets are chiefly made elsewhere ; but a 
good deal of Brussels lace is really made in Brussels 
and the neighbourhood. There is also a good deal 
of carriage building. It was under Charles Y. that 
Brussels became the capital of the Netherlands ; 
and for the fifteen years between the downfall of 
Napoleon and the revolution, the Hague and 
Brussels were alternately the seat of government. 

Brussels Sprouts, a variety of cabbage, 
Jirassica oleracea, forma gem mifcra, producing 
numerous small axillary sprouts, like miniature 
cabbages. It originated in Belgium, and has long 
been cultivated round Brussels, though not long 
generally grown in England. It is known to have 
sprung from the savoy {forma bullata ), is very 
hardy, and is one of our most valued winter 
vegetables. 

Brut, or Brutus, of date unknown. The grand¬ 
son or great-grandson of iEneas, who, after many 
adventures, came to the land now called England, 
and after warring with and overcoming a race of 
giants who lived there, gave the land his own name 
(Britain), and founded the city of New Troy, after¬ 
wards called London. At least, so say Geoffrey of 
Monmouth and other equally veracious historians. 

Brutus, Lucius Junius, a partly historical, 
partly legendary, character of Roman history, in the 
sixth century b.c. He was bitterly opposed to the 
rule of the Tarquins, as Tarquinius Superbus had 
put his elder brother to death and had seized his 
property, and Brutus himself had only escaped 
death by feigning to be an idiot, whence his name— 
“ The Stupid.” When Lucretia was outraged by Sextus 
Tarquinius and killed herself, Brutus threw aside his 
feigned idiocy and put himself at the head of the 
popular movement which drove the Tarquins from 
Rome. He was one of the first two consuls, then 
called praetors, and during his tenure of office he sen¬ 
tenced to death his two sons who had had a share 
in a conspiracy for a restoration of the kings, and 
watched their execution, thus becoming the example 
and model for all stern fathers. He fell in single 
combat with Aruns in the battle that arose from 
the attempt of the Etruscans to restore the Tarquins. 


The matrons of Rome mourned for a year “ the 
avenger of woman’s honour,” and a statue in the 
Capitol was decreed to him. 

Brutus, Marcus Junius (85 b.c.-42 b.c.), a 
descendant of the Brutus above mentioned, who 
was educated carefully, and at first practised as an 
advocate. In the civil war which then raged he 
espoused the side of Pompey, although the latter 
had ordered the death of Brutus’s father. After 
the downfall of Pompey, Julius Caesar took Brutus 
into favour and subsequently appointed him 
governor of Cisalpine Gaul. Although he appears 
to have given satisfaction in his government, the 
profession of politics was not his vocation, and like 
many other studious men who adopt that line, his 
theories lacked the tempering alloy of practical 
wisdom, and he became a dangerous visionary 
ready at once as a tool to the hand of the crafty 
Cassius, who lured him into the plot against the 
life of Cresar, his benefactor and intimate friend. 
Forced by popular opinion to fly from Rome, he 
with Cassius held the province of Macedonia against 
Antony and Augustus, but his defeat at the battle 
of Philippi caused him to throw himself upon his 
sword to avoid being taken prisoner. 

Brux, a city of the Austrian kingdom of 
Bohemia, on the river Bila, 70 miles from Prague. 
It consists of the old town and three suburbs, and 
is in the neighbourhood of extensive coal-pits, and 
of mineral springs, including the famous one of 
Seidlitz. The inhabitants are largely employed in 
working the coal, and in preparing the salts for 
exportation. 

Bryant, Jacob (1715-1804), an English man of 
letters, educated at Eton and at King’s College, 
Cambridge, where he graduated (B.A. 1740 and 
M.A. 1744). He returned to Eton as private tutor 
of the Marquis of Blandford, and accompanied him, 
when Duke of Marlborough, to the Continent as 
private secretary. On his return after the Duke’s 
death he received an appointment in the Ordnance, 
and was able to devote himself to his favourite 
pursuit of literature. He was a voluminous writer 
on mythology and its interpretation, and on classical 
and Biblical antiquities, but none of his writings 
lias any permanent value. 

Bryant, William Cullen (1794-1878), 
American poet and journalist, born at Cummington 
in Massachusetts. He was trained for the bar, but 
soon abandoned it for literature, and especially 
journalism. In 1825 he edited the New York 
Review, and afterwards became assistant-editor, 
and in 1829 editor-in-chief of the Evening Post. 
He took a considerable part in the controversy upon 
the slavery question, being upon the anti-slavery 
side. His poems have had much success in America, 
though they cannot be said to have made much 
way in England. 

Brydges, Sir Samuel Egerton (17(52-1837), 
an English antiquary and general man of letters. 
He was born at Wootton House, in Kent, and was 
educated at Maidstone, Canterbury, and Queen’s 
College, Cambridge, and was called to the bar, but 





( 225 ) 


Bryozoa. 


Bryony. 


devoted himself chiefly to literature. He raised an 
unsuccessful claim (or rather persuaded his brother 
to do so) to the barony of Chandos, but in 1814 he 
received a baronetcy. He sat for six years in 
Parliament for the borough of Maidstone, but in 
1818 he went abroad and spent most of the rest of 
his life there, dying eventually at Geneva. He was 
a voluminous writer, publishing both novels and 
poetry, and he also did more useful work as an 
editor, bringing out, among other things, some small 
editions of rare Elizabethan works, and a Censura 
Literaria of old English books, with other works 
of antiquarian interest. He also published an 
autobiography. 

Bryony, the popular name of two very dis¬ 
similar British climbing plants, Bryonia dioica, the 
white or red bryonjq a cucurbitaceous plant, and 
Tavius communis , the black bryony, belonging to 
the monocotvledonous order Bioscoreacece . The 
white bryony, the only British cucurbitad, has a 
tuberous underground stem ; downy, edible, annual 
shoots, resembling asparagus when boiled; ten¬ 
drils ; angular, light-green leaves; dioecious or 
monoecious greenish-yellow pentamerous flowers 
with sinuous anthers and a scarlet berry. The 
tuber and fruit are acrid, emetic and purgative, and 
the former is sometimes sold by herbalists as 
“ mandrake.” The black bryony, the only British 
representative of the yams (. Bioscoreacece ), has also 
an acrid tuber which sends up shoots that are edible 
when boiled. It climbs by twining, having no 
tendrils ; has heart-shaped, acuminate, glossy dark- 
green leaves, which turn bronze-purple in autumn ; 
inconspicuous trimerous flowers in greenish racemes 
and red berries. The name bryony comes from 
the Greek bruo, to grow, in allusion to the rapid 
growth of the annual shoots. 

Bryophyllum, a genus of plants belonging to 
the Crassulacece or house-leek family, having a bell¬ 
shaped, four-cleft calyx, tetramerous corolla and 
numerous glands at the base of its carpels. The 
best-known species is B. calycinum, a native of 
Madagascar, Mauritius, and the Moluccas, the 
fleshy pinnately-lobed leaves of which form buds 
at the notches on their margins capable of growing 
into new plants. This case has often been quoted 
in illustration of the foliar nature of carpels and 
the homology of most ovules with marginal buds. 

Bryophyta, or Muscine^e, one of the main 
divisions or sub-kingdoms of the vegetable kingdom, 
ranking in any linear treatment next above the 
Thallophyta, or Algae and Fungi, and below the 
Pteridophyta, or ferns and fern-allies. They agree 
with the Thallophytes in having only cellular tissue ; 
but many cells in the leaves and stems of Sphagnum 
and some other mosses have spiral thickening- 
bands, as have also the remarkable long fusiform 
cells known as “ elaters,” which occur with the 
spores in most Hepaticae, or liverworts. The leaves 
of mosses have also a long central cell foreshadow¬ 
ing the midrib, and in some of the higher forms 
there is also an axial strand resembling the pro¬ 
cambium of vascular plants. Though the leaves of 
hepatics and of most mosses are only one cell 

39 


thick, a distinct epidermis ” with “ stomata ” or 
transpiration-spores is differentiated on some moss- 
capsules. The marked distinction between stem 
and leaf separates the Bryophyta from almost all 
thallophytes, though in the March anti acece, or 
liverworts proper, the stem is thalloid. Growth bv 
“ innovations,” or new shoots becoming detached 
by the decay of their bases, is common among 
bryophytes, as among algas; whilst the asexual 
production of “ gemmae,” or small groups of cells 
capable of growing into new plants, is particularly 
characteristic of the sub-kingdom. The function 
of roots is performed in this group by simple hair¬ 
like bodies, and the leaves never have the complex 
branching familiar to us in the ferns. From the 
Pteridophyta the Bryophyta are separated in the 
most marked manner by the nature of their “alter¬ 
nation of generations.” The spore of a bryophvte 
generally contains chlorophyll, and on germinating 
on moist earth gives rise to branching green fila¬ 
ments, or protonema , on which buds arise which 
develop into the leafy plant. The reproductive 
organs, or antheridia and archegonia, are developed 
on branches of this leafy plant, which is, there¬ 
fore, the oophore stage, and not the sporophore 
or spore-bearing stage, as is the leafy plant in 
Pteridophyta. The sporophore stage in Bryophyta 
is a mere insignificant appendage to the oophore, 
being little more than the so-called “ capsule ” or 
“ moss-fruit,” whilst in Pteridophyta it is the 
oophore stage, the prothallus, that is small and 
transitory. The archegonium in Bryophyta is 
flask-shaped, with a long neck, and the antheridium 
is an ovoid or club-shaped body with a wall one 
cell thick enclosing numerous spermatocytes , or 
mother-cells, each of which gives rise to one 
spirally-coiled antherozoid. The antherozoids of 
thallophytes are not coiled, and those of pteri- 
dophytes generally more coiled. The archegonia 
and antheridia of bryophytes are generally accom¬ 
panied by barren hair-like bodies or parapliyses 
and surrounded by special pericha-tial leaves. On 
fertilisation the central cell of the archegonium 
does not give rise to cotyledon and radicle, as in 
ferns and flowering plants, but to a mass of cells or 
embryo imbedded in, but not united to, the tissue 
of the oophore, which grows into the spore-con¬ 
taining capsule and its stalk or seta. The arche¬ 
gonium is ruptured, forming a cup or vayinule 
below the seta or a cap or calyptra over the 
capsule. The classes into which the sub-kingdom 
Bryophyta is divided are the Hepaticce, or liver¬ 
worts, the Mnsci, or mosses, and, perhaps, the 
Characecc (q.v.). 

Bryozoa, a class usually placed near the Brachio- 
poda, but of which the exact position in the animal 
kingdom is as yet undecided. Except one genus 
(Loxosoma) the members of this class are compound, 
and live in colonies which may encrust shells or 
stones, but which more often grow into irregular 
plant-like tufts ; when, as is the case with most of 
the English species, the skeleton is composed of 
the horny material known as “ chitin,” the colonies 
are usually mistaken for seaweeds. In their mode 
of life they also closely resemble the Zoophytes of 







Brzezan. 


( 226 ) 


Bucer, 


the class Hydrozoa, and it was not till 1830 that 
their great differences were first discovered by 
Thompson of Cork; the term “ Polyzoa” which he 
used in describing them is, by some English 
authors, adopted as the name of the class. 

Though the colonies (or “ polyzoaria,” as the 
whole skeletons are called) are often of considerable 
size, the separate individuals (zooids or polypites) 
are minute. Each zooid is composed of two coats 
forming a small sac, open at one end; here are 
placed the mouth and anus ; around the former (in 
the Ectoprocta) or around both (in the Entoprocta) 
is a circle or crescent of arms, forming the “ lopho- 
phore;” by the lashing of the cilia (q.v.) with 
which the arms are clothed, currents of water are 
set up, by which the food is obtained and respiration 
effected. The outer coat (ectocyst) may be calca¬ 
reous, chitinous, or gelatinous. It was at one time 
suggested that the zooid, as here described, consisted 
of two individuals, the cell or Cystid, and the diges¬ 
tive animal or Polypid. Though this is improbable, 
a certain amount of dimorphism ( i.e. specialisation 
of certain individuals for special functions) does 
occur ; thus some zooids are modified into “ avicu- 
laria ” (q.v.) or “ bird’s-head processes,” others into 
“ vibracula,” (q.v.) and others into “ oecia,” or 
chambers which serve as marsupial pouches for the 
protection of the eggs. In some fresh water species 
reproduction sometimes occurs by “ statoblasts,” i.e. 
winter eggs which are not fertilised and may be 
regarded as internal buds. The larvce undergo a 
metamorphosis. The Bryozoa are mainly marine. 
The position of the class in the animal kingdom is 
rendered doubtful owing to some peculiar forms 
which some authors include among the lower 
Chordata (q.v.) ; such are the two remarkable genera 
that form the group of the Pterobranchia, and 
Phoronis , the only genus of the Yermiformia, but 
it is probable these are not as closely related to the 
true Bryozoa as was once thought. The true 
Bryozoa are divided into two groups, the Ento¬ 
procta and the Ectoprocta, to which reference 
should be made for the further subdivisions. 

Brzezan, a town of Galicia in Austria, near 
the river Zhota-Lipa, and about 50 miles S.E. of 
Lemberg. It has a considerable trade in leather, 
linen, beer, and brandy. It has Roman Catholic, 
Greek, and Armenian churches, as well as a castle, 
a convent, and a gymnasium. 

Bubaline Antelope (Alcephalus bubalis ), 
formerly made the type of a genus (Bubalis), a 
large reddish-brown antelope from North Africa. 
The name is sometimes extended to the Hartebeest 
(A. caama, a somewhat larger form with a black 
mark on the face and black tail) and the Sassaby 
or Bastard Hartebeest (A. lunatus, purplish-brown 
above, dusky yellow on the under-surface), both 
from South Africa. 

Bubastis, the name of an Egyptian goddess, 
and of a city founded in her honour and called 
after her, and variously considered to have held 
the same position in the Pantheon as Artemis, or 
Athene, or Aphrodite. In the triad of the gods of 
Memphis, she, under the name of Bast, was the 


wife of Ptah, and had a sister Pasht or Sekhet. 
Some consider her to have represented the beneficent 
aspect of fire, others hold that she symbolised 
sexual passion—a view which seems to be the more 
probable. Many figures in porcelain of her as a 
cat-headed goddess have been found both at 
Bubastis and elsewhere, and some bronze coins ot 
the 2nd century have figures of a goddess holding 
in her hand a cat-like animal. 

Bubble Shells, belonging to the genus Bulla, 
the type of the family Bull idee ; they are Gasteropoda 
of the group Opisthobranchia ; they are now widely 
distributed, and have lived since Oolitic times. 

Bubo. [Owl.] 

Bubo, a term applied to the swelling caused by 
inflammation of the lymphatic glands of the groin 
or axilla. 

Buccaneers (Fr. Boucaniers, from boucan, the 
smoke-dried flesh of the wild ox, a staple food and 
article of trade among these people) were the sea- 
rovers of the West Indies during the 17th and 
early 18th centuries. At one period most of 
them were French. In 1625 they seized the island 
of St. Christopher, whence they preyed upon the 
merchant fleets of Spain. About the year 1630 
they also possessed themselves of the northern 
portion of the then Spanish island of San Domingo, 
and formed a kind of pirate republic. As they were 
troublesome in the highest degree to Spanish com¬ 
merce, they were officially, though not always openly, 
favoured by France, and afterwards by Great 
Britain. Their occupation was taken from them 
by the provisions of the treaty of Ryswick in 1697 ; 
and thenceforward, wherever they existed, they 
were pirates, and equally the enemies of all maritime 
nations. The most notable of them were Montbars, 
Peter of Dieppe, Raveneau de Lussan, Francois 
l’Olonnais, Bartolommeo Portuguez, Mansvelt, Henry 
Morgan, Richard Sawkins, William Dampier, and 
Basil Ringrove. Many of them rendered valuable 
service as explorers and navigators, and some, like 
Dampier, and Morgan (who became lieutenant- 
governor of Jamaica, and was knighted) ended 
their lives in lawful pursuits. The vessels of the 
buccaneers were, moreover, valuable schools for 
seamen. 

Buccenum. [Whelk.] 

Bucentaur, the ancient state galley of the 
Doges of Venice, measured 100 ft. by 21 ft., and was 
manned by 168 rowers, rowing four to an oar, and 
by 40 seamen. It was specially used for the annual 
ceremony, performed by the Doge, of “ wedding the 
Adriatic.” 

Bucephalus, the name of the horse of Alex¬ 
ander the Great, who built a town over its remains 
when it died from a wound. 

Bucer, Martin (1491-1551), a German re¬ 
former, born near Strasburg, and, becoming a 
Dominican at 15, went to Heidelberg to carry on 
his studies. He here studied the works of Erasmus 
and Luther, and was present at a disputation held by 
the latter. He joined the Reformed Church, and 










Buceros 


( 227 ) 


Buchanan 


married a min, and took an active part in the affairs 
•of the Reforming party, though he did not entirely 
agree in views with either Luther or Zwingli. In 
1549 he came to England at the invitation of 
Archbishop Cranmer, and was appointed to teach 
theology at Cambridge, where he died and was 
buried, to be exhumed and burnt a few years later. 
His tomb was also demolished, but was rebuilt in 
Queen Elizabeth’s reign. 

Buceros. [Hornbill.] 

Buch, Leopold von (1774-1853), a German 
geographer and geologist. He studied at the Mining- 
school of Freiberg under Werner, having as a fellow 
student Alexander von Humboldt. He joined with 
Humboldt in studying the geological formation of 
his own country, afterwards extending his re¬ 
searches to Italy, France, Scandinavia, the Canary 
Islands, and parts of Great Britain and Ireland. 
His examination of volcanoes and volcanic action 
led him to abandon the Neptunian theory of 
Werner for the theory that volcanic agency had 
much to do with the formation of the present 
features of the world. He established the fact that 
Sweden is steadily rising, and was of opinion that 
the South Sea islands are the remains of a former 
continent. Humboldt considered him the greatest 
geologist of his time. Besides books of travels and 
other geological works, he published in 1832 a 
Geological Map of Germany. 

Buchan, a district in the N.E. of Aberdeenshire, 
between the Deveron and the Ythan. In parts the 
coast is high and abrupt, and the rock scenery 
magnificent. To the S. of Peterhead the sea enters 
through a natural archway into a well 50 ft. in 
diameter and 100 ft. deep, called the Bullers of 
Buchan. The Comyns were earls of Buchan, but 
forfeited the title in 1309. Buchan Ness, three 
miles S. of Peterhead, is the easternmost point of 
Scotland. 

Buchan, David, born 1780, British sailor and 
explorer, entered the navy, and was a lieutenant in 
1806. In 1810 he had command of a schooner on 
the Newfoundland station, and the next year went 
on an exploring expedition into the interior. In 
1818 he started upon a Polar expedition with the 
ships Dorothea and Trent , but could not get farther 
than Spitsbergen. After a few more years upon the 
Newfoundland station he started upon another 
northern voyage, and never came back, and his 
name was struck off the navy list in 1839. 

Buchan, Peter (1790-1854), a printer and 
collector of Scottish ballads. He was born at 
Peterhead, and after publishing a volume of poems, 
and teaching himself the art of engraving and that 
of printing, he set up at Peterhead as a printer in 
1816, where, with the exception of a short time 
spent in London, he carried on a successful busi¬ 
ness. In 1828 he published Ancient Ballads and 
Songs of the North of Scotland, a collection of forty 
new ballads, and some fresh versions of ballads 
printed elsewhere. He also wrote several books, 
among them The Annals of Peterhead. 


Buchanan, Claudius (1756-1815), born near 
Glasgow, and studied at Glasgow and Cambridge, 
was the pioneer in the work of trying to Christian¬ 
ise India. In 1797 he was appointed to a chaplaincy 
in the East India Company’s service, and was 
stationed at Barrackpur. Here he studied Hindu¬ 
stani and Persian, and in 1799 went to Calcutta, 
where he was vice-provost of the college at Fort 
William. After translating the Gospels into Hindu¬ 
stani and Persian, and making tours in S. and W. 
India, he returned in 1808 to England, and suc¬ 
ceeded so far, by preaching and by editing The Star 
of the East, in interesting the country in the subject 
of India, that he lived to see the first English Bishop 
of Calcutta appointed. 

Buchanan, George (1506-1582), Scottish 
scholar and historian, was educated partly in Scot¬ 
land and partly in Paris. He took the degree of 
M.A. at Paris in 1528, and for three years was pro¬ 
fessor in the College of St. Barbe, and then becom¬ 
ing, in 1532, the friend and tutor of Gilbert Kennedy, 
Earl of Cassilis, he returned with his pupil to Scot¬ 
land in 1537. Here, with the approval of the king, 
who made him tutor of one of his sons, he wrote the 
Somnium and the Franciscanns, both of them 
attacks upon monastic life in general and upon the 
Franciscans in particular. This gained him the 
enmity of Cardinal Beaton, and after some persecu¬ 
tion he fled to Paris, and from there to Eordeaux, 
where he was made professor of Latin at the 
College of Guienne. It was at this time that he 
made translations from Medea and Alcestis , and 
wrote two dramas, Jephthah and the Baptist. 
From 1544 to 1547 he was again in Paris, and from 
there he went to the Portuguese university of 
Coimbra. Here he suffered imprisonment in a 
monastery at the hands of the Inquisition, and 
began a version of the Psalms. After another period 
of tuition in Paris he came back to Scotland, and in 
1562 was appointed tutor of Queen Mary, and in 
1566—having now joined the Reformed Church—he 
was appointed principal of St. Leonard’s College, 
St. Andrew’s, by the Earl of Murray, and in the 
next year was, though a layman, made moderator 
of the General Assembly. In 1570 he was appointed 
tutor of James VI., and was for a time director of 
Chancery and Lord Privy Seal. In the question 
between the queen and her brother Murray, 
Buchanan was a partisan of the latter, and his 
Detectio Marias Beg hue was bitter against her. Of 
his works the most famous are a treatise De Jure 
Begni, which lays down the position that kings 
are created by the people and exist for the good 
of the people, a work condemned in 1584 and 
in 1664, and burnt by the scholars at Oxford in 
1683 ; and a History of Scotland, which is of value 
for the period in which the writer makes use of his 
own personal experience. Buchanan was also 
possessed of much poetic power, and his transla¬ 
tions are of considerable merit, while as a Latin 
versifier he had a European renown, and has seldom, 
if ever, been excelled. 

Buchanan, James (1791-1868), American 
statesman, and fifteenth president of the United 
States, was born in Pennsylvania, and was the son 










Buchanan 


( 228 ) 


Buck-bean 


of an Irish farmer who had emigrated from 
Donegal. Educated for the bar, he obtained a 
large practice, in 1814 became a member of the 
State Legislature, and in 1820 was returned as a 
member of Congress. In 1828 he was a supporter 
of General Jackson for the presidential election, and 
the next year he was head of the judiciary committee 
of the House, in which capacity he conducted the 
impeachment of Judge Peck, a “leading case” in 
U.S. constitutional history. In 1832 as envoy 
to Russia he had a share in making the first 
commercial treaty between Russia and the United 
States. On his return he became a senator, and 
in 1845 he was secretary of state under Presi¬ 
dent Polk, and in 1853 United States ambassador 
to Great Britain. In 1856 he returned from 
England and was elected president. It was dur¬ 
ing his administration that the troubles between 
the North and the South came to a head, he 
himself siding with the pro-slavery party. After 
the end of his term of office Mr. Buchanan took 
no further part in public affairs; but in 1866 he 
published an account of his administration. 

Buchanan, Robert, born in Warwickshire in 
1841, a contemporary critic and writer in prose and 
poetry. Educated at Glasgow University, he was 
a great friend of David Gray, and has himself told 
us with what high hopes the pair set out for 
London, and how far these high hopes were 
defeated. Besides many poems, dramas, and 
novels, Mr. Buchanan has written much in maga¬ 
zines, and has displayed a happy talent for 
embroiling himself in controversy, from his attack 
upon Dante Gabriel Rossetti—answered by Mr. 
Swinburne—down to the present day. 

Buchanites, a sect of fanatics which was 
founded in the 18th century by a Mrs. Buchan, of 
Banff. She advocated very extraordinary religious 
views, and by these attracted for a time a few 
followers. They are said to have lived in total 
disregard of morality ; they speedily died out after 
Mrs. Buchan’s death in 1791. 

Bucharest, the capital of Roumania, is 
situated in the valley of the Dimbovitza, a tribu¬ 
tary of the Danube, in lat. 44° 25' N., and long. 
26~ 5' E. It is a picturesque city by reason 
of its many cupolas, minarets, and trees, but is 
badly built, and is only partly paved. It is the 
meeting-place of east and west, and is the principal 
seat of the trade between Austria and the Balkan 
peninsula, though it has no important manufactures 
of its own. The chief articles of trade are cattle, 
coal, grain, hides, metal, timber and textile fabrics. 
The town is fortified, and is making some progress, 
and it has the reputation of being the most dissi¬ 
pated capital of Europe—a fact that may be owing 
to its cosmopolitan nature. The railway system is 
quite young, but is rapidly extending. Founded in 
the 13th century, Bucharest was for a long period 
a bone of contention among Russia, Austria, and 
Turkey, and although things are now more settled, 
its future seems far from being secured. 

Buchez, Philippe Joseph Benjamin (1796- 
18(55), French author and politician, was born in 


the Ardennes, and after a course of general educa¬ 
tion at Paris, devoted himself to natural philosophy 
and medicine. To his studies he united a hanker¬ 
ing after politics and social science. He became 
mixed up with a secret society and was concerned 
in a plot against tlie reigning family which came 
near costing him his life. About 1825 he joined 
the St. Simonian society, and contributed to its 
journal, Le Producteur. Leaving this society, he 
started a periodical called L'Europeen, to advocate 
a system of Christian socialism, and he collaborated 
in the production of a Parliamentary History of the 
French Revolution, a work of considerable historical 
value. After the revolution of 1848 he was for a 
time president of the National Assembly, but soon 
showed that he was not fitted for an active life, and 
returned to his studies. Beyond taking a share in 
writing a treatise on hygiene, he seems to have had 
little to do with strictly medical questions. In 
1839 he published a treatise dealing with philo¬ 
sophy from a Catholic and progressive point of 
view, and seems to have aimed at a unification of 
the different branches of science. One of his 
earliest works was an attempt to elaborate a science 
of history, and one of his latest, a treatise on 
politics, which may be regarded as the complement 
of the philosophical treatise above-mentioned. 

Buchner, Ludwig, German physician and 
materialist, was born at Darmstadt, 1824, and 
after studying at different universities, became 
a lecturer at the University of Tubingen. In con¬ 
sequence of his publication of a work entitled 
Kraft und Staff, in which he set forth a material¬ 
istic theory of the universe, he lost his university 
post and betook himself to the practice of medicine. 
Among the rest of his works are, Natur und Geist . 
Aus Natur und Wissenschaft , a translation of Lyell's 
Antiquity of Man, and treatises on Darwinism, the 
idea of God, and intelligence in animals. 

Buchu, or Bucku, the Hottentot name, adopted 
in medicine since 1821, for the leaves of Rarosma 
crenulata, B. crenata, B. serratifolia, and other 
species, natives of Cape Colony. The genus belongs 
to the rue family, and takes its name from its heavy 
rue-like odour, the evergreen gland-dotted leaves 
containing a volatile oil and a camphor or stearop- 
tene, reputed to be stimulant, tonic, and diuretic, 
and to have a specific effect in chronic diseases of 
the bladder. There are two officinal preparations, 
infusion and tincture. 

Buck, the male of any species of deer, except 
the Red-deer. [Hart, Stag.] Applied attribu- 
tively to the males of goat, rabbit, etc. 

Buckau, in Prussian Saxony, is practically a 
suburb of Magdeburg, and is almost entirely taken 
up with manufactures. 

Buck-Bean, Bog-bean, or Marsh Trefoil 
(Menyanthes trifoliata), a beautiful British plant, 
occurring also from Siberia and N.W. India into- 
North America, the only species of a genus of the 
gentian family. It has a creeping, starchy, 
perennial rhizome ; fleshy ternate leaves something 
like the leaflets of the broad-bean ; a racemose 
scape of pentamerous flowers with petals delicately 






Buckingham. 


( 229 ) 


Buckinghamshire. 


fringed, pink outside and white within ; and a one- 
chambered capsule bursting into two valves. It 
grows in wet bogs or pools, reaching an altitude of 
1,800 ft. in the Lake district. In Lapland the 
rhizome is used as a bread-stuff in times of scarcity ; 
and as the plant shares the bitter tonic properties 
of the rest of the family, its leaves are used in 
Silesia as a substitute for hops, as they were 
formerly in Sweden, whilst they once had a 
reputation as a febrifuge and a remedy for gout 
and rheumatism. 

Buckingham, a market town and municipal 
borough on the left bank of the river Ouse, about 
60 miles from London, and ranking as the capital 
of the county of Bucks. It is a town of great 
antiquity, was fortified by Edward the Elder in 
918, and was captured by the Danes in 1010. It is 
mentioned in Domesday, and was of importance in 
the days of Edward III. as a wool staple, and in 
the reign of Henry VIII. it became a parliamentary 
borough, and sent two members to Parliament till 
1868, when its representation was reduced to one 
member, and since 1885 it sends no member to 
Parliament. The Ouse almost surrounds the town, 
and is crossed by three bridges. There are no 
manufactures of great importance in Buckingham, 
the chief being bone-grinding, malting, and tanning, 
and a certain amount of lace-making is carried on 
in the neighbourhood. The town consists principally 
of one long straggling street, and has no public 
buildings of great note beyond the modern (1781) 
church with a fine spire, and a town hall, also of the 
eighteenth century. There is an endowed free 
school, now incorporated with the national school, 
and a grammar school of Edward VI.'s time. The 
town gave the title of Earl to William Giffard in 
William I.’s reign, and also to a son of Edward III., 
as well as to Marquises and Dukes of Buckingham 
of later dates. 

Buckingham, George Villiers, Duke of 
(1592-1628), the third son of Sir George Villiers, 
courtier and favourite of James I. and Charles I. 
The former of these kings successively knighted 
him and made him a Viscount in 1616, and Marquis 
of Buckingham in 1618. The courtier played his 
cards so well that he became one of the wealthiest 
nobles of England, and had the greatest influence 
with the Prince of Wales, and with the king his 
father, and having married a rich heiress, and 
proved himself a formidable rival to Bacon in the 
king’s favour, he deserted the popular anti-Spanish 
cause, the advocacy of which had just brought him 
into favour, and threw himself entirely into the 
hands of Spain. It was doubtless by his influence 
that the prince and he made their expedition to 
Madrid, with a view to the marriage of the prince 
to the Spanish Infanta, and it was also probably 
under his influence that the determination was 
made to open negotiations with France, and to 
bring about the marriage of Charles and Henrietta 
Maria of France. The deep offence that his rash¬ 
ness in politics had given to the Commons was the 
great cause that embroiled James I. with his later 
parliaments, and led to the first dissolution of his 
parliament by the new King Charles I. Then 


followed the useless expedition to Cadiz, and the 
impeachment of Buckingham by the new parlia¬ 
ment. The Duke’s unsuccessful expedition to the 
Isle of Rhe and his active opposition to the Petition 
of Bight still further incensed parliament against 
him, and led to another dissolution. Then followed 
the last projected expedition for the relief of 
Rochelle, which was brought‘to a sudden end by 
the assassination of the Duke at Portsmouth by 
John Felton. The Duke of Buckingham to a 
boundless conceit and ambition seems to have 
united a buoyancy of temperament and a winning¬ 
ness of manner that carried all before it, and led 
many to have almost as much belief in him as he 
had in himself. His nature was particularly one to 
fascinate a romancer, and, though not strictly 
historical, it is likely that Sir Walter Scott’s sketch 
of him in The Fortunes of Nigel, and that of Dumas 
in The Three Musketeers, gives us as good an idea 
of the man as we are likely to find elsewhere. 

Buckingham, George Villiers, second 
Duke of (1627-1688), after an education at Cam¬ 
bridge and a continental tour, threw in his lot with 
the Koval cause, and shared in its downfall, and the 
exciting adventures and hairbreadth escapes of 
Charles II. He was not without a touch of his 
father’s hardihood and romance, for having lost his 
estates, which were given by Parliament to Lord 
Fairfax, he returned secretly to England and 
married that nobleman’s daughter. With the 
king’s return he received the reward of his loyalty 
and devotion, and became one of the most influential 
men in the country, doing to it and to the king 
about as much harm as he possibly could, more 
perhaps from want of principle and utter fickleness 
than from any badness of heart. That in common 
with the king and the rest of the court he was 
profligate, is, in his case and theirs, as much the 
fault of those who had driven the king and his 
friends to a wandering and shiftless life, and had 
made even the name of virtue hateful in England, 
as it was the fault of those whom a shiftless life of 
recklessness had driven into the adoption of a 
cynical philosophy which stopped at nothing in the 
gratification of its whims and desires. Bucking- 
fiam’s literary works were of considerable merit, 
though there was no love lost between him and 
Dryden, as witness The Rehearsal, and Dryden’s 
portrait of Zimri in Absalom and Ahitophel. 

Buckingham, James Silk (1786-1855), 
traveller, lecturer, and journalist, was born near 
Falmouth, and went to sea at an early age. In 1818 
he established a journal in Calcutta, and was ex¬ 
pelled from Bengal for criticising too freely the 
Indian Government. He afterwards came to 
London and established (1824) The Oriental Herald 
and (1828) The Athenaeum. He then travelled 
in the United States, and returning to England, 
represented Sheffield in Parliament for five years. 
He published several books of travel, and an auto¬ 
biography. 

Buckinghamshire, a county of the south 
Midlands, 58 miles in greatest length, and varying 
from 8£ to 27 miles in breadth, lying between 
Northamptonshire on the N. and Berkshire on the 







Buckland. 


( 230 ) 


Buckle. 


S., and having Oxfordshire on the W., and Bed¬ 
fordshire, Hertfordshire, and Middlesex on the E. 
The county contains about 730 square miles, and is 
of varied aspect, having the range of the Chiltern 
Hills crossing in a north-easterly direction from 
Oxfordshire, and the fertile valley of Aylesbury to 
the N. It is chiefly agricultural, and in the vale of 
Aylesbury a great deal of fattening of cattle and 
breeding of sheep is carried on, while the Aylesbury 
ducks are not without renown. The northern part 
is well-wooded, though the forests of the south, 
which gave the county its name—from the preval¬ 
ence of beech-wood—have been in a great measure 
cleared away. Two great roads pass through Buck¬ 
ingham, the road from London to Chester and 
Holyhead, and the western road from London to 
Bath and Bristol—both of which were of con¬ 
siderable importance in the coaching days, though 
now superseded by the railways. The Grand Junc¬ 
tion Canal passes through the county, and of its 
rivers the Thames—receiving the Colne and the 
Thame—separates it from Berkshire and Surrey, and 
the Ouse, with its tributary Ousel, is in the north. 
The manufactures of Buckinghamshire are not 
very important, the chief being those of lace and 
straw-plait, and from returning fourteen members 
to Parliament in the early part of the present 
century, it now returns only three. The old roads 
Watling Street, Icknield Way, and Akeman Street 
pass through the county, and it has not been 
entirely devoid of historical interest. Hampden is 
buried at Chalfont St. Giles, and here too Milton 
lived and wrote, while Stoke Poges is said to have 
inspired Gray’s Elegy, and Olney is full of reminis¬ 
cences of Cowper. At Slough Herschel’s telescope 
was erected, and Hughenclen calls to our mind Lord 
Beaconsfield and Edmund Burke, and the poet 
Waller. The Duke of Buckingham’s seat at Stowe 
is celebrated for its grounds, and was formerly not 
less so for its art collections, which were, how¬ 
ever, sold in 1852 ; and there are other important 
seats. 

Buckland, Francis Trevelyan (1828-1880), 
surgeon and naturalist, was the son of Dr. Buckland 
mentioned below, and was educated at Winchester 
and Christ Church. He made his medical studies 
at St. George’s Hospital, and was for a time 
assistant-surgeon to the 2nd Life Guards. But it is 
as a naturalist that he is best known, both from his 
writings and his lectures, and the countless anec¬ 
dotes of his sayings and doings with regard to the 
animal world, which provided the most valued 
companions of his daily life. He contributed 
largely to the Field and other papers, and in 1866 
originated Land and Water , perhaps the most 
fascinating of all the sporting papers, since in it 
science is treated rather as the mistress of sport 
than as its handmaid. His Curiosities of Animal 
Life and History and his Notes and Jottings of 
Animal Life are full of vivid interest, and there are 
few boys, whether of smaller or larger growth, to 
whom the name of Frank Buckland is not familiar. 
He interested himself greatly in fishes, and, besides 
starting the Museum of Economic Fish Culture, 
was an inspector of salmon fisheries, and was 


a special commissioner on the salmon fisheries and 
the herring fisheries of Scotland. 

Buckland, William, one of the pioneers of 
English geology, was born at Axminster in 1784, 
and educated at Tiverton grammar school, 
Winchester, and Corpus Christi College, Oxford, 
from which he graduated B.A. in 1805. In 1813 he 
succeeded Dr. Kidd as reader in mineralogy, and 
in 1818 became the first reader in geology in the 
University, being made F.R.S. in the same year. In 
1824 he acted as president to the then newly- 
established Geological Society, as he did also in 
1840, about which time he prominently supported 
Agassiz in his exposition of the former importance 
of ice as a geological agent in Britain. In 1825 
Buckland became" Canon of Christ Church and 
Rector of Stoke Charity, Hants, at the same time 
proceeding D.D., and in 1845 he was promoted to 
the deanery of Westminster and rectory of Islip, 
Oxfordshire. He died in 1856, and was buried at 
Islip. His chief separate works were Reliquite 
Diluvdance , 1823, and the Bridgewater Treatise on 
geology and mineralogy, 1836. He was a man of 
wide sympathies, interested, for example, in agri¬ 
culture and in sanitation, and was an excellent 
teacher. His collections, to the accumulation of 
which he had been enthusiastically devoted, were 
bequeathed to his university. His name is per¬ 
petuated both in that of a recent plant and in that 
of a fossil cycad. His love of nature was largely 
inherited by his son Frank, the founder and for 
many years the editor of Land and Water. 

Buckle, a link of metal with a tongue or a 
catch, used to fasten one thing to another, as in a 
strap. At one time buckles were used instead of 
shoe-strings; and their manufacture soon became 
an important industry. At the close of the 18th 
century, however, fashion changed again, and the 
general use of buckles died out. 

Buckle, Henry Thomas (1821-1862). an Eng¬ 
lish historian, who. self-educated, as it is called, that 
is, going to no school and to no university, owed, 
like many another man of renown, much of his 
inspiration to his mother, and who must in strict¬ 
ness be judged by what he attempted rather than 
by what he accomplished. His weak health inclined 
him to a studious life, and his possession of ample 
means enabled him to gratify his tastes. But 
instead of giving himself up to a life of a luxurious 
dilettantism he addressed himself to no less gigantic 
a task than that of writing the History of Civili¬ 
sation in England , and underwent years of assiduous 
labour in amassing materials for the work. He 
seems to have had an idea of discovering such fixed 
and necessary laws of social development as should 
make it a fixed method; but his own method was 
far from being scientific, and he displays not only 
inconsistency, but an inability to admit the force of 
facts that were hostile to his own theory. His 
position that scepticism is the main lever in social 
progress may be true in the same way that it is true 
that discontent is a great incentive to individual 
advancement, but what has been called his “physical 
fatalism” has caused him unduly to exaggerate 










Buckram. 


( 231 ) 


Bud. 


the force of external conditions. His work did not 
proceed so far as to enter upon the particular 
treatment of civilisation in England, nor even so 
far as to make a general examination of progress in 
England, Scotland, France, Germany, Spain, and 
America, which was part of his plan. The first 
volume of his work appeared in 1857 and the second 
in 1861. but his health had been impaired by grief 
at his mother’s death, and, after a few months’ 
wandering in Egypt and Palestine, he died of fever 
at Damascus. Of his other works may be men¬ 
tioned a lecture delivered at the Royal Institution 
in 1858, on the Influence of Women on the Progress 
of Knowledge , and a review of J. S. Mill’s Essay on 
Liberty , in which he adduces as an argument for 
immortality the yearning for communion with those 
who are gone, although elsewhere he sets little 
value upon the testimony of consciousness. His 
Miscellaneous and. Posthumous Works have been 
published in 1872 and in 1880. 

Buckram, a kind of coarse linen cloth, stif¬ 
fened with gum, used by tailors and milliners to fix 
the shape of bonnets, collars, belts, etc. 

Buckstone, John Baldwin (1802-1879), 
comedian and dramatic writer, made his first 
appearance upon the London stage, after a short 
provincial experience, in 1823, at the Surrey 
theatre. From 1827 to 1833 he was leading low 
comedian at the Adelphi, whence he migrated to 
the Havmarket, which was the chief scene of his 
subsequent labours, and of which he was lessee 
from 1853 to 1878. He also played for short inter¬ 
vals at the Lyceum and at Drury Lane, and in 1840 
he visited the United States. As a writer he 
produced 150 pieces, some of which have been very 
popular ; and as an actor his special merit was the 
distinct individuality which he could throw into his 
different characters. 

Buckthorn, the English name for the species 
of Phamnus. the typical genus of the order Ilham- 
naeere , which are mostly spinous shrubs, and two of 
which, It. catharticus and It. frangula, are natives 
of Britain. They are mostly natives of the northern 
temperate zone, and have simple, petiolate, glabrous, 
pinnately-veined leaves; axillary clusters of 
greenish, often unisexual flowers ; and a drupaceous 
fruit containing two, three or four one-seeded 
stones or pyrenes. It. catharticus, the purging 
buckthorn, has its branches terminated by spines, 
and its flowers tetramerous. Its bark and fruit are 
violently purgative; but the latter is collected in 
Herts. Bucks, and Oxfordshire for the manufacture 
of the* medicinal syrup of Buckthorn (the officinal 
preparation is the syrupus rhamni), and of the 
pigment known as sap or bladder-green. This is 
made by mixing the fresh juice with lime. P. 
frangula has no spines and pentamerous flowers, 
and, as its foliage resembles that of the alder, it is 
called alder buckthorn or berry-bearing alder. Its 
wood, known as “ dog-wood,” is in request for gun¬ 
powder charcoal. Yellow or Persian berries are the 
unripe fruits of P. infectorius, imported from 
Smyrna; Avignon berries, the same species from 
South France, both being used in calico printing. 


Chinese green indigo or Lo-kao. used in dj^eing 
Lyons silk, is prepared from the bark of P. utilis 
and P. chlorophorus ; and the safer cathartic known 
as Cascara Sagrada (“ sacred bark ”) from that of 
P. Purshianus. 

Buckwheat, Fagopyrum esculentum, a member 
of the knot-grass order ( Polygonacece ), derives both 
its English and its Latin name from the resemblance 
of its small three-sided farinaceous fruit to a 
miniature beech-mast. It is a branched annual 
herb, seldom more than two feet high, native to 
Central Asia, but long extensively cultivated and 
often naturalised in Europe and the L r nited States. 
Though far less nutritious than wheat, it is used 
for human food, its flour being made into thin 
cakes; but in England it is only grown to a small 
extent as food for pheasants. 

Bucolics, pastoral poems. Virgil’s Eclogues 
are sometimes called “ bucolics.” 

Bud, an undeveloped shoot or apex of an ascend¬ 
ing axis overlapped by rudimentary leaves. Buds 
are mainly confined to the stems of flowering plants 
(Phanerogams); but an approach to this structure 
occurs in Cliara and in ferns, whilst a few roots, 
such as those of the Japanese anemone (. Anemone 
japonica ) and of the birdsnest orchis (Neottia 
Nidus-avis ), normally produce buds, and others do 
so when the main stem of the plant is removed. 
The stem of phanerogams originates in a bud. the 
plumule of the embryo, and as long as its growth 
(or that of any of its branches) continues it is 
terminated by a bud. the terminal or apical hud. 
Lateral buds are mainly produced in the axils of 
leaves, though only abnormally in those of floral 
leaves, as in Cardamine pratensis. Several buds 
may originate in one axil, as in the honeysuckle, 
or the axillary bud may be concealed within the 
sheathing base of the leaf, as in the plane. Buds 
may also originate elsewhere than in the axils, as 
on the cut end of a pollard tree, at any wound, or 
even on leaves, as in Bryophyllum (q.v.), and many 
“ proliferous ferns,” or the cut edges of Begonia 
leaves. Buds may become detached and reproduce 
the plant, as in the “ cloves ” produced in the axils 
of the scales of bulbs, or in the green bulbils in the 
axils of the foliage-leaves of Lilium bulbiferum, the 
Tiger-lily, or of the bracts of the inflorescence in 
some onions ( Allium ). Buds may develop into 
flowers or into leafy shoots, and in the earlier 
stages of their development there is nothing to 
distinguish leaf-bud from flower-bud, and their 
future development may even be determined by 
appropriate cultural treatment. Thus abundant 
stimulating liquid food may make many buds 
develop into branches, the plant “running to leaf.” 
whilst conversely a check to nutrition, such as root- 
pruning, may determine many young buds to become 
flower-buds, a flower being merely a branch with 
undeveloped internodes and specially modified 
leaves. The leaves in a bud, as a rule, grow at first 
more rapidly on their under surfaces ( hyponasty ), 
which causes them to arch over the growing-point. 
As the growth of the upper surface predominates 
(cpinasty ), they spread out horizontally. The outer 






Budaeus. 


( 232 ) 


Buddhism. 


leaves of buds are often hairy or viscid, as a pro¬ 
tection against cold, and such leaves as are outer¬ 
most during winter or other period of vegetative 
rest commonly drop off without any elongation of 
the internodes between them, so that each new 
growth of an axis has several close-set leaf-scars at 
its base. These deciduous bud-scales or perulce may 
be of various morphological origin, being some¬ 
times leaf-sheaths, as in the gooseberry, sometimes 
stipules, as in the linden, and sometimes leaf-blades. 
The folding of the leaves in a foliage-bud is termed 
vernation (q.v.); that in a flower-bud (estiva¬ 
tion (q.v.). 

Just as an entire shoot is transferred from one 
plant to another in the process of grafting (q.v.), so 
it is possible to remove a bud, or young exogenous 
lateral axis, uninjured from one plant, and trans¬ 
plant it, so to say, on to another, known as the 
stock, so as to bring their two cambium or growing 
layers into contact, when the bud will be nourished 
by the stock, at the same time retaining its specific 
character. This is termed budding. Thus any 
particular variety, say of Rosa damascena, may be 
budded on a stock of the wild briar, R. canina, 
retaining in the subsequent growth beyond the point 
of union all its characters. The bud or scion lives 
like a parasite on the stock. Similarly special 
buds or branches of plants are said to. have some¬ 
times exhibited peculiar structures by a spontaneous 
bud-variation, as it has been termed. The nectarine 
is said to have originated in this way on the peach, 
and the moss rose on the ordinary damask rose. 

Budeeus (Bude), Guillaume (1467-1540), a 
French scholar who, after a stormy youth, devoted 
himself to literature, and produced many works in 
philology, philosophy, and jurisprudence. He was 
much esteemed by Francis I., who at his suggestion 
founded the Royal College of France for the teach¬ 
ing of sciences and languages, and also refrained 
from prohibiting printing, a course which had been 
advised by the Sorbonne. The king sent him to 
Rome as ambassador to Leo X., and made him 
Master of Requests in 1522. Of his works the best 
known are a treatise, Be Asse, etc., which deals 
comprehensively with ancient coinage, and his 
Commentarii Linguce Grceccc. 

Budaun, a district of British India in the 
Rohilcund division, and in the jurisdiction of the 
North-West Provinces, having an area of about 
2,000 sq. miles, and forming a level tract of country, 
watered by the Ganges and some of its tributaries. 
The district was ceded to the English by the Nawab 
of Oude in 1801, and in 1837 it took the rebel side 
in the Indian Mutiny. 

Buddha, the name or rather the title of the 
founder of the religious system called Buddhism. 
According to the Buddhist books, Siddhartha, the 
son of an Indian prince, in the fifth century b.c., 
had a tendency to a life of asceticism. His 
father, with a view to weaning him from such an 
untoward fate, married him early and surrounded 
him with pleasure and luxury. The prince, finding 
this life insufficient to satisfy the longings of his 
soul, escaped, and after trying Brahminism with 


indifferent satisfaction, he gave himself up to six 
years’ asceticism. This too proved to be vanity and 
vexation, and finally he found in contemplation 
and abstraction the true counsel of perfection, and 
realised in his own person that this divine con¬ 
templation teaches that existence with all its evils 
comes from ignorance, and that it is possible to 
emerge from ignorance and existence, and so reach 
the perfect state. This knowledge he arrived at 
as he sat in the seat of intelligence beneath the 
Bo-tree, or tree of intelligence, and it is in com¬ 
memoration of this fact that he is represented in 
his images in a position of cross-legged contem¬ 
plation. This same Bo-tree was found 1200 years 
after Buddha’s death and after his tenets had 
begun to lose sway in India, by a Chinese pilgrim, 
and its place is supposed to be marked near Lava 
in Bengal by some ruins, especially of a temple, in 
the courtyard of which is a tree said to be the 
descendant of the original tree of intelligence. 

The name Buddha is from a root meaning “ to 
awake,” and seems to signify “the enfranchised 
one—the man set free from ignorance and ex¬ 
istence.” He was also called by his family name 
of Salty a, and by his tribal name of Gautama , 
sometimes Gautama the Ascetic. Of course, 
Buddha, like most other half-traditional, half- 
historical characters, has been credited with being 
a solar myth, but there seems little reason for 
doubting his existence. Assuming him to have 
existed, he taught in Benares, or “turned the 
wheel,” as was said by a confusion of the literal 
with the secondary meaning of the word for “ mon¬ 
arch,” and from this “ wheel ” is thought to come 
the practice of employing the praying wheel in the 
Buddhist monasteries of Thibet. He is thought to 
have travelled through North India, and to have 
taught the people for about 40 years, dying at Oude 
at the age of eighty, and being burnt, and finally 
passing into his already realised Nirwana. 

Buddhism, the religion, or system of philo¬ 
sophy, that has bee.n elaborated out of the views 
taught and held by Buddha, and about which many 
conflicting opinions have been and are held, some 
considering it a relic of primeval worship, and 
others thinking it a more or less conscious imitation 
of Christianity. But whatever its origin, it is the 
religion of nearly a quarter of the inhabitants of 
the globe, and though it has nearly lost its hold in 
India, except among some races of the north, it 
prevails in Ceylon, in great part of China, in the 
Indo-Chinese peninsula, in Thibet, Central Asia, 
and part of Siberia, and among the Tartar tribes 
generally. 

Taking its rise in Northern India in the fifth 
century b.c. [Buddha], Buddhism was patronised 
by some powerful princes, and though animated 
by no persecuting spirit, proved itself of great 
missionary capability. In the third century B.c. 
it was prevailing in Ceylon, in Burmah in the fifth 
century of our era, and in Siam in the 7th, while 
it had penetrated to China in 217 b.c., and in the 
first century a.d. the reigning emperor decreed it 
the third state religion in importance. That it had 
made considerable progress to the north of the 









Buddhism 


( 233 ) 


Budweis. 


Himalayas is shown by the fact that a Chinese 
general in 120 b.c. brought back from an expedition 
into the Desert of Gobi a golden statue of Buddha. 

The Chinese always considered India their Holy 
Land, and it is from Chinese pilgrims that is 
obtained the knowledge of the state of Buddhism 
in India, since there is little to be found about it in 
native literature; and undoubtedly it met with 
persecution in India, especially in what is now the 
presidency of Bombay, since of the 900 cave 
temples in which Buddhism was forced to take 
refuge, nearly all are in that region. It was 
Mohammedanism that finally killed Buddhism in 
India. As Buddha, like Socrates and other great 
teachers, left no writings, three councils of his 
followers, soon after his death, settled the doctrines 
and discipline of the young church. The first 
was just after Buddha’s death ; 100 years later 
came a second council against innovators and 
heretics, and the third in 244 B.c.—during the reign 
and under the auspices of a King Asokaof Northern 
India, who was a great advancer of Buddhism— 
fixed the canon, which was committed to writing 
150 years later. The triple basket, as it has been 
•called, of the canonical writings consists of the 
Sutras for the laity, the 11 nay a, or discipline for 
the order, and the Abhidhar/na or metaphysical 
principles. Of these the first seems the germ from 
which the rest of the system has probably been 
evolved, while the existence of a set of metaphysical 
principles will not appear strange to students of 
Greek philosophy. 

The doctrines are in some points similar to those 
of Brahmanism. Buddhism holds the doctrine of 
the transmigration of souls, or the continuance of 
personal identity; that is, that man passes through 
successive stages of existence, sometimes higher 
sometimes lower, the past and present ever having 
its influence on the future, till at last he reaches 
the perfect state of Nirwana, as to the nature of 
which there is some doubt whether it means per¬ 
fect annihilation or absorption into the general 
vital or informing principle of the universe. For 
Buddhism there is no God, but a kind of im¬ 
personal Pantheism. It seems to say with the poet: 

“What if all of animated nature 
Be but organic harps diversely framed. 

That tremble into thought as o’er them sweeps 
Plastic and vast, one intellectual breeze, 

At once the soul of each and God of all ? ” 

This hankering after a union of past and future 
•existence seems innate in the race, and men often 
think they can catch gleams of reminiscence from 
a brighter world. 

The second fundamental point of Buddhism is a 
thorough-going Pessimism, which regards existence 
as nothing but misery, and future happiness at 
the best as only problematical, and even then 
little more than an escape from existence to anni¬ 
hilation or something very like it. There are four 
“ sublime truths ” : First, pain exists ; second, the 
cause of pain is desire or attachment partly necessi¬ 
tated by former existence ; third, the Nirwana ends 
pain ; fourth, the truth that leads to the Nirwana. 

The road to the Nirwana consists of eight things : 
Eight views, feelings, words, behaviour, exertion, 


obedience, memory, meditation. And to aid in 
attaining to rightness in these eight essentials 
there are ten commandments, five of them of 
universal obligation, not to kill, steal, commit 
adultery, lie or drink ; and five others of obligation 
for those who aim at making decided progress 
towards the Nirwana. These relate to indulgence 
in food, amusements, personal ornament and 
gratification, luxury and wealth; and for fully 
professed monks the rules are still more severe. 

Buddhism inculcates the practice of alms-giving, 
benevolence, purity, patience, courage, contempla¬ 
tion, and knowledge. Of these, benevolence 
towards all nature is particularly binding. Buddha 
himself, in one of his transmigrations, offered him¬ 
self, out of kindness, as food to a starving tigress. 
Humility, and other virtues commonly called 
Christian, are prescribed, not excluding the duties 
of confession and penance. 

The perfect Nirwana is only attainable after 
death, but a kind of Nirwana may be obtained, 
which is a sort of ecstasy or trance, in which there 
are neither ideas nor their absence. It is difficult 
to see how this differs from a dreamless sleep, or 
from the unconsciousness which follows a stunning 
blow. 

It naturally follows, from the nature of Buddhism, 
that there is little worship. In the temples are 
altars or shrines, and before these are offered 
flowers and fruits and incense, processions are 
made and hymns are sung; but these seem acts of 
commemoration, not of prayer, and are not wholly 
unlike the services prescribed by Positivism. 

There are not wanting signs in present society of 
a hankering after the delights of esoteric Buddhism, 
but it is not universally admitted that its disciples 
are yet seated in the seat of intelligence. 

Budgerigar, a dealers’ corruption of the 
native name of Melopsittaeus undulatus, a small 
Australian parrakeet, common in this country as a 
cage-bird. It is about the size of a sparrow, 
with green and yellow plumage, pencilled with 
black. Called also Undulated Grass Parrakeet. 

Budget (literally a small bay'), used meta¬ 
phorically of a collection of items, as a budget of 
letters, or a budget of news. In England the term 
is specially applied to the annual financial state¬ 
ment of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, usually 
delivered in April, comprising an account of the 
receipts and expenditure for the past year, and 
estimates of both for the current year. In France 
and Italy it is applied to the annual estimates of 
the various departments of the Government for the 
expenses of the army, navy, etc. 

Budweis, a town in the Austrian kingdom 
of Bohemia, at the junction of the Moldau and 
the Maltsch, and 133 miles from Vienna, is a well 
built city with some fine public buildings, including 
a 16th century cathedral with detached tower. 
There are considerable manufactures of pottery, 
blacklead, nails, sugar, and liqueurs; and in the 
mountains near the town are gold and silver mines. 
The first railway made in Germany—for horse 
traction—was from Budweis to Linz. 






Buenos Ayres. 


( 234 ) 


Buffalo. 


Buenos Ayres, the capital of the Argentine 
Republic, is on the right bank of the estuary of the 
river Plata, which, though 36 miles across at this 
spot and 150 miles from the open sea, is here so 
shallow that ships that draw 15 feet of water can¬ 
not approach within less than seven or eight miles 
from the town. The advantage that Buenos Ayres 
possesses over the rival Uruguayan port, Monte 
Video, upon the other side of the river, is that it has 
facilities for monopolising and controlling the 
inland trade which the latter city is destitute of. 
Late improvements in the water approach, with a 
system of river walls and of docks, which will on 
the one hand prevent floods and overflows, and upon 
the other will enable vessels of any size to come 
quite up to the city, together with the rapid develop¬ 
ment of railways that open up the resources of the 
country and will in time facilitate its communication 
with Chili, bid fair to give Buenos Ayres a future 
of great prosperity. The city is laid out in a 
square, and the streets intersect each other at right 
angles, but the roads are bad and muddy, and as 
the town is somewhat hilly, and the causeways are 
made level, these latter are often at an inconvenient 
height from the road, into which descent has to be 
made by slippery steps which bring the unwary 
pedestrian to grief. But he is perhaps compensated 
by the opportunity given him by the height of the 
causeways of studying the dolce far niente which 
is dear to the Argentine female nature. The best- 
built part of the town is the centre, in which most 
of the warehouses and houses of business are 
situated. The cathedral is exceeded only by that 
of Lima, and there are several fine public buildings, 
including the government house, the residence of 
the president of the republic, the University, the 
mint, the post office, a military college, and the 
congress hall, while some of the railway stations 
are imposing buildings. Six railways have their 
terminus here, and there are 100 lines of tram line, 
and there is cable communication with Europe and 
with the United States. 

Of the dozen or so squares that the city contains 
the handsomest is the Plaza de la Victoria, which 
has in the centre a monument of the war of In¬ 
dependence. The city is well drained, and though 
till lately they depended upon the water carrier for 
a supply from the river, the water is now laid on, 
as well as gas, and the old arrangements remain 
only in the suburbs. Like most foreign towns of 
any pretension, the telephone is used extensively. 
There is a large foreign element in Buenos Ayres, 
many of the great houses of England, France, 
and Belgium having branches or representatives 
here, and the town is very cosmopolitan. The 
great majority of the foreigners are Italians, to 
which nation most of the cafe keepers belong; 
next in numbers are the Spanish, French, 
and English. There are newspapers in all these 
languages, and in German. As Buenos Ayres is on 
an alluvial plain, it presents a monotonous appear¬ 
ance, besides the practical disadvantages of being 
almost destitute of stone and of fuel. But as the 
people are ever ready to follow European fashions, 
granite is now imported for paving the streets, and 
the houses are built and furnished in European 


style, and are fitted with chimneys and grates, 
where European coal takes the place of charcoal 
and withered prairie weeds which were formerly 
burnt in the old Spanish brazero. The change 
is much appreciated, as the climate of Buenos 
Ayres is both humid and variable. It is a much 
debated question at the present time whether 
emigration to Buenos Ayres and its neighbourhood 
is a thing to be encouraged or not, some saying 
that the authorities hold out hopes to intending 
immigrants that are not realised, while others say 
that the disappointment is caused by the impossible 
ideas with which the emigrants arrive there, ex¬ 
pecting to be at once well-to-do landed proprietors, 
without expenditure of capital or passing through 
the process of labour and hardship generally known 
as “ roughing it.” But emigration is easy, since 
there are numerous lines of steamers plying between 
Europe and Buenos Ayres. 

Although the inhabitants of the city of Buenos 
Ayres resemble Europeans to a great extent in 
habits, you have only to go out upon the plain 
composing the province, among the cattle and 
sheep-rearing farms, or estancias , to find the wild, 
independent race of Gauchos, who live on horse¬ 
back and employ their whole life chiefly in tending 
cattle, though on the many millions of acres of 
sheep-farms there is a large proportion of Scottish 
and Irish shepherds. The native owners of the 
cattle and sheep-farms divide their life between 
town and country, living a civilised life in the 
winter, and a semi-wild life upon their estancias in 
the summer. Compared with the industry of 
cattle-rearing, that of agriculture is not very 
important, and is confined chiefly to the eastern 
district of the province and to the south-west of the 
city. Buenos Ayres was founded by De Mendoza in 
1535, and again in 1580 by De Garay, and in 1776 
the province of Rio de la Plata was made a vice¬ 
royalty, with Buenos Ayres as capital. In 1805 and 
1807 the English attacked Buenos Ayres and were 
driven off. In 1816 separation from Spain and the 
establishment of a republic was determined on, and 
since 1880 Buenos Ayres has been the seat of the 
federal government, the government of the province 
being carried on at La Plata. 

Buffalo, at the east end of Lake Erie, at the 
mouth of Buffalo river and at the head of Niagara 
river, is the capital of Erie county, in the state of 
New York, ranking third among the cities of New 
York, and the third city in the Union for its trade 
in live stock. But its great importance is as a 
centre of the corn trade, and it has a magnificent 
installation of elevators, while it has extensive iron 
and steel works, blast furnaces, rolling mills, 
machine shops, shipyards, tanneries, and breweries, 
and is a great coal depot. 

The city, which is about 290 miles direct from 
New York, and 539 miles from Chicago, has a 
frontage of about 5 miles to the lake and river, and 
has a large harbour, capable of accommodating 
vessels of 17 feet draught, with an outer breakwater 
of 4.000 feet, besides other extensive conveniences 
for trade and navigation. The formation of the 
Erie canal in 1825 gave the first great impetus to 






Buffalo. 


( 285 ) 


Bug. 


the trade of Buffalo, a trade which has been greatly 
developed by the great extension of the railway 
system. The Grand Trunk Railway crosses the 
Niagara by a fine iron bridge at a short distance 
from the city. Buffalo is well paved, and is well 
provided with boulevards and avenues, and a fine 
' park, and has many imposing buildings both public 
and private. The city was founded by the Holland 
Land Company in 1801. After being burnt in 
1813 by the English, it was rebuilt, and from a 
population of 15,000 in 1832 had arisen to about 
203,000 in 1885. 

Buffalo, any individual or species of Bubalus, a 
genus or sub-genus of Bovidaa, strictly confined to 
the Old World, though in America the name Buffalo 
is commonly given to the Bison (q.v.). Buffaloes 
are large, clumsy oxen, differing from the domestic 
ox in their massive proportions, and in having the 
horns flattened and triangular in section, inclined 
outwards and backwards, and turning upwards at 
the tips. The Asiatic or Indian Buffalo (B. buff elm), 
a native of India and the islands of the Eastern 



BUFFALO. 


Archipelago, stands about four feet high at the 
shoulders, and is some seven feet from the snout to 
the insertion of the tail. The skin is brown, and 
sparsely covered with stiff black hair, longer on the 
head and neck, and falling off with age. The 
horns curve backwards, and when the animal is in 
motion it holds its head so far forward that they 
touch the shoulders. The hide makes excellent 
leather; from the milk a kind of butter is 
made; but the flesh is little esteemed. The 
buffalo was domesticated at a very early period; 
from its great strength it is a valuable beast 
of burden, and has been introduced into Egypt 
and the South of Europe. Both in its wild and 
tame condition it is a marsh-loving animal, and 
rolls in and coats itself with mud as a protection 
against insects. It can never resist the temptation 
of wallowing, and for this reason is seldom laden 
with goods liable to damage from water. It is said 
to be a match for the tiger, and fights between 
these two animals are a common amusement of 
some of the native princes. The name “sporting 


buffaloes ” is given to those trained to stand as 
cover for sportsmen shooting waterfowl. The Cape 
buffalo or Cape ox (Bos caffer), a native of South 
Africa, is a somewhat larger animal, covered with 
deep brown or black bristly hair, and having huge 
horns flattened at the base, where they almost 
meet. It resembles the Asiatic species in general 
habits, but is of much fiercer disposition. Large 
herds of these animals were formerly very common, 
but the advance of civilisation and the fondness of 
sportsmen for “ large game ” have rendered the 
Cape buffalo rare, if not extinct, within the colony 
from which it takes its name. This animal has 
never been domesticated; but this is probably 
rather due to the low condition of the natives 
than to the inherent difficulty of the task. [Anoa, 
Zamouse.] 

Buff Leather, a strong oil-dressed leather, 
made from buffalo’s or some kind of ox’s hide. It 
was formerly used as armour, but is now principally 
employed in the making of pouches, belts, etc. 

Buffon, George Louis Leclerc, Comte de 
Buffon, who did more perhaps than any other one 
man to popularise the study of zoology in the last 
century, was born at Montbard, Burgundy, in 
1707. He studied law under the Jesuits at Dijon, 
and showed great taste for mathematics, and 
patience in investigation. In company with Lord 
Kingston he travelled in Italy and studied at 
Angers. He translated Newton’s Fluxions and 
Hales’ Vegetable Statics into French, and, being 
possessed of considerable private means, employed 
an amanuensis in his study of mathematics, 
physics, and agriculture. In 1739 he was chosen a 
member of the Academy of Sciences and keeper of 
the Jardin du Roi and Museum, so that Paris 
became his home, and there he died in 1788. 
Though having himself but a slight knowledge of 
anatomy and neither knowledge of nor liking for 
system, the scheme of his great descriptive Histoire 
Natvrelle, which was at first published in forty- 
four quarto volumes, was more comprehensive 
than any that had preceded it. The first three 
volumes were published in 1749, and in the first 
fifteen Buffon had the assistance of Daubenton. 
a profound anatomist, whilst the last eight volumes, 
dealing with reptiles, fish, and cetacea, were pub¬ 
lished bv Lacepede, after the death of their pro¬ 
jector. Buffons bold speculations as to the gradual 
cooling of the planetary system and the adapta¬ 
tion of our earth as it cooled to successive groups 
of organisms give him a permanent place in the 
history of biology. 

Buff-tip, a well-known English moth [Pygcera 
bueepliala ), in which a buff patch occurs at the tip 
of each upper wing; when at rest the moth is 
protected by its resemblance to a piece of dead 
wood. The caterpillar lives on trees, and the pupa 
is not protected in a cocoon. 

Bug. 1. The Western Bug rises in Austrian 
Galicia, and forming in a great measure the eastern 
boundary of Poland, falls into the Vistula near War¬ 
saw, after a course of 470 miles. 2. The Eastern Bug, 











Bugeaud. 


( 236 ) 


Building Societies. 


rising in Podolia, flows south-east into the estuary 
of the Dnieper after a course of 520 miles. 

Bugeaud, Thomas (1784-1849),a French soldier, 
born at Limoges. He entered the army at nineteen 
years of age, and showed such bravery and 
talent that he obtained his colonelcy in 1814. 
The revolution of 1830 recalled him to public life, 
and he became deputy for Perigueux, and was sent 
to Algeria in 1836. He distinguished himself in 
the war against Abd-el-Kader, and was appointed 
Governor of Algeria in 1840, and made Marshal of 
France in 1843, and the next year he received the 
title of Due d'lsly for a victory over the forces of 
the Emperor of Morocco. He commanded the 
army in Paris during the revolution of 1848, and 
died of cholera the year after. 

Bugenhagen, Johann (1485-1558), a Ger¬ 
man scholar and reformer, was born at Wollin in 
Pomerania, whence he is sometimes surnamed 
“ Pomeranus.” He was distinguished as a classical 
scholar at Greifswald, where he was educated, and 
early in the 16th century became rector of a 
school at Treptow, and was appointed by a neigh¬ 
bouring convent to lecture to the monks. Con¬ 
verted to the views of Luther by the latter’s book 
Be Captlvitate Babylonied , he quickly converted 
the abbot and others, and threw himself heart and 
soul into the work of the Reformation. His energy 
and his talent for organising were great, and he 
was chosen to regulate the affairs of the new 
churches generally, and in 1537 he was invited to 
Denmark by Christian III. to organise the church 
and schools ; and there he remained five years, and 
returned to pass the rest of his life at Wittenberg. 
Besides aiding Luther to translate the Bible, he 
wrote many works, among them being an interpre¬ 
tation of the Psalms and a History of Pomerania 
which was first published in 1728. 

Buggy, a light four-wheeled vehicle with a 
hood; this is the use of the word in the United 
States. In India it signifies a gig with a hood, and 
in England a two-wheeled carriage without a hood. 

Bughis (properly Wugi), a people of central 
and south Celebes, one of the most intelligent and 
enterprising in the Malay archipelago ; speech a 
Malayo-Polynesian dialect written in a peculiar 
character of Hindu oi'igin, and possessing a litera¬ 
ture (chronicles, legends, poetry); type Indonesian, 
light complexion, straight eyes, prominent nose, 
reg'ular (Caucasic) features. [Indonesians.] The 
Bughis are great traders and navigators, maintain¬ 
ing active commercial relations with every part 
of the Archipelago, from Sumatra to the Aru 
Islands. All have been Mohammedans since the 
beginning of the seventeenth century. 

Bugle, a musical instrument, generally made of 
brass or copper, with a tube rather shorter and less 
expanded than that of the trumpet (q.v.), and 
played with a cupped mouth-piece. It is used in 
the army as a signalling instrument; it formerly 
was employed only for infantry, the trumpet being- 
used for cavalry and artillery, but now it has quite 
superseded the latter in all regiments. 


Bugs, a group of insects belonging to the order 
Rhynchota, and constituting the sub-order Heter- 
optera. They are insects with jaws adapted 
for piercing, and provided with a suctorial pro¬ 
boscis or rostrum: they have four wings, and 
the name of the sub-order is derived from the 
fact that those of the anterior pair are half-hornv 
and half membranous ( hemielytra , and hence some¬ 
times known as the Hemiptera'). Some bugs, how¬ 
ever, are wingless. The majority live on plants, 
but others, including most of the aquatic species, 
live on other insects, or suck the blood of birds or 
mammals. The first segment of the body (pro- 
thorax) is large and movable in nearly all the 
forms, and by scraping this against the neck a 
slight but shrill note is produced : this is especially 
noticeable in Pirates stridulus , a species common 
under stones, etc., in the South of France. The 
bugs are divided into two groups—the Land Bugs 
or Geocores, and the Water Bugs or Hydrocores ; in 
the former the antennas and the rostrum or sucking 
tube are both longer than in the latter division. 
The best known species is the Bed Bug ( Cimex or 
Acantliia lectularius, Linn, sp.), which is probably 
indigenous to Africa, whence it has been carried 
over the world. It w r as recorded in England in 
1503, but does not appear to have established itself 
till late in the seventeenth century, when it is said 
to have been largely introduced in the timber used 
for rebuilding London after the Fire. It is mainly 
kept in check by the cockroach. Some of the bugs 
are of some size; thus some of the species of 
Belostoma measure six inches in expanse of wing; 
the Wheel Bug ( Reduvius personatus, Linn, sp.) is 
one of the largest English species. A few genera, 
such as Phyllomorplia , resemble the leaves of plants 
in appearance. The species of one genus, Halobates , 
live on the surface of the sea, far from land. The 
earliest species occur in the Lias (q.v.). 

Bugulma, a town of European Russia, 243 
miles from the city of Samara, to the government 
of which it belongs, and on the Bugulminka, a 
tributary of the Kama, which flows into the Volga. 
It is quite a modern town, and is only important as 
being at the junction of two great roads from 
Orenburg and Ufa. 

Buguruslau, a town of European Russia, 
government Samara, is situated at the confluence 
of the Kimel and Tarkhanka. 

Buhl, Andre, an Italian cabinet maker born in 
1642. He lived in France, and there invented the 
work which bears his name. It consists of dark- 
coloured tortoiseshell or wood, inlaid with brass. 
He died in 1732. 

Building Societies are institutions which 
have sprung into existence in comparatively recent 
times, and although originally designed more parti¬ 
cularly for the working classes, they have attained 
a very considerable position, not only as a profitable 
investment for savings for all classes of the com¬ 
munity, but as a means of acquiring, by borrowing 
on favourable terms, freehold, leasehold, or copy- 
hold properties. 

Their principal object is to raise a fund, out of 




Building Societies 


( 237 ) 


Bukkur. 


which the members can purchase properties of the 
above description by advances made to them out of 
the society’s funds, such advances being repayable 
(both principal and interest) by fixed periodical 
instalments. 

It is difficult to state accurately the precise origin 
°f these societies, but institutions of a somewhat 
similar character are believed to have existed in a 
rude form amongst the Greeks in the days of the 
republics ; amongst the Anglo-Saxons in Great 
Britain, and also in the South Sea Islands. Associa¬ 
tions to enable their members to build or purchase 
dwelling houses were known in Birmingham as far 
back as the year 1781. In January, 1809, the 
“ Greenwich Building Society ” was formed under 
certain rules and regulations, the object being to 
raise a fund, by the monthly subscriptions of its 
members, which was to be laid out in building 
houses, and the dividing of the same among the 
subscribers under and subject to such rules. 

These societies were formerly founded and regu¬ 
lated in this country under the old Friendly 
Societies’ Acts, the principal one being the 6 and 7 
William IV., c. 32; but their increasing popularity 
and importance induced the Legislature in the year 
1874 to pass a special Act of Parliament for their 
regulation, by which many important privileges 
(hereafter more particularly mentioned) are con¬ 
ferred on building societies. 

The existing Building Society Acts are the 37 
and 38 Victoria, c. 42 (the one above referred to as 
passed in the year 1874, and known as the Build¬ 
ing Societies Act 1874), and the Acts 40 and 41 
Victoria, c. 63, and 47 and 48 Victoria, c. 41, known 
as the “ Amending Acts.” The first named is thev 
principal Act, and under it societies are formed, and 
on their rules being duly registered as required by 
the Act, and certified by the Registrar, they possess a, 
corporate character, and enjoy the protection of 
limited liability; shares can be transferred with¬ 
out payment of stamp duty, and reconveyances of 
the mortgaged property by deed are rendered un¬ 
necessary, a simple receipt for the mortgage money 
endorsed on the mortgage deed answering the 
purpose of a reconveyance. Building societies so 
constituted have also power, if authorised by their 
rules, to borrow money within certain defined 
limits. 

Building Societies are either permanent or ter¬ 
minating. 

A Permanent Society , as the name implies, may 
last for ever, investing shares being issued, upon 
which payments are made by the several members 
either in one or several sums, upon which interest 
accumulates, or else it is paid out to the member at 
his election. Advances are made to borrowers 
(either members of the society or strangers), repay¬ 
able by periodical instalments, including principal 
and interest. 

A Terminating Society , on the other hand, is one 
which by its rules is to terminate at a fixed period, 
or when a certain result has been attained. Upon 
each share a fixed subscription is payable through¬ 
out the Society’s existence; this forms a fund 
adequate to give every member a sum fixed by the 
rules at its foundation. In some societies the 


advances are made by ballot, in others by sale ; in 
others again by alternate ballot and sale. ’There 
are a number of societies throughout the country of 
this character known as “ Starr Bowkett societies,” 
the name being adopted from a Mr. Starr, who was 
largely instrumental in forming them in the first 
instance. 

The “ Industrial and Provident Societies Act 
1876,” repealing the Acts of 1862 and 1871, enables 
societies to be formed for the purpose of buying 
and selling land, with power to mortgage, lease, or 
build. These are known as Co-operative Building- 
Societies. 

Freehold Land Societies also in form come under 
the “ Building Societies Acts.” Subscriptions are 
received in these societies in the same way as in 
building societies, and out of the funds so sub¬ 
scribed estates in land are purchased, which are 
afterwards split into lots suitable to the member’s 
requirements, and other improvements are effected, 
the cost of which and of the original conveyance to 
the society is distributed over the whole property, 
and added to the purchase money of each lot. 
Members of these societies are thus enabled to 
acquire small pieces of land at wholesale price. A 
building society cannot in law legally hold land 
except by way of security ; therefore , the arrange¬ 
ments above described respecting freehold land 
societies have to be carried out through the medium 
of trustees. 

As regards disputes from time to time arising in 
these societies on the construction of their rules or 
otherwise, a convenient and economical mode of 
adjusting them is provided by the Act, viz. arbi¬ 
tration. 

Dissolution of these societies, whether perma¬ 
nent or terminating, may take place on the oc¬ 
currence of any event declared by the rules to 
have that effect; or they may be dissolved in any 
manner prescribed by their rules, or by the Act, or 
they may be wound up, either voluntarily or com¬ 
pulsorily, under the Companies Acts 1862-1867. 

Building societies exist in Scotland, and also in 
the United States. In the latter country there are 
many thousands established. The funds are lent to 
borrowing members, who pay a premium for that 
privilege in addition to interest. Fines are also 
exacted for non-payment of subscriptions, as is the 
case general^ and everywhere in both classes of 
societies. 

A Royal Commission having been appointed in 
the year 1871 to inquire into the operations of 
building societies, the principal Act of 1874 (above 
referred to) may be considered as the outcome of 
their report made to Parliament. Periodical returns 
and reports have to be sent by each society to the 
Registrar annually. It is supposed that half a 
million of persons are directly or indirectly inter¬ 
ested in building societies. 

Buitenzorg (without care), capital of the 
province of the same name in Java, is a favourite 
holiday resort for the merchants of Batavia, from 
which it is about 40 miles south. It has also one 
of the finest botanic gardens in the world. 

Bukkur, a fortified island of Sind, in the Indus, 







Bukowina 


( 238 ) 


Bulgaria. 


is situated between the towns of Roree, on the E., 
and Sukkur on the W. bank. It is only 800 yards 
long by 300 yards broad. 

Bukowina (i-e. beech-land), a duchy of the 
Austrian empire, is bounded on the N. and N.W. 
by Galicia, E. by Russia and Roumania, S. by 
Moldavia, and W. by Hungary and Transylvania. 
It covers an area of over 4,000 square miles, largely 
occupied by woodland, traversed, especially in the 
S., by offshoots of the Carpathians, and is drained 
mainly by the Danube and the Pruth. It gives to 
the Emperor of Austria the title Duke of Bukowina, 
and was ceded to that country in 1775 by Turkey. 
The capital is Czernowitz. Its products are chiefly 
agricultural, including the rearing of horses and 
cattle. 

Bulacan, a town on Luzon, one of the Philip¬ 
pines, and capital of a province of the same name, 
is situated on the river Bulacan, at the head of the 
bay of Manila, and 20 miles from that town. 

Bulandshahr, a district of British India, in 
the North-Western Provinces, covers an area of 
nearly 2,000 square miles. It comprises an alluvial 
plain, enclosed between its principal rivers—the 
Ganges and Jumna. It is traversed by the East 
India and the Oudh and Rohilkhund railways, and 
has been made fertile by artificial irrigation. 
Besides the ordinary grains, cotton, indigo, and 
sugar are among its leading products. Its chief 
town and the administrative headquarters of the 
district bears the same name. 

Bulb, a short, fleshy, and generally conical 
underground stem, giving off adventitious roots 
from its under surface, and covered above with 
leaf-scales. Bulbs are of two classes : squamose, 
with imbricate scales of small relative width, as in 
Lilium ; and tunicate, with concentrically sheath¬ 
ing scales, as in the onion. Bulbs vary in duration, 
being either annual, biennial, or perennial, and 
reproduce themselves, sometimes multiplying 
rapidly, by the production of “ cloves,” or axillary 
buds in the axils of their scales, which become 
independent. Bulbs are especially characteristic of 
dry climates, such as Asia Minor and South Africa, 
and of monocotyledons, especially the Liliacere 
and A maryllidacecc. A swollen aerial branch in 
epiphytic orchids (q.v.) is termed a pseudo-bulb, 
but is less closely homologous to a bulb than the 
aerial bulbil, or undeveloped branch with a few 
over-lapping leaf-scales, which falls off and repro¬ 
duces the plant, in the tiger-lily. Enlarged roots, 
such as those of the turnip, are sometimes 
erroneously called bulbs by farmers. 

Bulbul, the Turkish and Persian name for the 
nightingale (in which sense it is common in poetry), 
used in zoology as the English name of a family 
(Pycnonotidae) or sub-family (Brachypodinae) of 
Oriental birds, intermediate between the Babblers 
and Thrushes, and sometimes called Fruit-thrushes. 
Some of the species of the type-genus Pycnonotus 
are kept in England as cage-birds, and in India P. 
Juemorrltous is trained to fight like a game-cock. 


Bulgaria, a principality under the suzerainty 
of the Sultan of Turkey, situated on the right or 
southern bank of the Danube. It extends from the 
influx of the river Timok to Silistria, and thence to 
the Black Sea near Cape Kaliakra. It is bounded 
on the S. by the Balkan range, and on the W. by 
Servia. Since 1880, however, its boundaries have 
been enlarged by the union with Eastern Roumelia, 
on the S. side of that range, which now forms part 
of the principality, and is often called Southern 



Bulgaria. The total area is 38,390 square miles. 
Bulgaria is an extensive table-land, sloping towards 
the Danube and drained by its tributaries, which 
are numerous, but of inconsiderable size, and by a 
few small streams running into the Black Sea. The 
only mountains are the Balkans (the Ha-mus of the 
ancients), of an average height of 5,000 feet, Mount 
Scardus, the highest peak of the Char Dagh, has 
an elevation of 9,700 feet above the sea. The 
mountains are of granitic character, and can be 
traversed only by certain passes. That known as 
Trajan’s Gate carries the main road between Con¬ 
stantinople and Vienna; the Shipka Pass is 
memorable as the scene of a gallant struggle during 
the Russo-Turkish war. 

Climate. The winter is severe but not long, the 
summer and autumn generally warm and dry but 
for occasional thunderstorms. The soil is a light 
black or brown loam, very fertile. 

Minerals abound. Coal, silver, lead, iron, chrome, 
manganese, graphite, malachite, gypsum, kaolin, 
and salt have all been found, but there are very 
few mines at work. Iron and sulphur springs 
are numerous. 

History. Bulgaria proper includes most of the 
ancient Moesia, which, when first mentioned by 
historians, had a Slav population. Various Gothic 
colonies were afterwards founded, and about 
the middle of the sixth century the Bulgarians, 
a Finn tribe from the banks of the Volga, settled in 
Lower Moesia. In the seventh century Upper Moesia 
was given by Heraclius, the Byzantine emperor, 
| to the Serbs, a Slavonic race. [Servia.] Bulgaria, 





























Bulgaria 


( 239 ) 


Bulgarin 


as Lower Moesia now came to be called, after 
remaining for some centuries under the protection 
of the Byzantine empire, in 1185 declared its inde¬ 
pendence. The yoke of the empire, however, was 
merely exchanged for that of Hungary, until 
the year 1392, when the country was conquered 
by the Ottomans, and its so-called independence 
came to an end. The troubles in this and the 
neighbouring provinces in 1876-7-8 culminated in 
the Russo-Turkish war [Turkey], from which 
Bulgaria rose a separate State. 

Constitution. The principality was created in 
1878 by the treaty of Berlin, which ordered that it 
should be autonomous, and tributary to the Sultan, 
with a Christian government and a national 
militia. The Prince is to be freely elected by the 
population and confirmed by the Sublime Porte; 
lie may not be a member of any of the reigning 
houses of the great European powers. Eastern 
Roumelia was handed over to the Prince of 
Bulgaria by imperial firman, April 6th, 1886. Sofia 
forms the joint capital. 

The legislative authority was originally vested in 
a single chamber called the National Assembly. 
This was elected triennially (by “ manhood 
suffrage”) in the proportion of one member to 
every 10,000 of the population. In 1883 the As¬ 
sembly assented to the creation of a second 
chamber. The executive power is wielded by a 
council of six ministers, those, namely, of (1) 
Foreign Affairs and Public Worship, (2) the Interior, 
(3) Public Instruction, (4) Finance, (5) Justice, 
and (6) War. The country is divided into 23 pre¬ 
fectures, 17 in Northern and 6 in Southern Bulgaria. 

Population , according to the census of 1888:— 
Northern Bulgaria, 2,193,434 ; Southern, 960,941 ; 
total, 3,154,375. About three-fourths of these are 
Bulgarians, the remainder being made up of 
Mussulmans (who are annually decreasing), Greeks, 
Jews, gipsies, and foreigners of various nationalities. 

Education. The constitution makes primary edu¬ 
cation free and compulsory, but fails to fix a 
penalty for non-compliance. The natural result is 
that in the agricultural districts a large proportion 
of the children are kept away from school to help 
in farm labour. There are 3,844 elementary schools, 
with 4,386 masters and 537 mistresses; but whereas 
the number of children of school age (6 to 12 years) 
is given at 275,756 boys and 261,968 girls, those 
attending the schools only number 129,977 boys and 
42,206 girls, or 47 per cent, of the former and 16 per 
cent, of the latter. The proportion of educated 
persons, according to the census of 1888, was only 
11 per cent, of the population. 

Sofia has a university, maintained by the govern¬ 
ment, which also supports higher schools at about 
a dozen other towns. There is an excellent free 
library at Sofia. 

Agriculture. Though almost exclusively an agri¬ 
cultural people, the Bulgarians are in many respects 
a long way behind the food producers of other 
European countries. There are no large land- 
owners, and the cultivated lands, which comprise 
nearly 6,000,000 acres, or about 25 per cent, of the 
total area, are chiefly in the hands of peasant pro¬ 
prietors, having freeholds averaging less than 20 


acres in extent. These small farmers maintain a 
strongly conservative attitude with regard to scien¬ 
tific improvements. Modern machinery, chemical 
manures, and even the rotation of crops, are practi¬ 
cally unknown, and the primitive methods of the 
classical period still prevail. 

A more serious difficulty even than this lack of 
enterprise among the farmers is the want of 
adequate means of communication and transport. 
The roads, although somewhat improved during the 
last few years, are still among the worst in Europe. 
The railways, few and not easily accessible from the 
villages, charge prohibitory freight rates. 

Grain, principally wheat, is the chief product. 
The crop of 1889 was estimated at 9,000,000 
quarters, of which more than 2,000,000 quarters 
were exported. Grain constitutes about 80 per 
cent, of the total exports. Wine, silk, tobacco, rice, 
and cotton are also produced, but in no great 
quantities, and flax, hemp, poppies, madder, and 
colza are cultivated. There are 728,000 acres of 
forest, containing oak, beech, elm, ash, pine, poplar, 
cornel, and juniper. New laws have recently been 
passed for their protection from waste. 

The famous attar of roses is produced chiefly in 
the prefectures of Philippopolis and Eski Zara, in 
which latter is situated the Kezanlik “ Valley of 
Roses.” The output of attar is about 6,000 lbs. 
annually, the value being from £12 to £14 per lb. 
The rose growers are mostly of the poorer class, 
and derive but little benefit from the business, the 
crop being bought up, often in advance, by wealthy 
merchants, who make enormous profits. 

Cattle breeding is carried on with little or no 
attempt to improve the quality of the stock pro¬ 
duced. Oxen and buffaloes are used for draught, 
almost to the exclusion of horses, which are 
scarcely employed outside the towns, where they 
are worked in strings as pack-horses. Of late, 
efforts have been made by the Government to 
introduce stallions and bulls of a better class, for 
stud purposes. In 1888 there were 6,872,000 sheep, 
1,204,000 goats, and 395,000 pigs in Bulgaria. The 
annual export is quite unimportant. 

Industries. These are practically non-existent. 
A few inefficiently worked coal mines, and some 
manufactories of rough homespuns (ga'itan) and 
braid embroidery (abu and shayak), are alone 
worthy of mention. 

Army. Service is compulsory. There are twenty- 
four regiments of infantry, each of two battalions 
and a depot, four regiments of cavalry, six regiments 
of artillery, having four field batteries of four guns 
and 120 men, two artillery depots, one battery of 
siege artillery, two battalions of engineers, and one 
company of discipline. Total peace strength, about 
35,000 of all ranks ; total war strength, about 60,000 
regulars and 40,000 militia, with ninety-six guns. 

Navy. This includes three ships of war, ten 
steam sloops, armed with guns, and two torpedo 
boats. Personnel , twelve officers and 334 men. 

Bulgarin, Thaddaus, writer, was born in 1789, 
in Minsk. After serving in the Russian army, he 
in 1810 joined the Poles under Napoleon, taking 
part in campaigns in Spain, Germany, and Russia. 







Bull. 


( 240 ) 


Bulldog 1 . 


In 1819 he settled in St. Petersburg, edited the 
Northern Archives, The Northern Bee, and The 
Russian Thalia, and in 1829 published Ivan 
Vinzliagen, his first novel, which heightened his 
popularity. Besides novels he also wrote histories, 
travels, and reminiscences. He died in 1859. 

Bull. 1. An authoritative letter to the Catholic 
Church, issued by the Pope as its head, and so- 
called from the bulla or round leaden seal which 
gives it validity. This bears on one side the figures 
of St. Peter and St. Paul; on the other, the name 
of the reigning Pope. It is attached to the docu¬ 
ment by a cord (silken if the bull is “ a bull of 
grace,” hempen if it is a “ bull of justice ”). The 
bull is in Latin, and is engrossed on parchment in 
a peculiar character, and is dated “ from the day 
of the Incarnation,” and sometimes in the classical 
Roman fashion (so many days before the calends, 
nones, or ides of the month). Important doctrines 
have often been promulgated thus, and the bull is 
often known by some of the Latin words near its 
opening. The Brief is a-somewhat similar letter 
of a less important and authoritative character. 
The term bull has occasionally been applied to 
documents issued by lay princes. 

2. A ludicrous blunder in expression, involving 
some inconsistency, of which the speaker himself 
is unconscious. Sir Boyle Roche’s saying, “ No 
man can be in two places at once unless he is 
a bird,” is an instance. Though “ bulls ” are now 
supposed to be an Irish characteristic, the word 
(according to Dr. Murray) was long in use before it 
was specially connected with the Irish. The theory 
that the use of the term originated in contemptuous 
allusion to the Papal edicts is rejected by the same 
authority, who connects it with the old French 
word haul, fraud. Thus it may have meant originally 
a jest or practical joke. 

Bull, George, Bishop of St. David’s, was born 
in 1634 at Wells, Somersetshire. Refusing while 
at Oxford to take the oath of allegiance to 
the Commonwealth, he was obliged to leave, and 
was ordained privately when he was only twenty- 
one. In 1658 he was appointed Rector of Sudding- 
ton near Cirencester; in 1685, of Avening, Stroud ; 
in 1686, Archdeacon of Llandaff; and in 1705, 
Bishop of St. David’s. He wrote several religious 
books; among them Harnionia Apostqlica , awaken¬ 
ing considerable controversy; the Defensio Fidei 
Nicence, his greatest work, showing that the 
doctrine of the Trinity was an article of faith in 
the Christian Church previous to the Council of 
Nicma ; and the Indicium Ecclesice Catholica, which 
gained for him the thanks of the French clergy. 

Bull, John, the name given to the English 
nation personified, is taken from Arbuthnot’s satire, 
The History of John Bull, meant to ridicule the 
Duke of Marlborough. In it John Bull’s mother is 
the Church of England, and his sister “ Peg ” is 
Scotland. The French in the same book are per¬ 
sonified as Lems Baboon, and the Dutch as 
Nicholas Frog, 

Bull, John, musician and composer, was born in 
1563, in Somersetshire. In 1591 he was appointed 


organist in the Queen’s chapel in succession to 
Blitheman, his master; in 1596 received the degree 
of doctor of music at Cambridge; in 1596 became 
music lecturer at Gresham college; and in 1597 
organist to James I. He became in 1617 organist 
to the cathedral of Notre Dame at Antwerp, where 
he died in 1628. He is one of the many on whose 
behalf claims to the authorship of God Save the 
King have been advanced. 

Bull, Ole Bornemann, violinist, was born in 
1810 at Bergen, Norway. Becoming acquainted 
with Paganini, whose style of play his own subse¬ 
quently resembled, he received the impetus to 
cultivate excellence in the violin. His wonderful 
play made him the recipient of enthusiastic recep¬ 
tions in Europe and America, which latter continent 
he visited three times. He died near his birthplace 
in 1880. 

Bullace ( Prunus insititia ), a wild variety of 
P. communis, differing from the blackthorn (q.v.) 
in having brown bark instead of black, straighter, 
and less spinous branches, larger leaves which are 
downy on their under-surfaces, downy flower- 
stalks and larger flowers and fruit, whilst the 
latter, though round, is less harsh to the taste. A 
variety with yellow drupes is sold in London as 
“ white damsons,” and though most plums (P. 
domestica ) are altogether free from spines and have 
oval fruit, there are, in fact, no constant characters 
to distinguish P. insititia from P. domestica. 

Bullae, a swelling of considerable size pro¬ 
duced by an accumulation of serous fluid beneath 
the epidermis; a vesicle (q.v.) on a large scale. 
[Pemphigus.] 

Bulldog, a breed of dogs said to be derived 
from the same stock as the mastiff (q.v.), formerly 
used by butchers for catching and throwing cattle, 
and afterwards bred for bull-baiting (q.v.). These 
dogs are large, powerful animals, of greater 
courage than intelligence, loving and obedient to 
those they know, slow to make friends, and swift to 
resent injury to themselves or their masters. The 
following are the chief points of the breed as laid 
down by Vero Shaw:—Skull large, square and 
broad; skin of forehead wrinkled, the “stop” or 
indentation between the eyes deep ; lower jaw pro¬ 
jecting beyond the upper ; canine teeth wide apart, 
incisors regular ; eyes large ; nose set well back, 
allowing the dog to breathe freely while holding- 
on ; ears small; cheek-bumps at base of jaw well 
developed ; neck muscular, and with a double dew¬ 
lap ; shoulders sloping and strong ; chest wide and 
deep; forelegs powerful, straight, shorter than 
the hind, and turned out at the shonlders ; body 
very deep at the chest, of considerable girth; 
back short, rising from the shoulders to the loins, 
then sloping to the stern, forming a “ roach ” or 
“ wheel ” back; loins powerful; tail set on low, 
short, and very fine ; hind legs turned out behind ; 
coat short and close ; weight about 50 lbs. for a dog, 
and 45 lbs. for a bitch. Bull-dogs may be of any 
colour, except black or black-and-tan ; brindle and- 
white, brindle, white, fallow or fawn with black 
nose being the most valued. 










Bullen. 


( 241 ) 


Bullhead. 


Bullen, Sir Charles, British admiral, was 
born in 1769 at Newcastle-on-Tyne, and entering 
the navy in 1779, became a lieutenant in 1791, a 
commander in 1798, a captain in 1802, and a rear- 
admiral in 1837. He was flag-captain to Rear- 
Admiral Lord Northesk in the Britannia , 100, 
at Trafalgar, served with success until the end 
of the war, and died, a vice-admiral and K.C.B. 
in 1853. 

Buller, Charles, politician, was born in 1806 
in Calcutta. Educated at Harrow and Cambridge, 
and was for some time under the tuition of Thomas 
Carlyle. In 1830 he was returned to Parliament for 
West Looe, and, after the passing of the Reform 
Bill, for Liskeard. In 1838 he went with Lord 
Durham to Canada as chief secretary; in 1841 
became secretary to the Board of Control; in 1846 
judge advocate-general, and in 1847 chief poor- 
law commissioner. He died in 1848. 

Bullfight, the national sport of Spain and 
Mexico, is an elaborate form of the combats with 
bulls which were an occasional feature of the 
ancient contests in the amphitheatres of classical 
times. In the chief cities of Spain about one day 
every week during the summer and autumn is 
devoted to the amusement, which is witnessed by 
10,000 to 15,000 spectators. The bull is first 
attacked by picadores, or pikemen, dressed in 
antique knightly costume, and mounted on worth¬ 
less horses "fit only for the knackers, which are 
blindfolded; they do their best to excite the bull 
to charge them. A furious bull will often gore, and 
even disembowel, their horses, which are neverthe¬ 
less urged again and again to the charge so long as 
it is possible for them to move. Should the 
picador be endangered, either another picador will 
draw off the attention of the bull, or men on foot 
will create a diversion by taking the bull in flank, 
showing him scarlet cloaks, throwing darts with 
explosive fireworks attached, which stick in his 
hide, and by other methods. After the picadores 
retire, the bull is worried by men on foot, chulos 
and banderilleros, who irritate him with scarlet 
cloaks, and darts sometimes with fireworks attached, 
vault over him with poles, and exasperate him in other 
ways, saving themselves, of course, by their agility. 
Finally the matador enters on foot with a naked 
sword'and a small red flag, which again infuriates 
the bull. He ru«>ms on the matador , who stabs him ; 
he falls dead, and his carcase is dragged off the stage 
by a team of mules. From six to ten bulls are killed 
in an afternoon. Some, of course, will not show fight, 
and are dispatched ignominiously by the picadores. 
Though the slaughter of the horses is a particularly 
disgusting spectacle, the bullfight is followed with 
the wildest enthusiasm by all classes of Spaniards, 
men and women, and it is said that foreign 
residents become even more enthusiastic spectators 
than the natives. The danger to the performers is, 
of course, considerable, to the matador especially ; 
hence a successful matador , though usually taken 
from the lowest of the population, is a popular hero, 
whose company is sought in certain aristocratic 
circles, and who, being paid from £50 to £100 per 
bull slain, often makes a large fortune—in one case, 

40 


it is said, £40,000 sterling. The annual cost of the 
sport to the nation is estimated at £1,200,000. 
About 2,400 bulls and 3,600 horses are annually 
killed. Attempts have been made to naturalise the 
bullfight in the South of France, and even in Paris ; 
but the bulls have usually their horns tipped or 
blunted, so that the more disgusting features of the 
Spanish sport ai*e absent. 

Bullfinch (Pgr rhula europcea), a well-known 
finch (q.v.), widely distributed over Great Britain 
and common in some parts of Europe, but scarce in 
Ireland. The male is rather more than six inches 
long, ashy grey on the back, crown, tail, and long 
wing-feathers black, white bar on wings. The 
female is rather smaller, and has the back brownish 
grey, the under surface bluish grey, and the rest of 
the plumage less brilliant than in the male. 
Black, albino, and pied varieties often occur. The 
bullfinch frequents copses and plantations, and is 
an unwelcome visitor to orchards and gardens, for 
it has a bad reputation for destroying the buds of 
fruit trees, though against the undoubted harm it 
does in this way should be set its destruction of 
the seeds of countless docks, thistles, and plantains. 
The nest is a rude structure of twigs, lined with 
root-fibres, and generally containing four bluish- 
white eggs, speckled with orange-brown. There 
are usually two broods in the year. The natural 
song is soft and simple, but so low as to be almost 
inaudible. The call is a plaintive whistle, and 
while feeding the bird utters a feeble twitter. The 
popularity of the bullfinch as a cage-bird is due to 
the fact that it can be taught to whistle a simple 
air—in some cases two or three—and to its capacity 
for attachment to its owner. Bullfinches are, for 
the most part, trained in Germany, and the work of 
teaching them begins early and must be continued 
till after the first moult, for at this period they 
often forget, or repeat in a confused fashion, what 
they have previously learnt. P. major, a larger 
form, occurs in the north and east of Europe. 

Bullfly [Gadfly.] 

Bullfrog {Bana mugiens ), a large frog, 
measuring from 13 inches to 21 inches over the 
extended limbs, ranging over the United States and 
as far north as Quebec. The body is green in 
front, dusky olive behind, and marked with 
irregular black blotches; limbs dusky, barred with 
black; under parts yellowish. The popular and 
specific names refer to the loud croak of this 
animal, which can be heard at a considerable dis¬ 
tance. Bullfrogs are solitary, except at the breed¬ 
ing season, when they assemble in large numbers, 
and their call is then louder than usual. The hind 
legs of these frogs are excellent eating. The name 
Bullfrog is sometimes (as in Byron’s Corinth) 
applied to other species with a loud note. 

Bullhead, any individual of the acanthopteiy- 
gian genus Coitus , which consists of some forty 
species of shore and freshwater fishes from the 
north temperate zone. They frequent rocky 
ground, lying between stones, and darting out with 
rapidity on their prey—small aquatic animals, 






Ballinger. 


( 242 ) 


Balwer. 


notably Crustacea. The River Bullhead ( Cottus 
(jobiu), found in some British rivers, is from 3 inches 
to 4 inches long; brown, with dark spots on the 
upper part, and white beneath; but it undergoes 
many changes of colour after exertion or feeding. 
The flesh, when boiled, is salmon-coloured, and 
delicate-eating. [Father Lasher ; for the Armed 
Bullhead see Pogge.] The species are also called 
Miller’s Thumbs, from their broad flat heads. 

Bullinger, Heinrich, reformer, was born in 1504 
at Bremgarten, near Zurich. After studying at 
Emmerich and Cologne, where he became acquainted 
with Luther’s writings, he became intimate with 
Zwingli, whom he accompanied in 1528 to the 
religious conference at Berne. In 1529 he was 
made pastor at Bremgarten, and two years later 
succeeded Zwingli in the principal church at 
Zurich. Of his numerous writings many were 
translated into English, and amongst his corre¬ 
spondence were letters from Lady Jane Grey. He 
died in 1575 at Zurich. 

Bullion (perhaps from French bouillir, to boil) 
thus, molten metal, gold or silver in the mass, as 
distinguished from coin, plate or jewellery; some¬ 
times used loosely to include coin considered solely 
with reference to its value as metal. For statistics 
of the production of bullion see Gold, Silver. 

Bullroarer, a boy’s toy, consisting of a thin 
kit3- or fish-shaped piece of wood, tied to a long 
string and whirled round, so as to produce a roar¬ 
ing noise. Mr. Andrew’ Lang applies the name to 
the turndun (q.v.). 

Bull BiUn, a river of America in the N.E. 
part of Virginia, forms the boundary between 
the counties of Fairfax and Prince William. It 
gives its name to two battles fought during the 
Civil war. The Union army was defeated each 
time. The first was fought July 21st, 18G1; and 
the second August 29th and 30th, 1862. 

Bulrush, properly the English name of Scirpus 
lacustris, one of the sedges which is used through¬ 
out Europe for rush-bottomed chairs and mats. 
The name is now generally transferred to the reed- 
mace or cat’s-tail ( Typha latifolia and T. angus- 
tifolia), very different plants, the brown velvety 
truncheon-like heads of female flowers of which, 
surmounted by the more slender and perishable 
spike of male ones, render them favourite de¬ 
corations in London drawing-rooms. 

Bulls and Bears. On the London Stock 
Exchange the “ bull ” was originally a speculative 
purchaser of stock for future delivery, in the hope 
that it would rise, while the speculative seller, 
whose interest it was that the stock should fall, was 
called bear. The latter term was apparently earlier, 
and suggested by a proverb about “ selling the 
bearskin before you have the bear ” (since the 
speculative seller sells what he does not yet 
possess). “ Bull ” in this sense may have been 
suggested by “ bear.” Possibly as it is the bull’s 
object to make the stock go up, some fancied 
resemblance between his asseverations of its 
excellence and the bellowings of a bull may have 


suggested the term. [Boom.} The terms are now 
used to denote anyone who tries to produce a 
rise or a fall respectively in certain stocks. Thus, 
to “ bear Argentine stocks ” may mean to try to 
lower the public estimate of their value. 

Bull-terrier, any dog of the breed obtained 
by crossing the bull-dog and the terrier, and com¬ 
bining the good points of both the original forms. 
The colour should be pure white ; body muscular, 
head long and pointed, ears erect, generally 
clipped. 

Bull Trout, a loose name for several species 
of trout (q.v.). Among a number of so-called bull¬ 
trout Dr. Gunther found young salmon, salmon 
trout, and the sewin or grey trout; and it is to this 
last-named form, probably only a variety of the 
salmon trout, that the name should be confined. 
This fish reaches a length of about 3 ft., and is 
found in Wales, Cornwall. Dorset, Cumberland, the 
north of Ireland, and on the Continent. The young 
lose the parr-marks early, and are then silvery with 
a greenish tinge ; in older fish the back is greenish- 
brown, in the spawning season the belly becomes 
dark-brown in the male, but the silvery tinge 
persists in the female. The gill-cover is square, and 
is proportionately larger than in the salmon (q.v.), 
as are also the teeth ; and the flesh is paler and of 
less delicate flavour. The tail is convex owing to 
the growth of the central rays. The name is 
sometimes given to Salma hucho, a large chair 
(q.v.) from the Danube. 

Biilow, Friedrich Wilhelm von, general, 
was born in 1755 at Falkenberg. Entering the 
Prussian army at the age of 14, he was engaged 
in the revolutionary war with France from the begin¬ 
ning. On the renewal of hostilities in 1813 he was in 
command at the battle of Mockem, the first 
successful encounter with the French. He defeated 
Oudinot at Luckau and Grossbeeren, and Ney at 
Dennewitz. For these and other signal services he 
was raised to the rank of general, awarded an 
estate, and given the title Count of Dennewitz. In 
1815 he headed the column in Bliicher’s army that 
first came to Wellington’s aid at Waterloo. He 
died in 1810 at Konigsberg. 

Bulsar, a town and port of British India, in the 
district of Surat, is situated at the mouth of the 
river of the same name. Its trade is considerable, 
and it has cotton manufactures. 

Bulwer, William Henry Lytton Earle. 
Lord Dallixg and Bulwer, statesman, an elder 
brother of Lord Lytton, was born in 1801 in 
London. Educated at Harrow and Cambridge, he 
in 1827 entered the diplomatic service, and in 1830 
became a member of Parliament as a radical 
reformer. After being secretary of embassy at 
Constantinople and Paris, he was from 1842 to 1848 
minister plenipotentiary at Madrid, and 1849 at 
Washington, where he negotiated the well-known 
Clayton-Bulwer treaty relating to the communica¬ 
tion between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans by 
ship canal. He held other diplomatic appointments, 
among them English ambassador to the Porte, and 
on returning to England he in 1868 re-entered 











Bumbo at. 


( 243 ) 


Bunsen. 


Parliament. In 1871 he was raised to the peerage, 
and in the following - year he died at Naples. There 
being no issue, the title became extinct. Among his 
writings were An Ode to Napoleon, An Autumn in 
Greece , Life of Byron , Historical Characters , and 
Life of Palmerston. 

Buniboat, a wherry, chiefly employed to carry 
provisions from the shore to a ship. A shore-boat 
as distinguished from a ship’s boat. 

Bunbury, Henry William, caricaturist, 
second son of the Rev. Sir William Bunbury, of 
Mildenhall, Suffolk, was born in 1750. As a boy he 
earned the reputation of being a comic draughts¬ 
man, and while at Westminster school etched A 
Boy riding upon a Piy, which is preserved in the 
British Museum print room. He entirely abstained 
from caricaturing political subjects. He died in 
1811. His second son, Sir Henry Bunbury, who was 
born in 1778, and died in 18(50, wrote several his¬ 
torical treatises. 

Bundelkhand, a territory of the North- 
Western Provinces, India, lies between the Jumna 
on the N.E., and the Chambal on the N. and W., 
and belongs partly to Britain and partly to native 
chiefs tributary to Britain. Its area is about 20,000 
square miles, and embraces the five districts 
belonging to the British North-Western Provinces, 
Bauda, Jalaun, Jhansi, Lalitpur, and Hamirpur, 
and thirty-one native states. The produce is mostly 
agricultural, though in some parts iron ore, copper, 
and diamonds are found. The chief towns are 
Jhansi, Baudah, and Chatterpoor. 

Bundi, a state of Hindostan, is surrounded by 
Jaipur, Tonk, Kotah, and Udaipur, and covers an 
area of 2,300 square miles. It is also the name of 
the chief town, which is surrounded *by walls, and 
has between 400 and 500 shrines and temples. 

Bungalow (Hindustani Banyla , i.e. a Bengalese 
house), a one-storeyed house, usually built of un¬ 
baked bricks, and with a thatched roof. The name 
probably comes from the district where English¬ 
men noticed it first. A damh (dak) bungalow is a 
house maintained, usually by the Government, 
where travellers can break their journey and find 
fresh horses or men. 

Bungarus, a genus of venomous snakes, allied 
to the cobra (q.v.), but without the power of 
dilating the neck, from the Oriental region. There 
are two Indian species, both common. B.fasciatus 
(or Bungarum pamali) and B. cceruleus (the krait). 
According to Sir J. Fayrer, this last is probably, 
next to the cobra, the most destructive snake to 
human life in India. 

Bungener. Louis Felix, writer, was born in 
1814, at Marseilles. The distinguishing feature of 
his writings was the romance form in which he 
presented the doctrines of Protestantism. He died 
in 1874. 

Bunion, a term applied to a swelling produced 
by the development of a bursa over the great toe 
joint. The pressure of a badly-fitting boot, is 
particularly apt to lead to mischief in this region 
of the foot" The great toe becomes distorted and 


half dislocated, and over the prominence of the 
joint where pressure is most felt a bursa (q.v.) 
forms, and this may or may not communicate with 
the joint itself. If the bursa is merely inflamed, 
rest, the removal of all pressure, and the application 
of cold, will afford temporary relief. If suppuration 
occurs poultices should be applied, and the sac may 
require to be laid open to evacuate the matter which 
has formed. In some neglected cases the toe may 
have to be amputated. If the proper remedy is 
obtained in the first instance, however, the trouble 
need never attain to serious proportions. A well- 
fitting boot is the only preventive of troubles of 
this kind. 

Bunker Hill, a celebrated elevation 110 feet 
high in Charlestown, a suburb of Boston, Massa¬ 
chusetts, was the scene, on June 17, 1775, of one of 
the hardest contested battles in the American war 
of Independence. Though the British remained 
masters of the field, they lost over 1,000 men, while 
the American loss was about 500. An obelisk 221 
feet high marks the site of the American entrench¬ 
ments. 

Bunkum, or Buncombe (said to be derived 
from the name of a county in North Carolina, U.S., 
because its representative in Congress persisted in 
speaking in an impatient house, simply to please 
his constituents), political claptrap, or mere “ tall 
talk,” uttered not from conviction, but to gain sup¬ 
port, or to create an impression. 

Bunodont, a term used to denote the molar 
teeth of the Suine section (Pigs and Hippopo¬ 
tamuses) of the Artiodactyla, grouped under the 
name Bunodonta (literally hill-toothed) by Kowalew- 
sky. Tiie molar teeth have a crown of four or five 
columns, forming low subconical tubercles. The 
remaining members of the order are called Sele- 
nodonta; and Selenodont is used to denote their 
molars, which have crescentic ridges. 

Bunotheria, an order of mammals made by 
Professor Cope to include Professor Marsh’s order 
Tillodontia and his own family Tasniodontia, i.e. 
the genera Tillotherium , from the Lower Eocene, 
P laity eh (crops, from the London Clay, and Esthonyx 
and Calamodon, from the Wasatch Middle Eocene 
of Wyoming. Their cheek-teeth have massive 
squared crowns, and their general characters 
harmonise with the view that both ungulates and 
rodents have been derived from a primitive carni¬ 
vorous stock. Cope regards these forms as near to 
the ancestral type of the Rodentia, and allied to 
that of the Edentata. 

Bunsen, Christian Charles Josias, Baron 
von, diplomatist and writer, was born in 1791 at Cor- 
bach, in the principality of Waldeck, his father 
being a pensioned soldier. From school he went 
to Marburg university, and thence to Gottingen. 
Becoming private tutor to Mr. Astor of New York, 
he had an opportunity of travelling. At Berlin in 
1815 he became acquainted with Niebuhr, on 
whose recommendation he received the appointment 
in 1818 of secretary of the Prussian legation at 
Rome, gaining the position of resident minister in 
1827. Recalled from Rome in 1838, he came to 









Bunsen. 


( 244 ) 


Bunting. 


England, where, excepting a short stay as Prussian 
ambassador to Switzerland in 1839-41, he remained 
during the rest of his official life, which ended 
with the breaking out of the Eastern question in 
1854. He thereafter retired to Heidelberg, and 
finally settling at Bonn, died there in 1860. Bunsen 
was highly esteemed in England, with which he 
was connected by more than one tie. Among his 
works were The Church of the Future , Egypt's 
Place in Universal History , Hippolytu-s and his 
Time, and Bible Commentary for the Community , 
his chief work. His Memoirs were published in 
1868 by his widow, who was the eldest daughter of 
Mr. B. Waddington, of Llanover, Monmouthshire. 

Bunsen, Robert Wilhelm, chemist, was born 
in 1811 at Gottingen. Having studied in the 
university of his native place, at Paris, Berlin, 
and Vienna, he became professor of chemistry 
in Cassel, Marburg, Breslau, and Heidelberg in 
succession. At Heidelberg he built a grand 
laboratory and made it one of the best schools of 
chemistry in Europe. Among his discoveries are the 
production of magnesium in large quantities, the 
spectrum analysis, the electric pile and the burner, 
which are named after him, and hydrated oxide of 
iron as an antidote to arsenic poisoning, which last 
has saved many lives, and was rewarded by a gold 
medal from the Prussian Government. Among his 
chief works are, On a new Volumetric Method , A 
Treatise on Gas Analysis , and Chemical Analysis 
by the Spectroscope. 

Bunsen Burner consists of a small gas jet, 
above which is screwed a brass tube, at the bottom 
of which are holes to admit air. The air and gas 
mix together in the tube, and burn at the top with 
a flame which should be perfectly non-luminous. 
It is largely used in chemical operations, as it gives 
greater heat than an ordinary gas flame, and leaves 
no sooty deposit on objects placed in it. 

Bunter-sandstein, the name, the first half of 
which is generally adopted, for the lowest of the 
three divisions of the Triassic formation of Germany, 
derived from the highly-coloured or variegated 
sandstones of which it mainly consists. It is some¬ 
times 1,000 feet thick, and is divided into the 
Lower Bunter, or Gres des Vosyes , fine reddish 
argillaceous sandstone, often micaceous and fissile, 
with layers of dolomite and pisolite ( Boyenstein ); 
the middle, or Voltzia-sandstones , coarse-grained 
sands and sandstones containing the cvpress-like 
Voltzia-heterophylla, with layers of shale containing 
the bivalve crustacean Estheria minuta: and the 
upper, or Both, red and green marls with gypsum, 
containing the pelecypod Myophoria costata. The 
Bunter is usually barren of fossils ; but plants such 
as Voltzia, Albertia, and Equisetum arenaceum, 
have been found at Sulzbad, near Strasbourg, and 
footprints of Labyrintliodon at Hildburghansen in 
Saxony. First identified in England by Sedgwick 
in 1826, the Bunter with us varies from 1,000 to 
2,000 feet in thickness, and falls into three divisions : 
Lower Mottled Sandstone , soft, bright red and varie¬ 
gated, much false-bedded. 650 feet thick at Bridge- 
north, 400 feet in Cheshire, and 200 feet in South 
Staffordshire; the Pebble-beds , or Conglomerate, 


reddish-brown sandstones with quartzose pebbles, 
from 60 to 750 feet thick, to which the white 
sandstone of Nottingham belongs ; and the Upper 
Mottled Sandstone, generally red or yellow, de¬ 
veloped near Liverpool and Birmingham, and 
reaching a thickness of 700 feet in Delamere Forest. 
The Bunter series occupies much barren land, such 
as Cannock Chase and Sherwood Forest; but it 
contains lead and copper-ores at the former place, 
and is generally a water-bearing series. In France 
it is known as the Gres bigarrc. In the Gondwana 
series of India are fresh-water beds (Karharbari) 
containing a Bunter flora; whilst the Werfen, or 
Grbden sandstones and Guttenstein limestone of the 
eastern Alps, with Ceratites cassianus, etc., are the 
marine or open sea equivalent of the Roth or Upper 
Bunter of Germany. Like most Trias (q.v.), Bunter 
beds have generally originated in inland lakes to 
which the sea found occasional access. 

Bunting 1 , the popular name of any bird or 
species of the family Emberizidse, ranging over the 
palaearctic region to India in the winter. Buntings 
are chiefly distinguished from the Finches by the 
presence of a palatal knob on the upper mandible, 
the lower mandible being compressed at the side so 
as to form a sort of anvil on which this knob works— 
crushing the grain and seeds which form the princi¬ 
pal food of these birds. Of this family four are 
resident in Britain: (1) Emberiza miliaris, the 
Common or Corn Bunting or Bunting Lark, most 
numerous in the southern counties, is rather more 
than seven inches long; plumage brown, with mark¬ 
ings of a darker shade on the upper surface, brown¬ 
ish-white beneath with spots of dark-brown on the 
neck and throat. The nest is usually in or on the 
ground; eggs four to six, dull purplish-white. (2) 
E cirlus, the Cirl Bunting, found locally near the 
south coast, is a rarer bird, and somewhat smaller ; 
general plumage resembling that of the Yellow 
Bunting; head dark olive, streaked with black and 
yellow. (3) E. citrinella , the Yellow Bunting, 
Yellow Hammer (prop. Yellow Ammer, i.e. the 
Yellow Chirper), is one of the commonest British 
birds ; length, seven in.; plumage, shades of yellow, 
marked and mottled with brown, the mottlings 
becoming darker in the winter. The nest is usually 
on or near the ground, and the male is said to take 
part in incubation; eggs four to five, purplish- 
white, veined with purple. This bird may be 
reckoned among the farmer’s friends, from the 
quantity of insects it destroys and the multitudes 
of seeds of noxious weeds it consumes. (4) E. 
schamiclus, the Reed Bunting, or Reed Sparrow, 
sometimes wrongly called the Blackheaded Bunt¬ 
ing (see below), is found in marshy situations, 
usually nesting among long grass ; eggs five to 
seven, clay-colour, marked with purple-brown or 
black. Length, six inches ; head black, with white 
collar ; plumage of upper surface dark, feathers of 
back and wings edged with bright bay; chin and 
throat black ; under surface, white, streaked with 
brown on sides. The Buntings that visit Britain 
more or less frequently are E. rustica, the Rustic 
Bunting, and E. pusilla, the Little Bunting, from 
the north-east of Europe and Asia ; E. hortulanus, 








Bunting. 


( 245 ) 


Burbot. 


the Ortolan (q.v.) ; Plectrophanes nivalis , the Snow 
Bunting (q.v.), with its congener E. lapponicus, 
the Lapland Bunting; and Euspiza melxmocephala, 
the Black-headed Bunting, from the south-east' of 
Europe and Asia. E. americana , an American form, 
differs little from the common Bunting. 

Bunting, Jabez, Wesleyan minister, was born 
in 1779 in Manchester. President of the Wesleyan 
Conference in four different years, and in 1835 ap¬ 
pointed President of the Wesleyan Theological 
Institute, he became the leading authority on all 
questions of Church government in the body he 
guided. On the death of Richard Watson he also 
became head of the Wesleyan Missions. He died 
in 1858 in London. 

Bunyan, John, was born in 1628 at Elstow, 
near Bedford. His father was a tinker, and 
Bunyan himself followed the same craft, serving 
as a soldier during the Civil war. Thereafter 
he became impressed with the sense of the im¬ 
portance of religion, and began to preach in the 
villages round about Bedford. In 1656 appeared 
his first book, which was an attack upon the 
Quakers, and was entitled Some Gospel Truths 
Opened. In 1660 he was arrested while preaching 
in a hamlet near Ampthill, thrown into prison, and 
detained there until 1672, during which time he 
wrote Profitable Meditations, The Holy City, The 
Besurrection of the Bead, Grace Abounding to the 
Chief of Sinners, and other works. Liberated 
under the Declaration of Indulgence, he became 
parson of the church to which he belonged, but in 
1675 was again sent to prison for six months under 
the Conventicle Act. It was during this period of 
his incarceration that he produced the first part of 
the immortal allegory, The Pilgrim's Progress. 
Other of his works that followed were Life and 
Death of Mr. Badman, 1680, and Holy War, 1682. 
After having ministered to the Bedford congrega¬ 
tion for sixteen years, he died in London in 1688, 
and was buried in Bunhill Fields. 

Bunzlau, (1) a town of Prussia in the pro¬ 
vince of Silesia, is situated on the right bank of 
the Bober. It manufactures earthenware and hones 
chiefly. It was the scene of a battle between the 
French and the Allies in 1813. Bunzlau, (2) fre¬ 
quently called Jung Bunzlau to distinguish it 
from Alt Bunzlau on the Elbe, a town of Bohemia, 
is situated on the left bank of the Iser. 

Buol-Schauenstein, Karl Ferdinand, 
Count, statesman, was born in 1797, and died in 
1865. After representing Austria at the Dresden 
conference of 1850, he became ambassador at 
London. He next became Austrian foreign minister, 
was president of the Vienna Congress of 1855, and 
Austrian representative at the Congress of Paris. 

Buononcini, or Bononcini, Giovanni Maria, 
Italian composer, was born in 1640, and was the 
father of Marc Antonio and Giovanni Ballesta 
Buononcini, who also became famous as composers 
during the last century. 

Buoy, a floating case, used either for supporting 


a man in the water or for marking a channel, an 
anchorage, or a dangerous spot. Buoys intended 
for supporting human beings afloat are called life¬ 
buoys, and are either of canvas lined with cork, 
formed in the shape of a ring, or of sheet-iron 
fashioned into an air-tight vessel, and often 
provided with a “ flare-up,” or torch, which 
spontaneously takes fire upon immersion in water. 
Buoys used to denote channels are of various shapes. 
As employed by the Corporation of Trinity House, 
spirally painted buoys mark the entrances or turn¬ 
ing points of channels ; single-coloured can buoys, 
either black or red, mark the right-hand side of a 
channel going in; chequered, or vertically-striped 
can buoys mark the left-hand side ; and, if further 
distinction be necessary, right-hand buoys are 
surmounted by globular frames and left-hand buoys 
by cages. The ends of middle grounds are marked 
by buoys with horizontal rings of white, bearing or 
not bearing above them a staff, diamond, or triangle. 
Wrecks are marked by green nun-buoys, i.e. buoys 
shaped like two cones placed base to base. Anchor 
buoys are small buoys, of no special prescribed 
shape, dropped from a ship’s side before the anchor 
is let go, to denote its position. This operation is 
called “ streaming the buoy.” 

Buoyancy, the power possessed by a floating 
body to support weight without sinking. [HYDRO¬ 
STATICS.] 

Buphaga. [Beef-eater.] 

Buprestidse, a family of beetles, mostly found 
in the tropics; these are usually of brilliant 
metallic colours ; the Northern species are small 
and inconspicuous. 

Burbage, Richard, actor, was born about 
1567, and was the son of James Burbage, also an 
actor and theatrical manager. His rapid progress 
earned' for him, while he was only about 20, the 
sobriquet of “ Roscius.” He was associated with 
Shakespeare, Fletcher, Hemming, and Condell, in 
some of his undertakings, and, taking the chief role 
in new pieces, was thus the original Hamlet, Lear, 
Othello, Richard III., etc. He was also a successful 
painter, and a picture by him presented by William 
Cartwright, the actor, to Dulwich College, and still 
preserved there, is described in Cartwright’s 
catalogue as “ a woman's head on a boord done by 
Mr. Burbige, ye actor.” Burbage died in 1618. 

Burbot (Lota vulgaris), the sole species of the 
genus and the only freshwater fish of the cod 
family. It is found in the rivers of the midland 
and eastern counties, is widely distributed in 
Europe, and occurs in India and Siberia. English 
specimens are rarely more than from 2 lbs. to 3 lbs. 
in weight, but. fish of 16 lbs. have been taken from 
the Austrian lakes, and specimens of 30 lbs. are 
recorded from the Rhine. The Burbot is a fresh¬ 
water ling (q.v.), and differs from that fish chiefly 
in the disposition of the fin-rays. Colour olive- 
green, spotted with black, above ; whitish beneath. 
The flesh is white, firm, and well-flavoured. An oil 
obtained from the liver was formerly of some repute 
in medicine. 





Burchett. 


( 246 ) 


Bureau. 


Burchett, Josiah, who was born about 1660, 
and who in 1688 succeeded Samuel Pepys as 
Secretary of the Admiralty, was an able adminis¬ 
trator and a trustworthy naval historian. His 
Complete History of the most Remarkable Transac¬ 
tions at Sea, in five books, was published in 1720. 
He died in 1747. 

Burckhardt, John Ludwig, traveller, was 
born in 1784 near Lausanne, Switzerland. In 1806, 
after studying at Leipsic and Gottingen, he came to 
London with an introduction to Sir Joseph Banks, 
and undertook to explore the interior of Africa for 
the African Association. Inuring himself by practice 
to hunger, thirst and exposure, he set out in 1809 
in the disguise of a Mussulman, and under the name 
of Sheikh Ibrahim Ibn Abdallah he journeyed 
through Syria, Lebanon, and the Hauran to Palmyra, 
and in 1812 through Palestine to Petra, crossing the 
desert to Petra. Among his most daring exploits, 
however, was his pilgrimage to Mecca, which is 
death to an unbeliever. Examined by a committee 
of Mohammedan judges, chosen by Mehemet Ali, 
he was pronounced to be an excellent Moslem, and 
setting forth, he performed all the rites of the 
pilgrimage with accuracy, dined with the chief 
judge of Mecca, and recited the Koran to him. In 
1816 he ascended Mount Sinai. Returning to 
Cairo, he was there seized by dysentery, and died 
October 15th, 1817. His travels were published 
posthumously, and are distinguished for their 
truthfulness. 

Burden, the measure of merchandise that a 
ship will carry when she is fit for sea. Formerly 
ships were spoken of as being of so many tons 
burden. To find a ship’s burden, according to the 
method then in use, multiply the length of the 
keel, taken witliin-board, by the breadth of the ship 
at the midship beam ; multiply the product by the 
depth of the hold ; and divide the last product by 
94 The quotient is the tonnage required. A ship 
is now often, and should be always, measured by 
the weight, in tons, of water which she displaces 
when she is at her load water-line. 

Burden of Proof. In English law, a state¬ 
ment of fact is said to be proved when the tribunal 
before whom the case comes for trial is convinced of 
its truth, and the evidence in support of it is known 
as “ the proof.” Where a person makes an allega¬ 
tion he is generally bound to prove it, and the 
onus or burden of so doing properly falls on him, 
the rule being that the burden of proof lies with 
the party who asserts the affirmative of the issue or 
question in dispute. Where a presumption only is 
so raised, he is said to shift the burden of proof—in 
other words, his allegation is taken to be true 
unless his opponent adduces evidence to rebut such 
presumption. 

Burder, George, parson, was born in 1752, in 
London. Educated for an art career, he began to 
preach in 1776, receiving a charge at Lancaster in 
1778. In 1808 he became secretary to the London 
Missionary Society and editor of the Evangelical 
Magazine , in succession to the Rev. John Eyre. His 
writings were immensely popular, the chief being 


his Village Sermons. He died in 1882, and was 
buried in Bunhill Fields. 

Burdett, Sir Francis, politician, was born in 
1770 and educated at Westminster school and 
Oxford University. In 1793 he married Sophia, 
youngest daughter of Coutts, the banker. Entering 
Parliament in 1796, he became distinguished for 
his advanced views and forcible attacks upon the 
Government. In 1810 he published in Cobbett's 
Political Register a letter to his constituents 
impugning the right of Parliament to commit for 
libel. This led to the issue of the Speaker's 
warrant for his arrest. He barricaded himself in 
his house, however, and succeeded in defying the 
authorities for two days, during which a riot 
occurred and one man was killed in an encounter 
between the populace and the soldiers. He was 
liberated on the prorogation of Parliament, being 
again imprisoned for three months and fined 
£1,000 for his condemnation of the Peterloo 
Massacre. Latterly this fierce Radical became a 
Tory, and from 1837 until his death in 1844 re¬ 
presented North Wilts. 

Burdett-Coutts, The Right Honourable 
Angela Georgina, Baroness, daughter of the 
preceding, was born in 1814, succeeding in 1837 to 
the great wealth of her grandfather, Thomas 
Coutts. This she has largely devoted to charitable 
purposes, making for herself a reputation unique 
among her peers. Among other benefactions she 
endowed the three colonial bishoprics of Adelaide, 
Cape Town, and British Columbia; paid for Sir 
Henry James’s topographical survey of Palestine; 
established a shelter and reformatory for fallen 
women; presented to London Columbia Market; 
built model-dwellings and drinking fountains; laid 
out recreation grounds; assisted the People’s 
Palace; fitted out poor families for emigration; 
started the shoeblack brigade ; in a word, she *has 
liberally promoted every humane object. In 1871 
she was made a peeress; in 1874 presented with 
the freedom of the City of London, and in 1881 
married to Mr. William Lehmann Ashmead- 
Bartlett, an American, who in 1882 obtained the 
royal licence to use the name of Burdett-Coutts. 

Burdock, Arctium Lappa , the one species, 
with several sub-species distinguished by inconstant 
characters, of a genus of Composite belonging to 
the tribe Cvnareas of the sub-order Tubulifiorac. It 
is a stout biennial growing in almost any climate or 
soil throughout most of the northern hemisphere. 
In Japan it is cultivated as a vegetable, its young 
stems, the juice of which is watery, resembling- 
asparagus. Its scattered leaves, often over a foot 
across, are cottony beneath, and its involucre of 
stiff hooked spinous bracts form the globular “ bur ” 
that gives it its name. Arctium, from the Greek 
arktos, a bear, refers to its roughness ; and Lappa , 
from the Keltic llap, a hand, to the hooks. The 
corollas are all tubular and crimson ; the anther 
lobes have appendages, and the fruitlets bear 
several rows of simple pappus hairs. 

Bureau (French, a writing table'), has passed 
from French to English through the United States 
in the sense of an office or department of public 









Burette. 


( 247 ) 


Burglary. 


administration. Hence “ Bureaucracy ”—govern¬ 
ment by trained officials according to official 
traditions, as contrasted with government by 
persons elected by the people, with no special 
training for the work. 

Burette, an instrument used for measuring out 
definite quantities of liquid. One of the most 
convenient forms consists of a cylindrical glass 
tube tapering at lower end, and provided with a 
pinchcock of glass stopcock. The tube is graduated 
either in tenths of a cubic centimetre or in grains, 
according to requirements. 

Burg, a town of Prussia, in the province of 
Saxony, is situated on the Ihle. Its woollen manu¬ 
factures are noted. 

Burgage Tenure indicates the particular 
feudal service or tenure of houses or tenements in 
ancient cities or boroughs. It is considered a 
species of socage, as the tenements are holden of 
the sovereign or other lord either by a fixed annual 
pecuniary rent, or by some services relating to trade 
or handicraft, such as repairing the lord’s build¬ 
ings, providing the lord’s gloves or spurs, etc. The 
incidents of this tenure, which prevailed in Nor¬ 
mandy as well as in England, vary according to the 
particular customs of each borough. Burgage 
tenure is supposed to have been the foundation of 
the rights of voting for members of Parliament in 
cities or boroughs, and -the great variety of these 
rights is partially explained by the particular local 
customs. One of the most remarkable customs of 
burgage tenure is that known as “ Borough English.” 
[Borough.] 

Burger, Gottfried August, lyric poet, was 
born in 1747 at Molmers-wende, a village in the 
principality of Halberstadt; studying at Halle and 
Gbttingen, he led an irregular life which landed him 
in debt and other difficulties. Becoming associated 
with Voss, the two Counts Stolberg, Boje, and 
others, he became inspired with higher motives 
than had hitherto guided him, and in 1773 appeared 
his ballad Lenore, which at once established his 
reputation. The Wild Huntsman and other of his 
ballads were translated by Sir Walter Scott. 
Though Biirger was a popular lyrist, he was yet 
left to cultivate the muses in poverty, and after an 
unhappy life he died in 1794 at Gottingen. 

Burgess, a member of a borough. The 
Municipal Corporation Act, 1882, defines who shall 
be the electors of the municipal council, and by sect. 
9 a burgess or freeman is defined as a person of 
full age, not an alien, nor having received within 
the preceding twelve months parochial relief or 
other alms, and who on the 15th day of July in any 
year shall have occupied any house, warehouse, 
counting - house, shop or other building within 
the borough during the whole of the preceding 
twelve months, and during such occupation shall 
have resided within the Borough or within seven 
miles thereof; and shall during such time have 
been rated in respect of such premises to all rates 
for the relief of the poor, and have paid on or 
before the 20th of July in such year all such poor 
and borough rates in respect of the same premises, 
as shall have been payable up to the preceding 5th 


of January, and he must have been duly enrolled as 
a burgess on the Burgess Roll , but when the 
qualifying premises came to the party by descent, 
marriage, marriage settlement, devise, or promotion 
to any benefice or office, the occupancy and rating 
of the predecessor may be reckoned as part of the 
twelve months; and to the qualification above pre¬ 
scribed the £10 occupation qualification under the 
Registration Act, 1885, has now been added by 
the County Electors Act, 1888. 

In Scotland persons could always be elected 
burgesses by the magistrates of the burgh. The 
subject of the election of burgesses is now 
regulated by the Acts 23 and 24 Vic. c. 47, and 39 
Vic. c. 12. The last-mentioned statute was passed 
for the purpose of assimilating the law of Scot¬ 
land in some measure to that of England. 

Burghley, William Cecil, Lord, statesman, 
was born in 1520 at Bourn, Lincolnshire. From 
Cambridge he went to Gray’s Inn to prepare for the 
legal profession. In 1545 he married Sir Anthony 
Cooke’s daughter, which drew upon him the 
patronage of the Protector Somerset, who made 
him master of requests in 1547, and in 1548 his 
secretary. In 1550 he became secretary of state 
and effected many important commercial changes. 
In Mary’s reign he held no public office, and con¬ 
trived to live through those perilous times without 
compromising himself. On Elizabeth’s accession 
he became chief secretary of state and a privy 
councillor, and for the remainder of his life was at 
the head of public affairs. It was Burghley’s 
sagacity and shrewdness that made Elizabeth’s 
reign glorious. In 1571, on the suppression of the 
northern rebellion, the queen created him Baron 
Burghley. He died in Cecil House in the Strand in 
1598, and was buried in Westminster. 

Burgkman, Hans, engraver and painter, was 
born in 1473 at Augsburg. He is supposed to have 
been a pupil of Albert Diirer. and was the father-in- 
law of the elder Holbein. It is as a wood engraver 
rather than a painter that he is best known, and his 
chief work is the series of 135 cuts representing the 
triumphs of the Emperor Maximilian. He died in 
1531 in his native town. 

Burglary, or nocturnal housebreaking, has 
always been considered a very heinous offence, 
seeing that it always occasions frightful alarm, and 
often leads to murder. Its malignity, also, is 
forcibly illustrated by considering how particular 
and tender a regard is paid by the law of England 
to the immunity of a man's house, which it styles 
“ his castle,” and will never suffer to be violated 
with impunity, agreeing therein with the sentiment 
of Cicero, “ quid enim sanctius , quid omni religione 
viunitius, quam domus unius cujusque civiuvi .” For 
this reason no outer doors can in general be broken 
open to execute any civil process, though in criminal 
cases the public safety supersedes the private 
immunity. Hence also, in part, arises the animad¬ 
version of the law upon eavesdroppers, nuisancers, 
and incendiaries; and to this principle it must be 
assigned that a man may assemble people together 
lawfully (at least if they do not exceed eleven) 
without danger of raising a riot, rout, or unlawful 




Burglary. 


( 248 ) 


Burgoyne. 


assembly, in order to protect and defend his house, 
which he is not permitted to do in any other case. 

The definition of a burglar as given by Sir 
Edward Coke is, “ he that by night breaketh and 
entereth into a mansion house with intent to com¬ 
mit a felony.” There are four things which go to 
make up this definition. For (1) the time must be 
night and not day; for one who is attacked by 
night may lawfully kill his assailant, but not so in 
general if it be by day. Anciently the day was 
reckoned to commence with sunrising and to end at 
sunset, but the better opinion afterwards was that, 
if there were daylight or crepusculum enough 
begun or left to discern a man’s face, it was no 
burglary, but this did not extend to moonlight, for 
then many midnight burglaries would have gone 
unpunished, and, besides, the malignity of the 
offence does not so properly arise from its being 
done in the dark, as at the dead of night when all 
creation is at rest. It has now been enacted by 
statute 24 and 25 Viet. c. 96 that, so far as regards 
the crime of burglary, the night shall be deemed 
to commence at nine o’clock in the evening and to 
conclude at six o’clock the next morning. (2) As 
to the place; it must be a mansion or dwelling- 
house, for no distant barn, warehouse or the like 
are under the same privileges nor looked upon as 
a man’s castle or defence, nor is a breaking open 
of houses where no man resides, and which there¬ 
fore, for the time being, are not mansion-houses, 
attended with the same circumstances of midnight 
terror. A house, however, wherein a man some¬ 
times resides, and which the owner has only left 
for a short season, animo revert, end i, is the object 
of burglary, though no one be in it at the time of 
the fact committed. (3) The manner. A burglary 
requires (for the complete offence) both a breaking 
and an entry, but they need not be both done at 
once. There must in general be an actual breaking, 
for if a person leaves his doors and windows open 
it is his own folly and imprudence, and if a man 
enters thereby it is no burglary; yet, if he after¬ 
wards unlocks an inner door, it is so ; but to enter 
by coming down a chimney is a burglary, for that 
is as much closed as the nature of the thing admits. 
So also to knock at a door, and upon opening it to 
rush in with a felonious intent, or under pretence 
of taking lodgings to fall upon the landlord and 
rob him, etc., are burglaries, though there be no 
actual breaking. (4) The intent. There must be 
a felonious intent to constitute the crime, other¬ 
wise it is only a trespass, but such intention need 
not be actually carried into execution; it is 
sufficient if it be demonstrated by some overt act, 
and therefore a breach and entry by night, with 
intent to commit a robbery, a murder, a rape, or 
any other felony is burglary, whether the thing be 
actually perpetrated or not. So much for the 
nature of burglary, which (when committed under 
certain circumstances of aggravation) was until 
recently a capital offence, but the punishment for 
it is now regulated by the above-mentioned statute 
passed in the year 1861, under which whoever shall 
be convicted of the crime of burglary shall be 
liable to penal servitude for life, or any term not 
less than five years, or to be imprisoned for any 


term not more than two years, with or without 
(according to the heinousness of the circumstances) 
hard labour and solitary confinement. The distinc¬ 
tion above pointed out between burglary and house¬ 
breaking does not prevail in Scotland. [House¬ 
breaking.] There are State laws in the United 
States applicable to this crime. 

Burglen, a village in the canton of Uri, Switzer¬ 
land, about one-and-a-half miles from Altdorf. It 
enjoys the credit of being the birthplace of that 
mythical hero, William Tell, and even the house in 
which the event took place is shown, its walls 
adorned with paintings of his patriotic exploits. 

Burgomaster, the name formerly given to the 
chief magistrate of a city. 

Burgos, formerly the capital of the kingdom of 
Old Castile, Spain, and now the chief town of the 
province which bears its name, stands on a hill 
above the river Arlanzon at a distance of seventy- 
five miles from Madrid. The city cannot be traced 
back in history beyond the ninth century, when a 
castle was built here to resist Moorish encroach¬ 
ments, and a prosperous settlement gathered round 
it. For a time it was the residence of the 
sovereigns, and sank much in importance after the 
fifteenth century, the Court being established at 
Madrid. In 1808 the Spaniards were defeated under 
its walls by Soult, and in 1813 it was taken by 
Wellington, after an unsuccessful attempt in the 
previous year. In the old quarters are many inter¬ 
esting specimens of street architecture ; whilst the 
modern suburbs beyond the river and on an 
island in mid-stream are pleasantly laid out with 
promenades and gardens. The cathedral, begun 
by Bishop Maurice, an Englishman, in 1221, and 
finished in 1567, is a notable example of the florid 
Gothic style. The fine town hall contains the bones 
of the Cid and his wife. Among other remarkable 
structures are the palace of Velasco, the Doric arch 
of Fernando Gonzalez, the church of St. Paul, and 
the majestic gate of Santa Maria. Burgos is the 
seat of an archbishopric, the headquarters of a 
strong military force, and the legal centre of a Large 
district. It possesses seven great hospitals, several 
convents, important schools, of which the institute 
superior is the chief, and considerable manufactories 
of linen, woollen, and leather goods, as well as of 
paper, stockings and hats. The markets are abund¬ 
antly supplied by a wide agricultural area. 

Burgoyne, John, supposed by some to have 
been the natural son of Lord Bingley, was born in 
1730 and educated at Westminster, entering the 
army very early. He made a runaway match with 
Lady Charlotte Stanley, daughter of the Earl of 
Derby, and was for some time in disgrace. In 
1760, however, he was employed in the Belle Isle 
expedition, and next year sat for Midhurst in 
Parliament, until he went with Lord Loudoun to 
Portugal, where he displayed great skill and daring. 
He was elected on his return to represent Preston, 
and moved a vote of censure on Clive in 1773, but 
in 1775 was sent out to America with reinforcements, 
taking part in the battle of Bunker Hill. Two 
years later he was given the command of a force 
to co-operate against the colonists from the Canadian 





Burgoyne. 


( 249 ) 


Burial. 


side. He took Ticonderoga and Fort Edward, but 
allowed himself to be cut off at Saratoga by Gates, 
and signed the famous capitulation which formed 
the turning point of the war. He defended his 
conduct with ability, and after a period of disfavour 
was restored to his rank in 1782, and made 
commander-in-chief in Ireland. He served as one 
of the managers in the impeachment of Warren 
Hastings. His leisure was devoted to poetry and 
the drama, for which he possessed some slight 
talent, his best and most successful play being The 
Heiress. He died in 1792. 

Burgoyne, Sir John Fox, Bart., G.C.B., son 
of the above, was born in 1782/and passing from 
Eton to Woolwich joined the Royal Engineers in 
1798. His first taste of active service was in Aber- 
cromby’s expedition to Egypt in 1800. He then 
accompanied Sir John Moore to Sweden and the 
Peninsula; fought under Wellington in Spain, and 
took part in the siege of New Orleans under 
Pakenham. During the long subsequent peace 
Burgoyne strongly advocated the strengthening of 
our national defences, and in 1845 was appointed 
inspector-general of fortifications. He went out to 
the Crimea in 1854 and was present at the battles 
of Alma, Balaklava, and Inkerman, directing the 
siege operations until recalled in 1855. On his 
return he received a baronetcy and an honorary 
degree at Oxford. In 1865 he became governor of 
the Tower, and three years later was raised to the 
rank of field-marshal. He died in 1871, having 
undergone a severe shock through the loss of his 
only son, the commander of the ill-fated turret-ship 
Captain, in 1870. 

Burgundy (Fr. Bourgogne ), the name given to 
the district occupied in the fifth century by the 
Burgundi or Burgundiones, a Teutonic race that 
pushed forward from the banks of the Oder and 
Vistula to those of the Aar and Rhone, where they 
established the first kingdom of Burgundy, the 
limits of which embraced parts of Switzerland as 
far as Geneva, a portion of Alsace, the basin of the 
Rhone up to its junction with the Durance, and 
much of the country between the Rhone and the 
Loire. After a dynasty of eight kings, Gundimar 
being the last, this territory was incorporated in 
the Frankish empire (534). After varied fortunes 
it was erected by Charlemagne into a duchy, which 
went to his natural son Hugues. At the break-up 
of Charlemagne’s possessions the southern half was 
split up into two kingdoms, viz. Cis-Juran or Lower 
Burgundy (the second kingdom of Burgundy), and 
Trans-Juran or Upper Burgundy, the Jura forming 
the boundary between the two. These were ulti¬ 
mately united to form the kingdom of Arles, which 
in 1033 passed into the German empire. Mean¬ 
while the duchy, comprising most of what was 
afterwards known as Burgundy, remained loyal to 
Charles the Bold, and was held by several Carlo- 
vingian nominees until in 1363 John gave it to his 
son, Philip the Bold, as a reward for his courage 
at Poitiers. Thus was founded the famous line of 
the Dukes of Burgundy, who in the fourteenth 
and fifteenth centuries overshadowed the French 
crown in magnificence and power. Jean sans Peur, 


Philip the Good, and Charles the Bold extended 
their territories so as to embrace Hainault, Hol¬ 
land, Brabant, etc., and to encroach westward 
upon France. The marriage of Mary, heiress of 
Charles the Bold, with the Archduke Maximilian, 
led to the union of the Franche Comte and the 
Dutch and Belgian districts with the empire as 
the “ Circle of Burgundy,” but the ancient duchy 
of Burgundy still remained a fief of the French 
king, and was presently constituted a province with 
these definite boundaries : on the N. Champagne, on 
the E. Franche Comte and Bresse, on the S. 
Lyonnais and Dauphine, and on the W. Bourbonnais 
and Nivernais. It was divided into eight districts— 
Auxerrois, La Montagne, Auxais, Dijonnois, 
Autunois, Chalonnois, Cliarolois, and Maconnois. 
Its parliament, instituted by Louis XI. in 1476, 
was celebrated, and met at Dijon, as did also later 
on a separate assembly of states-general, over 
which the military governor presided, the Bishop 
of Autun being at the head of the clergy, and the 
mayor of Dijon leading the third estate. The 
revolution put an end to the political privileges of 
the province, and left nothing but the name. 

Burgundy Pitch. [Pitch.] 

Burhanpur, a town in the Nimar district, 
Central Provinces of British India. It is situated 
on the N. bank of the river Tapti, at a distance of 
280 miles from Bombay, with which it is connected 
by the Great Indian Peninsular Railway. Founded 
in 1400 A.d. by a Mahometan prince of Khandesh, 
it was annexed by Akbar two centuries later, and 
until 1635 was the Mogul capital of the Deccan. It 
was the scene of frequent contests between the 
Mahometans and the Mahrattas, .and was finally 
ceded in 1760 by the Nizam to the Peshwa, who 
gave it over to Sindia. The British took the place 
in 1803, but restored it, and it was only in 1860 that 
it passed into our hands. Under the Moguls it is 
said to have had an area of five square miles, but 
the population has fallen steadily in the present 
century. However, the boras, or Mahometan 
itinerant merchants, have headquarters here, and 
the embroidered muslins, silks, and brocades 
adorned with silver and gold threads, for which the 
town has always been famous, are still made in 
some quantities. The Lai Kila, or Red Fort, built 
by Akbar, and the Jurnma Musjid, founded by 
Aurungzebe, are buildings of interest. 

Burial, the disposal of the dead by interment. 
Etymologically the meaning should be limited to 
this definition, though it is often so extended as to 
cover any method of disposing of corpses. The 
oldest, and to this day the commonest, method of 
effecting this is by inhumation. The idea expressed 
in Gen. iii. 19—that man was taken from the 
earth and would return to it—was echoed in 
classic mythology, which told of a loving Earth- 
mother, with arms wide enough to embrace all her 
children; and Milton borrowed from the ancients 
when he made the Archangel promise Adam that 
after a long and temperate life he should drop, like 
ripe fruit, into his mother’s lap (P. L. xi. 530-6). 
The first burials were probably rude enough—a 




Burial. 


( 250 ) 


Burke. 


mere hiding of the remains in the earth. But as 
man developed morally these would naturally be 
treated with greater respect. The growing idea of 
the continuity of human life was also a powerful 
factor in this matter. To early man Death was in 
very deed the twin-brother of Sleep, and the 
departed were conceived of as having the same 
wants and feelings as the living. Hence arose the 
practice of depositing utensils and arms in the 
grave, and on this conception was based the whole 
system of funeral sacrifice (q.v.). From the same 
conception arose the ancient idea that an unburied 
corpse was deprived of rest or denied admission to 
the world of spirits; and similar consequences 
are attributed to the denial of Christian burial. 
From fear to affection as a motive marks a long- 
stage in evolution; and one of the first examples 
of this progress is found in Gen. xxiii., which no 
one can read without sympathising with the tone 
of sorrow in the words of Abraham—my dead.” 
From inhumation, whether preceded or not by 
cremation (q.v.), the step to some kind of memorial 
was easy, and of this the simplest and most widely 
distributed forms are the barrow (q.v.) and the 
cairn (q.v.). The desire to retain the remains of 
loved ones among the living probably gave rise to 
the practice of embalming (q.v.), the preserved 
bodies being afterwards deposited in wooden chests 
or in sarcophagi. These, though the principal, are 
far from being the only methods of disposing of 
the dead. The Sagas tell how the old sea-kings 
were placed after death on the deck of their ship, 
which was then covered with an immense mound 
of earth, or set on fire and sent to sea with all sails 
set. Some savage tribes erect or appropriate a hut 
as a dwelling for the dead. North American 
Indians in some parts dry the corpse and expose it 
on a scaffold, and a nearly similar exposure is 
practised by the Parsees in their Towers of Silence. 

There is an inherent Common Law right in the 
parishioners of every parish in England to be 
buried in the parish churchyard. The mode of 
such burial is a matter of ecclesiastical cognisance. 
Under the statute 4 George IV., c. 52, the remains 
of persons against whom a finding of felo de se is 
had are to be privately interred in the churchyard 
of the parish, but no Christian rites of burial are to 
be performed over them. All burials must be regis¬ 
tered. By an Act passed in the year 1857, provision 
is made for the constitution of a burial board in 
every parish, and where two parishes, each main¬ 
taining its own poor, are united together for eccle¬ 
siastical purposes, a burial board for the whole dis¬ 
trict, appointed by vote of the vestry, or meeting in 
the nature of a vestry, is properly constituted. No 
fee appertains to burial at Common Law, but it may 
be chargeable by custom or in virtue of particular 
statutes. The Common Law rule that every burial in 
a parochial churchyard must be celebrated accord¬ 
ing to the rites of the Established Church, has been 
abolished by the “ Burial Laws Amendment Act 
1880,” which enacts that a deceased person may be 
buried within the churchyard or graveyard of a 
parish or ecclesiastical district or place without the 
Church of England burial service, provided proper 
notice be given to the incumbent. The burial 


may take place without any religious service or 
with any Christian and orderly religious service, 
but the Act only extends to burial grounds in 
which the parishioners or inhabitants of the parish 
or ecclesiastical district have rights of burial, and 
does not extend to other places nor authorise the 
burial of any person in a burial ground vested in 
trustees without the performance of any express 
condition on which by the terms of the trust deed 
the right of interment may have been granted. 
There are several statutes providing for the acqui¬ 
sition of new burial grounds where the existing 
ones are insufficient. The Public Health (Inter¬ 
ments) Act, 1879, empowers local authorities to 
acquire, construct and maintain cemetei-ies subject 
to the provisions of the “ Cemeteries Clauses 
Act, 1847,” and the “ Public Health Act, 1875.” 

In the United States it is a misdemeanor, in any 
one whose duty it is to do so, not to bury a dead 
body ; also to omit to give notice to the coroner 
that a body on which an inquest should be held is 
lying unburied, or to bury or otherwise dispose of 
such body without notice to the coroner. 

Buridan, Jean, was born at Bethune, in Artois, 
about 1295, and studied philosophy in Paris under 
William of Ollam. He became a keen nominalist, and 
is said to have been driven out of France on that 
account, but there is no evidence of the fact. He 
wrote ably on logic, and commented with intelligence 
on Aristotle, especially discussing the theory of free¬ 
will as expounded in the Nicomachean ethics. 
The simile, however, of Buridan's ass (Vane de 
Buridan ), in which the soul, distracted by evenly- 
balanced motives, is compared to the animal placed 
between a measure of corn and a bucket of water, 
cannot be found in his works, and was probably an 
invention of his adversaries to throw discredit on 
his arguments. He died about 1360. 

Buriti Palm, a name applied in the southern 
provinces of Brazil to Mauritia vinifera , a fine 
species of palm, growing 100 to 150 feet high, 
with fan-shaped leaves and small scaly nuts. Wine 
is mads from the juice of the stem, another drink 
and a sweetmeat from the reddish-vellow pulp 
round the seed, hats, hammocks, and cordage from 
the epidermis of the leaves, and thatch from the 
old leaves; whilst the stems are used in raft and 
house-building, the kernels as vegetable ivory, and 
the roots in medicine. In Para it is called Muriti. 

Burke (sometimes written Bourke), Edmund, 
the son of a Protestant attorney by a Roman 
Catholic mother, was born at Dublin probably in 
1729, but as to this fact and his early life generally 
accurate information is wanting. Along with his 
elder and his younger brother he went to a school 
kept by Abraham Shackleton, a Quaker and a man 
of piety and learning, at Ballitore. Shackleton’s 
son remained Burke’s friend through life. Thence 
he passed to Trinity College, Dublin, and graduating 
without distinction, began in 1750 to keep terms at 
the Temple in London. His health was not strong, 
he had no great taste for the law, he enjoyed the 
clever and somewhat Bohemian society that the 
Temple furnished, and he began to work as a 
bookseller’s hack or a contributor to magazines. In 






Burlce. 


( 251 ) 


Burke. 


1750 he made a great hit with A Vindication of 
JSatural Society, a satirical imitation of Boling- 
broke, which deceived many critics, and was only 
understood by the intelligent few to be an elaborate 
mockery of rationalism as applied to social and 
political institutions. The same year witnessed the 
publication of his Philosophical Inquiry into the 
Origin of our Ideas on the Sublime and Beautiful, 
a work which, in spite of crudity and narrowness, 
showed original power and great command of 
language, and won him the admiration and friend¬ 
ship of Dr. Johnson, Sir Joshua Reynolds, War- 
burton, Hume, and all the leading intellects of the 
day. Hints on the Drama, An Abridgment of the 
History of England , An Account of the European 
Settlements in America , occupied his time until 
1759, when he began to compile for Dodsley the 
Annual Register. He had in the meantime married 
an amiable and gentle wife, in the person of Miss 
Nugent, the daughter of a physician at Bath. In 
1761 he accompanied “single-speech” Hamilton, 
then Irish secretary, to Dublin, and for two years 
worked hard and learned much in his humble 
official post. A quarrel with his contemptible patron 
led to his resignation of the pension with which he 
retired, and Burke in 1765 became private secretary 
to Rockingham, who had just taken office as leader 
of the Whigs, and who procured him a seat for 
Wendover. His first night in the House was marked 
by a speech on American affairs that won him 
Pitt’s cordial praise, and when at the end of a year, 
during which the stamp duty was repealed, general 
warrants condemned, and the cider tax abolished, 
the Rockingham ministry left office, Burke’s repu¬ 
tation stood so high that Pitt made overtures to 
him, which he declined. In 1769 his pamphlet 
On the Present State of the Nation, in answer to 
Grenville’s defence of his policy, proved him to 
possess a sound knowledge of commercial and 
financial matters as well as breadth and clearness 
of political views ; and next year he wrote On the 
Causes of the Present Discontents, a masterpiece in its 
way, with the purpose of building up a new Whig 
party, in which Rockingham and Chatham could be 
united. It reveals that hatred of overstrained 
royal prerogative, and yet that conservative venera¬ 
tion for the monarchy, which supply the keynote of 
his creed; but it failed to commend itself to the 
leaders of rival factions, and during North’s 
administration, from 1770 to 1782, Burke was the 
life and soul of the opposition, gradually acquiring, 
in spite of an unpleasant voice and delivery, a 
great command over the House. He had now 
bought, chiefly with borrowed money, a house and 
estate at Beaconsfield, and his scanty income was 
augmented for a time by his agency for New York 
and his literary earnings; but even with Lord 
Rockingham’s generous help, and with the know¬ 
ledge that he was never free from debt, we are not 
a little puzzled to find out how his means sufficed 
for the handsome, but not extravagant, style of life 
in which he indulged. He visited France in 1773, 
and in 1774 was returned free of cost for Bristol. 
Then followed his noble struggle for justice to the 
American colonists, during which he never for one 
moment abandoned his constitutional attitude 


or dallied with revolutionary principles. His 
Speech on Conciliation and his Letter to the Sheriffs 
of Bristol are the most eloquent and characteristic 
memorials of this period of his career. In 1780 he 
adopted three new causes, viz. the Roman Catholic 
claims, the movement in favour of economical 
reform, and the wrongs inflicted on India by 
Hastings and the East India Company. The first 
item in his programme cost him his seat at Bristol, 
but he found another at Malton, which he retained 
to the end of his political life. The utter failure of 
the king’s American policy caused North to resign 
in 1782, and Rockingham, coming once more into 
power, made Burke paymaster of the forces and 
privy councillor. He displayed scrupulous honesty 
in a post where his predecessors had not hesitated 
to enrich themselves, but on the death of Rocking¬ 
ham he seceded from Shelburne along with Fox, 
formed the not very creditable coalition with 
North, and resumed office under the Duke of Port¬ 
land in 1783. His India Bill, however, conceived 
in the same spirit as his measure of economical 
reform, with the aim, that is to say, of wresting 
patronage from the Crown to entrust it to ministers 
and to Parliament, broke up the ministry, and an 
appeal to the country in 1784 left the Whigs in a 
hopeless minority, and conferred lasting power on 
Pitt. Burke now concentrated his energies on the 
impeachment of Warren Hastings, and for nearly 
ten years he maintained this terrible conflict with 
unabated vigour, delivering a series of speeches 
that have never been surpassed for brilliancy of 
argument, power of invective, and pathetic dignity. 
That he was stimulated now and then by personal 
feelings to exaggerate his charge must, we fear, be 
conceded, but on the whole his conduct was inspired 
by a lofty sense of humanity and duty, and by a 
love of honour and justice. Before this struggle 
was over a new path was opened out to Burke by 
the course of the revolutionary movement in France, 
and he plunged into it with his usual impetuosity. 
Fox in 1790 spoke in favour of the French guards 
who had turned against their sovereign; Burke at 
once broke from his old colleagues, and after issuing 
ineffectually an Appeal from the Old to the New 
Whigs, brought out his most famous and effective 
manifesto, Refections on the Revolution in France, 
and on the Proceedings in certain Societies in London 
relative to that Event. Nothing that has ever been 
written on political subjects has exercised a more 
striking and immediate influence on men’s minds 
than this short but magnificent appeal to the high¬ 
est conservative instincts of human nature. He 
was, of course, blind to the inevitable character of 
that Nemesis which had overtaken the French 
monarchy ; he was unjust to the chiefs, who found 
themselves face to face with chaos ; and his sym¬ 
pathies were rather with individuals than with 
nations. Still his horror of bloodshed and cruelty, 
his distrust in progress as divorced from religion 
and morality, his faith in reform of the old as 
opposed to theoretical reconstruction, and his 
hatred of the vulgar ignorance and coarse brutality 
of reckless demagogues, won him the support of 
many independent and honest minds as well as the 
effusive admiration of all who were interested in' 






Burke. 


( 252 ) 


Burlington. 


monarchical institutions. Honours and congratula¬ 
tions were showered upon him, but politically he 
remained isolated, for though he withdrew from 
the Whigs, he declined to join the Tories. He sub¬ 
mitted to Government a paper entitled, Thoughts on 
French Affairs ; he urged with some success Catho¬ 
lic claims, and he wrote Heads for Consideration on 
the Present State of Public Affairs ; but he was 
anxious to retire from parliamentary life, and bade 
farewell to the House in 1794, accepting the Chiltern 
Hundreds. But a cruel blow now fell upon him. 
His son, who had taken his father’s seat for Malton, 
and was just starting for Ireland as Lord Fitz- 
william’s secretary, died of rapid consumption. 
Utterly heart-broken, Burke spent his last years 
on his estate in the enjoyment of a pension, which 
he was compelled to defend in a Letter to a JStoble 
Lord. His last effort, Thoughts on a Regicide Peace, 
betrayed little loss of intellectual vigour, but his 
constitution was completely undermined. He died 
peacefully and with dignity amid the consolations 
of religion on July 7,1797, and was buried without 
ostentation or ceremony beside his son in the little 
church at Beaconsfield, which was destined to be 
the resting place nearly a century later of another 
eminent statesman. 

Burke, Sir John Bernard, Knt., C.B., LL.D., 
the son of an eminent Irish antiquary, John Burke, 
was born in London in 1815, and was called to the 
bar in 1839. He took up the work begun by his 
father, editing the Peerage and Baronetage, which 
he published yearly : compiling a valuable History 
of the Landed Gentry , and many interesting 
volumes on genealogical subjects, e.g. Extinct 
Peerages, The Royal Families vf England, The 
Vicissitudes of Great Families, and The Rise of 
Great Families. In 1853 he succeeded Sir W. 
Betham as Ulster King-of-Arms, and was knighted, 
receiving the Order of the Bath in 1868. 

Burke, Robert O'Hara, was born at St. Cleram, 
in Ireland, in 1812. Settling in Australia, he 
became one of the most active explorers of the 
interior of that continent. Along with Wills he 
succeeded in crossing from Melbourne to the Gulf 
of Carpentaria in I860, but they both perished next 
year on the return journey, after terrible sufferings 
from privation and drought. 

Burke, or Bourke, Thomas Henry, was born 
of Catholic family at Knocknagur, county Galway, 
Ireland, in 1829, and having received his education 
in Belgium, in Germany, and at Trinity College, 
Dublin, became in 1847 private secretary to Sir 
Thomas Bedington, then Irish Secretary, and held 
the same post under Mr. Chichester Fortescue, Sir 
Robert Peel, and Lord Hartington. He had very 
early in his career provoked the animosity of the 
Nationalists by using the private papers of Smith 
O'Brien for the purpose of procuring his conviction, 
nor had his subsequent services at the Castle tended 
to diminish his unpopularity. In 1868 he was ap¬ 
pointed permanent under-secretary, and it was his 
misfortune to be associated as a faithful subordi¬ 
nate with the coercive measures of successive 
governments. A secret band of desperadoes, styl¬ 
ing themselves “ The Invincibles,” resolved to get 


rid of the objectionable official. He was stabbed 
whilst walking in the Phoenix Park (May 6, 1882) 
with the newly-appointed Chief Secretary, Lord 
Frederick Cavendish, whose life was also sacrificed. 
Joseph Brady, the ringleader in the conspiracy, 
with several other accomplices, was convicted of 
the crime in the following year chiefly through the 
treachery of James Carey, one of the gang. 

Burke, William, an Irishman, who in the early 
quarter of the century was employed as a porter in 
Edinburgh. His cupidity was excited by the high 
price paid, before the Anatomy Act, for bodies for 
dissection, and, in conjunction with another ruffian 
named Hare, he set about supplying subjects to the 
celebrated Professor Knox. Selecting vagrants and 
other friendless persons, he first made them drunk 
and then suffocated them. Suspicions were aroused 
at last, and Hare turned king’s evidence against 
his partner, who admitted to having murdered 
fifteen persons. He was hanged in 1828, and his 
name, in the form of a verb, passed into the English 
language to express the sudden and secret smother¬ 
ing of any disagreeable fact. 

Burkitt, William, w^as born at Hitcham in 
1650, and became a theologian of some eminence. 
His Expository Notes on the New Testament, 
published posthumously, w T ere much esteemed by 
divines of the last century. He died in 1703. 

Burlesque (Ital. burla, ridicule), a dramatic 
caricature of some well-known story or literary 
work, usually set to music in part, and plentifully 
seasoned with puns, topical illusions, and songs. 
Less broadly comic productions of the same kind, 
or those where the element of caricature is less 
prominent, are often called extravaganzas. Collo¬ 
quially the word is used to mean a mere mockery, 
as in the phrase “ a burlesque of justice.” 

Burlingame, Anson, was born in Chenango 
county, New York, in 1822, and practised law at 
Boston. In 1854, ’56, and ’58 he was sent to Congress 
on the Republican ticket by one of the divisions of 
Massachusetts, and he supported Fremont in his un¬ 
successful presidential struggle against Buchanan. 
In 1861 he was appointed representative of the 
United States in China, and entering the Chinese 
service was ambassador of that country in America 
and in Europe until his death in 1870. 

Burlington. 1. A county on the seaboard 
of New Jersey, U.S.A., the capital of which, bear¬ 
ing the same name, stands on the Delaware river, 
t wenty miles above Philadelphia, and is a port of 
considerable traffic. It has a flourishing episco¬ 
palian college, and several public buildings. It 
was founded by Quakers in 1661. 

2. The capital of Chittenden county, Vermont, 
U.S.A., and the largest town in the state, finely 
situated on the east shore of Lake Champlain, at 
the foot of a slope which is crowned by the Vermont 
university. 

3. The capital of Des Moines county, Iowa, 
U.S.A., on the right bank of the Mississippi, 250 
miles above St. Louis. It contains a business 
college, Baptist university, and many industrial 










Burma. 


( 253 ) 


Burma. 


establishments. Being the centre of an extensive 
railway system, it is a very growing place. 

Burma. The easternmost province of British 
India, bounded on the north and north-east by the 
Chinese dominions ; on the east by the British Shan 
states and Siam, and on the west by the Bay of 
Bengal. It consists of Lower Burma, which was 
added to the Indian empire by the wars of 1824 
and 1852; and Upper Burma, which was annexed 
by Britain in 1885. The physical structure of the 
country is that of a region seamed by chains of 
mountains running north and south, and watered 
by streams which flow southward into the Bay of 
Bengal. The mountain system is known to be 
connected with that of the Himalayas, and some of 
the rivers undoubtedly rise in the Tibetan plateau, 
but the intervening region between Tibet and 
Burma is one of the least known spots in Asia. 
The origin and physical structure of the Bur¬ 
mese rivers and mountains are still a matter of 
great uncertainty. The principal rivers are the 
Irawadi, the head stream of which rises east of 
Assam, which flows through Bhamo and west of 
Mandalay to discharge its waters by ten mouths 
into the sea; the Salwen or Lu-kiang, which rises 
in Tibet, and traversing the eastern confines of the 
province joins the Gulf of Martaban near Moul- 
rnein, and the Sittang. There are tributaries of 
the Irawadi, such as the Kyendwin, the Manipur 
river, the Shweli and Myitnge, which may be said 
to attain the dignity of separate rivers. The Irawadi, 
being navigable up to Bhamo, forms an important 
highway of communication; the Salwen is not 
navigable. Both rivers overflow the alluvial plains 
around their lower course in the rainy season. The 
northern part of the province is mainly an upland 
territory, containing much rolling country, inter¬ 
sected by occasional hill ranges, and varied by a 
few isolated alluvial tracts. 

The chief products of Upper Burma are rice (of 
which, it is said, the Burmese count 102 sorts, and of 
which there is a considerable export), grain, tobacco, 
cotton, mustard, teak, and indigo. In 1867 the 
area under rice cultivation in Lower Burma was 
only 1,682,110 acres, and the number of rice mills 
was seven. In 1881 the number of mills had risen 
to forty-nine, and the acreage to 3,181,229, an 
increase of eighty-nine per cent, in fourteen years. 
A cheap and coarse sugar is obtained from the juice 
of the Palmyra palm, which abounds in the tracts 
south of Mandalay; but most of the sugar used is 
imported. There is a great demand for this 
product, which increased cultivation would supply. 
The tea plant, which is indigenous, is cultivated in 
the hills, a few days’ journey distant from the same 
spot. The common potato is largely cultivated by 
the Kakhyens on the Chinese frontier, where it is 
known by the name of the “foreigner’s root.” 

The local supply of labour is inadequate to the 
demands, and during the harvest and rice shipping 
season there is extensive immigration, which is in¬ 
creasing from year to year. Unskilled labour is 
worth from Is. to Is. 6d. a day, and more during 
the season. It has been calculated that it takes as 
much money to construct one mile of road, or 100 


cubic feet of masonry, in British Burma, as it does 
to make two miles, or 800 cubic feet, in India. 
Next to labour, the most urgent want of the country 
is land communication. It is said there are 
thousands of villages in Lower Burma alone which 
are shut off from trade for at least eight months of 
the year by reason of the lack of roads. Road¬ 
making is slow, owing to the want of labour and 
metal, no road metal being available in many 



districts except broken brick, which in a country 
with a heavy rainfall requires constant care and 
repairs. There are two lines of railway, one follow¬ 
ing the valley of the Irawadi, called the Irawadi 
Valley State Railway, connecting Rangoon with 
Prome, and the other extending from Rangoon to 
Mandalay. 

Minerals. The geological structure of Lower 
Burma comprises three sections, western, middle, 
and eastern, nearly corresponding to the divisions 
of Arakan, Pegu, and Tenasserim. The rocks of 
Arakan belong to the secondary series, Pegu is 
tertiary, and Tenasserim primary. The economic 
products of the -western division are petroleum, 
limestone, and coal. The middle or Pegu division 
produces laterite. The eastern division has not been 
much explored; but coal, limestone, tin, lead, gold, 
antimony, and graphite have been found. Upper 
Burma is rich in minerals. Gold is found in the 
sands of different rivers and also towards the Shan 
territory on the eastern frontier, which contains 
various metals. There are silver mines near the 
Chinese frontier, but they are not worked. Iron is 
worked in rude fashion at two or three places, and 
large deposits of rich magnetic oxide exist in the 
ridges east of Mandalay, near the Myit-nge river, 
while the same district contains lime in great 
abundance and of remarkable whiteness ; statuary 
marble equal to the best Italian kinds is found 
about fifteen miles north of Mandalay. Mines of 
amber are wrought, and at Ye-nangyaung, on the 











Burma. 


( 254 ) 


Burma, 


banks of the Irawadi, there are upwards of a 
hundred deep petroleum wells which yield oil in 
abundance for export. The precious stones pro¬ 
duced are chiefly the sapphire and the ruby, which 
are found about seventy miles in a north-east 
direction from Mandalay. Before the British 
annexation no stranger was ever permitted to 
approach the locality, and all stones found were sent 
to the Crown treasury. The mines are now worked 
on concession by an English firm. The Yu or jade 
mines are situated in the Mogoung district. 
Momien in Yunan was formerly the chief seat of 
the manufacture of jade, and still produces a con¬ 
siderable quantity of small articles. 

Fauna. The deep impenetrable j angles of Burmah 
afford shelter to many wild animals. Elephants and 
wild hogs are numerous, and the single and double¬ 
horned rhinoceros. There are nearly thirty kinds 
of carnivora, including the tiger, leopard, bear, and 
wild cat. Quadrumana are found in six or seven 
distinct species, hares are numerous, and among 
ruminants the barking deer, hog deer, sambhar, 
goat, antelope, bison, buffalo, and wild ox. The 
rivers, lakes, and estuaries swarm with fish. 
Aquatic birds abound in endless variety. Among 
other birds, pea-fowl, jungle fowl, pheasant, part¬ 
ridge, quail and plover are found throughout the 
country. Geese, ducks, and fowls are extensively 
domesticated, and cock-fighting is a favourite 
amusement with the people. The domestic animals 
are the elephant, buffalo, ox, horse, mule, ass, goat, 
sheep, and pig. The first three are used for 
draught, the elephant being especially useful in 
dragging timber. The horse is a small variety, 
rarely exceeding thirteen hands in height, and like 
the mule and ass it is used only as a beast of 
burden. 

Population. Ethnically both Upper and Lower 
Burma vary considerably. In the former the 
Burmese people are the most numerous, after which 
•come the Karens, natives of India, Talaings, Shans, 
Chins and others. Upper Burma is surrounded by 
numerous tribes of Kakhyens, Karens, Chins, and 
Singphos, who lead a rough life in their mountains 
and come down to levy blackmail on the more 
peaceful inhabitants. The population according to 
the census of 1891 is estimated at 7,553,900. 

Commerce, Manufactures, etc. For centuries the 
seaboard of Burma has been visited by Arabs and 
other Asiatic races, and in the time of Ciesar 
Frederick gold, silver, rubies, sapphires, long pepper, 
lead, tin, lac, and rice were exported. Of late 
years the commercial development of the country 
has more than kept pace with its rapidly in¬ 
creasing population. Since 1855 the external or 
sea-borne trade of the province has risen from 
£5,000,000 to £19,949,417 (taking the rupee at the 
conventional rate of exchange of two shillings), 
besides which there is considerable inland traffic 
with China (registered at Bhamo) and with the 
Shan states. The principal articles exported by 
sea in 1889-90 were rice (Rs. 0,19,74,743), teak 
(Rs. 73,38,020), cutch, a resinous gum used for 
dyeing tea in Europe and America (Rs. 23,38,305), 
raw cotton (Rs. 10,82,709), jade (Rs. 8,19,350), 
raw hides (Rs. 7,44,382), and caoutchouc. The 


chief imports are cotton piece goods, silk and 
woollen goods, oils, railway plant, iron, liquors and 
salt. Besides the important industry carried on by 
the rice mills, as mentioned above, which free the 
rice from the husk and prepare it for the 
European, American and Chinese markets, there 
are numerous steam timber saw mills at Rangoon, 
Moulmein, Tavoy and Shwegyin. Silk weaving 
was a favourite occupation with the Burmese, but it 
is said that the imported goods are underselling 
the local manufactures, and the industry is 
languishing. Lac ware is a characteristic manu¬ 
facture, and most Burmese own vessels of this 
material. The groundwork of these articles is 
very fine bamboo wicker-work which is overlaid 
with coats of lac, the chief ingredient in which is the 
oil or resin from the thitsi tree. The Burmese show 
proficiency in the art of wood-carving, while other 
popular industries are boat-building, cart-making, 
mat-weaving, the manufacture of paper, umbrella¬ 
making, ivory carving, and stone-cutting. In the 
casting of bells and in elaborate metal-work they 
are specially skilful. 

History. The Golden Chersonese, as Ptolemy 
designated it, has played an insignificant role in 
the world’s history as compared with the other two 
great peninsulas of Asia—India and Arabia. Each 
of the three has been the home and stronghold of a 
powerful creed, but while Arabia and India have 
been intimately connected with modern civilisation, 
Burma has remained comparatively isolated and 
unknown. The Arakanese chronicle relates how 
the Burman peninsula was first colonised by a 
prince from Benares, who established his capital at 
Sandoway, and the royal history of Ava traces the 
lineage of the kings to the ancient Buddhist 
monarchs of India. From the eleventh to the 
thirteenth century the old Burmese empire was at 
the height of its power, and to this period belong 
the splendid architectural remains at Pagan. The 
city and dynasty were destroyed by a Mongol 
invasion in 1284 in the reign of Kublai Khan. 
Afterwards the empire fell to a low ebb, and Central 
Burma suffered largely from inroads made by the 
Tataings and Shans, and dynasties of the latter race 
often held sway. In 1404 the reigning Arakanese 
prince, Min Saw Mun, was dethroned, and took 
refuge in Bengal. Some years later he was restored 
by Mohammedan aid, and thenceforth the coins of 
the Arakan kings bore on the reverse their names 
and titles in corrupt imitation of Persian and 
Nagari characters, and the custom was continued 
long after their connection with Bengal had been 
severed. 

The subsequent history of Burma forms a con¬ 
fused record of intestine strife and foreign war. 
Despite its mountain barrier, it lay at the mercy of 
both Burmese and Talaings, and its rulers were 
generally subject to the one or the other power. 
The close of the sixteenth century witnessed the 
last great struggle between Ava and Pegu, and the 
King of Arakan availed himself of the weakness of 
his neighbours in Bengal to extend his dominion 
over Chittagong and northwards as far as the 
Megna river. In the seventeenth century a new 
dynasty arose in Ava which subdued Pegu and 








Burma. ( 255 ) Burnaby. 


maintained supremacy up to the first forty years. 
The Peguans or Talaings then revolted, and having 
taken Ava and made the king prisoner, reduced the 
country to submission. It was then that Alompra 
arose. He had been first a hunter and then a 
Dacoit leader, and having made himself master of 
the capital, eventually, after four years’ fighting, 
effected the subjugation of the Peguans. In 
the course of these hostilities the French sided 
with the Peguans and the English with the 
Burmese. He died in 1760, but not before he had 
reduced the town and district of Tavoy, Mergui, 
and Tenasserim, and was actually besieging the 
capital of Siam. In 1765, while the Burmese were 
waging war against the Siamese, a Chinese army 
of 50,000 men was despatched against them from 
Yunnan, but through the tactics of the Burmese the 
force was practically annihilated. The Siamese 
were subject to the Burmese until 1771, when they 
revolted and were never again subdued, peace being 
concluded between the two powers in 1793. At 
this time the British and Burmese were gradually 
approximating, and occasional collisions occurred. 
These culminated in outrages committed by the 
Burmese, and in 1824 war was declared by England. 
An uneventful campaign ensued, in the course of 
which Sir A. Campbell triumphed over his foes at 
every point, and ultimately obtained from them the 
ratification of the treaty of Yandabu, ceding 
Arakan, with the provinces of Mergiu, Tavoy, and 
Yea ; the renunciation by the Burmese sovereign 
of all claims upon Assam and the contiguous 
petty states, a war indemnity, and other conces¬ 
sions. The peace was, however, emphatically 
short-lived, and in 1852 a second Burmese war was 
declared which resulted in the annexation of the 
province of Pegu, by proclamation of the Governor- 
General, Lord Dalhousie. In 1855 a mission of 
compliment was sent by the ruler of Burma to the 
Viceroy, and in the summer of the same year Major 
Arthur Phayre, de facto governor of the new 
province of Pegu, was appointed envoy to the 
Burmese court, accompanied by the late Sir Henry 
(then Captain) Yule, and Dr. Oldham as geologist. 
This mission added largely to our knowledge of the 
country, but it was not till 1862 that the king 
yielded so far as to conclude a treaty of commerce. 
A British resident was, until October, 1879, main¬ 
tained at the capital, and during that time two 
expeditions under Major Sladen and Colonel Horace 
Browne were despatched, in 1868 and 1874 
respectively, towards the Chinese frontier. The 
latter expedition was marred by the assassination 
of Mr. Margary, who had been commissioned to 
meet the party from the Chinese side. 

The last king of Burma, Theebaw, ascended the 
throne in 1878, and, in spite of remonstrances from 
Mr. R. B. Shaw, the British resident at Mandalay, 
massacred almost all the direct descendants of his 
predecessor in February, 1879. In October of the 
same year the British resident was withdrawn, and 
though efforts were made to re-open friendly rela¬ 
tions, and a Burmese embassy visited Simla in 1882, 
there was no real restoration of confidence. British 
subjects and traders were molested, and repre¬ 
sentatives of France and Italy were welcomed, two 


return embassies being despatched from Burma to 
Europe. This behaviour culminated in an act of great 
oppression, whereby the Bombay Burma Trading 
Corporation, a company of merchants with dealings 
in Burma, were summarily condemned to pay a fine 
of £230,000 to the Burmese Government. The 
Chief Commissioner protested, and eventually 
despatched an ultimatum to Mandalay. On this 
being unconditionally rejected, British troops crossed 
the frontier on the 14th November, 1885. Except 
at Minhla, scarcely any resistance was encountered. 
The capital surrendered, the king and his two 
queens were sent down to Rangoon, and the Chief 
Commissioner assumed charge of the administra¬ 
tion. On the 1st January, 1886, Upper Burma 
was declared to be part of Her Majesty’s dominions, 
and it was afterwards formally incorporated with 
British India under Act 21 and 22 Viet., cap. 106. 
The subsequent history of Burma, but more 
especially Upper Burma, has been one of pacifica¬ 
tion and consolidation. For some time after the 
annexation the country was overrun by dacoit 
leaders and rebels, who maintained a sort of 
guerilla warfare, and whose example occasioned 
disturbances in Lower Burma as well. Constant 
expeditions have had to be despatched in various 
parts of the country, which is now gradually 
settling down. These pacificatory measures have 
also not been without their indirect advantages in 
enabling British officers to survey and open up the 
country. The last administrative report written 
by Sir Charles Crosthwaite (for 1889-90) states 
that organised crime within the province has 
entirely disappeared, and that it has been found 
possible at last to reduce the military police. 

Burmann, Pieter, the son of a theological pro¬ 
fessor, was born at Utrecht in 1668. He distinguished 
himself as a classical scholar and historian. In 
1715 he obtained a professorship of history, 
eloquence and Greek at Leyden. He brought out 
famous editions of Horace, Ovid, Lucan, Phsedrus, 
and other classics, indulged in original Latin 
poetry, and engaged in the bitter controversies that 
raged between the scholars of his day. He died in 
1741. His nephew, Pieter Burmann, the younger, 
was also distinguished as a Latinist. 

Burn, Richard, was bom at Winton, West¬ 
moreland, in 1720, and, taking holy orders, became 
vicar of Orton and justice of the peace. Unlike 
most of his colleagues, he thought it advisable to 
study the laws which he had to administer, and 
was thus led to compile the digest fo'r the use of 
magistrates known as Burn's Justice. He also 
published a valuable compendium of ecclesiastical 
law, wrote part of the history of his native county, 
and served as chancellor of the diocese of Carlisle. 
He died in 1685. 

Burnaby, Frederick Gustaves, was born of 
an old and distinguished family in 1842. He 
obtained a commission in the Royal Horse Guards 
in 1859, and rose to be lieutenant-colonel in 1881. 
A man of restless energy, reckless daring, and 
eccentricity that occasionally defied the laws of 
common sense, he spent his long periods of leave 
in difficult and dangerous expeditions, chiefly in 







Burnand. 


( 256 ) 


Burnet. 


South America or Central Africa. In 1875, 
stimulated by the accounts of Russian advances, he 
rode alone to Khiva, publishing a lively record of 
his adventures, which were cut short by the 
officers of the Czar. Next year found him ex¬ 
ploring Asia Minor and Persia ( On Horseback 
through Asia), but he ended it as correspondent of 
the Times with Don Carlos in Spain. He now 
took to politics and unsuccessfully contested 
Birmingham as a Conservative in 1880. Ballooning 
next occupied his attention, and in 1882 he crossed 
the Channel to France. In the service of the 
Intelligence department he took part in General 
Graham’s operations against the Soudanese at 
Suakim in 1884, and was severely wounded at El 
Teb. He was not permitted to join the Nile 
expedition, but as a volunteer pushed on to the front 
late in the year and attached himself to General 
Herbert Stewart’s column in its march from Korti 
to Metamneh. When the square was broken at 
Abu Klea by a charge of dervishes he exerted 
all his courage and his great personal strength to 
rally his comrades, and fighting in advance of the 
line was pierced by an Arab spear. 

Burnand, Francis Cowley, was born in 
1837, educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cam¬ 
bridge, and destined for the bar. Though called in 
1862, he never engaged in serious practice, but took 
to writing for the burlesque stage and the comic 
papers. In the former line he has produced Ixion, 
Black-eyed Susan, Stage Dora, and several other 
amusing travesties specially contrived for the 
display of Mr. Toole’s talents. Artful Cards, 
Betsy, and Miss Decima are specimens of his skill 
as a borrower from the French. In journalism Mr. 
Burnand associated himself at the start with 
Mr. H. J. Byron, then editor of Fun. Presently he 
transferred his talents to Punch, and in 1880 suc¬ 
ceeded Mr. Tom Taylor in the direction of that 
paper. Perhaps his best known contributions to its 
columns have been his parodies on modern novelists, 
somewhat overdone but full of keen observation and 
tempered satire, and the long series of papers 
entitled Happy Thoughts, in which the inner work¬ 
ings of the common-place mind are amusingly laid 
bare, and certain types of character and phases of 
social manners are hit off with playful dexterity. 
Mr. Burnand is a master rather of verbal fence and 
sarcastic humour than of true wit, but he has for 
many years discharged a difficult task with great 
tact and unfailing good nature. 

Burne-Jones, Edward, A.R.A., was born in 
1833 and was a student at Exeter College, 
Oxford, when he came under the influence of the 
pre-Raphaelite movement, of which Gabriel Dante 
Rossetti and William Holman Hunt were the 
leaders. Mr. Burne-Jones became thoroughly 
imbued with two characteristics of the new 
school, a yearning for mystical and symbolical 
teachings of mediseval asceticism and a faithful 
appreciation of minute details both in form and 
colour. Few have adhered so constantly to these 
first principles as he has done. For some years he 
worked mainly in water-colours or tempera, and 
was regarded rather as an amateur, filling his 


mind meanwhile with legendary lore gathered 
from the classics, the lives of the saints, and the 
northern sagas. Among his more remarkable 
works in recent years are The Days of Creation, 
Merlin and Vivien, The Mirror of I 'emts, Day and 
Night and the Four Seasons, Bans Veneris, Le 
Chant d'Amour, The Annunciation, Pygmalion , The 
Golden Stairs, The Wheel of Fortune, Coplietua and 
the Beggar Maid, The Depths of the Sea, The Mer¬ 
maid, The Star of Bethlehem, and several designs of 
a decorative character, such as those illustrating 
The Myth of Perseus and The Legend of the Briar 
Rose. 

Burnes, Sir Alexander, was born at Mont¬ 
rose in 1805, and entered the army of the East 
India Company at the age of seventeen. He 
soon attained such proficiency in Hindustani and 
Persian as to be appointed interpreter first at 
Surat and then at Cutch, where his attention 
was directed to the as yet imperfectly known 
regions in the north-west of India. In 1831 he 
was sent to Lahore with a present from William IV. 
to Runjit Singh, and he spent some two years 
in travels which led him into Afghanistan across 
the Hindu Kush range to Bokhara and Persia. 
The narrative which he published in 1834 brought 
him at once into notice. In 1835 he was instructed 
to procure at Sindh a treaty for the navigation 
of the Indus, and in 1836 was dispatched on a 
mission to Dost Mohammed at Cabul, where 
on the restoration of Shah Sujah in 1839 he 
became British resident. He refused to quit his 
post in the turbulent times that followed, and 
in November, 1841, was assassinated during an 
insurrection. 

Burnet ( Poterium Sanguisorba'), a perennial 
rosaceous plant, common in dry pastures, especially 
on calcareous soil. It has an angular stem about a 
foot high, pinnate leaves of 11 to 21 serrate leaflets, 
with leafy stipules, and compact heads of monoecious 
flowers without petals. The upper flowers in the 
head are female, each having an exserted feathery 
(“ penicillate ”) stigma ; whilst each of the lower 
ones have 20 or 30 pendulous, exserted, pink 
stamens. As stigma and pollen mature at different 
times the plant is clearly adapted for wind-pollina¬ 
tion. It was formerly eaten in salad, whence its 
name of “ salad burnet,” and its leaves, which taste 
like cucumber, were used in cool tankard, whence 
the Latin name Poterium, which means a drinking 
cup. 

Burnet, Gilbert, was born in Edinburgh in 
1643, being descended from an old Aberdeen 
family. He was at first educated at the Marischal 
College for his father’s profession of the law, but 
soon took to divinity and was ordained at the age 
of eighteen. In 1663 he visited England, spending- 
six months at Oxford and Cambridge, and he then 
made a stay of several months in Holland and 
France, where he imbibed broad principles of 
toleration from association with men of all creeds. 
On his return he was presented to the living of 
Saltoun, and in 1669 he obtained the professorship 
of divinity in the University of Glasgow. It was 








Burnet. 


( 257 ) 


Burning. 


then that lie wrote his Modest and Free Con¬ 
ference between a Conformist and a Nonconformist, 
and began the Memoirs of the Dukes of Hamilton, 
which led to his being invited by Lauderdale to 
London. Here he remained as preacher at the 
Rolls chapel and lecturer at St. Clement’s until the 
accession of James II., bringing out the first two 
volumes of his History of the Reformation of the 
Church of England, for which he received the 
thanks of Parliament. He travelled next in 
France, Holland and Switzerland, visiting also 
Rome, where he injudiciously mixed himself up in 
religious controversies. William of Orange attached 
him to his cause, and James thereupon prosecuted 
him for high treason. In 1688 he came over as the 
stadtholder’s chaplain, and under the new regime 
obtained the bishopric of Salisbury. His modera¬ 
tion as much as his change of masters provoked 
strong animosities, and he was more than once 
violently attacked in Parliament, especially for his 
Exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles, published in 
165)9. His iast efforts were devoted to the pro¬ 
motion of the Act for the augmentation of small 
livings, passed in the second year of Anne, and he 
died in 1715. The most famous of his works, The 
History of his own Times, was not printed till 
1724, and then appeared in a mutilated form. It is 
a trustworthy and valuable record of contempo¬ 
raneous events, though written, as might be 
expected, from his own point of view. 

Burnet, John, F.R.S., the son of the surveyor- 
general of excise for Scotland, was born in 1784, 
and was a fellow pupil of Wilkie at the Trustees’ 
Academy in Edinburgh. Coming to London in 
1806 he found employment in illustrating, as an 
engraver, Brayley’s Enyland, and Theobald's British 
Theatre, and in reproducing Wilkie’s Jew's Harp 
and Blind Fiddler. From 1815 to 1820 he spent 
in Paris, and on his return worked for the associa¬ 
tion of engravers, and also for Wilkie. He was a 
painter of no mean ability, his best productions 
being The Draught Players, The Humorous Ballad, 
The Windy Day, and Greenwich Hospital and Naval 
Heroes, purchased by the Duke of Wellington. He 
wrote several treatises on art, and died in 1868. 

Burnet, Thomas, born at Croft, Yorkshire, in 
1635, and educated first under Tillotson at Clare 
Hall, and then under Cudworth at Christ’s College, 
Cambridge, after holding several academical 
offices and acting as tutor to the Dukes of Bolton 
and Ormonde, was elected (1685) master of the 
Charterhouse. He strenuously opposed the appoint¬ 
ment by James II., in disregard of the statutes, of 
Andrew* Popham as a pensioner of the house. Of 
his various works and tracts on theological subjects, 
mostly in Latin, the best known is The Sacred 
Theory of the Earth. 

Burnet Moths, a group of moths, one species 
of which ( Zygcena flipendulce) is one of the most 
beautiful of English moths; the larva of this 
species feeds on the dropwort (Spiraa flipcndula'). 

Burnett, Frances Hodgson^ Mrs., was born 
in Lancashire in 1849, her maiden name being 
Hodgson. Settling with her parents in Tennessee, 

41 


U.S.A., about 1865, she began to contribute stories 
to the American magazines, and soon became a 
popular favourite. Surly Tim was one of her first 
republished efforts (1872). That Lass o' Lowries' 
(1877) was a still more decided success, and was 
followed by Theo, Kathleen, Jael's Daughter, 
Louisiana, A Fair Barbarian, Little Lord 
Fauntleroy, Editha's Burglar, and several other 
tales and sketches, all showing observation, de¬ 
scriptive skill, some knowledge of character, and 
not a little dramatic instinct. She married Dr. 
Burnett in 1873, and has latterly made her home 
chiefly in England. 

Burnett, James. [Monboddo.] 

Burnett’s Disinfecting Liquid consists 
of a solution of zinc chloride in water. 

Burney, Charles, Mus. Doc., was born at 
Shrewsbury in 1726. He got a good early education 
at the grammar school there, and was then sent to 
Chester to learn the organ under Dr. Blow, subse¬ 
quently being trained for three years by the famous 
Dr. Arne. For a short time he was organist at a 
City church, and wrote for Drury Lane theatre the 
music of Robin Hood, Alfred, and Queen Mab. In 
1751 by medical advice he settled as organist at 
King’s Lynn, where he remained nine years and 
married. Returning to London in 1760 he adopted 
Rousseau’s Le Devin du Village for the English 
stage under the title of The Coming Man, and 
received a doctor’s degree from the University of 
Oxford, composing for the occasion almost his only 
specimen of church music. He now devoted him¬ 
self to a long cherished object,.the writing of a 
complete history of music. In 1770 he travelled 
through France and Italy collecting materials, and 
his book on The Present State of Music in those 
countries won Dr. Johnson’s approbation. In 1772 
he did the same for Germany, the Netherlands, and 
the United Provinces, and was elected F.R.S. The 
first volume of his great work, The History of Music, 
appeared in 1776, and it was completed in 1789. 
Defective in certain parts, and severely treated by 
foreign critics, it testifies to unflagging industry 
and wide knowledge. In 1789, through Burke’s 
influence, he was appointed organist at Chelsea 
Hospital, where he died in 1814. He wrote a Life 
of Handel and Memoirs of Metastasio, and composed 
many sonatas and concertos. His second daughter, 
Frances [D’Arblay], attained great fame as a 
novelist; his eldest son, James, became a dis¬ 
tinguished admiral, and another son, Charles, 
was a fine classical scholar, whose library now 
forms part of the collection in the British Museum. 

Burney, Frances. [D’Arblay.] 

Burnham Beeches, a tract of forest extend¬ 
ing over some 600 acres in the parish of Burnham, 
Bucks, about 3 miles N.E. of Maidenhead. It is 
supposed to date from pre-Roman times, and 
certainly contains some of the finest and oldest 
specimens of the common beech to be found in 
England. The property is now held in trust by the 
Corporation of London for public use. 

Burning. [Combustion.] 





Burnley. 


( 258 ) 


Burns. 


Burnley, a municipal and parliamentary 
borough, returning one member, in Lancashire, 24 
miles N. of Manchester, on the river Burn. The 
church of St. Peter is ancient but modernised, and 
there are a curious Saxon cross and many Roman 
remains. The modern public buildings are com¬ 
modious, and the streets well paved and lighted. 
The chief industries are the manufacture of woollen 
and cotton goods and machinery, with calico-print¬ 
ing, brewing, and tanning. It is on the Lancashire 
and Yorkshire Railway. 

Burnouf, Eugene, the son of Jean Louis 
Burnouf, an eminent classical scholar, was born at 
Paris in 1801. He devoted himself to Oriental 
studies, and in 1826 brought out his Fssai sur le 
Pali. The newly-discovered Zend manuscripts 
next claimed his attention, and he published the 
Vendidad Sade and his Comment aires sur le Yaqna 
between 1829 and 1843. Meanwhile he had been 
appointed professor of Sanscrit in the College de 
France, and in 1840 began to bring out the text of 
the Bliagavata Parana with a translation. His 
last works were Introduction a VHistoire du 
Bouddhisme Indien , and Le Lotus de la Bonne 
Loi. He died in 1852. 

Burns and Scalds, a form of injury always 
most painful and distressing, and not uncommonly 
fatal, particularly in the case of young children. 
The danger of a burn is always greater in the 
young than in adults. It also varies with the extent 
of surface involved, and the depth to which the 
mischief penetrates. Burns have been divided by 
Dupuytren into six degrees according to their 
depth, as follows :— 

(i) When the epidermis is merely scorched and 
reddened, but not separated from the true skin. 

(ii) When the epidermis is raised, forming 
blisters. 

(iii) When the true skin is involved, but not 
completely destroyed. 

(iv) When the true skin is completely destroyed. 
In this and in the two following degrees the 
question of the contraction of scar tissue on healing 
becomes one of much importance. 

(v) Where the muscles, etc., are involved. 

(vi) Where the whole limb is implicated down 
to the bone. 

The symptoms of a severe burn are grouped under 
three stages. The first is the stage of collapse 
with low temperature and feeble pulse ; then, after 
about two days, comes the stage of reaction, with 
inflammatory fever. Pleurisy or peritonitis may 
now declare themselves, and the burnt surface 
undergoes suppuration and smells offensively. The 
third stage is that of exhaustion. 

A curious and unexplained sequel of burns is 
ulceration of the intestinal mucous membrane, and 
particularly of the duodenum. 

If the clothes of a child catch fire the most ready 
way of putting out the flame is to smother it by 
enveloping the child in a hearthrug, table cloth, 
or whatever can be seized upon to wrap round the 
burning part. The greatest care is necessary in 
removing clothing from the areas involved in a 
burn ; the clothes should be cut away with scissors, 


and when the injured skin is exposed, cold applica¬ 
tions should, as a rule, be applied. Carron oil, 
consisting of equal parts of limewater and linseed 
oil, is a capital form of local application ; olive oil 
makes a very fair substitute, or some simple ointment 
may be used, or, if the burn is superficial, a little 
flour may be dusted over it. After a few days, if 
the injured skin tends to slough, antiseptic appli¬ 
cations must be employed. In all cases of burns of 
any extent in children, medical advice should be 
procured without delay. 

Burns, Robert, born January 25, 1759, was the 
son of William Burns, a small farmer, who had come 
in early life from Kincardineshire, and settled about 
two miles from Ayr. In the year 1766 William 
Burns became tenant of the farm of Mt. Oliphant 
in the same district, and here were passed the later 
boyhood and youth of the poet. Here a private 
tutor gave Robert Burns most of his elementary 
education. The poet himself has left it on record, 
however, that the ordinary school books did not 
suffice for his own love of instruction. A copy of 
the Spectator, some odd plays of Shakespeare, the 
works of Pope, Locke, and Allan Ramsay, attracted 
and won his interest. Above all, he found pleasure 
in a collection of songs. “ This,” he says, “ was my 
vade mecum.” The family rented the farm of 
Lochlea from 1777 to 1784, and here Burns com¬ 
posed his first verses. One of the best of his songs, 
Mary Morrison , written in honour of Ellison Begbie, 
dates from this period. About 1781 he had seriously 
thought of becoming a flax-dresser, and went to 
Irvine to acquire a knowledge of the business, but 
without result. The last year of the lease at Lochlea 
saw the death of Burns's father. In March, 1784, he 
and his brother Gilbert became tenants of Mossgiel. 
Two unprofitable harvests, however, on his begin¬ 
ning life at Mossgiel at once depressed his impulsive 
nature. He now first became less prudent in social 
life. In poetry this found expression in satirical 
attacks on the minister and other leaders of the 
church with which he was connected. The most 
bitter of these were The Holy Fair and Holy 
Willie's Prayer. The favourable reception given 
to the ability and skill of composition in these and 
other pieces deepened the consciousness Burns had 
of his own power. In his commonplace book of 
August, 1784, we find an entry in regard to 
Ramsay and Ferguson, and the expression of his 
own simple wish that he may yet sing the “romantic 
woodlands ” of Ayr. The wish was speedily to be 
fulfilled. Burns about this time produced some of 
his very best longer poems, the Cotter's Saturday 
Night, The Jolly Beggars , Hallowe’en, The Mountain 
Daisy, and others. Early in 1786 he went through 
a form of marriage with Jean Armour. To the same 
period belongs the pathetic love episode with Mary 
Campbell, the Highland Mary of two beautiful 
songs. In April of this year the publication of 
Burns’s poems was resolved on by his friends for 
the sake of his poetical reputation, by himself 
principally to get a few pounds wherewith to emi¬ 
grate to America. In July the volume was issued 
by subscription from the press at Kilmarnock. The 
I popularity of the book was unbounded, and Burns 






Burns. 


( 259 ) 


Burr. 


himself was sought after on all hands. His passage 
to the West Indies was cancelled, and finally he 
set out for Edinburgh to let himself become better 
known in the world of letters. 

In Edinburgh Burns at once became the rage ; 
he was courted by the nobility, literary coteries, 
and social clubs. The litterateurs of the period, 
Robertson the historian, Dr. Hugh Blair, and 
others, were charmed by the rare personality of the 
poet. The excellence of his powers of conversation 
impressed everyone. His genius in poetry was ex¬ 
tolled in the Lounger , a critical journal. After the 
publication of a second edition of his poems, Burns, 
accompanied by his friend William Ainslie, went 
on tours through the border country and the High¬ 
lands. He was now engaged in writing songs for 
Johnson’s Museum , a work that was really the 
means of developing his purely lyrical gift. Most of 
his contributions were marked by his peculiar power. 
They were of three kinds: sometimes an old song 
with some lines added; sometimes only a line might 
be old ; again, they were altogether original. Two 
of the most famous— Auld Lang Syne and John 
Anderson —belong to the second of these divisions. 
The profits on the sale of the second edition of his 
book enabled him to lease the farm of Ellisland, 
near Dumfries. There he settled with his wife in 
1789. In the same year he was appointed excise¬ 
man for his district. His conduct of this office, 
though generally precise, is marked by some 
humorous incidents. The summer of 1789 is 
memorable for a holiday visit to his friend Nichol, 
in Moffatdale, as a result of which he wrote Willie 
Brewed a Peck o' Maut. In addition to songs 
for the Museum, he now meditated a drama on the 
subject of Robert Bruce, but it came to nothing. 
In 1790 he produced Tam o' Shanter, at the sug¬ 
gestion of Captain Grose, who wished some letter- 
press, for an illustration by himself, of Alloway 
Kirk. One of his crowning efforts in the lyrical 
vein— The Banks o' Boon —was published in the 
winter of 1791. His popularity was now at its 
zenith, but misfortune soon fell upon him. He was 
forced by poor returns to leave Ellisland. His social 
excesses alienated some of his best friends; his 
cordial but injudicious sympathy with the French 
republic embroiled him with the Government, 
who threatened to cancel his appointment in the 
Excise. Burns outwardly acquiesced in the 
rebuke he received on this second head, though 
he appears to have felt strongly on the subject. 
No doubt, as is thought by some, we partly owe 
to that sympathy two of his most virile composi¬ 
tions— Scots Wha Ilae and A Man's a man for a' 
that. The prospect of a supervisorship of excise at 
Leith came before him in 1796, but he never re¬ 
ceived it. Burns was prostrated with rheumatic 
fever in the autumn of 1795, and his constitution 
was fatally shaken. After a good deal of suffer¬ 
ing, he died on July 21, 1796. 

Bengo’s engraving of Nasmyth’s portrait of Burns 
was the picture of him most esteemed by his 
friends. The most complete edition of his poems 
and correspondence is that by Robert Chambers 
(new ed. by Scott Douglas, 6 vols. 1877-79). Among 
numerous biographies, Lockhart’s excels in insight 


and accuracy. Of critical estimates, those by 
Carlyle and Professor Wilson are the best. The 
greatness of Burns rests mainly on his songs; 
these, by their fresh and transparent sentiment, 
their rich mingling of human passion with delight 
in external nature, and their apt and musical diction, 
hold a place above the work of any other lyrist. 
As a narrative poet he also ranks high. His Cotter's 
Saturday Night is an idyll of true classical re¬ 
straint ; his Tam O'Shanter is to be placed beside 
the creations of Shakespeare and Scott. The satire 
of his occasional poems is brilliant, keen, and un¬ 
sparing. Everywhere Burns displays generous 
views of society ; if he was preceded by Cowper in 
proclaiming a spirit of humaneness, he was the first 
British poet to insist on that of brotherhood. 

Burnside, Ambrose Everett, was born at 
Liberty, Indiana, U.S.A., in 1824, and graduated at, 
the Military College, West Point, in 1847. He 
served as a cavalry officer in Mexico and New 
Mexico, seeing a little fighting against the 
Apaches, but in 1853 left the army and ultimately 
became treasurer of the Illinois Central Railway. 
At the outbreak of the Civil war he was colonel of 
volunteers, and in 1861 commanded a brigade on 
the Federal side at Bull river. He next assisted 
McClellan in organising his army, and early in 

1862 directed the expedition which captured 
Roanoke Island, and he also took Newbern and 
other positions. As a major-general he joined 
McClellan on the James river, and took part in the 
battles of South Mountain and Antietam. At the 
end of 1862 he succeeded McClellan in the com¬ 
mand of the army of the Potomac, and made a 
disastrous attack on Lee near Fredericksburg, after 
which he resigned. However, in the spring of 

1863 he was once more in command in Ohio, whence 
he marched into East Tennessee and held Knoxville 
against Longstreet. In 1864 he was entrusted 
with the 9th corps under Grant and fought in 
all the chief engagements until Lee’s surrender. 
From 1866 to 1871 he was Governor of Rhode 
Island, and in 1875 was elected to the Senate. He 
died in 1881. 

Burnt-offering. [Sacrifice.] 

Burnt Sienna, a pigment obtained by heat¬ 
ing “ terra da Sienna,” an earthy substance found 
in Tuscany, which contains a considerable amount 
of oxide of iron, to which the pigment owes its 
colour. It gives a warm reddish brown, and being 
permanent, is largely used for oils and water¬ 
colours. 

Burr, Aaron, a grandson of the famous 
Jonathan Edwards, was born at Newark, New 
Jersey, U.S.A., in 1756, and entering the army at 
the age of twenty-one served in the Quebec 
expedition and elsewhere until 1779, when he 
retired and took to the legal profession. In 1800, 
having previously filled many high offices and been 
chosen senator, he stood as a democrat with Jeffer¬ 
son for the presidency and vice-presidency. They 
got an equal number of votes, and Burr lost popu¬ 
larity in a vain effort to take precedence over his 
ally. In 1804, being candidate for the governorship 






Burriana. 


( 2G0 ) 


Burton. 


of New York, he challenged one of his opponents, 
General Hamilton, and killed him in a duel. He 
was obliged to vacate his appointments, and in 
1807 was charged with a treasonable conspiracy to 
establish an independent government in the 
south-west. He fled to Europe, where he spent 
some years in poverty and in intrigues. Returning 
in 1812 he practised as a lawyer in New York, but 
never recovered his prestige, dying in 1836. 

Burriana, a town in the province of Castellon 
de la Plana, Spain, situated on the left bank of the 
Rio Seco. about a mile from the Mediterranean. 
The chief industry is fishing. 

Burritt, Elihu, the son of a village school¬ 
master, was born at New Britain, Connecticut, 
U.S.A., in 1811. Apprenticed to a blacksmith, he 
worked at the trade for several years, teaching 
himself Latin and French in his leisure moments. 
After a brief period of school he pushed his studies 
further till he had learnt nearly all the modern 
languages with Hebrew, Syriac, and Greek, while 
still pursuing his craft. In 1842 he published some 
translations from Icelandic and Eastern tongues 
in the American Eclectic 'JR,eview, and added 
Persian, Turkish and Ethiopic to his repertory. He 
now started a journal and plunged into literary 
work of various kinds, lecturing all over the world 
on temperance, advocating an ocean penny postage, 
and trying to establish a “ League of Universal 
Brotherhood.” His two most popular books were 
entitled Sparks from- the Anvil and Thoughts on 
Things at Home and Abroad. He lived for many 
years in England, acting for a time as American 
consul at Birmingham. He died in 1879. 

Burroughes, Jeremiah, born in 1596 and 
educated at Cambridge, was expelled thence for 
nonconformity. He was for some time pastor of an 
English church at Rotterdam, but in 1642 returned 
and had charge of a large congregation at Stepney 
and Cripplegate. He wrote several theological 
works, among them being an Exposition of Hosea. 
He died in 1646. 

Bursa, a sac containing fluid interspersed 
between a tendon and the surface over which it 
glides ; or lying beneath the skin covering some 
long prominence. Bursm of the former class are 
called synovial bursa-, and when situated in the- 
neighbourhood of a joint they frequently com¬ 
municate with the joint cavity. The other variety 
of bursa is the bursa mucosa, an example of which 
is the bursa patella-, or the bursa situated over the 
olecranon process of the elbow. Burs® are liable 
to enlargement under the influence of pressure. 
A familiar example of such a condition is the en¬ 
larged bursa patellre produced by kneeling, and 
causing the condition known as housemaid’s knee, 
a trouble of an allied nature sometimes developed 
in miners—the miner's elbow—being due to enlarge¬ 
ment of the bursa over the olecranon process. 
Suppuration may occur in the sac of an enlarged 
bursa producing a bursal abscess. [Ganglion, 
Bunion, and Housemaid's Knee.] 

Bursary, a term applied in Scotland to a 
sum of money obtained by a student at one of the 


colleges or universities, by competitive examina¬ 
tion, enabling the holder to pursue his studies for 
a certain number of years. It is equivalent to 
the English scholarship. 

Burschenschaft (German, bursch, a student), 
an association of students: the name being specially 
applied to one founded in 1813, at Jena. Its mem¬ 
bers were students who had fought in the war, and 
who had cherished ideas of German national unity. 
In 1819 the club was broken up by the government. 

Burslem, a municipal borough of Stafford¬ 
shire on the North Staffordshire Railway, three 
miles from Newcastle-under-Lyne, and in the midst 
of the pottery district. It has been famous for the 
manufacture of earthenware since the 17th century, 
but was in existence when Domesday Book was 
compiled. Among the public buildings is the 
Wedgwood Institute (1863), a sort of technical 
school of fictile art, and in its structure a monu¬ 
ment of its progress. 

Burton, John Hill, born at Aberdeen in 1809, 
and educated at the Marischal College, was called 
to the .Scottish bar in 1831. Whilst exercising 
his profession and holding several appointments in 
connection with the Prisons Boards, he wrote 
articles in the Westminster and Edinburgh Re¬ 
views, and ultimately devoted himself to literature, 
becoming historiographer-royal in Scotland. His 
most valuable works are Benthamiana, The Booh 
Hunter, Scots Abroad, Life and Correspondence of 
Bavid Hume , History of Scotland from Agricola's 
Invasion to 1688, and History of Scotland from 
the Revolution to the Extinction of the Jacobite 
Insurrection. He died in 1881. 

Burton, Sir Richard Francis, Knt., was 
born at Barham House, Hertfordshire in 1821, and 
being destined for the Church, matriculated at 
Oxford. He soon abandoned an uncongenial 
career, and in 1842 entered the Bombay native 
infantry. He served in Scinde and elsewhere, 
devoting much attention to native languages, until 
1851, when he went home on leave. He now 
formed the idea of visiting Mecca and Medina as a 
Mohammedan pilgrim, and with that object lived in 
Alexandria as a dervish for some time, making his 
way at last without molestation to the holy cities. 
His adventures were related in A Pilgrimage to El 
Medinali and Mecca. He next visited the east 
coast of Africa, and served on General Beat son’s 
staff in the Crimea. In 1856 in the company of 
Captain Speke he set out from Zanzibar into Central 
Africa, and after two years’ travelling discovered 
Lake Tanganyika. The Mormon settlements in 
Utah then attracted his curiosity, and in 1861 he 
brought out The City of the Saints before taking 
up his residence as consul at Fernando Po. Here 
he explored the Cameroon mountains and some of 
the inland districts, which he described in two 
volumes. He was transferred to Brazil in 1864 and 
wrote Exploration of the Highlands of Brazil, 
and in 1868, being sent to Damascus, produced an 
interesting work on Unexplored Palestine. In 1872 
he was established in the consulate at Trieste, and 
no further promotion awaited him. During various 









Burton. 


( 261 ) 


Busby. 


periods of leave he explored with Captain Cameron 
the gold regions of Western Africa, and paid 
several visits to Arabia. His late years were 
occupied also with purely literary labours such as 
his monograph on Camoens, his Book of the Sword , 
and his daringly exact translation of the Arabian 
Nights. Burton, besides the distinction of knight¬ 
hood, received numberless marks of recognition 
from learned societies at home and abroad, but it 
must be admitted that his great services to science 
were but scantily rewarded by Government. One 
consolation for his disappointments was vouchsafed 
to him in his singularly happy marriage with a 
lady who thoroughly sympathised with his aims 
and bravely shared the hardships of his restless, 
adventurous career. After many months of broken 
health he died at Trieste in 1890, and was buried at 
Mortlake with the rites of the Roman Church. 

Burton, Robert, was born at Lindley, 
Leicestershire, in 1576, and graduated at Brase- 
nose College, Oxford, being elected later student 
of Christchurch. Very few details of his life 
are known to us beyond the fact that he received 
the college living of St. Thomas, Oxford, in 1616, 
and in 1636 held also the rectory of Segrave. 
According to Anthony Wood, he led a silent 
and solitary existence at Oxford, reading a great 
variety of books, and enjoying some reputation 
as a scholar, a mathematician and a caster of 
nativities. In 1621 under the pseudonym, Demo¬ 
critus Junior, he let loose his marvellous stores of 
learning and his vein of quaint, satirical and 
occasionally malicious humour in the famous w r ork 
entitled The Anatomy of Melancholy. The author 
was no doubt himself a prey to the strange physical 
and moral disorder that spread like an epidemic 
in the Elizabethan period, and he very probably 
found relief in the incessant industry to which his 
book bears witness. It is a mine of quotations 
from every field of literature, familiar or remote, 
and it has been freely drawn upon by later writers. 
Burton’s own portion of the book is rugged in 
style, but not without a certain flavour of wit, and 
the poem that serves as an introduction reminds 
the reader of II Pcnseroso. He died in 1639 and 
was buried in Christ Church cathedral. 

Burton-on-Trent, an ancient town of Staf¬ 
fordshire, twenty-five miles from Stafford on the 
west bank of the river Trent, navigable to this 
point, and having communication with the Mid¬ 
land, North-Western, and North Staffordshire 
Railways. The origin of the place was a church or 
monastery founded in the 9th century, and Burton 
Abbey dates from 1002. The bridge across the 
river, reconstructed in 1864, was built about the 
same time. It has a town hall, a free grammar- 
school, and other institutions. The peculiar suit¬ 
ability of the water for brewing purposes owing 
to the large amount of sulphate of lime it contains, 
led to the establishment of breweries there about 
1708, and an export trade began forty years later. 
About the year 1823 pale ale and bitter beer were 
first specially made for Indian consumption, and by 
a mere accident they were introduced with great 
success into the home market. From this period 


started the prosperity of the two great houses of 
Bass and Alsopp, whose business grew to be worth 
several millions a year, and whose chief partners 
have been elevated to the peerage. 

Burtscheid, or Borcette, a town in Rhenish 
Prussia, forming a suburb of Aix-la-Chapelle. It 
stands on the sloping bank of the Worm-fluss, and 
is famous for its mineral springs impregnated with 
sulphur and other minerals. The temperature of 
one of them is 155° F. There are manufactories of 
woollen textures, Prussian blue, cast-iron goods, 
and machinery. It grew up around a Benedictine 
monastery founded in the tenth century. 

Buru, an island of the Malay archipelago 
belonging to the residency of Amboyna. It occupies 
an area of about 3,500 square miles, and is for the 
most part mountainous and covered with forests. 

Bury, a municipal and parliamentary borough 
of England, in Lancashire, is situated on the 
Irwell, eight miles from Manchester. Its chief 
manufacture is cotton. It has also large woollen 
factories, bleach-fields, dye-works, and foundries, 
and in the neighbourhood are freestone quarries and 
coal mines. Sir Robert Peel was born here, and in 
the market square is a bronze statue of him. 

Buryat, a large Mongol people of South Siberia, 
of whom there are eleven main divisions, four E. 
and seven W. of Lake Baikal, their whole domain 
extending from the head-streams of the Tunguska 
to the confluence of the Shilka and Argun. They 
call themselves Hunn, i.e. “ men,” and are tradition¬ 
ally a branch of the Kalmucks (West Mongolians), 
but since the twelfth century settled in their 
present homes. Those of the Irkutsk are still Sha- 
manists, the rest Buddhists ; their speech is a Mon¬ 
golian dialect, of which G. Balinth has published 
a grammar and vocabulary (Pesth, 1877). All are 
stock breeders. They are diminishing in numbers, 
having fallen from 224,000 in 1860 to 210,000 in 1880. 

Burying-beetle. [Necrophorus, Silphidae.] 

Bury St. Edmund’s, or St. Edmundsbury, 
a parliamentary and municipal borough of England, 
in Suffolk, is situated on the river Larke. It is a 
very ancient place, and was named from Edmund, 
the Saxon king and martyr, who was taken prisoner 
and put to death by the Danes in 870. There are 
remains of a Benedictine Abbey founded by Canute, 
and a celebrated grammar school founded by 
Edward VI., and free to the natives. Besides a trade 
in agricultural produce, there are extensive manu¬ 
factures of agricultural implements. In the vicinity 
is Ickworth, the seat of the Marquis of Bristol. 

Busaco, a mountain ridge in the province of 
Beira, Portugal, was the scene of a battle between 
Wellington and Massena, September 27th, 1810. 
Wellington, with 40,000 British and foreign troops, 
repulsed Massena with 65,000 French troops, and 
continued his retreat to the lines of Torres Vedras. 

Busby, Richard, schoolmaster, was born in 
1606 at Button, Lincolnshire. In 1640 he became 
head master of Westminster School, and such was 
his success that at one time no fewer than sixteen 
bishops sat on the bench who, in his own words, 







Bxisching, 


( 262 ) 


Bush-rangers. 


had been “birched with bis little rod.” Among the 
names of his pupils are those of Dryden, Locke, 
Prior, and South. He died in 1695, and was buried in 
Westminster Abbey, where his effigy still remains. 

Bixscliing, Anton Friedrich, geographer, 
was born in 1724 at Stadthagen in Schaumburg- 
Lippe. It was while on a journey to St. Petersburg 
that he became sensible of the incomplete state of 
geography, and resolved to do what he could to 
improve it. After occupying the chair of philosophy 
at Gottingen, he accepted an invitation to become 
pastor of the Protestant congregation at St. 
Petersburg in 1761. In 1765 he returned to Germany 
and became head of the Greyfriars Gymnasium, 
founded by Frederick the Great, at Berlin, where 
he died in 1793. His Neue Erdbesckreibung was 
the first geographical work of any scientific merit, 
and has been translated into most European 
languages. He also wrote theological treatises and 
valuable works on education. He is frequently 
cited by Carlyle in his Frederick the Great as a 
keen and reliable observer. 

Busenibaum, Hermann, theologian, was born 
in 1600 at Nottelen, Westphalia. He occupied 
positions in various educational institutions of the 
Jesuits, and wrote Medulla Theologies Moralis 
(1645), for long a standard authority in the semin¬ 
aries of his Order, and so popular that it went 
through upwards of fifty editions. Ultimately, by 
order of the Toulouse parliament, it was burned, on 
the ground that it favoured regicide. Busembaum 
died in 1668. 

Bush Buck, a name for any antelope of the 
genus Cephaloplms, which includes several species 
from tropical and Southern Africa, generally known 
to hunters as Duykers or Bush-goats. The horns of 
the males are short, straight, and conical; the tear- 
pit is reduced to a mere line; the muffle is broad, 
and, like that of the ox, always moist; the back is 
arched, the forehead convex in most species, the 
tail short, and the slender legs are terminated by 
minute hoofs. The coloration is uniform reddish- 
brown, slate-grev, or dull black. [Blaubok, 
Duyker-bok, Guevei.] 

Bushel, a British dry measure, consisting of 
eight gallons. The imperial bushel of water weighs 
80 lbs., and has a capacity of 2,218 cubic inches. 

Bushirs, or Abuschehr(77^ Father of Cities'), 
the chief seaport of Persia, in the province of Fars, 
is situated on the Persian Gulf. The surrounding 
country is of an uninviting nature, the climate ex¬ 
cessively hot, and the water bad. The importance 
of Busliire depends altogether upon its trade, which 
is conducted mainly with India and Britain. Its 
imports embrace rice, indigo, sugar, cottons, steel, 
porcelain, bullion; and its exports raw silk, wool, 
shawls, horses, carpets, fruit, turquoises, gall-nuts, 
etc. The anchorage, though indifferent, is the best 
on the coast. 

Bushmen (Dutch, Bosjesmans), a term ap¬ 
plied by the Europeans' to the dwarfish aborigines 
of South-West Africa, who call themselves Khwai, 
i.e. “ Men,” and who are called Saan-qua (Soan- 
qua, San-qua) by their Hottentot neighbours and 


kinsmen. They appear to represent the primitive 
population of the whole of South Africa as far 
north as the Zambesi, whence they have been 
gradually driven to their present domain (the arid 
steppes of Great Bushman Land, south of the 
Orange river and the Kalahari Desert, north of 
that river) by the Bantu peoples advancing south¬ 
wards from the interior of the continent. In some 
of their physical characters as well as in their 
speech, they resemble the Hottentots, of whom some 
regard them as a degraded branch, while others 
consider the Hottentots a mixed race, resulting from 
alliances between the Bantus and the Bushmen. 
Either view would satisfy many of the actual con¬ 
ditions, though it is probable that they have 
suffered degradation in their present environment, 
where they find little to live upon except game, 
snakes, lizards, termites, locusts, roots, bulbs, and 
berries. At times they pass four or five days in 
search of food, and then gorge themselves on the 
prey, five persons devouring a whole quagga or 
zebra in a couple of hours. Their weapons are the 
bow and poisoned arrow; their costume the un¬ 
dressed skins of wild beasts when procurable ; their 
dwellings either the cave or a kind of “ nest,” 
formed by bending round the foliage of the bofje 
(“ bush ”), whence their Dutch name. They are 
grouped in small bands without any chiefs, and 
with scarcely any family ties, unions being of the 
most transitory nature. Yet debased as they are 
almost to the lowest level of culture compatible 
with existence, the Bushmen possess a sense of art 
far higher than that of the surrounding peoples, as 
shown by the paintings of animals true to life found 
in their caves. They have also a rich, oral folk-lore 
literature, consisting of legends, fables, and animal 
stories, in which the animals are made to talk each 
with its proper click, not otherwise heard in ordinary 
Bushman speech. These clicks, inarticulate sounds 
unpronounceable by Europeans, are peculiar to the 
Bushman, and Hottentot languages, the former 
possessing six, the latter four; of these three 
have been borrowed by the Zulu Kaffirs, who have 
been for many generations in close contact with 
both of these primitive races. 

Bu.sh.nell, Horace, theologian, was born in 
1802 in Connecticut, U.S. Educated at Yale 
College, where in 1829 he became a tutor, he was. 
in 1833 chosen pastor to a Congregational church 
at Hartford. Various pamphlets and addresses drew 
upon him some popularity, and for his God in Christ 
(1849), with an introductory Dissertation on Lan¬ 
guage as related to Thought , he was tried for 
heresy, but acquitted by seventeen votes to three. 
He wrote numerous other theological works ; among 
them Sermons for the New Life , Nature and the 
Supernatural, The Vicarious Sacrifice grounded on 
Principles of Universal Obligation , and Moral Uses 
of Dark Things. In 1857 he resigned his charge at 
Hartford, and without becoming again attached to 
any settled congregation, diligently employed the 
remainder of his life, which ended in 1876, as a 
preacher and an author. 

Bush-rangers, the name given to robbers in 
Australia who have taken to the busli. At one 







Bush Shrike. 


( 2G3 ) 


Bute. 


time their exploits were crowned with success, 
and they practically paralysed the police system. 
Stringent laws, however, did much to reduce their 
numbers, although they are by no means extinct 
at the present time. 

Bush Shrike, any bird of the sub-family 
Thamnophilinas of the family Formicariidse (some¬ 
times called American Ant-thruslies) from Equatorial 
America. They resemble the shrike (q.v.) in habit, 
but, unlike that bird, they frequent the interior of 
bushes and thickets rather than the outside. 

Bush Wren, any species of Pteroptochidae, 
wren-like birds, chiefly from temperate South 
America. [Barking Bird.] 

Busk, a strip of steel or whalebone inserted in 
a corset (q.v.) to stiffen it; hence the corset itself. 

Bustard, any bird of the genus Otis, typical of 
the family, Otididae [GrallvE], found in open tracts 
over the eastern hemisphere, except in Madagascar 
and the islands of the Malay Archipelago. The 
species have the bill straight, with the point of the 
upper mandible rounded ; the nostrils oval, lateral, 
the legs long and naked above the tarsal joint; the 
three toes united at the base, directed forwards, 



great bustard (Otis tarda). 


and edged with membrane ; the wings of moderate 
length, and rounded in a slight degree. The general 
form somewhat resembles that of a very large 
domestic fowl. These birds live in small com¬ 
panies, and feed on vegetables, seeds, insects, and 
worms. They run with great-rapidity, using their 
wings, like Cursorial birds (with which they were 
formerly classed), to increase their speed, and 
flying low when forced to take wing. The males 
are polygamous, and the nest is extremely simple, 
sometimes a mere hole or depression in the ground. 
Otis tarda , the Great Bustard, from the plains of 
Europe and the steppes of Tartary, is rather more 
than three feet in length, weighs nearly thirty 
pounds, female much smaller; head and upper 


part of neck greyish-white, patch of slaty-blue 
bare skin on side of neck, partly hidden in the 
breeding season by a long moustache of wiry 
feathers on each side ; upper surface pale chestnut 
barred with black ; reddish orange on upper part of 
breast, rest of under-surface white. The gular 
pouch appears to be only a dilatable part of the 
oesophagus, greatly inflated during the show-off of 
the males. The flesh is much esteemed for the 
table. This bird was formerly a native of Britain, 
inhabiting the downs of Wiltshire, the Fen country, 
Norfolk, and the Yorkshire moors. The last known 
specimen of the wild race was killed near Swaff- 
ham in 1838, and is now in the Norwich museum. 
Many visitors, however, are recorded from time to 
time. 0. tetrax, the Little Bustard, from the south 
of Europe and North Africa, is an accidental visitor, 
generally in the winter. There are several other 
Bustards inhabiting Asia and Africa, the largest of 
which is O. kori, from South Africa. It stands 
upwards of five feet high, and is the “ wild 
peacock ” of the Dutch settlers. 

Butane. A hydrocarbon of the paraffin series, 
and of the composition C 4 H ]0 . By replacement of 
one atom of hydrogen, butyl compounds are formed, 
all containing the group C 4 H 9 , e.g. butyl alcohol, 
C 4 H 9 OH. This may be written C 3 H 7 CH 2 OH, 
which shows its relation to its oxidation product 
C 3 H 7 COOH, Butyric acid, which is found in sweat, 
in different plants, in milk, and is produced by 
the fermentation of sugar induced by putrid cheese. 

Butcher Bird, a popular name for any of the 
Lanidas, from their fierce nature and habit of killing 
more prey than they can eat at once. [Shrike.] 

Butcher’s-broom, or Knee-holly (Buscus 
aculeatus ), the only British monocotyledon with a 
woody stem. It belongs to the tribe Asparagineae 
of the order Liliaceaa, and has a stout rhizome from 
which rise its much-branched, green, erect, angular 
stems, about as high as one’s knee. Its numerous 
ultimate branches are cladodes (q.v.), or flattened 
and leaf-like, though leathery and springing from 
the axils of minute scale-leaves, and each ends in a 
spine. The flowers, which are sub-dioecious, spring 
from the upper surface of the cladodes, having 
small, greenish perianths of six leaves. The 
filaments of the stamens are united into a tube, and 
their anthers join alternately by their upper and 
lower ends, whilst the three-chambered ovary is 
enclosed in a barren staminodal tube, and forms a 
red berry-like fruit. This and the spinous branches 
give the plant some resemblance to a holly, and in 
some parts of the south of England, where it occurs 
in a wild state in woods, it is still used as a broom 
by butchers. Other species are It. racemosus, the 
Alexandrian laurel, with glossy spineless cladodes 
and a terminal raceme of flowers ; It. androyynus, 
of the Canaries, with flowers on the margin of the 
cladode; B. Ilypopliyllum, with them on its under¬ 
surface ; and It. Hypoglosmm , with them between 
it and a similar flattened branchlet produced from 
its upper surface. 

Bute, an island of Scotland, in the Firth of 
Clyde, forms with the islands of Arran, Great and 
Little Cumbrae, Inchmarnock, and Placlda, the 











Bute. 


( 2(54 > 


Butter. 


county of Bute, covering an area of 225 square 
miles. The island is about sixteen miles long, and 
from three to five miles broad, and is separated from 
the Argyllshire coast by a narrow winding channel, 
the Kyles of Bute. The northern part is mountain¬ 
ous and rugged, but elsewhere the soil is fertile 
and agriculture in an advanced stage. The chief 
town is Rothesay, whose castle is among the most 
interesting of the antiquities of the island. Mount- 
stuart is the seat of the Marquis of Bute, to whom 
the greater part of the island belongs. The climate 
is milder than in any other part of Scotland. 

Bute, John Stuart, third Earl of, statesman, 
was born in 1713. After being educated at Eton, 
he was in 1738 appointed a lord of the bedchamber 
to Frederick, Prince of Wales, the father -of George 
III. After the Prince’s death he became Groom of 
the Stole to George III., over whom he exercised 
great influence. In 1761 he was appointed Secre¬ 
tary of State, and in the following year became 
Prime Minister from May 29, 1762, to April 8,1763. 
This brief government proved one of the most un¬ 
popular, its leading idea being the supremacy of 
the king. On his resignation Bute retired into 
private life, and devoted himself to literature and 
science, particularly to botany. He married the 
only daughter of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, 
through whom the Wortley estates came into the 
Bute family. He died in 1792. 

Butler, Benjamin Franklin, American lawyer 
and politician, was born in 1818 at Deerfield, New 
Hampshire. He became noted as a criminal lawyer 
after being admitted to the bar in 1840, and in 1853 
took a prominent part in politics on the side of the 
democrats. On the breaking out of the war in 1861 
he was made a major-general of volunteers, and in 
1862 led an expedition against New Orleans, of 
which city he became governor. The harshness of 
his rule called forth much indignant comment, and 
earned for him the title of “ Butler the Beast.” In 
1866 he represented Massachusetts in Congress, 
and in 1882 was elected governor of that state. 

Butler, Elizabeth, Lady, painter, was born 
about 1843 at Lausanne. As Miss Thompson, she 
earned a reputation as a painter of military sub¬ 
jects. Her first academy picture was Missing , 1873, 
followed by the Roll Call , 1874, which was pur¬ 
chased by the Queen. Among other of her works 
the chief are The 28th at Quatre Bras , Balaclava 
and Inkermann, The Defence of Rorhc's Drift, and 
The Scots Greys at Waterloo. In 1877 she married 
Sir William Francis Butler, a distinguished 
soldier and author of several books. 

Butler, George, was born in 1774 in Chelsea. 
Head master of Harrow from 1805 to 1829, he 
became rector of Gayton, Northamptonshire, and 
in 1842 Dean of Peterborough. He died in 1853. 

Butler, Joseph, English divine, was born in 
1692 at Wantage, Berkshire. Though brought up 
a Dissenter, he yet joined the Church, taking orders 
in 1718. He was the appointed preacher at the 
Rolls Chapel, where he preached the sermons which 
he subsequently published in 1726, and which still 
hold a high place in moral science. After a period 


spent in retirement as rector of Stanhope, Durham, 
where he is believed to have written his Analogy , 
he was in 1733 appointed chaplain to Lord 
Chancellor Talbot, in 1736 a prebendary of 
Rochester, in 1738 Bishop of Bristol, in 1740 Dean 
of St. Paul’s, and in 1750 Bishop of Durham. His 
great work, the Analogy of Religion, Natural and 
Revealed, to the Constitution and Course of Nature, 
was published in 1736. He died in 1752 at Bath, 
and was buried in Bristol cathedral. 

Butler, Samuel, satirist, was born in 1612 in 
Worcestershire. After occupying various secretarial 
positions to people of influence, among them Sir 
Samuel Luke, a Puritan colonel of Bedfordshire, 
and supposed to be the original Hudibras, he 
published the first part of Hudibras in 1663. It 
became immediately popular, and Charles II. him¬ 
self is reported to have been continually quoting 
it. A second part came out in 1664 and a third in 
1678. Two years later Butler died of consumption 
and in poverty. Among other pieces that he wrote 
the chief was a satire on the Royal Society, viz. 
The Elephant in the Moon. 

Butler, William Archer, philosophical 
writer, was born in 1814 at Annerville, near 
Clonmel, Ireland. In 1837 he became moral 
philosophy professor at Trinity College, Dublin. 
Of his writings the chief is Lectures on the History 
of Ancient Philosophy . He died in 1848. 

Butomus umbellatus, the so-called Flower¬ 
ing Rush, the only species of the genus, and one of 
the most beautiful English water-plants. It often 
grows in deep water, having a starchy rhizome, 
which is roasted and eaten in some parts of Asia. 
Its leaves are narrow, three-edged, filled with large 
air spaces, and several feet long, but are over¬ 
topped by the stout cylindric peduncle which bears 
an umbel. The flowers are an inch across, with a 
rosy perianth of six leaves, nine stamens, and six 
carpels. The stamens are hypogynous, six being 
due to the collateral chorisis of three outer ones. 
The fruit is a ring of six follicles. 

Butt, Isaac, politician, was born in 1813 in 
Donegal county. Called to the bar in 1838, he 
acquired a great reputation as a lawyer, receiving 
the silk gown in 1844. In 1852 he entered Parlia¬ 
ment, as a Conservative, as member for Youghal, 
which constituency he represented till 1865. 
Meanwhile his political views were undergoing a 
change, and in 1871, when he was returned for 
Limerick, he became leader of the Home Rule 
party. In 1872 the Home Rule League was formed, 
only, however, to die through internal dissensions. 
Butt himself, being too moderate to satisfy the 
extreme portion of his following, was denounced, and 
lost hold of the party altogether. He died in 1879 
near Dundrum, in county Dublin. 

Butter is the fatty constituent of milk, wherein 
it exists suspended in the form of minute globules. 
When the liquid is left at rest, these, together with 
other substances, rise to the surface and form a 
layer of cream. The butter is formed on agitating 
the cream, when an aggregation of these globules 
ensues.. Commercial butter also contains certain 






Butter Bird. 


( 265 ) 


Buzzard. 


proportions of water and curd, the latter being the 
cause of the butter becoming rancid. Butter is 
composed of fatty acids in combination with 
glycerine, the most important of these being oleic, 
palmitic and butyric acids, while it is often 
adulterated with an excess of water and salt or a 
mixture of ordinary animal and vegetable fats. 
[Churn, Dairy.] 

Butter Bird. [Bobolink.] 

Buttercup, the popular name for the common 
yellow-flowered species of Ranunculus (q.v.),. 
especially R. acris, R. repens , and R. bulbosus. R. 
acris has a slender cylindrical flower-stalk and 
spreading sepals; R. repens has long runners, a 
furrowed flower-stalk, and spreading sepals ; and 
R. bulbosus has a bulb but no runners, furrowed 
flower-stalk, and reflexed sepals. 

Butter Fish, a name for Centronotus gunellus, 
a small fish of the Blenny family, common on the 
British coasts, and owing its popular name to the 
shiny secretion from the skin. Called also Gunnel- 
fish, from the supposed resemblance of the com¬ 
pressed body to the gunwale of a boat. The name 
Butter-fish is given in New Zealand to Cor'ulodax 
pullus , a large food-fish of the Wrasse family. 

Butterfly, the common name of a group of 
insects forming the sub-order of Lepidoptera 
known as the Rliopalocera. The term is, however, 
rather loosely applied to other insects of similar 
appearance, belonging to other orders, and the 
differences between the butterflies and moths are 
not constant. By restricting the name to those 
Lepidoptera which have club-shaped antennae or 
feelers, which fly by day, and in which the two 
pairs of wings are not linked together by a bristle, 
it can be used as synonymous with Rliopalocera. 
Except in the above characters and some habits, 
such as closing the wings when at rest, the butter¬ 
flies are so much like the moths that the description 
of the anatomy of the Hawk-moth (q.v.) suffices for 
the structure of this sub-order. There are only 
about seventy British species, and none are more 
than about two and a half inches broad. The group 
is essentially tropical: some of the largest, as 
some of the Ornithoptera(q.v.), are over nine inches 
in expanse of wing. The main character upon 
which the sub-order is divided is the condition of 
the anterior pair of legs; thus in the Nymphalidas 
(q.v.) they are rudimentary, e.g. the Fritillaries, 
Purple Emperor, etc.; in the Papilionidae (q.v.) all 
the legs are perfect, e.g. the Cabbage-butterfly, 
Swallow-tail, etc., while in the Lycaenidse, such as 
the Coppers and Blues, those of the male may only 
be slightly imperfect. The oldest known butter¬ 
flies occur in the Oolitic rocks'. 

Butterfly Fish. [Blenny.] 

Butternut, a species of walnut, Juglans 
cinerea , native to the United States, the kernel of 
which is eaten as a dessert fruit, and also yields a 
valuable drying oil, similar to walnut oil, and useful 
to painters or as salad oil. 

Butterwort, Pinguicula , an interesting genus 
of Lentibula/rmeets, including several British species. 
They are perennial marsh plants with scanty roots ; 


rosettes of pale green, simple, radical leaves with a 
viscid exudation and inrolled margins ; and single- 
flowered scapes bearing a bilabiate spurred flower. 
The leaves are studded with remarkable capstan¬ 
like glands, and the viscid secretion not only 
captures innumerable small marsh flies, which are 
secured by the slow inrolling of the leaves, but is 
also acid, and exerts a powerfully digestive action 
upon nitrogenous substances. In Lapland the 
leaves are used like rennet to curdle milk, and milk 
left on the leaf is not only separated into curd and 
whey, but is afterwards entirely absorbed with the 
exception of the small proportion of oil. Though 
the mechanism is comparatively simple, this 
digestive power is perhaps greater than that of any 
other insectivorous plant (q.v.). 

Buttress, anything built against a wall so as 
to give it additional support. [Flying But¬ 
tress, Hanging Buttress.] 

Butyric Acid. [Butane.] 

Buxar, a city of Bengal in Shahabad, is situated 
on the right bank of the Ganges. It was the scene 
(October 22nd, 1764) of a battle between Sir Hector 
Munro and Kassim Ali, in which the former was 
victorious. 

Buxton, a town of England in Derbyshire, is 
situated in a valley famous for its mineral springs, 
which have made the town a resort for invalids. 
The scenery in the vicinity is fine; and among 
places of interest are the Diamond Hill, famous for 
its crystals, and Poole's Hole, a large stalactite 
cavern lit by gas. 

Buxton, Sir Thomas Fowell, philanthropist, 
was born in 1786 at Earls Colne, Essex. In 1811, 
joining the brewing establishment of Truman, 
Hanbury, and Buxton, which is situated in East 
London, he was able to see the pitiable con¬ 
dition of the poor, on whose behalf he made his 
first public speech. In 1818 he entered Parliament 
as member for Weymouth, and in 1833 succeeded 
Wilberforce as the champion of the slaves. He 
was created a baronet in 1840 and died in 1845. 

Buxtorf, Johann, Orientalist, was born in 1564 
at Camen, Westphalia. Becoming professor of 
Hebrew at Basel in 1590, he remained there until 
his death in 1629, devoting himself to the study of 
Hebrew and Rabbinical literature. So complete 
was his knowledge of this subject that he was 
known by the title “ Master of the Rabbins.” His 
son, Johann, commonly called “junior” to dis¬ 
tinguish him from his father, succeeded to the 
Hebrew chair in 1630 at Basel, where he died in 
1664. He completed his father’s Lexicon Clial- 
daicum Talviudicuvi et Rabbinicum. 

Buzzard, any individual or species of the genus 
Buteo, of the Falcon family. The bill is rather small 
and weak, part of the cutting edge of the upper 
mandible projects slightly ; cere large, nostrils oval; 
tarsi short, strong, scaled or feathered, toes short, 
with strong claws. The common Buzzard ( Buteo 
vulgaris ), distributed generally over Europe, and 
occurring in Asia and Africa, was formerly common 
in Britain, but is now becoming rare. The adult 







By bios. 


( 266 ) 


Byron. 


male is from 20 to 23 inches long ; the plumage is 
of various shades of brown, with markings of black 
above and of white beneath. Great variations, 
however, occur; some birds are of a uniform 
chocolate brown, others of a yellowish-white with 
a few brown feathers here and there. Albinos are 
not uncommon, and there is a fine specimen in the 
Norwich museum. The female is larger than the 
male, and generally darker in hue. The Buzzard 
builds in the forked branches of trees, in crevices 
in the rocks, or on ledges of cliffs, but prefers to 
utilise the nest of some other large bird. The eggs, 
from two to four in number, vary from white to 
bluish-white, with yellowish-brown streaks and 
blotches. The flight of these birds is somewhat 
slow and laboured, and they prey upon reptiles, 
mice, and small birds. One author asserts their 
usefulness in preserves in killing off sickly game, 
and so contributing to the perpetuation of a healthy 
race. In captivity female buzzards are so much 
inclined to brood, that they have more than once 
sat upon hen’s eggs and hatched and reared a 
brood of chickens. The Kough-legged Buzzard (B. 
lag opus) is more widely distributed, and has the 
tarsi feathered down to the origin of the toes, 
whence it is sometimes made the type of a genus 
—Archibuteo. [Honey Buzzard, Osprey.] " 

Byblos, an ancient maritime city of Phoenicia, 
is situated a little to the north of Beyrout, at the 
foot of the lower range of the Libanus. It is now 
named Jubeil, and was famous as the seat of the 
worship of Adonis or Tammuz. It was called by 
the Jews Gebal. 

Bye-laws, the regulations of a Corporation, 
agreed to by a majority of its members for the 
purpose of more conveniently carrying into effect 
the object of the institution. It is not every 
voluntary association which by the law of England 
has power to bind its members by rules acquiesced 
in by the majority. Immemorial custom, or pre¬ 
scription, or legal incorporation by the sovereign, 
or some act of Parliament, is necessary to confer the 
power of making bye-laws ; and even in these cases 
the superior courts of law can take cognisance of 
the bye-law and establish its legality or declare it to 
be void. In order to stand this test, a bye-law must 
be reasonable and consistent with the law of Eng¬ 
land. The power of making bye-laws is often vested 
in a particular class of persons having no strictly 
corporate character, as the tenants of a manor, the 
jury of a court leet, the inhabitants of a town, 
village, or other district; but with corporations the 
power to do so is inherent without any specific 
mention of it in the charter of incorporation. The 
Municipal Corporations Act 5 & 6 Wm. IV., c. 76, 
gives to the town councils a power of making 
bye-laws for the good rule and government of the 
boroughs, and for the suppression of various 
nuisances, and of enforcing the observance of them 
by a fine to the extent of £5. No bye-laws so framed 
have binding power till submitted* to, and approved 
bv the Privy Council. In Scotland there is but 
little common law about bye-laws, every corporation 
or other community making its own bye-laws, pro¬ 
vided they do not infringe the law of the land. 


Bygas (Baigas), a numerous non-Aryan people 
of the Satpurah Mountains, south of the Upper 
Nerbada, Central India, between the Gond and 
Bhil territories ; are regarded by the Hindus as 
Bhumiyas, i.e. Aborigines ; classed by Dalton with 
the Bhuias (q.v.), they resemble the Gonds in 
appearance but are of darker complexion and more 
robust; there are three main divisions: Binjwar 
(Bichwar), Mundiya, and Bliirontiya, each with 
seven sub-branches. (See Gazetteer of the Central 
Provinces , p. 278.) 

Byng, (1) George, Viscount Torrington, 
born in 1663, entered the navy in 1678. He imbibed 
revolutionary sympathies, and as an Orange agent 
was instrumental in winning over the fleet to the 
cause of William in 1688. He was accordingly 
made a post-captain at the close of that year. He 
commanded the Hope , 70, at the battle of Beachy 
Head in 1690. In 1703 he was promoted to be 
rear-admiral, and in the following year he com¬ 
manded the attacking squadron at the capture of 
Gibraltar, while soon afterwards he headed a 
division at the battle of Malaga. For these services 
he was knighted. He became a vice-admiral in 
1705, and in 1706 was in command at the capture 
of Alicant; but the great success of his career was 
won in 1718, when he gained the great victory over 
the Spaniards off Cape Passaro. "For this he was 
created a viscount. In 1727 he was called to serve 
as 1 irst Lord of the Admiralty—an office which he 
retained until his death in 1733. (2) His fourth son, 

the Hon. John, was born in 1704, and, having 
entered the navy, rose rapidly to the rank of full 
admiral. In 1756, being sent to drive the French 
from Minorca, he was unsuccessful, and was, upon 
his return, brought to trial and condemned to death. 
In spite of recommendations to mercy, he was shot 
on board the Monarch at Portsmouth on March 14th, 
1757. There is now little doubt that he suffered 
undeservedly. 

Byrd, William, composer, was born about 
1538. In 1563 he was appointed organist of 
Lincoln, and in 1569 a gentleman of the chapel 
royal. He was the composer of the first English 
madrigals, and among his sacred pieces. is the 
well-known Non Nobis, Domine. 

Eyrgius, Justus, inventor, was born in 1552 
at Lichtensteig, Switzerland. He is reputed, on 
doubtful evidence, however, to have discovered 
logarithms and to have made important discoveries 
bearing on astronomical science. He died in 1632. 

Byrom, John, poet and stenographer, was born 
in 1692 at Kersall Cell, Broughton, near Manchester. 
After graduating at Cambridge and studying 
medicine, he began to teach a new system of short¬ 
hand in London, Parliament in 1742 conferring cn 
him, as the inventor, the sole right of teaching this 
system for twenty-one years. He died in 1763. 
Ten years later his poems were first collected and 
published. They show great facility in rhyming, 
and are humorous and satirical. 

Byron, George Noel Gordon, Lord Byron of 
Kochdale, Lancashire, a famous poet, author of 










Byron. 


( 267 ) 


Byron. 


Childe Harold , Don Juan, and other well-known 
works, was born in Holies Street, London, January 
22nd, 1788. He was grandson of Admiral Byron 
and son of Captain John Byron, an officer in the 
Guards. His mother, Catherine Gordon, of Gight 
in Aberdeenshire, was the second wife of Captain 
Byron, who had previously been married to the 
divorced Countess of Caermarthen, by whom he had 
a daughter, the Hon. Augusta Byron, who afterwards 
married Colonel Leigh. Between this lad} 7 and her 
young half-brother, Lord Byron, there was a 
constant and sincere affection, even when the latter, 
deserted by many of his friends and abused by his 
enemies, lived almost in solitude, and eventually 
left England to take up the cause of political 
freedom, first in Italy and afterwards in Greece. 

Captain John Byron died in France after 
squandering nearly all the fortune of his second 
wife, w r ho was left with her infant son in comparative 
poverty, the estate of the Byrons at Newstead 
Abbey having been greatly reduced by the extrava¬ 
gance of the grandfather, and by a lawsuit on the 
part of the uncle, from whom the young lord 
inherited it. The w r idow, whose income was little 
more than £150 a year, had taken her boy to 
Aberdeen, where, when he was about five years old, 
he was sent to a day school for a year, and after- 
wards to a school kept by a Mr. Ross. From there 
he went to the Aberdeen grammar school, where, 
in spite of his lameness, he joined successfully in 
sports that required great activity. He u 7 as born 
with a contracted foot, such as is knovm as club 
foot, and one of his intimate friends declared that 
both feet were deformed. In 1796 Mrs. Byron took 
her son to the Highlands, where the scenery made 
a great impression on the boy’s imagination and 
excited in his mind that love for the wild and 
grand aspects of Nature which is expressed in some 
of his poems. 

Even at an early age the intensity of his senti¬ 
ments was manifested, his affections and his 
dislikes were strong and influenced all his actions. 
When he was only eight years old he cherished a 
boyish love for his cousin, Mary Duff, and he long 
afterwards declared that his misery and his love 
for the girl were so violent that he doubted 
whether he had afterwards experienced any other 
real attachment. A nature like his needed great 
maternal care ; but his mother, though she indulged 
and petted him, was a woman of violent temper, 
and often not only flew 7 into a passion with him, 
but in the paroxysm of temper would fling at him 
whatever came to hand, and w 7 ould speak of him as 
“ a lame brat.” In 1799 Mrs. Byron took her son 
to London, and in the following year sent him to 
Harrow, where he soon entered into the life and 
recreations of the school. In 1803 he spent his 
holidays in Nottinghamshire, where he met Mary 
Chaworth, the daughter of Mr. Chaworth, of 
Annesley, and became violently in love with her, 
a passion which the young lady neither encouraged 
nor returned. Two years afterwards he went to 
Cambridge University, where he made many friends 
and wrote several poems, which were printed in a 
volume for private circulation. One of his friends 
expostulated with him because of the immorality 


of one of these poems, and he immediately cancelled 
the whole edition and published another, which 
was sold to the public and achieved marked success. 
He spent a vacation in London, wffiere he indulged 
in the dissipation that was customary among a 
certain class of young men of fashion at that time ; 
but he was keenly susceptible of the real loneliness 
of his position amidst exaggerated praise for his 
brilliant abilities and equally exaggerated blame for 
wffiat were supposed to be his licentious opinions. 
He had no friend or relations to whom he could 
appeal for guidance even had he wished to seek it, 
and his mother’s violent temper had led to estrange¬ 
ment. A criticism on his poems, Hours of Idleness, 
in the Edinburgh Review, led to his publishing, in 
1809, his satire called English Bards and Scotch 
Reviewers, which made a great sensation, though 
he afterwards retracted much that he had said 
because of its injustice. Early in 1809 his coming 
of age was celebrated at Newstead Abbey, and he 
took his seat in the House of Lords, but his loneli¬ 
ness, the neglect which he experienced, and his 
narrow 7 pecuniaiy means, led to his leaving England. 
Passionate, but capable of deep affection and 
ardent friendship, and generous to all wffio sought 
his aid, Byron w 7 as too sensitive to bear the 
monotony of mere fashionable life without those 
deeper interests which engage the heart and the 
sentiments. For nearly tw r o years he travelled in 
Portugal, Spain, Greece, and Turkey, and during 
his journey w r rote the first and second cantos of his 
great poem, Cldlde Harold. He returned to 
England in 1811, when he heard that his mother 
w 7 as seriously ill at Newstead Abbey, whither he 
went too late to see her alive. In the following 
year the first part of Childe Harold was published, 
and he at once rose to fame and popularity. The 
payment for this and other work was handed to a 
friend, and for some years, until his owm pressing 
needs compelled him to make personal use of the 
money, he would not accept any pecuniary advantage 
from his poems. In 1813 The Giaour , The Bride of 
Abydos, and the Corsair were published, and in 
Lsi l Lara appeared. In the latter year, acting on 
the advice of friends, he proposed to marry Miss 
Milbank, who accepted him, and the wedding took 
place in January, 1815. His daughter Ada was 
born in the following December, and in January, 
1816, Lady Byron left London on a visit to her father 
in Lancashire. Husband and wife seem to have 
parted in affection and regard, but immediately 
after her arrival her father wrote to tell Lord Byron 
that she would not return. The reason for this 
determination has never been known. Byron him¬ 
self seems to have declared that he was unacquainted 
with any just grounds for it, and at a time when 
he was* surrounded by pecuniary difficulties, and 
was almost overwhelmed—“standing alone on his 
hearth with all his household gods shivered round 
him”—he received the message that his wife, of 
whom he continued to speak with affection and 
respect, had parted f. om him for ever. 

Then a storm of abuse and expressions of hatred 
and scorn burst around him. The number of those 
who accused him of all kinds of infamy was greater 
than that of his admirers. He had strongly 





( 268 ) 


Byzantine Architecture. 


Byron. 


satirised the vices of society, which he had attacked 
with the weapons of scorn and sarcasm, and now 
society turned on him. Strongly influenced by 
intense sympathy with oppressed peoples and 
nationalities struggling for freedom, he determined 
to leave England. In 1816 he departed on a 
journey to Switzerland, and on the way composed 
a further instalment of Childe Harold, and com¬ 
pleted several other poems. From Geneva he went 
to Venice, where he continued to work and com¬ 
menced Don Juan. From a course of degrading 
dissipation he was aroused by a sudden passion for 
the Countess Guiccioli, with whom he afterwards 
lived for some years ; and he became a member of 
the Italian democratic revolutionary society, called 
the Carbonari. At the failure of the Italian revolu¬ 
tion in 1821 he went to Pisa and afterwards to Genoa, 
where he threw himself with burning zeal into the 
Greek revolution. His money, his time, his talents, 
were devoted to the cause of Greek Independence. 
He went to Missolonghi, where he was appointed 
commander-in-chief of a proposed expedition 
against Lepanto. This was in January, 1824. On 
the 22nd he wrote the Lines On Completing his 36th 
Year. The climate was such as to sap all his vital 
force, and on the 18tli of February he was seized 
with a fit, from which he never really recovered. 
He died on the 19th of April, his last utterances 
being those of the names of his sister “ Augusta,” 
his daughter “ Ada,” and “ Greece.” Three weeks 
of general mourning were observed at Missolonghi 
with funeral services in all the churches before his 
body was conveyed to England, where, after a 
funeral ceremony in London, it was placed near 
the tomb of his mother in the ancestral vault of 
Hucknall Torkard church, Notts, where his beloved 
sister placed a tablet over his grave. 

Byron, Henry James, dramatist and actor, 
was born in 1834 in Manchester. In 1858 he 
entered the Middle Temple, contributing exten¬ 
sively to periodical literature, and writing almost 
innumerable farces, burlesques and extravaganzas. 
His most successful piece was Our Boys; others 
were Cyril's Success, Dearer than Life, Blow fou 
Blow, Uncle Dick's Darling, etc. He died in 1884 
in London. 

Byron, Hon. John, British navigator and 
admiral, was second son of William, fourth Lord 
Byron, and was born in 1723. Entering the navy, 
he accompanied Anson on his celebrated voyage to 
the South Seas, and had the misfortune to be 
wrecked in the Wager, and to suffer almost unex¬ 
ampled hardships. After more than four years’ 
absence from England, he returned, and was 
rapidly promoted to the rank of captain. He 
served almost continuously, but without gaining 
any great distinction till 1760, when, as commodore, 
he undertook and effectually completed the 
destruction of Louisbourg. He next commanded 
in the Dolphin, 20, a small expedition to the South 
Seas, where he made numerous discoveries. In 
1769 he was made governor of Newfoundland, and 
in 1775 became rear-, and in 1778 vice-admiral. In 
the latter capacity he was employed in command of 
a squadron in North America and the West Indies, 


where, on July 6th, 1779, after many months of 
manoeuvring, he engaged the French admiral 
D’Estaing, who, although he suffered very severely, 
escaped a positive defeat. Admiral Byron then 
returned to England, where he died in 1786. 

Byzantine Architecture is the name given 
to that architectural style which was developed and 
practised in the east of Europe and in Syria, receiv¬ 
ing its chief impulse in 330 a.d., when Constantine 
transferred the seat of his empire from Rome to 
Byzantium, and gave the capital its new name, 
Constantinople (city of Constantine). Based in its 
origin on the decadent forms of the Roman style, 
and employing at first the traditional plans of 
Roman buildings, a new life would seem to have 
been given to it; firstly, by the special arrange¬ 
ment of the buildings constructed to meet the 
requirements of the new religion to which Con¬ 
stantine had become a convert; secondlj 7 , by the 
employment of materials different from those found 
in or imported to Rome; and thirdly, by the em¬ 
ployment of a new traditional art which had 
probably gradually been developed in Syria and 
North Egypt, and of which the only remains are 
those found in the tombs in or near Jerusalem, and 
in some of the dead cities of Central Syria explored 
by M. de VoguA Of Constantine’s work the only 
example now known to exist is the basilica church 
at Bethlehem, the nave of which is ascribed to him. 
The columns are of stunted proportions, wanting 
the elegance of Roman examples, and the Corinthian 
capitals are of coarse and clumsy execution : the 
buildings which Constantine constructed in 
Byzantium (and which consisted not only of 
churches, but of palaces, amphitheatres, and 
thermse in imitation of those in Rome), were 
apparently erected in such haste that they speedily 
became ruins. Some of the ancient cisterns under¬ 
ground, whose vaults are carried on columns (one 
of these cisterns being reported to have no fewer 
than one thousand columns), are supposed to be of 
the time of Constantine, but at all events above 
ground there remain no structures of his period. 

The new style would however, appear to have 
made rapid progress in the two centuries which 
followed, for in no other way would it be possible 
to account for the magnificence both structurally 
and artistically of the church (now the mosque) of 
St. Sophia at Constantinople, which was erected 
by the Emperor Justinian (commenced 528 A.D.), 
and which not only marks the culminating period 
of Byzantine architecture, but is still one of the 
great masterpieces of the art. ( See Fig. 1.) An 
earlier building, ascribed also to Justinian art, which 
is said to have been built on the foundation of an 
earlier church by Constantine, viz. the church of 
St. Sergius and Bacchus (known as the lesser St. 
Sophia) indicates the direction in which the 
Byzantine architects were tending. The defect of 
the ordinary basilica lay in its timber roof, so easily 
destroyed by fire. Already in the basilica of 
Maxentius at Rome, completed by Constantine, and 
the remains of which still exist, a vault of pro¬ 
digious space, 80 feet, had been thrown across the 
nave, and there is no doubt that this would have 








Byzantine Architecture. 


( 269 ) 


Byzantine Architecture. 


been the type selected by Constantine if, in the 
foundation of his new city, he could have under¬ 
taken so great a work; in fact, in his letters to 
Macarius, Bishop of Jerusalem, transcribed in 
Eusebius, he suggests the covering of his church 
by some other material than that of wood. It was 



Byzantine ARCHITECTURE. (Fig. 1. Interior of St. Sojyhia’s.) 


left, however, for Justinian to realise the dream, 
and in the church of St. Sophia to produce a 
structure homogeneous in its material throughout, 
and covered with a magnificent vault. 

The church of St. Sergius and Bacchus, already 
referred to, is octagonal in plan, and covered with 
a dome which is carried on arches supported by 
eight piers. The problem which Justinian attempted 
to solve was to support a dome on arches carried by 
four piers. The plan of the four arches being 
square, whereas the dome is circular on plan, it 
became necessary to build on the extrados of the 
arches what are known as pendentives, spherical 
triangles to fill the space between, and support the- 
base of the dome. As the dome was 107 feet in 
diameter, those spherical triangles are about 70 
feet wide at the top and 52 feet high, being, there¬ 
fore, of colossal size. The means adopted to build 
these pendentives is not known, and two failures 
which happened in the great arches are described 
by Procopius, an historian of the period. Only 
twenty years after the erection (558 a.d.) a portion 
of the dome was overthrown by an earthquake, and 
a new dome, with forty circular-headed windows at 
its base, was erected in its place, the actual. effect 
being, as described by Procopius, as if it was 
sustained by a chain from heaven. Ihe two side 
arches, north and south, were filled with a wall 
pierced with windows and arcades on two storeys, 
and immense apses were thrown out towards the 
east and west ends, so that the plan is that of an 
oblong square. The lower portions of the walls aie 
panelled with marble, in which material are also 


the arcades with their columns and capitals; the 
remainder of the interior is covered with mosaics, 
which, as they represent figure subjects, forbidden 
by the Mohammedan religion, are now covered with 
stucco and painted. The exterior, owing to the 
flatness of the dome and the solidity and size of 
the buttresses and masonry round, does not convey 
any idea of the beauty of the interior. The type 
of church thus conceived and carried out by 
Justinian became the example on which has been 
based the greater number of churches devoted to 
the Greek ritual not only in Greece but throughout 
Kussia. No attempt, however, has since been made 
to produce a dome of such great size, and the 
subsequent examples have rarely exceeded 50 feet 
in diameter. In order to give increased space, 
however, the nave and choir were lengthened, and 
transepts were thrown out on each side of the 
central dome, and these were also covered by 
domes, the best example of which is that found in 
St. Mark’s at Venice (the present external domes 
of this church are only of timber covered with lead 
and do not belong to the original structure). The 
principal difference to be noted in the later Greek 
churches was the raising of the dome on cylindrical 
walls of masonry or brickwork pierced with win¬ 
dows. (See Fig. 2.) Of the fifth and sixth centuries 
there still exist at Thessalonica and elsewhere 
churches of the ordinary basilica type with timber 
roofs, which differ from the Roman examples chiefly 
in having arches instead of architraves to carry the 
nave walls. The influence of Byzantine architecture 
on Western architecture besides St. Mark’s is seen 



BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE. (Fig. 2. Exterior Of St. 
Theodore's, Athens.) 


in the churches of St. Vitale, St. Apollinare, in 
Navem, and St. Apollinare-in-classe, all in Ravenna, 
and in the south of Italy and Sicily. At Monreale 
near Palermo is a magnificent basilica church with 
marble panelling and mosaic decoration to the 


















































Byzantine Empire. 


( 270 ; 


Byzantine Empire. 


internal walls. Many of the earlier Romanesque 
churches of Rome have the vaults of their apses 
covered with Byzantine mosaics, and in the south 
of France at St. Front-de-Perigueux, and in the 
Charente we find the dome as a chai’acteristic 
feature, owing, probably, to the settlement of Greek 
artists in the south of France. 

Byzantine Empire, called also the Eastern 
or Lower Empire, or yet oftener the Greek Empire, 
may be said to have taken its rise in 395 A.D., 
when upon the death of Theodosius the Roman 
Empire was divided into two parts, and shared 
between Arcadius and Honorius. The former 
established his seat of government at Constan¬ 
tinople, which had been founded in 330 A.d. 
upon the site of the ancient Byzantium, and ruled 
over Syria, Asia Minor, and Pontus upon the 
Asiatic side of the Black Sea, Egypt in Africa, and 
Thrace, Moesia, Macedonia., Greece, and Crete in 
Europe. The history of the Empire is generally 
divided into four periods: (1) Its growth from 395 
to 716 ; (2) its time of prosperity from 716 to 1057 
(Leo III. to Isaac Comnenus); (3) a period of 
decay from 1057 to 1204; (4) its decline and fall 
from 1204 to 1453, in which year Constantinople 
was taken by the Turks. 

The choice of a new capital had been in a 
measure forced upon Constantine by his conversion 
to Christianity, Rome itself being the head-quarters 
of Paganism. No better site could have been 
chosen than Constantinople, which is the key of 
two continents and two seas, and is still a bone of 
contention to European powers. The new capital 
was Roman in nature, the privileges of its people 
were those of Roman citizens, and the official 
language was Latin, but by Justinian’s time (527- 
565) the prevailing language of the Empire was 
Greek, and all the highest officers were Greeks. 
Of the first period above-mentioned, the best known 
period is that of Justinian’s reign, which, though 
really injurious to the Empire, seemed particularly 
brilliant, owing both to the great legal measures 
which bear his name, and also to the campaigns of 
his generals Belisarius and Narses, which restored 
the shaken power of the Empire in Africa, and in 
Italy and Southern Spain. In his reign, too, the 
church of St. Sophia was built. Another marked 
feature of the first period was the continual irruption 
of barbarians, which seriously threatened the supre¬ 
macy, if not the existence of the Empire ; while 
upon the eastern .^side it had a formidable enemy 
in Persia, which indeed bade fair to overturn it at 
the period when Heraclius, by his campaigns and 
brilliant victories, saved the Empire, and gave 
Persian power its death-blow- But the exhaustion 
that followed upon these campaigns injured the 
Empire, since it favoured the growth of the newly- 
appearing power of the Saracens. At the beginning 
of the eighth century the Empire was in a perilous 
state, and seemed likely to fall, as the Western 
Empire had done before it, for in Europe the 
Bulgarians threatened it, the Saracens were over¬ 
running the Asiatic possessions, and attacked 
Constantinople, and many of its provinces were 
lost, while rebellion and anarchy reigned at home, 


and the Greek race seemed in danger of being 
destroyed. It was at this time that Leo the 
Isaurian came into power, and inaugurated the 
second period (716-1057), the time of prosperity— 
a pei'iod the first century and a half of which was 
marked by the Iconoclastic dispute, and the 
remaining two were coincident with the Basilian 
dynasty. Leo III., with whom, in the opinion of 
some historians, the Byzantine Empire—as distin¬ 
guished from the Eastern Roman Empire—really 
began, rearranged the country for military pur¬ 
poses, reorganised the financial system, simplified 
the laws, and endeavoured to reform the church— 
an attempt in which he was warmly seconded by 
his son, Constantine V., who was an ardent 
Iconoclast. The controversy was not entirely one 
simply about the use of images. Beneath it were 
lying the deeper issues of aggression upon liberties, 
and the growth of despotism. The religious 
question was finally set at rest in 842, in the reign 
of Michael III., not however till it had cost the 
Empire its dominions in central Italy. Two 
formidable enemies were at the door of the Empire 
—the Saracens, who were at the height of their 
power, and to whom, in 1045, Constantine IX. laid 
open his country by destroying an Armenian 
kingdom which had been the bulwark of the 
frontier; and the Bulgarians, who having founded 
a kingdom in Moesia had become Christians, and 
had gradually enlarged their territory to an extent 
equal to the European part of the Byzantine Empire. 
The Bulgarian power was however brought to an 
end by Basil II., and in 1018 the people submitted 
to the Greek power. A third enemy who appeared 
in this period, but who became afterwards fast 
friends, were the Russians, who made several bold 
and daring attacks upon the capital, their repre¬ 
sentatives sometimes being the Scandinavian 
Varangians, who at a later period formed the 
trusted body-guard of the Emperors. Readers of 
Sir Walter Scott’s Count Robert of Paris will 
remember the Varangian Guard. It was during 
this period that a plague devastated the Empire, 
and was the cause of colonies of Slavs and Alba¬ 
nians being brought in to occupy the districts made 
vacant by those who died of the plague, or were 
induced to go to Constantinople to fill up the gaps 
caused by the plague there. Some (the Austrian 
historian Fallmerayer in particular) have held that 
owing to the number and extent of these colonies, 
not a drop of Greek blood is to be found in Greece 
at the present day. Probably, however, this view 
is very much exaggerated. The third period 
(1057-1204) extends from the accession of Isaac 
Comnenus to the taking of Constantinople, and is 
one of high civilisation but (with periods of revival) 
gradual decay. And yet the period of the Comneni 
is more familiar to us than any other, owing to the 
intercourse of the Crusaders with the Empire, and 
to the fact that the new Greeks began to have a 
literature, and that we have contemporary accounts 
of events, notably that of Anna Comnena who has 
described to us the Crusaders and the impression 
they created, and on whom Sir W. Scott has freely 
drawn for materials in the romance above-men¬ 
tioned. Though the Crusaders arrived in the East 





Byzantium. 


( 271 ) 


Caballero. 


at the invitation of the Greek Emperor, and did 
check the advance of the Seljuk Turks, yet they 
were by no means an unmixed good to the Empire, 
and seemed to care little whether they fought 
against the Saracens or plundered the Greeks. 
There were no . doubt faults on both sides, but 
nothing has been shown to warrant the piratical 
expedition which goes by the name of the Fourth 
Crusade, which dismembered the Empire, and gave 
it a Latin dynasty, which after a few years of feeble 
existence was thrust off the throne by Michael 
Palaeologus, who, though he did his country some 
good, did more to hasten its ruin. He debased the 
coinage, killed the trade of his subjects by the 
privileges he granted to the Genoese and Venetians, 
and utterly alienated the minds of his people by 
consenting to the reunion of the Eastern and 
Western churches. For the rest of this last period 
the Empire languished away, while the Ottoman 
Turks waxed stronger and stronger, and encroached 
more and more upon the few remaining possessions 
of the Empire, till the struggle culminated in the 
siege of Constantinople by Mahomet II., in 1453, 
and its final capture, when the last Emperor died 
defending the breach, and his conqueror passed in 
over his body. A spirited and interesting account 
of the siege and fall of the city is to be found in 
the tale Theodora Phranza. 

Byzantium, the ancient name of Constanti¬ 
nople, was founded B.C. 667 by Greek colonists. 
Becoming an important commercial centre from its 
position, it passed, after various vicissitudes, under 
the sway of Rome, and in 330 A.D. Constantine the 
Great made it the capital of the Roman Empire. 


c 

C. The letter C is derived from an earlier form 
of the Latin G, which was used indifferently to 
express the sound of G and K in Latin till about 
230 B.C. After that, C was used, probably, only to 
express the sound of K. In English it at first had 
only this sound, and in Welsh spelling it still retains 
it exclusively: but when (about the 10th century), 
the K sound in some English and French words 
became modified into a sound resembling ts, C 
also was used for it. In modern English it is used 
before E and I to express the sound of S. As a 
numeral in the Roman system it represents 100. 
In music C is the keynote of the “ natural ” scale. 
For the history of the sign see Alphabet ; for its 
other uses as a sign see Abbreviations. 

Caaing Whale, a popular name for GloU- 
ceplialus welas , a cetacean of the dolphin family. The 
head is massive and boss-like, the body is cylin¬ 
drical in shape, tapering to the deeply cleft tail, 
and uniform black in colour, except on the belly, 
which is whitish. The dorsal fin is high and tri¬ 
angular, and the fore limbs are usually long and 
narrow. Total length of adults from 16 ft. to 25 ft., 
girth about 10 ft. These whales, which feed princi¬ 
pally on cuttle-fish, are mild in disposition, and 
extremely gregarious in habit, and when in danger 


frequently follow the leader of the drove to destruc¬ 
tion. They often occur in large schools round the 
north-eastern islands of Scotland, and sometimes as 
far south as the Firth of Forth. Some other species 
are found, widely distributed, but they have not 
been accurately distinguished. 

Cabal, originally a secret committee of advisers 
of the king; but in English history specially 
applied to the ministry formed under Charles II. 
after the fall of Clarendon (q.v.). The initial 
letters of the names of its five members, Clifford, 
Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley - Cooper, after¬ 
wards Earl of Shaftesbury, and Lauderdale—spelt 
the word. This “Cabal” held office from 1668 to 
1673. At first, as a concession to public opinion, 
they formed the Triple Alliance between England, 
Holland and Sweden to check the advance of the 
French and the Netherlands. But—though other¬ 
wise differing widely in opinion—they agreed in a 
wish to strengthen the royal prerogative, which 
could only be done with the aid of the French 
king, Louis XIV. Secret negotiations with him, 
therefore, were begun very soon after the conclusion 
of the Triple Alliance ; Parliament, which might 
have proved inconvenient, was prorogued in 1671, 
and money was obtained by suspending, nominally 
for one year, the repayment of the loans made by 
bankers to the exchequer; the Dutch fleet of mer¬ 
chant vessels returning from Smyrna was attacked 
in time of peace, and war declared with Holland. 
But Holland rid herself of Louis XIV.’s army 
by cutting the dykes and flooding the country, 
and her squadron successfully resisted the English 
fleets in battle. The Cabal meanwhile caused 
the king to issue a Declaration of Indulgence to 
Nonconformists, suspending the penal laws in 
their favour. But this was viewed with suspicion, 
as a possible step towards Catholicism. Supplies 
being necessary, Parliament was summoned; the 
opposition or “ country party ” carried a large 
majority of the seats; the Test Act was carried, 
and all the Cabal resigned save Lauderdale. 

Caballero, Fernan, the name adopted for 
literary purposes by Caecilia Bcehl (1797-1877), 
a Spanish literary lady, born at Morget in 
Switzerland, the daughter of a German merchant 
named Nicholas Boehl. She was educated in 
Germany, and returning to Spain in her seventeenth 
year, she married a Captain Planelles. Soon becom¬ 
ing a widow, she married the Marquis of Arco 
Hermoso, who died in 1835 ; and she then mar¬ 
ried for the third time, her husband being a 
barrister, Antoine d’Arrom, who went to Australia 
as consul, and died in 1863. After that, Madame 
dArrom lived in retirement at Seville. Her first 
work, which appeared as a feuilleton, was Gaviota , 
and it at once established her reputation, and from 
that time forw r ard she published a great number of 
novels and stories, in which she paints, with charm¬ 
ing precision, the types of people, the manners, and 
the customs of Spain, especially of Andalusia, which 
is the most unsophisticated part of the country. 
Besides her original works, she made a collection of 
popular stories and poems called Cuentos y poesias 
populares Andaluces, and a Coleccion dc articulos 







Cabanis. 


( 272 ) 


Cabet. 


religiosos y morales. La Mitologia contada a los 
Ninos, Elia, Clemencia, are some of her best known 
works. 

Cabanis, Pierre-Jean-George (1757-1808), 
French physician and philosopher, born at Cosnac, 
Charente-lnferieure, was educated at first at the 
college of Brives, from which he was sent home to 
his father owing to his determination in resisting 
the course of study prescribed by his teachers. His 
father also tried force, with no result, and then 
adopted the extreme course of taking him to Paris 
at the age of fourteen, and leaving him to his own 
devices. This hazardous project succeeded admir¬ 
ably, for all the force of will which young Cabanis 
had hitherto employed in resisting authority, he 
now threw into his work. In 1773 he went to 
Warsaw as secretary to the Prince-Bishop of Wilna, 
just at the time of the partition of Poland. Two 
years after, he returned to France, and under the 
influence of .the poet Roucher he turned his atten¬ 
tion to poetry, with next to no result; and under 
pressure from his father he chose the profession of 
medicine, though he never practised much, prefer- 
ing the generalities of science to its details, and 
confined liis labours to philosophy and to medical 
physiology. His first work was Observations on 
Hospitals (1789); and of many others written by 
him the most notable are Rapports du Physique et 
du Moral de VHomme and Lettres sur les Causes 
premieres. He also wrote on social and political 
subjects. His philosophy was of a materialistic 
nature; his opinion of mental processes, for instance, 
being that “the brain digests impressions, and 
secretes thoughts,” and that the soul is a faculty 
and not a being ; and there is no question that his 
opinions had great weight with his contemporaries. 
At the Revolution he ranged himself upon the 
popular side, and was a friend of Mirabeau, but he 
went into retirement during the Terror, though he 
became a member of the council of Five Hundred. 
Later Napoleon made him a senator and comman¬ 
der of the Legion of Honour. 

Cabbage, the common name for Brassica 
oleracea [Brassica], especially for those cultivated 
varieties that have their leaves uncut and uncurled 
and overlapping so as to form a head or heart. 
B. oleracea capitata, the common cabbage, was in¬ 
troduced into England by the Romans, into Scot¬ 
land in the time of Cromwell. Its heart is generally 
blanched. In Germany it is shredded, salted, and 
fermented for winter use, under the name of sauer 
kraut. The red variety, B. oleracea rubra, is grown 
for pickling. The savoy is B. oleracea bullata, having 
its leaves raised in small “ bullate ” swellings between 
the veins. B. oleracea costata is the large-ribbed 
cabbage or couve troncliuda of Trauxuda in Portugal, 
of which the mid-rib is eaten. Cabbages are im¬ 
proved by being slightly touched by frost;. Forms 
with loosely-arranged leaves ( acepliala ) are known 
as borecole or cow-cabbage. In Jersey cabbages 
are grown to a considerable height by stripping off 
their lower leaves, and are made into walking-sticks. 
[Brussels Sprouts, Cauliflower.] 

Cabbage Butterflies, the name given to 
several species of white butterflies, of which five 


occur in England ; they belong to the genus Pieris. 
As they are usually born in successive broods, they 
occur all the year round, and are the most familiar 
of British butterflies. P. rapce is the best known, 
and sometimes occurs in great swarms. It has 
now become established in Canada. 

Cabbage Moth ( Mamestra brassiere') one of 
the commonest of British Noctuae ; it lays its eggs 
as a rule on cabbages, upon the leaves of which the 
larvae feed; it may, however, use other plants. It 
must not be confused with the Cabbage Butterflies, 
which are better known. 

Cabbage Palm, a name applied to Areca. 
oleracea and other palms, the large terminal buds of 
which are cooked and eaten. 

Cabbala (Heb. Kabbal, to receive), the secret 
oral tradition as to the mystic meaning of the 
Pentateuch, reputed to have been received from 
God by Moses, and handed down to Joshua. In 
fact, however, it originated in Babylon during the 
captivity, and was put into writing by Simon ben 
Jocliai about A.D. 125. It professes to give the 
mystic meaning of the Jewish system of theology 
and cosmogony, and even of every word and letter 
in the law. 

Caber (from a Celtic word —pole), a tapering 
pine trunk, some twenty to twenty-five feet long, 
roughly hewn and stripped of its branches, used in 
the Highland sport of tossing the caber. It is held 
upright, with the small end first downwards and 
level with the breast, then raised to the shoulder, 
and is then tossed so that the thick end touches 
the ground first. The farthest toss and straightest 
fall wins. 

Cabes, or Gabes, at the head of a gulf of the 
same name ; anciently Syrtis Minor, a port in a 
fertile district of Tunis. In ancient times it was 
an episcopal see, and was a rich fortified town in 
the middle ages, but now it is much decayed. The 
harbour admits only small vessels, and the com¬ 
merce is greatly diminished. 

Cabet, Etienne (1788-1856), founder of a 
French sect of communists, was born at Dijon, the 
son of a cooper. He became an advocate, and ob¬ 
tained a legal appointment in Corsica, which he lost 
owing to the expression of views which were too 
democratic for the government. He was elected to 
the chamber of representatives, but in 1834 his at¬ 
tacks on the government led to his prosecution and 
flight to England. Here he read More’s Utopia, and 
after his return to France in 1837, he wrote his Voyage 
en Icarie, a Utopian romance, that became the text¬ 
book of the communist sect of “ Icarians.” In 1848 
he sent out a communistic colony to Red River, 
Texas, and the next year went out himself. Find¬ 
ing his new colony at sixes and sevens, he left them 
to themselves, and went with a few followers to 
Nauvoo, from which the Mormons had been ex¬ 
pelled, only returning to France when some of his 
former colonists accused him of fraud. When 
acquitted, he returned to America, and remained at 
his new colony till in consequence of dissensions he 
was removed from the command of it, and visited 






Cabinda. 


( 273 ) 


Cabot. 


with a kind of ostracism. He then retired to St. 
Louis, where he soon died broken-hearted. 

Cabinda, the dominant nation in the Kakongo 
district on the north side of the Congo estuary. 
They are a branch of the Congo people [Congo], 
with whom they inherit the traditions of European 
culture, introduced by the early Portuguese mis¬ 
sionaries. The port of Cabinda, to which they give 
their name, is one of the most industrious places on 
the west coast of Africa, supplying the best artisans 
and the best sailors on the whole seaboard. Here 
are found excellent blacksmiths, masons, joiners, 
and carpenters, who build the so-called palliabotes, 
small seaworthy vessels, which carry on most of the 
coasting trade between the Gaboon and Mossa- 
medes. Their religion is a curious mixture of 
Christian and Pagan rites, baptism and processions 
headed by the crucifix being combined with cir¬ 
cumcision and witchcraft, while the great goddess 
Nzambi is confounded with the Virgin Mary or the 
Earth, “ Mother of all.” She is represented by a 
terrible fetish, who strikes dead those guilty 
of eating forbidden meats, obviously a reminiscence 
of the Roman Catholic days of abstinence. Many 
of the Ba-Fyots, i.e. “Blacks,” as they are also 
called, bear Portuguese names, and the chiefs are 
attended by officials with titles and functions intro¬ 
duced by the Portuguese over 300 years ago. 

Cabinet. Though virtually the centre of the 
parliamentary system of government, the British 
cabinet is, properly speaking, unknown to the Con¬ 
stitution except as a matter of usage. Theoretically, 
it is an irregular committee of the privy council, a 
body which, in Charles II.’s time, became in¬ 
convenient from its numbers and the consequent 
lack of secrecy in its proceedings. Charles II. 
therefore formed a special advisory committee 
or “cabal” (q.v.) from it, and the practice, 
though at first very unpopular, was continued by 
William III., under whom it obtained more definite 
duties, and its members usually sat in one or other 
House of Parliament. But it still contained members 
of both political parties at once. Under the first 
two Georges two great changes took place, (1) the 
kings ceased to attend, not knowing English well; 
(2) the Tories, being suspected of Jacobitism, were 
excluded from office, so the cabinet was confined 
to one party. When Pitt took office in 1783 the post 
of Prime Minister assumed something of its present 
prominence. At present it is understood that the 
members of a cabinet agree on their general 
political opinions (or in a coalition cabinet on 
certain specified points); that they are jointly 
responsible for the action of the government, and 
that they act in concert. Their deliberations are 
secret, no minutes of proceedings are taken, and 
they are bound not to reveal what passes. In 
practice they are chosen by the Prime Minister, 
but his choice is usually almost determined before¬ 
hand by the force of circumstances and public 
opinion. The members of a cabinet usually vary 
from twelve to fifteen, but the latter number is 
found inconveniently large. The Irish Secretary, 
the Postmaster-General, and the President of the 
Local Government Board, are sometimes, but not 

42 


always, included in it. In the parliamentary 
governments of the colonies and foreign coun¬ 
tries the Cabinet has a more explicit recognition 
in the Constitution. 

Cable, a substantial rope or chain to which the 
anchor is fastened, and which is used to retain a 
ship at anchor in a road, bay, or haven. Rope 
cables, which are now generally disused in favour 
of chain ones, were, among European nations, 
manufactured of hemp, and formed of three 
separate ropes, called strands, twisted together. 
Each of these was made up of three smaller strands, 
each composed of a given number of rope-yarns. 
A few Italian cables were made of four strands. 
The proper length of all rope cables was 120 
fathoms, or 720 feet. These cables were classified 
according to their circumference in inches; and the 
particulars of the chief of them were as follows:— 


Circum¬ 

ference. 

Number of 
Rope 
Yarns. 

Weight of 
Cable. 

Circum¬ 

ference. 

Number of 
Rope 
Yarns. 

Weight of 
Cable. 

Inches. 


lbs. 

Indies. 


lbs. 

3 

48 

192 

12 

699 

2796 

5 

121 

484 

14 

952 

3808 

7 

238 

952 

16 

1244 

4976 

9 

393 

1572 

18 

1574 

6296 

11 

598 

2392 

20 

1943 

7772 


Rope cables, of hemp, are now used only for deep 
water work. For ordinary work chain cables, 100 
fathoms, or 600 feet, in length, are now universally 
employed. They are classified according to the 
diameter of the iron forming the links ; and, as 
supplied to the navy, are of the following sizes :— 
tV in., i in., T <V in.; f in., in, f in, ■§■ in, 1 in, 
l-i-in, 1^ in, 1| in, Hin, If in. If in. If in, 2 in, 
2f in, 2\ in, 2f in, 2f in, and 2f in. The weight 
of the last mentioned cable, per 100 fathoms, should 
be 363 cwt.; that of the first mentioned 9 cwt. 0 qr. 
21 lbs. Each is divided into eight “ shackles,” and, 
before issue, must pass through a very severe test, 
the imposition of which is regulated by law. 

Caboshed, or Cabossed, is a term in heraldry 
most frequently found applied to animals of the 
deer tribe, but really applicable to all creatures 
having horns; and is used to describe the head 
when it is a ffrontee and cut off immediately behind 
the ears, so that no portion of the neck whatsoever 
is visible. 

Cabot (properly Caboto). 1. Giovanni, a 
notable voyager, was born at Genoa in 1420, and, 
coming to England, was employed by Henry "VII. 
in the work of Atlantic exploration. On June 24th, 
1497, he discovered Labrador, part of the mainland 
of the American continent. He died in 1498. 2. 

His son, Sebastiano, was born in 1473 at Venice, 
or, as some say, in 1477 at Bristol, where his father 
had settled;‘and in 1497 he accompanied his 
father on the voyage which resulted in the discovery 
of Labrador, and the exploration of the coast lines 
of Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and Florida. He 
made another voyage, which was designed for the 
discovery of a passage to India, in 1498, and, after 
undertaking further expeditions, entered the service 
of Ferdinand of Spain in 1512. He soon, however, 



















Cabra 


( 274 ) 


Cabs. 


returned to England, and set out on a voyage during 
which he visited Hudson’s Bay. Disgusted, 
apparently, at the treatment which he met with 
from his subordinates, he once more went to Spain, 
and, under the patronage of Charles V., examined 
the coasts of Brazil, and discovered San Salvador. 
In 1549 he again came to England, and was by 
Edward YI. made “Grand Pilot of England” and 
“ Governor of the Mystery and Company of the 
Merchant Adventurers for the Discovery of Regions, 
Dominions, Islands, and Places Unknown.” He 
suggested a voyage for the discovery of a north¬ 
east passage to China, and although this, which 
was undertaken in 1553, did not produce the desired 
results, it led to the opening of a very valuable 
trade with Russia. After an honourable and useful 
career, Cabot died in London about the year 1557. 
J. F. Nicholls (1869), and Hellwald (1871), have 
written his life, concerning which, however, remark¬ 
ably little is known, if it be measured by the lasting 
value of his achievements. 

Cabra, a Spanish town, about 28 miles S.E. of 
Cordova, and in the province of Cordova, and near 
the source of the river Cabra. The cathedral of 
the Assumption was formerly a mosque, and there 
are interesting Moorish remains. An abyss 
mentioned in Bon Quixote is pointed out, and there 
remain parts of an old castle. The manufacture 
of bricks and pottery is carried on, and the neigh¬ 
bourhood abounds in wine. A good deal of linen, 
woollen, and hempen goods is manufactured. 

Cabral (or Cabrera), Pedro Alvarez, a 
Portuguese navigator, was born about the year 
1460. In attempting to find a western passage to 
India, he sighted and was driven on the coast of 
Brazil on April 24th, 1500, and has some claims to 
be regarded as its discoverer, although similar 
claims are advanced on behalf of Pinion. He 
afterwards voyaged to India, where he concluded, 
on behalf of Portugal, the first commercial treaty 
with the native princes. He also made discoveries 
on the African coast. He is supposed to have died 
in 1526. An account of his work will be found in 
Ramusio's JVdvigazioni e Viaggi (1563). 

Cabrera, Don Ramon, Count de Morella 
(1810-1877), a Spanish general, born at Tortosa in 
Catalonia. He threw himself with enthusiasm 
into the revolution which followed the death of Ferdi¬ 
nand VII., and entering a guerilla troop on the side 
of Don Carlos, he was soon made captain, and dis¬ 
tinguished himself by his daring. General Mina put 
to death Cabrera’s mother and sisters, whereupon 
Cabrera adopted a system of reprisals, and merci¬ 
lessly slew every Christino he caught. [Carlists.] 
In 1838 he was made general, and Don Carlos created 
him Count of Morella for taking a fortress of that 
name. In 1840 he was driven across the French 
frontier, and was imprisoned for a time at Ham. 
When set at liberty he went to England, and was 
greatly opposed to Don Carlos’ abdication in favour 
of his son. In 1848 he again tried to stir up 
Catalonia, Aragon, and Valencia, but the country 
was tired of the war, and a defeat in 1849 forced 
him to repass the Pyrenees. He went back to 


England and married an English lady, and did not 
after that meddle openly in Spanish politics beyond 
issuing a manifesto in 1875 inviting Carlists to 
submit to King Alfonso. A grim story is told by 
Captain Alexander Bath in Seven Years in Spain , 
which illustrates at once the cruelty of Cabrera and 
a certain sense of humour mingled with it. 

Cabs (from French cabriolet, a diminutive of 
cabriole, the name being applied because of the 
bounding motion of the vehicle) were intro¬ 
duced into Paris about the middle of the last 
century, and speedily became very popular. About 


V 



HANSOM CAB. 


1813 there were 1,150 of them on the stands at 
Paris. They were introduced into London in 1823, 
when Messrs. Bradshaw and Rotch obtained licences 
for twelve at a fare of 8d. per mile. These cabs 
ran on two wheels, and had a large leather hood 
for use in wet weather; the driver sat beside the 
fare. They speedily displaced the old hackney 
coaches, familiar from Dickens’s earlier works, 
which were lumbering two-horse vehicles, plying at 
that time at a fare of Is. per mile. These coaches 
had been introduced in 1623 under James I.; the 
first coach stand in London was established 1634, 
and though at first objected to by the Government 
they held their ground. Soon after the introduction 
of cabs the fare was raised to Is. a mile, and the 
numbers speedily increased, first to 50, then to 100, 
and then the limit to those licensed was removed. 
The hansom, so called from its inventor, was 
patented in 1834. It was then a square body on a 
square frame, hung between wheels as high as 
itself, about 7 ft. 6 in. in diameter. This type was 
speedily improved on, and in 1836 a cab company 
was formed under a fresh patent. In 1852 there 
were 1,150 cats plying for hire in London ; in 1886, 
9,700 ; at present (1891) there are 11,297. In Paris 
there are about 6,000 cabs of two types, voitures de 
place and voitures de remise. Most of them belong 
to one or two large companies ; but the cab company 
has never succeeded very well in London. The 
improvements introduced by some of the London 
companies have encouraged their drivers to obtain 
more in “tips,” and so forced up the hire of the 
cabs as to make it unremunerative—the usual system 















Cabul 


( 275 ) 


Cachet. 


being for the driver to hire his cab by the day. 
Despite efforts to vary the type of London cab 
only two have survived: the hansom or “ shoful,” 
and the brougham or “ growler.” The “ tribus,” 
the “brougham hansom,” and others have been 
introduced, but failed to take, probably because the 
fares are fixed by law at a uniform rate. While the 
hansom, in Lothair’s words, is “ the gondola of 
London ” (except that it travels three or four times 
as fast), the “growler ” has no merits, save, perhaps, 
its capacity for carrying luggage. Both drivers 
and vehicles are licensed by the police authorities 
in London, "and in most provincial towns, and are 
under tolerably stringent police restrictions. 

Cabul, a city of Afghanistan, lat. 34° 10’ N. 
and long. 66° 55' E.; it is the capital of a pro¬ 
vince of the same name, and of the country, and 
is situated at the foot of the Takt-i-Shah and 
Amai hills at an elevation of about 6,000, feet 
above sea level. The mildness of the climate 
and the fertility of the soil make it one of 
the most agreeable cities of Asia, and it is noted 
for its fruits, especially apples, grapes, melons, 
pears, and pomegranates. The winters, however, 
are at times very severe, and snow lies upon the 
ground to the depth of several feet. The flat- 
roofed buildings are generally of two and three 
storeys high ; and the town is divided into four by 
the main bazaar, whose streets diverge from the 
central square. On a spur of the hills south of the 
city is the citadel of Bala-Hissar, which formerly 
contained the royal palace, but is now abandoned. 
A mile north of that may still be seen the encamp¬ 
ment where the British army lay in 1880, as also 
traces of the old encampment of 1839 ; and there is 
a British cemetery. Cabul has made much progress 
of late years in the way of constructing roads and 
in cultivation, and it is fast becoming an important 
station for Indian trade. Besides its trade in 
camel-hair cloth, carpets, cotton goods, silks, shawls, 
and skins, it is becoming a depot for European 
goods. It is also noted for its horse market. The 
inhabitants are a mixed race—Afghans, Hindoos, 
and some Jews. The town began to play a part in 
modern history in 1739, when Nadir Shah took it 
and established a dynasty. Under Timour it became 
the capital in 1774 ; the English made war upon it 
and captured it in 1839, and in 1842 happened the 
celebrated massacre of the British army, when only 
one man escaped. In 1854 Dost Mohammed became 
an ally of the English, but later Shere Ali espoused 
the Russian cause and England put Yakoub Khan 
upon the throne. On the murder ofrMajor Cavagnari, 
the British resident, Sir Frederick Roberts made 
his noted campaign of 1879-80, which ended in 
putting Abd-er-Rahman upon the throne, and the 
treaty of Gandamak which gave the English control 
of the Khyber Pass. The river Cabul rises at Sar-i- 
Chasma near the source of the Helmund, and flow¬ 
ing through the city follows a course generally 
S.E. of 270 miles and joins the Indus. 

Cacao, the native name for Thedbroma Cacao , 
and probably other species of this genus of tropical 
American Sterculiacem. They are small trees, 
natives of Mexico, Central America and the north 


of South America, cultivated also in Brazil, Guiana, 
Trinidad, and Grenada. T. Cacao has large oblong- 
pointed entire leaves and sessile clusters of 
pentamerous flowers with rose-coloured calyx and 
yellowish petals. - The fruit is yellow, from 6 to 
10 inches long, and from 3 to 5 broad, oblong, 
blunt, with ten longitudinal ridges externally, and 
five chambers, containing ten or twenty seeds 
each, internally. The thick tough rind is almost 
woody. The seeds are dried, roasted, bruised, and 
winnowed, so as to remove their testa from the 
cocoa-nibs or cotyledons. These contain more than 
50 per cent, of fat or cocoa-butter , part of which is 
generally removed in the process of “ preparing ” 
cocoa. It is used in making chocolate “creams.” 

* Cocoa is also so rich in albuminoids as to form a 
valuable article of food; contains a gently 
stimulating alkaloid theobromine , a fragrant essen¬ 
tial oil and a red colouring matter. So-called 
“ soluble ” cocoas have starch added to them, which 
swells up in boiling water, but in no way dissolves 
the cocoa. Sugar and vanilla or other flavouring 
are added in the preparation of chocolate. These 
beverages have less stimulating action upon the 
respiratory and nervous systems than tea or coffee. 

Caceres, the name of a Spanish province in 
Estremadura and of its capital. The province is 
noted for its cattle-rearing, and in the northern 
part a good deal of wine is produced. The city is 
20 miles south of the Tagus, and 24 miles west of 
Truxillo, and has a bishop and fine episcopal palace, 
a college and a public school. There is a con¬ 
siderable trade in wool, and Caceres possesses 
fulling and oil mills, lime-kilns, soap-works, and 
tanneries, and in the neighbourhood are large 
gardens, fields, and pastures. There are some 
notable specimens of mediaeval architecture among 
the bouses, and the granite bull-ring is remarkable. 
The Romans and the Moors made much of the 
place, the former founding here their Castra 
Cascilia ; and the allied forces here defeated part of 
the Duke of Berwick’s forces in 1706. 

Cachalot. [Sperm Whale.] 

Cachar, a district of British India, adjoining 
Manipur, with chief town Silchar. It is a great 
rice and tea producing district, and supplies about 
a quarter of the tea exported from Assam, whose 
chief commissioner administers the district. It 
also exports much timber to Bengal from its 
extensive forests. Cachar has an area of 3,750 
square miles. 

Cache, a hole made in the ground for the recep¬ 
tion of provisions or other articles found to be 
incumbrances on an expedition. 

Cachet, Lettres de, in France, were so called 
in contrast to letters patent (which were open), and 
were sealed letters signed by the king and counter¬ 
signed by a secretary of state. They were 
expressions of the personal will of the sovereign, 
and for the last two centuries before the revolution 
were employed ( a ) to direct certain political bodies 
to discuss particular subjects, (/>) to send persons to 
exile or prison, which could be done by a simple 
expression of the royal will without trial. It is this 






Cachexia. 


( 276 ) 


Cade. 


latter use of them which is best known. They were 
freely used after the edict of Nantes to break up 
Protestant families and so make proselytes, while at 
some periods they could easily be obtained signed 
in blank, and so were often used to gratify private 
ends. The system was violently condemned by 
Voltaire, and was finally abolished during the 
Revolution by a law of January 15, 1790. 

Cachexia signifies, literally, bad habit, and is 
a term applied to the unhealthy condition of body 
which develops in certain chronic maladies. Thus 
a patient is said to be the subject of gouty, 
cancerous, or malarial cachexia, and the like. 

Cacodyl, a compound of arsenic, carbon, and 
hydrogen, of composition As 2 (CH 3 ) 4 . It is a spon¬ 
taneously inflammable liquid, boiling at 170° C. 
It has a powerful irritating odour (hence its name 
from the Greek, liakos odevil), and, like most of its 
derivatives, is very poisonous. A mixture of this 
substance with its oxide As 2 (CH 3 ) 4 0, obtained by 
distilling potassium acetate and arsenious acid, is 
known as aUiarsin, or Cadet's fum ing liquor. 

Cacongo, or Kakongo, a territory mostly 
belonging to the State of Congo, along the Atlantic 
coast immediately north of the mouth of the river 
Congo, in 5° south latitude. Its capital is 
Kinguela, and its inhabitants carry on a consider¬ 
able trade from the ports of Mallemba and Cabinda. 

Cactus, the general name in popular use for 
the 800 species of the order Cactacece , which are 
now referred to 18 genera. They are a somewhat 
isolated group of calycifloral dicotyledons, almost 
all natives of America, inhabiting the dry regions 
of the south-western United States, Mexico, Peru, 
and the Andean plateaux. They are succulent 
shrubs with stems either flattened and leaf-like, 
spherical, or polygonal and columnar ; and their 
leaves are represented by spines grouped in clusters 
or undeveloped branches. They have a watery 
juice, in which they differ from the milky spinous 
Euphorbias that occupy similar situations in Africa. 
Cacti have large sessile flowers with indefinite 
sepals graduating into the petals, which are also 
numerous, as are the stamens. The ovary is inferior 
and one-chambered, with numerous seeds on parietal 
placentas, and forms a succulent fruit. Several 
species have been introduced into Southern Europe 
and the East, especially the prickly pear ( Opuntia 
vulgaris) and the nopal ( Nopalea coccinellifera), 
the food of the cochineal insect (Coccus cacti). 

Cacus, an Italian brigand, who, “ once upon a 
time,” lived in a cave on Mount Aventine, and 
lived by robbing the shepherds and herdsmen of 
the neighbourhood. But one day he caught a 
Tartar in the shape of Hercules. This hero was 
returning from doing a little robbing on his own 
account, and was bringing home Geryon’s cattle 
from Spain. As Hercules took his siesta, Cacus 
came down on the cattle and carried off some of 
the best of the heifers. Being a sort of classical 
Eulenspiegel, he dragged the heifers in by the tails 
in order that their steps might seem to be going 
out; but as Hercules was starting some of the 
oxen lowed, and the heifers answered and so 
betrayed their whereabouts. Hercules forced his 


way into the cave, slew Cacus, and retook his 
heifers. Cacus is also represented as a giant, son 
of Vulcan, breathing out flames, and possessed of a 
sister Caca. Some have tried to give the pair a 
historical or mythological signification, but to do 
so seems like trying to fix the identity of, or give a 
mythological meaning to, Jack the Giant Killer. 

Cadastre (Low Latin, capitastrum , a register on 
which a poll-tax was based), a register of the 
landed proprietors of a district, with the extent of 
their estates, as a basis for taxation. Such 
registers are kept in most countries of modern 
Europe, though not in the United Kingdom, and 
are illustrated by careful “ cadastral maps.” In 
England the comparative unimportance of the 
land-tax has prevented their need being felt. 
Their existence, however, greatly cheapens and 
facilitates land transfer. 

Caddis Flies are an order of insects known as 
the Triclioptera ; they mainly belong to one family, 
the Phryganidce. The main features of the order 
are these: the metamorphosis is incomplete, but the 
pupa is active for part of its life ; the masticatory 
organs around the mouth are mainly rudimentary 
in the adult but not in the pupa or chrysalid stage; 
and there are four wings which are all equal or 



CADDIS FLY. 

1, Perfect insect; 2, Larva, in case. 


nearly so; the hinder pair may be hairy or folded. 
One of the best known characters of the group is 
that the larva lives in a tube composed of frag¬ 
ments of stick, shells, and sand; these tubes float 
about on the surface of ponds and streams. The 
“ indusial ” limestone of Central France is said to 
be composed of these cases ( indusia) of Caddis flies. 
Pliryganeo, grandis is the commonest English 
species ; the adult is a brown insect measuring two 
inches across the wings. 

Caddo (Cadodaquinon), a large North 
American nation formerly occupying parts of 
Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas ; later (1825) con¬ 
centrated on the Red River, Louisiana, whence the 
parish of Caddo ; now removed to the Brazos river 
below Fork Belknap, south-west Texas. The Cad- 
does appear to be remotely allied to the Pawnees 
through the Wichitas and Rickarees. Chief 
branches: Nanclakoa, Tachie, Aliche, Nabedache, 
Jonie. 

Cade, Jack, the Kentish leader of an insur¬ 
rection in 1450, when, assuming the name of 
Mortimer, and leading an army of 15,000 to Black- 
heath, he opened communication with the citizens. 




Cademosto. 


C 277 ) 


Cadiz. 


some of whom favoured his enterprise, and called 
on Henry VI. to redress the grievances the people 
complained of and to dismiss his advisers. After 
retreating before the army sent against him, he 
gained a partial victory, and advanced on London, 
where his men murdered Lord Say. Dispersing 
upon a promise of pardon, the insurgents left Cade 
to his fate, and in attempting to escape to the 
coast he was killed by Alexander Iden at Heath- 
field in Sussex. Writing in the next century, 
Shakespeare probably represents faithfully the 
facts as handed down by tradition, and gives us a 
graphic picture of both the tragic and the humor¬ 
ous aspects of the insurrection. 

Cademosto, Aloys da (1432-1480), a Venetian 
■explorer, who examined the Mediterranean and 
Atlantic coasts, and made in 1455 a voyage of dis¬ 
covery to the Canaries and to the mouth of the 
Gambia. The next year he made another expedi¬ 
tion to the Senegambia, and at the death of the 
Spanish Infante Henry, his patron, he returned to 
Venice. An account of his voyages was published 
in 1507. 

Cadence, in Music, a sequence of chords form¬ 
ing the close of a phrase ; the term is generally 
limited to the two last chords. There are various 
kinds of cadences , the principal being the perfect, 
the imperfect, the interrupted, and the plagal 
cadences. The perfect or full cadence was formerly 
the most frequently employed, but of late years a 
tendency towards an almost complete avoidance of 
this form has manifested itself. 

Cadency, The Marks of. Closely following 
upon the introduction of heraldry, and coeval with 
the commencement of its existence hereditarily, 
came the necessity of distinguishing between the 
different branches of a family and of marking the 
arms of the younger sons. Some of the earlier ways 
of “ differencing” arms were by changing (frequently 
reversing) the colours of the charges or the field or 
both, by adding to the number of the charges on 
and outside the “ ordinaries ” appearing upon the 
shield, by adding a bordure, or by elaborating the 
lines of partition. The label as a mark of cadency 
is certainly by far the oldest of those which are now 
in use, but with regard to the olden time, different 
writers have recited such varied rules for observ¬ 
ance that it would be of but little advantage to 
ipiote them here; and the present officially recog¬ 
nised series are of comparatively modern origin. 
These are for the eldest son a label of three points 
(borne during the lifetime of his father ; and for 
the eldest grandson in like manner a label of five 
points), for the second son a crescent, for the third 
son a mullet, for the fourth a martlet, for the fifth 
an annulet, for the sixth a fleur-de-lis, for the 
seventh a cinquefoil, for the eighth a cross moline, 
for the ninth a double quatrefoil ( i.e. of eight 
leaves). There are no special laws regulating their 
colour or position, and the tinctures and disposition 
of the arms are taken into consideration. They are 
never depicted of any great size. When the name 
and arms of a family are assumed by royal licence 
without any blood relationship, other differences 
{readily recognised) are introduced, frequently a 


canton upon the arms and a cross crosslet upon the 
crest. In Scotland different rules hold good. There 
the first junior branch of a family has a plain bor¬ 
dure added to the paternal coat, but all subsequent 
alterations to denote the cadency of the various 
branches are made in or upon the aforesaid bordure. 
In England the officials of the Heralds’ College do 
not encourage the too frequent use of these marks, 
as tending rather to confusion than distinction 
when they become surcharged one upon the other ; 
and (save and with the exception of marks to indi¬ 
cate the lack of relationship which must always be 
retained) a junior branch, for instance, assuming a 
double surname and coat-of-arms discontinues all 
previous marks of cadency, and starts afresh. 
The Royal Family are not governed by the fore¬ 
going rules. The Prince of Wales, as the eldest son 
of the Sovereign, bears upon his arms’-crest and sup¬ 
porters a plain label of three points argent; and 
all other members of the Royal Family are in addi¬ 
tion also distinguished by a label argent of three or 
five points, each specially differenced under a 
separate royal warrant by charges upon one or more 
of the said points of the label. 

Cadenza, in Music, an ornamental flourish 
introduced by the author or soloist into some 
portion, generally the end, of a concerto or aria. It 
is always intended to display the technical powers 
of the executant, and its form used always, at one 
time, to be left by the author to the performer. 

Cader Idris, a mountain of Wales, in Merio¬ 
nethshire, five miles from Dolgelly, is a broken 
ridge of about ten miles long, and one to three 
broad, and reaching at its greatest elevation a 
height of 2,900 feet. From the summit is a fine 
view. The Wrekin in Shropshire may be seen, 
and a wide stretch of St. George’s Channel 
almost to the Irish coast. 

Cadet (i.e. younger, orig. dimin. of Latin caput, 
a head), originally a younger son, in the last 
century a gentleman volunteer in the French army 
(who entered hoping to win a commission by his 
services), now applied in England to the students 
in the Britannia training ship, to the youngest 
officers in the British navy who are not yet rated 
as midshipmen, and to the students at the military 
colleges at Sandhurst and Woolwich. A British 
naval cadet receives pay after leaving the Britannia, 
at the rate of Is. per diem. Regulations concern¬ 
ing the admission and education of cadets will be 
found in the official quarterly Navy List. 

Cadet’s Liquor. [Cacodyl.] 

Cadi (an Arabic word), a judge in civil cases in 
Moslem countries, familiar in the Arabian Nights 
and other Eastern tales. 

Cadiz, a town of Spain, capital of the province 
of Cadiz, and situated at the north-west extremity 
of the Isle of Leon in the Bay of Cadiz. The town 
is on a rock forming a tongue at the end of the 
island, and separated from the rest of the island by 
a channel crossed by a drawbridge and a railway 
bridge, and is well fortified. The bay of Cadiz has, 
beside the port of Cadiz, that of Caracca, where 
there are fine government dockyards, and it 







Cadmium. 


( 278 ) 


Caedmon. 


affords a fine anchorage, being' protected by the 
neighbouring mountains. Not only is Cadiz the most 
elegant and agreeable city of Andalusia, but also 
the first military port of Spain, and ranking second 
only to Barcelona as a commercial port. The indus¬ 
tries of Cadiz are not of great importance, but the 
importation of produce from the Spanish colonies 
and elsewhere is considerable. The chief exports 
are cork, fruits, lead, olive oil, salt, wine, and 
tunny. Nearly 4,000 ships enter the port annually 
with a tonnage of considerably over a million, 
but a great proportion are foreign. The houses 
of Cadiz—gleaming white and relieved by vermilion 
streaks which mark the separation of the houses 
and the division of the storeys—the projecting 
balconies, and the terraces, present a pleasing ap¬ 
pearance. The town is well paved and lighted, 
and the streets, though narrow, are regular. The 
squares are well planted with trees, and on the 
ramparts at the north of the town is a fine 
promenade called the Alameda, which commands 
a view of the whole harbour. The public buildings 
are of no great interest. The ancient cathedral 
has some pictures of Cornelis Schut, and a good 
altar-piece ; while in the new cathedral there is 
an elegantly - proportioned and well - decorated 
chapel, and a remarkable vaulted crypt, and a 
few pictures and statues, of which the best is a 
Conception, by Clemente de Torres. Cadiz is 
seven miles from Xeres, and about fifty from 
Gibraltar. Founded by the Tyrians, and becoming 
successively Carthaginian and Roman, the city be¬ 
longed to the Visigoths and then to the Khalifate 
of Cordova, from which the Spaniards took it in 
1262. It was burnt by the English in 1596. 

Cadmium (Cd; at. wt. 1117), a white, soft 
crystalline metal, sp. gr. 8'6, which is frequently 
found associated with zinc in the ores of this metai. 
It melts at 315° C., and, being more volatile than 
zinc, is found in the portions of the metal which 
distil over first when the ores are heated with 
charcoal. It dissolves slowly in dilute acids and 
forms salts, as Cadmium Chloride, CdCl 2 , etc. 
The sulphide CdS is an insoluble yellow powder, 
occurring native as Greenochite, and is employed 
as a pigment. 

Cadmus, in Greek mythology, son of Agenor 
and Telepliassa, and brother of Europa. When 
Zeus carried off Europa Agenor sent Ins sons to 
look for her, but in vain; and Cadmus with 
Telepliassa settled in Thrace, where the latter died. 
Then Cadmus went to Delphi and was told by an 
oracle to follow a cow and build a town where 
the cow should sink down. Cadmus followed the 
cow to Bceotia and built Thebes. Wishing to 
sacrifice the cow to Athene, he sent for water, and 
a dragon killed his messengers. Cadmus killed the 
dragon, and by Athene’s advice sowed its teeth, 
which sprang up armed men, who fought and killed 
each other, all but five, who became the ancestors 
of the Thebans. Later, Cadmus with his wife 
Harmonia, left Thebes, according to one account, 
and led a hostile expedition of Encheleans against 
it, by which he was made king. Both were finally 
changed to dragons, and taken up to heaven. 


Cadoudal, George (1771-1804), celebrated 
leader of the French Royalists (the Chouans) and 
conspirator. The son of a Breton farmer, he took 
part in 1793 in the Vendean rising, and soon became 
captain. After many changes of fortune he gave 
in his submission to General Hoche in 1796; but 
in 1799 he was again in arms, and again submitted 
in 1800, at which time Napoleon is said to have 
made efforts to gain him over to himself. But he 
went to England and was made much of by the 
Royalists. Unable again to rouse Brittany, he 
began to intrigue in Paris, and sent Saint-Regent as 
his agent; but denied all connection with the 
latter’s attempt to assassinate Napoleon. Joining 
in another plot with the Count d’Artois and with 
Pichegru, which had for its object the kidnapping 
of Napoleon, he went to Paris in 1803, and after 
successfully keeping hidden f,or six months, he was 
arrested in March, 1804, and having avowed his 
intention of overturning the Government and 
putting Louis XVIII. on the throne, he was 
guillotined with eleven others in June, 1804. 

Caduceus, the Latin name for the staff of 
Mercury, whom the Romans 
identified with the Greek 
Hermes. It was represented 
with a pair of wings at the 
top—to symbolise the speed 
with which the messenger of 
the gods travelled—and two 
serpents twined round it: 
either because, according to 
a legend, the god had once 
separated two serpents with 
his staff, or as a symbol of 
his wisdom, or of health (the 
serpent being sacred to 
JEsculapius). In modern 
times, Mercury being in one 
aspect the god of markets, 
the caduceus is sometimes 
the symbol of commerce. 

Caecilia, the type-genus of a family ( Cceciliidce) 
of worm-like Amphibians, containing several genera 
and'about 30 species, from the Neotropical, Oriental, 
and Ethiopian regions, and differing from all the 
rest of the class in possessing no limbs at any stage 
of their existence, though minute rudiments of 
posterior limbs have been observed, and in the 
external resemblance to the burrowing snakes and 
to the limbless lizards of the genus Anguis, whence 
they are sometimes incorrectly called “ blind- 
worms.” But their Amphibian character is 
established by the character of the skull, and by 
the presence of gills in the immature forms. The 
tail is not distinguished from the body, and in the 
soft skin tiny scales are embedded, giving the body 
the appearance of being composed of a series of 
rings. The maximum length is something less than 
2 feet; the mode of life is subterranean, and the 
diet consists of insects and worms. 

Caedmon, an Anglo-Saxon poet of the seventh 
century, of whose life we know little beyond what 
is told us by the Venerable Bede. According to 
this account it was not till of mature age that the 












Caen. 


( 279 ) 


Caermarthen. 


spirit of poesy came upon him, and -that he was 
exhorted in a vision to “ sing the beginning of 
created things.” He was then taken to the monas¬ 
tery of Whitby, and he devoted his life to compos¬ 
ing poetry upon the history contained in the 
Bible. Of his paraphrase one MS. copy of the 
tenth century is in the Bodleian, and some of it 
may be really his work. But many doubt even 
his existence, and think that his name may have 
been given to a collection of poems by different 
authors, and that his name even does not denote 
one particular man. 

Caen, a French town, capital of the department 
of Calvados in Normandy, and head of arrondisse- 
ment, at the junction of the Odon and the Orne, 
149 miles from Paris and 83 from Cherbourg. The 
junction of the rivers forms a port, consisting of a 
basin, which communicates with the railway from 
Paris to Cherbourg, and is connected with the 
English Channel by a canal. Caen imports chiefly 
Norwegian timber, corn, salt, coal, iron, wine, and 
colonial produce, and exports the produce of the 
country round, and materials for ship-building. A 
good deal of lace is manufactured in the town. 
There are four dockyards, and the ships of three 
or four hundred tons, built at Caen, are much 
esteemed. Caen is in a pleasant valley, and is well 
built, well laid out, and clean, and has fine public 
buildings. The only remains of the old fortifications 
are King William’s tower and a kind of citadel 
called “ The Castle.” The most noted of its churches 
is that of St. Etienne, founded in 1064 by William I. 
of England. In the choir of this church is a slab 
of blue stone with Latin inscription, which marks 
the spot where some of the remains of William the 
Conqueror still lie. Another interesting church is 
that of Holy Trinity, called “ L’Abbaye aux Dames,” 
founded by Queen Mathilde in 1066. The Abbess 
of this convent had special privileges, one of which 
was that she was called Madame de Caen. There 
are some magnificent old houses in Caen ; and the 
sixteenth century Hotel de Ville has a fine library. 
The museum has a fine collection of paintings, the 
best of them being, perhaps, Perugino’s Marriage of 
the Virgin. There are also pictures of Paul Vero¬ 
nese, Leonardo da Vinci, Rubens, Ruysdael, and 
many other noted painters. Charlotte Corday lived 
at Caen, but her house is now pulled down. 

Caerlaverock, a ruined castle seven miles 
from Dumfries, and situated near the mouth of 
the Nith. It possesses some historical interest, 
as having been captured by Edward I. in 1300. For 
four centuries it has been the property of the 
Maxwell family. Readers of Scott are interested 
to know that Robert Paterson, the original of Old 
Mortality , is buried in the churchyard there. 

Caerleon, a little old town of Monmouthshire, 
on the right bank of the Usk, and between 2 and 3 
miles from Newport. It is the Roman Isca Silnruvi , 
the ancient capital of Britannia Secunda, and after¬ 
wards it became the capital of Wales. Besides the 
Roman remains of all kinds which are found in 
great abundance, there are the remains of an 
amphitheatre, which are called “ The Round Table, 
or “ Arthur’s Table,” since it was here that Arthur 


founded the famous Order, according to Geoffrey 
of Monmouth and Alfred Tennyson. 

Caermarthen, a parliamentary and municipal 
borough, assize-town, and head of quarter sessions, is 
the capital of Caermarthenshire, and forming a 
county by itself, is prettily situated 5 miles from the 
sea, on the right bank of the Towy, which is navig¬ 
able for small vessels, but is not much used, owing to 
the greater convenience afforded by Llanelly. The 
trade consists chiefly in the export of slate, lead 
ore, and tinplate, and farm produce, and there is 
salmon and trout fishing in the river. The parish 
church of St. Peter has some interesting monu¬ 
ments, and Sir Richard Steele is buried there. 
There are memorials to Generals Picton and Nott, 
who were natives of the town, and to those officers 
and men of the Welsh Fusileers who fell in the 
Crimean war. The town is united with Llanelly 
for the return of one member to Parliament, and 
has a market on Wednesdays and Saturdays. 

Caermarthen, County of, a county of South 
Wales, having Cardigan on the N., Caermarthen 
Bay on the S., Brecon and Glamorgan on the E., 
and Pembroke on the W. ; about 40 miles long by 
24 broad, with an area of 947 square miles, being 
the largest county of Wales. The Black Mountains, 
with the Caermarthenshire Van of 2,600 feet high, 
occupy the S.E. of the county, and the rest of the 
county is of a varied and undulating character with 
beautiful valleys and glens. The chief river is the 
Towy, which receives the Gwili and Cothi, and falls 
into Caermarthen Bay, and is noted for its beautiful 
valley. The Taf, also flowing into Caermarthen 
Bay, drains the west of the' county, and the Teifv 
separates Caermarthen from Cardigan, and the lower 
course of the Llwchwr separates it from Glamorgan. 
Geologically, the north of the county is of Silurian 
formation, next to which succeeds a belt of old 
red sandstone, followed by belts of carboniferous 
limestone and millstone grit, while south of this 
the county forms part of the South Wales coal field. 
Except in the higher parts, the climate is mild, but 
the rainfall is great, and agriculture is com¬ 
paratively backward, partly owing to the marshy 
nature of much of the soil and the defective 
drainage. The large valleys and the southern 
parts are the most fertile. The chief industry is 
agriculture and stock-raising; but the coal and 
iron and lead mines and the limestone quarries 
also employ a considerable number of people. The 
population" is mostly Welsh-speaking, and the 
manners and customs of the people, especially in 
the northern parts, are purely Welsh. Each of the 
two divisions sends a member to Parliament. The 
county is well served by railways, the main line 
from Bristol to Milford Haven running through it, 
besides branch lines in different directions. There 
are many Roman and British remains in Caer¬ 
marthen, among them being traces of the Julian 
Way and two other Roman roads. The ruins of 
Carreg Cennin, and Dynevor castles are also in¬ 
teresting. The county was the scene of much of 
the struggle between Llewelyn and Edward I., and 
it was here that the celebrated Rebecca riots of 
1843 first broke out. 






Caernarvon. 


( 280 ) 


Caesar. 


Caernarvon, a parliamentary and municipal 
borough, assize town, and head of quarter sessions, 
capital of Caernarvonshire, on the E. shore of 
Caernarvon Bay, at the mouth of the little river 
Seoint. Beyond some brass and iron founding 
there is little manufacturing in the town, but the 
port has a trade in slates, stone, and copper ore, 
and a great many summer visitors resort hither for 
sea-bathing and for the scenery of the neighbour¬ 
hood. • Caernarvon is near the site of an old Roman 
station, and was the former seat of the Prince of 
North Wales. Hugh Lupus, Earl of Chester, 
fortified it in 1098, and the castle, which now forms 
one of the finest ruins in the kingdom, was begun 
in 1284, and common tradition says that Edward II. 
was born, if not in the newly-begun castle, at least 
in the town. The castle, which stands on the west 
side of the town, occupies an irregular oblong of 
about three acres, and its walls are many feet 
thick. There are thirteen embattled towers, and 
the main gateway was defended by four portcullises. 
Part of the walls of the town and some of the gate¬ 
ways still exist, but the town has overflowed them, 
and they are now inside it. Many Roman remains 
have been found at the Roman station above- 
mentioned, and on the left bank of the river are 
the thick-walled remains of a Roman fort. Caer¬ 
narvon unites with the Bangor group of towns to 
send one member to Parliament. Its weekly market 
is held on Saturday. 

Caernarvon, County of, a maritime county 
of North Wales, having Beaumaris Bay on the N., 
the Irish Sea and Menai Straits on the W., and 
Cardigan Bay on the S.W., and bounded on the E. 
and S.E. by Denbigh and Merioneth, 55 miles long 
by about 23 miles broad, and having an area of 
579 square miles. Nearly one-half of it forms a 
spur of from 5 to 9 miles wide, projecting into the 
Irish Sea and forming Caernarvon Bay on the N., 
and Cardigan Bay on the S. It is the most 
mountainous county of Wales, and its mountain 
scenery is the grandest to be found in South 
Britain. The Snowdon range occupies the centre 
of the county, and there .are many lofty and well- 
known peaks varying in height, from Snowdon 
itself (3,570 ft.) to the Drum (2,527 ft.). The 
valleys, too, are very beautiful, some of them being 
rugged and wild, like the gorge at Pont Aberglaslyn, 
and others soft and peaceful like Nant Gwynant. 
The vale of the Conway, and those of Bedclgelert 
and Llanberis have a world-wide reputation. Great 
Orme’s Head is the bluff and bold termination of a 
narrow belt of carboniferous limestone, which runs 
along the coast of the Menai Strait. Among the 
minerals of Caernarvon are lead, copper, and a 
certain amount of gold, while the slate quarries 
are of great extent and value. The rivers of 
Caernarvon are not of great importance, the chief 
being the tidal Conway, which, after separat¬ 
ing Caernarvon from Denbigh, flows into the sea 
at Conway, and is navigable for about 10 miles 
above that town. The lakes and mountain tarns 
of the county are numerous, and some of them 
of considerable size. The climate, except on the 
coast, is severe in the winter; and agriculture, 


partly owing to the nature of the country, partly to 
the great mining industries, is in a backward state. 
Dairy and sheep-farming are the chief pursuits 
of those not engaged in mining, and on the 
mountains is reared a breed of ponies which are 
much sought after. The Chester and Holyhead 
railway line runs along the northern coast, and 
crosses the Menai Strait to Anglesey by the cele¬ 
brated tubular bridge, called the Britannia Bridge. 
The county returns one member to Parliament. 
The principal towns are Bangor, Caernarvon, 
Pwllheli, and Llandudno. The mountainous nature 
of the county eminently fitted it to be what it was 
•—the great stronghold of the inhabitants against 
their invaders, from the time of the Romans down 
to that of Edward I. 

Csesalpinus, the Latinised name of Andrea 
Csesalpino, an Italian natural philosopher, born at 
Arezzo, in Tuscany, in 1519. A pupil of Ghinus of 
Bologna, he became botanical professor at Pisa, 
where he also studied anatomy and medicine. In 
1592 he went to Rome as physician to Pope 
Clement VIII., and died there in 1603. He 
published Speculum Artis JMedicce, lie Plant is, 
libri XVI. (1583), l)c Metallicis (1596) and 
Qucestionum Peripateticarum, libri V. (1603). In 
the first of these he first speaks of inhibitory 
action and pulmonary circulation, though he made 
so little, if any, advance upon Galen’s teaching 
that he has no claim to be considered as antici¬ 
pating Harvey. His botanical work is far more 
important. He recognised the existence of sex in 
what we now term dioecious plants, such as the 
date, yew, nettle, and hemp; and not only 
described some 800 plants, but made such sugges¬ 
tions as to their classification as to be styled by 
Linnaeus “ primus rents systematical He divided 
them first into trees and herbs, and then subdivided 
them naturally, i.e. by various characters, espe¬ 
cially by the number of chambers to the fruit, 
whether it is superior or inferior, the number, etc., 
of the seeds and the position of the radicle and coty¬ 
ledons. His herbarium is preserved at Florence. 

Caesar, the name of a family of the Julian gens, 
which claimed, as Virgil tells us, to be descended 
from lulus, the son of ^Eneas. Although not strictly 
appertaining to the emperors later than Nero, it was 
adopted as part of the imperial title, and from the 
time of Hadrian became the distinctive title both 
in the Eastern and Western empires of the heir- 
apparent. The title still exists in the names of the 
Czar of Russia, the German Kaiser, and the British 
Kaiser-i-Hind. 

Caesar, Caius Julius (100 b.c.-44 b.c.), general, 
triumvir and dictator of Rome, and man of letters. 
The son of a praetor, his connection by marriage 
made him espouse the cause of democracy, and he 
lived chiefly abroad till 74 b.c., when he became a 
leading spirit in the democratic party. After filling- 
many important state offices, he formed with Crassus 
and Pompey the first Triumvirate in 60 B.c., being 
at the same time consul. He used his consulship 
chiefly to advance his friendship with Pompey, to 
whom he gave his daughter Julia in marriage ; while 
he cemented a friendship in another direction by 






Caesar. 


( 281 ) 


Caffeine. 


marrying Calpurnia, the daughter of Piso.lhe con¬ 
sul who succeeded him. The government of Gaul 
and Illyricum, to which he was appointed when 
ex-consul, gave him the opportunity of proving his 
great military genius and of training a powerful 
and devoted army, and 58 B.C. saw him enter upon 
that nine years’ career of conquest which subdued 
most of Western Europe to the Roman yoke. His 
first campaign resulted in the defeat of the Helvetia, 
and the second in the breaking-up of the Belgic 
Confederacy, for which the senate decreed a fifteen 
days’ thanksgiving. At a meeting in the interval 
with Pompey and Crassus a common policy was 
agreed upon, and it was arranged that Cmsar’s 
government of Gaul should be prolonged to 49 B.C. 
His third campaign almost finished the subjugation 
of Gaul, and in his fourth he attacked the Germans, 
crossed the Rhine, and remained eighteen days on 
the farther bank. In this year (55 B.C.) he made 
his first descent upon Britain, following it up in 52 
by another, from which he retired virtually dis¬ 
comfited. An insurrection on the part of the Gallic 
tribes was finally put down, and in 51 the conquest 
of Gaul was sufficiently complete and permanent to 
enable him to turn his attention to home affairs, 
which thenceforward engrossed his attention. Of 
his two colleagues, the one—Crassus was dead, and 
Pompey, whose wife Julia had died, had joined the 
aristocratic party. At the end of his period of 
government Cmsar was ordered to give up his com¬ 
mand, and the senate called upon Pompey to declare 
war against Csesar as an invader if he should delay 
to disband his army. In January, 49 B.C., Cmsar 
crossed the Rubicon, and thus entered on the 
third phase of his career, not more than fifteen 
months of which he spent in Rome, and which 
culminated in his murder in March, 44 B.C. He 
clicl not- march upon Rome, but made Central Italy 
his object, and pursued Pompey to Brundisium, but 
could not prevent his retreating with his army to 
Greece In March he entered Rome, the acknow¬ 
ledged master of Italy. In 48 B.C. he routed Pompey 
at the battle of Pharsalia, and he was appointed 
dictator for a year and consul for five years, and the 
tribunitian power, which rendered his person sacred, 
was bestowed upon him for life. After his stay at 
Alexandria with Cleopatra, and the defeat of a son 
of Mithridates at Pontus, and that of Scipio and 
Cato at Thapsus, he came back to Rome, and as 
dictator feasted the whole city during four days of 
triumph for Gaul, Egypt, Pontus and Africa his car 
being followed by Yercingetonx the Gaul, Arsinoe, 
the sister of Cleopatra, and the son of Juba, king 
of Mauretania. He was made preefecius morurn and 
princeps senatus , his effigy was struck upon the 
coins, and the title of imperator was made a per¬ 
manent addition to his name. He was embarking 
upon a career of usefulness and of far-seeing states¬ 
manship and political and economic reorganisation, 
when his assassination cut all his. schemes short. 
Shakespeare leads us to half-pity, half-admire 
Brutus the conspirator, but Dante, no mean lover 
of liberty, puts him along with Cassius and Judas 
Iscariot in the lowest depths of hell. As a writer, 
Cmsar’s claims are eclipsed by his greatness as a 
<mneral and a ruler, and most people perhaps loo - 


on him in this respect as did the schoolboy who 
said he was a man who wrote classics for the lower 
forms of schools. But his writings are terse and 
vigorous as becomes a soldier’s despatches ; they 
have all the vivid interest raised by an accurate ob¬ 
server and graphic describer, and recent researches 
—especially in North Belgium—have shown the 
fidelity of his narrative in many minor details. 

Cgesarea, or Kaisarieh, a former Mediter¬ 
ranean sea-port on the coast of Syria, 80 miles 
north of Joppa, named in honour of Caesar Augus¬ 
tus by its builder Herod about 22 B.C. The 
harbour was protected from the prevailing storms 
by a mole, and afforded a good anchorage. After 
the fall of Jerusalem it became the capital of 
Palestine. Eusebius, the Church historian, was 
Bishop here in the 4th century ; and the Crusaders 
built a cathedral. It is now a heap of ruins, with a 
few fishermen’s huts among them.. Another Cte- 
sarea, called also Csesarea Philippi, was situated 
near the head waters of the Jordan, and the name 
was applied to other places, including the island of 
Jersey. 

Caesarean Operation, the removal of the 
child by incision in the middle line of the abdomen 
of the mother, a procedure sometimes. attempted 
when delivery by the natural passages is rendered 
impossible (from pelvic deformity, or the encroach¬ 
ment of solid tumours), or when the mother’s 
recovery is despaired of and the child lives, and 
rapid delivery cannot be effected by any other 
means. The term is derived from the Latin ccedo- 
ccesus, I cut. Many of the supposed references to 
the operation in ancient literature are of doubtful 
authenticity, and the derivation of the name Caesar 
from it is" quite unwarranted. The risk to the 
mother in performing the operation is very great, 
but, thanks to antiseptic surgery, by no means so 
considerable as in former days. 

CEesium (Cs.; at. wt, 132-7 ; sp. gr. L88), a 
metallic element closely allied to the alkali metals 
sodium, potassium, etc. [Alkali.] It never oc¬ 
curs free, and its salts, though widely distributed, 
are only found in small quantities; amongst other 
sources, in mineral waters, saltpetre residues, ashes 
of plants—especially tobacco. It is silver white in 
colour, soft and ductile, and decomposes water very 
readily. It is best detected by the spectroscope, 
giving two fine lines in the blue. 

Ccesura (Latin, a cutting ), the division of a 
metrical foot between two words. Such divisions 
must occur in certain places, by the laws of most 
Greek and Latin metres—in the third foot in a 
hexameter, in the fourth in an iambic line. As 
an illustration, in a line from one of the Attempts 
at Classic Metres in Quantity, published many years 
ago by Lord Tennyson— 

. Hexame | ters no j worse than | daring j Germany | gave us | 

it would be a violation of classic rule if the two 
syllables which compose the third foot, - worse 
than,” were one word or part of one word. 

Caffeine, or Theine, the active constituent of 
tea and coffee, in which it occurs to the extent of 











Cagayan. 


( 282 ) 


Cagliostro. 


about 3 and 13 per cent, respectively. It was 
discovered in coffee by Runge in 1820, and in 
tea by Oudry in 1827. It has the composition 
C 8 H l0 N 4 O 2 , and is closely allied to theobromine, the 
corresponding constituent of cocoa. It forms silky 
needle-like crystals, slightly soluble in water and 
alcohol. In large doses it acts as a poison. As a 
medicine, citrate of caffeine is a powerful drug 
which must be administered with caution. It is 
a very valuable remedy in certain cases of dropsy 
and of heart disease. It is also employed as a 
stimulant, and in cases of headache, particularly 
in hemicrania or megrim. The dose is 2 to 5 grains 
for an adult. 

Cagayan, a numerous branch of the Tagala 
nation, Philippine Islands; they occupy the pro¬ 
vince of Cagayan, named from the Rio Grande de 
Cagayan, in the northern part of Luzon. Divisions: 
Ibanag, Itanes, Idayan, Gaddan, Ibano, Dedava, 
Apayas, Malaneg—total population (1889) 115,000, 
nearly all Christians. 

Cage-birds, a comprehensive term for birds 
kept in cages or aviaries for their power of song, 
or talking, or for the beauty of their plumage. The 
practice of keeping cage-birds is of high antiquity. 
Frequent references thereto occur in Oriental 
legend, notably in the Arabian Nights ; and it is 
recorded that Alexander the Great kept a parakeet 
(Palaiornis torquatus). The principal British 
cage-birds are the blackbird, blackcap, bullfinch, 
chaffinch, goldfinch, lark, linnet, nightingale, red¬ 
poll, siskin, starling, and thrush. Doves are some¬ 
times kept, but their monotonous cooing renders 
them undesirable chamber birds, and the magpie 
and jay are oftener seen caged in the country than 
in town (though at the time of writing there is a 
fine male jay in a cage outside a shop in a small 
street in London). The jackdaw and raven, though 
often kept as pets, generally enjoy too much liberty 
to come under this denomination. The most 
important foreign cage-birds are those of the parrot 
family ; then come the canary—which breeds so 
readily in domestication as to have little claim 
to be considered foreign ; the generally brilliant- 
plumaged Oriental finches, for which the Jardin 
d’Acclimatation in Paris is so famous; the cross¬ 
bill, the minah, the orioles, etc. For a description 
of all these the reader is referred to their popular 
names. Little can be said here as to the treatment 
of cage-birds. For information on this subject 
reference must be made to special treatises. It 
should, however, be borne in mind that overfeeding 
is as bad for birds as for their masters ; and that 
more pets die from too much attention than from 
too little. 

Cagliari, the capital of Sardinia, and chief 
town of the southern provinces, is situated within a 
bay formed by Capes Carbonara and Pula, of great 
commercial importance and forming a good harbour. 
It is the chief port of Sardinia, and has most of the 
export trade of the island, which consists of cork, 
corn, fruit, lead, oil, wine, and salt, which is fur¬ 
nished abundantly by evaporation from the salt 
marshes near the town. Cagliari lies on the slope 
and summit of a hill rising from the bay, the 


castle, the cathedral, the vice-regal palace, and 
most of the public buildings being on the upper 
part of the hill, while the slope is occupied by 
the Marina, with the residences of the commercial 
portion of the community. Stampace, to the west 
of the castle district, and Villanuova to the east, 
consist of narrow, irregular streets. The university, 
founded 1596, has a good library. The cathedral 
(fourteenth century) has an eighteenth century 
front; and among the many other churches and 
convents, the Capuchin monastery is interesting for 
its remains of Roman reservoirs. The town occu¬ 
pies the site of an ancient Carthaginian city, 
which after the first Punic war became Roman, 
and very many remains testify to its importance 
during this period. A Jewish colony, founded by 
Tiberius, remained there till 1492 A.D., when they 
were expelled by the Spanish. The town has been 
once bombarded by the English and once by the 
French. 

Cagliostro, Alexandre Comte de (1743- 
1795), a celebrated charlatan and quack, who 
made so great an impression upon his contem¬ 
poraries that Goethe made a journey to Palermo 
in order to study him, and embodied his observa¬ 
tions in a romance called The Grand Co pi it e; 
and Lavater also travelled to Bale to see him. 
Cagliostro’s real name was Joseph Balsamo, and, 
born of poor parents at Palermo, he became in 
youth a member of the Brotherhood of Mercy, 
and learnt something of medicine there. Expelled 
from the Order, he entered upon the career of 
magician and finder of hidden treasures. He 
began by swindling a goldsmith out of a quantity 
of gold, and he also committed some forgeries, and 
then disappeared to travel under many aliases, and 
contrived to make many dupes by his audacity, his 
pretensions, and his medical cures, real or pretended. 
Coming to Rome, he married a beautiful Roman 
woman—Lorenza Feliciani—who by her beauty and 
cleverness was of the utmost service to him in his 
undertakings. In Malta he met the sage Althotas, 
•whose disciple he became, and in 1780 we find him 
at Strasbourg, and laying claim to supernatural gifts. 
He claimed to have iived in the time of Christ, and 
to have prophesied the Crucifixion. In 1785 he 
was at Paris, where he inaugurated a system of 
Egyptian freemasonry, to which women were ad¬ 
mitted, which had for its object the physical and 
moral regeneration of its adepts. For the former 
Cagliostro promised to them the discovery of the 
primary matter and the acacia, which should be¬ 
stow perpetual youth and health. But the affair 
of the queen’s necklace caused his imprisonment in 
the Bastille. After his acquittal and liberation he 
was exiled to England, and began again his travels 
about Europe. In 1789 he was again in Rome, where 
he was condemned to death by the Inquisition, a 
sentence which was commuted into imprisonment for 
life. At the same time his wife was condemned to 
perpetual seclusion in a convent. A French writer 
says of him:—“If we strip Cagliostro of his white 
plume, his gold lace, and his glittering spangles 
.... if we take from the picture its magic frame, 
what remains ? Not a supernatural being, but a 





Cagots. 


( 283 ) 


Caillie. 


man endowed with rare moral energy, gifted with 
fascinating, irresistible eloquence, and profiting by 
a knowledge acquired by long travels, numerous j 
observations, and patient laborious study.” One 
great instrument by which Cagliostro obtained 
dupes was the generosity with which he threw 
sprats to catch whales, an instrument which some 
of us have seen largely employed recently by a 
modern —sed longo intervallo — Cagliostro. 

Cagots, a race of outcasts scattered among the 
population of S.W. France during the Middle Ages. 
Probably they were the descendants of the 
remnant of the Visigoths who escaped destruction 
by Clovis, or perhaps of the Saracens vanquished 
by Charles Martel at Tours; or they may have been 
a race with a hereditary taint of leprosy—a view 
supported by some recent inquirers. No doubt inter¬ 
marriage developed hereditary weaknesses among 
them. They were only allowed to enter a church by 
a special door, to take holy water from a special re¬ 
ceptacle, and were not even permitted to walk bare¬ 
foot, for fear they should contaminate the streets. 
The testimony of seven Cagot witnesses was counter¬ 
balanced by that of one ordinary witness ; they were 
not allowed to practise any trade save that of a 
carpenter or sawyer, and of course were prohibited 
from dwelling in towns. These disabilities lasted 
till the Revolution. Similar populations under 
different names were found in Brittany, Maine, 
Auvergne, and elsewhere, and traces are said still 
to exist in parts of the Pyrenees. 

Cahan, a Brazilian nation,' whose domain lies 
between the Miamaia, Escopil, and Igatimi rivers, 
in the province of Mato-Grosso. They are strictly 
a forest people, seeking the shelter of the thickets 
against their hereditary foes, the Gaicurus. Like 
the Pueblos Indians, they build large houses which 
accommodate many families; dress, a kind of 
cotton sack with head- and arm-holes ; arms, the 
bow and poisoned arrow; ornament, a cylinder of 
transparent rosin inserted in a hole in the lower 
lip, answering to the wooden disk worn in the same 
way by the Botocudos. Despite their savage state 
the Cahans till the forest glades, where they grow 
cotton for the national dress, besides some corn 
and edible roots. 

Cahete, a general name meaning (tense forest, 
applied collectively to several Brazilian tribes of 
the province of Parahiba, who formerly lived in 
the remote woodlands to escape the attacks of the 
Indians occupying the open plains. Most of them 
have been exterminated by the Tupinambas of 
Para and Maranhao, and the survivors have now 
become niansos, i.e. civilised, occupying fixed settle¬ 
ments in the southern districts of Parahiba. 

Cahitas, a large Mexican nation, states of 
Sonora and Sinaloa, along the east side of the Gulf 
of California between lat. 26° and 28° N., and inland 
nearly as far as the Tarahumaras. I he Cahitas, 
who ‘include the Yaquis, Tehuecos, and Mayos 
farther south, constitute one of Buschmann s four 
“ Aztec-Sonora ” groups, with speech betraying 
certain affinities to Aztec. The other three groups 
are the Cora, Tarahumara, and Tepehuana. The 


Cahitas are a mild, sociable people, very industrious, 
endowed with great intelligence, and courageous. 
Total population about 20,000, being much reduced 
by the emigration of the young men, who seek 
employment in large numbers in the towns and 
farmsteads of the neighbouring provinces. 

Cahors, a French town, capital of the department 
of the Lot, and head of arrondissement, nearly 400 
miles south of Paris and about 70 north of Toulouse. 
The town is on the south bank of the Lot, which 
makes almost an island of the hill on which Cahors 
is built. The industries of Cahors are of no great 
importance, but there is some trade in lime, walnut 
oil, truffles, wine and wool. The only monument of 
interest is the 11th or 12th century cathedral, the 
apse of which has not the same axis as the nave. 
At the university, no longer existing, founded by 
Pope John XXII., who was a native of the town, 
Cujas taught and Fenelon studied, and here were 
born the poet Claude Marot and Leon Gambetta. 

Caiapo, a fierce Brazilian nation, at one time 
powerful in the provinces of Goyaz, Sao Paulo, and 
Minas Geraes. Many still survive in the woods and 
along the banks of the rivers, especially in Goyaz, 
but are much less ferocious than formerly. A few 
have even adopted civilised ways, though all 
attempts have hitherto failed to induce the bulk of 
the nation to lead settled lives. Even the young of 
both sexes captured and brought up in the neigh¬ 
bouring towns almost invariably take to the woods 
on the first opportunity. They go naked, dwelling 
in frail habitations of foliage, and armed with the 
bow and arrow and a massive club, used both in 
battle and the chase. 

Caillaud, Frederic (1787-1869), a French 
traveller, born at Nantes. Having a taste for 
mineralogy, he came to Paris to study natural 
science, and acquiring also a taste for travelling he 
visited successively Holland, Italy, Sicily, Greece, 
and Turkey, collecting minerals and dealing in 
precious stones. In 1815 he was commissioned by 
Mehemet Ali to explore the desert east and west of 
the Nile, and discovered ancient emerald mines, 
ancient roads, temples, and other interesting 
antiquities. In 1819 he made another expedition, 
and being allowed in 1821 to accompany Ismael 
Bey, the son of Mehemet Ali, in a campaign against 
Nubia, he profited by it to make observations of 
the highest value in archeology, geography, and 
natural history. He afterwards became director of 
the museum of Nantes, and published interesting 
works both on his travels and discoveries, and on 
the life, manners, and conditions of the ancient 
races of Egypt, Nubia, and Ethiopia, accompanied 
by details of the manners and customs of the 
modern inhabitants of those countries. 

Caillie, Rene (1799-1838), a French traveller, 
born at Mauze, who, losing his parents very early, 
received no further instruction than some know¬ 
ledge of reading and writing. Coming by chance 
upon a copy of Robinson Cnnsoe, he was so canied 
away by the yearnings for adventure that at 16 
years old he set off for Rochefort with only £3 in 
iiis pocket and embarked for Senegal. He there 








Cain. 


( 284 ) 


Cairn. 


acclimatised himself, and learnt some of the native 
languages, and then without external aid, and in 
spite of the unwillingness of the French Governor of 
Senegal, and the English Governor of Sierra Leone, 
in 1824 he penetrated into Central Africa, passed 
through the country of the Foulahs and the 
Mandingoes, explored the banks of the Niger, and 
reached Timbuctoo in 1828, returning by way of 
the Sahara to Morocco. The Geographical Society 
of Paris awarded him a prize of £400, and Charles X. 
made him chevalier of the Legion of Honour. His 
notes and observations have been collected by M. 
Jomard and published in 1830 under the title 
Journal cVun Voyage a Tombouetou et a Djenne dans 
VAfrique Centrale. 

Cain, according to the Hebrew tradition, the 
eldest born of Adam and Eve, the first man, there¬ 
fore, born upon the earth. He was a cultivator of 
the land, while his younger brother Abel was a 
feeder of flocks. In a fit of jealousy, because Abel’s 
offerings were more acceptable in the sight of God 
than his own, Cain slew his brother, and when 
accused by God of the crime avowed his fault and 
went into exile. He appears, according to the 
tradition followed by Josephus, to have gone into 
a land inhabited by a different race than that 
sprung from Adam, and there to have married, and 
founded a city which he called after the name of 
his son Enoch. Later, he is said to have been 
killed while hunting by his nephew Lamech, though 
another tradition represents him as living till the 
Deluge. Mussulman tradition says that the cause 
of the dispute between Cain and Abel was jealousy, 
as they could not agree which of their sisters they 
should respectively marry. Victor Hugo has written 
some vigorous verses on the subject of Cain, and 
Byron’s drama of Cain is among the finest of his 
works. 

Cainozoic, from the Greek latinos, recent, and 
zoe, life, a term applied by John Phillips to the 
Tertiary series of rocks, or “ strata above the Chalk” 
of earlier writers, as corresponding with Palaeozoic 
(formerly Primary) and Mesozoic, or Secondary, and 
alluding to the fact that the fossils, especially the 
mollusks, in these rocks either belong to existing 
species, or have at least a modern facies. The 
prevalence of fruit-bearing plants (angiosperms) 
and of carnivorous gastropods (whelks, etc.), the 
appearance of hoofed mammals, followed by other 
orders, and the disappearance of the ammonites, 
belemnites, ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, dinosaurs, 
and pterosaurs, characteristic of the Mesozoic, are 
among the chief features of the life of the Cainozoic 
period. 

Qa Ira (it will go on), the popular song of 
the French Revolution, first known to have been 
sung in 1790 by the 200,000 Parisians who prepared 
the Champ de Mars for the fete commemorative of 
the taking of the Bastille. (The phrase itself is 
attributed to Benjamin Franklin, who, tired of being 
questioned as to the progress of the American 
Revolution, regularly gave this answer.) The music 
of the song is said to be adapted from a dance 
tune then in vogue; the authorship of the words 
was claimed by a singer named Ladre. 


Caird, Edward, brother of John Caird (q.v.), 
was born in 1835. Educated at Glasgow, he went to 
Balliol as an exhibitioner, and in 1864 was elected 
fellow and appointed tutor at Merton. In 1866 he was 
appointed professor of moral philosophy at Glasgow 
University. He has published A Critical Account 
of the Philosophy of Kant, a little book upon Hegel, 
and an examination of The Social Philosophy and 
Religion of Comte. 

Caird, John, a Scottish preacher, born (1820) 
at Greenock. He studied at Glasgow University, 
and held cures successively at Newton-on-Ayr, 
Edinburgh, Errol, and Park church, Glasgow. A 
sermon preached at Crathie, on The Religion of 
Common Life, made much impression when pub¬ 
lished, and was highly esteemed by Dean Stanley. 
In 1858 Mr. Caird published a volume of sermons, 
and in 1880 an Introduction to the Philosophy of 
Religion. He became D.D. in 1860, professor of 
divinity in 1862, and in 1873 principal of Glasgow 
University. 

Cairiri, a numerous Brazilian people, who at 
the time of the discovery occupied the whole of the 
Borborema mountains. At present they are known 
as Cairiris Velhos (“ Old Cairiris ”) or Cairiris Novos 
(“ New Cairiris ”), according to the locality and 
time when they first became known. The Velhos 
are found chiefly in the uplands, between the 
provinces of Parahiba and Pernambuco, where their 
chief settlement of Cairiri now bears the title of 
Villa do Pilar. They are generally of somewhat 
repulsive appearance, of a dirty yellow complexion, 
short, thick-set figures, black matted hair, and flat 
features. They live by the chase, and on wild 
berries, but some are now settled, growing maize 
and cotton. 

Cairn, a word of Celtic origin, literally a crag, 
a rock, a pile of stones ; but applied by anthro¬ 
pologists to any memorial or sepulchral heap 
of stones, identical with the barrow (q.v.) in all but 
the material. Frequent mention is made in the 
Hebrew Scriptures of “ heaps of stones,” and they 
seem generally to have been of the former kind. 
But when Joab slew Absalom, we read that they 
buried him in a “ great pit in the wood, and cast a 
great heap of stones upon him ” (2 Sam. xviii. 7). 
Johnson (Tour in the Western Islands) defined a cairn 
as a “ heap of stones thrown upon the grave of one 
eminent for dignity of birth or splendour of achieve¬ 
ments ; ” and no doubt this was generally the case. 
But possibly in the burial of Absalom under a cairn 
there may have been some note of hatred or con¬ 
tempt. When Ophelia received Christian burial, 
though with “maimed rites ” (Hamlet v. 1), one of 
the priests declared that 

“ For charitable prayers 
Shards, flints, and pebbles should be thrown on her.” 

This, however, is exceptional, though memorial 
cairns occasionally marked the scene of a murder 
(Heart of Midlothian, ch. xi. and note). But the 
sepulchral cairn is chiefly Celtic ; numerous ex¬ 
amples occur in Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, and 
they are far from uncommon in Cornwall. Cairns 
possessing chambers are generally assigned to the 
Stone Age ; those having cistvaens (or cists, as the 







Cairnes. 


( 285 ) 


Caithness. 


word is often written) to the Bronze Age and still 
later times. [Megalithic Structures.] The 
former are much the larger; one near Drogheda 
being more than 300 ft. in diameter, and 70 ft. 
high, with a passage 63 ft. long leading to a chamber 
with several recesses. This cairn, with two others 
close by, was plundered by the Norse pirates early 
in the 9th century. The Cornish cairns appear to 
belong to the latter class, for the Rev. S. Baring- 
Gould says that they cover “stone coffins or cistvaens 
that have been for the most part rifled by treasure- 
seekers. One has a somewhat pathetic interest, for, 
beside the large stone chest just outside the ring of 
upright stones that enclosed it is a child's cist, 
formed of four blocks of granite, 2 ft. 7 in. long, 
the covering stone removed, and the contents 
scattered to the winds.” [Stone-Circles.] Evans 
(British Barrows ) says that the very natural mode 
of interring in cists of greater or less size, and of 
different shapes, has prevailed in almost all parts 
of the Old World, where suitable stone was to be 
procured, and that a similar method has been 
observed in the grave-mounds of America. 

Cairnes, John Elliot, political economist, was 
born in 182-4 at Drogheda, Ireland. Educated at 
Trinity College, Dublin, he became Whately 
Professor in Dublin in 1856, Professor of Political 
Economy in Queen’s College, Galway, in 1859, and 
in 1886 Professor of Political Economy in University 
College, London. His writings display originality 
and independence of thought, and are written in a 
vigorous style. The chief are, Logical Method of 
Political Economy , and Some Leading Principles of 
Political Economy Newly Expounded. He died in 
1875, having resigned his position in University 
College in 1872 through ill-health. 

Cairngorm (so called from the central peak 
of the Grampian Mountains, among which it is 
found), yellowish brown rock-crystal, coloured 
by a slight trace of iron oxide. Its colour varies 
from a light wine colour to smoky, or even black 
(called Morion). It is also found in Cornwall, 
Brazil, India, and elsewhere, and is akin to the 
“ Rauchtopaz,” or smoke topaz, of which enormous 
masses have been found in Switzerland. It is much 
used in Scottish jewellery. 

Cairns, Hugh MacCalmont, Earl, lawyer and 
politician, was born in 1819 in county Down, 
Ireland. After a distinguished career at Trinity 
College, Dublin, he was in 1844 called to the bar 
at the Middle Temple, and in 1852 was elected M.P. 
for Belfast. In 1868 he became Lord Chancellor 
in Disraeli’s government, a position that he held 
again under the same premier in 1874-80. He was 
a fluent speaker and a keen debater, and outside of 
his purely professional and political duties took an 
interest in philanthropic movements. He died in 
1885. By an Act bearing his name, passed in 1858, 
the Court of Chancery was empowered to give 
damages to the party injured on a prosecution with¬ 
out court for specific performance of an agreement. 
The Supreme Court of Judicature now exercises the 
jurisdiction. 

Cairo. L The capital of Egypt, situated on the 
right bank of the Nile, about 12 miles from the apex 


of its delta. The city is built on the lower slopes of 
the rocky range of Jebel Mokattam, and is partly 
surrounded by a fortified wall. Through it run 
upwards of half-a-dozen spacious thoroughfares, 
from which ramify a labyrinth of narrow and 
crooked streets, in which the oriental nature of the 
city is still retained. It is divided into ten quarters, 
which communicate by means of gates, the various 
quarters being named from the class of their 
occupants. There are several extensive squares and 
upwards of 400 beautiful mosques, the finest being 
the mosque of Sultan Hassan. Near this, in the 
S.E. and most elevated part of the town, is the 
citadel, which contains a well 270 feet deep, and 
called Joseph’s Well, a palace built by Mehemet 
Ali, and a mosque of oriental alabaster, founded by 
the same pasha. Outside the city is a burying 
ground with tombs said to be the tombs of the 
caliphs. Among the educational institutions is the 
old Mohammedan university, with over 11,000 
students. The town is provided with gas, the 
telephone, and other modern appliances, and a good 
water supply, and being the terminus of several 
railways does a considerable trade. It has also 
numerous bazaars and markets. Its manufactures 
are confined almost to paper, rude pottery, and 
woodwork. It was occupied by the British in 1882, 
and since then has been the chief seat of British 
influence in Egypt. 2. A city of the United States, 
capital of Alexander county, Illinois, is situated 
at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. 
It is also an important railway centre, and is advan¬ 
tageously placed for trade and commerce. During 
the Civil war it was a depot for supplies, and was 
otherwise important. 

Caisson, in civil engineering, is a structure 
much employed in the foundation of the piers of 
bridges or quays in deep running water. It con¬ 
sists of a strongly built casing of woodwork or 
metal, forming an enclosure that may be floated to 
the proper position over the site of the pier, and 
sunk by careful admission of water through a sluice. 
When settled in position, the work of building up 
the foundations of the pier may be carried on 
within the caisson undisturbed by the flow of water. 
Excavation is usually effected inside by. means of 
a hollow metal column with an open-bottomed 
chamber at its base, within which the men work 
under compressed air. The caissons of the Forth 
Bridge were 70 feet in diameter, and reached a 
depth of 89 feet below the water-level. Often the 
caisson is simply filled up with concrete, with or 
without a brickwork lining. In shipbuilding, a 
caisson is a sort of hollow pontoon, which can be 
sunk under a ship, pumped out, and re-floated with 
the ship on it. The term is also applied to a case 
containing explosives, and formerly a submarine or 
subterranean mine: and to a hulk-shaped vessel 
made to fit into, and to block up, the opening of a 
dock. The caisson having been pumped dry, is 
floated into position and then filled with water, 
whereupon it settles tightly into its bed, and con¬ 
stitutes a nearly water-tight door to the dock. 

Caithness, the most northern county uf 
Scotland, covers an area of about 700 square miles. 






Cains. 


c 286 ) 


Calais. 


For the most part it is moorland and bare, except 
in the west and south, where it is mountainous. 
Along the coast it is indented with many bays, the 
chief promontories being Dunnet Head, Duncansby 
Head, and Moss Head. It is watered by numerous 
small streams, and has no lakes of any importance. 
Fishing is the principal industry pursued. Caithness 
flags are also extensively quarried and exported for 
paving purposes. The chief town and only parlia¬ 
mentary burgh in the county is Wick, which is also 
the centre of the British herring industry. 

Caius, John, physician, was bom in 1510 at 
Norwich. After studying at Cambridge he 
qualified as a doctor, and became physician 
successively to Edward VI., Queen Mary, and 
Queen Elizabeth. In 1557 he obtained a licence 
to advance Gonville Hall, Cambridge, into a college, 
which still bears his name as the founder (Gonville 
and Caius College), and endowed it with consider¬ 
able estates. Towards the end of his life he retired 
to his college, and resigning the mastership, he 
lived there as a fellow commoner. He wrote 
numerous works, erected a monument to Linacre in 
St. Paul’s, and obtained in 1563, from the College of 
Physicians, a grant to take the bodies of two 
malefactors annually for dissecting purposes. He 
died in 1573, and was buried in CaiusCollege chapel. 

Caivano, a town of South Italy, about eight 
miles north from Naples. 

Cajabamba, a town of South America, capital 
•of the Ecuador province of Chimborazo, stands 
on the plateau of Topi at an altitude of 9,480 feet 
above sea level. Formerly its site was occupied 
by Kiobamba, a town that was destroyed by an 
earthquake in 1797. 

Cajamarca, or Caxamarca, a department of 
Peru, situated between the Western Andes and 
the Amazon. Its area is about 14,200 square miles. 
The capital bears the same name, and was the 
scene of the murder of Atahualpa, the last of the 
Incas. 

Cajeput Oil, a valuable stimulant and rube¬ 
facient oil of a green colour, obtained from the 
leaves of the Myrtaceous tree, Melaleuca Leucaden- 
dron , var. minor , otherwise M. Cajeputi, by fer¬ 
mentation and distillation. It is prepared mainly 
in Celebes, Bouro, and Amboyna, and is consumed 
chiefly in India. From it is made the Spiritus 
cajeputi of the Pharinacopoeia (dose 30 to 60 
minims). 

Cajetan, Cardinal, was born in 1469 at 
Gaeta or Cajeta (whence he takes his name), Italy. 
His proper name was Thomas de Yio. Entering 
the Dominican Order while only 15 years old, he 
became General of his Order in 1508, Cardinal in 
1517, and Bishop of Gaeta in 1519. He is chiefly 
known through having been sent as legate to 
Germany to endeavour to bring back Luther to his 
former faith. He wrote a Commentary on the Bible 
and on the Summa of Aquinas. He died in 1534 at 
Rome. 

Calabar, a district on the West Coast of Africa, 
is not yet very clearly defined geographically. 
Since 1884 it has been under British protection. 


It is traversed by the rivers New and Old Calabar. 
The country is flat and the climate unhealthy. Its 
products embrace palm-oil, indiarubber, and shea 
butter. The chief towns, Duke Town and Creek 
Town, the Old Calabar, are British mission stations. 

Calabar Sean ( Physostigma renenosuvi), the 
Esere of the natives, also known as the Ordeal 
bean of Old Calabar, is a strong woody twining 
plant, with trifoliolate leaves and pendulous 
racemes of purplish flowers, closely related to the 
scarlet-runner beans, but differing in having a 
hood over the stigma, whence its name. The 
dark-brown pods are 6 inches long, and contain 
two or three kidney-shaped, blackish-brown seeds, 
each about an inch long. These are extremely 
poisonous, and are used as a test for witchcraft, 
eating them producing either death or vomit¬ 
ing. The seed contains two active alkaloids, 
Physostigmine or eserine, and calabarine. Eserine 
is largely used in ophthalmic surgery. It is rapidly 
absorbed by the conjunctiva, and has a specific 
action on the muscular fibres of the iris, producing 
contraction of the pupil. It is thus a direct 
antagonist of atropine (q.v.). At the same time it 
reduces intraocular pressure, and hence its value 
in the treatment of glaucoma. Eserine is also 
employed to lower the excitability of the spinal 
cord in certain convulsive diseases. 

Calabash, from the Spanish calabazo, a gourd, 
the common name of Crescentia Cujete, a tree 
largely grown in tropical America and the West 
Indies. Its globular fruits with a woody shell are 
used instead of pottery for basins, cups, pails, 
spoons, and even kettles. The pulp is purgative, 
and the wood, though only obtainable in narrow 
planks, is light, tough, and pliant. 

Calabria, the south-western extremity of the 
mainland of Italy, covering an area of upwards 
of 6,500 square miles. It comprises the pro¬ 
vinces Cosenza, Catanzaro, and Reggio, and in 
the centre is traversed by the Apennines, at the 
foot of which are rich valleys, yielding agricultural 
produce and a variety of fruits. Its coast is flat 
and marshy, and important only for its tunny and 
anchovy fisheries. Silkworms are also extensively 
reared, and different minerals, such as alabaster, 
marble, gypsum, iron, tin, etc., are found. In 
ancient times the name Calabria was given to the 
south-eastern peninsula of Italy, the modern 
Calabria being then Bruttium. 

Caladium, a genus of tropical aroids, with 
acrid properties, the corms and even the leaves of 
several species of which are, however, used for 
food when boiled. Several, having their arrow- 
shaped leaves variegated with white and red, are 
grown in hothouses in Britain. 

Calais, a fortified town and seaport of France, 
in the department of Pas-de-Calais, is situated on 
the Strait of Dover, which is here 21 miles in width. 
It is surrounded with forts and other defensive 
works, which are strengthened by the nature of the 
surrounding country, susceptible of being flooded 
in the event of invasion. It is regularly built, the 
houses being mainly of brick and the streets spacious 




Calamary. 


( 287 ) 


Calatrava la Viega. 


and well paved. Among its notable structures are 
the Hotel Dessin, now a museum, the church of 
Notre Dame, and the Hotel de Yille. The import¬ 
ance of the town is chiefly derived from its being 
the chief landing-place for English travellers to 
the Continent. It has also extensive harbour 
accommodation, and does a large export trade. 
Among its industries are cotton and tulle manufac¬ 
tures. It was captured by Edward III. of England 
in 1374, and held by the English till 1558, being the 
last relic of the French territory under the sway of 
the Plantagenets. 

Calamary. [Squid.] 

Calamine, zinc carbonate (ZnC0 3 ), one of the 
most important ores of zinc, occurs both in veins 
and in beds, associated with blende, smithsonite, 
galena, and other ores, at Yieu Montagne near 
Aix-la-Chapelle, in Cornwall, the Mendip Hills, 
near Matlock, at Alston Moor in Cumberland, 
Holywell in Flintshire, Leadhills in Lanarkshire, 
and elsewhere. It is a white or grey mineral, 
generally translucent and vitreous, occurring in 
earthy, incrusting, stalactitic and other massive 
forms, or crystallising in the rhombohedral system. 
It has a hardness of 5, but is brittle. Its specific 
gravity is 4 or a little more. It effervesces with 
hydrochloric acid, and is infusible by itself; but 
with sodium-carbonate on charcoal gives the 
characteristic white areola of zinc-oxide, which 
becomes green on being re-heated with cobalt- 
nitrate. It takes its name from calamus, a reed, 
from the form it assumes in smelting. Dana 
applies this name to zinc-silicate (2Zn0Si0 2 +H 2 0)j 
which in England is commonly termed Smithsonite, 
a name which he applies to this carbonate. Sili¬ 
ceous or electric calamine, which is frequently asso¬ 
ciated with the former ore, is a silicate of zinc also 
known as Hemimorphite (q.v.). 

Calamint (Calamintha officinalis ) is a strongly 
aromatic perennial herb, belonging to the order 
Labiatae and occurring commonly in a wild state 
on dry soil in England, Central and Southern 
Europe, North Africa, and West Asia. Its loose 
unilateral cymes of purplish flowers spring from 
the axils of the opposite ovate leaves. The calyx is 
tubular, with a straight tube and thirteen veins, its 
three upper sepals are well separated from the two 
lower; and the corolla has also a straight tube, an 
erect flat upper lip, and a spreading three-lobed 
lower one. The plant is used in making herb tea. 

Calamites, a genus of fossil Equisetaceas or 
horse-tails, found in the Carboniferous and Permian 
formations, generally merely as casts of the pith- 
cavity of a stem. Some species seem to have had 
a smooth surface and thick rind ; others, to have 
had thinner rind and fluted internodes, as in the 
living Equisetum. They had solid nodes and ap¬ 
parently whorls of simple leaves; but their 
sporangia are not accurately known. The stems 
of Calamites may be prostrate or erect, and some¬ 
times exceed 20 feet in height. 

Calamus, a genus of palms, comprising over 
80 species, mostly natives of Asia, though some 
occur in Australia and in Africa. They have slender 


reed-like but solid stems, seldom more than one or 
two inches in diameter, which grow to great lengths, 
clambering up among the branches of trees by 
means of the hooked prickles on the stalks of their 
pinnate leaves. The flowers are small, in branched, 
catkin-like spadices, and the fruits are covered 
with smooth downward-pointing imbricate scales. 
C. llotang, C. rudentum, C. vents, C. viminalis, and 
probably other Indian and Malayan species are 
the source of the largely-imported rattan canes, 
used for the seats of chairs, and, in their native 
countries, for cables and a variety of other purposes. 
C. montanus is twisted into suspension bridges over 
rivers in Sikkim. C. Scipionum is the thicker 
Malacca cane, imported from Singapore for walking 
sticks, and C. australis is the Loya cane, from 
Australia. 

Calamy, Edmund, Presbyterian divine, was 
born in 1600 in London. After being domestic 
chaplain to Nicholas Felton, Bishop of Ely, he was 
chosen lecturer at Bury St. Edmunds in 1626, a 
position that he resigned on the reading of the 
Booh of Sports being made compulsory. He there¬ 
after, in 1639, was appointed to the perpetual 
curacy of St. Mary Aldermanbury, London. He 
was an ardent controversialist in the religious 
disputes of his time, and was one of the principal 
writers of the celebrated treatise against episco¬ 
pacy, Smectyvmuus. His leanings were towards the 
monarchy, and during the protectorate he openly 
avowed his attachment to the Royalist cause, for 
which, on the Restoration, he was offered a bishopric, 
which, however, on conscientious grounds he refused. 
He died in 1666, after being ejected from the church 
for nonconformity, 1662. Dr. Benjamin Calamy, 
one of his sons, became a prebendary of St. Paul’s, 
and was distinguished as the author of A Discourse 
about a Scrupulous Conscience. Edmund Calamy, 
a grandson, was also a well-known figure in his 
day, and a prolific writer. 

Calas, Jean, was born in 1698, in Languedoc. 
He was a respectable tradesman in Toulouse, when 
one evening his eldest son was found dead. This son 
being a Roman Catholic, while Calas himself was a 
Protestant, a suspicion arose that the father had 
on that account murdered him. The father was 
in consequence tried and sentenced to torture and 
to be broken on the wheel. This barbarous sentence 
was carried out in 1762, and Calas’s property con¬ 
fiscated. Public attention was drawn to the affair 
by Voltaire, who was the means of procuring a 
revision of the trial. This resulted in the parlia¬ 
ment at Paris in 1765 declaring Calas and his 
family innocent. Louis NY. granted the sum of 
30,000 livres to the injured family. 

Calatayud, a Spanish town in the province of 
Saragossa, is situated on the Jalon. In the vicinity 
are mineral springs, stalactitic caverns, and the 
remains of Bilbilis, the birthplace of Martial. The 
meaning of the name of the town signifies in Arabic 
“ Job’s castle.” 

Calatrava la Viega, a ruined city of Spain, 
is situated on the Guadiana. The Order of the 
Knights of Calatrava was founded by Sancho III. 
in 1158, when it was besieged by the Moors. 






Calaveras. 


( 288 ) 


Calcite. 


Calaveras, a central county of California, 
covers an area of about 900 square miles. Among 
its chief attractions is a grove of mammoth trees. 
Its mineral deposits are also rich, comprising gold, 
copper, granite, quartz, limestone, and slate. 

Calcarea, or Calcispongije, are a group of 
sponges including those in which the skeletal 
structures are formed of carbonate of lime. There 
are two main divisions, the “ Homocoela ” and the 
“ Heteroccela.” In the former there is a large 
central digestive or gastric cavity, the whole of 
which is lined with the “ collared cells ” which are 
so characteristic of the sponges (q.v.); while in the 
latter these cells occur only as the lining of certain 
special cavities or “ ampullse.” The Ascones are the 
most typical sponges of the former class, while 
Homoderma and its allies form a transition to the 
Heterocoela, as, in addition to the central gastric 
cavity, there are series of radial tubes. Among the 
Heterocoela the Sycones and Leucones are the most 
typical groups. They also include the Teiclionece , in 
which the sponges are flat and leaf-like, and the 
small pores all open on the one side and the larger 
oscula all open on the other. The spicules of the 
calcareous sponges are very rarely found fossil. 

Calcareous, a term applied to substances con¬ 
taining lime as a prominent constituent, e.g. cal¬ 
careous rocks, as the different varieties of limestones. 
Calcareous waters are those in which a consider¬ 
able quantity of carbonate or sulphate of lime is 
present. 

Calcareous Springs occur mostly in lime¬ 
stone districts, especially along the outcrop of the 
junction of the limestone with underlying imperme¬ 
able beds. The w T ater, even if only slightly im¬ 
pregnated with the soluble calcium-bicarbonate 
(CaC o 0 5 ), on coming to the surface parts with some 
of its carbon-dioxide (C0 2 ), and consequently 
calcium-carbonate (CaC0 3 ), which is insoluble in 
pure water, is precipitated. This parting with 
carbon-dioxide may sometimes arise merely from 
evaporation; but it seems mostly due to the action 
of living green aquatic plants, such as Chara, 
mosses, and such flowering-plants as llanunculi 
and Potamogeton, which take in and decompose 
this gas. The limestone is accordingly deposited 
upon the plants, and the springs, though in truth 
merely encrusting, are popularly called “ petrifying.” 
The precipitated limestone, known as calc-tuff, 
calc-sinter, or travertine (q.v.), may form a 
compact building-stone, and sometimes accumu¬ 
lates with great rapidity, as at San Filippo in 
Tuscany, where deposits three feet thick are formed 
in a year. 

Calceola, a genus of corals from the Devonian 
rocks of Europe and America. Its position was not 
well known until recently, as owing to the 
possession of an operculum it was regarded as one of 
the Brachiopoda. Several genera of operculate 
corals, however, are now known. It is most com¬ 
mon in the limestone of the Eifel in Germany, but 
is found in Devonshire. 

Calceolaria, from a Latin word signifying a 
shoemaker, the name of a genus of Scrophvlariacece 


which are favourites in gardens from their showy 
two-pouched flowers, bearing a faint resemblance 
to a shoe. They are herbaceous or shrubby, 
with simple leaves in pairs or threes, often viscid 
or hairy, two stamens, and a yellow, white, or 
purple corolla. The genus is wild in South 
America to the west of the Andes, occurring at 
an altitude of 11,000 feet near Quito, in the South, 
and in the Falkland Islands. Many beautiful 
hybrid forms have been raised in cultivation. 

Calchaqui, a South American people widely 
dispersed over the northern provinces of the 
Argentine republic, but now much mixed with 
the Spanish populations. After sustaining an 
almost continual warfare for 120 years against 
the Spaniards, they were at last reduced in 1670, 
when large numbers were massacred. They 
occupied the extensive basin of the Rio Juramento, 
which from them is often called the Calchique 
Valley. The surrounding settlements of Cafayate, 
Tinogasta, Tolombon, and Fiambala are also 
named from now extinct Calchiqui tribes. 

Calchas, in Greek mythology, a seer who fore¬ 
told the length of the siege of Troy, and ordered 
the sacrifice of Iphigenia to stay the adverse winds 
that were detaining the Greek fleet at Aulis. 

Calciferous Sandstone, the Scottish re¬ 
presentative of the lower portion of the Lower 
Carboniferous rocks, being contemporaneous with 
the Tuedian and the lower portion of the Carboni¬ 
ferous Limestone of England. It is divided into 
two groups, the lower or Red Sandstone group, 
and the upper or Cement-stone group. The former 
passes downwards into Old Red Sandstone, and in 
Ayrshire contains Old Red Sandstone species of 
fish with intercalated limestone bands containing 
Carboniferous Limestone corals. It is succeeded 
by extensive sheets of volcanic rocks (porphyrites 
and tuffs), in places 1,500 feet thick, with plant- 
bearing shales, extending from Arran and Bute to 
the mouth of the Forth, and from the Campsie 
Fells to Berwick and Liddesdale. The Cement- 
stone group, in the basin of the Firth of‘Forth, 
contains excellent building sandstone, used in 
Edinburgh, cement-stone or clayey limestone, 
clay-ironstone, coal, and valuable bituminous 
shales. The Burdie-House limestone, made \ip of 
the minute “shells” of the ostracod crustacean 
Leperditia Olieni, var. Scoto-Burdigalensis , but 
containing abundant fish-remains, belongs to this 
series. It also contains many and varied masses 
of lava, chiefly basalt, felsite, and porpliyrite, and 
several varieties of tuff. 

Calcination originally signified the heating of 
a metal or compound in order to produce a metallic 
oxide. It is now employed to denote not only this 
process, but also any heating in suitable furnaces 
which effects the expulsion of some constituents of 
the substance heated. In the case of ores the 
calcination is generally for the purpose of expelling 
sulphur, water, or carbonic acid. 

Calcite, from the Latin calx , lime, the chief 
mineral form of calcium carbonate (CaC0 3 ), which 
substance being dimorphous also crystallises in the 






Calcium. 


( 289 ) 


Calculus. 


prismatic system, and is then known as aragonite 
(q.v.). .Calcite occurs in several hundred distinct 
crystalline forms belonging to the rhombohedral 
or hexagonal system, of which the chief are the 
scalenohedron or dog-tootli spar and the obtuse 
rhombohedron, the primary form which can be 
obtained from all the others by cleavage. It also 
occurs in stalactites, stalagmites, and other massive 
forms. When pure it is transparent, colourless, 
and vitreous, with a specific gravity of 2 - 7, and a 
hardness which is 3 in the scale. ‘ This form is 
known, from the source of the finest crystals, as 
Iceland spar; or, from the exceptionally wide 
divergence of the ordinary and extraordinary rays 
of transmitted light, as doubly-refracting spar. It 
is used as a polariser in the Nicol’s prism (q.v.). 
Calcite is frequently tinted red, yellow, brown, or 
grey from the presence of impurities, Fontainebleau 
limestone being a variety crystallising in rhombo- 
liedra, but opaque from the inclosure of 65 per cent, 
of sand. Almost all the forms yield a white streak. 
Before the blowpipe calcite is reduced to quick¬ 
lime (CaO), and glows intensely, the carbon- 
dioxide being driven off. Even with dilute acids, 
such as ordinary vinegar, it effervesces freely from 
the escape of the same gas. Limestones, many of 
which are made up of animal remains, are merely 
impure massive forms of calcite. When earthy 
they are known as chalk (q.v.) ; when in small 
rounded concentric granules, as oolite (q.v.) ; wdien 
capable of taking a polish, as marble (q.v.). Many 
of these latter forms are entirely made up of small 
crystals, and are then termed saccharoid marble. 
Limestones are largely burnt into quick-lime, 
and impure varieties that contain clay furnish 
what is termed “ hydraulic cement ” which sets 
under water, and are therefore known as cement- 
stone. 

Calcium (Ca; atomic weight, 39'9), a metallic 
element, which, although its compounds are very 
numerous, abundant, and widely distributed, is 
only obtained by difficult chemical processes. 
When prepared it is a yellowish metal of specific 
gravity l - 58, very ductile, decomposing water 
rapidly, and readily tarnishing by exposure to air. 
It closely resembles barium and strontium (q.v.) in 
its properties. [Alkaline Earths.] Many of its 
compounds are very important in the manufactures 
and arts. Its oxide CaO is lime, and is obtained by 
heating the carbonate CaC0 3 , which forms the 
different varieties of limestone, chalk, and marble. 
Lime unites with water to form a hydroxide 
Ca(OH) 2 , which is then known as “slaked lime.” 
Bleaching powder (q.v.) is a compound of calcium 
with oxygen and chlorine. Its fluoride CaF 2 occurs 
native as Fluor spar (q.v.), and occurs associated 
with other elements in tourmaline and other 
minerals. The sulphate CaS0 4 forms the mineral 
anhydrite (q.v.), and united with waiter constitutes 
selenite, gypsum, and alabaster (q.v.). From these, 
by heating, “plaster of Paris” is obtained. Its 
silicate, CaSi0 3 , is a prominent component of glass, 
and occurs native as wollastonite. The phosphate, 
Ca 3 P 2 0 8 , is the principal mineral constituent of bone, 
and occurs also as the mineral apatite. The 

43 


sulphide, CaS, from its power of shining in the dark, 
is known as Canton’s phosphorus. 

Calculating Machines are those designed 
to perform automatically certain mathematical 
processes such as addition, subtraction, multiplica¬ 
tion, or division. The earliest known is that of 
Pascal, invented in 1642, and capable of performing 
addition and subtraction. Since that time many 
such machines have been designed, as a general 
rule cumbrous, complicated, and liable to derange¬ 
ment. Thomas’s machine of 1850, modified in 1883 
by Edmondson, gives very satisfactory results, 
performing multiplication and division of large 
numbers with great facility and accuracy by the 
mere turning of a handle. One turn of the handle 
wffien the instrument is arranged for the multiplica¬ 
tion of a number, exposes that number to view, 
each digit on a small dial. A second turn exposes 
the number multiplied by 2, and so on for further 
turns. In fact, one turn is necessary for each unit 
in each digit of the multiplier: thus to multiply 
any number by 621, nine turns are necessary. For 
division, which process is simply the reverse of the 
additive process of multiplication, a turn of the 
handle is required for each unit in each digit of 
the quotient. It is equally easy to perform with 
decimals. The noise created by working the 
instrument is rather tiresome, but there is no 
doubt of its utility in many cases of tedious arith¬ 
metical calculation. Babbage’s famous machine, 
the actual outcome of the theoretical design of 
which is now preserved in the South Kensington 
Museum, was intended to effect calculations of very 
great complexity, but failed. [Slide-rule.] 

Calculus. Concretions of solid matter some¬ 
times develop within the body ; some constituent 
part of a secretory or excretory fluid, whether from 
being present in undue quantity, or from some other 
cause, fails to be eliminated in the dissolved con¬ 
dition, and gradually accumulating in the solid 
form constitutes a calculus or stone. Thus the 
ducts of the salivary glands may be blocked by a 
salivary calculus, concretions may form in the 
gall bladder constituting biliary calculi or gall 
stones, and last, but by no means least, a urinary 
calculus may develop either in the kidney or in the 
bladder. 

Urinary calculi may be composed of several 
different substances. The stone may be originally 
developed in the bladder, and in that case is usually 
composed of triple phosphate (ammonio-magnesian 
phosphate), layers of which substance are deposited 
as the result of alkaline fermentation in the urine. 
Or the stone may in the first place form in the 
kidney, and subsequently descend into the bladder ; 
such calculi are usually made up of uric acid (or 
urates) or oxalate of lime. The two last-named 
substances are rendered insoluble by undue acidity 
of the urine, while triple phosphate is deposited, as 
already indicated, as a consequence of undue alka¬ 
linity. It is thus easy to understand how it comes 
about that a urinary calculus so often consists of 
superimposed layers of differing chemical composi¬ 
tion. The nucleus of the stone consists, for example, 
of uric acid, formed in the kidney as the result of 






Calculus. 


( 290 ) 


Calcutta. 


undue acidity of urine; after a time the calculus 
passes down the ureter and reaches the bladder, 
there it sets up inflammation (cystitis), and, as a 
consequence of this, the bladder contents become 
alkaline. This changed reaction causes deposition 
of phosphates which accumulate, forming a layer 
external to the nucleus of the stone, and thus what 
is called an “ alternating calculus ” is produced. 
Urinary calculi may be formed in rare instances 
of other substances, e.g. cystin, xanthin, carbonate 
of lime. The causation of stone in the bladder is 
enveloped in considerable mystery. The deposit of 
layers of mixed phosphates, consequent upon the 
inflammation in cystitis, is, of course, well under¬ 
stood, but it is by no means so clear why the uric 
acid and oxalate of lime calculi are formed. Stone 
in the bladder is more common in men than in 
women, and more usually met with at the extremes 
of life than in people of middle age. It is cer¬ 
tainly associated with locality; in parts of India, 
for example, calculus is of common occurrence. 
The symptoms are pain, increased frequency of 
micturition, and the passage of blood in the urine. 
The pain is especially felt, as a rule, at the end of 
micturition, when the wall of the bladder contracts 
upon the calculus ; in some instances but little pain 
may be experienced, particularly if the calculus be 
large. The advent of cystitis brings with it a fresh 
group of symptoms, and the kidneys themselves 
may later become involved as the result of the 
bladder mischief. The presence of a calculus 
being suspected by the surgeon, he proceeds to ex¬ 
plore the bladder by means of a sound. This in¬ 
strument is a metal rod of suitable shape, which is 
passed down the urethra, so that one end projects 
into the bladder, while the other is held between the 
surgeon’s fingers. Contact between the stone and 
the end of the sound, striking the stone as it is called, 
is the only indubitable evidence of vesical calculus. 
In the treatment of urinary calculus much has 
been thought and written on the subject of solvents. 
Practically, when a stone has once formed the only 
cure is its removal by surgical operation. Either 
the bladder is opened [Lithotomy], or the stone is 
crushed in the bladder, and the fragments washed 
out and so removed. [Lithotrity.] 

Gall stones are usually composed of cholesterin 
or of bile pigment. They occur most commonly in 
women of middle age, but their mode of origin is ill 
understood. Gall stone colic is caused, as a rule, 
by the expulsion of the calculus from the gall blad¬ 
der. The stone may reach the duodenum, and 
travelling down the intestinal canal, be removed 
from the body ; or it may set up inflammation and 
give rise to serious trouble. Gall stones are some¬ 
times removed from the gall bladder by surgical 
operation. [Cholecystotomy.] 

Calculus, Differential and Integral, two 
of the higher branches of pure mathematics, with 
very far-reaching applications in all branches of 
exact physical science. Their introduction may be 
said to date from the time of Newton. They relate 
essentially to infinitely small quantities, arid their 
ratios. Leibnitz came to certain of the facts of the 
differential calculus by the method of infinitesimals , 


i.e. by studying the small quantities themselves. 
Newton arrived at the same facts by the method of 
fiuxions , i.e. by studying the limiting values of the 
ratios of these small quantities. To exemplify 
what is meant by infinitesimals and their ratios, 
we may consider a square with side of given 
length. The area of this square depends on the 
length of the side, that is to say it is a function of 
the side, and if the length be altered the area will 
alter to a definite extent. If the side is increased 
by a very small quantity, the area will only increase 
by a very small quantity; and an infinitesimal 
change in one corresponds to an infinitesimal 
change in the other. But the small increase in 
area is seen geometrically to be a rectangle of 
length, equal to twice the length of the side of the 
square, and of width equal to the small increment 
in the side. Hence the ratio of the increment of 
the area to the increment of the side must always 
be twice the length of the side when these incre¬ 
ments are taken infinitely small. This ratio is 
known as the differential coefficient of the area of 
the square with regard to the side, and might be 
called the rate of change of area when the side is 
chosen as our independent variable quantity. So 
similarly we have the limiting ratio in the case of 
a cube with regard to its side always as three 
times the area of one face. For any function of 
any variable there is always a definite differential 
coefficient with regard to that variable, and this 
differential coefficient is known as the first derived 
function. It is in the province of the differential 
calculus to obtain such derived functions from the 
primitive, whereas the integral calculus supplies us 
with the primitive when the derived function is 
given. The latter is, therefore,' the inverse process 
of the former, and requires the recognition of a 
derived function as corresponding to a certain 
primitive. To effect this recognition considerable 
change of form is sometimes at first necessary. 
Sometimes the integral cannot be solved on account 
of its form being entirely unlike any of the standard 
derived functions, and new realms in pure mathe¬ 
matics are opened up by the study of these new 
forms. [Function, Variable.] 

Calcutta, capital of British India, in the 
province of Bengal, is situated about 80 miles from 
the sea on the east bank of the river Hooghly, a 
branch of the Ganges, and navigable up to the city 
for large vessels. On the opposite side of the river 
is the town of Howrah, connection with which is 
maintained by a pontoon bridge. The river frontage 
is about 4-| miles, and the breadth of the town about 
2 miles, the whole covering an area of nearly 8 
square miles, hemmed in between the river and the 
circular road—a spacious way that marks its limits 
on the landward side. The southern part, or 
British quarter of the city, is occupied with well- 
built brick houses, in striking contrast to the 
northern or native portion, which is for the most 
part built of mud, bamboo, and such slight materials, 
with narrow and badly-laid streets. Between the 
fashionable quarter and the river is Fort William, 
the largest fortress in India, covering 2 square 
miles, and with accommodation for io,000 men. 




Caldecott. 


( 291 ) 


Calderwood. 


Other leading features are the Maidan Esplanade, 
called the Hyde Park of India, the Strand, an 
extensive quay running along the river bank for 2 
miles, and the public edifices, among which may be 
noted the Government House, built 1799-1804 by 
the Marquis Wellesley at a cost of £1,000,000. The 
town is well supplied with filtered water from the 
Hooghly, excellently drained, lighted by gas, and 
traversed by trams. It is also abundantly supplied 
with educational institutions, among which, besides 
a university on the same pattern as the London 
University, are Bishop Wilson’s, the Presidency, 
Mohammedan, and Sanscrit colleges, and other 
developments of civilisation. From its position, 
and as the terminus of several railways and canals, 
Calcutta is the largest trade emporium in Asia. 
Its chief import is cotton, and among its exports 
the leading are opium, jute, grains, tea, raw silk, 
and gunny bags. It has also various industries, 
carried on, however, chiefly by natives in their 
houses. 

Caldecott, Randolph, artist, was born in 1846 
at Chester, and made a reputation, after removing to 
London, as a skilful worker in water-colours and a 
clever illustrator of humorous books. He made 
his first hit in 1875 by his illustration of selections 
from Washington Irving’s works under the title of 
Old Christmas. In 1877 appeared Bracebrulge 
Hall , and in 1878 the series of picture books on 
which his fame chiefly rests began with John 
Gilpin and The House that Jack Built. He also 
illustrated Mrs. Comyns Carr’s North Italian Folk, 
Mr. Blackburn’s Breton Folk, and Mrs. Ewing’s 
Baddy Darwin's Dovecote. He was a frequent con¬ 
tributor to Punch and the Graphic. His health 
giving way, he sought to recover it by change, and 
died in 1886 in Florida. 

Calder, Sir Robert, baronet, a distinguished 
British naval officer, was born on July 2nd, 1745, 
and, entering the navy, assisted, in 1762, in the 
capture of the rich register ship Hermione in the 
Mediterranean. He subsequently served in the 
West Indies as a lieutenant, and in 1780 was made 
a post captain. In 1794 he commanded the Theseus, 
74, in Lord Howe’s fleet, but was not fortunate 
enough, having been just previously dispatched 
with a convoy, to be present at the victory of the 
Glorious First of June. In 1796, in the Victory, 100, 
he became captain of the fleet to Sir John Jervis, 
and, as such, participated with honour in the battle 
off Cape St. Vincent on February 14th, 1797. For 
this service he was at once knighted, and in the 
following year he received a baronetcy. On 
February 14th, 1799, he was promoted to be rear- 
admiral, and in 1801, with part of the Channel 
fleet, was dispatched in pursuit of Rear-Admiral 
Gantheaume, who had escaped from Brest. He did 
not, however, succeed in catching him. In 1804 he 
became vice-admiral, and on July 22nd, 1805, being 
then again in command of a squadron in the 
Channel, with fifteen sail of the line under his 
orders, met a combined Franco-Spanish fleet of 
twenty sail of the line. In spite of his inferiority 
he gallantly attacked the enemy, and succeeded in 
capturing the San Rafael, 84, and the Firme , 74. 


Having been, nevertheless, blamed for not further 
pursuing his advantage, Sir Robert demanded a 
court-martial, which ultimately declared that he 
had not done his utmost to renew the engagement 
and to take or destroy every ship of the enemy.' 
This neglect was attributed to an error in judgment, 
and the vice-admiral was, in consequence, severely 
reprimanded. Public opinion, when it had had 
time to cool, recognised that the conclusion was 
not just. Calder’s victory was indeed a real victory, 
and, in the view of many, it was more important in 
its political and strategical than even in its material 
results. In the middle of 1810 this gallant officer 
became commander-in-chief at Portsmouth, and 
on July 31st of the same year he reached the rank 
of admiral. He died at his seat at Holt, near 
Bishop’s Waltham, on September 1st, 1818. 

Calderon, Philip Hermogenes, painter, was 
born in 1833 at Poitiers. After studying in London 
and Paris he became a contributor to the Royal 
Academy in 1853, his first picture being By 
Babylon's Waters. He was elected R.A. in 1867, 
exhibiting in the same year at the Paris Inter¬ 
national Exhibition, where he won the first medal 
awarded to English art. In 1887 he was appointed 
keeper of the Royal Academy. His subjects are 
mostly historical. 

Calderon de la Barca, Don Pedro, 
dramatist, was born in 1600 at Madrid. When only 
14 years of age he had written his third play. In 
1625, however, though he had received high com¬ 
mendation for his essays in poetry, he joined the 
army, serving with distinction in Milan and the 
Netherlands. In 1636 he was appointed master of 
the revels at the court of Philip IV., and in 1637 
created a Knight of the Order of Santiago. After 
a further period of military service he, in 1651, 
entered the priesthood, becoming chaplain in 1653 
in the archiepiscopal church of Toledo. In 1663 
he was appointed chaplain of honour to the king, 
and enjoyed the emoluments of other offices. 
During all these years he continued to write poems 
and plays. Among the pieces he left are 95 autos 
sacramentales, outdoor plays for the festival of 
Corpus Christi ; 200 loas, preludes ; and 100 
saynetes, farces. He died in 1681, and is now 
regarded as the greatest dramatist that Spain has 
produced. 

Calderwood, David, divine and ecclesiastical 
historian, was born in 1575, it is said, at Dalkeith. 
After studying at Edinburgh he became minister of 
Crailing, Roxburghshire, in 1604, and distinguished 
himself by his opposition to James VI.’s design of 
establishing episcopacy in Scotland. In 1617 he 
was imprisoned on a charge of contumacy and then 
banished. Withdrawing to Holland, he there 
published in 1623 his Altar of Damascus. In 1625 
he returned to Scotland, and became in 1640 
minister of Pencaitland, Haddingtonshire. He was 
one of the committee appointed in 1643 to draw up 
the Directory for Public Worship in Scotland. 
His chief work was the History of the Kirk of 
Scotland, which was published first in 1678 and 
then by the Woodrow Society in 1842-49. He died 
in 1650. 







Caldwell. 


( 292 ) 


Calendar. 


Caldwell, Sir Benjamin, a British naval officer, 
born about the year 1742, entered the navy in 1756, 
and became a lieutenant in 1760, a commander in 
1762, and a post-captain in 1765. He served in 
1781 under Admiral Kempenfelt, and in 1782 under 
Rodney in the West Indies. In command of the 
Agamemnon he took part in the actions of April 9th 
and 12th in that year. He was made rear-admiral 
in 1793, and was one of the flag officers present at 
Lord Howe’s victory of the Glorious First of June, 
1794. He afterwards commanded in the West 
Indies. In 1799 he attained the rank of admiral, 
and, having been made a G.C.B. in 1820, he died in 
the following year, being then nearly at the top of 
the flag-officers’ list. 

Caledonia, the name by which the territory 
north of the wall of Antoninus, which stretched 
between the Firths of Forth and Clyde, was known 
to the Romans; now used to designate Scotland 
in poetry. 

Caledonian Canal stretches in a north¬ 
easterly direction across Scotland from the Irish 



Sea to the North Sea. Its length is 60 miles, about, 
40 of which are occupied by natural lakes. It was 
begun in 1803 under Telford, and completed in 
1823. It cost upwards of £1,300,000. Its locks 
number twenty-seven. 

Calendar (Latin Calendce, the first day of the 
Roman month), an orderly division of time into years, 
months, and other periods in accordance with the 
phenomena attending the revolutions of the heavenly 
bodies. At a very early period a solar year of 365 
days was in use among the Egyptians. But among 
other nations the changes of the moon first suggested 
the idea of a regular division of time, and, when 
the year was introduced, it was made to consist of 
12 months of 29 or 30 days. The discrepancy 
between this lunar year and the solar year soon 
became manifest, and attempts were made to 
remedy the defect by inserting at fixed intervals 
an additional or “intercalary” month. Thus the 
Jewish year consisted of 12 months of 30 and 
29 days alternately; an additional month was 
introduced in 7 out of every 19 years, and over and 
above this one or two days were sometimes added. 
The Attic year also contained 12 months of 30 and 
29 days alternately ; it was consequently 11 \ days 
shorter than the solar year of 365 days 6 hours, and 
in 8 years the difference amounted to 90 days. 


This led to the introduction of a cycle of 8 years, 
three of which contained an intercalary month. 
But as the exact length of the solar year is 365 days 

5 hours 48 minutes 49 seconds, this cycle contained 
about 1^ hour too much. The difference was ad¬ 
justed by a new cycle of 19 years, attributed to 
Meton (432 b.c.). The earliest Roman year, the 
“ Romulian,” is said to have been divided into 10 
months, containing in all 304 days. It was super¬ 
seded during the period of the kings by a lunar 
year of 355 days. The intercalary system was 
adopted at Rome, but very inefficiently applied, till 
45 B.C., when Julius Ciesar instituted the Julian 
calendar. Adherence to this system was enforced by 
the Romans throughout their empire; it passed from 
them to the Christian states of Europe, and, except 
for the reform introduced by Pope Gregor}*, has re¬ 
mained unchanged up to the present time. Cassar 
assigned to each month the number of days which it 
still retains, and made allowance for the additional 

6 hours by adding an intercalary day at the end of 
February in every fourth year (bissextile or leap 
year). But, as in the case of the Athenian 
cycle of 8 years, the year was estimated at about 

11 mins. 11 secs, more actual length, and by 1582 
had advanced 10 days beyond its original starting 
point, the vernal equinox falling on the 11th instead 
of the 21st of March. In that year, accordingly, 
Pope Gregory XIII. enacted that the days between 
the 4th and 15th of October should be omitted, 
and what would have been the 5tli became the 
15th of the month. To prevent a repetition 
of the error, he also enacted that the first year 
of a century should be reckoned as leap-year 
once only in the course of 400 years. Thus 1700 
and 1800 were not leap years, but 2000 will be one. 
The new style was immediately adopted in Italy, 
Spain, Portugal, and the Roman Catholic portion 
of the Netherlands, and in the next two years in 
those parts of Germany and Switzerland which 
acknowledged the authority of the Pope. Religious 
prejudice retarded its acceptance by the Protestants 
of Germany, Switzerland, and the Netherlands till 
1700. England retained the old method of compu¬ 
tation until 1752, when, by an Act of Parliament 
passed in the preceding year, 11 days were omitted, 
the 3rd of September being reckoned as the 14th. 
The reform also made its way into Sweden about the 
middle of the eighteenth century. Russia and Greece 
still adhere to the old method, and the difference 
between their calendar and ours is now 12 days, 
e.g., our 28th of May is with them the 9th of June. 

The Mohammedans employ a lunar year of 354 
days, but during a cycle of 30 years they eleven 
times add a day at the end of the year, so that the 
number of days is then increased to 355. It of 
course follows from this arrangement that the 
beginning of their year does not correspond with 
any fixed point in the course of the solar year. 

During their first revolution the French adopted 
a new calendar, the use of which was decreed by 
the Convention in 1793. The year was divided into 

12 months of 30 days each, which received their 
names from the most striking aspect of Nature at 
the time of their occurrence. The first. Vindemiaire, 
began on the 22nd of September, the last day of 











Calendering. 


( 293 ) 


Calice. 


Fmctidor fell on the 16th of the same month ; there 
was thus a surplus of 5 days, which were devoted 
to the observance of great national fetes. This 
system was abolished by Napoleon on the 10th of 
Nivose. year of the Republic XIV. (December 31, 
1805). 

Calendering, a corruption of the word cylinder- 
ing, is the process of finishing textile fabrics for 
sale, imparting to them a lustre and polish, which is 
technically termed “ glaze.” Before calico or cotton 
cloth can be printed (q.v.) it has to be calendered, 
an even surface being thus produced, the irregulari¬ 
ties of the weaving and the rounded threads being 
flattened down. A calender has been compared to 
the domestic flat-iron, and the old-fashioned mangle, 
.for its work is similar. The complicated geared 
machine, however, bears no resemblance to either. 
It consists of a series of cylinders, superimposed in 
a vertical iron frame, and with the pressure regu¬ 
lated by screws and levers. These cylinders, or 
rollers, have not only to furnish pressure, but fric¬ 
tion, heat, and moisture as required. They are, 
therefore, arranged on different plans, and the 
materials of which they are made may either be 
metal, cotton, or compressed paper, which will 
not warp nor split under the alternating influences 
of heat and cold as wood will do. A “ three-bowl ” 
calender usually has its middle cylinder of metal. 
Such a machine'is used for dressing gauzes, muslins, 
and lawns, which are passed between the cylinders 
cold. In another calender one of the rollers may 
*be heated with steam, or gas, or a red-hot iron placed 
within it, the heat being necessary, for example, to 
put a finish or a glaze to paper. In silk moires the 
water surface is obtained by the medium of the 
calender. To produce imitations of leather for 
bookbinding engraved bowls are employed in com¬ 
bination with paper cylinders, the one fitting accu¬ 
rately into the other. Calendering is also resorted 
to by jute and linen manufacturers, steam laundries, 
and the makers of indiarubber, to roll their material 
into sheets. The chief centres of the industry are 
in Manchester, Glasgow, and Dundee. 

Calends, or Kalends (from a word meaning 
to call), the first day of the Roman month on 
which the feast days and unlucky days, on which 
no business might be done, were publicly pro¬ 
claimed. The dates in the latter part of the Roman 
month are reckoned backwards, counting inclu¬ 
sively from the calends of the next month: thus, 
September 20 is “the twelfth day before the 
calends of October.” The “ides” (so-called be¬ 
cause they divide the month) are on the 13th or 
15th, according to the month, the “ nones ” on the 
5th or 7th, i.e.' nine days before the ides, counting 
inclusively. Dates between the calends and nones 
are counted backwards from the nones, between 
the nones and ides backwards from the ides. As 
the Greek calendar has no calends, “to pay at 
the Greek calends v (said by Suetonius to have 
been a favourite colloquial phrase of the Emperor 
Augustus) meant not to pay at all. 

Calendula, a genus of the Compositcc belonging 
to the sub-order Tubulifiorce , and the type of the 
tribe Calendulece. It has a nearly flat common 


receptacle, two or three rows of lingulate female 
ray-florets, and male disk-florets. The genus in¬ 
cludes annual and perennial forms, mostly natives 
of the Mediterranean region, with strong-smelling 
yellow or orange flowers, and is said to derive its 
name from the fact that some species is in flower 
on the first day or calends of every month. The 
inflorescences of C. officinalis, the common garden 
Marigold, are used in homoeopathic and domestic 
medicine, and to adulterate saffron. 

Calhoun, John Caldwell, statesman, was 
born in 1782 in Abbeville co., S. Carolina. After 
graduating at Yale College in 1804, he studied law 
and began to practise in 1807 in his own neighbour¬ 
hood. Succeeding in his profession, he embarked 
upon politics, serving in the State Legislature 
during the period 1808-10, and entering Congress 
in 1811. He was Secretary for War in Monroe’s 
cabinet 1817-25, Vice-President of the Republic 
1825-31, senator in 1831 and 1845-60, and Secretary 
of State 1844-45. In 1828 he had been a candidate 
for the Presidency, and in 1831 had issued his 
Doctrine of State Rights , in which he maintained 
that the constitution was merely a treaty, and that 
any state had a right to withdraw from its 
conditions. He believed in slavery, regarding it as 
an institution that conferred blessings on all 
concerned with it. His chief work is a Treatise on 
the Nature of Government. He died in 1850 at 
Washington. 

Cali, a town of Colombia, South America, is 
situated on the western slopes of the Andes near 
the river Cauca. 

Calibration of an instrument means the de¬ 
termination of the meaning of its readings. A 
galvanometer needle may be deflected 30° by an 
electrical current passing through the instrument; 
its calibration enables us to specify what is the 
measure of this current. If the measure is ex¬ 
pressed absolutely, in amperes or other definite 
units, the calibration is called absolute. If only 
the comparison of the magnitudes of the currents 
that will produce definite effects is afforded,. the 
calibration is termed relative. It is of consider¬ 
able importance in most physical measuring in¬ 
struments. 

Calibre. The diameter of the bore of a small- 
arm or heavy gun. The calibres of the chief 
modern British firearms are as follows :— Magazine 
rife: -303 inch. Guns: 111-ton, 16-25 inch ; 67-ton, 
13-5 inch ; 45-ton, 12 inch ; 29-ton, 10 inch ; 22-ton, 
9-2 inch ; 14-ton, 8 inch ; 5-ton, 6 inch ; 40-cwt., 5 
inch ; 26-cwt., 4 inch ; 20-pounder (12 cwt.), 3-4 
inch ; 12-pr. (7 cwt.), 30 inch ; 9-pr. (6 cwt.), 3-0 
inch ; 7-pr. (3| owt.), 2-5 inch. Quick-firing guns : 
100-pr., 6 inch; 45-pr., 4-7 inch ; 9-pr., 2-6 inch ; 6- 
pr., 2-24 inch ; 3-pr., 1*85 inch ; and 1-pr., 1-46 inch. 

Calice, or Calyx, is a term used to denote 
certain cup-like portions of animals and plants. 
Thus, among Corals (q.v.) the term is applied to 
the upper part of the skeleton of a single indi¬ 
vidual ; among Crinoids the Calyx is the crown 
minus the arms. The Calyx usually contains the 
chief viscera. 








Calico Printing'. 


( 294 ) 


Calico Printing. 


Calico Printing is the art of applying 
chemicals and colours to the surfaces of textile 
fabrics in such a way that patterns of a permanent 
character are produced. As practised in Europe, 
the industry requires the exercise of the highest 
degree of chemical knowledge and mechanical 
skill, and it differs very widely from the primitive 
methods which have been adopted in the East for 
centuries, and which are there still in operation. 
In Persia and in India the manufacture of chintz 
for the European market was carried on largely 
until 1721, when a law was passed in this country 
to protect home weavers by prohibiting the wear of 
all printed calicoes whatsoever. This measure 
followed the imposition of a very heavy duty in 
1700. Calico, or cotton cloth, took its name from 
Calicut, in Malabar, and here the art was in full 
activity. Its principal secrets, as the mummy 
coverings prove, were, however, known to the 
Egyptians in the days of the Pharaohs. In India, 
carved hand blocks, one for each tint, are to this 
day employed by the handicraftsman to imprint 
the patterns, but the chief merit of Indian tissue 
stuffs has always been in the brilliancy of their 
natural dyes and not in the fineness of the printing. 
India has lost its great export trade of cotton 
manufactures, the competition of Manchester 
having been too severe, and Lancashire and 
Glasgow remain the centres of calico-printing in 
England, in both districts the art being first 
introduced in the early part of the last century. 
In Manchester it was established in 17G3-5, but 
nearly a hundred years earlier (1676), when cotton 
printing had been imported from India to Holland, 
and thence to other parts of Europe, a Frenchman 
set up the first print works close to London. 

Grey calico, or cotton cloth, has in this country 
to be prepared for ornamentation by singeing 
and bleaching. In block-printing the pattern is 
engraved upon sycamore wood, and by means of 
a “toby” it is possible, with one block, to imprint 
several colours at a single operation. The bulk of 
calico-printing in this country is done by machines. 
For the wooden blocks, engraved copper rollers or 
cylinders, 3 feet 6 inches long and 6 inches in 
diameter, are substituted. As each separate 
colour or shade in the pattern calls for its own 
cylinder, the stock of them which has to be kept by 
the manufacturers entails an immense expenditure. 
One machine may carry as many as twenty 
cylinders, but the number generally is about eight. 
These cylinders, together producing the design, do 
not print, except in some processes, in the sense 
that paper is printed with ink by stereotype. Their 
purpose generally is to convey to the cotton cloth, 
exactly where it is required, a chemical agent called 
a mordant, which, if it were not for the admixture 
of a little “ sightening ” colour, would almost be 
invisible. The mordant is an agent for fixing the 
dye which will hereafter be applied to the fabric. 
Red liquor (acetate of alumina) is one mordant, and 
black liquor (oxides of iron) another, and there 
may be a mixture of the two. Copper, lead, and tin 
furnish other mordants. Usually each mordant is 
printed on the cloth before the addition of the dye, 
but sometimes they are put on together. The 


mordants require to be thickened with white flour, 
potato starch, and other substances by which they 
are rendered soluble and converted into a dextrin 
similar to gum arabic in its properties. This pre¬ 
paration is to facilitate printing. Varying depths 
of shade are obtained by regulating the quantity of 
the mordant, and with one dye solution, and with 
different mordants, or mordants of different 
strengths, the full pattern of, say, ten colours, so 
far as the printing goes, may be completed at one 
operation in the machine, each colour or shade 
having its own cylinder and mordant box. 

A calico-printing machine consists of a large 
cushioned central drum, or bowl, and against this 
the engraved copper cylinders are pressed, an end¬ 
less blanket passing between the bowl and all the 
cylinders. Each cylinder is maintained in position 
by means of radiating mandrils, which also support 
a colour-box, in which revolves a wood cloth-covered 
roller, which takes up the mordant and distributes 
it upon the surface of the engraved copper cylinder, 
with which it is constantly in contact. The calico, 
in tension, guided by the blanket, and travelling 
with a “ back cloth,” receives the impression of all 
the cylinders in turn, as it passes between them and 
the central drum. Attached to each cylinder are 
two sharp blades of steel, one called the colour 
“ doctor,” its work being to shave off the excess of 
colour, or mordant, which is left on the engraved 
parts only; and the other, termed the “lint doctor,” 
which keeps the cylinder free of all impurities 
which may come from the cotton cloth. Obviously 
the cylinders have to be adjusted most perfectly 
to secure a satisfactory result in placing the colours 
in their proper position. 

The foregoing process of mordant printing is 
adopted in the “ madder style,” and the design then 
appears upon the cloth in feeble greys, giving 
little promise of its future richness of colour. In 
order to fix the mordant thoroughly in the fibre, the 
cotton pieces, after leaving the printing machine, 
are dried by being passed over revolving cylinders in 
a closed chamber into which a current of heated air 
is injected. They are “ aged” in a confined but large 
chamber filled with moist and warm air, whereby 
in about twenty minutes, by means of a system of 
rollers between which the cloth is “ threaded,” is 
accomplished the work which in the old days took 
four days’ hanging in the air to perform. In the 
“ ageing” the acetic acid in the mordant is in great 
part disengaged in fumes, whilst a sub-salt is fixed in 
the fibre. The calico is now slowly passed through 
a weak bath of alkaline silicate or arseniate of 
soda, mixed with a little chlorate of potash, at a 
given temperature, with the object of completing 
the decomposition of the mordants and of 
separating those portions which are not thoroughly 
combined with the cotton, so as to prevent all 
danger of their blotting unmordanted parts. The 
materials used to thicken the mordants are also 
dissolved and removed. Cow dung, exclusively, was 
used formerly instead of the chemicals, and hence 
this process is still called “ dunging.” 

The mordanted pieces are now ready for the dye 
“beck” or cistern, and the winch apparatus used 
imparts a circulating movement to the pieces. 








Calico Printing. 


( 295 


California. 


which are prevented, from becoming entangled, and 
are made to take the dye equally during the hour 
and a half or two hours they remain passing in and 
out of the liquor. The dye-liquor is heated by 
steam. After they are removed from the beck the 
pieces are well washed and boiled in order to 
“ clear ” the colours. Before this is done the 
mordanted parts which have taken up the colour 
are dull-looking, whilst the portions which should 
be white are pinkish. Soaping removes the excess 
of colour, and brightens the tints. The pieces are 
made continually to revolve in becks in one 
temperature, and are washed out, squeezed, and 
rewashed. It will now be seen how madder, or its 
derivatives, is affected differently by different 
mordants. Madder was at one time the most 
important of all dye-stuffs known to calico printers. 
It was used by the Egyptians in combination with 
alumina and iron mordants. In brilliancy and 
variety of shade and colour it stood unequalled, 
one dyeing operation sufficing to produce pinks, 
reds, purples, violets, puce, and black, all per¬ 
manent under the action of light and of soap. 
Alizarine is its chief colouring principle, and since 
1869, when a method of artificially preparing it 
from anthracene was discovered, it has been sub¬ 
stituted largely for the dye from the madder root. 
In the printing from alizarine, and from garancin, 
another preparation of madder, the process is the 
same. The colours given by alizarine are, however, 
not so “fast” as those yielded by madder. Fast 
is a term applied to those colours which resist the 
action of light, air, water, alkali, dilute acids, and 
soap solution. With the same solution of alizarine 
the alumina mordant gives red, the iron mordant 
purple, and a combination of the two chocolate. 

As the opposite of the madder style there is the 
“ padding” style, in which the whole of the surface of 
the cloth is mordanted, the pieces passing through 
a trough and between rollers. They are then dried 
and the design is sometimes obtained by dis¬ 
charging ” the colour wherever required by printing 
with citric acid or salt of potash, which has the 
effect, when the material has gone through all the 
intermediate stages and has reached the dye-beck, 
of preventing the colouring matter from adhering 
to the parts protected by the acid, and which 
thereupon show up white on a coloured ground. The 
white parts may receive other colours afterwards. 

Indigo, which is a very valuable dye, requires to 
be treated in a particular manner owing to its 
being insoluble in water. It can, however, be made 
soluble if put in water with green copperas and 
slaked lime, a process of deoxidation which 
changes the blue indigo into soluble white indigo. 
White indigo takes up oxygen with great facility, 
and thus regains its blue. The plan, therefore, is 
to dip the calico hooked on to a wooden frame into 
vats holding the soluble or white indigo, and then 
expose it to the air in order to recover the 
temporarily lost colour. The pieces are dipped 
again and again for darker shades ; and they are 
passed through “ sours,” or a solution of sulphuric 
acid, permanently to fix the indigo. Amongst other 
oxidation colours are, besides indigo, catechu, an¬ 
iline black, and some of the logwood blacks, which 


do not require a mordant but need to be developed 
and fixed by exposure to the air or by some 
oxidising agent. When a white device, or “ figure,” 
on a blue ground is desired the pattern is printed 
with a “ resist ” paste, which is removed after 
dyeing, the resist being frequently made of 
sulphate of zinc or nitrate of copper and soap, 
thickened with gum. It prevents the indigo or 
other colour from attaching itself to the parts it 
covers, and which may, if not left white, be treated 
with other colours subsequently. 

Topical colours are those which are printed upon 
the top of the cloth, and are fixed by the action of 
steam. These insoluble pigments, such as vermilion, 
cadmium, chrome yellow, ochre, umber, and the 
non-poisonous and less expensive painters’ colours, 
in the form of a fine powder, are mixed with 
albumen and then printed. The steam to which 
the pieces are afterwards exposed coagulates the 
albumen and fixes the pigments mechanically. 
Ordinary steam colours are those which are fixed 
by chemical agency. When steam colours are used 
the work in many stages is much lighter than that 
attaching to the madder style. Aniline colours 
form a very important branch of the steam depart¬ 
ment. In the steam style the colour-boxes on the 
printing machine contain not mordants merely but 
all the materials necessary to the production and 
fixing of a distinct colour or shade, so that one 
advantage is the direct printing at one operation, 
without a dyeing process to follow, and another 
advantage is the fixing of the colours in a great 
variety by the agency of steam alone. Before the 
printed calico is ready for the market a number of 
finishing processes are necessary, in order to impart 
a glossy and better appearance to the article. 

Calicut, a seaport of India in the presidency 
of Madras, is situated on the Malabar coast. It 
was formerly a Portuguese colony, but since 1792 
has been in English hands. It gives its name to 
calico, and has considerable cotton manufactures. 
It was also the first port in India visited by 
Europeans—by Covilham in 1486 and by Vasco 
da Gama in 1498. 

Calif, Caliph, or Khalif, is the title borne by 
the successors of Mohammed in temporal and 
religious affairs. 

California, one of the United States of 
America, is situated on the Pacific coast. Its 
boundaries are: N. Oregon, E. Nevada and 
Arizona, S. Mexico (Lower California), and W. 
the Pacific. It covers an area of about 160,000 
square miles, being thus one of the largest of the 
states. Its surface is singularly varied. Along the 
eastern border extends the Sierra Nevada, while 
along the coast extends the coast range. Between 
these mountain ranges is the Sacramento and San 
Joaquin valley. On the western slope of the Sierra 
Nevada is the celebrated Yosemite valley, and 
others of almost equally wonderful scenery, and 
on the eastern slope are rich mineral deposits. 
The coast-line is high and rocky, and is nowhere 
deeply indented except by the Humboldt, San 
Diego, and San Francisco bays. These provide 
California with its best harbours. The chief rivers 









California. 


( 296 ) 


Californians. 


are the Sacramento and San Joaquin, the former 
with a course of 300, and the latter of 250 
miles. It is, however, on account of its mineral 
products that California is chiefly interesting. 
These embrace rich deposits of gold, which was 
first discovered here in 1848, and led to an im¬ 
mediate inrush of settlers ; quicksilver, lead, silver, 
borax, rock-salt, marble, asphalt, copper, tin, 



antimony, cobalt, and coal. Natural gas is also 
found, and petroleum in large quantities. This 
state is equally rich in the produce of its soil. 
Agricultural produce of every kind is grown on a 
large scale, and the various fruits of the temperate 
zone flourish, as well as the orange, lemon, fig, olive, 
almond, etc. The cultivation of the vine is rapidly 
extending, and Californian wine is exported. 
Bee-keeping and wool-growing are also important 
industries. In the N. of the state are extensive 
forests of “big trees” ( Sequoia gigantea ), some of 
which tower as high as 400 feet. Its exports of 
timber, tinned meats and fruits, and many other 
commodities, are important. The capital is Sacra¬ 
mento : the most important town is San Francisco, 
the largest city on the western side of America. 
Other chief towns are Oakland, Stockton, San 
Jose, Los Angeles, Marysville, Santa Cruz, and 
San Diego. The university is at Berkeley, which 
is practically a suburb of San Francisco, and the 
Lick observatory, famed for having the largest 
telescope in the world, is at Mount" Hamilton, 50 
miles S. of San Francisco. Until 1847 California 
was Mexican territory, when it was ceded to the 
United States, and in 1850 admitted to the Union. 
The state senate comprises forty, and the assembly 
eighty members, and it is represented in Congress 
by six deputies. There are upwards of fifty counties 
in the state. Lower California, a peninsula on 
the Pacific coast of America, is Mexican territory, 
and is separated from the mainland by the Gulf of 
California, covering an area of over 60,000 square 
miles. Its surface is for the most part mountainous 
and somewhat dry. It is reputed to possess mineral 
resources not yet developed, its chief industries 


being the whale and pearl fisheries. The capital is 
La Paz, situated on an inlet of the gulf. 

California, Gulf of, an inlet of the Pacific 
Ocean, on the W. coast of America, divides the 
peninsula of Lower California from the mainland. 
Its length is 700 miles, its width from 40 to 60 
miles. 

Californians. The aborigines of California 
form a distinct group of North American Indians, 
who, despite their favourable environment, occupy 
an extremely low position in the social scale. Con¬ 
tinually encroached upon by the irresistible wave 
of white immigration, especially since the rush to 
the gold mines, they have been everywhere driven 
from the plains to the more inaccessible uplands, 
and even here they numbered not more than 7,000 
altogether in 1890. With few exceptions they are 
an indolent, degraded race, broken up into innu¬ 
merable tribes, or rather family groups, with no 
sense of national spirit, such as has been so highly 
developed amongst the Dacotahs and other prairie 
Indians. They speak a multiplicity of idioms, 
whose mutual relations are very difficult to estab¬ 
lish, but which possess great philological interest, 
as showing the various stages of polysynthesis in 
actual development. These languages have been 
classed in three distinct groups, with several sub¬ 
divisions, as under :—1 . Klamath (Lutuami, Yacons, 
Modocs, Shastas, Eurocs, Cahrocs and many others), 
occupying the whole of the Klamath Valley, and 
extending eastwards into Nevada; with sub¬ 
branches Pomos (“ People ”), the collective name of 
several tribes in the Potter Valley; the Ochecumne, 
and twenty-five other tribes whose names mostly 
end in u?nne, in the Sacramento Valley ; and Napa, 
who give their name to the Napa Valley, North 
California. 2. Punsieus, including Olhones, Eslenes, 
Mipacmacs, Yolos, Talluches, and many other coast 
tribes from San Francisco to and beyond Cape 
Conception, an island to Lake Tulare. 3. Cocldmi, 
Guaicuri, and Pericui, of Lower California, mostly 
extinct. Besides these, the Shoshone (Snake) 
family of Oregon, Idaho, etc., is represented in 
California by several tribes, such as the Dieguenos 
(Kizli, Netela, Kechi), about S. Diego, the Caliuil- 
los and Chemehuevi in the south-east corner ; and 
the Athabascan family by the Hoopahs of Hoopah 
Valley, including the Haynaggi, Tolewah, Siah, and 
Tahahteen. Such was, roughly speaking, the origi¬ 
nal distribution of the Californian aborigines be¬ 
fore the irruption of the white settlers. Near 
Benton, in South California, Lieutenant Wheeler 
found (1875) some rock scratchings, which seemed 
to bear some resemblance to archaic Chinese hiero¬ 
glyphics. On this and other equally fanciful 
grounds attempts have been made to connect 
the natives of California with the Chinese, Japa¬ 
nese, Malays, and other Eastern peoples. Such 
theories, though very popular, are baseless, and the 
Californians must be regarded as aborigines, in the 
same sense that all the other primitive inhabitants 
of the New World are aborigines. The most com¬ 
prehensive account of the Californian peoples will 
be found in H. H. Bancroft’s Native Maces of the 
Pacific States , 5 vols., 1875-76. 






































































Caligula. 


( 297 ) 


Caliph. 


Caligula, Caius CTesar Augustus German- 
ICUS, Roman emperor, was born in the year 12 a.d. 
at Antium, and was the youngest son of Germanicus 
and Agrippina. He was brought up partly among 
the soldiers commanded by his father on the Rhine, 
and nicknamed Caligula from the soldiers’ boots, 
caligce, he wore. Succeeding Tiberius in 37, he at 
first became popular by his generosity and the 
mildness of his rule. Soon, however, after an illness 
brought on by excesses, he became a monster of 
cruelty and lust. He carried on incestuous inter¬ 
course with his sister Drusilla, and while dining 
would have victims tortured and slain in his pre¬ 
sence. He made love to the Moon, believed himself 
to be Jove’s brother, and gave other distinct tokens 
of insanity. So unbearable did his cruelties be¬ 
come that a band of conspirators assassinated him 
in 41. 

Caliph (Arabic, successor ), the title assumed by 
those who succeeded Mohammed as spiritual and 
temporal leaders of the Saracens. The first two 
Caliphs, Abu Bekr (632), and Omar (634), were 
fathers-in-law; the second, Othman (644), and the 
third, Ali (655), sons-in-law of the prophet. Ali 
was engaged in a constant struggle with Moawia, 
governor "of Syria, who supplanted his son Hasan, 
and founded the dynasty of the Omiades (661). 
He removed the seat of government to Damascus. 
Between the death of Mohammed and the fall of 
the Omiades in 750, the Saracens established an 
empire, extending from the Atlantic to the Indus 
and the deserts of Tartary. In accordance with 
the prophet’s teaching, the Caliphs allowed the in¬ 
habitants of the countries they subdued to choose 
between the Koran , tribute, and tJiB sword ; those 
who accepted the teachings of Mohammed enjoyed 
the same privileges as the natives of Arabia; pei- 
mission to profess another creed could be purchased 
by the payment of tribute ; those who refused these 
alternatives had to fight in defence of then 
national liberty. In their fanaticism the Arabs did 
not wait till they had consolidated their dominion 
over one country before passing on to the conquest 
of another. Syria and Persia were attacked simul¬ 
taneously in 633. The forces of the Emperoi 
Heraclius were defeated by Kalid near the l h ei 
Yermuk (634) ; Damascus surrendered in the fol¬ 
lowing year ; and after the submission of Jeiusalem 
(636), & Palestine as well as Syria owned the so¬ 
vereignty of the Caliph. The presence of Omar at 
the siege of Jerusalem is worthy of remark, as the 
Caliphs seldom took an active part in then foieign 
conquests. Between 633 and 6ol the Aiabs over- 
ran the whole of the vast Persian dominions , Tez- 
digerd, the last of the Sassanides, was driven be¬ 
yond the Oxus, and finally slain by his faithless 
Turkish allies. The town of Cufa was selected by 
the Caliphs as the centre of their dominion in the 
East. Their territory in this quarter was after¬ 
wards extended by the conquest of. Transoxiana 
under the Omiad Caliph Walid I., in 705. The 
subjugation of Egypt, undertaken by Omar in 63 , 
was rendered easier through the aid of the Christian 
sect of the Copts, who were jealous of their Mel- 
chite adversaries, and eager to throw off the v oke 


of the Eastern emperors. After taking the ancient 
city of Memphis, Omar’s lieutenant, Amr, marched 
against Alexandria, which, owing to its strong 
position between the Mediterranean and the lake 
Mareotis, was able to maintain a stubborn resist¬ 
ance, and was more than once retaken by the 
Byzantine fleets. In 647 Othrnar sent an army 
across the Libyan desert which advanced almost as 
far as Carthage, but no further attempts were 
made in this direction till the reign of Moawia, 
when Okba penetrated to the Atlantic, and founded 
the city of Kairwan (south of the modern Tunis), 
as a centre from which further conquests might 
be carried on. The internal dissensions of the 
Caliphate retarded the progress of the Saracen 
arms in Africa ; some of their conquests weie 
lost, and it was not till 698 that Carthage fell into 
their hands, after a severe conflict with the forces 
of the Eastern empire. Even after this date the 
country was overrun by the Berbers, but by 709 
the Saracen dominion had been firmly established 
along the southern border of the Mediterranean. 
Meanwhile, Constantinople had been unsuccessfully 
attacked during the reign of Moawia (673); the 
attempt was repeated by Soliman and Omar II. 
(716-18), but the Saracen fleet was almost annihi¬ 
lated by the Emperor Leo the Isaurian. In 710 a 
favourable opportunity for attacking the Gothic 
kingdom of Spain was afforded by the treachery of 
Count Julian, governor of Ceuta, who was engaged 
in a conspiracy with the sons of W itiza, a preced¬ 
ing king, against his successor, Koderic. The con¬ 
quest occupied three years, at the end of which the 
Goths had been driven into the north-western 
corner of the Peninsula. The treatment to which 
the conquerors Musa and Tarik were subjected bj 
Soliman on their return to Damascus affoids a 
striking example of the policy pursued by the 
Caliphs towards their too successful lieutenants. 
The conquest of Spain was followed during the 
reign of. Hisham by that of Septimania or Langue¬ 
doc, but the threatened overthrow of the Frankish 
monarchy was averted by the victory of Chailes 
Martel at Tours in 732, and in 755 the Saracens 
were finally driven out of Spain by his son Pepin. 

In the middle of the eighth century the Arabs 
had reached the zenith of their glory as a great 
conquering power. The succeeding period is one 
of much "external magnificence, beneath which 
lurked the elements of corruption and decay. It 
opens with a division of the empiie into tvvo 
entirely separate and independent states. llie 
contests of rival candidates for the caliphate had 
hitherto been decided after a short and sharp 
struggle, but so vast an increase of territory 
rendered it impossible for a single ruler to main¬ 
tain his authority over a people divided into 
innumerable sects, each of which could put forward 
its own claimant to the seat of Mohammed. In 
750 Merwan II., the last of the Omiades, was 
defeated on the banks of the Zab by Abul Abbas, 
who represented the descendants of A mas, 
Mohammed’s uncle. He attempted to exterminate 
the rival family, but Abder Rahman, grandson ot 
Hisham, escaped to Africa, and after obtaining 
succour from the Berbers, founded in 755 the Omiu< 










Caliph. 


( 298 ) 


Callao. 


dynasty of Spain. About 7(32 Bagdad, built by 
Mansur, son of Abul Abbas, became the capital of 
the eastern caliphate. Amid the splendours of 
this city his successors gave themselves up to a 
life of luxurious refinement, and the period of the 
early Abbassides is the most glorious in the annals 
of Arabic art, philosophy, and literature. The 
lust of conquest withstood for some time the 
enervating influence of an effeminate civilisation. 
Harun al Rashid (786-809), Mamun (813-33), and 
Motasim (833-42), carried war and devastation 
through the provinces of Asia Minor, and threatened 
Constantinople. But Mamun drained the life 
blood of Mohammedanism by supporting the 
Persian sceptics who disputed the inspiration of 
the Koran. The Arabs were further outraged by 
the appointment of Persians to the command of 
armies, and high offices of state. The same line of 
policy was pursued by his successors, and it proved 
fatal to the integrity of the empire. Motasim 
instituted a bodyguard of 70,000 Turks, who under 
Wathek (842-7) and his successors obtained the 
complete control of affairs, setting up and pulling- 
down Caliphs at their will. During the remaining 
four centuries of its existence the eastern Cali¬ 
phate was a scene of ever increasing anarchy 
and confusion. It would be impossible to enu¬ 
merate all the sects and dynasties which at 
various times exercised a greater or less degree of 
sovereignty in regions nominally subject to the 
Caliph. The only method by which the ruler 
at Bagdad could hope to curb these dangerous 
adversaries was that of inviting the assistance of 
some powerful tribe on their borders, who made use 
of the opportunity to carve for themselves an 
empire out of his dominions. The Soffarides, who 
had made themselves independent in Korassan, 
were in 898 vanquished by Ismail Samana, king of 
Bokhara, who had invaded their territory at the 
request of the Caliph Motaded. The Samanades 
soon showed themselves as troublesome neighbours 
as the Soffarides had been. In order to conciliate 
the Turks, Radi (934-40) created the office of 
Emir-al-Omra, and into the hands of this minister 
he resigned all his temporal power. Even this step 
did not save him from ruin, for in 945 Bagdad was 
taken by the Buvides or Dilemites, who came from 
the neighbourhood of the Caspian. Both the Caliph 
and his vizier now lost all political influence, 
though the former was still regarded as the spiritual 
head of Islam. During the eleventh century the 
Gaznivedes spread themselves from Afghanistan 
over Persia and a portion of northern India. They 
were overthrown by the Seljuk Turks, who had in 
1055 expelled the Buvides from Bagdad. 

After the division of the empire in the eighth 
century the eastern Caliphs lost all influence in the 
Mohammedan countries bordering on the Mediter¬ 
ranean. In 823 Crete was conquered by a band of 
Andalusian pirates, who kept possession of the 
island till it was retaken by the Emperor Nikephoros 
Phokas. During the ninth century the Aglabite 
dynasty, who had established themselves at 
Kairwan, overran a great part of Italy, attacked 
Rome (846), which was saved by the energy of 
Pope Leo IV., and in 878 completed their conquest 


of Sicily by the capture of Syracuse. This line of 
Caliphs was in 909 overthrown by Obeidalla, the 
representative of a dynasty which claimed to be 
descended from Ali and Mohammed’s daughter, 
Fatima. The Fatimites or Shias fixed their 
residence at Mahadi, near Kairwan; in 970 they 
gained possession of Egypt, where they founded 
Cairo and continued to rule till they were over¬ 
thrown by Saladin in 1171. Meanwhile the vigour 
of the Macedonian Emperors Nikephoros Phokas 
(963-73) and John Tzimiskes (973-6) had enabled 
them to recover the Byzantine dominions in Asia, 
which had become split up into a number of small 
Saracen states. But they never won back Syria, 
which was held by Fatimite Caliphs till the Turks 
conquered it during the latter part of the eleventh 
century. 

The court of Cordova, the capital of the western 
Caliphate, rivalled in magnificence that of Bagdad, 
especially during the reign of Abd-er-Rahman the 
Third (912-61). The Omiades came to an end in 
1031, but the title of Caliph was retained by their 
successors, the rulers of the Moorish dynasties of 
the Almoravides and the Almohades. 

The Abbassides continued to reside at Bagdad 
till 1258, when the city was sacked by Hulaku, the 
grandson of Jenghis Khan. They then sought 
refuge in Egypt, where, under the protection of the 
Mamelukes, they retained their spiritual authority 
till 1577. Their title then passed to the Sultan of 
Constantinople. 

Calisthenics, or Callisthenics (from Greek 
words meaning beauty and strength ) a sort of gym¬ 
nastic exercises, usually performed by school-girls 
in a class, often with poles and rings, and involving 
rhythmic muscular motion. 

Calixtus, the name of three Popes. Calixtus I. 
was Bishop of Rome from 217 to 224, when he was 
martyred. He is said to have been originally a slave. 
Calixtus II., previously Guido, Archbishop of 
^ ienne, was elected pope in 1119, succeeding 
Gelasius II., who had been expelled. Calixtus III. 
was chosen in 1168 as anti-pope to Paschal III. 
The title Calixtus III. was also assumed by 
Alfonso Borgia, elected pope 1455. 

Calixtus, George, theologian, was born in 
1586 in Sleswick. In 1614 he became professor of 
theology in Helmstedt University—an appointment 
that he was in danger of losing when, at the 
religious conference of Thorn, in 1645, he was 
accused of apostacy. He wrote against celibacy, 
and advocated the amalgamation of Catholics and 
Protestants on the basis of the Apostles’ Creed, 
which he strove to show embodied facts common 
to all Christian sects. 

Calla, a genus of Orontiacece , to which the 
well-known llichardia cethiojrica, the white arum 
or trumpet lily, was formerly referred. 

Callao, the port of Lima, in Peru, is situated on 
the Pacific coast. It has good harbour accommoda¬ 
tion, the entrance to which is sheltered by the 
island of San Lorenzo. Its exports are wool, sugar, 
specie, cotton, copper, bark, hides, guano, and 








Callcott. 


-( 299 ) 


Calomel. 


nitrates. This last was diminished in 1880, when 
Chili annexed the nitrate deposits. In 1746 the 
old town was destroyed by earthquake, with loss of 
life and serious damage to shipping. 

Callcott, John Wall, composer, was born in 
1766 at Kensington. He was a pupil of Handel’s, 
and in 1806 published his Musical Grammar. He 
was particularly celebrated for his glee compo¬ 
sitions, and ranks among the most eminent in the 
British school of music. He died in 1821, near 
Bristol, while insane. Sir Augustus Wall 
Callcott, brother, was born in 1779 at Kensington. 
After entering the Royal Academy as a student, he 
devoted his attention to portrait painting, but 
became known as a landscape painter. In 1806 he 
became A.R.A., in 1810 R.A., and in 1837 was 
knighted. He died in 1844. 

Callernish, a village and district of Scotland, 
is situated on the W. coast of the island of Lewis, 
and is remarkable for its circles of standing stones. 
The chief one is 42 ft. in diameter, and is com¬ 
posed of stones from 10 ft. to 13 ft. high. The whole 
structure of which this circle is part is cruciform in 
shape, and its extreme dimensions are 408 ft. by 
130 ft. 

Callichthys, a genus of small fishes of the 
family Siluridm (q.v.), with twelve species, from the 
rivers of tropical America, flowing into the Atlantic. 
The mouth is small, with a pair of barbels, which 
are united at the base, on each side ; head covered 
with bony plates, body with similar protection in 
two rows on each side. The eggs are deposited in 
nests made of leaves, which the male and female 
guard in turn. In the hot season, when the rivers 
dry up, these fish bury themselves in the mud, and 
they are said to be able to make their way across 
the land to other water. 

Callimachus, Greek poet,' flourished about 
250 b.c., was born at Cyrene, Libya. He taught at 
Alexandria, where he became principal librarian of 
the Alexandrian Library. Though he is reported to 
have written numerous pieces, very little of his 
work is now extant, viz. about seventy epigrams 
and six hymns. He was greatly admired by the 
Roman poets Catullus, Ovid, and Propertius. 

Calling the Plaintiff. A plaintiff whose 
evidence is insufficient to establish his case can 
voluntarily withdraw from it. The crier of the 
court, on being so directed, “calls the plaintiff, and 
if neither he nor any one else appears for him, he 
is non-suited, the jurors are discharged, the action 
is at an end, and the defendant recoveis his costs. 
It is equivalent to a non-suit, and the plaintiff 
can commence another action. [Non-Suit.] 

Callionymus. [Dragonet.] 

Calliope one of the muses, who presided over 
eloquence and heroic poetry. The name means 
“ sweet-voiced.” 

Callisthenes of Olynthns, philosopher and 
historian, accompanied Alexander the Great to 
India. He incurred Alexander’s displeasure, and in 
328 b.c. was executed on a charge of treason. \ ery 


little of his writings are extant, and the History of 
the Actions of Alexander ascribed to him is believed 
to belong to a later period. 

Callistratus, orator, an Athenian, is said by 
his eloquence to have inspired Demosthenes. He 
sympathised with the Spartans, which led to his 
execution. 

Callot, Jacques, engraver, was born towards 
the end of the 16th century at Nancy. About 1612 
he became a pupil of Thomassin’s at Rome in 
drawing and engraving. At Florence he gained a 
reputation by his etchings, and was patronised by 
the Grand Duke of Tuscany. Invited later to Paris 
by Louis XIII., he executed etchings of the siege 
of Rochelle for that monarch. He designed and 
executed some 1,600 pieces during his astonishingly 
active career, among which the Miseries of If ar, a 
series of eighteen plates, and the Gypsies are 
particularly famous. He died in 1635 at Nancy. 

Calluna. [Heather, Ling.] 

Callus. [Fracture.] 

Calmet, Augustine, historical writer, was born 
in 1672, in Lorraine. In 1689 he joined the order 
of the Benedictines, becoming the head of several 
monasteries in succession. He compiled voluminous 
works, among them a Commentary on the Bible , 
Historical and Critical Dictionary of the Bible, 
History of the Bible and of the Jems, and a 
Universal History. He died in 1757 at Paris. 

Caine, an English market town in Wiltshire, 
and until 1885 a parliamentary burgh, is the centre 
of the famous Wiltshire bacon-curing industry. In 
the 10th century a meeting was held here by St. 
Dnnstan on the subject of celibacy among the 
clergy. The floor of the meeting house gave way, 
and ail St. Dunstan’s opponents were precipitated 
to the ground. 

Calomarde, Don Francisco Tadeo, Duke, 
statesman, was born in 1775 at Villel in Aragon. 
Under Ferdinand VII. he acquired a position of 
o-reat power, and favoured a reactionary policy, 
re-opening the monasteries and shutting up the 
universities. He was instrumental in reliving the 
Salic Law, whereby Christina was excluded from 
the throne. During the queen’s regency at the 
time of Ferdinand’s illness and death m 1833, he 
was suspected of intriguing with the Carlists, and 
having already excited the hatred of the nation, he 
was obliged to flee. He sought refuge in France, 
where he died in 1842 at loulouse. 

Calomel, a chloride of mercury, HgCl, which is 
found native, but is chiefly obtained by heating 
mercurous sulphate with common salt, HgJsLq -f- 
2NaCl = 2HgCl -f Na 2 S0 4 . It is a white powder 
with a slight yellowish tint, which can be easily 
sublimed ; crystallising after sublimation m prisms 
of sp. or. 7-2. It is insoluble in water, and is 
blackened bv ammonia (hence the name, halo- 
melas). When used for medicinal purposes great 
care has to be taken to completely free it from 
accompanying corrosive sublimate (q.v.). It is 
used in the manufacture of lotio nigra (black 










Calonne. 


( 300 ) 


Calovius. 


wash), and of unguentum hydrargyri subchloridi. 
It is an important ingredient of Plummer’s pill, 
and is now not infrequently administered by fumi¬ 
gation. [Baths.] Calomel is commonly used as a 
purgative, and is said to be a cholagogue. It may 
be used as a means of bringing the system under 
the influence of mercury, and was in former days 
much employed in combination with opium in the 
treatment of inflammation. 

Calonne, Charles Alexandre de. statesman, 
was born in 1734 at Douai. Studying at Paris, and 
applying himself to the practice of the law, he in 
1783 succeeded Maurepas as controller-general of 
the treasury. By his reckless administration, 
which was designed to secure the favour of the 
courtiers and men of power, he was obliged to 
increase the burdens of taxation upon the people. 
This led to a crisis, and in 1786 he advised the king 
to summon the Assembly of the Notables. The 
Assembly met in the following year, and Calonne’s 
financial statement was such that he was deprived 
of office. He retired to England until 1802, when 
Bonaparte gave him permission to return to France. 
Here at Paris he died in the same year. 

Calorescence, a term given by Tyndall to the 
change of the invisible dark heat rays into luminous 
heat rays. A beam of light may be passed through 
a solution of iodine in bisulphide of carbon, so as 
to filter off all but the dark heat rays, which will 
pass through unaltered. These maybe concentrated 
to a focus by a lens and made to incandesce a piece 
of platinum placed there. The platinum will then 
give out bright heat rays, thus effecting the trans¬ 
formation of non-luminous to luminous heat, which 
means increasing the frequency of vibration of the 
ether-waves. [Ether, Heat, Light.] 

Caloric, the name given by the old philosophers 
to the subtle, imponderable fluid that heat was sup¬ 
posed by them to be. The caloric theory that heat 
is a substance held its ground until this century. 
It stated that a hot body was one in which "a 
temporary union of the substance of the body with 
caloric had taken place, and that the more caloric 
in the body the hotter it became. To explain the 
fact that rubbing makes a body warm, it was sup¬ 
posed that such rubbing had the effect of squeezing- 
out the caloric as water from a sponge; but Count 
Kumford showed that there was no limit to the 
amount of heat that could be obtained by rubbing 
two pieces of metal together, an effect evidently in 
opposition to the caloric theory. Also Davy pointed 
out that two pieces of ice when rubbed together 
could be readily made to melt, thus actually giving 
out heat and yet possessing more than at first. The 
conclusions arrived at by these and similar experi¬ 
ments both qualitative and quantitative are that 
the heat given to a stationary body is to be 
measured by the amount of energy expended on it, 
and that heat is only a change in the form of this 
energy, probably kinetic or moving energy of the 
molecules themselves. The term caloric is still 
occasionally used in a popular sense to represent heat. 

Calorimeter, an instrument for measuring- 
quantities of heat, the name of which is a relic of 


the old caloric theory. The type of instrument 
generally employed involves the measurement of 
heat by observation of the rise in temperature of a 
known mass of water when the given amount of 
heat is presented to it. It is often difficult to make 
the correct allowance for loss by radiation or con¬ 
duction. Favre and Silberman’s calorimeter 
employs mercury instead of water, and indicates 
the amount of heat by the amount of expansion of 
the mercury. The ice-calorimeter measures the 
heat by the amount of ice it will just liquefy. 
[Heat.] 

Calottistes, or Regiment de la-Calotte, a 
club of wits in Paris during the first half of the 
eighteenth century. The story is that in 1702 
some young officers were one day ridiculing various 
noted persons, when one of the company who had 
a headache excused himself on the ground that he 
“ was wearing a cap (calotte) of lead.” “ Who has 
not some cap to turn his brain ? ” replied another, 
and on this suggestion a societ}^ was formed with 
military titles, which used to send mock commis¬ 
sions, often couched in extremely free language, to 
various distinguished people, admitting them to the 
“Regiment of the Calotte” on the ground of some 
alleged folly or eccentricity. The Regent. Louis XV., 
and Voltaire were among the recipients. The 
“ regiment ” lasted for about half a century, and then 
died out, but an imitation of it has existed at various 
times in the French army, in the shape of a kind 
of court of honour, more or less recognised by the 
authorities, among the officers of various regiments. 
The word is also used for the small skull cap worn 
by priests, and may have sometimes covered a con¬ 
temptuous allusion to the priesthood. 

Calotype Process, a photographic process by 
means of which a negative is obtained upon paper. 
It was patented by Dr. Fox Talbot in 1841. The 
process depends on the sensitiveness to light of 
silver salts. Good paper is first brushed over with a 
solution of silver nitrate (100 grains to the ounce), 
and dried. It is then floated on a solution of potas¬ 
sium iodide, by means of which silver iodide is 
formed on the paper. It is then made more sensi¬ 
tive by brushing over with, first, a saturated solu¬ 
tion of gallic acid, second, a solution of silvernitrate 
(50 grains to the ounce), with a little acetic acid 
added. The paper is then ready for exposure in a 
camera, in the same manner as ordinary plates. 
After exposure it may be left to develop in the 
dark, or the development hastened by means of the 
gallic acid and silver nitrate used in sensitising. 
It is then washed, fixed by hyposulphite of soda, 
again washed and dried. It is finally waxed, to 
make the paper translucent, when it can be used 
as a negative to produce positive prints. It is 
needless to state that all the operations of sensi¬ 
tising and development should be performed by red 
or yellow light only. 

Calovius, Abraham, Lutheran controversialist, 
was born in 1612, at Mohrungen, Prussia. He held 
various professional appointments in Germany, and 
never ceased to attack the theological doctrines 
that differed from his own orthodox Lutheran 






Caltagirone. 


( 301 ) 


Calvin. 


views. Among his chief works are, Systema Locorum 
Tlieologicorum, Biblia Illustrata, and Historia 
Syncretistica. He died in 1686 at Wittenberg. 

Caltagirone, a city of Sicily, in the province 
of Catania, is one of the wealthiest places in the 
island, and is the seat of a bishop. Its industries 
embrace pottery, terra-cotta figures, and cotton. 

Caltha, from the Greek halathos, a cup, the 
name of a small genus of marsh plants, belonging 
to the buttercup family, of which the one British 
species, C. g^l^stris, the marsh marigold, is the 
best known. They are natives of cold and tempe¬ 
rate regions, and are characterised by having 
regular, cup-shaped flowers made up of five round¬ 
ish petaloid sepals (golden-yellow in C. palustris), 
no petals, indefinite stamens, and a ring of folli¬ 
cles. The yellow perianth, with no green sepals, 
at once distinguishes them from the buttercups. 



Caltrap, Caltrop, Galtrap, or Cheval- 
trap. This last rendering (though not the most 
generally accepted form of the name) is a ready 
explanation of the term. Caltraps are by no means 
unfrequent charges in heraldry, and 
were made of iron, each with four 
points so placed that whichever way 
the instrument might lie upon the 
ground one point would be always 
erect. They were formerly used in 
warfare, and thrown in the way, to 
prevent the enemy’s cavalry pursuing an army 
on its retreat. When the point is bloody it is 
termed “ embrued at the point.” The caltraps in 
the compartment standing upon which the supporters 
of the Earl of Perth are depicted, with the motto 
“ Gang warily,” are said to be borne in commemo¬ 
ration of the defeat of the English—due in a large 
measure to the use of these weapons—at the battle 
of Bannockburn. 


CALTRAP. 


Calumba. The dried root of an African tree, 
Jateorhiza Calumba. The pharmacopoeial prepara¬ 
tions are an extract, infusion, and tincture. They 
are largely used in dyspepsia. 

Calumet, a kind of pipe used by the North 
American Indians for smoking. The bowl is 
usually made of soft red soapstone, and the stem 
is profusely ornamented with feathers and beads. 
It is used symbolically as the emblem of peace: if 
the calumet is accepted wlien offered it is a sign 
of peace, if rejected it is a sign of war. 

Calvados, a French department in Lower 
Normandy, is bounded on the N. by the English 
Channel, east by Eure, S. by Orne, and W. by 
Manche. Its surface covering an area of over 
2 000 square miles, comprises extensive plains and 
fertile valleys. Along the coast is a dangerous 
rido-e of rocks called Calvados, after the Salvador, 
one* of the vessels of the Spanish Armada wrecked 
here. From this circumstance the whole depart¬ 
ment was named. Its chief rivers are the Touques 
Orne, Dives, Seulles, Divonne, and Vire; and chief 
towns, Caen, Bayeux, Falaise, Honfleur, Lisieux, 
and Trouville. its principal products are coal, 


marble, firestone, corn, and fruit. Rich pastures 
also abound, cattle, sheep, horses, and hogs being 
reared. 

Calvaert, Denis, painter, was born in 1555 at 
Antwerp, where he studied landscape painting, 
removing subsequently to Bologna. Here he 
opened a school, among the pupils of which were 
such celebrated men as Guido and Domenichino. 


The special merit of Calvaert’s pictures is the 
power of grouping and colouring they exhibit. He 
died in 1619 at Bologna. 

Calvary, anglicised from Calvaria, the term 
used in the Vulgate to translate the Hebrew 
Golgotha, a skull, is the name applied to the scene 
of the Crucifixion, usually identified with a small 
hill on the N. side of Jerusalem. It is also used in 
Roman Catholic countries to denote an eminence 
on which three crosses—the Saviour’s and the 
thieves’—are erected in memory of the Cruci¬ 
fixion. 

Calverley, Charles Stuart, versifier, was 
born in 1833. He was the son of the Rev. Heniy 
Blaydes, who took the name of Calverley in 1852. 
He graduated at Cambridge in 1856, and was called 
to the bar in 1865, but an accident prevented him 
from following the legal profession. His fame 
mainly rests on two small volumes, Verses and 
Translations, 1862, and Fly Leaves, 1872. As a 
humorist he was unrivalled, and his translations 
from the Latin into English, and English into 
Latin, display a rare classical scholarship. He died 
in 1884. 

Calvert, George Henry, author, was born in 
1803 in Maryland. The versatility of his genius is 
shown by his works, which embrace comedies, 
essays, poems, tragedies, translations, and works 
on leading English poets, and on Goethe. 

Calvin, John, reformer, was born in 1509 at 
Noyon in Picardy. Dedicated early to the Church 
by his father, who held certain ecclesiastical offices, 
he at the age of twelve was appointed to a 
chaplaincy in the cathedral church of Noyon The 
income from this benefice enabled him to take up 
his residence in Paris, where he became the pupil 
of Mathurin Cordier. Thereafter for a while he 
studied law at the University of Orleans, where he 
was led, through Pierre Robert Olivetan, a relative 
of his own and the first translator of the Bible 
into French, to study the Scriptures. He soon 
became dissatisfied with his former religious views, 
and by 1529, having previously resigned his cure, 
he came back to Paris a decided adherent to 
Protestant doctrines, and had soon to fly tor reluge 
from the persecutions that were then raging. In 
1536 we find him at Basel, where he brought out 
the first edition of his Christiance Religionis Insti- 
tutio. In the autumn of the same year he joined 
Farel at Geneva, where the Reformation was 
established, but the strict morals he enforced led 
to a reaction, and in 1538 both he and h arel were 
expelled. Retiring to Strasburg, Calvin resumed 
his theological studies, and in 1539 married Idelette 
de Burie, the widow of a converted anabaptist. 
Recalled to Geneva in 1541, he succeeded in getting 
his plan of church government accepted, and 








Calx. 


( 302 ) 


Cambay. 


became the central authority in the city. His rigid 
rule and intolerant disposition is exemplified by 
his brutal treatment of Servetus, who, though an 
old friend of his own, was yet burnt alive by him 
on account of opinions regarding the mystery of 
the Trinity. In 1561 Calvin’s health began to break 
down, and in 1564, his influence undiminished, he 
died. In addition to the Cliristiance Religionis 
Institutio, already mentioned, his chief writings 
were :— De Necessitate Reformandce EcclesUe, In 
Novum Testamentum Commentarii , and In Librum 
Geneseos Commentarii. 

Calx, a term originally applied only to lime, but 
many metallic oxides being formed by heating ores, 
in a similar manner to the" formation of lime from 
limestone, the name was extended to any metallic 
oxide—calx of lead, etc. The term was largely 
used in this sense during the last century, but is 
now not much used in chemical or metallurgical 
literature. 

Calycanthus, a small genus of North American 
shrubs often seen in English gardens and forming 
the type of the order Calycanthacece . They have 
opposite entire leaves and purple or chocolate 
flowers in which the indefinite narrow sepals and 
petals and the stamens are arranged in a continuous 
spiral. C. Jioridus is known as Carolina Allspice, 
and C. Occidentalls is a native of Carolina. The 
aromatic bark of the former is used as a tonic in 
America. 

CalyciflorsB, a sub-class of polypetalous Dico¬ 
tyledons, named from the insertion of the petals 
and stamens round the margin of the receptacular 
tube which was erroneously termed the “ calyx- 
tube.” This insertion may be perigynous or 
epigynous according as the tube is free from, or 
adherent to, the ovary. Among the leading families 
in the sub-class are the Leguminosce, Rosacece, Saxi- 
fragacece, Crassulacece , and Umbelliferce. 

Calycophoridae, a family of the Siphonophora, 
pelagic, free-swimming, colonial Hydrozoa; the 
polymorphism of the zooids, i.e. the specialisation 
of various zooids to serve different functions, is 
carried to a very marked degree. 

Calydonian Soar, in Greek mythology, the 
name given to a monstrous boar which laid waste 
the territory of (Eneus, king of Calydon, because 
he had omitted to sacrifice to Artemis. It was 
eventually slain by Meleager, son of (Eneus. 

Calymene is one of the best known genera of 
Trilobites. It occurs especially in the Silurian 
rocks, and the species C. blumenbachi is so common 
in the Wenlock Limestone of Dudley as to be known 
as the Dudley locust. 

Calypso, in Greek mythology, was a daughter 
of Atlas, and dwelt in the island of Ogygia, on 
which Ulysses was wrecked. She threw by’her 
■charms a spell over the wily Greek, who was in¬ 
duced to remain with her. At last, after a period 
of seven years, he was enabled to tear himself away, 
Calypso herself dying of grief at his departure. 

Calyx, the outer floral envelope or whorl of the 
perianth, which is generally green and often hairy 


externally, serving mainly a protective purpose. In 
other cases it is petaloid in texture and colour, as 
in Fuchsia, especially where the corolla is absent, 
as in Daphne, Clematis, Caltlia, and Anemone. It 
then serves to attract insects to the flower. The- 
hairs may serve to exclude crawling insects which 
might steal the nectar without effecting fertilisa¬ 
tion. The leaves of the calyx, which are called 
sepals, have a broad base, simple outline, entire 
margin, and acute apex. They are usually three in 
number among Monocotyledons and five among 
Dicotyledons, and may be either distinct (polyse- 
palous) or coherent from intercalary growth below 
them ( 'gamosepalous ). If not adherent to the ovary, 
the calyx is termed inferior ; if adherent, superior. 
In symmetry it may be poly symmetric or monosym- 
metric, the most striking forms of the latter type 
being those that are spurred or calcarate, such as 
those of the larkspur, Tropceolum, and Pelargonium. 
In duration the calyx may be caducous, as in 
poppies, falling as the flower opens ; deciduous, as in 
the cherry, falling with the petals and stamens after 
fertilisation ; or persistent, remaining in the fruit 
stage. In the latter case it may be either marces- 
cent, or shrivelling, as in the gooseberry and 
medlar; or accrescent , growing larger around the 
fruit, as in the winter-cherry. 

Cam, a plate fitted on to a revolving shaft so 
that the pressure of its rim against a rod bearing 
against it may produce an alternating motion of 
the rod. The motion may be rendered complex by 
making the circumference of the cam irregular. 

^ Cam, or Granta, a river of England, rises in 
Essex, and after a course of about 40 miles joins 
the Ouse near Ely. It gives its name to the town 
of Cambridge. 

Cambacer&s, Jean Jacques Kegis de, Duke 
of Parma, was born in 1753 at Montpelier. Brought 
up as a lawyer, he received various judicial offices 
under the National Convention, whose right to 
condemn the king he denied. As president of the 
Committee of Public Safety, in 1794 he helped to 
bring about peace with Prussia and Spain. His 
moderation made him an object of suspicion to 
the advocates of extreme measures, and in 1796 he 
was obliged to withdraw from the presidency of 
the Five Hundred. After the revolution of the 18th 
Brumaire (9th November, 1799) he was appointed 
second consul, and faithfully served the interests 
of Napoleon, by whom, on the establishment of the 
empire, he was made Arch-Chancellor, and in 1808 
Duke of Parma. In 1816, for having shared in the 
execution of Louis XVI., he was banished, but in 
two years was permitted to return. His Projet de 
Code Civil formed the basis of the Code Napoleon. 
He died in 1824 in Paris. 

Cambay, or Kambay, a town of India and 
capital of the state of Cambay, is situated at the 
head of the Gulf of Cambay. Formerly it was a 
flourishing port, but the difficulties in the way of 
navigation have led to its decay. Its chief exports 
are agate, cornelian, and onyx ornaments. The 
state, which is in Guzerat, covers an area of about 
350 square miles. The gulf is shallow, and stretches 







Camberwell Beauty. 


( 303 ) 


Cambrian System. 


inwards for about 80 miles. Its tides run as high 
as 30 feet, leaving the bottom almost dry at low 
water. 

Camberwell Beauty, a rare and irregularly 
distributed British butterfly, known as Vanessa 
antiope. It is of a brownish puce colour, with a dull 
white band on the hinder margins of the wings. 

Cambium, from a Latin word meaning to 
change, is a name which was originally applied to 
all those tissues in plants which, retaining the 
protoplasm in their cells and their originally thin 
walls, are capable of undergoing cell-division and 
thus growing. These are now collectively called 
vieristem (q.v.), the term cambium being restricted 
to that ring of meristem that occurs between the 
wood (xylem) and bast (phloem) of exogenous 
stems, i.e. those of gymnosperms and dicotyledons. 
This ring is partly fascicular, or formed within the 
fibro-vascular bundles, partly interfascicular ; and 
its elements, which are often elongated, form either 
wood-cells on its inner surface or phloem-cells 
externally. The name pericanibium is applied to 
the merismatic inner layer of the cortex of roots ; 
procambium, to the elongated narrow cells that 
foreshadow the whole fibro-vascular bundle; and 
cork-cambium , to the phellogen or merismatic layer 
of cortex which forms secondary cortex or periderm. 

Cambodia, or Camboja, a French dependency 
in Indo-China, is bounded on the north by Siam, 
on the east by Anam, on the south by French 
Cochin-China, and on the west by the Gulf of Siam, 
along which it extends for 200 miles. Covering an 
area of over 30,000 square miles, its surface is for 
the most part flat, consisting of alluvial plains, 
which in the rainy season become submerged. The 
chief river is the Mekhong, and lake the Bien-Hoa. 
The principal product is rice, which is grown in 
large quantities. Cattle are also abundantly reared, 
and gold and precious stones found. Among its 
fauna are the elephant, bear, tiger, rhinoceros, 
panther, etc., and large quantities of wading birds. 
The chief town is Pnom-Penh. Cambodia is a 
kingdom of great antiquity, and its ruins show a 
greatness that it does not now possess. Its area, 
too, was formerly larger than now, but had been 
encroached on by Siamese and Anamites to such 
an extent that Cambodia became practically a 
Siamese province, until in 1864 the French re-estab¬ 
lished its freedom and took it under their own 
protection. 

Cambojans, the dominant race in the ancient 
kingdom of Camboja, Indo-China, resembling their 
Siamese and Annamese neighbours in general ap¬ 
pearance, but distinguished from all other Indo- 
Chinese peoples in several particulars, and especially 
in their language, which is neither isolating, mono¬ 
syllabic, nor spoken with tones like the Chinese, 
Siamese, and all other members of that family. Its 
affinities seem to be rather through the Cham 
with the Malayo-Polynesian, which probably spread 
from South-East Asia over the oceanic world in 
prehistoric times. It has long been cultivated and 
written in a character based on the Pali (later 
Sanscrit), introduced by the Hindu missionaries 


(both Brahman and Buddhist) nearly 2,000 years 
ago. Under these missionaries the Cambojans 
became civilised, established a powerful empire 
which at one time embraced a great part of Indo- 
China, and erected the stupendous monuments of 
Angkor Vat and other structures scattered in pro¬ 
fusion over the now deserted shores of the Great 
Lake. But this civilisation was ruined by the con¬ 
tinual encroachments of the Annamese from the 
east and the Siamese from the west, and the king¬ 
dom reduced to its present narrow limits in the 
Lower Mekhong Valley. The Cambojans themselves 
have also degenerated, and are now a feeble, 
apathetic people, with little national sentiment, and 
scarcely a memory of their former greatness. The 
name Camboja is now little used, the inhabitants 
generally calling themselves Khmer , and the country 
Klimer Sroc or Khmer JVocor. Still Kampushea, 
whence the gamboge of commerce, occurs in old 
MSS., in the royal titles at the head of official docu¬ 
ments ; it has been wrongly identified with the 
Kamboja of Sanscrit geography, which lay to the 
north-west of India; it appears to contain the same 
root as Khmer, of which the Siamese form is Kam- 
men, whence Kam-puoch, Kampush, “ People of 
Kara,” from puoch—race, people. At present the 
Cambojan nation numbers about 1,000,000, that is, 
800,000 in the kingdom of Camboja, and 200,000 
in the conterminous provinces of Siam. See E. 
Aymonier, Le Cambodge, 1876, and A. H. Keane, 
Indo-Chinese and Interoceanic Races and Lan¬ 
guages, 1882. 

Camborne, a town of England in Cornwall, 
mainly devoted to the mining of tin and copper. 

Cambrai, a fortified town of France in the 
department of the Nord, is situated on the Scheldt. 
It is the seat of an archbishop, and among its chief 
buildings are the cathedral, in which is a monument 
to Fenelon, a former archbishop; the archiepiscopal 
palace, town hall, and public library. Cambrai has 
long been celebrated for its fine linen fabrics, 
thence called cambrics. It was the Camaricum of 
the Romans, and one of the chief cities of the 
Nervii. The League of Cambrai was formed here 
in 1508, and was a pact between Louis XII. of 
France, the German Emperor Maximilian, and 
Ferdinand of Spain, joined in 1509 by Pope 
Julius II., against the republic of Venice. 

Cambria, the ancient name of Wales, is 
derived from Cymry, the branch of the Celtic race 
to which the Welsh belong. 

Cambrian System, the name applied by 
Sedgwick about 1834 to the great series of slaty 
rocks and limestones in North Wales, then believed 
to be older than the Silurian of Murchison. Sedg¬ 
wick afterwards made three divisions, Lower, 
Middle, and Upper Cambrian, the Lower being the 
Cambrian of Murchison, the Middle being the 
Primordial Silurian of Murchison, or Upper Cam¬ 
brian of more recent authors, and the LTpper being 
the Lower Silurian of Murchison or Ordovician of 
Lapworth. Recent tabulation of the species of 
fossils shows that there are three distinct faunas 
below the Old Red • Sandstone, so that the names 







Cambric. 


( 304 ) 


Cambridge University. 


Cambrian, Ordovician, and Silurian may well be 
limited by them. As thus restricted the Cambrian 
rocks of North Wales consist of purple, reddish- 
grey, and green slates, grits, sandstones, and con¬ 
glomerates, estimated at 25,000 feet thick and 
mostly unfossiliferous, though yielding altogether 
nearly 200 species belonging to 60 genera. They 
seem universally to rest, as at Bangor, unconforru- 
ablv upon older [Archjean] rocks (fragments of 
which occur as pebbles in the conglomerates) and 
are very uniform in character, slates, greywackes, 
quartzites, and conglomerates, over the whole 
world. Often ripple-marked, sun-cracked and 
false-bedded, they have been formed in shallow 
water, possibly in inland basins. They are often 
cleaved, highly inclined, or folded. The fossils, 
considering that they are the earliest undoubted 
traces of animal life, are singularly varied, com¬ 
prising sponges, cystideans, polyzoans, brachiopods, 
heteropods, pteropods, pelecypods, cephalopods, 
annelids, and ostracods, though trilobites are by 
far the most numerous. From the prevalence of 
the two genera of this group Paradox')den and 
Olenus, the Cambrian has been divided into two 
divisions, the Lower or Paracloxidian, and the 
Upper or Olenidian. The Lower Cambrian consists 
of the Harlech and Longmynd groups of Wales and 
Shropshire, with the Barmouth sandstones and 
Llanberis and Penrhyn slates, and the Menevian 
beds, named from the Roman name of St. David’s. 
The Upper Cambrian comprises the Lingula Flags, 
so named from the brachiopocl Lingula Davisii, in 
which the gold and copper ores of North Wales 
occur, and the Tremadoc slates. Igneous rocks 
are associated with them. Upper Cambrian rocks 
appear in the Malvern Hills. There is no marked 
unconformity in the Cambrian system, but a slight 
one above it. In North America Cambrian rocks 
are divided into Acadian and Potsdam, and they 
are well represented in Brittany, Normandy, the 
Ardennes, Sweden, and Bohemia, but appear to thin 
out eastward. 

Cambric (from Cambrai , where it was originally 
made), a kind of fine linen, first introduced in the 
16th century. The term is also applied to a 
coarser imitation of fine cambric. 

Cambridge. 1. A town of England, capital 
of the county of Cambridgeshire, situated on both 
sides of the Cam. Apart from its famous university 
(the beginnings of which are placed in the 12th 
century) it possesses few features of general interest. 
The streets, with some exceptions, are narrow and 
winding, and among its edifices the most interesting 
are its churches. St. Benedict’s, for instance, 
exhibits in its tower one of the finest specimens of 
Saxon architecture known as “ long and short 
work,” and the church of the Holy Sepulchre, 
built in 1101, in imitation of the church of the 
Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, is the oldest of the 
four round churches in England. Among modern 
churches, the Roman Catholic church, built in 
1887, and dedicated to “ Our Lady and the English 
Martyrs,” is a handsome building. Cambridge is an 
old town, having been the site of a Roman "station, 
Caviborituui , traces of which* still remain, and of 


the Saxon town, Grantabrygge. Its trade is 
determined by its situation in an agricultural 
district, and largely dependent upon the custom 
of the resident members of the university. 2. A 
city of the United States, in Massachusetts, is" 
a suburb of Boston, from which it is separated 
by the Charles river. Though one of the oldest 
towns in New England, having been first settled 
in 1630, it is yet well laid out with spacious 
streets and wide open spaces. Amongst its insti¬ 
tutions the most important is Harvard University, 
and it is a centre in the book-making trade in 
America. For many years it was the home of 
Longfellow. 

Cambridgeshire, an inland county of Eng¬ 
land, is about 47 miles long and 30 broad, being 
thus one of the smaller counties, and covering an 
area of 820 square miles. Its surface is for the 
most part flat, and is traversed by the Cam, Ouse, 
Nene, and Larke, its principal rivers. It is an 
agricultural county, quite nine-tenths of- its area 
being under cultivation, the rest being fen land, 
where horses, cattle, and sheep are reared. It is 
famed for its butter and cheese, and its manu¬ 
factures are entirely related to its needs as an 
agricultural district. Its chief towns are, besides 
the county town, Cambridge, Ely, Wisbech, New¬ 
market, and March. It is rich in Roman remains— 
traces of camps, villas, coins, urns, etc., having 
been discovered. It was also the scene of 
sanguinary struggles between the Danes and the 
Saxons, and the Isle of Ely withstood the Conqueror 
for eight years. 

Cambridge University. This is a society 
of students in the liberal arts and sciences incor¬ 
porated by the name of. “ The Chancellor, Masters, 
and Scholars of the University of Cambridge.” “ In 
this Commonwealth are seventeen Colleges and two 
Public Hostels.” It is controlled by statutes, the 
present having been confirmed by Queen Victoria 
in Council in the year 1882. Subject to these it has 
powers of self-government. The legislative body, 
called the Senate , consists of all persons (male) 
who have attained, at least, to the degree of Master 
of Arts or some equivalent one, and retain their 
names upon the University Register. They are 
between 6,000 and 7,000 in number. A vote of the 
Senate is called a Grace , its meeting a Congrega¬ 
tion. Members of it resident for more than fourteen 
weeks in the year within a mile and a half of Great 
St. Mary’s church, together with certain officials, 
form a body called the Electoral Roll. By this 
body a Council is elected, consisting of the chan¬ 
cellor, vice-chancellor, four heads of colleges, four 
professors, and eight other members of the Senate. 
Every Grace offered to the Senate must be pre¬ 
viously sanctioned by the Council. 

The chief officials of the University are:—A 
Chancellor , a High Steward , a Vice- Chancellor , the 
Sex Viri (a court of six members, with the 
vice-chancellor, for offenders no longer in statu 
pupillari), a Public Orator, a Librarian , a 
Registrar )/, an Assessor (to assist the vice-chan¬ 
cellor in causis forensibus'), two Proctors (who, 
among other functions, are guardians of the public 







Cambridge University. 


Cambridge University. ( 305 ) 


peace and of morals in the University), four Pro¬ 
praetors (their assistants), two Moderators (ap¬ 
pointed to conduct the mathematical examinations), 
two Esquire Bedells, attendants on the chancellor 
or vice-chancellor ; two Members, representatives of 
the University in Parliament, and sundry other 
officials. 

For purposes of giving instruction, Professors 
are appointed (generally by the University) in 
various branches of learning, with subordinate 
teachers, designated Readers, Lecturers, etc. For 
the management of different departments, the 
discussion of propositions, and the like, committees, 
called Syndicates, and boards are appointed by the 
Senate ; but these must refer all matters of impor¬ 
tance to it for sanction. Almost all the members of 
the Senate and of the junior students of the 
University (persons in statu pupillari) belong to 
colleges, but some of the latter are members either 
of hostels or simply of the University. The 
undergraduates (students preparing for a degree) 
number nearly 3,000, about nine-tenths being 
members of colleges. 

Each college is a corporation in itself, governed 
by statutes sanctioned by the Crown, capable, like 
the University, of holding landed and other 
property. Its revenues, after the payment of all 
necessary expenses (including contributions to the 
University), are divided among the members of 
the corporation. These are (1) a Master, (2) the 
Fellows, (3) the Scholars ; the last being still in 
statu pupillari; from these, as a rule, the Fellows 
are selected, both distinctions being the reward of 
learning. The college is governed by the Master 
and the Fellows, or certain of the Fellows. 
Students at a college who do not belong to the 
Foundation are called Pensioners; these, of 
course, are in the majority. In most colleges a few 
students are received (on the ground of poverty 
as well as of learning) at a much reduced charge. 
These are called Sizars. Much of the instruction 
of the students is carried on within the walls of 
the colleges by tutors, lecturers, and other 
officials, appointed by their respective governing 
bodies. This is especially the case in such subjects 
as classics and mathematics. As a rule, the 
University requires from a student only certificates 
of due residence and good behaviour (given by his 
college) before admitting him to an examination. 
In certain cases, however, attendance upon the 
lectures of a University professor is demanded. A 
college has no power of conferring a degree, and 
is bound by the general laws of the University, but, 
subject to these, has full authority over its members 
in all things lawful. The University, like the 
colleges, awards scholarships, money rewards, and 
pifizes, but not Fellowships. 

Information as to the early history of the 
University of Cambridge is very scanty, and much 
of it is legendary. By whomsoever and in what 
manner founded, the University of Cambridge 
appears to have been in existence early in the 
thirteenth century. Probably its development was 
gradual, and its origin was a school conducted by 
monks of the Benedictine order in connection with 
the conventual church at Ely. Thus Cambridge 

44 


may have been a place of study prior to the days of 
King Alfred, but the existence of a University in 
anything like the modern sense of the word must 
be placed much later. The earliest authentic legal 
instrument containing any recognition of Cam¬ 
bridge as a University is a writ dated in the second 
year of Henry III. (1217). Other religious orders 
joined in the work of education, but some colleges 
from the first were secular foundations. The 
Franciscans settled at Cambridge about 1224, the 



KING’S COLLEGE CHAPEL, CAMBRIDGE. 

(From a photograph *by Messrs. G. W. Wilson & Co., Aberdeen.) 


Dominicans fifty years later ; the Carmelites came 
about the middle, the Augustinians near the end of 
the century. The University at this era was not a 
place of peace. The students not seldom were in 
conflict one with another and with the townsfolk, 
and these broils sometimes terminated in formidable 
riots, during which the buildings of the University 
and the colleges were occasionally sacked or even 
destroyed with their contents. Hence, probably, 
the paucity of early records. On one occasion a 
number of the students actually migrated for some 
time to Northampton. Gradually the University 
began to assume something of its present form, 
notably after the suppression of the monasteries, 
but the statutes granted by Queen Elizabeth in 
1570, by which it was long governed, mark, perhaps, 
one of the most important epochs of change. The 
statutes of the colleges also have been altered from 
time to time, those at present in force dating from 
or about the year 1882. Religious tests have been 
abolished in the case of all degrees, except those in 
divinity, and of almost all offices and emoluments 
in the University or the colleges. 

The University confers degrees in the following 
subjects :—Arts, Laws, Medicine, Surgery, Divinity, 
Science, Letters. Residence is not required for 
degrees in Music. In Arts, Surgery, and Laws, the 
degrees conferred are—firstly, Bachelor, and 


















Cambridge University. 


( 306 ) 


Cambridge University. 


secondly, Master; in the last, that of Doctor also. 
In Medicine, Divinity, and Music, the degrees are 
Bachelor and Doctor, but for the second subject a 
degree in Arts must have been already taken. The 
degrees of Doctor in Science and Doctor in Letters 
are granted under certain conditions. The Univer¬ 
sity has the power of conferring honorary degrees. 
In order to obtain the degree of Bachelor of 
Arts a student is required to reside within the 
precincts of the University at least three-fourths of 
nine terms. In each year are three terms. The first 
begins on October 1st, the third ends in the latter 
part of June. They amount at least to 227 days. 
He must also pass certain examinations. The first, 
or Previous Examination, may be passed in the first 
term of residence ; the second, or G'eneral Exam ina¬ 
tion , in at least the fourth term of residence ; the 
third, or Special Examination (in some single sub¬ 
ject such as Chemistry, Political Economy, History, 
etc.), in the ninth term of residence. But if a 
student wish to obtain a degree in Honours he may 
present himself, after passing the previous exami¬ 
nation (with certain additional papers), for exami¬ 
nation in one of the following subjects :— 
Mathematics, Classics, Moral Sciences, Natural 
Sciences, Theology, Law, History, Semitic or Indian 
or Mediaeval and Modern Languages. To the result 
of these examinations the name of Tripos is given. 
The successful candidates are divided into three 
classes. In the Mathematical Tripos those of the 
First Class are called Wranglers ; in the Second, 
Senior Optimes ; in the Third, Junior Optimes. The 
examination in some of the above subjects is now 
divided into two parts, but it is not generally neces¬ 
sary to pass the second of these in order to obtain a 
degree. For the Bachelor’s degrees in Medicine 
and Divinity there are special examinations. There 
are examinations or other methods of ascertaining 
competency for all the higher degrees except those 
of Master of Arts or of Law, which are conferred on 
persons, otherwise duly qualified, after an interval 
of three years from their first degree. 

The formal admission of a student as a member 
of the University is called matriculation. The 
majority of the students occupy rooms in their 
colleges, but not a few, with all non-collegiate 
students, are resident in licensed lodgings. They 
may remain, under conditions, during the vacations, 
and many students do so for part of the summer or 
Long vacation, when arrangements are made for 
instruction (in some cases by formal lecturing), or 
the services of private tutors oan be obtained. 
The details of the methods of instruction and the 
social life of the University and colleges are too 
complicated for description within the limits of this 
article. It must suffice to say that the college is, to 
a large extent, both intellectually and socially, a 
unit. Within its walls a student might receive all 
his instruction and find all his companions; though, 
probably, such a case would be uncommon as 
regards the former, and very rare in respect to the 
latter. Among the various colleges a healthy 
and friendly rivalry exists, as between the masters’ 
houses in a large public school. 

Almost all the academical buildings in Cambridge 
are on the right bank of the river Cam. Koughly 


parallel with it is one of the principal streets in the 
town, and for a considerable distance the ground 
between them is almost wholly occupied by these 
buildings ; the college gardens, fringing the water, 
being popularly termed the Bachs. This street, at 
its northern end, joins the other main street of 
Cambridge, which leads to the railway station. 
Along it, or between the two, most of the other 
academical buildings are situated. The following 
are the chief university buildings :—(1) The Senate 
House, a hall for meetings and examinations, opened 
in the year 1730. (2) The Schools, Public Library 
and Geological (Woodwardian) Museum, an exten¬ 
sive group of buildings, of various dates from the 
fifteenth to the present century, chiefly occupied 
by the valuable library of the University, containing 
more than 250,000 volumes. The geological collec¬ 
tion is also a very fine one. Opposite to the Senate 
House is St. Mary’s or the University church, in 
which sermons are delivered by specially appointed 
preachers, and exercises for degrees were formerly 
held. These form a group. The Selwyn Divinity 
Schools, near St. John’s College, were completed in 
1879. The New Museums are an extensive group of 
buildings, erected mainly during the present cen¬ 
tury. In these the departments of chemistry, 
mineralogy, botany, comparative anatomy, zoology, 
physiology, and human anatomy are accommodated, 
the collections in their museums being in most cases 
very fine. Certain mathematical professors and the 
professor of engineering are also accommodated. 
Close to these buildings is the Physical (Cavendish) 
Laboratory, erected about 1872, the gift of the Duke 
of Devonshire, Chancellor of the University. The 
Fitzwilliam Museum, a fine “ classical ” structure, 
opened in 1848, was erected from funds, and contains 
a collection of pictures (with others), bequeathed in 
1816 by Viscount Fitzwilliam. A museum of 
Archaeology was erected, at no great distance, in 
1884. The Botanic Gardens are on the southern 
side of Cambridge ; the Observatory, which lies to 
the north-west, was completed in 1824. Other 
institutions connected with the University are its 
Printing Press (built 1833), and Addenbrooke’s 
Hospital. 

The colleges enumerated in the order of their 
foundation are as follow ; several, however, of these 
were constituted from one or more older institu¬ 
tions (1) St. Peter’s College (Peterhouse), founded 
in 1257 ; master and eleven fellows; buildings of 
various dates, the more conspicuous 17th and early 
18th century.^ (2) Clare College, founded 1326; 
master and fifteen fellows; buildings form one 
court, chiefly 1635-56. (3) Pembroke College, 

founded 1347; master and thirteen fellows ; an 
extensive group of buildings of various dates, but a 
large part has been erected since 1870. (4) Gonville 
and Caius College, founded 1348 ; master and 
twenty-two fellows ; three courts, parts dating from 
the 15th century, but very much rebuilt between 
1850 and 1870. _ (5) Trinity Hall, founded 1350; 
master and thirteen fellows; two courts with 
annexes, 18th and 19th centuries. (6) Corpus 
Christi College, founded 1352; master and twelve 
fellows; two courts, one chiefly 14th century, most 
of the rest 1823—7. (7) King’s College, founded 







Cambuscan. 


( 307 ) 


Camecrau. 


1441 ; provost and forty-six fellows ; the chapel 
was built 1446-1515, most of the magnificent 
windows of stained glass were made about 1530; of 
the other buildings, one block 1724, the rest of the 
present century. (8) Queen’s College, first founda¬ 
tion 1448 ; president and thirteen fellows ; two 
principal courts, a considerable part of the buildings 
dating from later half of 15th century, with 
subsequent alterations and additions. (9) St. 
Catharine's College, founded 1473; master and 
six fellows; one court with annexe, buildings 
chiefly from 1674 to 1757. (10) Jesus College, 
founded 1496; master and sixteen fellows ; three 
■courts, the chapel is part of the conventual church 
of St. Radegund, much of it circ. 1200; of the 
buildings, considerable portions, circ. 1500, with 
alterations and additions, especially since 1869. 
(11) Christ’s College, founded 1505; master and 
fifteen fellows; main court erected circ. 1510, but 
transformed in 18th century, restoration of recent 
date, block of buildings at back about 1640. (12) 

St. John’s College, founded 1511; master and fifty- 
six fellows ; four courts with annexes ; some of first 
court circ. 1510, partly altered 1772, and again about 
1865 (new chapel) ; second court, 1599 ; library, 
1624; rest of third court about 1670; the fourth, 
connected by a covered bridge over the Cam, about 
1830. (13) Magdalene College, founded 1519; 

master and seven fellows ; main court, partly circ. 
1520, with great alterations in 18th century, and re¬ 
storations about 1875. (14) Trinity College, founded 
1546; master and sixty fellows; five courts; the main 
court (the largest in Cambridge) of various dates, 
some older, mostly in latter half of 16tli century, with 
recent restorations; second court about 1614, with 
library 1680; third court about 1825, two small 
courts across the street 1860-73. (15) Emmanuel 

College, founded 1584 ; master and thirteen founda¬ 
tion fellows ; one court with annexes, various dates 
from 1633 to 1871. (16) Sidney Sussex College, 

founded 1598, master and ten fellows ; two courts, 
various dates from 1596 to 1833. (17) Downing 

College, founded 1800; master, two professors, and 
six fellows ; buildings of present century. 

Of the public hostels, both Cavendish College 
and Selwyn College were thus constituted in 1882 ; 
the buildings of both are modern. Ayerst Hall, 
opened in 1884, is a hostel. Ridley Hall, for 
graduate theological students, is also modern. 

Women resident at either Newnham College or 
Girton College are admitted to the examinations of 
the University and their performances attested, but 
they cannot proceed to degrees. “ Local ” examina¬ 
tions are held by the University at various centres, 
to which boys and girls (juniors under 16, seniors 
under 18 years of age) are admitted. Also “ Higher ” 
examinations for men and women. The University 
also grants certificates of proficiency in various 
subjects, examines schools, and arranges for the 
delivery of lectures in various parts of England. 

Cambuscan, a corruption of the name Genghis 
Khan, used in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales as 
Cambynskan. Milton gives it this form in II 
1 } C11SCT0S0 • _ 

“ Or call up him that left half told 
The story of Cambuscan bold.” 


Cambyses, king of the Persians and Medes, 
and son of Cyrus the Great, ascended the throne on 
the death of his father in 529 b.c. A few years 
afterwards he conquered Egypt. His subsequent 
efforts, however, had far from so happy an issue. 
The army he sent against the Ammonites perished 
in the desert, and a later expedition into Nubia, led 
by himself, suffered severe losses unaccompanied 
by corresponding conquests. These misfortunes 
affected his disposition, and he gave way to dissipa¬ 
tion and cruel treatment of his subjects, murdering 
even his brother Smerdis. He died in 521 b.c. 

Camden, a town of New Jersey, and capital of 
Camden county, is situated on the Delaware river. 
It stands opposite Philadelphia, with which it is 
connected by various lines of steamboats. It is a 
manufacturing centre, having iron foundries, 
woollen and cotton mills, ship-yards, etc. It is also 
the terminus of several railways. It was long the 
home of the poet Walt Whitman. 

Camden, Charles Pratt, Earl and 
Viscount Bayham, was born in 1713. Called to 
the bar in 1738, he became attorney-general in 
1757 and chief justice of the Common Pleas in 
1762, having been an unknown man until, in 1752, he 
successfully defended a bookseller, William Owen, 
in a charge of libel against the House of Commons. 
He gained great popularity through his expressed 
views of the prosecution of John Wilkes. He was 
the judge before whom Wilkes was tried, and he 
very decisively pronounced against the course of 
the Government as altogether illegal. Created 
Baron Camden in 1765, he was in the following year 
appointed Lord Chancellor, resigning on account of 
differences with the policy of the Government in 
1770. He subsequently held office as President of 
the Council under Rockingham in 1782, and again 
under Pitt from 1783 to 1794, the year of his death. 
Meanwhile, in 1786, he had been created Earl 
Camden and Viscount Bayham. 

Camden, William, antiquarian and historian, 
was born in 1551 in London. Educated at Christ’s 
Hospital, St. Paul’s school, and Oxford, he in 1575 
became second master of Westminster school. 
Here it was that he began to collect the material for 
his Britannia , a book that gives an historical and 
topographical account of the British Isles from the 
earliest times. It was published, after 10 years’ 
labour, in 1586, and was at once bought up, win¬ 
ning a great reputation for the author, and by 
1607 having reached its sixth edition. In 1593 
Camden became head-master of Westminster 
grammar school, and in 1597 Clarencieux King-at- 
arms in the Herald Office. Among his other works 
the chief were a history of the reign of Queen 
Elizabeth, an account of the Gunpowder Plot, and a 
collection of the epitaphs in Westminster Abbey. 
All his books were written in Latin. He died in 
1623 at Chislehurst—in the house subsequently 
occupied by Napoleon III. during liis residence in 
England. The “ Camden Society,” founded in 
1838, was named in his honour. 

Camecrau, the collective name of five Brazi¬ 
lian tribes, who inhabit the forests between the 







Camel 


( 308 ) 


Cameo. 


provinces of Para and Goyaz. The several tribes are 
Cha-, Crore-, Ma-, Pio-, and Pore-Camecrau. When 
Jose Pinto de Magalhaes founded the settlement 
of Alcantara, on the right bank of the Tocantius, in 
1809, he contracted an alliance with the Ma- 
Camecraus, by whose aid all the others were reduced, 
and have since been for the most part mansos 
(civilised). They appear to be a branch of the 
great Guarani-Tupi family, although the language 
differs greatly from Guarani. 

Camel, any individual of the Old World genus 
Camelus, which with Auchenia (q.v.) constitutes the 
family Camelidre, equivalent to the modern 
Tylopoda, an aberrant group of Ruminants. None 
of the family is horned; the usual callous pad in the 
upper jaw is replaced in the type-genus by three, 
and in Auchenia by two, teeth on each side. The feet 
have two toes, each covered on the upper surface 
only with an imperfect nail-like hoof. The hinder 
surfaces of the toes, on which these animals walk, 
are directed downwards, and enclosed in callous 
pads (whence the name Tylopoda). The stomach 
differs from that of other Ruminants in having 
only three instead of four compartments, the many- 
plies, or psalterium, normally the third, being 
absent. On the walls of the paunch are two aggre¬ 
gations of cells, covered at the mouth with a 
muscular membrane, in which is an oval opening, 
capable of dilatation or contraction, probably at will. 
In these cells the Arabian camel can store some six 
quarts of water (to obtain which the Arabs have often 
slaughtered the animal). The second stomach, or 
honeycomb bag, has very deep cells, and is probably 
also used as a receptacle for water, since food is 
never found in it after death. The home of the 
family, which dates back to the Miocene, appears 
to have been North America, whence the living 
species could easily have been derived. In the 
type-genus the muzzle is hairy, the upper lip cleft, 
and the nostrils may be closed at will, so as to afford 
protection against clouds of sand or dust. There 
are callosities upon the chest and the joints, on 
which the animal kneels to rest or to receive its 
burden, and since these callosities are found in new¬ 
born calves, it seems clear that a modification to 
meet a certain want has become permanent. The 
camel is a huge, ungainly beast, with long neck 
and limbs, a hump or humps on the back, having the 
coat scanty in the summer and long and matted in 
the winter. The true, or Arabian camel—the 
“Ship of the Desert” (C. dromedarius )—is a 
native of Asia and Africa. It is often called the 
dromedary, but that name should be applied only 
to a swift variety used for riding, and not as a beast 
of burden. The hair is grey, with a reddish tinge, 
and there is a single hump. These humps are 
accumulations of fat, which are really reserve 
stores of food, and the size of the hump is a sure 
sign of the animal’s condition. Camels are of 
immense value to the Arabs, who not only use them 
for travelling and carrying goods, but make the 
milk into butter and cheese, the hair into fabrics 
for clothing and tent-covers, and the skin into 
leather, while the flesh is used as food. The average 
load for a camel is about GOO lbs., and its pace is 


from two to three miles an hour ; the usual dis¬ 
tance covered in a day by a dromedary is about 
100 miles, and its rate' is often ten miles an hour. 
This is the species mentioned in Scripture, and 
figured in ancient sculpture. Napoleon employed 
Arabian camels in his Egyptian campaign. In 
1885 the British followed his example, and 
“ camelry,” to signify soldiers mounted on camels, 
is now a‘recognised word in the language. The 
Bactrian Camel ( C. bactrianus'), a native of 
Central Asia, has two humps, and is more heavily 
built than its congener, though a small race exists 
in the Kirghiz steppe. Camels are extremely 
hardy, able to subsist On anything in the shape of 
herbage, and to support long periods of drought 
owing to the peculiar arrangement of the stomach 
for storing water. They are often said to be docile 
and patient ; though some writers deny this, and 
a recent authority describes them as “ never 
tame, though not wideawake enough to be exactly 
wild.” On the other hand, instances are on record 
of their harbouring resentment and taking revenge 
for ill-treatment. 

Camel, a vessel, generally of iron or steel, 
formed of two parts, and designed for raising a 
ship out, or partially out, of the water. One part 
is affixed to each side of the ship, and the camel is 
then pumped dry. Camels are in some places used 
for raising ships sufficiently to enable them to pass 
river bars. They were long so employed at the 
mouth of the Y in Holland, and between St, Peters¬ 
burg and Cronstadt; but, as a rule, dredging opera¬ 
tions and the making of canals have of late caused 
them to be dispensed with. 

Camellia, a genus of the order Ternstromiacccr, 
or, as they are sometimes called, Camelliacece , named 
by Linnaeus, after Father George Joseph Kamel, 
a Jesuit missionary in the Philippines. It comprises 
some twelve known species of evergreen shrubs or 
small trees with glossy leathery leaves and red or 
white axillary flowers, which are natives'of eastern 
Asia and the adjacent islands. Of these the best 
known are Camellia japonica, introduced by Lord 
Petre in 1739, and now largely cultivated for its 
blossoms, and Camellia theifera, the tea-plant. The 
tea-plants, formerly separated under a genus Thea, 
are only distinguished by superficial characters. 
[Tea.] Camellia japonica seeds freelv in southern 
Europe, so that many hundreds of seedling varieties 
have been raised. Camellias require a rich porous 
soil, frequently top-dressed, and a great deal of 
water when growing or flowering, but not much 
heat or light. 

Camel/opard, the English form of the Greek 
name for the giraffe (q.v.), from its somewhat 
camel-like figure and its spotted skin. The old 
pronunciation corresponded to the erroneous 
formation “ Cameleopard,” now obsolete. 

Camelot, the name of a mythical city men¬ 
tioned in mediaeval romances and by Tennyson. 

Cameo, a precious stone, generally onyx, agate, 
or sardonyx, carved in relief, as opposed to an 
intaglio , which was hollowed out. Cameos were 










Camera. 


( 309 ) 


Cameroon. 


largely made by the ancients, and the stone used 
was generally composed of two or more different 
coloured layers, and the skill of the artist was 
employed in exposing the various colours. Shells 
as well as stones are used for cameos. 

Camera, in photography, is the apparatus re¬ 
quired to take the photograph, that is to say, to 
concentrate the rays of light proceeding from the 
object to be photographed, to bring these to a focus 
on a sensitive plate or film, and to keep this plate 
or film steadily in position while these rays are 
acting on it. It consists essentially of a box, with 
one end holding the lens that gathers the rays, and 
the other end the sensitive plate. The sides are 
bello?vs-bodied , i.e. built of corrugated flexible mate¬ 
rial like a bellows or concertina, so as to admit of 
variation in the position of the plate with regard 
to the lens, and to enable the camera to pack 
up into small compass. The camera is generally 
carried on a tripod stand, which is very convenient 
for adjustment on irregular ground, and is also 
readily packed up. Hand cameras are also used. 

Before the dark slide, containing the sensitive 
plate properly protected from the light by a shutter, 
is placed in position at the back of the camera, a 
plate of ground glass occupies exactly the same 
position as the sensitive plate is to take up sub¬ 
sequently. Thus, when the camera is in place, with 
the cap removed from the lens, and the glass plate 
in its proper position, the object is definitely 
focussed on to it, and the inverted image may be 
clearly seen when surrounding light is prevented 
from falling on it by covering the back of the 
camera with a focussing-cloth. The exact focussing, 
or adjustment of the plate in the position where the 
image on it is most clearly defined, is effected 
usually by a screw movement. When photographing 
an object with small details, exact focussing should 
be heiped by the use of a magnifying glass. Then 
the glass plate is drawn back and the dark slide 
slipped into its place, w T ith the sensitive plate still 
covered. The cap is placed on the lens, and the 
shutter removed from the slide. At this instant the 
sensitive plate is uncovered, but the camera being 
light-tight, no actinic effect is produced on it. But 
so long as the lens is open there is exposure to the 
light rays from the picture. In instantaneous work 
the lens is only allowed to remain uncovered for a 
small fraction of a second, ith to -Jvth. Cap ex¬ 
posures vary from -ith of a second to an almost 
indefinitely prolonged period, depending on the 
amount of light available. For chemical aspect of 
photography see the article Photography. 

Camera Lucida, an arrangement with many 
modifications, invented by Wollaston, to produce 
an image of an object on a plane surface such as a 
sheet of paper. If this image be traced out with 
a pencil, a correct delineation of the object results. 
The diversion of the rays of light necessary to 
produce this apparent alteration in the direction 
of the object is generally effected by total re¬ 
flection from the inner surface of a glass prism. 
It may also be produced by simple reflection at an 
angle of 45° from a plane piece of glass held over 
the paper at the same angle. When the operator 


places himself directly over the paper he will see 
the image thereon. [Reflection, Refraction.] 

Camera Obscura, or dark room, invented by 
Porta, a small chamber within which a clear in¬ 
verted picture of the external surroundings may be 
presented on a screen, by a process similar to that 
which holds in the case of the camera lucida (q.v.). 
Light from the outside is allowed to pass through 
a small aperture into the chamber, and there be 
totally reflected on to the screen from the inside 
surface of a glass prism or from a plane piece of 
glass mirror. The image is more clearly defined if a 
convex lens be placed at the aperture to concentrate 
the rays. Many such cameras as are used in public 
gardens, etc., combine the lens and mirror in a single 
glass prism with curved faces where the light enters 
and leaves it, and with a plane face where the 
light is totally reflected within the prism. 

Camerarius, Joachim, writer, was born in 
1500 at Bamberg. His original name was “ Lieb- 
hard,” which he altered to Camerarius because his 
ancestors had been Kammerer (chamberlains) at 
the Bishop of Bamberg’s court. He was a friend 
of Melanchthon, whose biography he wrote and a 
collection of whose letters he published. He died 
in 1574 at Leipzig. 

Cameron, John\ a learned divine, was born 
about 1579 in Glasgow. After holding various 
appointments at seats of learning on the Continent, 
he returned in 1620 to his native city, and became 
principal of the university. In less than a year, 
however, “ being so misliked by the people,” he 
removed to Saumur and then to Montauban, where 
he was appointed professor of divinity. So ency¬ 
clopaedic were his attainments that he has been 
styled a “walking library,” and Milton referred to 
him as an “ ingenious writer in high esteem.” He 
was a persistent preacher of the doctrine of passive 
obedience. He died in 1625 from a wound inflicted 
on him by an opponent to his theological views. 
His followers are called Cameronites, and are a sort 
of moderate Calvinists, and approach somewhat to 
the doctrine of the Arminians. 

Cameron, Richard, Covenanter, was born at 
Falkland, Fifeshire. He was at first precentor and 
schoolmaster in the parish church, which was then 
under an episcopal incumbent. He subsequently, 
however, espoused the cause of the most advanced 
section of the Presbyterians, and in 1680, at the 
head of a few followers, entered Sanquhar, and 
formally renounced allegiance to King Charles II. 
[Sanquhar Declaration.] Retiring with his 
companions to the hilly country between Nithsdale 
and Ayrshire, he baffled his pursuers for a month, 
though 5,000 marks was the price put on his head 
by Government, On July 20th, however, he was 
captured, his hands and head being cut off and fixed 
upon the Netherbow Port, Edinburgh. After him is 
named the religious body called the Cameronians. 

Cameronians. [Reformed Presbyterians.] 

Cameroon or Cameroons. L A river of W. 
Africa, in Upper Guinea, enters the Bight of Biafra 
by an estuary 20 miles in width, after a course of 
undetermined length in a south-easterly direction. 







Camillus. 


( 310 ) 


Campanella. 


On its banks are prosperous Ullages, whose in¬ 
habitants do a thriving trade in ivory and palm oil. 
2. A mountain range at the angle of the Bight of 
Biafra and opposite the island of Fernando Po. Its 
highest peak reaches an elevation of 13,000 ft. 3. 
The name is also applied to the district adjacent to 
the Bight of Biafra, and since 1884 belonging to 
Germany. 

Camillus, Marcus Furius, Roman patrician, 
celebrated for his deliverance of Rome from the 
Gauls, was made dictator in 396 b.c., during the 
war with Yeii, and in 394 b.c. he induced the Falerii 
to surrender by magnanimously restoring to them 
their children. In 391 he retired from Rome on 
account of the envy of his enemies, but was recalled 
when the Gauls under Brennus (q.v.) had captured 
the whole of the city save the capitol. He 
succeeded in repelling the Gauls, and subsequently 
won further victories against the enemies of the 
republic. He died in 365 b.c., stricken with the 
plague. Though his life has doubtless a con¬ 
siderable admixture of legend about it, Camillus is 
yet one of the worthiest names that adorns the 
history of ancient Rome. 

Caniisards (from O. Fr. camise-chemise, a shirt), 
the name given to a sect of French Protes¬ 
tants who rose against Louis XIV., as a conse¬ 
quence of the Edict of Nantes (q.v.) in 1685. They 
acquired their names from the fact of their wear¬ 
ing their blouses outside their armour. The 
insurrection was not finally suppressed until 1705, 
after much bloodshed, and the almost complete 
devastation of the Cevennes, the scene of the rising. 

Camoens, Luis de, Portugal’s greatest poet, 
was born about 1524 in Lisbon. In 1537 he was 
entered at Coimbra university as one of the 
“ honourable poor students,” returning to Lisbon in 
his eighteenth year. Here he had the misfortune 
to fall in love with a lady attached to the Court, 
and of higher birth than his own, which led to his 
banishment to Santarem, and was the commence¬ 
ment of his subsequent misfortunes. Becoming a 
soldier, he served against the Moors, and in a naval 
engagement at Ceuta lost his right eye. Dis¬ 
appointed at his reception on returning to Lisbon, 
he set out in 1553 for India, and there wrote a 
satire on the Portuguese authorities at Goa, which 
resulted in his being banished to Macao in 1556. 
Here he received the appointment of administrator 
of the effects of absent and deceased Portuguese, 
and began to write his great epic The Lusiad, in 
which are sung in truly patriot strains the chief 
events of Portuguese history. On returning to Goa, 
whither he was recalled in 1561, he was ship¬ 
wrecked, and lost all his property, except liis 
manuscript; arriving ultimately in Lisbon, in 1569, 
as poor and friendless as he had left it. In 1572 
his poem was printed, the young King Sebastian 
accepting the dedication. It immediately sprang 
into popularity, but the reward of its author was so 
meagre that his faithful Javanese servant had 
often to beg in the streets to keep the poet from 
starving. In addition to his epic Camoens wrote 
sonnets, songs, dramas, odes, and elegies. At last, 
in 1579, he died in a Lisbon hospital, and in such 


obscurity that when fifteen years later a magni¬ 
ficent monument was erected to his memory, the 
inscription on which styled him the Prince of 
Poets, it was with difficulty that the place where 
his remains lay was found. The Lusiad has been 
translated into most European languages. 

Camomile, a plant of the genus Composite, 
one species of which ( Anthemis nobilis) is much 
used as a tonic. The infusion known as Camomile 
tea was at one time largely employed by druggists. 

Camorra, the name given to a secret society 
formed in the kingdom of Naples, and at one time 
exercising considerable power. It first attracted 
public notice in 1820; it partook of the nature of 
a political organisation, and of a general vigilance 
committee ; summary penalties were exacted from 
real or fancied wrong-doers, and payment for 
services performed by the society was rigorously 
demanded. L T nder Francis II. a vigorous attack 
was made upon the society, which had its revenge, 
however, in assisting materially to overthrow the 
Bourbon rule. Under the present government the 
society has a merely nominal existence. [Mafia.] 

Camp, the place where an army halts and 
pitches its tents. The Roman camps used to be 
square, with entrenchments all round and a gate 
at each side. Different parts of the camp were the 
Fossa, the Vallum , the Pvincipia , and the Quintana 
(all of which see). A camp of instruction is a 
camp formed in time of peace to instruct and 
discipline soldiers. A flying camp is one occupied 
for a very short time. 

Campagna, a town in Italy, in the province of 
Salerno, stands in the centre of a mountainous 
district. The see of a bishop, it has a cathedral 
and college. It trades also in wine, oil, and fruit. 

Campan, Jean Louise Henriette, was born 
in 1752, at Paris. She won the favour of Queen 
Marie Antoinette, whom, as lady of the bed¬ 
chamber, she served with touching fidelity. After 
the sacking of the Tuileries she was thrown upon 
her own resources. To support herself and her in¬ 
valid husband she opened a boarding school at 
Saint Germain. She is remembered mainly for 
her writings, Memoircs sur la Vie prime de la Heine 
Marie Antoinette , Journal Anecdotique, and her 
correspondence with Queen Hortense. 

Campanella, Tommaso, monk, was born at 
Stilo, Calabria, in 1568. Entering the order of the 
Dominicans at Cosenza, he there became attracted 
by the writings of Telesius, which inspired his 
Philosophia semibus demonstrata, 1591, a defence of 
Telesius against the Aristotelians. This drew the 
attention of the authorities upon him, and after a 
few years of wandering he was arrested in 1599 
and thrown into a Neapolitan prison, being treated 
with great severity. In 1626 he was liberated by 
Pope Urban A III., and in 1634, in dread of further 
persecution, retired to France, where he enjoyed 
the protection of Cardinal Richelieu. He died in 
the Dominican monastery of St. Honore, Paris, in 
1639. He was contemporary with Bacon, and, 
like him, sought to reform thought by a more 






Campania. 


( 311 ) 


Campbell. 


extended study of nature. His chief works were, 
De sensu rerum et magia, Atheismus Triumphatus, 
Monarchia Mess ice Jesi, and Civitas Solis, in which 
last is outlined an ideal state, after the manner of 
More’s L topia. He also wrote sonnets of great power. 

Campania, the ancient name of a province of 
Italy, was situated on the W. coast, with Capua as 
its capital. It now comprises' the modern pro¬ 
vinces of Caserta, Naples, Benevento, and portions 
of Salerno and Avellino. It was celebrated for its 
fertility, yielding abundantly of corn, wine, and 
oil, and for its genial climate. So favoured a spot 
was it that the Romans built their villas here, and 
Baiae became their most fashionable resort. Besides 
Bairn and Capua, other leading towns in ancient 
Campania were Cum®, the earliest Greek settle¬ 
ment in Italy, Puteoli, Naples, Herculaneum, 
Pompeii, Stabias, and Salernum. 

Campanile, in architecture, a bell-tower gener¬ 
ally used in connection with churches, but some¬ 
times with domestic buildings. The tower, when 
belonging to a church, is generally detached from 
the church itself. Famous examples of the 
cavil)anile may be seen at Pisa, Florence, Cremona, 
and at many other towns in Italy. 

Campanula, or Bell-flower, a large genus 
of herbaceous plants giving its name to the gamo- 
petalous order Campanulacese. They are chiefly 
natives of the north, some eight or nine being indi¬ 
genous to Britain. Many of them have an acrid 
milky juice. Their leaves are scattered and exsti- 
pulate ; the corolla regular, bell-shaped, five-cleft, 
and epigynous ; the stamens five in number, and 
the fruit capsular. C. rotundifolia is the Harebell 
(q.v.) ; C. Rapunculus, the rampion, is cultivated 
for its edible roots ; C. Trachelium is the nettle- 
leaved bellflower or wild Canterbury bell, and 
C. hederacea, the minute ivy-leaved bell-flower, is 
one of our most beautiful waterside plants. Several 
species are grown in gardens. 

Campanularia is one of the best known of 
the British “ Hydroid Zoophytes.” It belongs to 
the class Hydrozoa, to the sub-class Craspedota, 
and the order Hydroidea. The animal consists 
of a delicate branched plant-like body, the end of 
each branch terminating in a small bud-like expan¬ 
sion or cup ; the individual zooids live in these cups 
(hydrothecae), and are connected by prolongations 
of the soft tissues passing through the hollows of the 
stem. The whole body is protected by a chitinous 
covering, the “ perisarc ”: expansions of this at the 
free ends of the branches protect the “ zooids.” 
The reproductive organs are protected by similar 
expansions of the perisarc, forming buds known as 
the gonothecae : in each of these is a central stalk, 
the gonophore, from which are given off on either 
side a series of buds which develop into medusae. 
The development may be abbreviated, and no free 
medusoid form may exist; or the lateral buds may 
escape as small free-swimming jelly-fish, which 
ultimately give rise to the fixed colonial stage. 
Campanularia is closely allied to Sertularia (q.v.), 
but it differs in that its hydrothecae are borne upon 
long stalks, which are marked by series of rings. 


Campbell, Alexander, was born in 1788 near 
Ballymena, county Antrim. At an early age he 
emigrated to the United States, where he worked 
as an itinerant preacher. In 1826 he issued an 
edition of the New Testament, substituting for 
“ baptist ” and “ baptism ” the words “ immerser ” 
and “ immersion.” He was an active propagandist 
of his own particular views on certain religious 
doctrines, and in consequence gathered quite a 
following. In 1827 his party became known as 
“ The Disciples of Christ,” and have since grown to 
have upwards of 5,000 places of meeting and more 
than half a million members. In 1841 he established 
Bethany College, West Virginia, where in 1866 he 
died. 

Campbell, Sir Colin, Lord Clyde, General, 
was born in 1792 at Glasgow. Though-the name 
of his father, who was a carpenter, was Macliver, 
he adopted the name of Campbell from his uncle, 
Colonel John Campbell. Through the aid of this 
gentleman he became an ensign in 1808, five years 
later, by his own merits, becoming a captain. 
After further promotion and active service he-was 
appointed to the command of the Highland Brigade 
on the breaking out of the Crimean war. Here his 
exploits showed him to be one of England’s bravest 
soldiers. Through him Alma and Balaclava were 
won, and for his signal services he was rewarded 
with a G.C.B., a sword of honour by his native city, 
and other dignities. During the Indian Mutiny, as 
commander of the Indian forces, he relieved 
Lucknow, and speedily quelled the rebellion. On 
his return to England he was made a field-marshal 
and given a pension of £2,000 a year, having, during 
his absence, been created Lord Clyde. He died in 
1863 and was buried in Westminster Abbey. 

Campbell, George, divine, was born in 1719 
at Aberdeen, where at the grammar school and 
Marischal College he was educated. After officiat¬ 
ing as parish minister at Banchory Ternan, he was, 
in 1759, appointed principal of his college. Three 
years later he published his celebrated Dissertation 
on Miracles, a reply to Hume’s arguments. His 
next most important work was the Philosophy of 
Rhetoric, 1776, by which he is now best known. 
On retiring in 1795 from the offices he filled at 
Marischal College on account of feeble health, he 
received a pension from the king of £300, which, 
however, he did not live to enjoy long. A stroke of 
palsy carried him off in 1796. 

Campbell, John, Baron, Lord Chancellor of 
England, was born in 1779 at Cupar, Fifeshire, 
where his father was a minister. He himself was 
destined for the Church, but in 1798, coming to 
London as tutor to the son of a West India 
merchant, he in 1800 was entered as a student at 
Lincoln’s Inn, and in 1806 was called to the bar. 
In the meantime he had been theatrical critic to 
the Morning Chronicle, and in 1808 published the 
first volume of his nisi prius Reports. These 
Reports comprise four volumes altogether, and 
cover the period 1807-1816. In 1810 he joined the 
Oxford circuit, of which he became leader in 1824. 
In 1821, having married the daughter of Lord 
Abinger, afterwards Baroness Stratheden, he rose 






Campbell. 


( 312 ) 


Campeggio. 


rapidly, becoming King's Counsel in 1827, M.P. for 
Stafford in 1880, Solicitor-General in 1832, Attorney- 
General in 1834, and Lord Chancellor of Ireland in 
1841, being at the same time raised to the peerage 
as Baron Campbell of St. Andrews. In 1846 he was 
made Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and 
in 1859 was raised to the woolsack as Lord 
Chancellor. In politics he was a Whig. He is 
known as the author of the Lives of the Lord 
Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seal of 
England, from the Earliest Times to the Reign of 
George IV., and Lives of the Chief Justices of 
England, f rom the Norman Conquest till the Death 
of Lord Mansfield. He died in 1861. 

Campbell, John Francis, writer on Highland 
folk-lore and scientist, was born in 1822, eldest son 
of Walter Frederick Campbell, of Islay, and Lady 
Eleanor Charteris. Educated at Eton and the 
University of Edinburgh, he occupied various posts 
under the Government, among them secretary to 
the lighthouse and coal commissions. He was an 
extensive traveller, and died in 1885 at Cannes. It 
is by the work of his leisure that he is known, and 
which he published in Pojmlar Tales of the West 
Highlands, orallg collected (1860-62), Frost and 
Eire, Natural Engines, Toolmarlis, and Chips, or 
Sketches taken at Home and Ahroal by a Traveller 
(1865), Thermography (1883), etc. He also invented 
the sunshine recorder, whereby the varying intensity 
of the sun’s rays is indicated. 

Campbell, John McLeod, divine, was born at 
Kilninver, Argyllshire, in 1800. Brought up for 
the Church, he was licensed in 1821 and received a 
charge in 1825. In 1831 he was deposed on the 
ground of heresy, holding views of his own on the 
Atonement and cognate theological subjects. From 
1833 to 1859 he preached to a body of followers 
that gathered round him in Glasgow, publishing in 
1851 Christ the Bread of Life, in 1856 The Nature 
of the Atonement, and in 1862 Thoughts on Revela¬ 
tion, most highly valued books in the theological 
world. In 1868 he received the degree of D.D. 
from Glasgow University, and in 1871 was presented 
with a testimonial and address by representatives 
of most of the religious sects in Scotland. He died 
in 1872 at Roseneath, where he was living in 
retirement and occupied on Reminiscences and 
Refections, which was completed and published by 
his son, the Rev. Donald Campbell, in 1873. 

Campbell, ThOiMAS, poet, was born in 1777 at 
Glasgow. Educated at the university there, he in 
1797 went to Edinburgh to study law. In 1799, 
however, appeared the Pleasures of Hope, which 
attained immediate popularity. After a visit to 
the Continent he wrote some of the finest lyrics 
known to English literature, among them Hohen- 
linden, Ye Mariners of England, and The Exile of 
Erin. In 1803, settling in London, he devoted 
himself to literary work, and in 1806, through the 
influence chieflv of Fox, he obtained a government 
pension of £200. In 1809 appeared Gertrude of 
'Wyoming, Lord Ulliris Daughter, and The Battle of 
the Baltic. In 1819 appeared his Specimens of the 
British Poets, and in the following year he became 


editor of the New Monthly Magazine. He there¬ 
after took an active part in promoting the establish¬ 
ment of London University, and in 1827 was elected 
Lord Rector of Glasgow University, being subse¬ 
quently twice re-elected. Among his prose produc¬ 
tions were The Annals of Great Britain, from 
George II. to the Peace of Amiens, Letters from the 
South, Life of Mrs. Siddons, and Life of Petrarch. 
He died in 1844 at Boulogne, and was buried in 
Westminster Abbey near the tombs of Addison and 
Goldsmith. 

Campbell’s Act (Lord). By this statute (9 
and 10 Vic. c. 93) and the amending Act (27 and 
28 Vic. c. 95) the families of persons killed by 
accident are enabled to claim compensation. For 
this purpose, however, it is necessary that the 
death should have resulted from the act, neglect, 
or default of the defendant or his servants, such 
act, neglect, or default being of a kind which, if 
death had not ensued from it, would at Common 
Law have entitled the injured person to recover 
damages in respect thereof. The action is for the 
benefit of the wife, husband, parent or child of the 
deceased person, and may be instituted by his or 
her executor or administrator; but if the executor 
or administrator does not, within six months of the 
death, commence the necessary action, then any of 
the persons beneficially interested, whether legally 
or morally only, in the result of the action, may 
commence the same. By a later statute than the 
above, the Board of Trade is empowered to ap¬ 
point an arbitrator in the matter. The damages 
recovered are strictly in the nature of compensation, 
and nothing is recoverable as a mere solatium. 

Campbelltown, a royal and parliamentary 
burgh of Scotland, in Argyllshire, is situated on the 
E. side of the peninsula of Can tyre. In the principal 
street stands an interesting granite cross, said 
to have been brought from Iona in the twelfth 
century. Its main industries are fishing and whisky 
distilling. 

Cainpe, Joachim Heinrich, author, was born 
in 1746 at Deensen, in Brunswick. In 1777 he was 
appointed director of the Educational Institute in 
Dessau, and thereafter set up an educational 
establishment of his own at Trittow, near Hamburg, 
At Brunswick he also established a thriving publish¬ 
ing business. He himself wrote many educational 
works and books for youths. He died in 1818. 

Cainpeachy, a Mexican seaport and capital of 
a state of the same name, formerly in the province 
of Yucatan, is situated on the W. side of that 
peninsula, and on Campeachy Bay. Among its 
industries are cigar-making and ship-building. It 
is also a market for logwood and wax. 

Campeggio, Lorenzo, Cardinal, was born in 
1474 at Bologna. After engaging in the legal pro¬ 
fession he entered the Church, and was made a 
bishop by Pope Julius II., who also sent him as 
nuncio to Germany and Milan. In 1517 he became 
Cardinal, and was sent to England to incite Henry 
A III. against the Turks. He again visited England 
in 1528 to assist AA r olsev in the matter of Henry’s 
contemplated divorce from Catherine of Aragon, 









Camper. 


( 313 ) 


Campo-Formio. 


and succeeded in accomplishing - nothing - except to 
incur the displeasure of all parties, and to bring 
about Henry’s final rupture with Rome. Campeggio 
died in 1539 at Rome. 

Camper, Petek, physician, was born in 1722 
at Leyden, where he studied. He became professor 
of medicine successively at Franeker, Amsterdam, 
and Groningen. He rendered valuable services to 
anatomy, medical jurisprudence, obstetrics, and 
surgery, and was a skilful drawer and sculptor. He 
also made a special study of the facial angle. 

Camperdown, a tract of low sandy hills on 
the coast of North Holland, separates the hamlet 
of Camp from the German Ocean, and is celebrated 
as being adjacent to the scene of Admiral Duncan’s 
engagement with the Dutch fleet under Admiral 
Van Winter in 1797. For the victory Duncan was 
created Viscount Duncan of Camperdown. 

Camphenes are solid substances of composition 
C 10 H 1(J . A number of different varieties are obtained 
from different turpentines, but all have composition 
given above, and closely resemble one another. 

Camphor, (1) a group of pungent aromatic 
substances, stearoptenes of essential oils, which 
are tough, waxy, colourless, translucent, with a 
specific gravity nearly that of water, readily volati¬ 
lising at moderate heat, slightly soluble in water, 
but completely so in alcohol or ether. They are 
closely related chemically to the turpentines, with 
which they frequently occur in plants, and from 
which they may be prepared. Most of the 
camphor of European commerce (C 10 H 1( .O) is dis¬ 
tilled as a crystalline sublimate from the wood of 
Camphora ojficinaruvi, a lauraceous tree found 
mainly in the island of Formosa. It is imported to 
the extent of some 700 tons annually, mainly from 
Singapore. Ngai camphor, the produce of Bluniea 
f/randis and B. balsamifera, natives of Tenasserim, 
is used in China in making ink. Borneo, Malay or 
Sumatra camphor, shipped from Barus, and hence 
known as Kapur Barus, sometimes also called 
Bamboo camphor from being packed in bamboos, is 
Borneol (C 10 H 18 G), the produce of Bryobalanops 
aromatica , and is so highly prized by the Chinese 
that it does not reach Europe. Menthol , or Mentha 
Camphor, C^H^O, occurs in oil of peppermint. 
It forms colourless crystals, with an odour resem¬ 
bling that of its source. Other varieties of 
camphors are found in different volatile oils, as 
the oils of absinthe, galbanum, cajuput, etc., all 
resembling ordinary camphor in most of their 
properties. Camphor is a popular preventive 
during epidemics, and is very useful in preserving 
clothes, furs, and natural history specimens 
generally, from moths and other insects. 

The pharmacopoeial preparations of this drug 
are aqua camphorse, linimentum camphoric, 
linimentum camphoric composition, spiritus cam¬ 
phors, and tinctura camphoric composite (paregoric 
elixir). Camphor is also contained in several other 
liniments. Administered internally, camphor is a 
carminative, allaying spasm and relieving flatulence; 
it also promotes sweating, and, acting on the nervous 


system, produces in large doses a species of 
intoxication. 

Campi, Bernardino, painter, was born in 
1522 at Cremona. Studying first under his elder 
brother Giulio, he afterwards took Romano, Titian, 
and Correggio as models, without, however, sinking 
his own individuality. He also followed Raphael. 

Campi, Giulio, painter, eldest brother of the 
preceding, was born about 1500 in Cremona. He 
received his preliminary instructions from his 
father, and was afterwards taught by Giulio Romano, 
not in painting only, but also in sculpture and 
architecture. He acquired great skill in colouring. 
He died in 1572. Two other brothers, besides 
Bernardino, who acquired distinction as artists, 
were Antonio and Vincenzo. 

Campinas, a city of Brazil, situated in a sugar¬ 
growing district, and 50 miles N. of Sao Paulo. 

Campion, the English name for several meadow 
flowers, mostly species of the caryophyllaceous 
genera Lychnis and Silene, with rose-coloured or 
white flowers. L. coronaria and L. Flos-Jovis, 
common garden flowers, are called rose campions ; 
L. diurna is the wild red campion; L. vespertina, 
the evening or white campion, sweet-scented at 
dusk; and Silene injiata, the bladder-campion, 
so named from its inflated calyx. 

Campion, Edmond, Jesuit, was born in 1540 in 
London. Educated at Christ’s Hospital and at Ox¬ 
ford, he was admitted to holy orders, being ordained 
deacon in 1567. Subsequently, however, he became 
a Jesuit and attacked Protestantism, particularly in 
his Becevi Bationes. In 1581 he was arrested and 
thrown into the Tower, being tried for high treason, 
and executed at Tyburn in the December of the 
same year. Amongst his writings was a History of 
Ireland, written in 1569. 

Camp-meetings, meetings of a religious 
character held in various places, and continued 
sometimes for many days at a time, during which 
continuous devotional exercises are kept up. [Re¬ 
vivals.] 

Campobasso, a city of South Italy, capital of 
the province of Campobasso, is situated on the 
slopes of the mountain Monteverde. It is famed 
for its cutlery, and has good trade. It has also a 
cathedral, some convents, and a ruined castle. 

Campodea, a minute insect of the order 
Thysanura ; it is wingless, has only six openings 
to the breathing tubes (tracheae), and is of especial 
interest from the possession of rudimentary limbs 
on the abdomen (compare this with the cercopoda 
of cockroaches). From this character, the complete 
absence of wings in all stages of development, and 
the general resemblance to the Myriapoda, 
Campodea is regarded as about the most primitive 
of living insects. Some higher forms pass in 
development through a stage resembling this genus ; 
this is known as the “ Campodeiform ” stage. 

Campo-Formio, a market town of North 
Italy, in the province of Udine, is situated on the 
canal of Roja. It is celebrated on account of the 
treaty of peace here signed between Austria and 







Campos. 


( 314 ) 


Canada. 


France, October 17th, 1797. The leading feature in 
this treaty was that in return for the Belgian pro¬ 
vinces and Lombardy, ceded to France by Austria, 
the latter should receive the Venetian states. 

Campos, formerly Sao Salvador dos Campos, 
a city of Brazil in the province of Rio Janeiro, is 
situated near the mouth of the Parahiba do Sul. 
It is surrounded by fertile plains, yielding sugar- 
cane, which produces the best sugar made in Brazil. 

Camp Vere, a fortified seaport of the Nether¬ 
lands, in the province of Zealand, is situated on 
the island of Walcheren. Formerly it was a place 
of considerable commercial importance,, indications 
of which are still seen in its beautiful cathedral 
and town house. In Camp Vere the Scottish mer¬ 
chants had their staple, which was transferred 
thither from Bruges in 1444, i.e. all goods sent from 
Scotland to the Netherlands were deposited in that 
city, and there they remained until sold. These 
Scots formed a separate community in the city, and 
amongst the privileges they enjoyed was the right 
to be governed by the law of their own country. 

Camus, Armand Gaston, was born in 1740 in 
Paris. By reason of his knowledge of ecclesiastical 
law he was chosen advocate-general of the French 
clergy. Subsequently, as a member of the states- 
general for Paris, he showed himself a determined 
opponent of the court party. He was amongst 
those that accused the king of treason and con¬ 
spiracy, and being absent at the time of the king’s 
trial, he sent his vote for execution. He was im¬ 
prisoned in 1793 by the Austrians, and after two 
and half years was released in exchange for Louis 
XVI.’s daughter. Returning to Paris, he was made 
one of the Council of Five Hundred, and became 
president of that body in 1796. He shortly after 
resigned and devoted himself to literature. He 
died in 1804 of apoplexy. 

Canaan, a name used in the Scriptures to 
designate the Promised Land of the Israelites. 
[Palestine.] 

Canaanite, an inhabitant of the land of Canaan: 
the term included the Amorites, Hittites, Jebusites, 
and others, but the Phoenicians were the Canaanites 
proper. 

Cana of Galilee, a decayed town of Palestine, 
variously identified with Kefr Kenna and Kana-el- 
Jelil, is celebrated in Scripture as the scene of our 
Saviour's first miracle, where He turned water into 
wine, and as the birthplace of Nathanael. 

Canada. The Dominion of Canada is a Federal 
Union, constituted by the “ British North America 
Act, 1867,” passed by the Imperial Parliament, and 
embodying a scheme devised by colonial statesmen 
as the result of conferences held during the 
two previous years. The plan was suggested by a 
proposed confederation of the maritime provinces. 
The Federation was proclaimed officially on 
July 1, 1867. The original members were Upper and 
Lower Canada (since called Ontario and Quebec), 
Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Provision was 
made for the admission of other provinces, and 
British Columbia and Prince Edward’s Island were 


admitted in 1871 and 1873 respectively. The 
Hudson’s Bay territories were purchased in 1869 
from the Hudson’s Bay Company. Manitoba (q.v.), 
formerly the Red River Settlement, was formed of 
part of this and admitted in 1870. Newfoundland 
has never joined the Confederation. Five districts,. 
Keewatin, Assiniboia, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and 
Athabasca, have been formed out of the north¬ 
west territories, but there is still a large remainder 
of unorganised, and almost uninhabited, country. 
The parliamentary system is similar in principle to 
that of the United Kingdom, the Crown being re¬ 
presented by a Governor-General, and the Dominion 
Legislature of two chambers. The Upper, or 
Senate, consists of eighty members nominated for 
life ; the qualification is the possession of property 
to the value of 4,000 dollars. The Lower, or House 
of Commons, consists of 215 members at present, 
the representation of the province of Quebec being 
fixed at sixty-five members, while the rest of the 
Dominion is represented in the proportion of one 
member for every 20,000 inhabitants. The number, 
now 215, will shortly require a slight readjustment, 
according to the 1891 census. Except in the N.W. 
territories, the franchise is based on a small pro¬ 
perty qualification, income from earnings being 
taken into account. The executive consists of the 
Governor-General and a cabinet or council of fifteen 
members. There is, of course, party government 
on the English system. The provincial legislatures 
usually consist of two chambers, a Legislative 
Council and a Legislative Assembly, with a re¬ 
sponsible ministry. Ontario, Manitoba, and British 
Columbia have only one chamber. There are slight 
differences in the franchise in the different pro¬ 
vinces. The extreme term of their parliaments is 
fixed at four years. Local legislation on most 
subjects belongs to them. There is also a very 
complete system of local government. The only 
Dominion courts are the Supreme Court, with a 
Chief Justice and five other judges, and a. Court of 
Exchequer (for revenue cases), with one judge. 
The Supreme Court exercises appellate jurisdiction 
from the provincial courts, both civil and criminal. 

Physical Features. The Dominion contains the 
whole of the North American continent north of 
the United States, with the exception of Alaska 
(q.v.). Its total area is about 3,500,000 square miles, 
or about half that of North America. The eastern 
coast-line is very deeply indented, Nova Scotia in 
particular being almost separated from the main¬ 
land by the Bay of Fundy with its prolongations, 
while Cape Breton and Prince Edward’s Island lie 
close to its N. coast. There are also numerous 
small bays. The St. Lawrence is upwards of 
30 miles wide at its mouth, and the coast of 
Labrador is also considerably indented. The 
extreme north of the continent is geographically 
a mass of islands scarcely explored, except as to 
their coast-line, and inhabited only by wandering 
Esquimaux. [North-west Passage.] The deep 
inlet of Hudson’s Bay, and its prolongation, James’s 
Bay, penetrate the land deeply, the latter to a point 
about 300 miles from Lake Superior, while the 
mouth of the Nelson river on the W. coast of the 
former is almost half-way between the Atlantic and 






Canada. 


( 315 ) 


Canada. 


the Pacific, and only about 200 miles from the N. 
end of Lake Winnipeg. The distance between this 
point and Liverpool is less than that between 
Liverpool and New York. A railway connecting it 
with Winnipeg is contemplated, and hopes are 
entertained of opening up direct trade for four or 
five months in the year at some future date, but 
there is still some doubt as to the commercial value 
of the route, which was surveyed and favourably 
reported on by H.M.S. Alert in 1884. The Pacific 
coast-line is very deeply indented with winding 
fjords, resembling those of Norway, but on a far 
grander scale, and between higher mountains. 
Vancouver’s Island at the extreme S., separated 
from the mainland by Queen Charlotte’s Sound and 
the Strait of San Juan del Fuca, is by far the most 
important of the many islands which fringe the coast. 
The maritime provinces, with that part of Quebec 
which is S. of the St. Lawrence, may be described 
as a mass of hill ranges, the prolongation of the 
Appalachian chain. Mainly the land is forest, but 
occasionally there are fair stretches of arable and 
grazing land. The bulk of Ontario is greatly 
undulating, and usually fertile country, broken 
occasionally by abrupt terrace-like changes in level, 
one of which occasions Niagara Falls. Its N. 
boundary is the Laurentian Mountains, or (very 
roughly) a line drawn due W. from Quebec to 
Lake Huron. Its only mountains are a few isolated 
trap hills near Montreal. At the N.E. end of Lake 
Ontario it is encroached on by the rock-formations 
of the area north of it. This area is hilly, with so 
large a number of lakes and rivers that tolerably 
direct canoe communication is possible with only 
short portages between almost any two points in 
it, or by many routes between the St. Lawrence 
and the' Arctic Ocean. The summits range from 
1,000 to 2,000 ft. West of long. 96° W. there is a 
great prairie region, narrowing gradually towards 
the W., but 400 miles wide even at the Arctic 
Ocean, and extending to about 114° W. at the 
United States boundary. North of the Saskat¬ 
chewan, however, this plain is covered by 
coniferous forest. This rises in three successive 
steppes towards the N.W.; terraces which mark 
their boundaries being survivals of the shores of a 
great lake or arm of the sea. The highest of these 
steppes is much cut up; the lowest, about 
Winnipeg, is described as a shallow trough, 
extending into Minnesota. West of this again are 
the Rocky Mountains. [British Columbia.] 
Lakes and Rivers. The St. Lawrence, with the 
lakes from Lake Superior onwards, may be regarded 
as a continuous stream 2,500 miles long. The St. 
Lawrence proper, beginning at the Thousand 
Islands (really about 2,000 in number) at the outlet 
of Lake Ontario, receives numerous tributaries, 
chief among them the Ottawa, 780 miles long ; the 
St, Maurice, 300 miles long at Lake St. Peter near 
Quebec; and the Saguenay, which for 70 miles 
upward from its mouth at Tadousac is a mile wide, 
and runs between perpendicular cliffs 1,500 ft. 
high. The Red River, 600 miles long, rises in 
United States territory. The Assiniboine, its chief 
tributary, joins it 40 miles above Lake Winnipeg, 
the city of'Winnipeg beiDg at their junction. The 


Saskatchewan is formed by two great branches 
which rise a short distance apart in the Rocky Moun¬ 
tains, and, after numerous windings, meet 550 miles 
from their source, the river reaching Lake Winni¬ 
peg some 280 miles farther, and then falling into 
Hudson’s Bay. Besides the great lakes on the course 
of the St. Lawrence, there are Lake Winnipeg, 300 
miles long, Lake of the Woods, Rainy Lake, Lake 
Nepigon, and others between Lake Winnipeg and 
Superior. The lakes of Canada number thousands, 



chiefly in the region N. of the St, Lawrence. The 
Fraser, Columbia, and Peace rivers are the chief 
streams of British Columbia (q.v.). 

Climate. Though Canada reaches as far south 
as the latitude of Rome, the influence of Arctic 
currents makes it far colder than Central Europe. 
The Pacific coast, indeed, owing to the warm 
Pacific winds, is 25 per cent, warmer than the 
Atlantic coast at the same latitude, and its climate 
is as mild as that of Southern England. At 
Esquimault the maximum temperature is 85° F., 
the minimum 48° F. The mean temperature of 
S. Manitoba is 60° F., with a warm, somewhat 
rainy, summer, and fine autumn. The minimum 
temperature in parts of N. Manitoba is 30° to 40° 
below zero F. At Toronto the maximum is 95° F., 
and the minimum 16° below zero F. At Mon¬ 
treal the minimum is about 6° below zero F. 
The great lakes, which are seldom frozen except 
near shore, considerably influence the climate. Its 
dryness (except in the maritime provinces) makes 
the extremes of heat and cold far more bearable 
than those of an English winter, and the brilliant 
sunshine, clear sky, and bracing air give a Canadian 
winter a special charm. 

Population. The totals of the three last censuses 
were: 1871, 3,635,024; 1881, 4,324,810; 1891, 

4,823,344. The 1891 census, which caused much 
disappointment, showed an increase of 11*52 per 
cent, over the last census, as compared with 18-97 
per cent, of the previous decade. Westward of 
Ontario the population nearly doubled between 
1881 and 1891, but the maritime provinces are 
stationary. The figures, which areas yet only partly 














































































Canada. 


( 316 ) 


Canada. 


accessible, are said to indicate a movement to the 
towns, and apparently to the United States. In 
1881 four-fifths of the population were natives of 
British North America, and nearly 1,300,000 were 
French “ habitants ” i.e. French Canadians. More 
than two-thirds of the immigrants had come from 
the United Kingdom. In 1889 the leading cities 
were: Montreal, 210,000 inhabitants; Toronto, 
173,000; Quebec, 65,000; Halifax, 42,000. About 
124,000 Indians in all are settled on reserves, 
and 6,000 Indian children are at school. Roughly, 
about a fourth of the Indians are W. of the 
Rocky Mountains. There has never been an 
Indian difficulty in Canada similar to those which 
have disgraced United States history. The N.W. 
territories were duly bought by treaty in exchange 
for allotments, and an annual payment to each 
Indian concerned. 

There is no state church in Canada, though in 
Quebec certain payments of church rates are 
compulsory for Roman Catholics. The Church of 
England has 19 bishops, 1,000 clergy, and about 
575,000 members, and the Roman Catholic Church, 
a cardinal, 5 archbishops, 18 bishops, about 1,200 
priests, and nearly 1,800,000 members; the Presby- 
tei'ians number 680,000, the Methodists nearly 
750,000 members. These numbers are ap¬ 
proximately those of the census of 1881. 

Education was free and compulsory in the old 
province of Canada as early as 1846, and is now so 
throughout the Dominion. The schools are main¬ 
tained by local rates and grants from the provincial 
and Dominion governments. Where necessary 
there are different state-aided schools for different 
religions. There are public higher grade schools 
with very low fees, and eleven universities and 
colleges, besides theological colleges. 

The revenue of the Dominion in 1889 amounted 
to 38,782,870 dollars, and the expenditure to 
36,917.835 dollars. More than half the revenue 
was derived from Customs duties. The total public 
debt (nett) on July 1st, 1890, was 237,484,119 
dollars. 

Defence. Halifax is the only place garrisoned 
by Imperial troops. But there is a provincial 
militia of 40,000 men, recruited by voluntary en¬ 
listment, and called out for a few days’ training 
annually. There is also a small regular army of 
1,000 men, comprising all arms, and a royal 
military college for cadets at Kingston. In the 
N.W. territories there is a mounted police force 
of 50 officers and 1,000 men. The police elsewhere 
(except in a few ports) is Tinder the municipal 
authority. There is a small Dominion force also 
at Ottawa. 

Railways. There are now about 13,000 miles open, 
of which 5,186 miles belonged to the Canadian 
Pacific, 3,114 to the Grand Trunk, and 1,227 to the 
Intercolonial. The total capital is 760,000,000 
dollars, of which nearly one-fourth has been 
contributed by the Dominion, or by the various 
provincial and local governments. Over 12,000 
passengers, and nearly 18,000,000 tons of freight 
were carried in 1889. The Canadian Pacific rail¬ 
way main line from Montreal to Vancouver is 
2,906 miles long. 


Canals have been constructed to assist the 
exports of the St. Lawrence and the Ottawa, and 
from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario (the Welland 
canal) to avoid Niagara Falls. The lakes into 
which the St. Lawrence expands have also been 
sufficiently dredged to permit the largest ocean 
steamers to reach Montreal, and canals connect 
Lake Champlain with the St. Lawrence, and 
Kingston with Lake Ontario. Vessels of 1,500 tons 
can pass through the Welland canal. The dues 
are low, and everything is done to facilitate 
navigation and compete with the Erie Canal route 
to the Atlantic. 

The shipping of the Dominion at the end of 1889 
comprised 7,153 vessels of a tonnage of 1,040,481. 

The standard money is the dollar of 100 cents, 
the usual rate of exchange being 4s. per dollar. 
The par value of the sovereign is fixed by law at. 
4 dollars 86| cents. American money circulates 
freely. There are private bank notes and small 
notes issued by the government. The weights and 
measures are those of England, except that the 
cwt. and ton are 100 and 2,000 lbs. respectively, 
as in the United States. 

Mineral wealth. There are large deposits of coal 
in Nova Scotia and Cape Breton, some seams being 
30 feet thick ; on the coast of British Columbia, 
and in a region 150 to 200 miles broad, and running 
1,000 miles N. and S. at the E. base of the Rocky 
Mountains. Lignite is also plentiful there. Gold 
is found in Nova Scotia, and in British Columbia, 
wliere large fields are yet unworked. Iron is found 
in many parts of the Dominion; some of its ores 
are among the best known. Copper is worked in 
Quebec and Ontario, and on the N. of Lake 
Superior; silver in Ontario; salt chiefly at 
Goderich, on Lake Huron ; there are large petro¬ 
leum wells in Ontario, and much is known to exist 
near the Rocky Mountains. Phosphate of lime, a 
valuable fertiliser, is found in quantities in the 
Ottawa Valley. Antimony (in New Brunswick), 
gypsum, asbestos, and nickel are also said to occur 
in large quantities. The mineral wealth of Canada, 
indeed, seems extraordinary, and as yet is com¬ 
paratively little worked. There is a great variety 
of marble and building-stone. 

Forests. Essentially the Dominion is a forest 
country, with the exception of the S. part “of the 
prairie region of Manitoba and parts of Ontario. 
On the coast of Hudson Bay and Labrador the 
trees are chiefly conifers, with some white birch 
and poplar. In the interior are the “mixed forests ” 
of some sixty or seventy kinds of trees, and forty or 
fifty of shrubs. Black walnut, butternut, button 
wood, the sugar maple of the St. Lawrence valley, 
chestnut, birch, dogwood, sassafras, huge oaks and 
elms, may be mentioned as prominent trees. With the 
sugar maple the wild vine is often associated. On 
the S. of Hudson Bay the Banksian pine reaches 
100 feet in height. British Columbia has forests 
of the giant Douglas pine and red cedar, which 
are next in magnitude to the Wellingtonia or 
sequoia of California. 

Fisheries. In 1889 the products sold were over 
17,500,000 dollars in value, but almost every in¬ 
habitant is within reach of fishing of some sort, and 







Canada. 


( 317 ) 


Canaletto. 


a large part of the produce is reserved for home con¬ 
sumption, which is roughly estimated at 13,000,000 
dollars more. The principal fish caught are : Cod, 
value (in 1888) 4,000,000 dollars ; herring, 2,250,000 
dollars; salmon, (in 1889) over 3,000,000 dollars ; j 
while the catch of whitefish, trout, and several other 
fish is in value half a million to a million of 
dollars each. The value of the lobsters caught was 
about 2,250,000 dollars. In 1888 the fisheries 
employed 61,000 men, and the boats, nets, etc., 
represented a capital of about 4,500,000 dollars. 
Including weirs, etc., the total plant is valued at 
6,800,000 dollars. 

Animal Produce. In 1889 over 102,000 head of 
live cattle were exported, 85,000 being sent to 
Great Britain. Nearly 400,000 sheep and 20,000 
horses were also exported (1888). Dairy farming 
is extensively carried on, the farmers taking their 
milk to butter and cheese factories. In 1888, 
4,500,000 lbs. of butter were exported, and the 
cheese exported to the United Kingdom has risen 
from less than 16,000,000 lbs. in 1868 to more than 
88,000,000 lbs. in 1889. Bee-keeping and poultry¬ 
raising are growing industries, and the latter has a 
great future before it. 

The great feature of the agriculture is, of course, 
the wheat grown on the fertile prairies of the N.W., 
and in parts of Ontario. The grain is of the very 
highest quality, and the trade capable of indefinite 
development. Canadian oats, barley, and rye, have 
no superiors. Indian corn, though far less grown 
in Canada than in the United States, is raised in 
Ontario, and though not a staple may become so. 
The total wheat crop in 1888 was estimated at 
33,000,000 bushels; that of all grain in 1881 was 
returned at 650,000,000 bushels. The total value 
of the agricultural produce exported in 1888 was 
41,000,000 dollars. 

Manufactures. The census of 1881 specifies 
agricultural implements, boots and shoes, furniture, 
distilling, engine-building, rolling-mills, oil re¬ 
fineries, paper making, sugar refining, shipbuilding, 
and food preserving as among the more important 
industries. Saw mills, flour mills, and tanneries 
head the list. Most of the other branches of 
manufacture have been stimulated, if not called 
into existence, by a policy of protection to native 
industry. 

History. In 1534 Jacques Cartier sailed up the 
St. Lawrence, in 1540 he conducted 200 colonists 
to the country under Jacques de Roberval. Canada 
(the Indian word for huts) was assumed by the 
French to be the native name of the country. In 
1603 Champlain made a permanent settlement on the 
St. Lawrence, and Quebec was founded; Montreal 
following shortly after. The new settlement was 
modelled on the* French feudal system, there being- 
seigneurs with special manorial rights, and tenants 
liable to military service. In 1625 a Jesuit mission 
was established, which carried Christianity across 
the continent and even to California. In 1662 the 
French Company, which had hitherto held the 
country, resigned its charter to the king; the 
colony made rapid progress, and that marked 
national feeling began which is still visible in 
Quebec. In 1757 the war just begun between 


England and France was carried into Canada. 
The English at first suffered severely, but Wolfe 
took Quebec in 1759, Montreal surrendered next 
year, and the English acquired Canada. It re- 
I mained under military government till 1774, when, 
to gain the support of the French Canadians in the 
impending struggle with the American Colonists, 
the English permanently established the French 
land law and the Roman Catholic Church in the 
present province of Quebec. Canada was now 
governed from England, but when numerous 
loyalists migrated to what is now Ontario, after 
the American revolution, Upper Canada, west of 
the Ottawa river, wa$ made a distinct province, 
Quebec being called Lower Canada. Each province 
had a distinct representative government on the 
English model, with the important exception that 
the ministry was responsible only to the Crown, 
and there was constant discontent and friction. 
In the war of 1812, however, the American troops 
were unable to gain Canada, but in 1837 discontent 
with English interference produced a rebellion. 
This was speedily suppressed, and Lord Durham, 
who was sent out as governor, advised the granting 
of self-government, which was done (though the 
proposal had excited much indignation in England) 
in 1840. Since then the country has been con¬ 
tinuously tranquil and prosperous, though there 
have been long and bitter party conflicts. Much 
to advance Canada was done by Lord Elgin and 
under his governorship (1847-1854). The capital 
was moved to Ottawa in 1857. The Red River 
rebellion at Winnipeg (checked by Lord Wolseley) 
in 1869, the adoption of a “ National Policy ” (see 
below) by Sir John Macdonald in 1879, the Riel 
rebellion in Manitoba in 1886, the opening of the 
Pacific Railway, and the signing of the fisheries 
treaty (q.v.) in 1888, have been the leading events 
of recent history. 

The Dominion, as a whole, is a remarkable 
instance of a national unity constituted by artificial 
means, in the face of great geographical difficulties, 
by a policy of lavish subsidies to railways, etc., 
and stimulation of industry by protective duties. 
Whether it can be lasting remains to be seen. This 
policy seems to have favoured the growth of 
a considerable degree of corruption in the Civil 
Service and among public men (1891), and a party 
in Canada is strongly in favour of commercial (to 
be followed in time by political) union with the 
United States. But the difficulties of this union 
are very considerable from the point of view of the 
United States politician, and there is a strong 
feeling in the Dominion of loyalty to the Crown. 
Canada-balsam. [Balsams.] 

Canada Goose. [Baknacle Goose.] 

Canadian River, a river of the United States, 
rises in New Mexico and flows eastwards through 
Texas and the Indian territory into the Arkansas 
river. The length of its course is estimated at 900 
miles. 

Canaletto, Antonio, painter, was born in 
1697 at Venice, his real name being Canale. He 
studied at Rome, giving particular attention to the 
effects of light and shade, in which he became an 






Canaletto. 


( 318 ) 


Canals. 


adept. His pictures of Venice are very famous. 
He was the first artist to use the camera obscura 
for perspective. He died in 17G8, having won riches 
and renown. 

Canaletto, Bernardo Bellotto, nephew and 
pupil of the preceding, was born in 1724 at Venice. 
He, too, attained distinction in his art, his special 
strength lying in perspective and light and shade 
effects. He died in 1780 at Warsaw. 

Canals are artificial channels cut in the ground, 
or built up above it, supplied with water from the 
sea, from rivers, or from springs, and forming 
waterways for inland navigation and goods traffic. 
They may also be employed to drain away the water 
from a district, or to supply water from a river to 
a region where it is scarce, and its want much felt 
for agricultural or other purposes. 

Canals were known and appreciated by the 
ancients, both for navigation and irrigation. The 
Egyptians employed them extensively. Two still 
exist in Lincolnshire that were built by the 
Romans; and there are ancient canals in China 
where inclines were employed to transfer the boats 
from one cut to another at a different level, a 
method still used to solve the difficulty of travers¬ 
ing hilly country by a waterway. But it is only 
since the middle of the last century that canals 
have been taken up at all generally. Then Brindley 
designed and completed several in England, and 
canal schemes became popular. The introduction 
of railways considerably diminished the inland 
water-traffic in this country; though there are a 
few instances where canals still compete success¬ 
fully with railways. The largest canals in Great 
Britain are the Gloucester and Berkeley, 17 miles 
long and 15 feet deep, enabling vessels of 600 tons 
to reach Gloucester from Sharpness ; the Aire and 
Calder Navigation, 9 feet deep; the Forth and 
Clyde, 10 feet deep; and the Caledonian Canal, 
60 miles long, 120 feet wide at the surface, 50 feet 
wide at the bottom, and 17 feet deep, which, by 
uniting a chain of lakes in Inverness, forms a water¬ 
way across Scotland for vessels of 300 tons. 

In France there are 3,000 miles of canals and 
2,000 miles of canalised rivers. Steps have been 
taken in that country to render all the principal 
waterways available for vessels of 300 tons with a 
draught of 6 feet. The flatness of Holland and 
certain parts of Belgium have rendered their canal 
traffic very flourishing for several centuries. The 
Amsterdam trade has been much improved recently 
by the construction of the ship canal, 164 miles 
long, between that town and the North Sea. It 
only involved the cutting of about three miles of 
canal, the rest being merely a channel dredged out 
of the Wyker Meer. 

In Russia, the Volga and Neva canal connects 
those two rivers, and enables large vessels to pass 
from one to the other. A ship canal joins St. 
Petersburg with Cronstadt; its width is from 200 
to 275 feet, and depth 22 feet; and it thus enables 
sea-going vessels to reach St. Petersburg, which 
the insufficient depth of the Gulf of Finland pre¬ 
viously prevented. 

In America the most important canals are the 


Erie, 370 miles long, joining the Hudson river to 
Lake Erie, for vessels of 250 tons ; the Georgetown 
to Pittsburg, joining the Potomac with the Ohio, 
would be about the same length if completed, but 
not quite 200 miles have as yet been cut; the St. 
Lawrence system will enable vessels of from 1,000 
to 1,500 tons to pass between Lake Erie and Mon¬ 
treal, the Welland canal connecting Lakes Erie 
and Ontario so as to avoid the Niagara river. 

The Suez Canal, joining the Mediterranean with 
the Gulf of Suez, is of enormous importance, saving, 
as it does, the great detour round the Cape of Good 
Hope for vessels travelling between Europe and 
Australia or the south of Asia. It was begun in 
1860 and finished in 1869 by M. de Lesseps, the 
French engineer, at a cost of £16,000,000. Its 
length is about 100 miles, bottom width 72 feet, 
surface width varying from 200 to 330 feet, and 
depth 26 feet. A service canal was cut for part of 
the way during the process of construction ; and a 
fresh-water canal from the Nile to Suez was also 
formed, in order to give a supply to the waterless 
regions through wffiich the works had to be con¬ 
ducted. The traffic has increased so enormously 
on the Suez Canal that it is shortly to be trebled in 
bottom width, and deepened to 28 feet. 

The Panama Canal, as originally proposed by 
M. de Lesseps, was to join the Atlantic and Pacific 
Oceans by cutting across the Isthmus of Panama at 
its narrowest part, between Aspinwall and Panama. 
It was to be level throughout, traversing a range of 
hills by a cutting 300 feet deep at one part. This 
was commenced in 1882, but the difficulties in the 
work and the want of funds caused a change in the 
design, the plan of a locked canal being adopted to 
diminish the amount of cutting required. Natural 
difficulties of an exceedingly serious nature, which 
do not seem to have been foreseen by the engineer, 
put back the work continually, and in 1889 the 
company became insolvent. The report of a recent 
commission of French engineers sent to Panama 
seems to point to the impossibility of the success 
of the undertaking. 

There is an American scheme for forming a water¬ 
way across the Isthmus of Panama, by uniting the 
San Juan river with Lake Nicaragua. This seems 
much more feasible. A treaty has been signed 
between the United States and Nicaragua, and the 
Ship Canal Company formed in 1889. The canal 
route will have a total length of 170 miles, but only 
28 miles of excavation will be necessary. There 
are to be three locks on each side of the lake, the 
minimum depth is to be 30 feet, and vessels are to 
pass from ocean to ocean in twenty-eight hours. 
The estimated cost is £12,000,000. 

The Manchester Shijj Canal is to allow large 
vessels to pass up from the Mersey to Manchester. 
It starts from the south side of the Mersey estuary at 
Eastham, runs near the shore to Runcorn, and then 
inland to Manchester, near the course of the Irwell. 
It is 35 miles long, with bottom width 120 feet and 
depth 26 feet. There are sets of locks at three dif¬ 
ferent places, each set being arranged to accommo¬ 
date vessels of different sizes. The docks at Manches¬ 
ter are to be 88 acres in extent. The work was begun 
in 1887, and is now (1891) not far from completion. 






Canary. 


( 319 ) 


Canary Islands. 


Among many other canal schemes may be 
mentioned the Isthmus of Corinth Ship Canal to 
cut across the narrowest part of Greece; the Baltic 
Canal to traverse Holstein, and so join the Baltic 
directly with the North Sea; and the Isthmus of 
Perekop Canal to connect the Sea of Azov more 
directly with the Black Sea. 

Drainage and irrigation canals are intended to 
lead water along from one place to another, and 
are therefore to be designed with a regular slope in 
the bed. If the slope is too slight, the current is 
not rapid enough to conduct the necessary amount 
of water without unduly increasing the sectional 
area of the canal; if too great, the rapid current 
induced will damage the canal bed. In this respect 
of slope such canals differ from navigation canals, 
which are laid in level reaches, and therefore 
require special means to conduct vessels from one 
reach to another at a different level. This trans¬ 
ference is generally done by lochs (q.v.). A lock is 
an enclosed space between two watertight gates 
that separate the two reaches of the canal. A boat 
passing from the lower level to the higher is first 
floated into the lock, from which water had been 
allowed to flow till the level Wc„s that of the lower 
reach. The upper gate is closed, and has to with¬ 
stand the pressure of the water on its outside face. 
Then the lower gate is closed, and water from the 
higher level is allowed to enter gradually till the 
lock-level and that of the upper reach are the same. 
The upper gate is then opened, and the boat floated 
out. 

If the difference in level is very great a series of 
locks may be employed, or a carriage may convey 
the vessel bodily up an incline from the one reach 
to the other, the carriage being drawn by a cable 
that is partially hauled by a descending load. The 
vessel may be taken out of the water, or it may be 
contained in a large tank or caisson. Hydraulic 
lifts are now much employed to effect the same 
result of changing levels. 

The depth of a canal should be 1^ feet greater 
than the draught of the vessel on it; its bottom 
width should be twice the breadth of beam; and 
the sides should slope from 1^ to feet per foot, 
though special circumstances may modify this rule 
considerably. 

By the statute 8 and 9 Vic. c. 42, canal companies 
were entitled to become carriers on their canals; 
also to lease the same or to take leases of other 
canals, and by subsequent Acts the traffic and tolls 
over canals are regulated. Subject to the payment 
of tolls and the traffic rules, the public have a right 
of using the canal, and a canal company cannot 
confer an exclusive right to let boats for hire over 
their water so as to give the guarantee a right, to 
sue a third party for the infringement of this right. 

An Act of 40 and 41 Vic. c. (50 regulates the use 
and registration of canal boats as dwellings. 

Canary, properly the Canary-bird, a very 
common cage-bird, with great power of song. The 
original stock is a greenish-olive siskin-like finch 
(Serinus canaria), a native of the Canary Isles. 
This species, numbers of which were brought to 
Europe some 300 years ago, has the general habits 


of a finch, is a poor songster, and, like its European 
congener, the Serin (q.v.), prefers to build in the 
neighbourhood of farms and houses. It produces 
from two to four broods in the year, a practice 
continued by the domestic race. The brilliant 
coloration is due to careful selection in breeding, 
as is also the great variety of form. Ten well- 
marked varieties are recognised—the Norwich, the 
Cinnamon, the London Fancy, the Lizard, the 
Belgian, the Scotch Fancy, the Yorkshire, the 
Crested, the Green, and the German—and each of 
these varieties runs into several classes. Canaries 
are extensively bred for sale in the city of Norwich, 
in the midlands, and in Lancashire and Yorkshire ; 
but Germany is probably the chief seat of this 
industry, and the best songsters are undoubtedly 
trained there. Some of these birds have a compass 
of four octaves, and will execute various shakes 
in perfect style. A few have been taught to 
articulate words; one of the best authenticated 
cases is recorded in the Proceedings of the 
Zoological Society, 1858 (p. 231). Canaries breed 
readily in confinement, and produce hybrids freely 
with other finches. 

Canary Creeper, the common name of 
Tropceolum aduncum , often wrongly called Tropce- 
oluvi canariense, from its bird-like canary-yellow 
flowers. Like all the species of the genus, it is a 
native of South America, and has nothing to 
do with the Canary Islands. Its specific name 
aduncum refers to its method of climbing by 
twisting its leaf-stalks round any support. 

Canary Islands, or Canaries, a group of 
islands in the Atlantic, are situated about 60 miles 
from the N.W. coast of Africa, between lat. 27° 40' 
and 29 c 25' N., and longitude 13° 25' and 18° 16' W. 
They number thirteen in all, seven of which are of 
considerable size, the remainder being mere islets, 
and cover a total area of nearly 3,000 square miles. 
The chief are LanzarOte, Fuerteventura, Gran 
Canaria, Teneriffe, Gomera, Palma, and Ferro or 
Hierro. They are all volcanic, rugged, and moun¬ 
tainous, the highest peak being Teneriffe, 12,182 ft. 
The climate is very fine and the soil fertile, circum¬ 
stances that earned them the ancient name of 
Fortunate Insula—“ Fortunate Islands.” Among 
their products are the sugar-cane, bananas, dates, 
and on the more elevated tracts the ordinary grain 
crops of agriculture. Among the exports are 
cochineal, wine, and raw silk. The capital is Santa 
Cruz. From about the end of the 15th century 
these islands have belonged to Spain, who 
conquered and extirpated the Guanches, the original 
inhabitants. [Teneriffe, Gran Canaria, Palma, 
Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, Gomera, Hierro.] 
When first discovered, the Canary Islands were 
found to be inhabited by the so-called Guanches , 
an indigenous people, who are now known to 
have been a branch of the Berber race, but 
who had been so long isolated in the Archipelago 
that they had lost all memory of their Hamitic 
ancestry. From remote times a tribe of Canarii, 
the Kamnurieh of Arab writers, occupied the 
opposite mainland, and from them the name 




Canary Wine. 


( 320 ) 


Cancer. 


passed to the island of Gran Canaria, and thence 
to the whole group and its inhabitants. These 
appear to have been a numerous and warlike 
people, who offered a stout resistance to the 
Spaniards, but were nearly exterminated in the 
war of conquest, which lasted ten years, from 
1485 to 1495. They are spoken of as a people of 
fair type, with long, light hair falling down to the 
waist, of average height, very frank, truthful, and 
intelligent. They possessed a considerable degree 
of social culture, as shown by their solid stone 
houses, well timbered and plastered, their carefully 
cultivated orchards, kitchen gardens and corn 
fields, their curious stone sculptures of men and 
animals, and the universal custom of embalming 
the dead by the Egyptian process, and depositing 
them in vast crypts or underground cemeteries. 
Over 1,000 such mummies were found in a single 
cave in Teneriffe. A few of these aborigines are 
supposed still to survive amongst the rural popula¬ 
tions of some of the upland valleys. From a 
comparative study of the little that remains of 
their language, their nearest kindred on the main¬ 
land appear to be the Slilulis (Berbers) of the 
Atlas Mountains, Morocco. Nevertheless, the 
researches of Dr. Yerneau in 1877 seem to show 
that there were several distinct groups, such as 
those of Fuerteventura and Gran Canaria, and of 
Hierro, both of whom possessed a knowledge of 
letters, besides the less civilised natives of Teneriffe 
and Gomera, the Vincheni, or true Guanchos. (See 
Don J. J. da Costa de Macedo, “Ethnographical 
Remarks ” in the Journal of the Royal Geographical 
Society, 1841, pp. 171-183, and Dr. Verneau, “De la 
Plurality des races anciennes de l’archipel canarien ” 
in Bulletin de la Societe d’Anthropologie, 1878- 
1879.) 

Canary Wine, a kind of sweet wine (once 
also called saclt), made in the Canary Islands. 

Cancan, (French) a low kind of dance. 

Cancellation is the recission or abrogation of 
a contract or engagement—there must be an in¬ 
tention to do so to constitute cancellation. Bonds 
and deeds are cancelled by tearing off the seals, 
but the cancellation does not extend to divesting 
any estate or interest which has already become 
created under the deed. 

Cancer. [Crab.] 

Cancer, derived from the Latin word cancer, a 
crab, is the name applied to a particular kind of 
tumour or “ new growth ” affecting man and some 
of the lower animals. Tumours may be divided 
into two groups, innocent or benign, and malignant 
tumours; the latter being characterised by their 
rapid growth, infiltration of surrounding parts, and 
tendency, in some cases, to produce secondary or 
metastatic growths in distant organs. The term 
cancer was at one time generally applied to the 
whole malignant group of tumours ; but the study 
of microscopical appearances has led to their divi¬ 
sion into two great classes :— Sarcomata , or tumours 
of connective-tissue origin, and Carcinomata , or 
true cancers, which are derived from epithelium. 


In the language of embryology sarcomata take 
origin from the mesoblast, carcinomata from the 
epiblast or hypoblast, [Blastoderm.] A carci¬ 
noma, or true cancer, then, is a growth caused by 
epithelial multiplication, and possessing the power 
of growing indefinitely and of infiltrating surround¬ 
ing tissues. 

The annual death-rate from “ cancer ” is -5 per 
1,000 living in England and Wales, the total death- 
rate from all causes amounting to about 20 per 1,000. 
So that about one death in every forty is due to 
cancer. Much attention has been directed of late 
years to the increase in the death-rate from cancer. 
Thus, for the years 1861-65 the rate was -37 ; this 
had increased to -45 for the years 1871-75, and had 
undergone further augmentation to -54 for the years 
1881-85. This increase is, at all events to some 
extent, an apparent, and not a real, increase, and 
due to the fact that the progress of knowledge has 
led to better diagnosis, and to the recording of 
deaths as due to cancer which would in former 
times have been attributed, from ignorance of their 
real nature, to other causes. 

Cancer is a much more fatal disease in females 
than in males (in the proportion of about 2 to 1). 
This is in accordance with the fact that the two 
most common situations of malignant growth are 
the female breast and the womb. It is a disease of 
late life, being very uncommon before thirty-five 
years of age. Most of the deaths recorded as due 
to cancer in young people, in the registrar-general’s 
returns, are cases of sarcoma and not of true cancer. 

Carcinoma is divided into four varieties known as 
scirrhus, colloid, encephaloid, and epithelial cancer, 
or epithelioma ; to which is sometimes added ade¬ 
noid, or glandular cancer, this last-named variety 
being, however, sometimes considered as a sub- 
variety of epithelioma, and known as cylindrical 
epithelioma. 

Scirrhus, or hard cancer , is most commonly met 
with in the female breast and affecting the pyloric 
end of the stomach or other parts of the alimentary 
canal. In scirrhus of the breast a hard nodule 
forms and often gives rise to shooting pains ; it 
gradually increases in size, the skin becomes ad¬ 
herent over it, and retraction of the nipple occurs : 
before long the axillary glands become affected. 

Microscopic examination of such a tumour shows 
it to be composed of a fibrous stroma infiltrated 
with epithelial cells. These cells occur in groups, 
enclosed in the bundles of fibrous tissue, forming 
alveoli. The epithelial growth, at first luxuriant, 
soon ceases at the centre of the tumour, and the 
fibrous tissue undergoes contraction ; the cell in¬ 
filtration continues to extend, however, externally, 
so that while the tumour increases in size at its 
periphery the inner portions become dense and 
indurated, resembling the tissue of a cicatrix or 
scar. The early diagnosis and removal of such a 
tumour is not infrequently followed by complete 
recovery; if, however, the growth has been present 
for some time, and particularly if the glands of 
the armpit have become involved, an operation is 
too apt to be followed by “ recurrence.” 

Encephaloid cancer differs from scirrhus in its 
more rapid growth, associated with which is a 






Cancer. 


( 321 ) 


Candle Flies. 


softer consistence and a deficiency of stroma, and 
consequent absence of the cicatricial contraction 
which is so marked a feature in the slow-growing 
scirrhus. The name encephaloid is derived from 
the soft brain-like appearance which this form of 
cancer presents. Encephaloid is rare, save when 
it occurs in internal organs ( e.g . the liver) as a 
“ secondary ” growth. 

Colloid cancer is really a variety of one of the 
already mentioned forms, in which a gelatinous or 
colloid degeneration has occurred. 

Epithelioma involves the surface of the skin or 
of a mucous membrane, and particularly affects the 
junction between mucous and cutaneous surfaces. 
Again, places where complex changes occur in the 
process of development are apt to be involved, and 
hence it has been supposed by Cohnheim that the 
new growth is connected with the existence of 
embryonic rudiments, the growth of which is 
arrested for a time but subsequently springs into 
activity. Again, epithelioma is peculiarly asso¬ 
ciated with chronic irritation or injury. The 
epithelial cells are of the flattened, scale-like type, 
they extend downwards from the surface into the 
connective tissue beneath, and on microscopic 
examination characteristic globular aggregations 
of cells, like the coats of an onion, known as “ cell 
nests,” are often seen. 

An epithelioma usually first appears as a small 
ulcer with irregular surface and indurated borders. 
The ulcer increases rapidly in size, the discharge 
from it being very offensive. The lower lip, tongue, 
cervix uteri, and oesophagus are common situations 
to be affected by the disease. 

The cause of cancer is involved in obscurity. It 
often presents itself in patients who give a “ family 
history ” of the disease ; its geographical distribu¬ 
tion throughout England and Wales is peculiar; 
the association of malignant new growth with 
chronic irritation must be something more than a 
mere coincidence. The age distribution has already 
been alluded to, and Cohnheim’s view T has been 
mentioned. 

Modern investigation is being mainly conducted 
with a view to demonstrating the parasitic nature 
of the disease. Attempts have been made of late 
years to connect cancer with a low form of animal 
life allied to the Coccidium oviforme, a parasite 
commonly found in the liver of the rabbit (in the 
encysted form known as Psorospermiee). There is 
some reason for entertaining the hope that the 
time is not far distant when more may be known 
with respect to the causation of cancer, and if the 
essential nature of the disease be discovered 
much light may be thrown on means of preventing 
and possibly of curing it. At present the only 
method of dealing with the disease (beyond mere 
palliative measures) is by surgical operation. This 
to be effectual must be resorted to early. If the 
morbid process has been allowed to spread at all 
widely, and particularly if the neighbouring lym¬ 
phatic glands have become involved, it is but too 
likely that the disease cannot be completely re¬ 
moved, and that it will recur after operation. Hence 
the paramount importance if early diagnosis. 

Many forms of disease simulate cancer, and if 

45 


the medical man is called in, it will in many cases 
be his pleasant duty to allay the apprehensions of 
his patient, but on no account should anyone who 
has the merest suspicion of cancer omit to at once 
obtain skilled advice. 

Cancer curers have imposed upon the credulous 
from time immemorial, and secret remedies still 
fascinate those who despise or are ignorant of 
scientific inquiries and methods. Some of them 
may work but little direct harm ; yet, by reason of 
the caustic properties they possess, if applied to a 
benign form of tumour they will gradually and 
painfully eat it away, and so obviate the much 
more satisfactory and much less painful use of the 
knife; others are actively injurious, all are alike 
productive of mischief if they delay for a time the 
obtaining of competent professional advice, in a 
disease the early recognition and proper treatment 
of which is of such vital importance to the patient. 

Cancrum oris, or Noma, is an affection of rare 
occurrence. It is met with in ill-nourished children, 
usually as a sequela of measles. The site of the 
disease is generally the cheek; in some instances 
the floor of the mouth or the gums are primarily 
involved. Soreness of the mouth, aggravated by 
the attempt to chew the food, and foetor of the 
breath, are usually the earliest symptoms ; or the 
first thing noticed may be a swelling in one cheek, 
and on examination of the interior of the mouth a 
sloughing ulcer is discovered, and the neighbouring 
lymphatic glands are found to be enlarged. The 
gangrenous process rapidly extends, the discharge 
is exceedingly offensive, and the soft tissues are 
rapidly eaten away, and teeth may be loosened 
and the bone be exposed. In severe cases death 
may occur. In milder forms of the disease the 
patient escapes with more or less deformity as the 
result of cicatricial contraction. Treatment is 
directed to removing the bad hygienic surroundings 
usually associated with the disease, to supporting 
the patient’s strength, to the application of anti¬ 
septics, and, if necessary, of lunar caustic, or even 
of nitric acid to the surface of the ulcer. 

Candelabrum, a candlestick or lamp-stand. 
Among the ancient Greeks and Romans much 
ingenuity was displayed in the ornamentation and 
design of candelabra. 

Candia, the capital of the island of Crete, and 
once the name by which the island itself was 
knowm in Western Europe, is situated near the 
centre of the N. coast. Its only industry is the 
making of soap. Here resides the governor-general, 
and it is the seat of the Greek archbishop. 

Candle Fish {Thaleichthys pad ficus), a fish so 
closely allied to the Smelt (q.v.) as to be some¬ 
times" placed in the same genus with the name 
Osmerus thaleichthys. It is a native of the American 
side of the Pacific, and is so exceedingly fat that, 
according to Gunther, “ it is equally used as food 
and as candle.” 

Candle Flies, agroup of species of Rhynchota 
(q.v.) belonging to the genera Fulgora and Ilotinus. 
They occur "in America and China ; they are large, 
and brightly coloured, and it is to the latter fact 






Candlemas. 


( 322 ) 


Cannanore. 


that they owe their popular name. It is doubtful 
whether any of them are normally luminous. 

Candlemas, a feast in commemoration of the 
purification of the Virgin, celebrated on February 
2nd. It derives its name from the custom of hold¬ 
ing processions and shows of candles. On this 
day in the Roman Catholic Church all the candles 
for the ensuing year are consecrated. 

Candle-nut, the seed of Aleurites triloba , a 
tropical Euphorbiaceous tree, originally native to 
the Moluccas and the South Pacific. The fruit is 
fleshy and two-chambered, each chamber contain¬ 
ing one nut. The nut contains a large proportion 
of a palatable drying oil known as kekune oil in 
Ceylon, as kukui oil in the Sandwich Islands, and 
as countrv-walnut oil in commerce. It is exported 
as lamp oil from the Sandwich Islands to San 
Francisco, and is said to be equal to colza. The 
dried kernels strung on reeds are used as candles 
by the Polynesians. 

Candle-power is the measure of the luminosity 
of a source of light by comparison with a definite 
official unit known as the standard candle. This 
unit of light is supposed to be produced by a candle 
one-sixth of a pound in weight, and made to bum 
120 grains of spermaceti wax per hour. The length 
of such a candle is from to 9 inches, varying 
slightly with different makers ; its diameter is from 
*8 to ‘9 of an inch. Unfortunately spermaceti is 
not a definite chemical compound, and its composi¬ 
tion varies. The Acts of Parliament relating to the 
subject do not define this, nor do they specify the 
number and size of the threads in the wick. On 
these and other accounts the standard candle is not 
a fixed unit, a difference of as much as 25 per cent, 
being' observable in the light of two specimens. 
The French official standard is the car cel, which is 
a hollow-wick lamp burning purified colza oil, and 
giving a light of about 95 candles. [Photometry, 
Light, Lamps.] 

Candles may be defined as rods of fatty or 
waxy materials surrounding a central wick, and 
designed for purposes of illumination. The simplest 
form of candle was the “ rushlight,” made by simply 
dipping the pith of rushes into ordinary bacon or 
other fat melted in an iron pot. The process of 
manufacture is now considerably more compli¬ 
cated, and varies for the different kinds of candles. 
The chief substances employed for the manufac¬ 
ture are tallow, stearin, paraffin, ozokerit. or wax. 
For tallow candles, fat is melted and either cast 
in moulds around the wick, or, as in the primitive 
method, formed by dipping the wick into the melted 
material. Fat consists of glycerin, C 3 H 6 0 3 , in 
combination with various fatty acids, as stearic, 
palmitic, etc., and it has been found that better 
candles are obtained if instead of the fat the acid 
itself is used. This is done by suitable chemical 
operations, and stearin and composite candles are 
so obtained. The paraffin is a mixture of hydro¬ 
carbons, and is obtained by distillation of 
bituminous shale, petroleum, and mineral oils. 
Ozokerit is found native in Bohemia and Galicia. 
Wax candles cannot, like the above, be manufactured 


by casting in moulds, as the wax shrinks on cooling. 
They are generally made either by squeezing 
through a cylindrical mould, or by pouring the 
melted wax on the wick, and then working into a 
cylindrical form on smooth wood or marble. 
Beeswax or Chinese wax bleached by exposure or 
by the action of chromic acid is generally used. 
The wick is usually made of cotton yarn. In the 
burning of a candle the upper portion of the wax 
or tallow melts and runs up the wick [Capil¬ 
larity], and is there by the heat decomposed into 
combustible gases which burn round the wick. 

Candlish, Robert Smith, divine, was born in 
1807 at Edinburgh. In 1828 he was licensed to 
preach, and in 1834 was chosen minister of St. 
George’s, Edinburgh. He took a leading part in the 
disruption movement of 1843, being second in 
importance only to Dr. Chalmers, after whose death 
he became the ruling spirit in the Free Church. 
He was an eloquent preacher, and wrote a number 
of religious works. Among these were : The Atone¬ 
ment, its Reality and Extent ; An Examination of 
Mr. Maurice's Theological Essays ; and The T'ather- 
hood of God. He died in 1873. 

Candytuft. [Iberis.] 

Cane, the common name for the stems of various 
grasses and palms, especially bamboos (q.v.) and 
species of Calamus (q.v.), the latter including the 
rattans and Malacca canes. [Sugar Cane.] 

Canea, the principal commercial town in Crete, 
is situated on the N. coast and occupies the site of 
the ancient Cydonia. The articles traded in are 
oil, soap, wax, wool, fruits, and silks. 

Cane Sugar. [Sugar.] 

Canicatti, a town of Sicily in the province of 
Girgenti, is situated on the Naro. Agriculture is 
the leading pursuit. 

Canker, a disease of the horse’s foot. 

Canna, a genus of Marantacece, with edible 
rhizomes, ornamental foliage, the leaves being 
strikingly convolute, and showy yellow, orange or 
red flowers. The perianth, five of the six stamens, 
and the style are petaloid, and the capsule contains 
numerous round, hard, black seeds, whence the 
name Indian shot is sometimes applied to these 
plants. The starch-grains in the rhizomes are the 
largest known. Tous-les-mois. originally Touloula, 
is the starch of a variety of C. Indica grown in St. 
Kitt’s, and is a substitute for arrowroot, whilst a 
turmeric is obtained from another species at Sierra 
Leone. Cannas are much planted as “ foliage- 
plants.” 

Cannae, an ancient town of Italy in the province 
of Apulia, famous as the scene of the great battle 
in the summer of 215 b.c., between Hannibal and 
the Romans, when the former, with 50,000 men, 
defeated the latter, though numbering 86,000, with 
great slaughter. 

Cannanore, a seaport of Hindustan in the 
Malabar district, Madras Presidency, is the chief 
British military station in Malabar. It has several 
mosques. 







Cannel Coal. 


( 323 ) 


Canning. 


Cannel Coal, a hard black variety of coal (q.v.), 
containing about 95 per cent, carbon, and yielding 
by distillation a gas of high illuminating power. 

Cannes, a French watering-place in the de¬ 
partment of Alpes-Maritimes, is situated on the 
Mediterranean shore. As a health resort it was 
first selected by Lord Brougham. It was here, too, 
that Napoleon landed, March 1, 1815, on his return 
from Elba. It does a considerable trade in flowers, 
the produce of the surrounding country. The Duke 
of Albany died here in 1884, and the Albany 
Memorial Church of St. George of England was 
erected in his memory. 

Canni, a town of Sicily in the province of 
Palermo, is situated on a small stream of the same 
name. It has the ruins of an old Gothic castle, 
and its inhabitants are chiefly engaged in fishing. 
In the neighbourhood are the ruins of Hyccara, the 
birthplace of Lais. 

Cannibalism, the use by man of the flesh of 
his fellows for food. The word is derived from the 
Spanish canibal, a corruption of caribal — a native 
of the Caribbean Islands, with which the Spanish 
canino — dog-like, voracious, has been confused, so 
that a term of quite different signification has 
been formed from the native West Indian carib, 
which really means “ brave.” The equivalent term 
anthropophagy is of classic origin. 

It is impossible to say how or when the practice 
originated; but the first act of cannibalism probably 
took place at some long period after man’s appear¬ 
ance on this globe, for it seems pretty clearly estab¬ 
lished that the diet of the primeval race was 
frugivorous. In the present day cannibalism is con¬ 
fined to Africa, New Guinea, and some few islands 
of the South Pacific; but it is safe to assert that it has 
been practised by nearly every people at some period 
or other of its history. In classic mythology we find 
traces of it in the stories of the Cyclops and Laes- 
trygons, and of Lycaon and Thyestes. In Herodotus 
we get a circumstantial account of the cannibalism 
of the Massagetm (i. 226), and of the Isseclones 
(iv. 26). In both cases it was of the nature of a 
funeral feast, and in the latter instance seems to 
have been prompted by filial piety, as the extract 
shows :—“ As often as any one loses his father, his 
relations severally provide some cattle ; these they 
kill, and having cut them in pieces, they dismember 
also the body of the deceased, and, mixing the 
whole together, feast upon it.” Juvenal (xv. 12, 13) 
charges some of the Egyptians with the practice in 
time of scarcity, though they refrained from 
slaughtering their sacred animals for food; and St. 
Jerome credits the “ Scots ” ( i.e . the Irish) with a 
liking for what they considered the choicer por¬ 
tions, though it must be added that the reading 
is disputed. Folk-tales also bear testimony to the 
former prevalence of the custom ; and as a case in 
point one need only refer to Jach the Giant Killer. 

Endophaqy and* Exopliagy are, so to speak, re¬ 
finements of cannibalism ; where the former prevails 
only members of the tribe are eaten where the 
latter is practised, only strangers are devoured. 
[Totemism.] Among races of low culture the 


practice was at first probably due to the pressure of 
hunger, which in shipwrecks and sieges has forced 
even civilised man to subsist on the flesh of his 
fellows; indeed, so lately as 1884 English sailors 
warded otf starvation thus. Darwin ( Voyage of the 
Beagle, ch. x.) tells how the Fuegians, when pressed 
by hunger, used to kill and devour their old women 
before they killed their dogs, and that one of them 
justified this on the ground that the old women 
could not catch others, while the dogs could. 

From what may be called occasional cannibalism 
the transition to habitual cannibalism (see below) 
is easy, possibly on account of the facility with 
which the unnatural food can be procured. Another 
motive among savage tribes is fury or revenge, and 
in such cases it is chiefly a captured enemy, or one 
slain in battle, who is the victim. This motive, 
however, is almost inseparably mixed up with magic 
and religion, which among barbarous races insen¬ 
sibly grade into each other. Where magic prompts 
the practice the cannibal hopes to acquire the 
characteristic qualities of the victim on whom he 
feeds, and often chooses the heart with the idea of 
obtaining increased courage (Tylor, Early History 
of Mankind, p. 131). Cannibalism from religious 
motives is so interwoven with the doctrine of sacri¬ 
fice that the subject will be better discussed under 
that head. Habitual cannibalism—fortunately con¬ 
fined to Equatorial Africa, where among some tribes 
shambles exist for the sale of human flesh—is thus 
accounted for by Winwood Reade ( Savage Africa, 
ch. xiv.) :—“ A cannibal is not necessarily ferocious. 
He eats his fellow-creatures, not because he hates 
them, but because he likes them. A craving for 
meat to which the natives of these parts are subject, 
and for which in all their dialects there is a special 
term, may first have suggested the idea ; but I am 
rather inclined to believe that it is a practical ex¬ 
tension of the sacrificial ceremony.” One cannibal 
whom Reade questioned as to the taste of human 
flesh said that it was “ like monkey, all fat; ” and 
this perhaps accounts for Johnston’s satirical 
remark on the fondness of the natives for the flesh 
of the baboon—“ Doubtless the great resemblance 
to human flesh is not held as a drawback ” (. Kilima¬ 
njaro Expedition, p. 352), and his own feeding on 
monkeys in order “ in this lawful way to form some 
idea of the practice of cannibalism.” 

Canning 1 , The Rt. Hon. Chaeles John, 
Viscount, was born in 1812, third son of George 
Canning. After a few months in the House of 
Commons as Conservative member for Warwick, he 
was removed to the Upper House through the 
death of his mother, his two elder brothers having 
already died. In 1841 he accepted the post of 
Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs in the ministry 
of Sir Robert Peel, becoming afterwards Chief 
Commissioner of Woods and Forests with a seat in 
the Cabinet, and Postmaster-General under Lords 
Aberdeen and Palmerston. In 1856 he succeeded 
Lord Dalhousie as Governor-General of India, thus 
holding that position in the difficult times of the 
Mutiny. In 1862 he returned to England seriously 
impaired in health and was created a K.G., having 
been raised to the rank of Earl in 1859. Two 





Cannon. 


Canning 1 . ( 324 ) 


months after landing, however, he died, and was 
buried in Westminster Abbey near his father. He 
left no children and the title became extinct. 

Canning, Elizabeth, was born in 1734. A 
domestic, slie in 1753 disappeared, turning up 
again four weeks later in a hungry and half-.clothed 
condition. Her story was that while on her way 
home from a visit she had been seized by two 
men, carried to an isolated house on the Hert¬ 
fordshire Road, and subjected to ill-usage by an 
old woman to drive her to an immoral life. In two 
women, , Susannah Wells and Mary Squires, she 
identified her persecutors, who were sentenced— 
Wells to be burnt in the hand, and Squires to be 
hanged. Dissatisfied with the evidence, however, 
the Lord Mayor had the case gone into again, with 
the result that Squires was pardoned, and Canning 
was put on her trial for perjury. The result was 
that she was transported for seven years, and being 
sent to New England died in Connecticut in 1773. 

Canning, Right Hon. George, statesman, 
was born in 1770 in London. His father was the 
disinherited son of an Irish country gentleman, and, 
coming to London in 1757, settled down to a literary 
career, dying a year after the birth of his only son. 
George was adopted by his uncle, Mr. Stratford 
Canning, a city banker, and father of Lord Stratford 
de Redcliffe, and was educated at Eton and Oxford. 
In 1793 he was returned to Parliament for Newport, 
Isle of Wight, as a supporter of Pitt, and in 1796 
became Under-Secretary of State for Foreign 
Affairs, projecting in the following year The Anti- 
Jacobin, ever remembered on account of Canning’s 
Needy Knife Grinder, a satirical poem in which he 
ridiculed the “ New Philosophy,” promulgated by 
the French Republicans. In 1800 he married Miss 
Joanna Scott, sister to the Duchess of Portland, and 
herself a lady of fortune. In 1807 he became 
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in the 
Portland ministry. Through some misunderstand¬ 
ing he engaged in a duel with Lord Castlereagh, 
the Secretary for War, and was wounded, the 
quarrel leading to his withdrawal from the govern¬ 
ment. In 1822 the suicide of Lord Castlereagh 
enabled Canning to resume office, and he again 
became Foreign Minister and leader of the House of 
Commons. He is regarded as the greatest Foreign 
Minister England has yet had since Chatham. In 
1827 he became Prime Minister, but his health 
broke down, and on August 8th he died. He was 
buried near Pitt in Westminster Abbey. Besides 
being distinguished as a statesman, Canning holds 
a high place amongst orators. 

Cannock, a town of England, in the county of 
Staffordshire, is the centre of industries in iron, and 
has coal mines. Near it is Cannock Chase. 

Cannon, a great gun or field-piece, as dis¬ 
tinguished from a small-arm. Cannon were first 
used in England about the year 1335, and were then 
usually made barrel-wise, and composed of iron bars 
hooped together with heavy iron rings. They were 
afterwards made of cast iron or brass, and cast 
steel or gun-metal; and are now, as regards the 


heavier calibres, generally built up of successive 
tubes, coils and jackets of steel. Edward III. used 
cannon at the battle of Cressy, and Henry of 
Castile also used them in 1372 in his naval engage¬ 
ment with the English off La Rochelle. Breech¬ 
loading cannon seem to have been known from 
very early ages; but not until after 1860 did they 
come into common use for naval and military 
purposes. According to Sir William Monson, who 
served against the Spanish Armada, the chief cannon 
of Queen Elizabeth’s day were :— 


Name. 

Bore. 

Weight of Shot. 




inches. 

lb. 

Cannon 



8 

60 

Demi-Cannon 



(3J 

33i 

Cannon-Petro 



6 

24i 

Culverin 



5* 

HI 

Demi-Culverin . 



4 

91 

Falcon.... 




2 

Falconet 



2 

H 

Minion 



3| 

4 

Saker .... 



H 


Rabinet 



l 

1 

2 


By the end of the eighteenth century the following 
weapons, besides carronades (q.v.), were in use on 
shipboard. The guns in use about the time of 
Trafalgar were:— 


Pounders. 

Length. 

Weight. 

Calibre. 

Powder Chrg. 


ft. 

in. 

cwt. 

qrs. 

lb. 

inches. 

lb. 

oz. 

42 

9 

6 

62 

1 

0 

7 0 

13 

0 

32 

9 

6 

55 

2 

0 

6-4 

10 

10 

24 

9 

6 

50 

2 

0 

5-8 

S 

0 

24 

9 

0 

47 

3 

0 

5'8 

8 

O 

18 

9 

0 

42 

2 

0 

5-3 

6 

0 

18 

8 

0 

37 

3 

0 

5.3 

6 

0 

12 

9 

0 

34 

3 

0 

4-7 

4 

0 

12 

8 

6 

33 

1 

0 

4-7 

4 

0 

12 

7 

6 

29 

1 

0 

4-7 

4 

0 

12 

7 

0 

21 

0 

0 

4-7 

4 

0 

9 

9 

0 

31 

0 

0 

4*2 

3 

0 

9 

8 

6 

29 

2 

0 

4’2 

3 

0 

9 

»T 

i 

6 

26 

2 

0 

4'2 

3 

0 

9 

7 

0 

25 

1 

0 

4-2 

3 

0 

6 

8 

6 

22 

1 

0 

3-7 

2 

0 

6 

8 

0 

21 

2 

0 

3-7 

2 

0 

6 

7 

6 

20 

1 

0 

3-7 

2 

0 

6 

7 

0 

19 

1 

0 

3’7 

2 

0 

6 

6 

6 

18 

2 

0 

3’7 

2 

0 

6 

6 

0 

17 

2 

0 

3-7 

2 

0 

4 

5 

6 

11 

3 

0 

3-2 

1 

5 

3 

4 

6 

7 

1 

0 

2-9 

1 

0 


These guns, all, of course, muzzle-loaders, fired 
solid spherical shot, shell, grape, canister, or, some¬ 
times, bar and chain-shot. They had low velocities 
and small range and penetration. In the first quarter 
of the present century somewhat heavier weapons, 
as the 42-pounder of 84 cwt., and later the 68- 
pounder of 95 cwt. began to be introduced ; but 
until after the epoch of the Crimean war there was 
comparatively little improvement. The results of 
experiments which began to be carried out soon 
after that time led to the adoption by England of 
a formidable series of steel rifled muzzle-loading, 
built-up guns, which remained the ordinary “ service ” 
weapons until after 1880, and many of which are 
still in use on board ship. The chief of these may 
be classified as follows :— 































Cannon. 


( 325 ) 


Canon. 


Calibre. 

Weight. 

Weight of' 
Projectile. 

Weight of 
Powder. 

Muzzle 
Penetration 
of Wrought 
Iron. 

Inches. 

tons. 

lb. 

lb. 

inches. 

1(5-0 

80 

1,700 

450 

25 

12-5 

38 

810 

210 

IS 

12-0 

35 

706 

110 

16 

12-0 

25 

60S 

85 

13 

11-0 

25 

543 

85 

14 

io-o 

18 

406 

70 

13 

9-0 

12 

253 

50 

11 

8-0 

9 

175 

35 

9 

7-0 

6'5 

112 

30 

8 

7-0 

4-5 

112 

22 

7 

6“28 

3-2 

67 

8 

5 


In the meantime breech-loading guns, on the screw- 
breech-closing principle, had also been partially 
adopted, but found unsatisfactory. After 1880, 
however, the progress made by other powers obliged 
Great Britain to look for another system, and finally 
the “interrupted screw” type of breech-closing 
apparatus was adopted for heavy guns. The chief 
breech-loading guns of the leading powers are now 
as follows:— 




Calibre. 

Weight. 

Weight of 
Projectile. 

Weight of 
Powder. 

Muzzle 
Penetration 
of Wrought 
Iron. 



in hes. 

tons. 

lb. 

lb. 

inches. 


f 

16-25 

Ill 

1,800 

960 

36 0 



13-5 

67 

1,250 

630 

30-4 



120 

45 

714 

295 

22-5 



10-0 

29 

500 

250 


. 


9-2 

22 

380 

175 

20-3 



8-0 

14 

210 

118 

17-4 

H 


6-0 

5 

100 

42 

12-1 

cS 


6 0 

2 

50 

16 

8-6 

ft 


4-0 

1-3 

25 

12 

7-3 



4-0 

0-65 

25 

325 

3-0 



3-4 

0 35 

21-8 

6 


' 

3-0 

0-35 

12-3 

4 



/ 

16-54 

75 

1,984 

870 

29-4 



14-57 

71 

1,180 

546 

27-4 



13-39 

52 

926 

357 

25 "5 



13 39 

48 

926 

257 

20-3 



12-6 

38 

760 

189 

18-3 

g ( 


10-8 

27 

476 

165 

17-8 



10-8 

23 

476 

92 

14-3 

to 


7 "64 

7-8 

165 

60 

12-5 



6-49 

49 

99 

40 

10-8 



5-46 

2-63 

61-6 

13 

7-0 


\ 

3-15 


13 



r 

12-01 

35 

725 

202 

20-5 

. 


10-33 

22 

412 

125 

15-4 

* 


9.45 

19 

474 

152 

18-1 

% ( 


8-24 

13 

308 

103 

15-4 . 

g 


6-8 

5-5 

117-9 

30-9 

10-3 

o 


5-87 

4 

78-3 

33 

11-0 

< 

3-09 


12-4 




i 

17-0 

101 

2,000 

725 

32-8 



17-0 

104 

2,000 

900 

33-7 

< 

} 

5-91 

4 

80 

34 

11-2 

1-J 

< 

| 

4*72 

1-2 

32 

4-56 

5-0 

H 

•— < 

V 

3-0 






f 

12-0 

50-5 

732 

255 

23*6 



12-0 

40 

666 

144 

16-7 

. 


iro 

28 

516 

115 

15 5 

■< . 


iro 

28 

562 

132 

16-6 

S3 \ 


90 

15 

249 

64-2 

11-7 

CO 


8-0 

9-6 

172 

31*5 

9-5 

(5 


6-0 

4 

86 

18-1 

8-4 


s 

3 42 


1-2T2 




As a rule guns of 50 tons weight and upwards 
cannot be worked without the intervention of 
steam, hydraulic, or pneumatic machinery ; and, 
owing to the rapid excoriation of the bore, which is 
caused by the rush of the superheated powder- 
gases, the life of all such weapons is comparatively 
short. The newest development of the breech¬ 
loading gun is the quick-firing gun (q.v.). [See 
also Calibre, Powder, Projectile, Shell, 
High Ordnance, Explosives, Artillery, etc.] 

Cannstatt, an ancient town of Wurtemberg, is 
situated on the Neckar, four miles from Stuttgart. 
It is resorted to for its mineral springs, and has 
manufactures in woollens, cotton, iron, etc. 

Cannula, a tube used for evacuating fluids 
in certain surgical operations. It is commonly 
associated with a trochar, that is, a perforating 
instrument closely fitting the cannula and admit¬ 
ting of withdrawal from it when the puncture has 
been made. By means of a trochar and a cannula 
ascitic fluid is drawn off from the peritoneal cavity, 
hydrocele sacs are tapped and the fluid contents of 
cysts are evacuated ; sometimes the cannula is con¬ 
nected with an aspirating apparatus, as in the 
removal of fluid from the pleural cavity. The 
tracheotomy cannula is a tube of suitable shape 
inserted into the trachea to procure ready access of 
air to the lungs in cases of laryngeal obstruction. 

Cano, Alonso, painter, was born in 1601 at 
Granada. By reason of his skill he was called the 
“Michael Angelo of Spain.” In 1638 he was appointed 
painter and architect to the king, having acquired 
a reputation through his statues for the church of 
Lebrija. His wife having been murdered, he was 
suspected on account of his known ungovernable 
temper, and was subject to the torture, which, 
however, elicited no confession. He subsequently 
became a priest, and died in 1667. 

Canon, or Canyon, a Spanish name for a deep 
river-gorge with nearly perpendicular sides, such as 
those of the Colorado in the western United States. 
Canons seem to result from streams passing from 
mountains with a considerable snowfall or rainfall 
through dry, almost rainless areas. The Grand 
Canon of the Colorado is 218 miles long, from five to 
eleven miles wide, and from 4,500 to 6,000 feet deep. 
In one part the river flows in a chasm 3,000 feet deep 
and 3,000 feet wide, at the top of which is a plateau 
from five to six miles wide with walls 2,000 feet 
high, above which again is another plateau forty to 
sixty miles broad, boarded by a series of terraces 
or escarpments. The strata, cut through in the 
centre to a depth of 10,000 feet, and once continuous 
over the whole area, are nearly horizontal. The 
terraced escarpments and plateaux seem to be the 
work of ordinary sub-aerial denudation by rain, 
frost, sun, wind, and rivers, the vertical and com¬ 
paratively narrow canons marking a change to drier 
climatic conditions. 

Canon, 1. Those books of Scripture universally 
recognised as genuine and inspired, as distinguished 
from those which are apocryphal or disputed. 2. 
The name of a church dignitary connected with a 


































Canoness. 


( 326 ) 


Canon Law. 


cathedral; formerly canons were regular and 
secular , the latter living a non-monastic life, the 
former a strictly monastic. The regular canons 
no longer exist in the Church of England. To¬ 
gether with the dean the canons form the chapter 
of a cathedral. Minor canons and honorary canons 
are not included in the chapter. 3. A kind of 
musical composition, in which the voices take up, 
one after another, exactly the same melody, either 
at the same pitch or at a fixed interval. 

Canoness, a member of a religious community 
of women, living together by rule, but not bound 
by vows. Endowed societies of such women, both 
“ regular ” and “ secular ” (the latter having few or 
no rules save that of celibacy) existed in Germany 
in the Middle Ages, and down to the Revolution in 
parts of France that had once belonged to the 
German empire. Some became Protestant at the 
Reformation and still exist under the name of 
“ Stiffen (endowments) in Germany now. They 
are often restricted to ladies of noble birth. 

Canonicals, the name given to the ecclesias¬ 
tical dress of a clergyman. 

Canonisation, an act of the Pope, decreeing, 
after full inquiry, that a certain person who has 
already undergone beatification (q.v.) shall be ad¬ 
mitted to the canon , or roll of saints, and be vener¬ 
ated publicly throughout the Catholic Church. The 
custom is said to be derived from the formal author¬ 
isation of new gods by the Roman senate. Down 
to the tenth century any metropolitan (q.v.) 
could canonise a martyr on the petition of the bishop 
of a diocese, after consultation with other bishops ; 
after the tenth century eacli bishop could canonise 
(but this seems to have been hardly more than 
beatification). The first saint canonised (in the full 
sense) by a Pope was Ulrich, a bishop of Augsburg 
(993 A.D.). In 1070 Pope John XV. confined the 
power to the Pope, and in 1634 Urban VIII. laid 
down minute regulations to prevent abuse or 
mistake. The petition for canonisation is heard at 
Rome, in the presence of a “Promotor Fidei” 
(supporter of the Faith), commonly called Devil’s 
Advocate, whose duty it is to attempt to find flaws 
in the character of the proposed saint, who must 
already have been beatified, and whose worth must 
have been proved by at least two well-attested 
miracles. Three successive congregations then deal 
with the question. The third is public, the Pope 
presides, and the postulant or advocate of the saint, 
who is usually a distinguished fellow-countryman, 
formally asks three times for his admission. Twice 
the Pope replies that the will of God must be further 
explored by prayer; litanies are then sung, and at 
the third time the Pope consents, and fixes a day for 
the formal canonisation, at which (together with 
elaborately symbolic ceremonies) the statue of the 
new saint is unveiled, a mass said in his honour, 
and thanksgivings offered for the new patron and 
intercessor obtained by the Church. 

Canon Law, a collection of ecclesiastical con¬ 
stitutions for the regulation of the Church of Rome, 
consisting for the most part of ordinances of general 
and provincial councils, decrees promulgated by the 


popes with the sanction of the cardinals, and 
decretal epistles and bulls of the popes. The 
earliest canons are the apostolical canons, and 
though it has never been proved that they were the 
work of the Apostles, there is no doubt that they 
were promulgated at a very early period of eccle¬ 
siastical history. The Canon Law was first digested 
in 1151 by Gratian into the Decretum Gratiani 
or Concordia Discordantium Canonum , subsequently 
added to and continued by or at the request of 
Gregory IX. in 1230 in the Decretalia Greg or ii 
Noni, subsequently still further added to by 
Boniface VIII. in 1208 in the Sextus Decreta- 
liuni, afterwards by Clement V. in 1317, in the 
Clementine Constitutions , and completed by John 
XXII. in the Extravagantes, i.e. Riders. In addi¬ 
tion to the Canon Law properly so-called, there 
exists also a large compilation of legatine and 
provincial constitutions which are generally treated 
as forming part of the Canon Law. 

The introduction of this new code brought into 
existence a body of practitioners, commentators, and 
judges. The main object of the Canon Law was 
to establish (1) the supremacy of the ecclesiastical 
authority over the temporal, (2) the entire non-de¬ 
pendence of the clergy upon the laity, (3) that the 
laws of laymen cannot bind the Church to its pre¬ 
judice, (4) that the constitutions of princes rela¬ 
ting to ecclesiastical matters are of no authority, 
(5) that subjects owe no allegiance to an excom¬ 
municated lord. These are the most important 
doctrines of Gratian’s Decretum and Decretals. 
The encroachments of the Church upon the temporal 
power were always disfavoured in England. There 
was, indeed, a kind of national Canon Law, com¬ 
posed of legatine and provincial constitutions, in 
force in the English Church. The former were 
ecclesiastical laws enacted in national synods held 
under the Cardinals Otho and Othobon, legates 
from Pope Gregory IX. and Clement IV., in the 
reign of Henry III. The provincial constitutions 
were the decrees of provincial synods held under 
divers Primates, from Stephen Langton, in the 
reign of Henry III., to Henry Chichele in the reign 
of Henry V., and adopted also by the Province of 
York in the reign of Henry VI. 

With respect to these canons it was at the Re¬ 
formation provided by a statute passed in the 25th 
year of the reign of Henry VIII. that they should 
be reviewed by the sovereign and certain commis¬ 
sioners, but that till such review should be made all 
canons, constitutions, ordinances, and synodals 
provincial, being then already made and not 
repugnant to the law of the land, or the king’s 
prerogative, should still be in force. No review 
took place in Henry’s time, but under Edward VI. 
a new code of ecclesiastical law was promulgated 
by a commission appointed by the Crown under 
statute. The confirmation of this was prevented 
by the death of the king; and although the project 
for a review of the old canons was revived in the 
reign of Elizabeth, it was soon dropped, and has 
not since been proceeded with. 

So much of the English canons which existed pre¬ 
viously to the statute of Henry VIII. before referred 
to as not repugnant to the Common or Statute Law 





Canons of Descent. 


( 327 ) 


Cantabri. 


are still in force in this country. It was, however, 
long since decided that the canons of the Con¬ 
vocation of Canterbury in 1603 (which, though 
confirmed by King James I., never received the 
sanction of Parliament) do not (except so far as 
they are declaratory of the ancient Canon Law) 
bind the laity of this country. It has also been 
decided that not only the clergy but the laity were 
bound by the then existing canons, but that the 
canons of 1603 (and generally all canons subse¬ 
quently made) never having received parliamentary 
sanction do not proprio vigore bind the laity, but 
the clergy only. In the ecclesiastical courts, con¬ 
sisting of the Archdeacon’s Court, the Consistory 
Courts, the Court of Arches, the Court of Peculiars, 
the Prerogative Courts of the two Archbishops, the 
Faculty Court, and the Privy Council, which is the 
Appeal Court, founded entirely upon custom, the 
Canon Law is, under certain restrictions, used. It is 
also used in the courts of the Universities of Oxford 
and Cambridge, but the Canon Law in this case 
derives additional support from the Acts of Parlia¬ 
ment which confirm the charters of these bodies. 
They are all, however, subject to the control of the 
Common Law. now administered by the High Court 
of Justice, which possesses the exclusive power 
of expounding all statutes relating to the eccle¬ 
siastical courts, and will prohibit them from going 
beyond the limits of their jurisdiction, and from all 
of them there lies an appeal to the sovereign in the 
last resort. Henry VIII. in the 27th year of his reign 
issued a mandate to the University of Cambridge 
that there should thenceforth be no lectures on 
Canon Law, nor any degrees whatever in that 
faculty conferred in the university for the future. 
Degrees in Canon Law have ever since been dis¬ 
continued in England. 

Canons of Descent. [Descent.] 

Canopus, or Canobus, an ancient city of 
Egypt, between Alexandria and the western mouth 
of the Nile. It had a celebrated temple of Serapis, 
and the Canopic vases were vases used by the priests 
to hold the intestines of embalmed bodies. 

Canopy, originally a mosquito net (Greek 
conops , a gnat) ; hence its support overhanging the 
bed. Ecclesiastically, it means the covering of an 
altar, throne, or tomb. In architecture it is applied 
also to ornamental projections over doors and 
windows. There are richly carved and ornamented 
canopies in the Decorated and Perpendicular styles. 

Canosa, ancient name Canusium , a town of 
S. Italy in the province of Bari, is situated on the 
right bank of the Aufidus or Ofauto, about six miles 
from Cannre. It is famous for the antiquities that 
have been found here, and its ruins. 

Canossa, an ancient castle of N. Italy, is 
celebrated as the spot where the Emperor Henry IV. 
remained shivering for three days beseeching Pope 
Gregory VII. to remove the ban of excommunica¬ 
tion placed upon him. 

Canova, Antonio, sculptor, was born in 1757 at 
Possagno, a Venetian village. Displaying as a boy 
special talent in modelling, he won the patronage of 
a Venetian senator, who apprenticed him to a 


sculptor at Bassano. In 1779 he was sent to Borne 
with an introduction to the Venetian ambassador, 
and there produced his Apollo, and Theseus with 
the Minotaur. He next undertook, in 1783, the 
monument of Pope Clement XIV. in the Church 
of the Apostles, and in 1792 the monument of 
Pope Clement XIII. in St. Peter’s. Among 
his imaginative performances may be men¬ 
tioned Venus and Adonis, Psyche holding a 
Butterfly, Repentant Magdalene, Hercules hurling 
Lichas into the Sea, Creugas and Bamoxenos, etc. 
He also did the monument of the tomb of the 
Archduchess Christina of Austria, 1797, and in 1803 
executed in marble the colossal model of a statue of 
the King of Naples. About this time, too, was com¬ 
pleted his Perseus with the head of Medusa, a work 
that increased his renown more than all his former 
efforts. In 1802 appointed curator of all Boman 
works of art in the Papal states, he was invited by 
Bonaparte to Paris to make the model of his colossal 
statue. Later works were a colossal Washington, 
Venus rising from the Bath, The Graces rising from 
the Bath, Bancing Girl, etc. In 1815 he was sent to 
Paris to recover the works of art that had been taken 
away from Borne, and on his return was created 
Marquis of Ischia. He died in 1822 at Venice. 

Canrobert, Francois Certain, French 
marshal, was born in 1809 at St. Cere. After 
receiving a military training at Saint Cvr, he dis¬ 
tinguished himself in the Algerian war of 1835. He 
aided Louis Napoleon in the coup dCetat of 1851, 
and commanded in the Crimea under Saint Arnaud, 
on whose death he succeeded to the chief command. 
Owing to some differences with Lord Baglan he, 
in May 1855, resigned his command to General 
Pelissier. In the Italian war of 1859 he led the 
third division of the French army, being present at 
the battles of Magenta and Solferino, and in the 
Franco-German war he acted under Marshal 
Bazaine, with whom he was shut up in Metz, being 
retained for some time as a prisoner in Germany. 
Thereafter, he was returned to the Chamber for the 
department of Lot, but being defeated at the 
election of 1879 entered the Senate. 

Cant, Andrew, was born about 1610, and in 
1638, having entered the Presbyterian ministry, 
was incumbent of Pitsligo, whence he was trans¬ 
ferred to Aberdeen. He served as chaplain to 
the army of the Covenanters, but is said to have 
combined an unbridled hatred of episcopacy with 
a fearless devotion to the Loyalist cause. Once 
his denunciation of Cromwell nearly cost him his 
life, but he boldly laid bare his breast, and bade his 
assailants strike.* At the Bestoration he was ejected, 
dying in 1664. The word “cant” has been er¬ 
roneously supposed to be derived from his name. 

Cantabile, in Music, a term applied to move¬ 
ments intended to be performed in a graceful and 
flowing style. 

Cantabri, in ancient times a tribe of Spain 
occupying the centre of the N. side from the moun¬ 
tains to the coast. They were a fierce, savage 
people, first definitely subdued by Augustus, B.c. 25, 








Cantacuzene. 


( 328 ) 


Canterbury. 


and a revolt among them was suppressed by Agrippa, 
b.c. 18. Probably the modern Basques are their 
descendants. 

Cantacuzene, or Cantacuzenus, the name 
of a distinguished Greek family that came into 
prominence in the thirteenth century, and still has 
representatives in Central Europe. 

1. John V. was prime minister to the Byzantine 
Emperor Andronicus III., and regent during the 
minority of his son, John Palseologus (1341). The 
intrigues of the empress-mother, Anne, compelled 
him to usurp the purple, and a civil war ensued, 
which resulted in his joint occupation of the throne 
with his ward (1347). Dissensions broke out again, 
and in 1355 he retired to a monastery, where, under 
the name of Joasaphus Christodulus, he composed 
his famous History of the Byzantine Empire from 
1320 to 1355. The date of his death is unknown, 
but he is said to have lived over a century. 

2. Matthew, son of the foregoing, born about 
1325, asserted his title after his father’s retirement, 
but was defeated by John, made prisoner, and 
forced to enter a cloister. 

3. Serban, on the strength of his supposed 
descent from John V., claimed the imperial crown, 
but was imprisoned in 1672. Released by the 
Turks, to whom he feigned submission, he became 
Waiwode of Wallachia in 1678. He conspired with 
Leopold of Austria and the Czar to shake off the 
Mussulman yoke, but just as he was about to 
take up arms he died (1685), poisoned, it is said, by 
his nephew Constantine Brancovan. 

4. Demetrius, Waiwode of Moldavia, was 
driven out by his subjects in 1679, owing to his 
tyranny. He was subsequently restored, but was 
finally deposed by Ibrahim Pasha in 1685. 

5. Constantine Brancovan Bessaraba, be¬ 
came Waiwode of Wallachia in 1688. As a vassal 
of the Porte he was compelled to give the Turks his 
nominal support in their struggle with Austria, but 
secretly he assisted the Emperor Leopold, who 
made him a Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, a 
title still preserved in the family. In 1699 the 
peace of Carlowitz, followed by the death of 
Leopold (1705), deprived him of any hope of relief 
from Turkish bondage by the help of Austria, and 
he therefore turned to Peter the Great of Russia. 
His designs were known at Constantinople, and 
Demetrius Cantimir of Moldavia was employed to 
effect his ruin, but the latter also conspired with 
Russia, and was denounced by his rival. In 1711 a 
Russian army was sent to invade Wallachia, being 
assured of Constantine’s help, but the Grand Vizier 
was first in the field, got possession of the supplies 
destined for the Muscovite troops, and forced them 
into a treaty which made Wallachia and Moldavia 
absolutely dependent on the Porte. Constantine, 
in spite of his detected treachery, was allowed to 
remain in power until 1714, when he was carried to 
Constantinople, cruelly tortured, and executed with 
his four sons. His grandson was spared, from whom 
the Brancovans of to-day trace their descent. 

6. Stephen III., cousin and successor of the 
foregoing, was used by Turks for two years as 
nominal ruler of Wallachia after the extinction of 


the Brancovans. In 1716, however, he was deposed 
and put to death, and with him ended the Canta¬ 
cuzene dynasty in the Principalities. 

Cantarini, Simone, also known as Simone 
de Pesaro or “ The Pesarese,” born at Pesaro, N. 
Italy, in 1612, studied painting under Guido Reni 
at Bologna, and became a skilful imitator of his 
master’s style. Under the patronage of the duke he 
migrated to Mantua ; his temper lost him his friend, 
and he then moved to Verona, dying there in 1648. 
His best pieces are a San Domenico, a Magdalene, 
several portraits, and some spirited etchings. His 
colouring is good, but he lacks originality. 

Cantata, originally a musical recitation of a 
story in verse by one person. Later, an air was 
introduced at certain points ; this form was much 
cultivated in the seventeenth century. A more 
elaborate form was the Church Cantata, brought to 
perfection by Sebastian Bach. In modern times 
sacred cantatas are a kind of minor and less elabo¬ 
rate oratorio. Secular cantatas are described as 
lyric dramas, intended only for musical, not for 
theatrical representation. 

Canteen (French cantine, waterbottle), a mili¬ 
tary drinking bottle, or flask for carrying water ; 
more commonly the place in barracks or in a camp 
where drink is permitted to be sold. In the English 
army canteens are under regimental management, 
and frequently supply groceries, stationery, etc. 

Canterbury, a province occupying all the 
central portion of South or Middle Island, New 
Zealand, and having Nelson to the north, Otago to 
the south, Westland to the west, and the Pacific 
Ocean to the east. The total length is about 200 
miles, the breadth 150 miles, and the area 13,578 
square miles. On the western border rises the 
range known as the Southern Alps, forming almost 
an impassable barrier. Mount Cook, the highest 
peak, attains an elevation of 12,460 feet, and 
Mounts Stokes, Murchison, Darwin, Brewster, 
Forbes, and Tyndall are not much inferior, their 
summits being clothed in perpetual snow. From 
the huge glaciers on their flanks descend numerous 
streams, such as the Ashburton, Ashley, Waima- 
kariri, Rakaia, Selwyn, etc., for the most part swift, 
shallow, and subject to floods. The country slopes 
gradually- down to the east in a series of wide 
grassy expanses, called the Canterbury Downs, 
which extend over 3,000,000 acres and afford 
pasturage for countless flocks of sheep. Farther 
east still is Banks’ Peninsula, a volcanic district of 
great fertility, with Akaroa harbour at its extremity. 
The first colony was established in 1850 by a 
Church of England Association, under the delusive 
idea that it might be possible to rear up a kind of 
Anglican Utopia at the Antipodes. The experi¬ 
ment failed from an ecclesiastical point of view, 
and was many years before it proved an economical 
success. Christchurch, the capital, is connected 
by railway with the chief port, Lyttelton, which is 
situated on Pegasus Bay to the north of Banks’ 
Peninsula, and the railway is now further extended 
to the south-west. Other towns are Timaru, 
Kaiapoi, Rangiora. Sheep-farming has hitherto 
been the principal industry, but wheat, fruits, and 







Canterbury. 


( 329 ) 


Canterbury, 


flax are grown with profit. There is excellent 
timber, and the culture of silk has met with some 
success. The mineral resources are not fully 
explored, but iron, coal, building-stone, and precious 
metals have been worked advantageously. 

Canterbury, on the river Stour, in the county 
of Kent, 50 miles S.E. of London, is a municipal 
and parliamentary borough, returning one member, 
a county in itself, and the centre of the metropo¬ 
litan see. Few English cities can boast of greater 
antiquity. Druidical remains point to its existence 
before the invasion of the Romans, who knew it as 
Durovernum, fortified it with walls, and evidently had 


period to the latest phase of Early English. The 
scene of the murder of Thomas i\ Becket (1170), 
which made the church a resort for pilgrims, the 
spot occupied by his shrine, until it was swept away 
by Henry VIII., the monuments of the Black Prince, 
of Henry IV. and his queen, and of many arch¬ 
bishops, and the remains of the twelfth century 
glass and of Norman frescoes, are points of great 
interest. The crypt contains a church set apart by 
Queen Elizabeth for the use of French Protestants, 
and still retained by them. Connected with the 
ecclesiastical foundation, which consists of a dean, 
six canons, four minor canons, six preachers, and 
other officers, is the king’s school established by 



canterbury cathedral, from the gateway. (From a photograph by G. W. Wilson and Co., Aberdeen.) 


a flourishing settlement there. Under the Saxons 
it assumed its present name Cantwara-byrig, or 
“ borough of the men of Kent,” and as the capital 
of Ethelbert, King of Kent and Bretwalda, was the 
scene of that sovereign’s baptism by Augustine in 
596. The archiepiscopal see was then founded, and 
the abbey of St. Augustine and the priory of Christ 
Church were raised. The former fell into decay 
and ruin, but in 1848 was made the site of a 
missionary college, in which the beautiful four¬ 
teenth centurv gateway and the remains of the 
abbot’s hall and fine church are preserved. The 
latter grew into the cathedral church, which was 
founded on the remains of a Roman church by 
Lanfranc in 1070, but the existing building really 
dates from Anselm's enlargement of the structure 
in 1172, and was not completed until 1500. It has 
since been restored and repaired at various times. 
The architecture illustrates various successive 
developments of art and taste from the Norman 


Henry VIII. Of the twenty other churches, ancient 
and modern, within the limits of the borough, that 
of St. Martin, where Bertha, Ethelbert's queen, 
worshipped, and where the king was baptised, 
bears traces of Saxon masonry, and is in many ways 
remarkable. There are remains also of several 
convents, and three venerable hospitals still serve 
as almshouses. Parts of the original city walls, 
with additions of later date, may be seen, and the 
Dane John, a conical mound, now the centre of a 
public garden, is attributed to Danish hands. The 
Norman keep, erected by Bishop Gundulph, and 
the west gate of the city (1380), with sundry 
specimens of domestic architecture, complete the 
list of secular antiquities, for of the Chequers inn, 
where Chaucer’s pilgrims alighted, scarcely a 
vestige is left. Among modern institutions may be 
mentioned the school of the Clergy Orphan 
Corporation on St. Thomas’s Hill, the Kent and 
Canterbury hospital, the Guildhall (a small building 


















Cantharis. 


( 330 ) 


Canton. 


disfigured by a brick casing), and the barracks, 
which serve now as a depot for all cavalry regiments 
quartered abroad, and the Sidney Cooper school of 
art. The market is well supplied with sheep, cattle, 
and agricultural produce, especially hops, which are 
grown to perfection in the district. Some linen and 
woollen goods are made, and brewing is an important 
local industry. There are stations on the London 
Chatham and Dover and South-Eastern Railways. 

Cantharis, Cantharidin, the active principle 
obtained from the Spanish fly, is a powerful irritant, 
and is employed in medicine as a means of pro¬ 
ducing vesication or blistering of the skin. There 
are several pharmacopoeial preparations, of which 
the most important are the plaster and ointment of 
cantharides ; the charta epispastica, and the liquor 
epispasticus. Cantliaridin, when absorbed into the 
system, has a specific action upon the kidneys, and 
blisters must be very cautiously applied, if they 
are used at all, in the subjects of kidney disease. 
[Blisters.! 

Canticles, literally short portions of Scripture 
or of theological compositions sung in the church. 
But the name is generally applied to what is called 
in the English Church “ The Song of Solomon,” and 
in the Roman Church the “ Song of Songs.” Critics 
have held many and widely differing views of it, 
some thinking it an allegorical setting forth of the 
mystic union of Christ and His Church—a view 
favoured by the compilers of the Authorised Version 
of the Scriptures—others taking it as describing 
Christ’s dealings with the individual soul, and others 
again considering it to be neither more nor less 
than a drama of earthly love. Among the Jews its 
mystic interpretation is that it sets forth God’s 
dealings with His chosen people. It appears that 
the Jewish doctors declared it canonical about 
90 A.D., but it was not looked on before the Christian 
era as allegorically expressing Jehovah’s relation to 
His people. The later modern criticism, which is 
rationalistic in tone, looks on it as either a com¬ 
plete love poem or as a collection of many frag¬ 
ments. Some of the rather warm images and 
descriptions in the poem are, on this theory, songs 
of the harem intended to enthral the imagina¬ 
tion of the heroine. It remains to be pointed 
out that the authorised translation is said to con¬ 
tain some inaccuracies caused by the desire of the 
translators to make the poem harmonise with their 
foregone conclusions as to its nature. 

Cantilever, in Engineering , is a special type of 
girder which, since its introduction on the Forth 
Bridge, is being generally adopted on girder bridges 
of large span all over the world. Essentially it 
means a girder fixed at one end and free at the 
other. The free ends of two cantilevers pointing 
towards each other may be connected by placing a 
smaller girder across, each free end supporting half 
the weight of the girder. The greatest strength of 
section is wanted at the fixed end, and consequently 
large cantilevers cannot be made uniform for their 
whole length, but must taper towards the free end. 
(See plate of Bridges, I. p. 321.) They are usually 
made of steel, and, a’s with ordinary metal girders, 
open lattice-work is used to brace the top and 


bottom booms together. On the Forth Bridge 
cantilevers are placed back to back so as to form 
three double brackets and therefore four spans, 
each bracket being balanced by the symmetrical 
disposition of its two cantilevers. 

Canting is the term employed in the science 
of arms to denote what is otherwise understood 
by the word “ punning .” It is used when the arms, 
crest, or motto bear some evident relation to, or are 
a play upon, the name of the family to whom they 
belong ; and also when the motto bears this same 
relation to the coat or crest.- Though by some 
people this class of heraldry has been rather des¬ 
pised, the case should really be very much the reverse, 
as nearly all the armorial bearings which it has 
been possible to trace to their actual origin have 
proved to be of this character. A good example of 
“ canting ” insignia is afforded by the Barnard 
family, who bear “ Argent a bear rampant sable, 
muzzled or ” and for a crest “ Out of a ducal 
coronet or, a demi-bear as in the arms.’ The 
motto is “ Fer et perfer,” the translation of which— 
bear and forbear (fore-bear)—is robbed somewhat 
of its Christian sentiment by the evident pun 
which has been perpetrated. 

Canton is one of the subordinaries of heraldry, 
and is a small square, which, unless specifically 
stated to be on the sinister side, always occupies 
the dexter chief corner of the escutcheon. It is 
supposed to contain the ninth part of the “ field.” 
An honourable augmentation is frequently placed 
upon a canton, and a very general example of this 
is shown in the manner in which the “ badge of 
Ulster ” is usually displayed upon a simple coat ( i.e . 
not quartered) by the baronets of Ireland and the 
United Kingdom. A modern case, which may 
be quoted, is that of the late Sir William Gull, Bart., 
to whose arms were added a canton ermine, thereon 
an ostrich feather argent, quilled or enfiled by the 
coronet which encircles the badge of the Prince of 
Wales. 

Canton (Chin. Sa/ng- Citing, City of Perfection), 
the capital of the province of Quang-tung, China, is 
a port on the left bank of the Canton or Pearl 
river (Chu-Kiang), about 70 miles from its mouth 
and 45 miles above the Bogue (q.v.). The city 
proper is surrounded by a brick wall six or seven 
miles in circumference, with twelve gates. This 
area is divided by an inner wall into the Old Town 
to the north, the seat of the government offices and 
the residence of the Tartar population ; and the 
New Town, which is the Chinese quarter. The 
suburbs are extensive, and at least a quarter of a 
million of people live entirely on boats. Along the 
river bank is a space of 24 acres, surrounded by a 
granite wall and a canal, for the foreign factories. 
The native streets are very narrow, and the houses, 
mostly of one storey, are built of brick, but the 
poorer classes are lodged in mud huts. The river, 
dividing into two channels, forms the island of 
Honam, upon which is a great temple, and many 
other joss-houses and pagodas are scattered over 
the city, which also possesses a Mohammedan 
mosque. Canton is a great educational centre, and 
the great hall of examinations will accommodate 






Canton. 


( 331 ) 


Canzone. 


7,000 students. There are several missionary 
establishments and an English and American 
hospital. Daily steamers run to Hong-Kong and 
Macao. An enormous trade is done here, though it 
has declined somewhat in the last thirty years, the 
exports being tea, silk, nankeen, camphor, mother- 
of-pearl, tortoiseshell, and China ware, whilst 
cotton and woollen cloths, opium, furs, watches, 
etc., are imported. Canton was bombarded by the 
British in 1841, 1847, and 1856, and in 1858 was 
occupied by the allies as a guarantee for the war- 
indemnity and held until 1862. 

Canton, a word used in Switzerland to denote 
a subdivision of the country, forming a separate 
territorial state, having a government of its own ; 
but being at the same time a member of the Swiss 
Confederation. The derivation of the word is 
disputed, though it doubtless has some reference 
to cutting off an angle and so, in a measure, squaring 
a piece of land. The word in different forms exists 
in many languages. In Kent (itself an example of 
the word) a portion of land upon which the right 
of cutting brush-wood is leased is still called a 
cant or kant. 

Canton, John, was born at Stroud, Gloucester¬ 
shire, in 1718, and brought up as a weaver of broad¬ 
cloth. He spent his leisure in the study of mathe¬ 
matics, and in 1739 got a mastership in a school at 
Spitalfields. He now busied himself with electricity, 
and in 1750 won the gold medal of the Royal 
Society for his method of making artificial magnets. 
He subsequently served on the council of that body, 
and we owe to him the pith-ball electrometer, and 
the suggestion of the compressibility of water, and 
of the^ opposite electricity of clouds. He died in 
1772. 

Cantonment, a word generally restricted to a 
kind of permanent camp or military town adopted 
for the use of British troops in India. It generally 
consists of barracks for European soldiers, with 
bungalows and gardens for the officers, magazines 
and parade grounds, huts for the native soldiers, 
and a bazaar for the camp-followers and other 
hangers-on of military life. Readers of the accounts 
of the Indian Mutiny will remember how, when the 
Sepov regiments besieged their officers in the 
barracks and mess-rooms, the more distant bunga¬ 
lows were often the scene of plunder and of the 
slaughter of women and children. 

Canton River, or Pearl River (Chin CJrn- 
Kianq ), is the lower part of the Pe-Kiang, which is 
navigable for 300 miles through the provinces of 
Quang-tung and Kiang-See. It is joined about four 
miles west of Canton by a branch of the Si-Kiang. 
Near the city it is crowded with craft of all kinds, 
and has depth enough for vessels of 1.000 tons. 
Foreign ships, however, usually unload at W hampoa, 
15 miles lower down. Between Canton and the 
sea it has many islands, some of which are foitified, 
and below the Bogue, or Bocca Tigris, it forms a 
large estuary called the “ Outer "W aters. 

Cantil, CESARE, born at Brivio in 1805, became 
very early a professor of literature at Sondno, 


subsequently moving to Como and then to Milan. 
His liberal opinions, expressed both in prose and 
verse, brought upon him the wrath of the Austrians, 
who in 1842 imprisoned him. He employed his 
solitude in composing his Storia Universale, a work 
of merit as well as of magnitude. His other more 
important books are a History of Italian Litera¬ 
ture, a History of the Last Hundred Years , and 
Letture Giovanelli , a popular compilation for 
educational purposes. He took part in the unsuc¬ 
cessful Piedmontese rising of 1848, and for some 
years found a refuge at Turin. The Austrians, 
however, allowed him to return, as his influence 
was more formidable abroad. He died in 1881. 

Canute, or Cnut, the son of Sweyn or Swend, 
King of Denmark and England, was born about 
995, and succeeded his father in 1014. The English 
refused at first to recognise him, and recalled 
Edmund Ironsides, who for two years maintained 
a fierce struggle against the foreigners, but in 1016 
was fain to agree to a division of the kingdom. 
Next .year Edmund died, perhaps of treachery at 
which his rival connived, and Canute became sole 
monarch. Until he had crushed out the opposition 
of the Saxon element his rule was stern and cruel. 
He banished Edmund’s sons, put Edwy his brother 
to death, and imposed a danegeld; but when his 
position was secure, he adopted a wise conciliatory 
policy, administering justice with impartiality, 
promoting men of native race such as Godwin, and 
in every way advancing the prosperity of his people. 
The rebuke which he gave his courtiers, who tried 
to persuade him that he could command the waves, 
proves his reputation for common sense, and the song 
composed by him as he rowed past the monastery 
of Ely shows that he cultivated the English 
tongue. He conquered Norway, extended his 
power over Wales and Scotland, and consolidated 
a great northern empire. On his return from a 
pilgrimage to Rome he founded the monasteries of 
St." Bennet, St. Edmund’s Bury, and Holme. He 
died in 1035 at Shaftesbury, and his wide dominions 
were soon dismembered after his death. 

Canvas (Lat. cannabis, hemp), a kind of coarse, 
unbleached, hempen cloth, used for sails, paintings, 
etc. “ Sail canvas is 18 to 24 in. wide, and numbered 
0 to 8, 0 being thickest. A bolt of canvas is 39 to 40 
yards long, and weighs 28 to 48 lbs. Also, the 
unbleached cloth, regularly woven in squares, which 
is used for tapestry work. 

Canvasback Duck (Fuligina vallisneria ), 
a North American duck, highly esteemed for the 
table. The male is white with wavy black 
markings, head tinged with black, neck glossy 
chestnut, black pectoral belt. According to 
Nuttall, the principal food of these birds is not the 
freshwater plant which serves them for a specific 
name, but the marine grass-wrack [Zostera 
marina). [Pochard.] 

Canzone, a short song in which the music is 
much more important than the words. _ Sometimes, 
also, the term has been applied to instrumental 
compositions. 







Caoutchouc. 


( 332 ) 


Cape Colony. 


Caoutchouc, or Indiarubber, a tough elastic 
substance obtained by drying the milky sap of 
certain tropical trees, as Jatroplia elastica, Siplionia 
catechu , etc. It is composed of carbon and hydrogen, 
consisting of a variable mixture of different hydro¬ 
carbons. It is soluble in oil of turpentine, benzene, 
and carbon disulphide. If cooled it becomes hard 
and loses its elasticity, but again becomes supple 
by warming. It is applied to a variety of purposes, 
as for the manufacture of elastic tubing, gas bags, 
etc., and to render fabrics impermeable and water¬ 
proof. When combined with two or three per cent, 
of sulphur it becomes more supple and elastic, and 
is known as vulcanised caoutchouc. If combined 
with more sulphur it becomes harder and capable 
of taking a polish. It is then known as Ebonite or 
Vulcanite, and is much used for electrical instru¬ 
ments and other purposes. 

Capacity has the same signification in com¬ 
mon parlance as content or volume in mathematics. 
In physics the term indicates power of holding or 
retaining. For instance, the capacity of a given 
body for heat, water, etc. In legal phraseology it 
means the capability or otherwise of persons to do 
certain acts, as, for instance, to purchase or convey 
property, to commit crime of any kind, to hold 
office, etc. 

Capacity, Electrical, of a conductor, is 
understood to mean the quantity of electricity 
contained on it when charged to unit potential, i.e. 
it is the quantity required to produce a charge at 
the standard intensity of electrical pressure or 
potential (q.v.). Inasmuch as the electrical pres¬ 
sure depends on the position of the conductor in 
relation to other bodies, so must the capacity of 
the body vary as its position varies. The standard 
capacity is that of a conductor which requires just 
one coulomb of electricity—the unit quantity, to 
bring its potential to one volt —the unit potential. 
This unit capacity is called the farad, but is so 
great that for practical purposes the unit adopted 
is its millionth part, the microfarad. The capacity 
of a mile length of ordinary submarine cable is 
about one-third of a microfarad. 

Caparisoned is an heraldic term applied to 
horses, and is used to signify that the animal is 
completely harnessed. Though occasionally used 
alone, it is more frequently to be found in conjunc¬ 
tion with the word “bridled.” A horse may be 
caparisoned in the ancient or the modern style, and 
the age of the crest will generally be a sufficient 
guide upon this point, but the word “ caparisoned ” 
is so indefinite as to this, and includes with some 
writers so much, and with others so little, that it 
is wiser (as is usually done) to supplement the 
blazon with other and more particular details. 

Cape Breton, an island at the extremity of 
Nova Scotia, British North America, being separated 
from the mainland by the Strait of Canso, nowhere 
more than miles broad. It is about 100 miles 
long by 85 miles broad, and has an area of 3,120 
square miles. The coast is deeply indented, and 
the Bras d’Or, a land-locked gulf, extends for 50 
miles inland, and is connected with the Atlantic by 


a canal. There are many small rivers and some 
lakes. The surface is diversified but not moun¬ 
tainous, the greatest elevation being 1,800 feet in 
the N. Much of it is covered with forests of pine, 
oak, birch, and maple—a source of considerable 
wealth. Only a small portion is under cultivation, 
but the yield of cereals, turnips, and potatoes is 
good. Numbers of horses, cattle, and sheep are 
reared, and cheese and butter are largely exported. 
Coal, limestone, and gypsum are worked, and iron- 
ore and slate are plentiful. Fishing, however, is 
the chief industry, the rivers yielding immense 
supplies of salmon, whilst the coast abounds with 
all sorts of sea fish. The island was discovered by 
Sebastian Cabot, and Lord Ochiltree settled a small 
colony there in 1629, but was expelled by the 
French, who held it (under the name of He 
Koyale) more or less continuously until its capture 
by Boscawen in 1756, since which it has been a 
British possession. It was finally incorporated 
with Nova Scotia in 1819, and sends five members 
to the Canadian parliament. The inhabitants are 
chiefly Scots or French, with some Irish and a 
few Indians. It is divided into four counties; 
Sydney is the capital, Arichat and Port Hood being 
towns of some importance. 

Cape Coast Castle, or Cabo Corso, a fortified 
town, the capital of the British settlements on 
the coast of Guinea, West Africa. The castle 
itself occupies a granite rock projecting into the 
sea, and is flanked by Forts William and Victoria. 
Moisture, heat, a swampy soil, and a deficiency of 
drinking water make the climate unhealthy, but in 
the last ten years many sanitary improvements 
have been effected. The natives, principally Fanti 
negroes, with an admixture of Kroomen and muiat- 
toes, live in mud huts. The Portuguese were the 
earliest colonists, but they were displaced by the 
Danes (1658) and the Dutch (1659). The English 
occupied the place in 1664, and have held it ever 
since, the government being in the hands of a 
president, who is subordinate to the Governor of 
the Gold Coast. Palm oil, maize, gold dust, and 
tortoiseshell are the chief exports. 

Cape Cod, a peninsula on the coast of Massa¬ 
chusetts, U.S.A., having a length of 65 miles, by a 
breadth of about 8 miles, and enclosing in its bend 
Cape Cod Bay, which opens northwards into Massa¬ 
chusetts Bay, and has on its western shore the port 
of Plymouth, where the Mayjiomer disembarked the 
Pilgrim Fathers (1620). A railway runs part of 
the way up the peninsula. 

Cape Colony, or the “ Colony of the Cape of 
Good Hope,” is a British possession in South Africa, 
comprising not only the colony proper, but the Port 
of St. John’s in Pondoland, and Walfisch Bay with 
some adjoining islets in the German territory of 
Damaraland and Great Namaqualand. Originally 
consisting of a comparatively small area in the 
vicinity of the Cape of Good Hope, it now extends 
from the Indian Ocean to the South Atlantic, a 
stretch of 450 miles, and northward for 600 miles 
to the German Protectorate, the whole including 
Walfisch Bay, the latest annexation of the Transkei 





Cape Colony. 


( 333 ) 


Cape Colony. 


territories, and the Diamond Fields, being upwards 
of 234,000 square miles, with a coast-line of nearly 
1,200 miles. At a distance of from 100 to 150 miles 
from the coast there are ranges of mountains known 
in different portions of their stretch across the coun¬ 
try as the Kahlamba or Drakenberg, the Stormberg, 
the Zwarte Bergen, the Zuurberg, the Sneeuwberg, 
the Winterberg, the Nieuweveld Mountains, the 
Roggeveld, and the Kamiesberg. The average height 
of this mountainous belt is nearly 6,000 ft., the 
highest point being Catkin Peak (10,300 ft.), Compass 
Peak (8,300 ft.), and Bulbhouders Bank, which is 
7,300 ft. above the sea. These mountains, however, 
actually consist of parallel ranges intersected by 
deep ravines or “ kloofs,” the central range, in which 
are the peaks named, being the “ divide ” between 
the coast-flowing streams and the tributaries of the 
Orange river in the north. From the sea to the 
foot of these mountains in the south-western part 
of the colony lies the chief grain and wine- 
producing country ; in the south there are extensive 
forests, while tobacco and maize are largely culti¬ 
vated in the almost tropical districts along the 
S.E. coasts. A series of terraces, or plateaux, of 
which the supporting walls are the ranges in 
question, form characteristic features of the colony 
from the sea inward. One of the most remarkable 
of these is the Great Karroo, an elevated region 
extending from W. to E. between the two upper 
ranges for 300 miles, with a breadth of 70 miles. 
For the greater part of the year it is dry and barren, 
though, owing to its elevation (3,000 ft.), cool; but 
during the rainy season it is covered with a 
luxuriant pasture on which feed vast flocks of 
sheep, herds of cattle, and droves of horses. Here 
also ostrich farming is carried on, and though this 
industry is no longer so lucrative as in its earlier 
years, between 1866-90 over a thousand tons of 
feathers were exported from the Cape. The 
still more elevated country to the north of the 
mountains is a part of the great table-land of 
Africa. Like the more southern districts, it 
supports sheep. In addition it contains the 
chief mineral districts, including the gold and 
diamond fields which, within a few years, have so 
largely contributed to the world’s wealth, and the 
prosperity of what was previously mainly an 
agricultural and pastoral colony. 

The rivers of the Cape Colony, though numerous, 
are not navigable for large craft or for long 
distances, and most of them are useless for 
irrigating purposes, being, except when swollen by 
the rains, mere shallow torrents flowing in deep 
“kloofs” with precipitous walls, while even the 
few which can float small craft through part of the 
coast region are so impeded by bars as to render 
their entrance difficult and dangerous. The coast 
again is deficient in good harbours, most of the 
anchorages being bays with wide mouths and 
shallow water. Table Bay (the harbour of Cape 
Town) is the principal port. False Bay, including 
Simon’s Bay, is the Imperial naval station. Most 
of the Little Namaqualand copper is shipped from 
Port Nolloth on the N.W. coast. At Mossel Bay 
there is a fair anchorage; the same may be said 
for the Knysna river, and at Algoa Bay, owing to 


the establishment of Port Elizabeth on its western 
shore, there is much shipping, though, as in most 
of the other harbours, goods must be transferred to 
lighters, while Port Alfred, at the mouth of the 
Kowie river, East London, at the mouth of the 
Buffalo river, and St. John's river (acquired by 
purchase from the Pondo chief in 1878, and 
annexed to the Colony in 1884) are being much im¬ 
proved. 

The climate of the Cape Colony is, as a whole, 
extremely healthy, its dryness attracting visitors 
affected with pulmonary complaints just at the 
season when (owing to the reversion of the seasons) 
the northern hemisphere is most inclement. The 
coast region is damper than the far interior, where 
irrigation is requisite. But the atmosphere of the 
plateaux is the best and most exhilarating, the 
temperature seldom rising to 100° or falling to 23°, 
while the average number of rainy days is between 
seventy and ninety, either on the coast or in the in¬ 
terior, t hough in the latter the amount of rain is more, 
namely, about 19 in. at Port Elizabeth, and 34 in. 
at Cape Town. The eastern province is, therefore, 



more varied with grassy places and wooded water¬ 
courses than any other area, the Karroo bush not 
sufficing to cover the bare flat-topped hills which 
form such marked features of the dreary scenery 
of the western region, and much of the midland, 
though this bush affords excellent feeding for 
sheep, countless flocks of which graze in this 
seemingly desert plateau. But in the vineyard and 
agricultural country of the extreme south there are 
many pleasant looking districts, and some parts of 
the eastern province are actually beautiful. 

The soil, as a rule, is thin, but very rich, and 
except where saline—as in some of the interior 
districts—only requires water to stimulate it into 
bearing the heaviest crops. A “veldt” or upland 
pasture which seems at one season a mere burnt-up 
waste, appears a week or two later luxuriant with 































































Cape Colony. 


( 334 ) 


Cape Colony. 


“ sweet” or “ sour ” grass, to apply the local names 
to the kind of herbage it bears, and after a “ vlei ” 
or shallow sheet of rain-water has lain on the most 
arid spots in the Karroo, the cattle wallow for 
weeks in the richest of forage. But, except in the 
south, a dam for the storage of water for irrigating 
purposes is one of the first requisites of every farm 
or settlement; for the Cape Colony, be it a little 
wetter or a little drier, is emphatically “ a land of 
thirst.” The summer months are December, January, 
February, when the dry S.E. trade-winds blow 
fiercely, but in the eastern divisions heavy rains 
moderate the heat, though little of this reaches the 
west, being for the most part expended on the 
eastern slopes of the ranges mentioned. Hence, 
Namaqualand, like the German country to the 
north, is almost rainless. 

The zoology of the colony is peculiar for the great 
assemblage of large animals within its bounds, as 
if they had been driven to take refuge in this area, 
and been unable to proceed any farther on account 
of the sea. The lion is now extinct in the settled 
districts, and buffaloes and elephants are preserved 
only in the Knysna and Zitzikama forests. But 
though lessened in number by the relentless 
persecution which they have met with from the 
colonists, and from professional hunters and 
sportsmen, numerous species of antelope, with 
monkeys, wild cats, porcupines, ant-eaters, tiger 
cats, jackals, “ wild dogs,” hyaenas, the “ aard- 
wolf ” (Proteles), and other mammals keep their 
ground. The rhinoceros, giraffe, hippopotamus, 
eland, gnu, and some other species have been 
banished from the colony, and the quagga is 
believed to be extinct. Ostriches, once numerous, 
are now sparsely scattered, the supply of feathers 
being at present derived mainly from domesticated 
birds, or from regions beyond the Orange river. 
The secretary bird, the honey bird, and the weaver 
bird are among the peculiar species of its ornitho¬ 
logy. Reptiles are still numerous. The cobra 
di capello and the puff-adder are among the 
venomous snakes ; but the alligator is now seldom 
seen within the bounds of the colony. The honey 
bee is wild. Termites or white ants rear their 
conical mounds everywhere, and among venomous 
insects, or their allies, scorpions, tarantulas, and 
hornets may be enumerated. 

Among useful plants the following timber trees 
deserve notice: Yellowwood, black iron wood, 
stinkhout, melkhout, and nieshout, and the 
assegai, or Cape lance-wood. Bulbous plants and 
heaths are most characteristic members of the 
flora. Our conservatories are filled with the latter, 
of which there are a large number of forms. 
Proteas, various species of iris, amaryllidacese, 
pelargonium, spurges, the elephant’s foot or 
Hottentot’s bread, the stapelia or carrion flower, 
the Kei apple, gourds, water melon, etc., abound. 
The flora bears a general resemblance to that of 
Australia, but it is richer, and in certain orders 
attains a profusion which stamps it as peculiar. 
From Algoa Bay northwards the vegetation is 
essentially tropical. From Oliphant’s Bay to Port 
Elizabeth there is a second type. From Beaufort 
West to near the Orange river there is a third 


division, while the Karroo and the Kalahari 
Desert form each a distinct botanical region. 

The chief industries of the Cape are sheep, horse, 
and cattle rearing, ostrich farming, viticulture, and 
the growing of wheat, barley, oats, maize, and 
tobacco, though as yet the domestic demand for 
the latter has not been met. In 1890 the colony 
contained approximately 1,524,213 cattle, 13,202,778 
sheep, 4,767,921 goats, 313,747 horses, 65,621 mules 
and asses, and 114,411 tame ostriches. Most of the 
country is in pastoral farms, estates of from 3,000 to 
15,000 acres being not uncommon, though of these 
immense tracts little is under the plough. The 
copper mines of Namaqualand are very rich, gold 
is mined in the Knysna districts, and manganese in 
the Paarl. Some coal is raised, though not enough 
for colonial use and the requirements of the 
steamers calling. Iron is abundant in many places, 
so is lead, and zincblende, though their smelting 
are industries which belong to the future. Building 
stones and marbles are plentiful, and precious 
stones of various kinds are reckoned among the 
wealth of the colony. But none of its products 
are equal in value to the diamonds, which, since 
1867, have been dug in the North, Kimberley 
being the centre of this lucrative industry, which, 
by the latest statistics, are worth nearly £4,326,000 
per annum, and in twenty-two years produced six 
tons of gems, valued (though many were small, 
“off colour,” and otherwise almost worthless) at 
£39,000,000. 

Manufactures are still in their infancy; Cape 
wines and brandy, being now more carefully pre¬ 
pared, are beginning to find a market, and the 
exportation of fruit to the northern hemisphere 
at a time when the supplies in Europe and North 
America are exhausted is likely to be a source of 
great profit in the future. Waggon and furniture 
making, fishing and the preserving of fish, tanning, 
leather work, iron founding, the weaving of wool¬ 
lens, biscuit-baking, jam and jelly making, and the 
digging of guano on the little islets off the West 
coast complete the more notable list of colonial 
industries. 

The population of the Cape, including the 
Transkeian territories, East Griqualand, and 
Tembuland, is at present about 1,500,000. Of 
these about 360,000 are of European descent. In 
the western district the Dutch and the Dutch 
language preponderate, but the English are most 
numerous in the eastern districts. They are also 
regarded as the most enterprising, and though both 
languages are in official use, and the rivalry be¬ 
tween the two races—the old colonial stock and 
the new, whose advent in any numbers dates from 
the beginning of this century—is still keen and 
at times evenly-balanced, the English tongue, 
like the British people, is likely to gain the upper 
hand. The native population belong to the Kaffir, 
Hottentot, and Bushmen races. The two latter, 
though, like the former, on the increase, are the 
least numerous: they do not comprise more than 
13 per cent, of the colonial population, while the 
former, in all its numerous branches, is estimated 
to make up 40 per cent, of the Cape people. There 
are about 1§ per cent, of Malays, and 12 per cent. 





Cape Colony. 


( 335 ) 


of mixed races. The native population is pro¬ 
gressing, and forming the great preponderance of 
labourers, permit little room for the introduction 
of many poor whites, except skilled artisans. They 
have ceased to give much trouble. In the depen¬ 
dencies of the Transkei, East Griqualand, and 
Tembuland, there are altogether about 411,000 
aborigines. The population of the chief towns 
was, at the date of the last census:—Cape Town 
(exclusive of soldiers and shipping), 41,704; 
Grahamstown, 8,271 ; Port Elizabeth, 15,900; Kim¬ 
berley, 28,663; and Beaconsfield, 21,619, with 
municipal governments all formed on the English 
model, though, like the general government, largely 
tinctured with the Dutch system on which they 
were engrafted. Good roads and railroads afford 
easy access to most parts of the colony. The 
former are traversed mainly by bullock waggons.or 
by mule teams. The latter, with a few exceptions, 
are public property, the capital expended on the 1,608 
miles now open for traffic being at the date of the 
last financial return £14,318,592, and the average 
profit £5 15s. Id. per cent, on the capital invested. 
More than 4,520 miles of telegraph thread the 
colony. Including volunteers the Colonial forces 
number 4,840 officers and men: but every male citi¬ 
zen is liable to military duty. The public revenue for 
1888-9 was £4,338,114, the expenditure £3,620,190. 
The public debt is £21,120,784 phis £1,369,717 
contracted by towns and other corporate bodies, 
though guaranteed in the general revenue. The 
total exports in 1889 amounted to £9,591,219, and 
the imports £8,446,065, the greater part of the 
trade being with the United Kingdom. 

The colony (which consists of seventy divisions, 
and the dependencies of sixteen districts) has since 
1872 been under responsible government , the 
governor alone being appointed by the Crown. The 
Legislative Council consists of twenty-two elected 
members, and the House of Assembly of seventy- 
six elected members, with ministers responsible to 
the Colonial Legislature. The suffrage is high, 
though no distinction is made between whites or 
natives in the exercise of the franchise. The 
governor of the Cape also holds the office of Imperial 
High Commissioner for South Africa, in which 
capacity he takes a general supervision over the 
Imperial interests in the different colonies and 
conducts the correspondence between the Imperial 
authorities and the two South African republics. 
He also acts as governor-in-chief over the native 
territories under Imperial protection or adminis¬ 
tration. 

Cape history begins more than four centuries 
ago, the native struggles having left no records 
behind them. Bartolomeo Diaz, a Portuguese, was 
the first European to sight (in 1486) the Cape of 
Good Hope, which he named “ Cabo de todos los 
tormentos ”—the Cape of all the storms the more 
auspicious name it now bears (“ Cabo de Buena 
Esperanza”) indicating King John II. of Portugal s 
well-founded hope that it was the halting-place on 
a new and easier route to India. But with the ex¬ 
ception of a formal proclamation of the country as 
British, which act of Admirals Fitz-Herbert and 
Shellinge in the reign of James I. was never 


Cape Colony. 


recognised as effective, no attempt was made to 
colonise it until the year 1652, when the Dutch 
East India Company brought some settlers from 
Holland. These were increased from time to time 
by Germans, Flemings, and a few Poles or Portu¬ 
guese, and in 1686 by a large number of French 
Protestants, who left their country on the revocation 
of the Edict of Nantes. The descendants of these 
people constitute the present “ Boer,” or “ Dutch ” 
population, though the most influential among 
them are really of French descent. At that time 
the country was occupied for only a little distance 
around Cape Town, and was looked upon less as a 
colony than as a station for the supply of ships. 
The government was a monopoly of the narrowest, 
most oppressive description, and to the irksome 
restrictions then put upon private enterprise has 
been traced that dislike to all regular govern¬ 
ment, and that love for “ trekking ” beyond its 
influence which, though less marked among the 
modern Boers, existed long before the British rule 
began. The natives were either driven from their 
lands or reduced to serfdom, while Malays and 
negroes were imported as slaves. In 1795, to 
prevent the colony falling into the hands of the 
French revolutionists, whose views the discon¬ 
tented settlers shared, the British, at a request of 
the Stadtholder, took possession of it. In 1802 it 
was re-ceded to Holland, but on the renewal of the 
war in 180(5 again captured, and in 1815, on the 
payment of £6,000,000, finally ceded to its present 
owners. Since that date, the chief events in its 
history are as follows:—1811-12, first Kaffir war; 
1819, second Kaffir war; 1820, four thousand 
British settlers introduced into the eastern dis¬ 
tricts ; 1829, all natives not slaves declared on the 
same footing as Europeans before the law; 1834, 
third Kaffir war; 1835, “trekking” of the Boers 
beyond the Orange river owing to the emancipa¬ 
tion of slaves in the colony, and the founding of 
Natal and the “Free” States; 1846, fourth Kaffir 
war, and extension of colonial boundary to the 
Kei river; 1853, introduction of representative 
government arising out of the agitation against the 
dispatch of convicts to South Africa, though these 
were never actually landed; 1857, the suicide of 
50,000 Amaxos owing to the spread of a religio- 
political fanaticism, and the resettlement of their 
country by 2,000 members of the German Crimean 
legion, and other colonists from'Prussia and Meck¬ 
lenburg; 1865, British Kaffraria annexed; 1867, 
diamonds discovered in Griqualand West; 1871, 
Griqualand West proclaimed a colony; 1872, intro¬ 
duction of responsible government ; 1877-8, Gaeka 
and Gealeka rebellion ; 1879-81, Basuto war ; 1880, 
amalgamation of Griqualand West with the Cape ; 

1883, separation of Basutoland from the colony; 

1884, establishment of German Protestants over 
Great Namaqualand, and the country north of the 
Orange river, with the exception of Walfisch Bay, 
annexed to the colony ; 1887, incorporation of the 
Transkeian territories (except most of Pondoland) ; 
1889, Customs union between Cape and Orange 
Free State, and extension of railway from Orange 
river to Bloemfontein ; 1890, new government with 
Mr. Rhodes as premier, and an expedition from the 





Cape of Good Hope. 


( 336 ) 


Capel. 


Cape to take possession of the British South African 
Company’s territories in Mashonaland, etc. 

Cape of Good Hope, The, is the name given 
to the extremity of the promontory that stretches 
into the South Atlantic from the S.W. corner of 
the African continent. The length of the peninsula, 
which has False Bay on the E. and the open ocean 
on the W., is about 20 miles. Simon’s Bay, with 
the thriving port of Simon’s Town, is on its E. coast. 
The rock that forms the Cape is 1,000 feet high, 
and consists of granite. 

Cape Haytien, or Haitien, a port on the N. 
coast of the Island of Hayti, West Indies, situated 
on a small bay at the foot of a range of mountains. 
Originally founded by the Spaniards, it was 
colonised by the French early in the eighteenth 
century, and became very prosperous. It has 
suffered greatly from the various revolutions since 
the outbreak of Toussaint l’Ouverture in 1791, was 
almost destroyed by an earthquake in 1842, and 
was bombarded by the British in 1865. It still 
does a considerable trade with the United States, 
and is an administrative centre under the republican 
government of the island. 

Cape Horn, or Hoorn, so named from his 
birth-place by Schouten its discoverer, is the most 
southernly point of America, being at the extremity 
of the last island of the Fuegian Archipelago. It 
presents a black, steep, frowning face to the stormy 
Southern Ocean, and has always borne a bad name 
amongst sailors. Steam has, of course, reduced to 
nothing the difficulty of doubling it (though most 
steamers pass through the Straits of Magellan), but 
heavy seas and strong cold gales prevail in its 
neighbourhood. 

Cape River, or Vaunks, also known as the 
Coco or Segovia, a river in Central America, 
which for the greater part of its course of 300 
miles forms the boundary between Honduras and 
Nicaragua. It discharges itself into the Caribbean 
Sea at Cape Gracias a Dios, and, flowing through a 
fertile country, is navigable for a considerable 
distance. 

Cape Town, the capital and seat of govern¬ 
ment of Cape Colony, is situated in the angle of 
Table Bay and to the N. of Table Mountain, on the 
N. coast of the peninsula that terminates in the 
Cape of Good Hope. It is surrounded by lofty 
crags, and through the valley in which it stands 
the Zoeta or Sweet river flows down to the sea. 
Founded in 1652 by Van Riebeeck, the older houses 
display the characteristics of Dutch architecture, 
and canals traverse several of the streets, but fine 
modern buildings are rapidly springing up, chief 
among them being government house, the houses 
of parliament, the post office, public library, 
exchange, art gallery, South African college, 
Anglican and Roman Catholic cathedrals, univer¬ 
sity, etc. etc. There are also botanical and 
public gardens. The observatory, which is in high 
repute among astronomers since Herschel’s time, 
stands just outside the town, which now possesses 
all modern improvements, such as gas and electric 
lighting, ample water supply, and tramways. The 


harbour, strongly fortified, is rendered secure from 
the heavy swell of the Atlantic by a magnificent 
breakwater. Railways connect the town with Port 
Elizabeth to the south, and Kimberley to the north, 
and are being rapidly extended into Mashonaland. 
The chief exports are copper, wool, wheat, diamonds, 
gold, and wine, the latter being produced in the 
suburban villages of Constantia, Wynberg, Ronde- 
bosch, and Claremont. 

Cape Verde (Port. Cabo Verde , Green Cape), 
the most westerly point of the African coast, lies 
between the Senegal and Gambia rivers in lat. 14° 
43' N., long. 17° 34' W. The name was given to it by 
Portuguese discoverers owing to the cluster of tall 
baobab trees that crown the headland. 

Cape Verde Islands, a volcanic group of ten 
islands lying in the Atlantic about 320 miles W. of 
the Cape from which they are named. They are 
ten in number, Santiago being the largest, Boa 
Vista the nearest to the coast, and Santa Vicente 
the residence of the British consul. They were 
discovered in 1441 by the Portuguese, who estab¬ 
lished a colony in 1499, and now use it as a penal 
settlement. The population consists largely of 
African blacks and half-breeds, the slave system 
having prevailed as late as 1854. The climate is 
hot in summer, unhealthy after the periodic rains, 
subject also to occasional visitations of the Har- 
mattan and also to disastrous droughts. Cattle 
breeding is the chief industry, and numbers of pigs, 
goats, mules, and asses are reared. Fish abound on 
the coast. Orchil is a valuable product, as are 
coffee, indigo, sugar, and tobacco. Every variety of 
tropical fruit and vegetable can be grown success¬ 
fully, but the inhabitants are improvident and idle. 
Timber is almost entirely wanting. 

Cape Wrath, on the coast of Sutherlandshire, 
forms the N.W. extremity of Scotland. It is a 
bold pyramidal headland of gneiss 300 feet high, 
and bearing a lighthouse which is visible for 
27 miles. 

Capel, Hon Thomas Bladen, youngest son of 
William, fourth Earl of Essex, was born in 1776 
and entered the navy in 1782, though he does not 
appear to have actually gone afloat until 1792. He 
was a midshipman in the Sans Pareil, 80, in Lord 
Bridport’s action on July 23, 1795, and was made a 
lieutenant in 1797. In this latter capacity he was 
Nelson’s signal officer in the Vanguard, 74, at the 
Battle of the Nile, and for this service he was made 
a commander and sent home in the Mutine, 16, 
with duplicate despatches. In December of the 
same year (1798) he was further advanced to post- 
rank. At the Battle of Trafalgar he commanded 
the Phoebe, 36, and was instrumental in saving from 
destruction the French prize Swiftsure. At the 
passage of the'Dardanelles in 1807 he commanded 
the Endymion, 40, and four years later he was 
given charge of a small squadron which rendered 
good service against the Americans. He was 
nominated a C.B. in 1815, and in 1821 became 
captain of the Royal George, yacht, in which, and 
in the Ayoollo, another royal yacht, he remained 
until, in 1825, he reached the rank of rear-admiral. 





Capelin. 


( 337 ) 


Capias. 


In 1832 he was promoted to be a K.C.B., and from 
1834 to 1837 he commanded in the East Indies. He 
became vice-admiral in 1837, and full admiral in 
1847, and died in 1853. He was the last survivor 
of the captains who had been present at Trafalgar. 

Capelin ( Mallotus villosus ) a smelt-like fish, 
some 9 in. long, the only species of its genus, found 
near Kamtschatka and Arctic North America. Its 
home is on the sea-bottom, but it comes to surface 
in enormous numbers to spawn. The Capelin, which 
is one of the most important baits used by the 
Newfoundland fishermen, is eaten fresh by the 
Kamtschatdales, or dried for winter consumption. 

Cap ell, Edward, born at Troston, Suffolk, in 
1713, was appointed inspector of plays through the 
Duke of Grafton’s influence. He expended enormous 
labour on the revision of the text of Shakespeare, 
and published an edition with a quaint introduction. 
After his death appeared The School of Shakespeare, 
in which, besides a mass of textual criticism, there 
is a good deal of information as to the sources from 
which the plots were derived. He died in 1781. 

Capella, a reddish star of the first magnitude, 
in the constellation Auriga. This and Vega are 
the two brightest stars in the northern hemisphere, 
but it is difficult to distinguish which of these two 
is the more luminous, on account of the difference 
in their hues. 

Capella, Martianus Mineus Felix, a native 
of North Africa, who probably lived at the end of 
the fourth or beginning of the fifth century A.D., 
and composed a strange allegorical work entitled 
Satyra de Nuptiis Philologies et Mercurii , which is 
an encyclopaedia of all the knowledge of his day, 
and contains a remarkable foreshadowing of the 
Copernican system of astronomy. 

Caper, the flower-bud of Capparis spinosa and 
of some allied species belonging to the order 
Capparidacece. The plant is a scrambling shrub 
with spinous stipules and showy flowers remarkable 
for their very long gynophore (q.v.). It is grown 
throughout southern Europe, the buds, pickled in 
vinegar, being imported from Sicily, Italy, and 
France. The unripe fruits of the garden nasturtium 
(Tropceoluvi majus) are used as a substitute. 

Capercaillie, Capercailzie (Tetrao urogal- 
lus ), the Cock of the Woods, or Wood Grouse, the 
largest of the European game birds, and highly 
esteemed for the table. It is found in fir woods in 
the mountainous districts of Europe and the north 
of Asia, and was formerly native to Ireland and 
Scotland, but in both these countries it was 
exterminated towards the close of the eighteenth 
century, and no specimen of either of these races 
is to be found in any museum. These birds have, 
however, been reintroduced into Scotland, and 
they are now fairly plentiful in the Highlands. 
The male is about the size of a turkey, and has the 
tail rounded, the feathers of the head elongated, 
and a scarlet patch of naked skin above the eye. 
The general plumage is chestnut-brown irregularly 
marked with black, breast black with metallic 
green lustre, under surface black. The hen is 
smaller, and is sandy-brown, barred and variegated 

46 


with black. The males are polygamous, and. in 
spring show off before the hen birds. The nest is 
a mere hole, and usually contains from ten to 
twelve eggs, which are pale yellowish, tinged with 
red and mottled with brown. These birds feed on 
the leaves and shoots of the Scotch fir ; the young 
prefer worms and insects. They run into many 
varieties, and breed freely with allied species. 

Capernaum (Heb. Village of Kachuvi, or Field 
of Repentance, or City of Comfort), a town on the 
W. shore of the Lake of Gennesareth, on the borders 
of Zebulun and Naphtali. It was the chief residence 
of Christ when He began His mission, and was 
specially denounced by Him for unbelief. Archae¬ 
ologists identify the modern Tel-Hum as its site, 
though some prefer the ruins at Khan-Miniyeh. 

Capet, the name of a family that for nine 
centuries played a leading part in French history. 
Robert the Strong was a Saxon vassal of Charles 
the Bald, and in the middle of the ninth century 
received the duchy of the lie de France. From 
him descended Hugh the Great, Count of Paris 
and Orleans, Duke of France and Burgundy, 
Hugh, the son of this last, was elected king 
by acclamation, to the exclusion of the. Carlo- 
vingians, in 987, and by judicious policy he 
and his successors founded a dynasty that lasted 
in the direct line to the death of Charles IY. in 
1322. The House of Yalois that then succeeded 
was merely a branch of the Capet family springing 
from Philip the Bold (1270-1285), whose younger 
son Charles was the father of Philip YI. The 
Bourbons, who carried on the monarchy up to its 
extinction, arose from the marriage of Robert, 
sixth son of Louis IX. (1226-1270), with Beatrice 
of Bourbon. 

Capgrave, John, was born at King’s Lynn, 
Norfolk, in 1393, and after studying at Cambridge 
and graduating at Oxford became a priest. He 
then "joined the Augustinian priory in his native 
town and there spent most of his life in literary 
labours. His great work is The Chronicle of England, 
carried up to 1417 and full of valuable matter. His 
Nova Leaenda Anglice was printed by Wynkyn de 
Worde in 1516. The Liber de Tllustribus Henricis 
is an interesting historical fragment. Most of his 
other books are on ecclesiastical subjects. He died 
in 1464, having served as provincial of his order. 

Capias, in English law, a writ directed against 
the person, commanding his or her arrest. There 
are several writs bearing this title, as 

1. Capias ad audienduni judicium, which issues 
against a defendant who is at large when a verdict 
of guilty is found on a criminal charge, and is for 
the purpose of bringing him up to receive 
judgment. 

2. Capias ad respondendum, which is issued for 
the arrest of a person against whom an indictment 
for misdemeanor has been found in order that he 
may be arraigned. 

3. Capias ad satisfaciendum, or ca. sa.,. for the 
arrest of a defendant in a civil action; since the 
abolition of imprisonment for debt writs of ca. sa. 
are now rare, but the writ when executed still 
operates as a satisfaction of the debt, and no 








Capillaire. 


( 338 ) 


Capital. 


other writ of execution can be sued out upon the 
same judgment against the defendant's goods or 
lands, unless he die in confinement or escape from 
custody. 

4. Capias extendi facias , a writ of execution 
issued against a debtor to the Crown, commanding 
the sheriff to take or arrest the body, and “ cause 
to be extended ” the lands of the debtor. 

5. Capias ut lagatum is a writ for the arrest of 
an outlaw. Outlawry having been abolished in civil 
cases, it is now applicable only to criminal process. 

Capillaire, a syrup prepared with the maiden¬ 
hair fern, Adiantum capillns-veneris, the French 
name for which, alluding to its slender black 
stalks, is Capillaire de Montpellier. 

Capillaries, the network of tubes which com¬ 
municate on the one hand with the ultimate 
arterioles, and on the other hand with the smallest 
branches of the veins. The diameter of a capillary 
vessel varies in different parts of the human body ; 
some are barely large enough to enable a single 
red blood corpuscle to traverse them, as in parts 
of the brain; elsewhere, as in the skin, the 
capillaries are considerably larger. In some organs 
the meshes of the network have an elongated 
form, as in muscle, while in the alveoli of the lung, 
and in glands, a rounded form prevails. The close¬ 
ness of the network is in direct correspondence 
with the vascularity of the part. The walls of a 
capillary are composed of a single layer of flattened 
cells, endothelium (q.v.), and permit of the ready 
interchange of materials between the blood and 
the tissues. 

Capillarity (from capillus, a hair) is the 
cause of various phenomena of surface tension, 
and exhibited by the behaviour of liquid in 
fine, hair-like tubes. To explain the nature of 
surface tension, it must be understood that the 
particles of a body exert considerable force of at¬ 
traction on one another, but only at very minute 
distances. Thus a molecule of water in the middle 
of a glassful of that liquid is acted on by the mass 
of congregated molecules in its immediate vicinity, 
only those enclosed in a very small sphere round 
the specified particle having any appreciable effect 
on it. From the symmetry of the arrangement it 
is clear that there is no resultant pull on the 
particle in any one direction. But a molecule of 
water on the surface of the liquid is only acted on 
by a hemisphere of molecules of water in its 
neighbourhood, and these exert a resultant pull on 
the particle at right angles to the surface. It is 
true there is also a hemisphere of particles of air 
acting on the molecule of water, but their action is 
not so great. Consequently we see that all the 
particles on or near the surface are pulled down¬ 
wards and therefore cause the surface to act as a 
sort of elastic membrane or skin, with the impor¬ 
tant difference that, however extended the surface 
may be, the force of attraction, or surface tension, 
is always the same per unit length. Thus the 
surface of a liquid will assume a definite form, the 
tendency being to minimise its area as far as cir¬ 
cumstances permit. A raindrop falling through 


air, or a soap-bubble floating in it, will assume the 
spherical form, the surface of a sphere being less 
than that of any other solid of the same volume. 
At the edge of the glass of water, where we have 
glass, water, and air meeting, the three sets of 
forces draw the surface up the side to a slight 
extent. If a glass tube of very fine bore be put 
vertically in the water, the liquid is drawn up the 
tube to a definite height, and its surface is 
markedly concave upwards. If mercury be the 
liquid used instead of water, opposite effects will 
be seen, the level of the mercury inside the tube 
will be lower than that outside, and its surface 
will be convex upwards. Much may be explained 
concerning the behaviour of oil on “ troubled 
waters,” the motion of sap in plants, the formation 
of clouds, the shapes of the heavenly bodies, and 
concerning other physical subjects, by the study 
of capillarity. 

Capistrano, Giovanni di, was born at Capis¬ 
trano in the Abruzzi in 138G. After a short experi¬ 
ence of the law he became a Franciscan friar, and 
wmn great fame as a preacher. Nicholas Y. sent him 
to Germany in 1450 to oppose the heretical followers 
of Huss and to raise a crusade against the Turks. 
He was partly successful in the first object, and 
though he failed in the second, he died whilst 
leading a final sortie from Belgrade against the 
infidel besiegers in 1456. He was canonised in 1690. 

Capita, Distribution per. In the adminis¬ 
tration of the personal estate of a person dying 
intestate (that is, without leaving a will) the 
claimants, or the persons who are legally entitled 
to such personal estate, are said to take per capita 
when they claim in their own rights as in equal 
degree of kindred, in contradistinction to claiming 
by right of representation or per stirpes, as it is 
termed. For instance, if the next of kin be the 
intestate’s three brothers, A, B, and C, here his 
effects are divided into three equal shares, and 
distributed per capita —one share to each; but if 
A (one of them) had died previously, leaving three 
children, and B (another brother) had also died 
leaving two children, then the distribution would 
be by representation or per stirpes as it is termed 
-one-third would have gone to A’s three children, 
another third to B’s two children, and the 
remaining third to C, the surviving brother. 

Capital, in Political Economy, either “that 
part of a man’s property which he expects to afford 
him a revenue” (Adam Smith), or more strictly, 
wealth saved and set aside to produce future wealth. 
In the latter sense it is divided into fixed capital 
(machinery, tools, and buildings) and circulating 
capital (raw material, coal, food of labourers, or 
the wages paid them instead). Both kinds are 
consumed in producing (the difference being that 
the consumption of the second is much more rapid 
than that of the first), and return with a surplus. 
In commerce the capital of a company is the wealth 
paid up by its members to invest in the business, 
as in the first sense above. The word is also some¬ 
times used for the whole body of owners of capital, 
as in the phrase “the conflict of capital and labour.” 






Capital Account. 


( 339 ) 


Capitals. 


Capital Account is an account showing the 
sums received and expended for the capital 
(properly, the fixed capital, see Capital) of a rail¬ 
way or other commercial enterprise. The capital 
account of a railway should show the sums 
received from shareholders, borrowed on deben¬ 
tures and otherwise, and the payments for land, 
works, rolling stock, stations, etc. Repairs should 
be paid out of revenue, while all extensions and 
additions to rolling stock, buildings, etc., should 
be charged to capital. But the distinction is often 
less precisely drawn. Some American railway 
companies, for instance, habitually devote part of 
their revenue to improvements; and on the other 
hand, the expenses of mere wear and tear have 
frequently been charged to capital account and 
covered by borrowing in order to swell the dividends 
for the half-year. 

Capital Punishment is’ the infliction of 
death upon offenders by the country or community 
to which such offenders belong. In olden times the 
power of life and death was considered to be the 
natural right of any authority as regarded enemies, 
or strangers, or offenders. But with the advance 
of civilisation the right became greatly limited, and 
is at the present day widely disputed. The ground 
taken up both by the upholders and the opponents 
of the system is in many points somewhat illogical. 
There are those who hold that it is only permissible 
to kill murderers, and that this right is in that case 
permissible only by force of a prescript of the 
Mosaic law. Others hold that society has always 
the right to get rid of hurtful members, and that 
by the most expeditious method. It is better, say 
they, that a murderer or hardened criminal should 
be finally disposed of than that the community 
should be burdened with supporting them and 
guarding them from further mischief. This view 
is at least logical, and it seems more in accordance 
with common sense, and more merciful to kill a 
criminal than to keep him in a lifelong monotonous 
captivity, where his good qualities, if he has any, 
are quite useless, and simply add to the public 
burden. The opponents of the system may be 
divided into two classes : first, those who hold that 
society has only the right to punish with a view to 
a criminal’s amendment by remedying the defects 
of a bad education or surroundings, an amendment 
which his death makes impossible ; and secondly, 
those who look upon life as so sacred a thing that 
no one has a right to inflict death upon a human 
being, and that the society which executes a 
murderer is only one degree less culpable than the 
murderer himself. This view is natural in the case 
of those who look upon death as annihilation, 
though strangely enough they do not extend the 
right of living to what they call the lower creation. 
Few dispute the right of a man to put. to death any 
animal that is in his possession. There is a further 
class of hysterical people who raise a shriek at any 
execution more from a tender self-pity, and a 
desire to spare their own feelings, than from any 
deeper motive. It is to this class that the words 
of the French satirist apply, who, when asked to 
disapprove of the sacrifice of human life for 


murder, said, “ Let the murderers first carry out 
the principle.” Much of our till lately savage code 
was doubtless owing to our conservative way of 
following the custom of our ancestors, but it must 
be noted that the 18th century saw many of the 
most sanguinary provisions added to the statute 
book. It remained for this century to abolish 
most of them, and practically only murder is now 
punished by death, though nominally other crimes 
also are so punishable—that is, so far as civilians 
are concerned. Soldiers and sailors, especially in 
time of war, may incur the death penalty under the 
provisions of the Articles of War (q.v.), and it is 
evident that in such cases, where men’s most 
savage passions are let loose, there must be no 
half-discipline, and no paltering with offences. 

In some countries capital punishment has been 
entirely abolished, and in some—Belgium for ex¬ 
ample—it has been practically abolished by the 
refusal of the head of the State to sign a death- 
warrant. The United States settle- the question 
severally for themselves. In one it was abolished 
to be afterwards revived. 

As to the method of execution countries differ. 
In most civilised lands the object is to inflict death 
as painlessly and quickly as possible, the latest 
idea being the American one of death by electricity. 
But though men are killed easily enough accidentally 
by electricity, science seems hardly yet able to kill 
them by it deliberately without bungling. Many 
disgraceful scenes have been avoided in this 
country by the adoption of private instead of 
public executions, though many hold that much of 
the deterrent effect is lost in consequence. But 
others doubt whether public executions ever had 
much deterrent effect, thinking that he who 
murders rarely gives a thought to the probable con¬ 
sequences to himself, since he is under the influence 
of some strong passion or other abnormal state of 
mind. It is yet a moot point whether the retention 
or abolition of capital punishment has any real in¬ 
fluence one way or the other upon the amount of 
crime, unless, indeed, its abolition may eventually 
lead to an habitual abhorrence of killing, which 
will end by extending itself to would-be murderers 
themselves. 


Capitals, in Architecture , are the uppermost 
parts of columns, placed immediately over the shaft 




( p ) Norman. 

CAPITALS. 


and under the entablature (q.v.). _ In. classical 
architecture the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian orders 
each have their peculiar capital, the last-named 
imitated from the acanthus leaf. In mediaeval 
architecture, as well as in Egyptian and Oriental, 
the capitals are much diversified. In the later 



























Capitation Grant. 


( 340 ) 


Capo d’Istria. 


Norman architecture, for instance, they are often 
ornamented with foliage, animals, figures, etc., 

while they frequently ex¬ 
hibit foliage in the Early 
English and Decorated, and 
more rarely in the Perpendi¬ 
cular styles. 

Capitation Grant, a 

grant made by the State in 
aid of primary education, 
and according to etymology 
proportioned to the number 
of scholars brought to a 
certain degree of efficiency, 
though practically other 
considerations come into 
play. In 1851 the Govern¬ 
ment grant amounted to £836,920, while the capi¬ 
tation grant was a sum over and above which 
was granted for special excellence. The Com¬ 
mission of 1861, deprecating the continuance of a 
scheme which seemed to encourage the pushing 
forward of a few advanced scholars to the neglect 
of more backward ones, recommended that the 
prospects and position of teachers should be made 
dependent upon the result of a thorough examina¬ 
tion of all scholars. Many changes and modifica¬ 
tions have since been made. The Act of 1882 
graduated the grants, and settled that the with¬ 
drawal of weak scholars from examination should 
not invalidate claims, and gave also a merit grant 
for general tone. The Commission of 1886 also 
recommended the further abandonment of the 
numerical test in favour of a qualitative one. 

Capito, Caius Ateius, a Roman jurist who 
flourished under Augustus and Tiberius. His un¬ 
doubted ability and learning were used by the 
emperors to oppose the necessary legal reforms 
advocated by Labeo. Hence arose two rival schools 
of jurisprudence, the Sabiniani or Cassiani, so 
named from pupils of Capito, and the Proculeiani 
from Sempronius Proculus, a follower of Labeo. 
The echo of their disputes w r as heard for centuries. 
None of Capito's voluminous writings are extant. 

Capito, or Koepflin, Wolfgang Fabricius, 
was born of humble family at Hagenau, Alsace, 
in 1478, and became a minister of the Reformed 
Church, serving as Professor at Freiburg, and 
Pastor at Bruchsal, Basel, Mainz, and Strasburg. 
He took a leading part in the controversies of his 
day, and was deputed with Bucer to lay the Con¬ 
fession of Augsburg before the emperor. His 
attempts to reconcile the Lutherans and Zwinglians 
made him an object of suspicion to both. His 
works were chiefly on the Old Testament and the 
interpretation of prophecy. He died in 1541. 

Capitol, the famous temple to Jupiter, Juno, 
and Minerva, that occupied the lower of the two 
peaks of the Capitoline Hill at Rome, the other 
being crowned by the Arx or Citadel. Romulus 
first built a temple to Jupiter Feretrius on this 
spot, but the triple shrine was founded by Tarquin I., 
built by his son, and dedicated by M. Horatius 
Pulvillus cons, suffi, in 509 B.c. This structure, which 


lasted till 83 B.C., was built in the Etruscan style 
of stuccoed peperino with wooden architraves. Sulla 
began to rebuild it in marble, but it was completed 
and dedicated by Q. Lutatius Catutus. The 
Vitellian rioters burnt it down in 70 A.D., and 
it was reconstructed by Vespasian. Lastly, this 
building was destroyed by fire under Titus, and a 
new Capitol was erected by Domitian at fabulous 
cost. Scarcely any traces of the noble edifice are 
left, the Palazzo Caffarelli standing on the site. 
No change was ever made in the plan ; three cellte 
were enclosed beneath one roof, the central one 
being sacred to Jupiter, Minerva holding place 
on his right, Juno on his left. Newly-elected 
consuls took their vows here, and victorious generals 
were borne hither in triumph. Many other temples 
and public buildings were situated on the Capitoline, 
and the Tarpeian Rock, whence criminals were 
thrown, terminates its southern extremity. The 
Campidoglio, or modern Capitol, was designed by 
Michael Angelo, but is not one of his best works. 
It serves as a town hall and museum. 

Capitularies (Latin capitulum, dimin. of caput, 
a head), collections of the laws issued for the whole 
of the Frankish empire, as distinct from the laws 
of the separate peoples composing it. The best 
known of these collections was begun by Charle¬ 
magne (q.v.). The name was derived from their 
arrangement under heads or by chapters. The 
term is also applied to chapters (q.v.) of canons 
and to military orders ; also to the members in¬ 
dividually, and to their statutes. 

Capitulation (Latin capitulum), an agreement 
arranged under heads; usually, but not always, 
dealing with the surrender on terms of a besieged 
city or vanquished army. Capitulations are also 
the set of agreements between European govern¬ 
ments and certain semi-civilised powers, in virtue 
of which the subjects of the former resident in the 
territory of the latter possess certain privileges, 
especially that of being subject to the jurisdiction 
of their own consuls instead of the native courts. 
Such arrangements exist with Egypt and Japan at 
the present time, and in the last century obtained 
between France and the Porte. 

Capitulum, the name of the free end of a 
barnacle which is enclosed by the shells ; it con¬ 
tains the body and arms. In botany the term is 
applied to the “ head ” or compound inflorescence 
of rlie Composites and similar plants. 

Capo d’Istria, a fortified port situated on a 
small island in the government of Trieste and circle 
of Istria, Austria. The island is connected with the 
shore by a causeway half a mile in length, and 
possesses good accommodation for vessels, but little 
or no trade except in fish, wine, and oil. It is 
identified with the classical iEgida, and was after¬ 
wards named Justinopolis. For some time it was 
a free commonwealth, and then was conquered 
successively by the Venetians and Genoese, passing 
to Austria in 1797. 

Capo d’Istria, or Cabodistrias, John, 

Count, the son of a physician at Corfu, was born 
in 1776, and educated for his father’s profession. 
When the Ionian Islands were ceded to France by 



(c) Decorated. 

CAPITAL. 












Capon. 


( 341 ) 


Capstan. 


the peace of Tilsit, he entered the Russian diplo¬ 
matic service, and became foreign secretary in 
conjunction with Nesselrode. After the battle of 
Navarino he was elected president of the Greek 
republic, but as his fidelity was suspected, he was 
assassinated by political partisans at Nauplia, 1831. 

Capon, the male of the domestic fowl, castrated 
that it may fatten better—a common practice, 
especially in France. 

Cappadocia, a country of vague extent in Asia 
Minor. Herodotus speaks of the Cappadocians as 
Syrians. They inhabited two distinct satrapies 
of Persia, the northern one later on being known 
as Pontus, whilst the inland province, bounded S. 
by Mount Taurus, E. by the Euphrates, N. by 
Pontus, and W. by Galatia and Lycaonia, became 
Cappadocia or Great Cappadocia, being about 250 
miles long and 150 broad. The Persian satraps 
seem to have developed into hereditary kings, the 
first of whom, Ariarathes I., a contemporary of 
Alexander, was killed by Perdiccas. The dynasty, 
however, lasted until Mithridates the Great drove 
out Ariarathes VIII., who soon after died. The 
Romans now interfered, and Ariobarzanes was 
elected to the throne, and remained, as did his son, 
a staunch ally of Rome. The third of this line was 
put to death by Antony, and for 50 years Archelaus 
reigned over an extended kingdom. In 17 A.d. 
Cappadocia became a Roman province, and in 1074 
it was conquered by the Turks. Most of the region, 
except the valley of the Euphrates, is a lofty, treeless 
plateau, 3,000 ft. above sea-level, affording pasture 
to immense flocks. From the midst of this expanse 
rise Mounts Argasus (Erdjish Dagh) and Hassan 
.Dagh. The chief rivers are the Pyramus (Jilmn), 
the Sarus (Sihun), and the Halys (Ivizil Irmak), on 
which is situated Mazaca or Caesarea (Kaisariveh), 
the capital. Tyana occupied the site now known as 
Kiz-Hissar, and other towns of some ecclesiastical 
importance were Nvssa, an episcopal see, and 
Nazianzus, the birthplace of St. Gregory. 

Caprera, or Cabrera, a small island in the 
Mediterranean, 2 miles from the N.E. coast of 
Sardinia. It has an area of 6,700 acres, and is 
rocky and barren. Garibaldi built himself a house 
there in 1854, to which he retired at intervals 
during his active life, and in which he spent much 
of the ten years that preceded his death in 1882. 

Capri (classic CAPREiE), a limestone islet to 
S. of the Bay of Naples, and 3f miles from Sorrento. 
In area 20 square miles, it consists of a fertile 
inland valley between two lofty plateaux. The 
coast is difficult of access, being girt with steep 
cliffs. Capri, the capital, stands on the eastern 
side, and has a fine cathedral. Anacapri, on the 
opposite side, crowns Monte Solara, and is 
approached by a rocky stairway. The island 
belonged to Neapolis, and its inhabitants still 
retain the Greek type. Augustus purchased it 
from the Neapolitans in exchange for the larger 
island of Aenaria, and lived there occasionally, and 
Tiberius spent the last ten years of his existence 
in this retreat. Great Britain held it from 1803 
to 1808, and it has always been a favourite resort 


of the British, owing to the fine air and 
picturesque scenery. The Blue and the Green 
grottoes are remarkable for the tints reflected on 
their walls by the waters of the Mediterranean. 

Capriccio, in Music , the term applied to a piece 
of music without any limitation as to form, which 
may either be entirely original, or may consist of 
a transcription of another composer’s subject. The 
name was originally given to pieces written in the 
fugued style, with a bright, lively subject. 

Capricorn (Lat. The Goat), a constellation 
of the southern celestial hemisphere, which from 
its position on the ecliptic was adopted as one of 
the signs of the zodiac. Its stars are somewhat 
mixed up with those of Aquarius. The Goat 
appears on the southern meridian in September, 
and thus gives its name to the Tropic of Capricorn. 

Capridse, in some classifications a family of 
Ruminants, containing the sheep and the goats, as 
distinct from the cattle and from the antelopes. 
[Bovidje.] 

Caprification (Lat. caprifeus , a wild fig), a 
process of facilitating the fertilisation of the fig- 
flower, practised in antiquity, and still in the Levant. 
Branches of the wild fig are hung on the cultivated 
fig, which usually produces only female flowers. 
These bring with them an insect (Blastophaga) 
reared in the galls formed in the female flower of 
the wild fig, which carries the pollen of the male 
flower of that tree to the female flower of the edible 
fig, which it thereby fertilises. Botanists, however, 
have differed as to its utility. 

Caprimulgidce, a widely-distributed family 
of Picarian birds, of which the goatsucker (q.v.) 
is the type. [Night-jar, Oil-bird, Whip-poor- 
will.] 

Capsicum, a genus of small plants belonging to 
the order Solanacece, natives of the tropics, valued 
mainly for their fruits, which have a hot pungent 
taste owing to the presence of a peculiar acrid 
alkaloid known as capsicin. Small pods called 
chillies, Spanish pepper, red pepper, and pod pepper, 
are produced by C. fastir/latum, a native of southern 
India. The larger pods known as capsicums or 
Guinea pepper, the “ poivrons ” of the French, are 
the produce of C. annuum , originally native to South 
America, introduced into Europe by the Spaniards 
and cultivated in England since 1548. Other species 
are C. frutescens, the spur or goat pepper of the 
East Indies ; C. tetragonum , the bonnet pepper of 
Jamaica; C. grossum, bell pepper ; C. cerasiforme , 
cherry pepper; and C. haccatum, bird pepper. 
Vinegar in which the fruits have been soaked is 
known as Chili vinegar, and Cayenne pepper (q.v.) 
is prepared from the ripe fruits, dried and ground. 

Capstan, a cylindrical drum, borne on an axial 
spindle, and capable of being revolved either by 
manual power, which is applied by means of cap¬ 
stan bars temporarily applied to holes in the upper 
part of the drum, or by steam power. The drum, 
when being revolved, is prevented from slipping 
back by catches or “ pawls,” which are generally 







Capsule. ( 342 ) Capuchin Monkey. 


fixed on the deck or platform upon which the 
capstan rests. The object of a capstan is to 
facilitate the performance of any work which 
requires extraordinary effort; and capstans are, 
therefore, always fitted on board ship, where they 
are especially used for heaving in cable, and for 
winding up any heavy bodies. The capstan seems 
to have been introduced into English ships in the 
time of Queen Elizabeth. Wooden line-of-battle 
ships carried two capstans—the fore and the main. 
Modern ships often carry several, which are now 
generally moved by steam power, and which are 
of very various designs. 

Capsule, a dry, dehiscent, syncarpous, and 
superior fruit, occurring in many widely-differing 
groups of flowering plants, and varying considerably 
in details of structure. It may be one-chambered 
as in the violets, primroses, and pinks, or many- 
chambered as in flax, and may have parietal placen- 
tation (q.v.) as in violet, central as in flax, or free- 
central as in primrose. Most capsules split longi¬ 
tudinally into “ valves.” If this valvular dehiscence 
takes place down the dorsal sutures or midribs of 
the carpellary leaves, as in Heliantlievium, the rock- 
rose, it is termed loculicidal, as each loculus or 
chamber will be broken into, and each valve will 
consist of two half-carpels. If the splitting be 
along the ventral sutures, or lines of junction 
between carpels, it is termed septicidal , and each 
valve is a carpel. In either of these cases the septa 
or partitions between the chambers may, as in the 
thorn-apple, be broken across, when the capsule is 
called septifragal. Some capsules dehisce by teeth, 
the carpels only splitting apart slightly at the apex, 
as in primroses and pinks; others open by small 
holes or pores, as in the poppy and snapdragon. 
These last have been, separated as pore-capsides ; 
and those which dehisce transversely, forming a 
round lid, such as Anagallis, the pimpernel, and 
Lecytliis , the monkey-pot, have been termed a 
pyxidium. There is little to differentiate the 
siliqua (q.v.) of the Cruciferce from the capsule, 
and the name is often extended to the inferior 
capsular fruit, or diplotegia, of Tridacecc, Campami- 
lacece, etc. In this, however, there is much real 
difference in development. 

Captain, a chief officer. In the army, a com¬ 
mander of a company. In the navy, a commander 
of a ship. By courtesy, every commanding officer 
of a man of war is called captain, no matter 
what may be his rank in the service, but the 
term is strictly applied only to one having the 
rank of post-captain ; to one, that is, who has 
passed through the preliminary grades of lieu¬ 
tenant and commander, in either of which grades 
he is available for the command of vessels of 
secondary importance. The full pay of a captain 
in the British navy varies from £410 12s. 6d. to 
£602 5s. per annum. He may also receive allow¬ 
ances, additional pay, etc., and, if of senior rank, 
he may be temporarily appointed Commodore (q.v.). 
A staff captain is a navigating officer of the highest 
rank. A captain of the fleet is an officer, either a 
captain or a rear-admiral, who is temporarily ap¬ 
pointed to act as chief of the staff to an admiral 


commanding a fleet. Captain is also, in the royal 
■mavy, the title of the chief sailor among particular 
gangs of blue-jackets in a ship. There is thus a 
captain of the hold, a captain of the main-top, a 
captain of a gun, etc. 

Capua, an ancient fortified city, the capital of 
Campania, is situated near the river Volturno, 
18 miles N. of Naples. It is believed to have been 
founded by the Tuscans in the ninth century B.C., and 
soon became exceedingly wealthy and luxurious. 
The Samnites captured it in 424 B.C., and soon 
degenerated under its enervating influence, so that 
Rome had to protect them from the neighbouring 
tribes. The inhabitants were despoiled by their 
allies of much of their land, but were admitted 
to citizenship. In the second Punic war they 
joined Hannibal, and demoralised his soldiers. The 
city was then taken by Rome and severely 
punished, its civic existence being destroyed, and 
the remainder of its territory converted into Roman 
public land. This territory, known as the Ager 
Campanus, is much heard of in the agrarian con¬ 
troversies of the time of Cicero. The city was 
restored to municipal privileges for fidelity in the 
Social war. Under Julius Cassar it became a Roman 
colony. The Vandals (456) and the Saracens (846) 
utterly destroyed it, and its site is now occupied by 
the town of Santa Maria, where the ruins of the 
great amphitheatre still exist. The modern Capua 
was founded at Casilinum by a remnant of the sur¬ 
vivors of the Saracen assault. It is one of the 
strongest places in South Italy. 

Capuchin (Fr. cajmche, a cowl), a reformed 
branch of the Franciscan order, founded in 1526 by 
Matthew de Basclii of Urbino in 1526. He attempted 
to restore the original strict rule of the order (as he 
conceived it) together with the original dress and 
cowl. The monks were to live by begging, and 
everything about them was to be poor and mean : 
even the chalices in their churches were to be of 
pewter. The founder himself withdrew from the 
order, and their third Vicar-General, Bernardino 
Ochino, married and became a Protestant, and 
eventually a Socinian and an advocate of free 
divorce. In consequence of this they came very 
near forcible suppression by the Pope. Abolished 
in France and Germany at the end of the last 
century, they revived, but were again suppressed in 
both countries in 1880. There are still several 
thousands, mainly in Austria and Switzerland. In 
England it has five monasteries; there are two in 
Wales, and three in Ireland. 

Capuchin Monkey, a popular name for any 

species or individual of the genus Cebus, ranging 
from Costa Rica to Paraguay, derived from the 
fact that the disposition of the hair round the face 
somewhat resembles the hood of a Capuchin friar. 

I Fey are small in size, lively and affectionate, and 
possessed of considerable intelligence. Rengger 
taught one which he kept as a pet to open nuts by 
breaking them with a stone. C. albifrons , C. 
fatuellus the Brown, and C. capncinus, the 
TV eeper Capuchin, are the best known of the 
eighteen species. 






Capulets. 


( 343 ) 


Caraccioli. 


Capulets, The, a Ghibelline family of Verona, 
whose feud with the rival house of the Montagus 
has become famous through Shakespeare’s tragedy 
of Romeo and Juliet , and through Dante’s reference 
to it in the 6th book of his Purgatory. The quarrel, 
if it has any historical basis, must be traced to the 
early part of the fourteenth century. 

Capybara (Hydrocharus capybara), sometimes 
called the Water-hog, a semi-aquatic rodent of the 
guinea-pig family from the north and east of South 
America, It is the largest living member of the 
order. Some that Darwin shot were over 3 ft. long. 
He says that “ from their manner of walking, and 
colour, they resemble pigs ; but when seated on 
their haunches . . . they reassume the appear¬ 

ance of their congeners, cavies and rabbits.” 
Their skins are of trifling value, and the meat is 
very indifferent. 

Carabobo, a state of the republic of Vene¬ 
zuela, S. America. It has an area of 8,080 square 
miles, and produces coffee, tobacco, indigo, wheat, 
and cotton. Valencia, the capital, stands 85 miles 
S.W. of Caracas. The chief port is Puerto Cabello. 


Caracas, or CARACCAS, a city of South America, 
capital of the United States of Venezuela, is situated 
at an altitude of nearly 3,000 feet above sea-level in 
lat. 10° 31' N., and long. 67° 5' W. It is 
regularly built, with well-paved and spacious 
streets; and among its chief edifices are the 
cathedral, university, federal palaces, and other 
official buildings. In the cathedral is the tomb of 
Bolivar. Public parks and gardens are numerous, 
and it is well provided with educational and 
charitable institutions. It is subject to earth¬ 
quakes, and in 1812 as many as 12,000 people are 
said to have perished in this way, while a great 
part of the city was destroyed. 

Caracci, or Carracci, Agostino, painter, was 
born in 1558 in Bologna. A pupil of his cousin, 
Ludovico (q.v.), he yet paid more attention to 
engraving than to painting, and as an engraver he 
takes a high place in Italian art. His painting of 
the Communion of St. Jerome is justly celebrated, 
and shows to what eminence he might have risen 
had he cultivated the art. He died at Parma in 
1601, just as he was completing his great painting 
of Celestial, Terrestrial, and Venal Love. 


Caracal {Felis caracal), a lynx-like cat from 
Africa and the warmer parts of Asia. The upper 
surface is reddish-brown, the under parts paler, 
and occasionally white. Some specimens are 
partially spotted’, and in all the tail (some 9 in. or 
10 in.) is tipped with black; the ears are tufted, 
and about 3 in. long. Total length from 35 in. to 
40 in. In India the caracal is trained to hunt 
small game. 


Caracalla, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, the 
son of the 'Emperor Septimius Severus, was born at 
Lyons in 188 A.D. His true name, Bassianus, was 
dropped for Caracalla on account of the hooded 
tunic which he wore and introduced into the army. 
He was also nicknamed Tarantus. He endeavoured 
to assassinate his father, and on succeeding to the 
purple in 211, murdered his brother Geta in the 
presence of his mother. He also put to death some 
20,000 people supposed to be adverse to his rule. 
His life, happily short, was one succession of insane 
excesses committed in his progresses through all 
parts of the empire. He married his mother-in- 
law, and then devastated Mesopotamia because the 
king refused him his daughter. Alexandria was 
subjected to a fearful massacre on account of his 
sarcastic reception by the people. He was at last 
killed at Edessa (217) by one of his guards, Ma- 
crinus, who usurped the throne. 


Caracara, the Brazilian name for Polyborus 
braziliensis, from its cry ; applied also to the other 
species of falcon-like hawks of the sub-family 
Polvborime, exclusively South American, with the 
exception of the Secretary-bird (q.v.). The toes 
of these birds are webbed at the base, and they 
seem quite as much at home on the ground as m 
the air They feed on frogs, small reptiles, 
offal, etc. The plumage is brownish-grey with 
darker markings, and the bare pale skin of the face 
becomes red when the birds are irritated or 
excited. 


Caracci, Annibale, brother of the preceding, 
was born in 1560 in Bologna. St. Roch distributing 
Alms was the first picture to confer fame, and he 
was in consequence employed to paint the Farnese 
gallery at Rome. The series of frescoes he here 
painted is considered his greatest voik. Among 
his easel-pictures the chief is the Three Marys 
wailing over Christ , now possessed by the Earl of 
Carlisle. He died in 1609 at Rome, being buried 
near to Raphael’s tomb in the Pantheon. 

Caracci, Ludovico, painter, cousin of the two 
preceding, w r as born in 1555 at Bologna. While 
studying under Tintoretto at "V enice he acquired 
the reputation of being a dunce. After a caieful 
study of preceding masters, he became imbued 
with principles antagonistic to the art then pre¬ 
vailing in Bologna, and to promote these piinciples 
established a school under the name Incamminati, 
or the “ Right Road.” With him were associated 
his cousins, Agostino and Annibale, and so successful 
was the project that every other school of art in 
Bologna was deserted and closed. He died in 
1619^ Among the works of Ludovico still preserved 
at Bologna are Madonna and Child throned, Ma¬ 
donna and Child standing, Transfguration, etc. 

Caraccioli, Prince Francesco, a distinguished 
Neapolitan naval commander, was born about 1729, 
and, after having bravely served his sovereign and 
country, joined the Parthenopean republic, and for 
a short time was commander-in-chief of its fleet. 
Upon becoming convinced that the King of Naples 
would recover his throne, he endeavoured to secrete 
himself, but, being discovered, was carried on board 
Lord Nelson’s flagship, w^hich was then engaged in 
protecting royalist interests. The unfortunate 
prince was at once tried by court-martial, and the 
same evening was hanged at the yard-arm of the 
Sicilian frigate Minerva. This was on June 29th, 
1799. Lord Nelson has been accused of having 
unduly hurried the proceedings, and of having 









Caractacus. 


( 344 ) 


Caraway. 


acted unjustifiably throughout; and it must be 
admitted that the circumstances attendant on the 
prince’s execution constitute a blot upon the 
memory of our greatest admiral. At the same 
time it is impossible to suppose that Nelson realised 
that he was doing wrong. The indignation of the 
loyal sailor seems to have got the better of the 
natural humanity of the kindly man. 

Caractacus, or Caradoc, king of the ancient 
Britons, fought against the Romans during the 
period 43 to 50 a.d. At length overcome, he fled to 
Cartismandua, Queen of the Brigantes, who betrayed 
him; and in 51 A.d. he was led in triumph through 
Rome by the Emperor Claudius. His dignified 
demeanour so impressed the emperor that he was 
pardoned, but according to tradition died at Rome 
54 A.D. 

CarafFa, Carlo, nephew of Pope Paul IV., was 
born in 1517. Made cardinal by his uncle, he was 
banished from Rome for extortion, and in 1561 
executed by Pope Pius IV. 

Caramel, a dark brown bitter substance, 
obtained by heating sugar to about 200° C. 

Carancaway, a large Texan tribe formerly 
ranging along the coast from Galveston Island to 
the Rio Grande del Norte; said to have been 
cannibals, and noted for their great stature, 
averaging 6 ft., were reduced to forty or fifty in 
1843, when they migrated to Tamaulipasin Mexico, 
and are now probably extinct. (See A. R. Roessler 
in Smithsonian Report for 1881.) 

Caranx. [Horse-Mackerel.] 

Carapace, (1) a term applied to the hard cover¬ 
ing of the Arthropoda. It is composed of a series 
of layers containing hard bands of phosphate of 
lime, chitin, etc. ; in some cases, as in the crab, the 
carapace is composed only of one piece (the cephalo- 
thorax), formed of the skeletal elements of many 
somites fused together ; or it may be bi-valved, 
as in some Entomostraca. The carapace is usually 
thrown off periodically by a process of moulting, 
known as “ecdysis.” The carapace differs from 
shell in microscopic structure as well as in compo¬ 
sition. (2) The dorsal or upper half of the “ shell” 
of a Turtle or Tortoise. The lower half is called 
the Plastron. 

Carat, as applied to gold, is used to mean 
simply J T th part by weight of the substance. Thus 
18 carat gold signifies that the article consists of 
•Lf-ths, or 75 per cent, pure gold. The gold used in 
our current coinage consists of 91-66 pure gold, or 
22 carats. The carat as used for weighing precious 
stones differs in different countries, but for dia¬ 
monds, a convention of the diamond merchants of 
London, Paris, and Amsterdam agreed in 1877 that 
the carat, equivalent to 4 diamond grains, should 
be 205 milligrams, and should be divided by 4ths, 
8ths, 16ths, and so forth. The tiny platinum 
weights used by diamond merchants are some of 
them hardly more than a film. The word, of Greek 
origin through Arabic, originally denoted a kind of 
seed. 


Caravaca, a town of Spain in the province of 
Murcia, is situated on a stream of the same name 
in a rich wine district. It has the ancient castle 
of Santa Cruz, and has manufactures of woollens, 
oil, paper, and leather. 

Caravaggio, Michel Amerighi da, painter, 
was born in 1569 at Caravaggio, Lombardy, whence 
he received his name. His father being a mason, 
employed him as a labourer, but he zealously 
worked as a painter and won the patronage of 
Cardinal del Monte. The distinctive feature of his 
work was the contempt it displayed for idealism of 
any kind, and he became the head of the naturalists’ 
school. He was of a violent disposition, which led 
him into continual trouble, being obliged to flee 
from Rome on account of a manslaughter committed 
in a gambling quarrel. He sought refuge in 
Malta, where he again got into trouble. Escaping 
thence he was seized with a violent fever, brought 
on by wounds and exposure and, lying down on 
the beach at Porto Ercole, died in 1609. Among his 
leading pictures are The Fraudulent Gamblers, 
The Burial of Christ, Christ and His Disciples at 
Fmmaus, in the National Gallery, and St. Sebastian. 

Caravaggio, Polidoro Caldara da, painter, 
was born towards the end of the fifteenth century, 
and assisted Raphael on the Vatican frescoes. The 
Crucifixion and Christ bearing the Cross are his 
most famous pictures. In 1543, while on his way 
from Messina, where he had amassed a considerable 
fortune, he was robbed and murdered by his 
assistant, Tonno Calabrere. 

Caravan (Persian Mr, business, and Arabic 
hair, trade) denotes a company of merchants of 
the East, who combine together for mutual com¬ 
pany and protection while travelling from place to 
place w T ith their goods. The practice is of ancient 
date, and mention is made more than once of such 
travelling in the Bible. For instance, the company 
to which Joseph was sold by his brethren was just 
such a caravan as may be met with at the present 
day. The head of the caravan is called a Reis, and 
has considerable power. The caravanserai, or inn 
where at certain spots a caravan halts for the night, 
consists of a courtyard for the camels surrounded 
by buildings for sheltering the men, and is only an 
inn in the sense of providing shelter. For food the 
caravan is self-dependent. The word caravan has 
been applied in modern times to vehicles in which 
the travellers live. “Van” is the same word 
shortened. 

Caraway, the half fruit or mericarp (q.v.) of 
the umbelliferous Carum Carni, commonly miscalled 
a seed. The plant is a native of northern and 
western Asia and northern Europe, and is cultivated 
in Kent and Essex, occurring also as an escape. It 
has a fusiform root, finely-cut leaves, compound 
umbels with not more than one bract, white flowers 
of which the outer ones are larger, and an oblong 
fruit. The mericarps have each five ridges and 
conspicuous oil-cavities. They have an aromatic 
odour and a spicy taste, from the presence of from 
three to six per cent, of a volatile oil, a mixture of 
the stearoptene carcol and carvene. This oil is 







Carbamide. 


( 345 ) 


Carbon. 


extracted by distillation and is used in medicine as 
a carminative and as a flavouring ingredient in 
liqueurs and confectionery. It is more abundant 
when the plant is grown in northern regions. 
Whole caraways are also largely used in cookery, 
and about a thousand tons are imported into 
England annually, mainly from Holland. 

Carbamide. [Urea.] 

Carbamines, also called isocyanides, or isoni¬ 
triles, are a class of organic compounds, of the 
composition X.N.C. where X is any hydrocarbon 
radical, as methyl, ethyl, etc., i.e. CH 3 , C 2 H 5 , etc. 
They are volatile and poisonous, with a disgusting 
odour, and form a large class of chemically- 
important substances. 

Carbazotic Acid, also called Picric Acid, or 
Trinitrophenol C 6 H 2 (N0 2 ) 3 0H, is a yellow, 
crystalline, soluble substance, prepared by the action 
of nitric acid on phenol. It is used in microscopic 
work for the purpose of staining objects. Its salts 
readily explode by concussion or heat; ammonium, 
incrate, C 6 H 2 (N0 2 ) 3 0NH 4 , is largely used in the 
manufacture of explosives. 

Carbine, a short-barrelled musket or rifle 
suitable for use by cavalry. As regards calibre, 
breech-apparatus, etc., the modern carbine is 
similar to the corresponding modern rifle; but it 
has less power and range, since the reduced length 
of barrel does not permit of the complete combus¬ 
tion of the powder charge. The weapon has given 
its name to a certain type of cavalry—the Car¬ 
bineers. 

Carbohydrates are a class of closely-related 
substances, all consisting of carbon, hydrogen, and 
oxygen, the two latter elements being present in 
the proportion in which they exist in water. Under 
this head are included amongst others the sugars, 
grape sugar, cane sugar, milk sugar, etc. ; starch, 
dextrin, cellulose, gums, etc. They are frequent 
constituents of plants (starch, cellulose, etc.), and 
animal products (glycogen). Many have recently 
been synthetically prepared, and their constitution 
shown to be analogous to aldehydes or ketones. Al¬ 
most all exert an action on polarised light, and most 
undergo fermentation by the action of different 
micro-organisms, the products varying with the 
carbohydrate and with the organism employed. 

Carbolic Acid, also known as Phenol and 
Creasote, is a hydroxy derivative of Benzene (q.v.) 
of composition C,.H 5 OH. It is chiefly obtained from 
heavy coal-tar oil (Benzene, Coal 1 ar) by treating 
with soda, and then adding an acid to the soda 
solution. When pure it forms colourless needles, 
melting at 42°, but it soon becomes coloured. It 
has weak acid properties, a characteristic odour, a 
burning taste, and is poisonous. 

Carbolic acid is extensively employed as an 
antiseptic and disinfectant. Ihe surgeon uses it 
for cleansing instruments and sponges, and as a 
stimulating and antiseptic lotion in the treatment 
of ulcerated surfaces. If applied to infected matter 
with the object of destroying germs, the solution 


must be of suitable strength. As ordinarily 
employed, carbolic acid is often well-nigh useless. 
It is a common practice to add a small quantity of 
a 5 per cent, solution to a large volume of noxious 
material, the resulting strength of the mixture 
being absurdly insufficient for the production of 
the germicidal effect which it is desirable should 
be obtained. Carbolic acid is but rarely administered 
internally; it has, however, been employed in small 
doses in fevers. It is sometimes accidentally 
swallowed and gives rise to symptoms of irritant 
poisoning ; it may be absorbed from wounded sur¬ 
faces, and in such cases a peculiar discoloration 
of the urine has been noted (carboluria). 

Carbon (atomic weight 1P97) is a non-metallic 
elementary substance, which occurs very abundantly 
and is widely distributed. It occurs free in three 
different modifications [Allotropy], viz. as dia¬ 
mond, graphite, and charcoal. All organic matter 
contains carbon combined with other elements. It 
occurs combined with hydrogen in many mineral 
oils or petroleum, etc. Combined with oxygen it 
is found in the atmosphere and volcanic gases. In 
combination with oxygen and magnesia, or lime 
(dolomite and limestone), it forms a large portion of 
the earth’s crust. The diamond is the purest form 
of carbon. It is found chiefly in South Africa, 
India, and Brazil. It was proved to consist solely 
of carbon by Lavoisier, who showed that when 
burnt, carbon dioxide, C0 2 , was the only product. 
It is generally colourless, has a fine lustre, and is 
the hardest substance known. It crystallises in 
the regular system, and has a specific gravity 3’5. 
Graphite occurs in the United States, Siberia, etc., 
and in England in Cornwall and Cumberland. It 
has a specific gravity 2 2, is of a glistening grey- 
black colour, and leaves a streak on paper. It is 
hence used for the manufacture of pencils and is 
known as black lead or plumbago. Besides its use 
for this purpose it is largely employed as a lubri¬ 
cant, and for the manufacture of crucibles. It 
crystallises in hexagonal plates. Charcoal or 
amorphous carbon is obtained by heating many 
organic substances in the absence of air. From 
wood by such a process wood charcoal is obtained. 
It is very porous, and can absorb many gases. 
Animal charcoal or bone block (q-v.) is obtained 
similarly from bones. Lamp black, an impure 
carbon obtained by the imperfect combustion of 
oil, etc., is largely used as a pigment. Gas carbon 
is a very hard variety left in gas retorts after heating 
coal for the production of illuminating gas. All 
these latter forms are more or less impure, contain¬ 
ing variable quantities of ash, etc. Ihe different 
varieties of coal all consist chiefly of carbon, the 
quantity varying from about 70 per cent, in brown 
coal to* about 97 per cent, in anthracite. Carbon 
burns in air forming carbon dioxide, C0 2 . Another 
oxide also exists—carbonic or monoxide (q.v.). CO. 
With hydrogen and oxygen, etc., it forms a very large 
number of compounds of every variety of chemical 
and physical character. The chemistry of the 
carbon compounds on this account is regarded by 
itself as a branch of the science, and commonly 
called organic chemistry. 







Carbonado. 


( 346 ) 


Carboniferous System. 


Carbonado, or Cakbonate, is an opaque, 
black diamond found in Brazil, of extreme hardness, 
and used on that account for boring rocks and for 
smoothing the surfaces of grindstones and emery- 
wheels. 

Carbonari, the Italian word for colliers or 
charcoal-burners, was the name given to a secret 
society which existed in Italy and France in the 
early part of the present century. It was first 
formed in the fastnesses of the Abruzzi, and gave 
much trouble to Murat, whom its members hated 
almost as much as they did Ferdinand. They took 
their principles and ritual partly from freemasonry 
and partly from Christianity, and gave to their 
meetings the names of baracca (hut), vendita (sale), 
and alta vendita (big sale), in ascending order of im¬ 
portance. In 1820 their numbers are said to have 
mounted to several hundred thousands, Charles 
Albert of Sardinia, Lord Byron, Silvio Pellico, and 
Mazzini being among their number, but their power 
was broken by Austria, and in 1831 they were 
absorbed by Mazzini and the “ Young Italy ” move¬ 
ment. The establishment in France was organised 
in 1820, Lafayette being the moving power, the 
members calling themselves bans cousins, and speak¬ 
ing of outsiders as pagani. Their meetings were 
rentes parti culieres, rentes centrales , hautes rentes 
and rentes supremes. They were careful to possess 
no documents. After an unsuccessful rising in 1821, 
they took part in the revolution of 1830, and by 
1848 they had almost ceased to exist. 

Carbonic Acid is used to signify both the 
gas carbon dioxide C0 2 , and its compound with 
water H 2 C0 3 . The gas occurs in the atmosphere 
to the extent of about - 04 per cent., and is 
found in volcanic gases. It is always produced 
when carbonaceous substances burn in air or oxygen. 
It is one of the waste products of the animal 
economy, and hence occurs in expired air. Green 
plants, however, under the influence of sunlight, 
decompose the atmospheric C0 2 with elimination 
of the oxygen. It is also generally a product of 
fermentative action. It may be prepared by the 
action of an acid upon a carbonate, as chalk or 
marble. The action is represented by the equation 
CaC0 3 + 2HC1 = CaCl 2 + OH 2 + C0 2 . It is a 
colourless gas with a peculiar odour. It is heavier 
than air (density L52). By cold and pressure it 
may be liquefied, or solidified to a white snow-like 
mass. Though not really poisonous it is non- 
respirable, and if present to the extent of 2 or 3 
per cent, renders air suffocating. Lighted tapers 
immersed in it are at once extinguished. It is 
soluble in water, and water charged at high 
pressure gives off the gas at ordinary pressure with 
effervescence, e.g. sodawater, champagne, etc. Its 
solution in water has weak acid properties, and may 
be regarded as containing an acid H 2 CO.„ the salts of 
which are known as carbonates when both hydro¬ 
gen atoms are replaced by a metal, as CaC0 3 , and 
bicarbonates when only one is so replaced. 

Carboniferous System, a great series of 
Palaeozoic rocks named from the occurrence of coal 
(q.v.) in its upper portion, reaching sometimes a thick¬ 
ness of 20,000 feet. It generally passes conformably 


downwards into the underlying Old Red Sandstone, 
and in Bohemia, at Autun in France, and elsewhere, 
it passes conformably upward into Permian rocks. 
Carboniferous rocks seem mostly to have accumu¬ 
lated in the sea not far from land, or in lagoon 
swamps that have been compared to the mangrove 
swamps of the present day. The close o.f the 
Devonian epoch would seem to have been marked 
by great though gradual geographical changes, so 
that an open sea extended from the west of Ire¬ 
land to Westphalia, undergoing during the earlier 
part of the Carboniferous epoch continuous de¬ 
pression, but shallowing towards land to the north 
of Derbyshire. Subsequently, during the latter 
part of the epoch, though depression must have 
continued, at least intermittently, the “ lagoon 
type” of shallower water conditions seems to have 
extended southward over most of the area occupied 
previously by the “ marine type.” In the open sea 
a very pure limestone, sometimes foraminiferal, 
sometimes crinoidal, and sometimes coralline, known 
as the Carboniferous, or, from the scenery it now 
often forms, as Mountain Limestone, accumulated to 
a depth in some places exceeding 6,000 feet. The 
lagoon type, on the other hand, is represented by 
thousands of feet of sandstone and grit, with oc¬ 
casional conglomerate and shale, with seams of 
coal (q.v.) resting on beds of fire-clay, and with 
beds of clay-ironstone (q.v.) nodules. False-bedding 
(q.v.), ripple-mark, and suncracks tell of the shallow 
water origin of the sandstones, and the coal-seams 
mark successive.forest-growths during considerable 
pauses in the sinking of the area. Volcanic activity 
during the earlier part of the epoch is marked by 
intercalated rocks in Derbyshire, the Isle of Man, 
and especially in the south of Scotland, where some 
sheets reach a thickness of 1,500 feet. In Russia, 
China, and western North America, Carboniferous 
rocks cover large areas horizontally, as does the 
Carboniferous Limestone in Ireland; but in England 
the limestone forms the axial Pennine anticlinal 
from Northumberland to Derbyshire, and elsewhere 
the system is mainly preserved in synclinal basins 
or “ coal-fields,” once united but now detached. 
The limestones contain a rich marine fauna, 1,500 
species having been described. They are largely 
composed of foraminifera, such as Fusulina ; 
abound in corals, such as Lithostrotion ; in crinoids, 
such as Platycrinus ; in polyzoans, especially Fene- 
stella; in brachiopods, especially Productus and 
Spirifer; and in pelecypods; and contain the 
blastoid Pentremites, numerous gastropods, ptero- 
pods, and cephalopods, the last of the trilobites 
and numerous fish, some of large size, represented 
by spines and teeth like those of rays or sharks. 
The flora of the shales and coal includes Catamites 
(q.v.), Lepidodendron (q.v.), and Sigillaria (q.v.), 
reaching the size of trees; ferns, such as Alethop- 
teris, characterising the higher beds; and, appar¬ 
ently from higher ground, some little known coni¬ 
fers. Mussels, probably fresh-water, such as An- 
thracosia , scorpions, millepedes, a great variety of 
insects belonging to a primitive type ( Palccodiety - 
optera ), especially from Commentry in France, 
and snails, such as Pupa and Zonites , and large 
salamander-like labyrinthodonts (q.v.), such as 





Carbon Monoxide. 


( 317 ) 


Carcharodon. 


Archegosaurus, the earliest of their class, occur in 
the same beds with this flora, though an occasional 
band contains marine shells. The system may be 
subdivided as follows :— 


Upper. —Coal-Measure se¬ 
ries. (3,000 feet in Scot¬ 
land ; 12,000 feet in South 
Wales.) 

Middle.— Millstone Grit. 


Lower. — Carboniferous 
Limestone series. 


f Upper : 150 to 500 feet 
Middle: With Pennant Grit. 3,000 
-! to 4,000 feet. 

Lower: With Gannister (a sili- 
l ceous tire-clay). 450 to 2,000 feet. 
300 to 5,500 feet. 

(Yoredale Shales and Grits. 300 to 
I 4,500 feet. 

! Thick or Scaur Limestone. 500 to 
J 3,500 feet. 

Lower Limestone Shale or Tuse- 
| dian, with Calciferous Sand¬ 
stone of Scotland. 100 to 1,000 
L feet. 


The divisions, as will be seen, vary exceedingly in 
thickness. In the north a few coal-seams occur in 
the Limestone and Millstone Grit; but in the south 
the latter is known as Farewell Rock, no coal oc¬ 
curring in or below it. From its barrenness it is 
called Moor Rock in the north. In South Wales 
there are about eighty coal-seams with a total 
thickness of 120 feet; in Staffordshire 30 feet are 
worked as one seam. It is probable that the highest 
beds of the Coal Measures, present at Autun, and 
in Bohemia, are absent in Britain. In addition to 
coal and iron (haematite, as at Ulverston, from the 
Limestone, and clay-ironstone from the Coal Mea¬ 
sures) the system yields much valuable flagstone, 
especially the Yorkshire flags; the Craigleith or 
Calciferous sandstone (q.v.) for building; various 
marbles, grey, black, and encrinital; millstones, 
grindstones, and honestones; ores of lead, copper, 
and zinc in veins in the Limestone; and, by dis¬ 
tillation of the often bituminous shales, paraffin, 
alum, and copperas. 


Carbon Monoxide, or Carbonic Oxide, 
is produced when carbonaceous matters burn in a 
quantity of oxygen insufficient for the formation 
of the dioxide. It is produced also when carbonic 
acid passes over heated charcoal, and is hence 
often found in the gases from coke stoves. It is 
very poisonous, as it forms a compound with the 
haemoglobin of the blood with expulsion of the 
oxygen. 

Carbon Process, a photographic printing 
process, which depends on the fact that gelatine 
becomes insoluble if mixed with potassium bichro¬ 
mate (KoCr^Oy) and exposed to light. I he paper 
(“ pigmented paper,” or “carbon tissue ) is there¬ 
fore prepared by coating it with gelatine, well- 
mixed with some finely-powdered pigment, as 
Venetian red, bone black, alizarin lake, etc.. It is 
then sensitised by floating it on a solution of 
potassium bichromate, and dried. To obtain the 
print it is exposed to light under the photographic 
“ negative.” As no visible change occurs, the length 
of exposure must be gauged by experience, or by 
means of an instrument called the “ actinometer.^ 
When fully printed it requires to be “ developed.” 
To do this the gelatine is transferred face down¬ 
wards to another sheet of paper b.v pressing it on 
when wet, and peeling off the original paper sup¬ 
port. It is then washed with hot water, which 


dissolves off the gelatine and pigments in the parts 
unexposed to light. It is next immersed in alum 
solution to harden the film, washed well in cold 
water, and dried. 

Carbuncle. 1. A deep-coloured garnet cut en 
caboclion, that is, with a smooth, unfacetted 
convex surface. It is generally deep red or tinged 
with violet, the variety almandine, or iron-alumina 
garnet. The finest and largest specimens come 
from Ceylon and Peru. They often receive 
additional fire from a backing of metallic foil; but 
the carbunculus of Pliny and the bareltefh and 
liadlwd of the Hebrew Bible, all named from their 
fire, seem most probably to refer to this stone. 
[Garnet.] 2. An inflammatory swelling of the skin 
and subcutaneous tissue, akin to a boil, but in¬ 
volving a larger area, and accompanied by more 
severe constitutional disturbance. Again, in a 
carbuncle the skin commonly gives way at several 
points, exposing the underlying slough, while in a 
boil there is but one opening. Carbuncle more 
usually affects men than women, and is particularly 
apt to occur in the subjects of gout or diabetes. 
The nape of the neck and the back are common 
situations of the disease. Treatment is generally 
confined to the administration of general remedies, 
with the local application of poultices; in some 
instances, however, caustics are of service, and the 
obstinate cases are sometimes dealt with by free 
crucial incision. 

Carburetted Hydrogen. [Methane, Ethy¬ 
lene.] 

Carcagente, a town of Spain in the province 
of Valencia, is situated near the river Tucar. Its 
inhabitants are mainly occupied in agriculture and 
manufactures of textile fabrics. 

Carcassone, chief town of the French depart¬ 
ment of Aude, is situated on both sides of the river 
. Aude and on the Canal du Midi. It comprises an 
old town and a new town, parts of the former 
dating back to the eleventh century, while the 
latter is well and uniformly built. Among its 
ecclesiastical buildings the first is the cathedral 
of St. Nazaire. There are also public buildings 
of considerable, architectural merit. The staple 
industry is in woollens. In the thirteenth century 
Simon tie Montfort and his followers burned 400 
Albigenses in Carcassone and committed severe 
depredations upon the town. 

Carcharodon, a genus of sharks belonging to 
the order Lamnidcs , known in a fossil state from 
Cretaceous times and represented by one living 
species, C. vondelstii , the most formidable of existing 
sharks, as were its congeners of those of past ages. 
It now attains a length of 40 feet, with triangular 
teeth with serrate edges, 2~ inches long and If- 
inches wide; but species in Tertiary strata had 
teeth five inches long and four wide. These 
were widely distributed, being found in the Suffolk 
and Antwerp Crag, in Malta, where they are sold 
as “ the veritable teeth of St. Paul,” in Egypt, 
New Zealand, Jamaica, South Carolina, and in 
Florida, where they are largely quarried for ex¬ 
port to England for artificial manure. 









Carcinoma. 


( 348 ) 


Cardiganshire. 


Carcinoma. [Cancer.] 

Carcalzite, a granite in which the felspar has 
been converted into kaolin or china-clay (q.v.), 
consisting, therefore, of quartz, kaolin, and mica, 
and constituting the “ soft growan ” of Carclaze, 
near St. Austell, Cornwall, where it is largely 
worked as a material for the porcelain manufacture. 
It is practically infusible, constituting what the 
Chinese call the bone of the ware, i.e. its less 
translucent part. [Petuntzite.] 

Cardamom, the fruits of several plants 
belonging to the genera Elettaria and Amomum in 
the order Zingiberacece , which have an aromatic 
odour and a spicy taste and are used in medicine, 
curries, liqueurs, cattle-foods, etc. The fruit is a 
three-chambered capsule from a quarter of an inch 
to an inch in length, containing numerous angular 
seeds. They contain a camphor, C ]0 Hi 6 (H 2 O) 3 . 
The true officinal cardamom is that of Malabar, 
Elettaria Cdrdamomum, with the shortest capsules. 
In the East, cardamoms are chewed with betel. 

Cardan, Jerome, philosopher and mathema¬ 
tician, was born in 1501 at Pavia. As professor of 
mathematics at Milan he began to acquire fame, 
subsequently devoting himself to medicine. His 
renown as a physician secured for him an invitation 
in 1552 to Scotland to attend Archbishop Hamilton, 
who had suffered from asthma for ten years, and 
whom Cardan succeeded in curing. In 1570, while 
professor of medicine at Bologna, he was imprisoned 
for debt, and being released in the following year 
evaded his creditors by removing to Rome. Here 
he became a member of the medical college, and 
had conferred on him a pension by the Pope. In 
1-576 he died, it being reported that he voluntarily 
starved himself in order that a prophecy (he made 
pretensions to the gift) he had made as to the 
date of his death might be fulfilled. His writings 
were numerous and on various subjects, physics, 
mathematics, medicine, astronomy, ethical science, 
logic, music, and natural history. He also wrote 
his autobiography. 

Cardenas, a seaport on the 1ST. coast of Cuba, 
is the leading commercial centre of the island, and 
is about 120 miles S.E. of Havana. 

Cardia, the Greek word for the heart. The inner 
lining of the heart is hence known as the endocar¬ 
dium, and the outer lining as the pericardium. 
The adjective cardiac is also extensively used. 
[Heart.] The portion of the stomach lying inclose 
proximity to the heart is called the cardiac end of 
the stomach, in contradistinction to the p}doric end 
adjoining the pylorus. [Stomach.] 

Cardialgia. [Heartburn.] 

Cardiff, a municipal and parliamentary borough 
of S. Wales, the chief town of Glamorganshire, is 
situated at the mouth of the river Taff, on the 
estuary of the Severn. The terminus of several 
railways, it is also provided with extensive and 
commodious docks, covering an area of about 200 
acres. It is thus the chief centre for the export of 
the mineral and manufactured produce of S. Wales. 


Among the industries of the town itself are ship¬ 
building and ironworks. It has an old castle, built 
in the eleventh century, and celebrated as the prison 
in which Robert, Duke of Normandy, Henry I.’s 
brother, died in 1134. Other buildings of note are 
the county infirmary, town hall, university college, 
and public library and museum; and opposite to 
the castle grounds, on the banks of the Taff, are the 
Sophia gardens, a gift to the town from a former 
Marchioness of Bute. A suburb of Cardiff is the 
ancient city—the smallest in this country—of 
Llandaff. Cardiff is connected by steamers with 
America and the leading English and Irish ports. 

Cardigan, a municipal and parliamentary 
borough, S. Wales, county town of Cardiganshire, is 
situated on the S.E. of Cardigan Bay, at the mouth 
of the river Teifi. Its harbour, being obstructed by 
a bar, affords accommodation for vessels of light 
draught only. It engages extensively in salmon 
fishing, and does a considerable export trade in 
slates. The town is built chiefly of slate rock, its 
streets being narrow and irregular. In the neigh¬ 
bourhood are the ruins of Cardigan castle, and the 
leading edifices in the town are the ancient church 
of St. Mary’s and the block of buildings embracing 
the town hall, exchange, markets, and public 
library. 

Cardigan, James Thomas Brudenell, 
seventh Earl of, general, was born in 1797 at 
Hambledon, in Hampshire. In 1818 he entered 
Parliament as representative for Marlborough, suc¬ 
ceeding to the peerage on the death of his father in 
1837. Meanwhile, in 1824, he had entered the 
army as cornet in the 8th Hussars, becoming 
lieutenant-colonel in the 15th Hussars in 1832. In 
this last regiment he succeeded in making himself 
one of the most unpopular of officers, and in the 
two years during which he was connected with it 
held 105 courts-martial and made 700 arrests. In 
1840 he engaged in a duel with Captain Tuckett, and 
being arraigned before the House of Lords, was 
acquitted on a point of law. He was com¬ 
mander of the Light Cavalry brigade in the 
Crimean campaign, and led the Six Hundred at the 
famous Balaclava charge. For his services in the 
Crimea he received the Crimean medal, was made a 
K.C.B. and a Commander of the Legion of Honour. 
In 1859 he was appointed inspector-general of 
cavalry, attaining the rank of lieutenant-general in 
1861. He died in 1868, and, though twice married, 
left no children, the title thus passing to the 
Marquis of Ailesbury. 

Cardigan Bay, an inlet of St. George’s 
Channel, on the W. coast of Wales, between the 
points Bracli-y-Pwll and Sturm Head, Into it flow 
the rivers Maw, Dovey, Ystwith, Yren, and Teifi. 

Cardiganshire, a sea-coast county of S. 
Wales, is situated on Cardigan Bay. It covers an 
area of nearly 700 square miles, quite a half of 
which is waste land. Towards the coast the 
surface becomes level, but the interior is moun¬ 
tainous, interspersed with fertile valleys. In the 
N.E. is Plinlimmon, the chief height, with an 
elevation of 2,469 ft., and in the S.E. Tregaron 





Cardinal. 


( 349 ) 


Cards. 


mountain, 1,778 ft. Among its rivers are the Teifi, 
Dovey, Ystwith, and Rheidol. Its lakes are 
numerous, and a favourite resort of anglers. The 
county having an extensive coast-line, many of the 
inhabitants engage in fishing and become seamen, 
agriculture, however, being its main industry. 
Besides Cardigan, the capital, other towns are 
Aberystwitli, Aberaeron, Lampeter, and Adpar. 
Some curious marriage customs still survive in 
Cardiganshire, among them being the practice of 
putting up to auction the presents received by a 
bride on her wedding. 

Cardinal, the name given to the highest dig¬ 
nitaries of the Roman Church next after the Pope, 
who is chosen by the Sacred College of Cardinals. 
The name is derived from the Latin cardo (a hinge), 
but there is a difference of opinion as to how it 
came to be applied to them, the general idea being 
that they were originally those who were “ hinged 
in ” or established in the churches of Rome, either 
as deacons aiding the Pope, or priests of the city 
churches, or bishops in the Roman diocese. Pius 
V. made them the Councillors of the Pope, Urban 
VIII. gave them the title of Eminence, and Sextus 
V. settled their number at 6 bishops, 50 priests, and 
14 deacons—70 in all. They are nominated by the 
Pope, who has also the right of choosing some 
whose names he does not at once make known, but 
reserves to himself (in petto). If, however, he dies 
before declaring them, these nominations become 
void. The nomination does not give them the right 
to vote in conclave until the Pope has “opened 
their mouth.” They do not leave Rome without 
leave of the Pope unless, being bishops, they have 
a see outside Rome. The Dean of the Sacred 
College consecrates the newly-elected Pope if he be 
not already a bishop. The special marks of a 
Cardinal are the red hat, the red biretta, and the 
red cassock. But a Cardinal belonging to one 
of the religious orders wears the habit of the 
order. 

Cardinal, any bird of either species of the 
American genus Cardinalis, allied to the grosbeak 
(q.v.), but distinguished therefrom by the slightly 
bulging bill. The name is given by dealers to some 
allied species, though often confined to C. 
virginianus, the Cardinal finch, about the size of 
a starling. Americans are enthusiastic about its 
powers of song, and call it the Virginian nightin¬ 
gale. The male has brilliant red plumage (except 
round the bill and on the throat, where there is a 
tinge of black), and a conical erectile crest; the 
hen is rusty-brown. 

Cardinal’s Hat. Though the use of this 
bearing is strictly confined to certain dignitaries of 
the Roman Catholic Church, it is nevertheless 
a perfectly correct heraldic bearing. It is a low, 
wide-brimmed, scarlet hat, and takes the place of 
the mitre of Anglican bishops and archbishops. 
Pendant from the inside of the hat, r and hanging 
upon each side of the escutcheon, are five rows of 
tassels, commencing with one on each side in the 
uppermost row, and having two in the second, 
three in the third, four in the fourth, and five in the 


lowest and final row. The archbishops and bishops 
in France surmount their arms with a similar hat, 
but of a green co¬ 
lour, and with only 
four rows of tas¬ 
sels ; and abbots 
likewise, only the 
hat in this case is 
sable, and the tas¬ 
sels are reduced 
to three rows. 

Cardinal 
Virtues, a col¬ 
lection of qualities 
to which this name 
has been given by 
Catholic tlieolo- cardinal’s hat. 

gians. Of these 

four were acknowledged as important virtues by 
pagan moralists. They are Justice, Prudence, 
Temperance, Fortitude, which the Church has 
adopted under the name of the JSIoral virtues, 
adding thereto Faith, Hope, and Charity, which it 
calls Theological virtues. 

Cardium. [Cockle.] 

Cardoon, Cynara Cardunculus, a plant closely 
allied to the artichoke, native to southern Europe 
and northern Africa, and cultivated as an esculent 
for 250 years. The stalks of the inner leaves, known 
as the chard, are blanched and become crisp, tender, 
and edible. The flowers when dried are used in 
France to coagulate milk. 

Cards. Playing-cards are of unknown origin 
and antiquity. Some consider them to have come 
from the East, others, as there is no direct evidence 
of their having been introduced from the East, 
think that they had an independent origin. But 
the idea once prevalent—that they were invented 
to amuse a mad French king, seems to have no 
stronger foundation than the fact that an entry of 
1392 speaks of a payment made for painting cards 
for Charles VI. They seem to have been used by 
the Arabs and Saracens for divination, an applica¬ 
tion of them not altogether lost at the present day. 
They existed at Venice in the 15th century, and 
though at first they had only numerical values, at 
this date there were coat (court) cards, and atritti 
Fr. atouts (trumps). In Spain the pack, as now, 
consisted of 52, but only of numerical values. 
There were variations in France and Germany, and 
England seems to have borrowed from all sides. 
Of the four suits, the Italian cups became hearts in 
Germany, France, and England ; money became hells 
in Germany, and diamonds in France and England ; 
clubs became leaves in Germany, trejies in France, 
and clubs in England ; swords (spades) became 
acorns in Germany, piques in France, and spades in 
England. The devices and dresses of the kings 
and other court cards date from the 15th century. 
But the old dresses and devices have been discarded 
in France, ■where often the court cards have 
different historical names assigned to them, and 
the aces have views of different towns. Cards are 
nowhere so solidly and carefully manufactured as 







Carducci. 


( 350 ) 


Cargill. 


in England. Among the many improvements, or at 
least changes, introduced are the double heads to 
the court cards, the rounded corners, and the index to 
the number of the pips and the suit of a card. Cards 
have added not a little to the revenue of Great 
Britain, and the tax, which was 6d. per pack in 
Queen Anne’s reign, has fluctuated through Is., 
Is. 6d., 2s. 6d., Is., to the present duty of 3d. 

Carducci, or Carducho, Bartolommeo, 
painter, was born in 1560 in Florence. Studying 
architecture, sculpture, and painting, he was 
employed to paint the ceiling of the Escurial 
library at Madrid, and became a favourite of 
Philip III. His most notable achievement is a 
Descent from the Cross, now in the church of San 
Felipe el Real, Madrid. He died in 1610. 

Carducci, or Carducho, Vincenzo, brother of 
the preceding, also a painter, was born in 1668 in 
Florence. He studied under his brother, Barto¬ 
lommeo, and, like him, did his chief work in Spain. 
In Madrid he taught the principles of his art, and 
Drought out several distinguished artists, among 
whom were Giovanni Ricci, Pedro Obregon, Vela, 
md Collantes. He died in 1638. 

Cardwell, Edward, Viscount, was born in 
1813 at Liverpool. Educated at Oxford, where he 
also held the professorship of ancient history, he 
in 1842 became a member of Parliament, supporting 
Sir Robert Peel, and subsequently joining the 
Liberal party. In 1874 he was raised to the 
peerage. He is chiefly known by reason of his 
reforms in the army, effected while he was Secretary 
for War under Mr. Gladstone. He was one of Peel's 
literary executors, and edited that statesman’s 
memoirs. He died in 1886. 

Careening, the operation of heaving a ship 
down so as to expose part of her bottom in order 
to enable it to be repaired, otherwise than in dock. 
The operation, which was effected by the applica¬ 
tion of a strong purchase to the ship’s masts, has 
been, by the general introduction of coppered and 
steel or iron vessels, rendered almost obsolete. It 
was owing to her having been excessively heeled 
or careened that the 1 loyal Georye foundered at 
Spithead in 1<82. A ship is also said to careen 
when she heels over under the force of the wind. 

Carelians, a historical people of Finnish 
race, so called by the Russians, but whose proper 
name is Karielase (in Finnish, Karielaiset ) ; 
formerly spread over the whole of south-east 
Finland, and thence east to Lake Ladoga and 
north to the White Sea ; converted to Christianity 
in 1227 by Russian missionaries, later brought into 
close contact with the Swedes, but in 1721 finally 
reduced by Russia. At present they number about 
1,000,000, of whom 850,000 are in south-east Finland, 
the rest in Tver, Novgorod, Olonetz, and other 
parts of Russia. Those of Finland are nearly all 
Lutherans, the rest mostly either Orthodox Greek, or 
Raskolniks (“ Old Believers ”). Kalevala, the hero 
of the great Finnish epic poem, or collection of 
national songs, was a Carelian, and it was amongst 
this blanch of the race that those songs were orally 
preserved before being collected and printed. The 


Carelians are described as remarkably shrewd, 
but suspicious, headstrong, and vindictive, and 
generally disliked by their Russian and Swedish 
neighbours. 

Carew, Thomas, poet, was born in 1589, and 
studied at Oxford. His wit and vivacity made him 
a favourite at Court, and he was considerably 
eulogised by Ben Jon son, Davenant, and other 
litterateurs of the period. His productions were 
chiefly masques and lyrics, his best known being 
Coelum JBritannicum , which was performed by the 
king and nobles at Whitehall on Shrove Tuesday 
of 1633. Carew died in 1639. 

Carey, Henry, poet and composer, was born in 
1696 in London, and is said to h?we been the natural 
son of George Saville, Marquis of Halifax. His 
productions, comprising songs, burlesques, etc., 
with music sometimes, number over two hundred, 
the best known being Sally in Our Alley. He 
also is credited by some with God Save the King. 
He committed suicide in 1743. 

Carey, Henry Charles, economist, was born 
in 1793 in Philadelphia. The eldest son of Mathew 
Carey, a publisher, he in 1814 joined his father’s 
business, remaining in it till 1835. He thereafter 
retired, devoting himself to study, and in 1836 
began to publish his Principles of Political 
Economy. This was followed by other works, chief 
amongst which may be mentioned, The Credit 
System of France, Great Britain , and the United 
States, The Past, the Present, and the Future , 
and The Principles of Social Science. He was a 
protectionist—so far at any rate as America was 
concerned, and opposed to Ricardo’s theory of 
rent, and to an international copyright. He died 
in 1879. 

Carey, Sir Robert, son of Lord Hunsdon, 
was born about the middle of the sixteenth century. 
He distinguished himself in the service of Queen 
Elizabeth, and on the accession of Charles I. that 
sovereign created him Earl of Monmouth. He 
died in 1639 without • issue, and therefore the 
title became extinct. 

Carey, William, missionary, was born in 1761 
near Towcester, Northamptonshire. While a shoe¬ 
maker’s apprentice he joined the Baptists in 1783, 
and in 1786 became pastor of a Baptist congrega¬ 
tion at Moulton, Lincolnshire, and next at 
Leicester. In 1793 he went to the East Indies as 
a Baptist missionary. He founded the Serampore 
mission, had a printing press, wherewith he pro¬ 
duced Bibles, tracts, and other religious writings 
in different Oriental languages. He also published 
grammars and lexicons of Bengali, Mahratta, 
Sanscrit, etc., and from 1801 to 1830 was Oriental 
professor in Calcutta. He died in 1834 at 
Serampore. 

Cargill, Donald, Covenanter, was born about 
1610, or. according to others, about 1619, at 
Rattray, Perthshire, After studying at Aberdeen 
and St. Andrews, he was ordained in 1655, and 
soon made himself obnoxious to Government by 
openly resisting their measures. He was wounded 






Cargo. 


( 351 ) 


Caricma. 


in the battle of Bothwell Bridge, and was one of 
Richard Cameron’s (q.v.) companions in the San¬ 
quhar Declaration of 1680. He was beheaded in 1681. 

Cargo is the freight with which a ship is 
loaded. Bor the ship to sail well, its cargo must 
be definitely known weight, and must be properly 
placed. Heavier articles are generally placed low 
down, to increase the stability of the vessel; but 
this principle may be carried to excess by the 
vessel becoming too rigid. This may cause fracture 
of the masts, because they do not yield sufficiently, 
and great stresses will also occur in the structure 
when it rolls at all heavily. Rolling should not 
disturb the centre of gravity of the cargo, otherwise 
there is danger of inability to recover from excessive 
careening. Hence the importance of storing all 
loose commodities compactly. Liquid cargo such 
as petroleum oil is carried in closed tanks. [Ship, 
Ballast.] 

Caria, a maritime province in ancient geography 
of Asia Minor, occupied the S.W. corner of that 
country. It was early settled by Greek colonists, 
and was amongst the dominions of Croesus, King 
of Lydia, on whose overthrow it passed under the 
Persian rule. Subsequently it fell under the sway 
of Alexander the Great’s successors, and of the 
Romans. Among its principal towns were Cnidus, 
Halicarnassus, and Miletus. Its chief river was the 
winding Marauder. 

Cariacou, CARJACOU, a name for any species of 
Cariacus, an old subgenus of Cervus [Deer], con¬ 
fined to America; specially applied to C. virginianus, 
the Virginian deer, ranging over the northern contin¬ 
ent up to lat. 15° N. In size it is rather less than the 
fallow deer (q.v.). The beams of the antlers turn 
outward and forward, and the brow-line is directed 
upward. The colour is variable: the male is reddish- 
brown in spring, slaty-blue in summer, and dull- 
brown in autumn; the fawn is ruddy brown with 
irregular white spots which sometimes run into 
stripes. The flesh makes excellent venison, and the 
skin, when properly dressed, is very soft and is not 
affected by water. 

Caribbean Sea, that part of the Atlantic 
Ocean between the coasts of Central and S. America 
and Cuba, Hayti, Porto Rico, Leeward and Wind¬ 
ward Islands, communicates with the Gulf of 
Mexico by means of the Yucatan channel, and is 
the turning-point of the Gulf Stream. 

Caribou. [Reindeer.] 

Caribs, American aborigines, who are wide¬ 
spread throughout the north-eastern parts of South 
America, and who formerly occupied all the lesser 
Antilles, which inclose eastwards the Caribbean 
Sea, so named from them. They were undoubtedly 
cannibals, and the very word “ cannibal is a 
corrupt Spanish derivative from their name. But 
they have long disappeared from all the islands,either 
exterminated or expelled, the last displacement 
being the removal of about 4,000 from St. Vincent 
to the Mosquito coast, Central America,*by the 
English in 1798. Here their descendants the 
“Black Caribs,” mixed with Negro and other 
elements, still survive, and are the most active, 


enterprising, and industrious people on the whole 
seaboard. A few also appear still to linger in 
Dominica, and perhaps here and there in some of 
the other islets. But, with these exceptions, the 
whole of the race is at present confined to the 
South American mainland, and especially to 
Guiana, where their numerous tribes constitute a 
large section of the inhabitants. They are also 
met in Venezuela, and in the Orinoco basin as far 
South as the Amazon estuary, where the tribal 
names Carina, Calina, Callinago, Galibi, Cara- 
bisi, etc., are all variants of the same national name 
Carib. Physically, they are a fine race, tall, of ruddy- 
brown complexion, with long face, large though 
slightly oblique eyes, long black hair, and features 
of a somewhat softened American type, though 
towards Brazil they have become intermingled 
with other races, from whom they can scarcely be 
distinguished except by their speech, which is a 
stock language fundamentally distinct from all 
other native American tongues. As on the islands 
formerly, the women are often bilingual, conversing 
with the men in Carib and amongst themselves in 
an unknown language supposed to be that of some 
hostile tribe whose men were exterminated, and 
whose women were taken captive by the Carib 
rovers. (See D'Orbigny, L'Homme Americain, 1839 ; 
R. Schomburgk, “ Contributions,” etc., in the 
Proceedings of the Philological Society, 1848 ; and 
Martin’s Beitr'dge zvr Pthnographie, etc., Ameriha's, 
Leipzig, 1867.) 

Caricature, through the Italian from Low 
Latin caricare (to load), implies a satire—generally 
shown by drawings—which overlays or charges with 
exaggeration some natural feature of the object 
satirised. It is to be found in the old prehistoric 
carvings, in the barrack-room scrawl of the Roman 
soldier of Pompeii, and on the school-boy’s slate or 
on the walls of the present day. Almost the first 
notable English caricaturist was Hogarth, and since 
his time the supply has never failed. Gilray was a 
noted caricaturist. Burke with the dagger, King 
George III. as the brobdingnagian farmer gazing at 
the iilliputian Napoleon, and many others of the 
same period are familiar to all. Next we have John 
Doyle (1829) [H. B.] and afterwards Richard Doyle, 
who was present at the birth of Punch in 1841. 
Who does not know the cartoons of Wellington and 
his nose, Peel and his nose, O'Connell and his 
Repeal cap, and at a later period Disraeli with his 
curl, Gladstone with his collars, Palmerston with 
the straw in his mouth, Lord R. Churchill with his 
moustache, and countless others, some exaggerated 
features of whom have become to the popular mind 
the real presentment of the man ? In Germany 
and America caricaturists abound, France had its 
Cham, and our own Vanity Fair had its Pellegrini 
(Ape). With some illustrators of books it is diffi¬ 
cult to say where legitimate illustration ends and 
caricature begins. This is particularly the case 
with Cruikshank and with H. K. Browne (Phiz). 

Caricma (Bicholophus cristatns—Palamedra 
cristata'), an aberrant genus placed by some 
authorities with the Game-birds and by others with 
the Hawks. The single species is a bustard-like 




Caries. 


( 352 ) 


Carleton. 


bird from the plains of Brazil and Paraguay, feeding 
on lizards, snails, insects, and probably seeds. Its 
total length is about 32 in. ; it has a thin crest, and 
the nape is clothed with long loose erectile feathers. 
The general plumage is pale brown, with irregular 
splashes of darker hue ; under parts greyish white, 
bill red, legs orange. 

Caries, derived from a Latin word signifying 
rottenness, decay, is a term applied to the gradual 
destruction of a bone by ulceration. It must be 
distinguished from necrosis, in which portions of 
bone perish en masse. With a view to emphasising 
this difference, caries has been described as the 
molecular death of bone, imperceptible portions of 
inflamed bone being destroyed and removed in the 
form of purulent exudation, while in necrosis 
actual masses of dead bone become separated. 
[Sequestrum.] Thus the two terms caries and 
necrosis as applied to bone, correspond to the terms 
ulceration and gangrene as applied to other tissues. 
As the result of the carious process an abscess is 
formed, which usually discharges externally, leaving 
an open sinuous track at the bottom of which the 
dead bone is exposed. Caries is particularly apt to 
attack the vertebrae, leading to the various forms 
of spinal abscess, and to the deformity known as 
angular curvature of the spine. This form of bone 
ulceration usually occurs in strumous subjects, in 
whom the spinal mischief, serious as it is of itself, 
is very frequently associated with disease of other 
parts of the body. Strumous caries may also affect 
the joint ends of long bones and the bones of the 
carpus, and of the foot. Treatment in caries 
consists in enforcing absolute rest for the diseased 
parts, in securing the free discharge of collections 
of matter which form, and in administering tonics, 
such as cod-liver oil. If the carious bone is 
accessible, as in the carpus or tarsus, and the 
mischief progressive, it may be deemed advisable 
to remove the diseased bone in order to accelerate 
repair. Joints are excised or resected with a 
similar object. Caries of the spine does not, of 
course, admit of such radical measures, and atten¬ 
tion must be devoted to supporting the patient’s 
strength, and to endeavouring to secure union of 
the diseased surfaces by anchylosis (q.v.) in a fa¬ 
vourable position. (For Dental Caries see Teeth.) 

Carijos, an ancient Brazilian nation formerly 
dominant on the coast lands of Sao Paulo from 
Cananea Bay to the neighbourhood of the Patos 
lagoon. They were a quiet, inoffensive people, who, 
however, in 1585 came into collision with some 
whites from Sao Vicente, and in self-defence killed 
the whole party. This brought upon them the 
vengeance of the Portuguese settlers, by whom 
they were partly massacred and partly reduced to 
slavery. A few escaped to the woods, where they 
gradually died out or became merged in the 
surrounding tribes. 

Carillon (Lat. quatuor'), originally a set of four 
bells, but now denoting a great number of bells, so 
tuned and arranged as to be capable of playing airs 
and elaborate pieces of music. While a peal does 
not consist of more than 12 bells, and generally is 
of fewer, which are sounded from the inside by 


means of a clapper, and move through a half-circle 
when rung, the bells of a carillon are sometimes 
as many as 60 and upwards, and are fixed, the sound 
being produced outside by hammers which are 
worked sometimes by automatic machinery, some¬ 
times by a kind of organ-board of keys, which are 
played on by an attendant. Very often both sys¬ 
tems are in use. The Netherlands were especially 
noted for their carillons, the best being at Bruges 
and Antwerp. On the occasion of the Rubens 
tercentenary in 1877 a cantata was performed, one 
of the airs of which was first played by the orchestra 
on the Place Verte, then taken up by the carillons 
in the cathedral, and then sounded by silver trum¬ 
pets on the top of the lofty tower. 

Carinate Birds are those in which the breast¬ 
bone is furnished with a keel or ridge for the attach¬ 
ment of the muscles used in flight. [Birds.] 

Carinthia, a duchy, and since 1819 a crown- 
land of Austria, is situated on the borders of Italy. 
Its surface, covering an area of about 4,000 square 
miles, is for the most part mountainous, and to a 
very limited extent under cultivation. The principal 
river is the Drave, which at one part of its course 
separates the Noric from the Carinthian Alps, the 
two main ranges. The main sources of wealth are 
the mineral products, though cattle and horses are 
abundantly reared, and hardware and textile fabrics 
manufactured, principally in Klagenfurt,the capital. 

Carisbrooke, a village of the Isle of Wight, 
has a ruined castle where Charles I. was imprisoned 
thirteen months before his trial. It was also a 
Roman station, a Roman villa having been dis¬ 
covered here in 1859. 

Carissimi, Giovanni Giacomo, composer, was 
born in 1674 at Marino, near Rome. Very little 
is known of his life, which was devoted chiefly to 
the development of the recitative and the creation 
of the cantata. Among his oratorios perhaps the 
most widely known is Jephtha. 

Carlen, Emilie, novelist, was born in 1807 at 
Stromstad, Christiania Fjord. Her maiden name 
was Schmidt. From her first husband, a music- 
master by name Flyggare, she was divorced. She 
began to write novels when past 30. In 1841, 
being then a widow, she married a Stockholm 
lawyer and miscellaneous writer, J. G. Carlen, and 
in 1883 she died. Her novels (about 30 in number), 
which have been translated into various languages, 
deal with the every-day life of the lower and 
middle classes. 

Carleton, William, novelist, was born in 1794 
at Pullisk, co. Tyrone. Of poor parentage, he 
received but a meagre education, on which he 
removed to Dublin, and began a literarj 7 career by 
contributing to the Christian Examiner a series of 
papers which were republished in 1820 under the 
title Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry. 
This was followed by another series in 1833, and in 
1839 by Fardorouylxa the Miser. Other of his pro- 
huctions were Misfortunes of Barney Branayan , 
Valentine McClutchy , The Black Prophet , The tithe 
Proctor , and The Evil Eye. He received a pension 






Carli. 


( 353 ) 


Carlists. 


from Government of £200 a year in consideration of 
his services to literature, and died (1869) at Dublin. 

Carli, Giovanni Rinaldo, writer on antiqui¬ 
ties and economics, was born in 1720 at Capo 
d’Istria. While still young he was appointed to the 
chair of astronomy at Venice, subsequently resign¬ 
ing to devote himself to antiquarian research and 
political economy. On the latter subject his 
leading works were Belle Monde, e della instituzions 
delle Zecclie d'Italia , and Ragionamento sopra i 
Bilanci economici delle Nazioni. The Emperor 
Joseph, recognising Carli’s merits, appointed him 
president of the Council of Commerce at Milan. In 
addition to those named he wrote numerous other 
treatises. He died in 1795. 

Carlile, Richard, freethinker, was born in 
1790 at Ashburton, Devonshire. Converted by 
Paine’s works into an aggressive Radical, he dili¬ 
gently sought to push the Black Dwarf, a London 
weekly edited by Jonathan Wooler, and of such 
pronounced views that the publisher was arrested. 
Carlile offered to take his place. After the Black 
Dwarf, he next began to push the sale of Southey’s 
Wat Tyler, in spite of the author’s objection, and 
on the suppression of Hone’s Parodies he reprinted 
them, and also produced an imitation of them, for 
which he got eighteen weeks’ imprisonment. In 
1818 he reprinted Paine’s works, with a memoir of 
the author, and by the following year he had six 
indictments against him, and after a three days’ 
trial was fined £1,500, with three years’ imprison¬ 
ment in Dorchester gaol. From here he began to 
issue The Republican, the first twelve volumes of 
which are dated from his prison, and for publishing 
it his wife in 1821 was sentenced to two years’ 
imprisonment. Carlile, however, was irrepressible. 
He had his own imprisonment extended three years 
in lieu of the fine, and in 1821 a constitutional 
association, headed by the Duke of Wellington, was 
formed to raise £6,000 to prosecute Carlile’s 
assistants. His sister Mary Anne was fined £500 
and imprisoned for a year for publishing her 
brother’s New Year's Address to the Reformers of 
Great Britain, 1821, and several of his shopmen 
were sentenced to periods of from six months to 
three years. For refusing to pay church rates and 
to give sureties for his good behaviour over the 
dispute he was sentenced to a further term of three 
years, and again in 1834-5 he served another ten 
weeks. For freedom of speech and of the press 
Carlile was a martyr, and out of his martyrdom 
came the subsequent insight into the futility and 
danger of suppression. He died in 1843. ( See 

G. J. Holyoake’s Life and Character .) 

Carlisle, a parliamentary and municipal 
borough of England, and county town of Cumber¬ 
land, is situated at the junction of the Caldew, 
Eden, and Petteril. It is an old town, and identified 
with the Luguvallum of Antoninus, and the Caer- 
luell of the ancient Britons. Its castle, in which 
Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned in 1568, was 
founded in 1092, and is now used as a barracks. Its 
leading feature, however, is the cathedral, portions 
of which date from the time of William Rufus. The 
town itself, though irregularly built, has yet some 

47 


well-paved and spacious streets. The leading 
industries are in cotton, calico, and iron, and in 
the neighbouring streams salmon fishing is carried 
on. It is the terminus of several railways, and 
having been a border fortress, is rich with associa¬ 
tions of former times. 

Carlisle, George William Frederick 
Howard, seventh Earl of, was born in 1802 in 
London. After a visit in 1826 to Russia, where he 
attended the Czar Nicholas’s coronation, he entered 
Parliament as representative for the family borough 
of Morpeth, and became one of Earl Grey’s sup¬ 
porters in the cause of Reform. In 1835, when 
member for the West Riding of Yorkshire, he was 
made by Lord Melbourne Chief Secretary for 
Ireland," and showed great tact in dealing with 
O’Connell. He also held, under Lord John Russ,ell, 
1846-52, the offices of Chief Commissioner of Woods 
and Forests and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lan¬ 
caster. In 1848 he succeeded to the peerage, and 
from 1855 to 1858 held the position of Lord- 
Lieutenant of Ireland under Palmerston. In 1864 
he died at Castle Howard, and (as he was never 
married) his brother succeeded him in the peerage. 

Carlists, or followers of Don Carlos, brother of 
Ferdinand VII. of Spain, an ultra-clerical and re¬ 
actionary party, who have twice in the present cen¬ 
tury maintained a long and sanguinary civil war in 
the Basque provinces of that country. The Salic 
Law (q.v.) had been introduced in a modified form 
into Spain in 1700, during the war of the Spanish 
Succession, by Philip V. Ferdinand VII., the elder 
son of Carlos V., being left childless at the death 
of his third wife, and being anxious to keep his 
brother Don Carlos from the throne, married his 
niece, Maria Christina of Naples. On the birth of 
a daughter in 1830 the succession was, with the 
consent of the Cortes, settled on her by a royal 
decree called the Pragmatic Sanction, altering the 
Salic Law as introduced by Philip V. Ferdinand 
died in 1833. The child Isabella was proclaimed 
queen, her mother appointed regent, and a Liberal 
ministry took office. Don Carlos had taken refuge 
in Portugal after protesting against his exclusion, 
and there made common cause with the usurper Don 
Miguel. He was expelled thence as the result of the 
Quadruple Alliance, formed in 1834 bet ween England, 
France, Spain, and Portugal. No steps, however, 
were taken to keep him out of Spain, and in the 
same year he appeared in Navarre, and rallied to his 
standard the Basque population, who had keenly- 
felt grievances against the Spanish Liberals. He 
had able generals in Zumalacarregui and Cabreras, 
and at one time, owing to a growing tendency on 
the part of the queen-regent to favour the absolutist 
party, he was within an ace of securing the sup¬ 
port of the Liberals, and was preparing to march 
on Madrid. But he lost his chance by his stubborn 
refusal to give any assurances satisfactory to his 
new supporters. England and France, while refus¬ 
ing to aid the Spanish Government, permitted it to 
erjlist volunteers among their subjects, and a foreign 
legion was raised under Colonel de Lacy Evans. 
The death of Zumalacarregui and the vigorous 
measures taken, against Don Carlos by General 





Carlos. 


( 354 ) 


Carlton Club. 


Espartero reduced the Carlists to despair. Violent 
dissensions arose amongst them ; and Don Carlos 
finally crossed the French frontier on September 14, 
1839. He died in 1855; his eldest son (styled 
Carlos VI.) died in 18(51 without issue, and a second 
son abdicated in favour of his own son, a third Don 
Carlos, who took the title of Carlos VII. After the 
overthrow of Queen Isabella there were risings, and 
on the abdication of Amadeus of Savoy, in 1870, the 
war again broke out, and was kept up in a desultory 
fashion in Northern Spain till 1870; but after the 
accession of Alfonso XII. it was terminated by 
General Martinez Campos. The present Don Carlos 
was expelled from France in 1881, and has lived for 
some years at Venice. Some French ultra-legiti¬ 
mists regard him as the true King of France. 

Carlos, Don. [Carlists.] 

Carlos, Don, son of Philip II. of Spain, was born 
in 1545 at Valladolid. Considered unfit to reign, 
he, though heir to the throne, was passed over in 
favour of his cousins, Rudolph and Ernest. This 
made him conceive an aversion to his father, and 
at the confessional on Christmas Eve of 1567 he 
revealed his design of intending to assassinate a 
certain person. The king was believed to be the 
marked victim, and Don Carlos’s papers were seized. 
He was tried and found guilty of plotting against 
the king’s life, sentence being left for Philip to 
pronounce. On July 24, 1568, he died, presumably 
murdered—at least the enemies of the king did not 
hesitate to put it about that he had murdered his 
own son ; of this, however, there is no proof, and it 
has been a vexed question ever since. The story of 
Don Carlos has provided the subject of various 
tragedies, chief amongst which is Schiller’s. 

Carlovingians, the second dynasty of Frankish 
kings, said to have originated in Arnulph, Bishop 
of Metz, whose grandson Pepin was mayor of the 
palace. The latter’s son, Charles Martel, and his 
great-grandson Charlemagne were the most noted of 
the line, and. indeed, gave it its name. After the 
death of Charlemagne the dynasty declined, and 
finally gave place to the line of the Capets. 

Carlovitz, a town of Austria, on the right bank 
of the Danube, and 8 miles S.E. of Peterwardein. 
It is the seat of an orthodox Greek archbishopric, 
and has a Greek theological seminary and a lyceum. 
It is a great wine centre, and of late years its 
produce, which is increasing, has made a consider¬ 
able reputation in England. The town also exports 
vermouth. In 1699 a treaty was concluded at 
Carlovitz, by the mediation of France and Holland, 
between Turkey on the one side, and Austria, 
Poland, Russia, and Venice on the other, to settle 
their various boundaries. 

Carlow. 1- A county of Ireland, in Leinster, 
having Kildare and Wicklow on the N., Wick¬ 
low on the E., Wexford on the S.E., and Kilkenny 
and Queen’s county on the S. and S.W., with an area 
of about 350 square miles, consisting of level and 
undulating land, except in the S., where it is 
slightly mountainous. The chief industry of the 
county is dairy-farming, and a considerable quantity 


of grain, flour, and butter is exported. Coal mining 
is carried on in the W., and there is some quarrying 
of granite, limestone, and marble. 2. A town of 
Ireland and capital of the county Carlow, about 57 
miles S.W. of Dublin, situated at the junction of 
the Barrow and the Barren. It is an assize town, 
and is the seat of a Catholic archbishopric. The 
town is well built, and has two bridges, and among 
its public buildings are a Catholic cathedral, a 
theological college, and a lunatic asylum. The 
ruins still exist of a Norman castle built in 1180, 
and dismantled in 1650 by General Ireton. Carlow 
has many flour-mills, and carries on an important 
trade with Dublin and Waterford in corn, flour, and 
butter. 

Carlsbad, or Karlsbad, a town of Bohemia 
in the Austrian empire, about 76 miles N.W. of 
Prague, on the right bank of the Eger at its junction 
with the Tepel. The town, which is situated in a 
valley between two wooded hills, and is surrounded 
by pretty scenei-y, is chiefly noted as a watering- 
place, on account of its hot mineral springs. The 
water varies from 117° to 165° F., and is charged 
with sulphate of soda and other salts, the twelve 
principal springs supplying about 2,000,000 gallons 
a day. Someone has described Carlsbad as a 
“ town built upon the lid of a cauldron of boiling 
water.” The waters were already known at the 
beginning of the sixteenth century, but the 
Emperor Charles IV. made its reputation by build¬ 
ing a castle, some vestiges of which still remain. 
It was a favourite meeting-place of the German 
sovereigns, and in 1819 the members of the Holy 
Alliance held a conference there. 

Carlscrona, or Karlskrona, a Swedish sea¬ 
port and the chief naval station of the country, 
situated about 258 miles S.W. of Stockholm, in 
lat. 56° 10' N., and long. 15° 36' E. The town is 
built upon an isle and several islets, which are 
united to the mainland and to each other by 
dykes and bridges. There is little trade, and no 
special industries beyond those naturally apper¬ 
taining to a naval station. Two forts defend the 
entrance to the harbour, which is deep enough to 
float the largest ships, and is provided with good 
dry docks. 

Carlsruhe, or Karlsruhe, a German city, 
capital of the Grand Duchy of Baden, about four 
miles from the Rhine, and between 40 and 50 miles 
S. of Mannheim. The town took its rise from the 
building here in the forest in 1715, by the Margrave 
William, of a hunting-box, which by degrees he made 
his permanent residence and his court. The streets 
converge towards the palace of the Grand Duke, 
connected with which is a museum and an extensive 
library. There are several public buildings, in¬ 
cluding a large public library, and several hospitals, 
and there are manufactures of carpets, carriages, 
and chemicals. 

Carlton Club, a Conservative Club so called 
from its occupying the site of Carlton House, built 
by Lord Carlton in 1709 and demolished in 1828. 
Carlton House was the residence of Frederick, 
Prince of Wales, son of George II., known to his 






Carlyle. 


Carlyle. ( 3* 


contemporaries as “ Poor Fred,” and later was in¬ 
habited by George IV. when Prince of Wales. 

Carlyle, Thomas, the son of James Carlyle, a 
stonemason, was born at Ecclefechan, Dumfries¬ 
shire, Dec. 4, 1795. He was the eldest of nine 
children. His mother’s name was Margaret Aitken. 
He received his early education at Annan grammar 
school, and about the age of fourteen matriculated 
at Edinburgh University. His higher studies were 
intended by his parents as preparatory to the work 
of the Church, but Carlyle tired before long of this 
project. The idea of the clerical profession was 
finally abandoned in 1817. In 1814 he was ap¬ 
pointed mathematical teacher in Annan academy, 
a situation, however, which he calls “ flatly contra¬ 
dictory to all ideals or wishes of mine.” After 
acting in this post for two years, he was asked to 
fill the mastership of a school at Kirkcaldy, in 
opposition to Edward Irving, who had not given 
satisfaction as teacher of the principal school 
there. Carlyle has left pleasing recollections of 
his sojourn in the town with Irving. Here also he 
met Margaret Gordon, the “ Blumine ” of Sartor 
Resartus. But he took ill to his routine work in 
Kirkcaldy, and left for Edinburgh in 1818, with no 
particular occupation in view, but feeling convinced 
that he “must cease to be a pedagogue.” In Edin¬ 
burgh he earned a livelihood by private tuition, 
and by translating pamphlets from the French on 
mineralogy. His first literary employment began 
with the contribution of various articles to Brew¬ 
ster’s Edinburgh Encyclopa-dia. These included 
biographies of Montesquieu, Pitt, and others. From 
the beginning of 1819 he had begun to study 
German, and Goethe, Kichter, and Fichte affected 
him distinctly at this period. In 1821 he sent a 
specimen translation from Schiller’s Thirty Years' 
War to Longmans, and in the following year he 
wrote an article on “ Faust ” for the Edinburgh 
Review. In 1823 his Life of Schiller began to 
appear in the London Magazine. This, published 
in book form in 1825, was, on the whole, not un¬ 
favourably reviewed. He brought out his Specimens 
of German Romance in 1827, as a bit of “ honest 
journey-work.” From 1822 to 1824 Carlyle’s income 
was decidedly improved by his engagement as tutor 
to Charles Buller, afterwards president of the Poor 
Law Board. From the summer of 1824 to the spring 
of 1825 he was a good deal in London, where he 
made the acquaintance of Coleridge and other men 
of note. At this time he visited Paris, where he 
introduced himself to Legendre, whose work on 
geometry he had recently translated. Now he 
received also a letter from Goethe, acknowledging 
his translation of Wilhelm Meister , part of which 
had been included in his book on German romance. 
In October, 1825, Carlyle was married to Jane 
Baillie Welsh. He thereupon settled in Edinburgh, 
hoping to acquire adequate support from his labours 
as a litterateur. The Edinburgh\ Review and the 
Foreign Quarterly Review were the main recipients 
of his work. His essays on Werner, Goethe, and 
Burns now saw the light. In 1828 Carlyle and his 
wife removed from Edinburgh to Craigenputtock, a 
farm about seven miles from Dumfries ; the change 


55 ) 


suited Carlyle himself perfectly, but entailed con¬ 
siderable sacrifices on the part of his wife. He was 
unsuccessful about this time in gaining a profes¬ 
sorial post at University College, London, and 
also at St. Andrew’s. In 1830 began his con¬ 
nection with Eraser's Magazine , no doubt through 
the instrumentality of Irving. To Fraser he 
contributed essays on Madame de Stael, Boswell, 
and, most important of all, Sartor Resartus. He 
also continued his articles in the Eorcign Review 
andth a Edinburgh. His solitude at Craigenputtock 
was brightened by a visit from Emerson. In 1832 
Carlyle returned to Edinburgh in order to be nearei 
materials for his Diamond Necklace , a sort of 
tragi-comedy on the history of Marie Antoinette. 
Urged by financial difficulties, he applied for the 
chair of astronomy at Edinburgh in 1834, and his 
disappointment in this caused an estrangement 
with Jeffrey. The upshot of this application prob¬ 
ably hastened his departure to London, where he 
took up his abode at Cheyne Bow in the summer of 
the same year. 

In London Carlyle immediately set himself to his 
History of the French Revolution. The first volume 
of this, lent for perusal to his friend J. S. Mill, 
was accidentally burnt by the carelessness of a 
servant, and only rewritten after much effort and 
toil. In 1835 he met John Sterling, by whose 
father, the editor of the Times , he was offered em¬ 
ployment, which he declined. In 183G came the 
beginning of his warm friendship with Leigh Hunt. 
Now appeared also in America a volume edition of 
Sartor , with a preface by Emerson. In 1837 the 
French Revolution was completed. In May of that 
year Carlyle began a successful course of lectures 
on German literature. The autumn also saw a 
second edition of Sartor, which sold well—the first 
edition, privately printed in 1834, consisted of only 
50 copies. In 1838 his article on Scott was pub¬ 
lished in the Westminster Review. At the close of 
next year his Chartism appeared in pamphlet form. 
In 1840 he delivered his lectures on “ Hero Worship.” 
The following year he was invited by a body of 
Edinburgh students to stand for a professorship, 
but refused. His domestic circumstances about this 
time were improved through the death of Mrs. Car¬ 
lyle’s mother bringing in an income of £200 a year. 
Sympathy with democratic movements in England 
had stirred Carlyle much since the time of his 
Chartism, and in 1843 he wrote his Past and Present 
as a development of his opinion in this direction. 
The public voice notably responded to him. To 
Mazzini, who visited him at this period, he was also 
not unsympathetic. At the close of 1845 he pub¬ 
lished his Letters and, Speeches of Oliver Cromwell, 
a second edition of which followed early next year. 
Personal friendship with Emerson was renewed in 
1847, when the American man of letters made a 
lecture visit to England. Carlyle’s interest in the 
wretchedness of Ireland induced him to make a 
tour through that country in 1849. What he saw, 
however, both dissatisfied and depressed him. On 
his return he set to work on fresh literary en¬ 
deavours ; he wrote on the “Nigger Question” for 
Fraser, and produced also various Latter Day 
Pamphlets. So keen was Carlyle’s political feeling 









Carlyle. 


( 356 ) 


Carmine. 


at this time that he seems to have actually con¬ 
templated entering public life. During the next 
ten years his life was a good deal clouded through 
want of complete accord with his wife. Various 
direct explanations of this fact are given, but the 
root of it was probably much divergency of dis¬ 
position. His Biography of John Sterling was 
published in 1851. The success of this book deter¬ 
mined him to pursue biography, and in 1852 he set 
about his Life of Frederick the Great. This, through 
lack of sufficient admiration for his hero, he found 
a rather hard task. Investigations on this subject 
took him twice to Germany. The first two volumes 
came out in 1858, the last in 1865. They were well 
received, though there was, at least, one parody of 
his doctrine of heroism here presented. In Novem¬ 
ber, 1865, Carlyle was elected by the students to 
the Lord Rectorship of Edinburgh University. The 
inaugural address implied in this office he delivered 
in March, 1866. The pleasure of his warm recep¬ 
tion on this occasion was immediately chilled by 
the news of the death of his wife, who expired sud¬ 
denly while driving in her brougham. After this 
event he paid a visit to Mentone; his letters and 
diaries bear the impress of his vivid enjoyment of 
the scenes he passed through. On his return to 
England he began the composition of his Reminis¬ 
cences. This, at the end of five years, he entrusted 
to Mr. Fronde for future publication. In 1867 
came Shooting Niagara , another latter-day pamphlet. 
In 1875 he published a sketch of the early kings of 
Norway in Fraser. In 1874 Carlyle was awarded 
the Prussian order Pour le Merite, founded by 
Frederick; and Mr. Disraeli, as Prime Minister, 
offered him shortly afterwards the order of the 
Grand Cross of the Bath. This, however, was de¬ 
clined. His eightieth birthday brought him, among 
other testimonies of esteem, a medallion portrait in 
gold from more than a hundred friends and students, 
in his last days Carlyle was much attended by a 
favourite niece, Mary Aitken. The end came on 
February 5, 1881. liy his own wish he was buried 
in his family burying-ground at Ecclefechan. He 
bequeathed the income of Craigenputtock to found 
ten “John Welsh” bursaries at Edinburgh Univer¬ 
sity, in memory of his wife and her family. 

The work of Carlyle both as man of letters and 
philosopher will be permanent. His French Revo¬ 
lution gives him a place, in its unique power, with 
the best English historians, while his Cromwell and 
Frederick , if displaying less his imaginative quali¬ 
ties, are portraits of great value. In regard to his 
literary essays, those that are best are of the first 
order. On Goethe, Voltaire, and Burns he may be 
said to have enriched English criticism. Though 
Carlyle concerned himself intimately with some 
philosophic subjects of only temporary moment, the 
spirit of his writings here, if not the actual letter, 
will not lose in effect. In the case of Sartor Re- 
sartus, at any rate, he produced a classic that has 
not unfitly been called The Pilgrim's Progress of the 
Nineteenth Century. To be added to his power as 
a thinker is his great, if also perverse, mastery 
of language. As a literary personage Carlyle 
stands out in his century. He won by character 
almost as much as by genius. He impressed by his 


ideal as well as by his achievement. Truth, sin¬ 
cerity, and honesty were with him predominant 
watchwords, and to these the public mind gave 
ready answer. Of modern writers, only Byron, 
perhaps, was a greater force in his time. 

Carmagnole, the name of a song and dance 
much in vogue in France at the revolution, and 
finally suppressed by Napoleon when he became 
consul. Some think it was derived from the 
Italian town Carmagnola, which was taken by the 
Republicans in 1797, others think it was named 
after a jacket which was popular during the 
revolution, while others again think the song and 
dance older than the jacket. 

Carmarthen. [Caermarthen.] 

Carmel, Mount, a mountain chain of Palestine, 
stretching" from the plain of Esdraelon to the 
Mediterranean, where it ends in a steep promontory 
about ten miles S. of Acre. As its name—which 
means “park ” or “ garden ”—implies, it was well 
wooded, and oaks, pines, olives, and laurels grow 
upon its sides and summit, which is nearly 2,000 ft. 
above the sea. Carmel is mentioned in Scripture 
in association with the prophet Elijah. 

Carmelites, a monastic order of Our Lady of 
Mount Carmel, founded in 1156 by Berthold, a Cala¬ 
brian, and sometimes represented by tradition as 
having existed in some form or other from the 
time of the prophet Elijah. In 1209 the order 
was acknowledged by Albert, Patriarch of Jerusa¬ 
lem, and in 1224 received the recognition of Pope 
Honorius III. Driven from Palestine by the Sara¬ 
cens, the order took refuge in Cyprus, and from 
there spread to different parts of Europe. They 
held a general chapter in England in 1245. Pope 
Innocent IV. turned them into a mendicant order 
in 1247. One branch of the order with modified 
rules was known as the Barefooted Friars, and 
there was established a female branch of the order. 
They were particularly flourishing in France and 
Italy during the eighteenth century. In 1880 they 
shared in the fate of the other orders at the general 
expulsion from France. 

Carmen Sylva is the name adopted in litera¬ 
ture by Elizabeth, Queen of Roumania, who, 
born in 1843 of Prince Hermann of Wiedand Maria 
of Nassau, married in 1869 Charles of Roumania. 
Her only daughter dying in 1874, the queen sought 
consolation in literature, and in 1880 published, 
under the name of Carmen Sylva, two poems at 
Leipzig. Since then she has written much and 
often. She also interests herself greatly in the 
industries of her countrywomen, and in the war of 
1877-78 she won the hearts, of her j)eople by her 
devotion to the wounded. 

Carmine, a beautiful red pigment obtained 
from cochineal. It is so obtained by treating the 
cochineal with boiling water, and then adding 
alum and cream of tartar, when the carmine is 
precipitated. Other modes are also employed, and 
about 1| oz. can be obtained from 1 lb. of 
cochineal. The temperature and brightness of the 
day during preparation affect the brilliancy of 












Carmona. 


( 357 ) 


Carniola. 


the pigment. Its chemical composition cannot be 
definitely stated, but it appears to be a mixture of 
carminic acid (C l7 H 18 O 10 ), the colouring matter of 
cochineal, alumina, lime, and some organic acid. 
It is used as “rouge” and as a pigment. 

Carmona, a Spanish town, in the province of 
Seville, and from 15 to 20 miles from the city of 
Seville. A town of the same name existed in the 
time of the Romans, and there still exist two gates 
of that date. There are also Moorish ruins, and 
some fine ancient buildings, including a magni¬ 
ficent town hall. The chief industries are cloth 
and hat manufactures, tanning, distilling, and the 
making of oil. 

Carnac, a French seaside village, on the bay 
of Quiberon, and about 20 miles S.E. of Lorient. 
It is nothing more than a fishing village, and has 
nothing remarkable in itself. But in the neighbour¬ 
hood near the sea is a plain upon which are certain 
historical relics which have much puzzled anti¬ 
quaries, who do not yet know whether to class 
them as Druidical remains, or to relegate them to 
a much earlier and prehistoric period. They consist 
of rude granite pillars or obelisks, arranged in 
eleven rows from east to west, covering a range of 
about 2,000 yards, and numbering eleven or twelve 
hundred. The highest are over 20 ft. in height. 
Their number was formerly much greater (there 
were 15,000 even in the 16th century), but since 
then many have been destroyed. Excavations in 
the neighbourhood have brought to light gold and 
jade ornaments and various other remains. 

Carnallite, a hydrous potassium and magnesium 
chloride (MgCl 2 + KC1 + 6H 2 0), found in consider¬ 
able quantity ~at Stassfurt in Prussian Saxony, 
associated with rock salt and with other potassium 
salts, and named after Herr von Carnall, director of 
the mines, who first called attention to its value as a 
source of potassium, for which it is now largely 
worked. It generally occurs massive and reddened 
from the presence of iron-oxide, breaks con- 
choidally, deliquesces and phosphoresces. 

Carnarvon. [Caernarvon.] 

Carnarvon, Henry Howard Molyneux 
Herbert, Earl of, an English Conservative states¬ 
man, born June 24, 1831. He distinguished himself 
at Oxford, and his first speech in the House of 
Lords was commended by Lord Derby. In 1860 he 
published a book on The Dvuscs of Mount Lebanon, 
as the fruits of his travels in the East, and in 1866, 
as Colonial Secretary, he formed a plan for the 
confederation of British North America. In 1867 he 
resigned office, being unable to agree with the Refoim 
Bill introduced by Mr. Disraeli. In 1874 he again 
took office as Colonial Secretary under Mr. Disiaeli, 
and again resigned in 1878, on the Government le- 
solving to send the fleet to Constantinople. In 
1885-6 he was Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and his 
negotiations with Mr. Parnell gave rise to a dispute 
as to their nature and scope. In 1869 he published 
Reminiscences of Athens and the Morea, and later 
some translations from Greek. He died in 1891, 


Carnassial Tooth, the translation of a 
French term ( dent carnassiere) used by Cuvier to 
denote the last tooth but one in the upper jaw and 
the last tooth in the lower jaw in the typical 
Carnivora (q.v.). These teeth have sharp cutting 
edges, admirably adapted for dividing flesh, and 
generally a tuberculated process. They are much 
modified in different genera. Owen called them 
sectorial or scissor-teeth, for they act like the blades 
of a pair of scissors. 

Carnatic, The, a former division of India, upon 
the Coromandel Coast, extending from Cape 
Comorin to about lat. 16° N., and bounded on the 
E. by the Indian Ocean, its western limits being 
somewhat vague and undefined. Many large 
temples and other imposing monuments are proofs 
of its former splendour. 

Carnation, or Coronation, as Spenser calls 
it from its use in garlands, is Dianthus Caryophyllus, 
a species of pink apparently wild on the Continent, 
but in England only naturalised on the walls of 
Norman castles, perhaps from being introduced 
from Normandy by their builders. Its specific 
name was corrupted into gillyflower ; its perfume 
gave it the name clove; its laced edges, the name 
picotee, from the French picote, pearl-edged ; and 
its use, that of sops-in-wine. The innumerable cul¬ 
tivated varieties, which are propagated by layering, 
may be grouped in four classes : —cloves or seifs, all 
of one colour ; flakes, striped with one colour on a 
white ground ; Mzarres, striped with two colours 
on a white ground; and picotees, edged or laced 
with a distinct colour. 

Carneades (213-129 b.c.), a Greek philo¬ 
sopher, born at Cyrene, in Africa, came early to 
Athens, and attended the lectures of Diogenes 
the Stoic, who is said to have taught him logic. 
For some unknown reason he abandoned Stoicism 
and became a Platonist, and founded the New or 
Third Academy. He was noted for his eloquence 
and power of persuasion, and in 155 he was sent 
with his old tutor Diogenes and another as 
ambassador to Rome. The philosophers in the 
intervals of business gave lectures, and Carneades, 
after one day convincing his auditors of the 
excellence of justice, convinced the same audience 
the next day of its utter hatefulness. This sophis¬ 
tical power had great effect upon both Cicero and 
Cato, and the latter wished to expel the ambas¬ 
sadors from Rome. In his later years Carneades 
became blind. The main point of his philosophical 
system was that man has no means of arriving at 
absolute truth. 

Carnelian (from the Latin caro, carnis, flesh) 
is a common translucent red or brownish-red variety 
of chalcedony (q.v.) with a somewhat waxy lustre, 
distinguishing it from the duller, more horn-like 
sard (q.v.). It is much used by engravers for seals 
and also for “ pebble ” brooches. 

Carniola, a division of the Austrian empire, 
having Carinthia and Styria on the N., Styria and 
Croatia on the E., Croatia on the S., and the Adriatic 
Sea and the Coast province on the W., with an area 
of 3,857 square miles. It was formerly part of the 







Carnival. 


( 358 ) 


Carnivorous Plants. 


kingdom of Illyria. The surface is mountainous, 
being crossed in the N. by the Carinthian Alps, and 
from N.W. to S.E. by the Carnicand Julian Alps. The 
most elevated summit is the Terglou, which has the 
only glacier in t he province, and lies between the two 
sources of the Save. Lake Zirknitz (q.v.) is remark¬ 
able. The quicksilver mine of Idria is one of the 
richest in the world, and the province also produces 
iron and marble. A good deal of hemp is grown, 
and there is some weaving. Laybach is the capital. 

Carnival, a word of uncertain derivation but 
generally considered to be a lightening or recreation 
of the flesh, is the name of a time of mirth and 
festival immediately preceding the time of Lent. 
It is more appropriate to Catholic countries than 
others, since where no particular gloom attaches to 
Lent there is no special object in feasting before¬ 
hand. It is generally marked by masked and 
travestied processions accompanied by a throwing 
about of flowers, or bonbons, or, in these degenerate 
days, flour, indigo, and other objectionable matters, 
and admits of a general licence which up to a 
certain point and within certain limited times and 
places is winked at by the authorities. Of old the 
carnival began at Epiphany, but it is usually confined 
at the present time to the few days immediately 
preceding Lent. In some towns no masks are 
allowed after 9 a.m. on Ash Wednesday. There is 
generally a renewal of the carnival festivities upon 
Mid-Lent Sunday. The carnival at Nice and Men¬ 
tone has of late years attracted much attention in 
England, and many English take part in it. It is 
more suitable for the sunny south than for the 
colder north ; and few things are more ghastly than 
a carnival procession on a cold raw rainy day of 
North Europe. It is a question whether the carnival 
be a relic of the Roman saturnalia or of some 
spring feast, or of both, or neither. The word itself 
differs in different countries. It is Carnival in 
England, Carnaval in France, and Carnovale in 
Italy. 

Carnivora, an order of predaceous mammals, 
corresponding to the Ferae of Linnaeus, without the 
Marsupials and Insectivora which he included. The 
majority of the forms feed on animal food; the 
typical forms—the larger cats—prey upon warm¬ 
blooded animals ; in many the diet is of a mixed 
nature ; and in a few, as in some bears, it is chiefly 
vegetable. It should be also noted that a mere 
flesh diet does not constitute an animal one of the 
Carnivora, for the Tasmanian Devil, exclusively an 
animal feeder, is a marsupial, and the blood-sucking 
vampire-bat belongs to the Chiroptera. The 
Carnivora are organised for a life of rapine, and are 
aptly designated by the popular name “ beasts of 
prey.” The toes are armed with strong claws, and 
are never less than four in number ; the incisor 
teeth are generally three on each side in each jaw ; 
the canines are long, strong, and recurved; the 
other teeth are variable in number, and are more 
or less modified into cutting organs according as 
the diet consists more or less largely of flesh. 
[Carnassial Tooth.] The highest type of carni¬ 
vorous dentition may be seen on a small scale b} r 
examining the mouth of a domestic cat. The brain 


always presents well-marked convolutions, and 
some systematists place this order at the head of 
the animal kingdom. [Cat.] The Carnivora were 
! formerly divided into three groups: (1) Pinnigrada 
(having the limbs modified into fin-like organs) ■, 

(2) Digitigrada (walking on the tips of the toes) ; 

(3) Plantigrada (walking on the sole of the foot) 
The first was equivalent to the modern Carnivora 
Pinnipedia, which includes the seals and walrus. 
The other two together were equivalent to the 
Carnivora Fissipedia, or True Carnivora. The 
second group included the JEluroidea and Cyn- 
oidea, and the third the Arctoidea. (See these 
words.) The Carnivora are practically world-wide 
in their distribution, and fossil remains occur in all 
Tertiary formations. [Cave-bear, Cave-Lion, 
Machairodus.] 

Carnivorous Plants, a variety of plants 
belonging to widely-different groups and occurring 
in all parts of the world, though all established 
instances are dicotyledonous, and either aquatic or 
marsh-haunting forms, in which a considerable 
proportion of nitrogenous mutter is obtained from 
animals captured by the leaves. These plants may 
be rootless, as are Aldrovanda and bladderworts 
(q.v.), or have a slightly-developed root system 
serving mainly for the absorption of pure water 
from the barren wet sand or sphagnum bog on 
which others, such as the sundews (q.v.), flourish. 
The leaves in the butterworts (q.v.) are not modified 
in form, but have glands secreting a viscid liquid, 
and margins that slowly roll inward. Those of 
Sarracenia (q.v.), Nepenthes , and others, are 
variously modified into pitchers, sometimes baited 
with honey-glands externally, and having generally 
a slippery neck, downward-pointing hairs, and 
glands secreting a liquid within. The bladder- 
worts have numerous minute bladders with trap¬ 
doors, but no liquid secretion. The sundews, and 
some allied forms ( Droscracecc' ) of exceptionally 
wide geographical distribution, have lobes or “ ten¬ 
tacles” to their leaves, containing spiral vessels, 
and terminating in a gland secreting a viscid fluid ; 
whilst JJioncea muscijnila (q.v.), the Venus’s Fly¬ 
trap of Wilmington, Carolina, has dry eglandular 
tentacles, with hairs on the blade of the leaf 
electrically sensitive to the merest trace of nitrogen, 
the two halves of the leaf-blade closing on a fly 
like a rat-trap. In this last case rapid motion is 
substituted for viscosity. In the butterworts, sun¬ 
dews, and Nepenthes , the liquid secreted becomes 
acid on nitrogenous stimulation: in Dioncta on 
stimulation a liquid already acid is poured out; 
and in all these cases a process of true digestion 
occurs. Zymases or peptogenic ferments are 
present, and the soft digestible part of the fly or 
other nitrogenous food is converted into peptones 
and absorbed. The experiments on the sundew of 
Dr. Francis Darwin, whose father, Charles Darwin, 
first directed general investigation to these plants, 
proved that the plant gains in size, weight, number 
of shoots, flowers and seeds, and in weight of seed 
from nitrogenous food taken in this wav. In the 
bladderworts and Sarracenia, on the other hand, 
there seems to be no digestion, the plant merely 









CARNIVOROUS PLANTS. 


1 Nepenthes Pliyllamphora. 2 Sarracenia Drummondi. 3 S. purpurea. 4 S. rubra. 5 Droscra rotundifolia. 

U Darlingtonia californica. 7 Dionuea muscipula. 


12 





































Carnot. 


( 359 ) 


Carol. 


absorbing the liquid product of the decay of the 
captured organisms. As these, in the former, are 
largely minute crustaceans (water fleas, etc.), the 
term “ insectivorous ” is hardly so generally applic¬ 
able as is “ carnivorous.” Any nitrogenous food 
can be taken, such as milk, beef, bacon, milk- 
biscuit, or even seeds. The delicacy of the test 
for nitrogen which they afford is one of the most 
marked peculiarities of the group. “ One twenty- 
millionth of a grain of the phosphate of ammonia 
(including less than the one thirty-millionth of 
efficient matter) when absorbed by a gland ” of the 
sundew “leads to a motor impulse being trans¬ 
mitted down the whole length of the tentacle, 
causing the basal part to bend, often through an 
angle of above 180 degrees ” (Darwin). The 
captured fly is thus carried to the centre of the 
leaf: the protoplasm in the cells of the tentacle 
becomes contracted; and the secretion of all the 
tentacles becomes almost instantaneously acid. 
Many of these interesting plants are commonly and 
easily cultivated, and instructive experiments can 
be readily performed upon them. 

Carnot, Lazare Nicolas Marguerite (1753- 
1823), French general, statesman, and patriot. 
After diligent study and brilliant examinations, he 
went in 1771 as second lieutenant of engineers to 
the royal school of Mezieres, and quitted it with 
the rank of first lieutenant in 1773. He then went to 
Calais, where he followed up ardently his military 
studies, and in 1783 he wrote his Elogede Vauban, 
which so pleased Prince Henry, brother of 
Frederick II., that he offered to advance Carnot’s 
fortunes if he would take service in the Prussian 
army. At the outbreak of the Revolution he w T as 
deputy to the Legislative Assembly for the Pas-de- 
Calais, and voted for most of the revolutionary 
measures. As a member of the National Conven¬ 
tion he voted for the death of Louis XYI. In 1793 
he was elected member of the Committee of Public 
Safety, and was charged with the direction of the 
army. It was by his splendid organisation in this 
and the following year that the success of the 
French army was attained, and the admiration of 
his contemporaries showed itself in the bestowal of 
the epithet organisateur de la victoire. Among his 
other merits was that of recognising and employing 
the talents of General Hoche, and, at a later period, 
those of Napoleon Bonaparte. He had for a time to 
leave France owing to a disagreement with the 
Republican authorities, but the 18th Brumaire 
brought him back as war minister to the First 
Consul. But a misunderstanding with Napoleon 
drove him into retirement, though each had an 
admiration for the other, and showed it. In 1814, 
after the disaster of Leipzig, he offered his services 
to the Emperor, who accepted them gladly, and 
appointed him general of division and governor of 
Antwerp, of which city he made a splendid and 
celebrated defence. During the Hundred Days he 
was appointed Minister of the Interior and Count of 
the Empire, and after Waterloo advised Napoleon 
to continue his resistance. “ Carnot,” said the 
Emperor, “ I have come to know you too late ! ” 
After the restoration he was exiled, and went first 


to Warsaw, then to Magdeburg, where he passed his 
latter years. A grandson, Marie Francois Sadi, 
born 1857, was elected President of the French 
republic in 1887. 

Caro, Annibale (1507-1566), an Italian poet, 
born at Civita Nuova. He was tutor in the family 
of a rich Florentine, and secretary in different 
noble families. Of his poetical works the best 
known is a translation of the JEneid. He also 
composed a comedy, Gli Straccioni, and published 
some Rime and Canzoni, and other works. He is 
chiefly noted for the freedom and grace of his 
versification. In prose he left behind a collection 
of letters, and made translations from Aristotle, 
Cyprian, and Gregory Nazianzen. 

Caro, Elme Marie (1826-1887), a French 
philosopher, born at Poictiers, educated at the 
^cole Normale, Paris, at Angers, and at Douai, was 
appointed lecturer at the Ecole Normale (1857), 
professor at the Sorbonne (1867), and elected 
member of the Academy in 1876. His lectures at 
the Sorbonne were very popular, and were attended 
by ladies, and Pailleron, in his Monde ou Von 
s'ennuie, ridicules the “ philosophe des dames.” He 
wrote much, some of the most notable of his works 
being Mysticisme an 18 me Siecle, Le Materialisme 
et la Science, and Le Pessimisme an 19 me Siecle. 

Carob beans, Locust-pods, Sugar-pods, St. 
John’s-bread, or Algaroba, the long flat pods 
of Ceratonia Sill qua, the only species of a genus 
of Leguminosce , native to the Mediterranean region. 
Ceratonia is a small tree with pinkish wood, and 
walking-sticks of it are imported from Algiers 
under the name Caroubier. It has shining, leathery, 
dark, pinnate leaves of four or six oval leaflets ; sub- 
dioecious flowers with no corolla and only five 
stamens. The pods contain a quantity of saccharine 
pulp, besides nitrogenous matter. They were 
largely used for our cavalry horses in the Peninsular 
war, and are now extensively imported for the 
manufacture of cattle foods. They are eaten by 
children, but contain butyric acid, which is apt to 
become rancid, and they are also liable to mouldi¬ 
ness. On fermentation and distillation they yield 
an agreeable spirit. They are believed to be the 
“ husks ” alluded to in the parable of the prodigal 
son ; but the locusts eaten by St. John the Baptist 
in the wilderness were more probably the insects 
so-called. The small seeds are said to be the 
original carat weight of jewellers. 

Carol, from a Celtic word denoting a circular 
dance accompanied by a song, and at a later period 
restricted to the song. The idea of a ring is 
retained by an Italian word of the same derivation, 
and denoting a wreath and also a ring dance. At 
a very early period the word carol became especially 
associated with the joyous songs which accompanied 
the observance of Christmas. The carol of Good 
Xing Wenceslas, Noel , There mas a ship came soiling 
in , and the carol sung by Amvas Leigh at the siege 
of Smerwick, which was admiringly listened to by 
Spenser and Raleigh, are good examples of the 
Christmas carol. The first printed collection of 
carols is of 1521, and this contains among others 






Carolina. 


( 300 ) 


Caroline Islands. 


the well-known Boar's Head carol. The Puritans 
did much to destroy carol-singing with all other 
forms of mirth, but the Restoration brought back 
the practice. The churches have now generally 
adopted them in a speoial Christmas service, and 
this has a tendency to let the more jovial kind die 
out as hardly fitted for present notions of what 
should take place in church. The most complete 
collection of carols is that of Sandys (1833). The 
French have their “ Noels the Russians are much 
given to carol-singing, and there are considerable 
Manx and Welsh collections. The Carnival song, 
\Ve o,re beggars struck with blindness , is said to be 
founded upon an old carol. 

Carolina, North, one of the Southern Atlantic 
states of America, and one of the original 
thirteen, is bounded on the N. by Virginia, S. by 
South Carolina and Georgia, E. by the Atlantic 
Ocean, W. by Tennessee; extending from lat. 
33° 49' to 36° 33' N. and from long. 75° 25' to 84° 30' 
W., with a greatest width of 180 miles from 
N. to S., and greatest length 480 miles from E. to 
W., and an area of 50,707 square miles. The 
chain of the Appalachians rises in Mount Mitchell 
to a height of over 6,000 ft., and among the other 
ridges the Blue Ridge rises also to a height of 
6,000 ft. in Mount Hardy. The table-land between 
the ridges is broken into fertile, well-watered 
valleys, which are eminently fitted for grazing and 
for agriculture. Of the rivers, Cape Fear river 
(250 miles) is the largest, and next in size is the 
Roanoke (150 miles). The lowlands to the north¬ 
east have extensive swamps, interspersed with 
lakes, the chief of them being the Great Dismal 
Swamp and the Alligator Swamp. The chief 
mineral wealth of the state consists of coal and 
iron, though gold and silver, and even diamonds also 
arq found. The mountains are clothed with 
primeval forest, and the animals and birds are both 
various and abundant. The manufactures are 
numerous, including saw-mills, cotton-mills, and 
tobacco-factories, and there is much mining and 
quarrying. Raleigh is the capital of the state, and 
Wilmington the principal city. 

Carolina, South, a Southern Atlantic state 
of America, is bounded on the N. and N.E. by North 
Carolina, on the S.E. by the Atlantic Ocean, and on 
the S.W. and W. by Georgia, from which it is 
separated by the Savannah river and its feeders, 
the Tugaloo and the Chatooga, extending from 
lat. 35° 13' to 32° N., and from long. 78° 28' to 
83° 18' W. It is wedge-shaped, with a coast-line of 
210 miles, and a depth of about 240 miles, and an 
area of 34,000 square miles. For 100 miles inland 
the coast is alluvial, with swamps, and pine forests, 
beyond that is a belt of sand-hills, and then comes 
“ The Ridge” of terraces with beautiful valleys and 
rounded hills, rising to the Blue Ridge in the N.W. 
with a greatest height of 4,000 ft. above sea-level. 
The state is well-watered, and the low-lying lands, 
together with the islands along the coast, produce 
much rice and cotton. The climate is much modi¬ 
fied by sea breezes and by the mountains, and in 
the southern parts the orange, sugar-cane, fig, and 
banana are largely cultivated, but are sometimes 


damaged by frost. The state abounds in animals, 
birds, tortoises, turtles, alligators, and many kinds 
of serpents. South Carolina is not a manufactur¬ 
ing state. The capital is Columbia; but the largest 
city and commercial capital is Charleston. 

Caroline, Amelia Augusta (1768-1821), 
second daughter of Charles, Duke of Brunswick, 
and wife of George IV. of England. At this day 
it is hard to realise the intense excitement which 
reigned in England seventy years ago over the 
wrongs of Queen Caroline, and how the whole 
country ranged itself on one side or other in the 
question. The Prince of Wales took a dislike to 
her after the marriage in 1795, and separated from 
her the next year. When, ten years later, reports 
of her misconduct led to the appointment of a 
commission of inquiry, popular feeling was strongly 
enlisted on her side. From 1814 she resided chiefly 
in Italy till the accession of the king in 1820, when, 
with the sympathy of the nation, she refused to 
abandon her rights, and came to England to 
demand her acknowledgment as queen. A bill for 
the dissolution of her marriage on the ground of 
adultery was brought into the House of Lords, but 
under pressure of popular indignation, and in the 
face of the boldness of her counsel, Brougham and 
Denman, it was abandoned, and her claim to the 
title of queen was admitted. But she was refused 
admission to Westminster Hall at the coronation of 
the king, and a month later she died. 

Caroline Islands, a scattered group in the 
Pacific Ocean, between lat. 3° and 11° N., and long. 
135° and 177° E. ; situated to the E. of the Philip¬ 
pines, and to the N. of New Guinea. The Spaniards 
divide them into Eastern, Western, and Central 
islands. The Eastern islands are known as the 
Mulgrave archipelago, and contain two groups. 
The Western, or Pelew, islands have an area of 346 
miles, and are almost surrounded by a coral reef. The 
soil is fertile, and there is an abundance of fish and 
turtle in the lagoons. Birds are in great variety, 
and cattle, sheep, and pigs have been introduced. 
The Central Carolines, or Carolines proper, consist 
of about 500 islands, composed of nearly 50 groups. 
The most important of the islands in this division 
is that of Yap, which has a good harbour. 

Inhabitants. The bulk of the inhabitants are 
Indonesians, closely allied to the eastern Polyne¬ 
sians, but considerably modified by crossings with 
intruders from China, Japan, and the Philip¬ 
pine Islands, and probably also with a primitive 
Papuan element absorbed by the early Polyne¬ 
sian settlers. Hence a marked diversity of ap¬ 
pearance, and especially of colour — fair in the 
west like the Tagals of the Philippines, coppery-red 
in the central group, almost black, like the Papuans 
in the east. Here the Ualan islanders are not only 
black, but have also crisp hair, an almost certain 
evidence of Papuan blood. On the other hand, the 
natives of Nukanor and Satoan are direct descen¬ 
dants of the Samoans, as shown both by their 
physique, language, and customs. They are 
generally a mild, friendly, industrious, and peaceful 
people, skilful boat-builders, and daring navigators, 
making, by the observation of the stars, voyages of 






Carotid. 


( 361 ) 


Carpeaux. 


great length in their apparently frail outriggers. 
The climate dispenses with much clothing, and 
their food consists chiefly of fish and vegetables, 
such as taro, the bread-fruit, and sweet potato. 
The eastern groups have been evangelised by 
American missionaries since 1849; but elsewhere 
the natives are still pagans, the dominant religion 
being Animism (q.v.), associated with the worship 
of trees, mountains, ancestry, and all moving things. 
In Ponape are some cyclopean prehistoric structures, 
thick walls built of huge basalt columns from 25 
to 35 ft. long; still more remarkable are the monu¬ 
ments in Ualan, including ramparts 20 ft. high 
and 12 and 13 ft. thick, formed of immense basalt 
blocks, which must have been brought from great 
distances. No satisfactory theory has been pro¬ 
posed as to the origin of these structures, which 
were certainly not erected by the present inhabi¬ 
tants. Since their contact with Europeans, the 
natives, like other Polynesians, are everywhere 
dying out, except in Nukunor (Mortlake group). 
Formerly over 100,000, the population is at present 
estimated at scarcely more than 30,000 in the 
Carolines proper, and 12,000 in the Pelew group. 

Carotid, the great artery concerned with the 
supply of blood to the head. The common carotid 
of the right side of the neck takes origin at the 
bifurcation of the arteria innominata, that of the 
left side springs directly from the aorta. The ves¬ 
sels of the two sides have a nearly identical course 
in the neck, despite their different origins, they run 
upwards in the same sheath with the pneumogastric 
nerve and internal jugular vein ; at the upper border 
of the thyroid cartilage each common carotid di¬ 
vides into an external and internal branch. The 
external carotid artery conveys blood to the face 
by its facial branch, to the tongue by the lingual, 
to the scalp by the occipital and posterior auricular, 
to the pharynx by the ascending pharyngeal, to the 
thyroid gland by the superior thyroid, and finally 
divides into the superficial temporal and internal 
maxillary branches. The internal carotid enters 
the cranial cavity by the carotid canal of the 
temporal bohe, it gives off an ophthalmic branch, 
and divides into the anterior and middle cerebral 
arteries which supply the brain. 

Carp, any fish of the Physostomous family 
Cyprinidce, well represented in the fresh waters of 
the Eastern hemisphere and North America. In 
this family the mouth is toothless, the' body 
generally covered with scales, the head naked, and 
there is no adipose fin. Examples are the carp, 
barbel, gudgeon, bream, chub, roach, dace, tench, 
and minnow. The carps are divided into numerous 
groups, comprising in all over one hundred genera. 
Most of the species feed on animal and vegetable 
matter, but some few live entirely on aquatic 
plants. In the type genus Cyprinus the dorsal fin 
is long and has "a strong toothed bony ray, the 
anal is short, the snout is thick and rounded, and 
there are four barbules. The common carp (C. 
carpio ), originally a native of the East, is said to 
have been introduced into England early in the 
seventeenth century, and is now fairly common 


throughout Europe, and is largely bred in America. 
The body is elongated, bluish-green in the darkest 
parts, fading into yellowish on the sides, and 
whitish beneath. The average length is from 12 
inches to 2 feet, but specimens of even 5 feet are 
on record. It is a sluggish fish, frequenting ponds 
and quiet streams, supplementing its vegetarian diet 
with worms and aquatic larvrn, and hibernating in 
the mud in winter. Its fecundity is remarkable, 
and as a food fish it is valuable ; its breeding is an 
important branch of fish-culture on the Continent, 
as it formerly was in the fish-ponds of English 
monasteries. Carp run into many varieties. The 
allied genus Carassius is distinguished by the 
absence of barbules. C. vulgaris is the Crucian 
carp, of which the Prussian carp is a variety ; C. 
auratus is the gold-fish (q.v.). The Toothed Carps 
(constituting the family Cyprinodontidte) are small 
fish, widely distributed in fresh, brackish, and salt 
water. The head and body are covered with scales, 
and there are teeth in both jaws, but there are no 
barbules. 

Carpaccio, Vittore (1455-1525), an Italian 
painter, born at Venice, and belonging to the early 
Venetian school. He is notable for his knowledge 
of perspective, the finish and richness of his 
colouring, and his power of invention and com¬ 
position. His chief works are The Arrival of St. 
Ursula at Cologne , The Presentation of Christ in the 
Temple , and The Meeting of St. Joachim and St. 
Anne with St. Louis and St. Elizabeth of Hungary. 
The series of paintings adorning the Scuola, or 
guildhall of S. Giorgio degli Schiavoni, in Venice, 
has attracted the special study of Mr. Ruskin. 
An Italian critic said of the artist, “ Aveva in 
cuore la verity ” (He had truth in his heart). 

Carpathian Mountains, The, form a long 
curved range, chiefly in the Austrian empire. 
Separating Galicia from Hungary, and Moldavia 
from Wallachia, they form almost a semicircle, 
one end touching the Danube at Pressburg and 
the other at New Orsova, and having a length 
of over 800 miles. Of the two divisions the East¬ 
ern Carpathians rise to a height of 8,573 ft., 
and the Western, which extend along the northern 
boundary of Hungary, rise in the Eisthalerspitze to 
a height of 8,875 ft. The mountains are rich in 
minerals, including gold, silver, copper, iron, and 
quicksilver, and the sides are covered with forests, 
chiefly of pine and beech. 

Carpeaux, Jean Baptiste (1827-1875), a 
French sculptor, born at Valenciennes. In 1853 he 
exhibited at the Salon a bas-relief, representing 
The Reception of Abd-el-Kader by Napoleon III. 
at St. Cloud , and the next year lie obtained the 
“ Grand Prix de Rome.” After his return to France 
he exhibited, in 1859, A Young Neapolitan Fisher 
(in bronze) listening to the sound of the sea in a 
shell. Among his other works, Ugolino and his 
Children , and A Young Girl with a Shell , are the 
most notable. He also composed a group for the 
facade of the Opera House, and executed a 
fountain for the Luxembourg Gardens, and gave 
lessons in sculpture to the Prince Imperial. 








Carpel. 


( 362 ) 


Carpini 


Carpel, the female sporophyll, or leaf bearing 
ovules, or immature seeds, among spermaphytes or 
flowering plants. There may be one carpel in the 
flower, as in the pea and bean family, when the 
fruit is necessarily monocarpellary ; or, if there are 
more, when it is termed poly carpellary , they may 
be distinct ( apocarpous ), or united ( syncarpous ). 
In the early stages of development (and sometimes, 
as in the bladder-senna, Colutea , etc., much later) 
they closely resemble other leaves, and in the 
ripening of the fruit may dry up like a withering 
leaf, or may become fleshy and change colour from 
green to yellow, red, purple, or black, at the same 
time undergoing chemical changes such as the 
formation of acids and sugars. They bear the 
ovules either on their margins, like the buds in 
Bryophyllum, as in Cycas; or over their whole 
inner surface, as in poppies. [Placentation.] 
Three is the prevalent number of carpels among 
Monocotyledons, though one, two, four, six, or 
higher numbers occur; whilst among Dicotyledons 
two, five, one, or an indefinite number is common. 

Carpentaria, Gulf of, an arm of the sea in¬ 
denting the north coast of Australia, from between 
lat. 10f° and 17^° S. and long. 136° and 142° E., 
bounded on the E. by York Peninsula, and on the 
West by Arnhem Land, and containing several 
islands. Several rivers flow into the gulf, among 
them being the Flinders, the Leichhardt, and the 
Roper. The gulf received its name from a river 
Carpentier, so called by its discoverer in honour of 
Pieter Carpentier, the Governor of the Dutch 
Indies in 1623. 

Carpenter, Mary (1807-1877), a philanthro¬ 
pist who interested herself in India, and parti¬ 
cularly in the condition of destitute children in 
England. She founded ragged schools and 
reformatories, and had a great share in initiating 
and influencing industrial school legislation. In 
the course of her work she visited India and 
Germany, and assisted at a Congress on Women’s 
Work held in Germany. She was the founder of 
the National Indian Association. 

Carpenter, William Benjamin (1813-1885), 
brother of the above-mentioned Mary Carpenter, 
English physician and biologist. In 1838 he 
published his well-known work upon General and 
Comparative Physiology, and was appointed later 
professor or lecturer to the Royal Institution, to 
the London Hospital, and to University College. 
He was also Examiner and Registrar of the 
University of London. On his retirement in 1879 
he was made a C.B. His death was owing to an 
accident with a spirit-lamp. As vice-president of 
the Royal Society he inaugurated the deep-sea 
sounding, and advocated the theory of vertical 
circulation in ocean waters. Besides his researches 
in Marine Zoology, Dr. Carpenter’s contributions to 
the Science of Mental Physiology are well known. 

Carpentry, derived from Celtic, and having 
the same root as car and chariot, seems to have 
formerly represented especially what we now call a 
wheelwright or coachbuilder. At present it de¬ 
notes one who puts together woodwork, particularly 


such as is joined by nails, clamps, and the like, 
the word joiner being used for one who makes 
articles of furniture, and fits his work together by 
means of glue. In its widest sense carpentry is the 
art of putting together the framework of houses 
and other constructions, and is an important branch 
of building, demanding a wide and thorough 
knowledge of mechanics, such as the nature of 
materials, the principles of weight, resistance, and 
the like. In a narrower sense it is applied to any 
worker in wood, and denotes equally the man 
who puts up a conservatory and him who makes a 
rabbit-hutch or a dog-kennel. 

Carpet (connected with Latin carpere, in 
the sense of carding wool), any woven fabric 
used for covering the floor of a room. The most 
ancient carpets certainly known are Persian, al¬ 
though some have thought that Assyrian carpets 
have been found. The Persian carpet is generally 
of a very thick pile, and one kind—felted—is of 
camel’s hair. Next in general esteem are Indian 
carpets, of which the more ancient kind—made of 
wool—are said to have been copied from Persia, 
while a later kind of cotton are manufactured 
chiefly in Bengal and Northern India. Cashmere 
is almost as noted for its carpets as for its shawls. 
The Turkey carpet, which also has a pile, is mostly 
manufactured at Smyrna and neighbouring parts 
of Asia Minor. Of European carpets those of 
Axminster, Wilton, and Beauvais formerly had a 
great reputation. Kidderminster, which was the 
first place to produce machine-made carpets, makes 
them of 2 or 3 ply. The Union Kidderminster is of 
cotton and worsted. The Brussels carpet is of 
worsted upon a groundwork of linen. It may be 
of 6, 5, 4, or 3 frame, and has a velvet pile. There 
is also what is called the Tapestry Carpet. The 
Patent Axminster is of chenille upon a strong back¬ 
ing. One variety is called the Royal Axminster. 
Carpets are also made of jute. Though the gener¬ 
ality of carpets are of sufficient size to cover a 
room, there is a growing custom of covering only 
the centre or small portion of a room, and to meet 
the demand a sort of rug or carpet is now being 
largely manufactured which does not differ much 
in size from the sleeping or praying-carpet of the 
East. 

Carpet Moths, a number of moths of the 
group known as the Geometers. The popular name 
is derived from the beautifully-marked patterns on 
the wings. The common Carpet Moth QMelanippe 
subcristata ) and the Garden Carpet Moth (M. 
fluetvata), are two of the best-known British 
species. The rarer Melanthia allncillata is perhaps 
the most beautiful. 

Carpini, Johannes di Piano (1182-1253), a 
Franciscan monk of Umbria, sent by Pope 
Innocent IV. in charge of a mission to the 
Emperor of the Mongol Tartars who had invaded 
Europe, and seemed to threaten the existence of 
European Christendom. In 1245 he started from 
Lyons, and in the course of the next summer 
reached Karakorum, beyond Lake Baikal, returning 
to Kiev on his backward journey in the summer of 






Carpinus. 


( 363 ) 


Carriage. 


1247, bearing a letter from the Khan to the Pope. 
He published a Latin account of his travels, con¬ 
taining much valuable information. He was 
appointed Archbishop of Antivari, but did not long 
survive his expedition, the sufferings and hardships 
of which were enormous. Although over 60 he 
appears to have ridden 3,000 miles in 106 days, an 
average of over 28 miles a day. 

Carpinus. [Hornbeam.] 

Carpocrates, an Alexandrian of the early 
part of the second century A.D., the founder of the 
Gnostic heresy, which appears to have been a 
mixture of Platonism and Buddhism. He held 
with Plato the doctrine of reminiscence, and with 
Buddha that of metempsychosis, till the soul 
returns to its true union with God. To attain this 
unity the practical life must, be according to 
nature, and independent of moral and other laws— 
a theory which, as carried out by the members of 
the sect, had results that were more pleasant to 
themselves than edifying to their neighbours. 

Carpology, the study of the structure and 
classification of the fruits of plants. [Fruit.] 

Carpus. [Hand.] 

Carrageen, or Irish Moss, Chondrus crisjms, 
a common edible sea-weed, collected in large 
quantities on the coasts of Sligo, Massachusetts, 
and Hamburg. It contains much mucilage, but its 
nutritive value is doubtful, and its sea taste militates 
against it as a substitute for isinglass. It was 
introduced as a remedy in pulmonary complaints ; 
but is used either as a cattle-food, for thickening 
colours in calico-printing, for sizing cotton and 
paper, or, in America, for fining beer. It has a 
fan-shaped, repeatedly-forked frond, greenish or 
dull purple in colour. 

Carranza, Bartolome de (1503-1576), a 
Spanish Dominican monk, who accompanied 
Philip II. to England on the occasion of his 
marriage with Queen Mary, and became the queen’s 
confessor, and laboured hard for the restoration of 
Catholicism in England. Philip appointed him 
Archbishop of Toledo, but the jealousy of his 
enemies denounced him to the inquisition as a 
heretic, and he was imprisoned for eight years. On 
appealing to Rome he was taken there, and con¬ 
fined in the Castle of St. Angelo for another ten 
years, and died soon after his final trial in 1576. 

Carrara, a town of Italy, 62 miles from 
Florence and 30 from Leghorn, in a valley watered 
by the Avenza, and near the Mediterranean. The 
name of the town and its importance are derived 
from the marble which is quarried from the 
neighbouring mountains. There are from four to 
five hundred quarries, giving employment to many 
thousands of men, both in the quarries themselves 
and in the work of cutting and polishing. The 
marble has been worked from very ancient times, 
and is practically inexhaustible. The Romans 
knew it as Marmor Lunense , from Luna, an 
Etruscan town in the neighbourhood. 

Carrel, Jean Baptiste Armand (1800-1836), 
a French publicist, born at Rouen, and educated 


first at Rouen and llien in the military school at 
St. Cyr. He served for a time in the army, but 
resigned in 1822 on the outbreak of the war with 
Spain, and went to Barcelona to fight on the side 
of the Spanish. Falling a prisoner into the hands 
of his former general he narrowly escaped a 
military execution, but was finally set free, and 
devoted himself to literature, becoming the secre¬ 
tary of the historian Thierry. After 1830 he 
edited and conducted the National, and in this 
capacity got into trouble with the authorities, and 
was embroiled in private quarrels. He was finally 
mortally wounded in a duel with M. de Girardin. 
His works were published in five volumes (1858). 

Carriage (Low Latin, carriagium, from c-arica, 
load), literally, any vehicle possessed of wheels 
that can be used for the transport by land of goods 
or persons. In a more restricted sense, and that in 
which it is mostly used, the word signifies a four- 
wheeled vehicle impelled by animal power. In the 
wider sense wheeled vehicles seem to have been 
used for purposes of war, and at a later period for 
racing, and afterwards for domestic purposes. It 
was not till a much later period that they seem to 
have been commonly used as an article of luxury. 
Taking the narrower sense, the four-wheeled vehicle, 
when used for agricultural purposes or for the 
transport of goods, bears the generic name of waggon, 
of which there are many species, and when used 
for personal transport it bears the generic name of 
carriage, of which there are even more species than 
of the waggon. The carriage seems not to have been 
introduced into England before the year 1555, and 
a few years afterwards a lumbering vehicle without 
springs did duty as Queen Elizabeth’s coach. One 
reason for the tardy introduction of carriages into 
England was the almost entire absence of roads in 
our modern sense of the word. The main roads 
were in that day in worse condition than some of 
the green lanes and byways that are still to be met 
with in some of the out-of-the-way parts of Sussex 
and some other counties. Even as late as last cen¬ 
tury we read of a king and queen taking two days for 
a carriage progress from Kew to London, and even 
then getting overturned into the mire upon the 
way. One great differentiating feature of the car¬ 
riage is that the shafts or other means of attaching 
the horse or horses are not rigidly fastened to the 
body of the vehicle. The first great improvement 
in the construction of the carriage was the separ¬ 
ation of the body from the framework to which the 
wheels belonged, and the consequent reduction of 
jolting. This was first effected by suspending the 
body from leather straps, a system which may be 
seen in the Lord Mayor’s state coach, and in old 
family coaches. From that the transition was easy 
to the C springs, and to the elliptic springs in use 
at the present day. Improvements are constantly 
being made, especially in Great Britain and 
America, and carriage building has now become a 
highly complicated and specialised trade. A walk 
through the carriage factories of Long Acre, London, 
is not\vithout interest to those who can find pleasure 
in considering the ingenuity which has been applied 
to the surmounting of various difficulties. 





Carriage Dog. 


( 364 ) 


Carrier Pigeon. 


Carriage Dog, a breed named from the 
purpose for which it is kept—to follow the carriages 
of the wealthy—and often miscalled the Dalmatian 
dog, for it is probably of Indian origin. In size 
and shape it resembles a pointer (q.v.) ; the colour 
is white, with regular black spots, about an inch 
across. 

Carrickfergus, an Irish seaport, forming a 
county in the province of Ulster, and county of 
Antrim, on the N. side of Belfast Lough, 9f 
miles north of Belfast, and 12 miles S. of Larne. 
There is a twelfth-century castle, with a keep 90 ft. 
high, standing upon a rock which juts into the sea. 
William III. visited the town in 1690 before the 
battle of the Boyne, and the French Admiral 
Thurot landed a force of about 1,000 men here in 
1760, and a few years later Paul Jones captured a 
British ship in the bay. There is some flax spinning 
in the town, and an oyster fishery. 

Garrick-on-Suir, an Irish town in the pro¬ 
vince of Munster and county of Tipperary, on the 
Suir, 14 miles east of Clonmel, and on the Limerick 
and Waterford railway. On the other side of the 
river and connected by a bridge is the suburb of 
Carrickbeg, which has a fourteenth-century abbey. 
The Butler family derive the title Earl of Carrick 
from this town, and there are still remains of their 
castle. Its industries are linen and woollen manu¬ 
factures, and a trade in agricultural produce, and 
in the neighbourhood are important slate-quarries. 

Carrier, one who conveys goods from place 
to place for hire for such persons as think fit to 
employ him. Such is a proprietor of waggons, 
barges, lighters, merchant ships, or other instru¬ 
ments for the public conveyance of goods. In 
a legal sense it extends not only to those who 
convey goods by land, but also to the owners and 
masters of ships, mail contractors, and even to 
wharfingers who undertake to convey goods for hire 
from their wharves to the vessel in their own 
lighters, but not to mere hackney coachmen. By 
ancient custom acknowledged by judicial deci¬ 
sion, a common carrier of goods for hire is not 
only bound to take goods tendered to him, if he 
has room in his conveyance, and he is informed of 
their quality and value, but he is liable for their 
loss except in three cases. 1. Loss arising from 
the king’s public enemies. 2.- Loss arising from 
the act of God, such as storm, lightning, or tem¬ 
pest. 3. Loss arising from the owner’s own fault, 
as by imperfect packing. 

Carriers Act. In order to settle disputes as to 
loss and injury between carriers and persons whose 
property they carried, the Act of 11 George IV. and 
1 Will 'a n IV. c. 68 was passed, by which it is enacted 
that no common carrier by land shall be liable for 
the loss of, or injury to, certain articles, particularly 
enumerated in the Act, contained in any package 
which shall have been delivered, either to be 
carried for hire, or to accompany a passenger, 
when the value of such article shall exceed £10, 
unless at the time of the delivery of the package to 
the carrier the value and nature of such article 
shall have been explicitly declared. In such case 


the carrier may demand an increased rate of 
charges, a table of which increased rates must be 
affixed in legible characters in some public and 
conspicuous part of the receiving office ; and all 
persons who send goods are bound by such notice, 
without further proof of the same having come to 
their knowledge. A carrier can refuse to deliver 
up goods which have come into his possession as 
a carrier until his reasonable charges for the car¬ 
riage of same are paid. A person who conveys 
passengers only is not a common carrier. 

Carrier, Jean Baptiste (1756-1794), a French 
Republican and member of the National Conven¬ 
tion. He was elected deputy in 1792, and was 
active in founding the revolutionary tribunal. He 
was a supporter of Robespierre, and was sent to 
Nantes to suppress a revolt. He here inaugurated 
the system of Noyades, or wholesale drowning, by 
which 16,000 persons are said to have perished. So 
great was the general indignation that he was 
recalled, and in 1794 was tried before the revolu¬ 
tionary tribunal, and guillotined. 

Carrier Pigeon, a name used in two distinct 
senses: (1) a fancy variety of pigeon, which has 
long lost whatever “carrying” properties it once 
possessed, and which is now only bred for show 
purposes; and (2) the homing pigeon, descended 
from the Belgian pigeon voyageur, which is trained 
to find its way home when liberated at a long 
distance therefrom. 

The fancy breed of Carriers originated in the 
East, and probably descended from the Persian 
messenger pigeon, to which, or to a closely-allied 
breed, the allusions in classic and mediaeval 
literature probably refer. A breed of pigeons was 
used to carry letters during the Crusades, and 
mention of the employment of these birds for a 
similar purpose in S} r ria and the neighbouring 
countries will be found in Sir John Mandeville's 
Voyages and Travels (ch. x.). According to Moore, 
the author of the Columbarium (1735), the first 
general account of pigeons in the English language, 
the Dutch introduced these carriers into Europe. 
The fancy English Carrier is rather larger than the 
domestic pigeon, with a long body and neck, and 
a long bill, of which the upper mandible shuts 
over the lower like the lid of a box. But its 
peculiar points are the wattles on the bill, and the 
fleshy rosette, which should be of the size of a 
shilling, round the eye. The wattles ought to be 
quite distinct from the rosette, soft in texture, and 
standing out like the surface of a cauliflower ; and 
the part on the upper mandible should be met by 
a corresponding one (sometimes called the jewing) 
on the lower. The plumage should be thick, and 
closely adpressed to the body. The favourite colours 
are deep black, dark dun, bright blue with black 
bars on the wings and tails, or pure white. 

The bird now used occasionally as a messenger, 
but more generally for flying-matches, is of a com¬ 
posite breed, and is known as a “homer” or 
“ homing pigeon.” It should be noted that the 
name “ carrier pigeon” is misleading. A writer in 
the Field remarked some years ago:—“ A pigeon 
will fly homewards when set at liberty, and by its 





Carrier Pigeon. 


( 3G5 ) 


Carrying Costs. 


means a message can, therefore, be sent from a 
given spot to the bird’s home. But no pigeon ever 
did or ever will carry a message from home to any 
other spot.” In appearance the homer differs little 
from the domestic pigeon, but is heavier and more 
stoutly built, and has a larger head with a fuller 
development of brain. Before railways and the 
telegraph had made communication rapid and 
easy, pigeons were often used in Great Britain to 
transmit news. In the eighteenth century they were 
sent up from Tyburn to announce the execution of 
a felon, and till beyond the middle of the nineteenth 
century they were used to bring intelligence of 
races, etc., to newspaper offices, and of the state 
of foreign exchange to brokers and stock-jobbers in 
London. These birds were either of the Antwerp 
breed, or had a good strain of the Antwerp blood. 
But it is in connection with the siege of Paris that 
homing pigeons are best known to the general 
public, owing to the establishment of what has 
been called the “ pigeon-post.” During the siege 
sixty-four balloons belonging to the French crossed 
the Prussian lines, carrying with them 360 homing 
pigeons. Of that number 302 were afterwards sent 
back to Paris, and, despite the efforts of the enemy 
to destroy them, 98 birds returned to their cots, 
75 of them carrying microscopic messages rolled 
up tightly, placed in a quill, and tied longitudinally 
to the central tail feathers. Thus there were 
carried into the capital 150,000 official despatches, 
and a million private ones, which had been reduced 
by the photo-micrographic process. 

According to Dr. Chapuis, long-distance pigeon¬ 
flying, as a form of sport, originated in Belgium— 
still its metropolis—in 1818. Since then it has 
spread to England, France, Germany, and Italy, in 
all which countries clubs have been established to 
promote the pursuit. The highest speed on record, 
as given by Mr. Tegetmeier, on the authority of 
Dr. Chapuis, is 1,780 yards—or rather over a mile— 
a minute. But in the report of an English club, 
published in October, 1891, nothing like this rate 
is mentioned. 

The first race was from Exeter, the winning bird covered 
the distance (11(3 miles) at a velocity of 1,219 yards per minute. 
119 birds were liberated for this race, about tivo-thirds being 
vepovtecl home. 

The second race was from Plymouth, when the winning bird 
covered the distance (173 miles) at a velocity of 823 yards per 
minute. 103 birds competed, about half being reported home. 

The third race was from Penzance (205 miles); the winning 
bird made a velocity of G72 yards per minute. 67 birds, only 
one-third reported home. 

The fourth race was from St. Mary’s Island, Sciliy (245 
miles); the winning bird made a velocity of 908 yards per 
minute. 27 birds reported home out of 36. 

In the extracts given above it will be noticed 
that in the third race only one-third of the birds 
liberated returned home, and in no case did all 
return. This is very important, as showing how 
little instinct has to do with the flight of homing 
birds. Mr. Tegetmeier has pronounced against 
instinct and in favour of training ; and he says :— 
“Pigeons must be regularly trained by stages, or 
they will be inevitably lost if flown one hundred or 
two hundred miles from home.” Older observers 
were of the same opinion. Sir John Mandeville 
(see above) says that “ the pigeons are so taught 
that they fly with those letters to the very place 


that men would send them to. For they are fed in 
those places where they are sent to, and they, 
naturally return to where they have been fed.” 
And Moore, in his Columbarium, after describing 
the Carrier, adds: “N.B.—If the pigeons be not 
practised when young, the best of them will fly but 
very indifferently, and may possibly be lost.” 

Carriere, Moriz, a German literary man and 
philosopher, born at Griedel in Hesse (1817), and 
appointed professor of philosophy at Munich 
(1853). He belongs to the school of philosophy 
which tries to reconcile Deism and Pantheism. He 
has written much, and on various subjects, and his 
works are widely read in Germany. 

Carrion Crow. [Crow.] The name is some¬ 
times applied in America to the Turkey Buzzard 
(q.v.). [Vulture.] 

Carronade, a short piece of naval ordnance 
invented by one Gascoigne, and first manufac¬ 
tured at Carron, whence its name. It became a 
service weapon in the British navy in 1779, and 
remained in use until the middle of the present 
century. The following were the chief types :— 


Nature. 

Calibre in 
inches. 

Length. 

Weight. 

68 pounder . 

8-05 

ft. in. 

5 2 

cwt. qrs. lbs. 
36 0 0 

42 

6-84 

4 3$ 

22 1 0 

32 „ 

6-35 

4 Oj 

17 0 14 

24 

5‘68 

3 7* 

13 0 0 

18 

5 TO 

3 3 

9 0 0 

12 „ 

4-52 

2 2 

5 3 10 


On account of their shortness they did not carry 
far, but at low ranges their smashing effect was 
considerable. Ships that carried them mounted 
them generally on the upper deck, poop, and fore¬ 
castle only. 

Carron Oil, a favourite local application to 
burns,' composed of equal parts of lime-water and 
linseed oil, and deriving its name from its employ¬ 
ment at the Carron foundry in the treatment of 
burns occurring there. 

Carrot, Havens Ccirota, a biennial umbelliferous 
plant, native of Britain, one of several species of a 
genus characterised by deeply-cut leaves, and long, 
flat, straight prickles on its carpels. The conical 
tap-root of the cultivated form contains 89 percent, 
of water and 4-5 per cent, of sugar. Though 
known to the ancients, it is believed to have been 
introduced into England from Holland in 1558. 

Carrying Costs. Formerly a verdict was 
said to carry costs when the successful party 
was entitled to his costs as incident to such ver¬ 
dict. Where the damages were under 40s. the 
successful party was not generally entitled to his 
costs, but later legislation has in many cases vested 
the control of the costs in the discretion of the 
presiding judge, so that this term has now to a great 
extent lost its significance, but where the action 
or issue is tried by a jury the costs follow the event , 
unless upon application made at the trial for good 
cause shown, the judge before whom such action 
or issue is tried, or the court, shall otherwise order. 






















Carson. 


( 3G6 ) 


Carte 


Moreover (except on leave given) no order as to 
costs left by law to the discretion of the court 
shall be subject to any appeal. 

Carson, Christopher (more generally known 
as Kit) (1809-1868), an American trapper and 
hunter, born in Kentucky. He emigrated to 
Missouri, and made himself intimately acquainted 
with Indian habits and dialects. He was appointed 
guide in Fremont’s expeditions, and in 1853 was 
nominated Indian agent in New Mexico. He was 
made a brevet brigadier-general for his services in 
the Civil war, and died at Fort Lynn in Colorado. 

Carstares, William (1649-1715), a Scottish 
clergyman and politician, who was a personal friend 
of the Prince of Orange, and had some share in 
bringing about the He volution of 1688. Born at 
Cathcart, near Glasgow, of a Covenanting family, 
he was educated first at the University of Edin¬ 
burgh and then at Utrecht, where *he formed a 
friendship with William of Orange. On his return 
to England in 1674 he was imprisoned as being a 
cause of disaffection in Scotland, and was not 
released for nearly five years. In 1693, "being 
again in Britain, he was examined and tortured 
before the Scottish Council for his share in the 
Rye House Plot. In 1685 he again went to Holland, 
and William appointed him court chaplain, and in 
this capacity he accompanied William to England, 
and w r as appointed royal chaplain for Scotland, 
and was one of the king’s most trusted advisers 
upon Scottish affairs. He was still royal chaplain 
under Queen Anne, but lived in Edinburgh, having 
been made principal of Edinburgh University. He 
was four times moderator of the General Assembly, 
and was consulted about the Parliamentary Union 
of Scotland with England, which he did much to 
promote. George I. also confirmed him in his 
chaplaincy, but he did not live long to enjoy it. 

Carstens, Asmus Jakob (1754-1798), a 
Danish artist, who did much to better the'condi¬ 
tion of art in Germany. At the age of 22 he went 
to study art at Copenhagen, and after practising 
for some years as a portrait painter at Lubeck, he 
went to Berlin, where his great picture, The Fall of 
the Angels, gained him a professorship at the 
Academy, a pension, and court employment. He 
then went to Rome and studied the works of 
Raphael and Michael Angelo, and inculcated a taste 
for high art into the German painters. He mostly 
represented scenes from the ancient classics, as 
well as subjects from Shakespeare and Ossian. 
Eventually he severed his connection with the 
Berlin Academy, and finally died in poverty at 
Rome. 

Cart, a two-wheeled vehicle for the transport of 
goods or persons. It differs from the carriage not 
only in the number of the wheels, but in the fact 
that the shafts are rigidly attached to the body, 
and that the horse not only dra ws the vehicle, but 
also supports part of the weight, which, if not 
properly balanced, causes the horse much needless 
fatigue and annoyance. There are many varieties 
of- cart for personal transport, but that used for 
agricultural purposes has undergone very little 


modification from ancient types. This kind of cart 
may have its capacity much increased by the use 
of side-pieces and outlying spars. 

Cartagena. 1. The New Carthage of the an¬ 
cients, is a Spanish fortified seaport upon the Medi¬ 
terranean coast, in the province of Murcia, 29 miles 
S.E. of the town of Murcia, and 326 miles by rail 
from Madrid. The town is partly built upon a hill, 
and is separated from the harbour by a small plain, 
and is partly surrounded by mountains. Hills 
shelter the harbour upon the land side, while from 
wind and waves to seaward it is protected by a 
fortified island, which partly occupies the entrance. 
A ledge of rocks is in the centre of the harbour, 
which is in the other parts deep. The arsenal was 
formerly of great importance, but has lately been 
much neglected. The town, which is of Moorish 
aspect, is much decayed, but shows signs of revival 
since the establishment of a railway. A few miles 
from the town are rich mines, whose produce of 
lead, iron, copper, zinc, and sulphur make up most 
of the export trade. Esparto grass also is largely 
cultivated, and is used for ropes and sailcloth, and 
is exported in large quantities for the manufacture 
of paper. Cartagena lias also numerous blast¬ 
furnaces and smelting-houses. The climate was 
formerly unwholesome, but has much improved of 
late since the draining of the marshes, which were 
a constant cause of ague and intermittent fever. 
2. The capital of Bolivar, in Colombia, is on a sandy 
island on the north coast, and this island with 
another forms the harbour. It is connected with 
a suburb upon another island, and with the 
mainland by bridges. The harbour is the best 
upon the coast, but owing to the periodical silting 
up of a canal, which passes through a chain of salt 
lakes, and unites it with the Magdalena, much of 
its trade has passed away to a neighbouring port. 
The town is well built and well paved, although 
the streets are narrow, and there are cisterns of 
excellent water. The heat is great in summer, and 
there is a good deal of yellow fever. The chief 
exports are sugar, tobacco, coffee, and dyewoods, 
together with some caoutchouc and cotton. The 
town was taken and burnt by Drake in 1585. 

Cartago. 1. A river and lagoon communicating 
with the Caribbean Sea, and situated near the 
northern extremity of the Mosquito coast. 2. An 
inland town of Costa Rica, of which it was the 
capital till its partial destruction in 1841, since 
which date it has much diminished both in number 
of inhabitants and in importance. The neighbour¬ 
ing volcano is 11,480 ft. high. 3. An inland city of 
Cauca in Colombia, situated near the junction of 
the Viejo with the Cauca. The climate is good, 
and there is a considerable trade in cattle, cocoa, 
coffee, fruits, and tobacco. 

Carte, Thomas (1686-1754), an English 
historian, son of a vicar of Clifton near Rugby. 
Educated at Oxford, he took orders, but joined the 
ranks of the non-jurors upon the accession of the 
Hanoverian dynasty. Suspected of complicity in 
the plot of Atterbury, he w r as obliged to take refuge 
in France for some years. He is noted for a History 
I of England, which is of some value, owing to its 





Carte-blanche. 


( 367 ) 


Carthage. 


laborious accumulation of facts, which have proved 
useful to other historians. Several volumes of 
MSS. materials for continuing the history are pre¬ 
served in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. 

Carte-blanche denotes etymologically a blank 
paper, and, literally taken, denotes a paper whose 
use is authorised by a seal or signature, but 
whose powers and conditions are left to be filled in 
by another than the signer or sealer. A good 
example of carte-blanche is the blank cheque, so 
often read of and so seldom seen, where the drawer 
signs the cheque and leaves the amount In be 
filled in by the recipient. The lettres-de-cachet (q.v.) 
of Bourbon France are another example. The term 
is now used in the general sense of giving free per¬ 
mission to do a thing, or to incur expense, the giver 
of the permission holding himself responsible. 

Carter, Eliza (1717-1806), an English lady- 
scholar and translator. Her mother dying while 
the daughter was still young, she was taught Latin 
and Greek by her father—a Kentish clergyman— 
and she also made herself proficient in modern 
languages. She published a volume of poems, a 
translation of an Italian work upon Newton for 
the use of ladies, and a translation of Epictetus, 
which was received with much favour. She was on 
terms of friendship with many celebrated men of 
the eighteenth century, among them being Bishop 
Butler, Mr. Burke, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and Dr. 
Johnson, who had a high opinion of her as a Greek 
scholar, and printed some of her papers in the 
Rambler. 

Carteret, John, Earl Granville (1690- 
1763), an English diplomatist, orator, and states¬ 
man. His father, Baron Carteret, died when the 
son was five years old, and the young Baron was 
educated at Westminster and Christ Church, 
married in 1710, and the next year entered the 
House of Lords, and put himself on the side of the 
Whigs. In 1714 he made his first speech in the 
House in support of the Protestant succession, and 
was appointed a lord of the bedchamber upon the 
accession of George I. In 1719 he was ambassador 
extraordinary to Sweden, and arranged two 
treaties of peace between Sweden and other 
countries; in 1721 he was appointed Foreign 
Secretary, and in 1724 he entered upon a six years’ 
lord-lieutenancy of Ireland. This brought him 
into contact with Swift, first as an enemy over the 
celebrated Drapier's Letters , but afterwards as an 
acquaintance and close friend. From 1742 to 1744 
he was again Foreign Secretary, and tried tc bring 
about an agreement between Maria Theresa, the 
Emperor of Germany, and Frederick the Great. In 
1744 he was out of power, and became Earl 
Granville on the death of his mother, who was 
Countess in her own right. In 1751 he again took 
office as President of the Council under Henry 
Pelham, but took no further prominent part in 
politics, though he held office till his death, beyond 
being instrumental in bringing Pitt into office. 

Carteret, Philip, an English sailor and dis¬ 
coverer of the eighteenth century, who took part in 
Byron’s voyage, and commanded a ship in Wallis’s 


exploring expedition to the southern hemisphere 
in 1766. The next year he became separated from 
Wallis in the Straits of Magellan, and, going on 
alone, discovered several islands, among them being 
Pitcairn’s Island, and one in the Solomon group, 
which bears the name of its discoverer. In 1794 he 
retired from active service with the rank of rear- 
admiral, and died two years after. 

Cartesian Devil, or Cartesian Diver, called 
also the Bottle Imp, is a mechanical toy which 
illustrates atmospheric pressure. It consists of a 
hollow figure having a hole near the top, and partly 
filled with air and partly with water. This is 
partially immersed in water contained in a wide¬ 
mouthed vessel, the opening of which is covered 
with indiarubber or other elastic material. If 
pressure be applied to this cover, the air in the 
figure is compressed, and water enters to com¬ 
pensate, and the figure sinks, to resume its former 
position when the pressure is removed. 

Carthage, an ancient town of North Africa, 
near the modern town of Tunis, and at that point 
of the coast which approaches most closely the 
island of Sicily. Its position was so favourable 
that not only was it the great maritime city which 
for so long carried on a life and death struggle with 
Rome, but after its destruction it was chosen by 
Julius Caesar as a place for colonisation, and rose 
to be of great importance in the empire. Little is 
known of its early history beyond the legendary 
account—utilised by Virgil—of its foundation by 
Dido, and its being an off-shoot of Tyre, a view 
which seems borne out by the fact that Carthage 
used to send tithes of its revenue to the Temple of 
Melkart at Tyre. Even the etymology of the name 
is disputed, some thinking that it means “new 
city.” As early as the sixth century b.c. Carthage 
had risen to great power, and possessed much of 
the N. coast of Africa, together with Sardinia, part 
of Sicily, the Balearic Isles, and Malta, besides 
having possessions in Spain and Gaul. She appears 
to have resembled England in this, that she looked 
on her vast possessions chiefly as a means of 
increasing her commerce, and it was her commerce 
that was her vulnerable point. 

The history of Carthage falls naturally into three 
periods: The first from 880 b.c. for about. 400 
years, during which time she consolidated her 
African empire, and made the peoples of Northern 
Africa along a coast-line of about 2,000 miles her 
tributaries; the second from 480 to 264 b.c., the 
chief interest of which centres around her struggle 
for the possession of Sicily; and the third, from 
264 b.c. —the period of her life and death struggle 
with Rome for the dominion of the seas, and so of 
the world—down to her destruction by Scipio in 
146 b.c., and her reduction to the condition of a 
province of the Roman Empire. The chief source 
of our knowledge of the government of Carthage 
comes from the Romans, who were not much given 
to studying the races they conquered. Tradition 
said that they originally had kings, but the earliest 
authentic accounts of their constitution seem to 
show that they were governed by a senate of 
aristocratic and oligarchical tendencies, whose 






Carthamus. 


( 368 ) 


Cartilage. 


deliberations were in some sort controlled and 
carried into effect by officers whose duties closely 
corresponded with those of the Roman consuls. 
There was also a democratic element in the senate, 
which gradually became predominant, and of 
which Hannibal and his family were the fruits. 
When in 480 the Carthaginians determined to get 
possession of Sicily at the time that Xerxes was 
invading Greece, the city was at the zenith of 
her prosperity. Her commerce was almost world- • 
wide, her galleys visited the Canaries, Madeira, and 
perhaps America. They came north to Portugal, . 
Gaul, and Britain, and even sought for amber in the 
Baltic, they brought elephants’ tusks and gold-dust 
from Central Africa, and caravans brought them 
the spoils of the East African coast and the Indian 
seas. But from this moment dates their decline. 
Sicily proved a tougher foe than they thought, and 
eventually carried the war into their own territory, 
being aided by internal dissensions and revolt, and 
by the readiness of the tributary races, who were 
attached by no sentiments of patriotism, to join any 
foe who menaced Carthage. This struggle also 
brought them face to face with the iron-willed 
race that was destined to overthrow them ; and the 
third and most exciting period of the history of 
Carthage was taken up by the wars, which were 
called by the Romans the Punic wars, and which 
fall more naturally under the head of Roman 
history, since it is from the Roman historians that 
we chiefly derive the history of the struggle, and 
even our knowledge of the life and career of the 
great Carthaginian patriot and general, Hannibal. 
For years after its destruction Carthage lay in 
ruins, and most people are acquainted with the 
picture—verbal or other—of Marius seated among 
the ruins of Carthage. Though Julius Caesar did 
not live to see the fruits of his foresight, his 
Carthaginian colony flourished apace, and in the 
time of Augustus was once more the most flourishing 
city of Africa. In the third and fourth centuries 
after Christ Carthage rivalled Rome in splendour, 
and was of great importance in the history of the 
early Christian Church. Taken by Vandals of the 
fifth century, and by Belisarius in the sixth, 
Carthage still remained on till the invasion by the 
Arabs, when it was burnt by Hassan in 698. Its 
site is now occupied by a few Arab villages, and 
the fields of clover and corn that surround them. 

Little is really known of the religion and 
character of the people of Carthage, and that little 
is chiefly from information derived from their 
enemies. Their religion resembled in general 
features that of the Phoenicians at large, and is 
said to have been of a cruel and sombre type. They 
are said by the Romans to have been treacherous 
and untrustworthy, and that to a degree that made 
their name proverbial, but perhaps “ Punica Pules ” 
in a Roman mouth had as much significance as 
“ per fide Albion ” in the mouth of a Frenchman. 

Carthamus. [Safflower.] 

Carthusians, a monastic order founded in 
1086 by St. Bruno (q.v.) and six companions in the 
solitary La Chartreuse, near Grenoble in France, 
from which they derive their distinctive name. They 


had no fixed rules until the time of the fifth Prior 
—Guigo—who issued the Consuetudines Cartusice in 
1134. In 1176 they received papal approbation, 
and in 1180 they were introduced into England, 
our present Charterhouse taking its name from 
them. They were of great v ealth and importance, 
given to hospitality and for the most part educated. 
The order is a very strict one, silence, solitude, 
vegetarian diet, and rigid fasts being some of their 
chief features. It has been erroneously put down 
as a branch of the Benedictines, owing to a simi¬ 
larity in the ritual used by the two orders. It con¬ 
sists of two classes—fathers and brothers. It is 
especially a contemplative order, and it is said to 
be from this cause that they have produced few 
saints. Italy, France, and Switzerland were the 
countries chiefly occupied by them, and since the 
expulsion of some monastic orders from France, 
they have founded some monasteries in England. 
There is a female branch whose rules are less 
austere. The most famous Italian monastery (now 
suppressed) of the order is near Pavia. [Certosa.] 
The renowned liqueur is made by lay brothers, for 
the benefit of the order. A characteristic of the 
order is that each “ cell ” is a small house of four 
rooms, with a garden, all the cells opening into one 
corridor. 

Cartilage. The resistant yet elastic substance 
known as gristle or cartilage, plays an important 
part in animal structure. In the first place many 
bones are developed from cartilage. [Bone, 
Development of.] Cartilage which undergoes 
subsequent development into bone is called tempo¬ 
rary cartilage. Secondly, cartilage is found as a 
permanent tissue occurring in the fully-developed 
body. Such permanent cartilage is of wide distri¬ 
bution ; it covers the joint surfaces of bones, it 
serves as a connecting link between bone and bone, 
it forms the basis of such structures as the ex¬ 
ternal ear and larynx, and constitutes the supporting- 
framework of open tubes like the trachea and 
Eustachian tube. Cartilage when examined mi¬ 
croscopically is found to be made up of cells 
imbedded in a supporting substance called the 
matrix. The permanent cartilage of the human 
body is divided into three varieties according to the 
characters of this matrix. In Hyaline cartilayc, 
the first variety, the matrix is of uniform structure, 
and when examined in the fresh condition presents 
a ground-glass-like appearance. The costal and 
nasal cartilages, and the cartilage investing the 
ends of bones, and that found in parts of the larynx, 
and in the trachea and bronchi, are of the hyaline 
variety. In yellow elastic cartilage (found in the 
external ear, Eustachian tube, and epiglottis) the ma¬ 
trix is made up of fibres resembling the yellow elasric 
connective tissue fibres. [Connective Tissues.] In 
the third variety, white Jibro-cartilaye , the matrix 
is composed of fibres resembling white fibrous 
connective tissue fibres. This kind of cartilage 
occurs in the intervertebral discs, in sesamoid 
cartilage, and in the fibro-cartilages of the knee- 
joint. Cartilage is a non-vascular tissue, i.e. it con¬ 
tains no blood-vessels of its own, but derives nutrient 
materials from adjoining tissues. Its chief chemical 








Cartilaginous Fishes. 


( 369 ) 


Cartwright. 


constituent is a body called chondrin, closely allied 
to gelatin. Cartilage may be affected by inflam¬ 
mation, and is involved in many morbid processes. 



HYALINE CARTILAGE. 

Showing cells enclosed in capsules and surrounded by ground 
substance. (Magnified about 400 diameters.) 

The deposit of urate of soda in cartilage, which 
occurs in gouty persons, is a curious phenomenon, 
and cartilage undergoes important changes in 
rheumatoid arthritis (q.v.). 

Cartilaginous Fishes, a book name for an 
order of fishes (Chondropterygii—the Elasmo- 
branchii of Bonaparte), of the sub-class Palaeich- 
thyes (q.v.). The mere fact that the skeleton is 
cartilaginous is not sufficient to constitute a fish a 
member ot this order ; for in the Dipnoi and very 
many others of the Ganoids the skeleton is not 
ossified. On the other hand, Amphioxus (q.v.) and 
the Cyclostomata (q.v.), in all which the skeleton 
is cartilaginous in a high degree, fall considerably 
below the rank of fishes and form separate groups. 
[Chordata, Craniata.] 

As the name of the class imports, these fishes 
date from a very remote period, and from the 
nature of the skeleton the remains are chiefly 
limited to the bony scales, teeth, and fin-spines. 
They range from the Silurian to the Jurassic, in 
which formation they exceed all other fishes in 
number, and this excess continues up to and 
through Tertiary times. 

These fishes are nearly all marine. The skeleton 
is cartilaginous with traces of ossification in the 
vertebra of some genera. The vertebral column is 
generally heterocercal (q.v.), the upper lobe of the 
caudal fin produced, except in the true Rays. 
Median and paired fins are present, the hinder pair 
on the abdomen. The air-bladder is absent or 
quite rudimentary; the heart has a contractile 
arterial cone communicating with the vessel which 
returns the impure blood to the gills for aeration. 
Gill-cover absent; gills attached to the skin by the 
outer margin with a varying number of intervening 
gill-slits. In some genera a gill-slit bearing a rudi¬ 
mentary gill, known as the spiracle (but bearing no 
relation to the spiracle of the Cetaceans), is placed 
behind the eye. The intestine has a spiral valve. 
The skin bears calcified papilla?, or bony scutes, to 
which the now obsolescent name of I lacoid Scales 
was formerly applied. The ova are large and few 
in number, impregnated within an internal cavity, 
and in some instances deposited within horny cases 
which are often found empty on the sea-shore, and 

48 


are locally known as mermaids’ purses, fairy purses, 
etc. Some species are viviparous ; that is, the eggs 
are hatched within the body of the mother. The 
males have intromittent organs attached to the 
ventral fins. The embryo is furnished with external 
gills, which fall off before maturity is reached. 

The order is divided into two sub-orders: (1) 
Plagiostomata, or Plagiostomi, containing the 
Sharks and Rays ; (2) Holocephala, containing only 
one family, of which the Chimaera (q.v.) is the 
type. [Ray, Shark.] 

Cartoon (from Ital. cartone , pasteboard), a 
full-sized design for a fresco or other painting, 
drawn upon stiff paper, and transferred by tracing 
or pouncing to the surface to be painted. The 
most noted cartoons are those of Rafael, now in the 
British Museum, and of which a romantic story is 
told how they were sent to Arras as models for 
tapestry, and years after were found among the 
lumber of the factory. A cartoon of Leonardo da 
Vinci, of The Battle of the Standard , and one of 
Michael Angelo of Soldiers Surprised by the Enemy 
when Bathing , no longer exist. The name is also 
applied to the political engravings in Punch and 
other similar publications. 

Cartouch, (1) a kind of bag or case in which 
cartridge is conveyed for use by artillery. (2) The 
box or pouch in which a soldier carried his cartridge, 
now commonly called a cartridge-pouch. (3) A 
case of large shot, interspersed with musket-balls, 
which was put altogether into a gun as a charge. 
A cartouche is also a name used to denote an oval 
employed in hieroglyphic inscriptions to enclose 
inscriptions or descriptions. The same word is 
in heraldry used to denote an oval containing 
armorial bearings. 

Cartridge, a bag or case of powder, attached 
or unattached to the projectile, and suitable for 
use as the charge for a 
heavy gun or small-arm. 

For heavy guns cartridge 
cases were anciently of 
paper, parchment, or flan¬ 
nel ; they are now of silk. 

For small-arms they were 
anciently of greased pa¬ 
per, and at the time of 
the Indian Mutiny it was 
alleged that one of the 
causes of trouble arose 
from the Hindoo Sepoys 
—who hold the cow sacred—being required to bite 
off the ends of cartridges which were greased with 
beef fat. Modern breech-loading small-arm cart¬ 
ridge cases are usually of brass, with or without an 
iron head. The head is in most types pierced at 
the axis, or centre, so that it may receive the ful¬ 
minating cap and the anvil on which the cap is to 
be struck by the hammer or pin of the piece. 

Cartwright, Edmund (1743-1823), English 
poet, inventor, and clergyman. He was born at 
Marnham in Nottingham, and was descended from 
an old family who had suffered much for their 



SHOT MARTINI 

CARTRIDGE. HENRI. 











Cartwright. 


( 370 ) 


Caryatides. 


loyalty in the Civil war. He was educated at 
Oxford, and taking orders, entered upon a cure near 
Chesterfield. His favourite relaxation was poetry, 
and he published anonymously in 1762 some verses 
which were well received, and afterwards published 
Constance, Arminia and Elvira, and Sonnets, as 
well as other poetical works, and contributed 
constantly to the Monthly Review. A journey to 
Matlock in 1784 turned his attention to machinery, 
and though over 40 he began to study mechanics 
with all the ardour of youth, and to such good 
effect that he invented a machine for weaving that, 
with certain improvements, was generally adopted 
in the United Kingdom, and is the parent of 
the modern power-loom. He also invented a 
carding-machine, which was generally adopted, 
and brought out other inventions, including one for 
moving carriages without the employment of horses 
by means of a lever; and he also made experiments 
in steam. Like many other inventors he ruined 
himself, but Government, at the instance of the 
manufacturers of Manchester and other large 
towns, gave him £10,000 for his public services. 
Though this did not compensate his losses, it 
«enabled him to pass his latter days in comfort. 

Cartwright, George (1739-1819), an English 
traveller, born at Marnham in Nottingham. He 
made several voyages to the Indies, to Newfound¬ 
land, and to Labrador, lived for sixteen years 
among the Esquimaux, and published (1792) the 
results of his observations as a Journal of Trans¬ 
actions, etc., on the Coast of Labrador. 

Cartwright, John (1740-1824), brother of the 
Edmund Cartwright above-mentioned, born also at 
Marnham, served for a time in the navy, and 
in the Nottinghamshire militia, but left the service 
owing to his Radical sympathies. From that time 
he gave himself up to the study of agriculture, both 
theoretical and practical; and wrote much upon 
political questions. His views seem to have been 
sound and far-sighted, but in advance of his time. 

Carupano, a town of South America, in the 
Republic of Venezuela, near the Sea of the Antilles 
and Cape Three Points, in the province 1 of Cumana, 
and about 70 miles N.E. of the town of that name. 
It has a trade in horses and mules. 

Carus, Karl Gustav (1789-1869), a celebrated 
German surgeon and physiologist. He was brought 
into notice by his teaching at the university of 
Leipzig, his native place, and received many public 
marks of esteem and recognition. Among his many 
works are, one on the Circulation of the Blood in 
Insects ; Psyche: a History of the Development of the 
Human Soul; Physis: a History of the Life of the 
Body; and he was an exponent of the doctrine, 
which lias received some countenance of late, that 
physical and mental perfection depends upon the 
result of a fight among antagonistic principles in 
the organism of animals. He was a many-sided 
man, and besides some valuable criticisms, he pro¬ 
duced paintings that have not been without admirers 
among painters. 

Carucate, in Anglo-Saxon and mediaeval Eng¬ 
land, the amount of land a team of eight oxen 


could plough in a season, at first varying in size 
from 80 to 140 acres, according to the district ; 
afterwards fixed at 100 acres, ('arucage. a tax of 
5s. per carucate was imposed by Richard I. in 1198. 
John reduced it to 3s. [Bovate.] 

Carving, in Art, is the cutting of the surface 
of any substance into artistic designs. The practice 
is of great antiquity, and ranges from the carvings 
upon wood or horn or stone by prehistoric man, to 
the elaborate work of Grinling Gibbons in the last 
century. One favourite substance with carvers, 
especially in the East, has been ivory, which, while 
very durable, is capable of the most delicate treat¬ 
ment. The great Chryselephantine statue of Athene 
was one of the chief treasures of Athens. Churches 
and other public buildings have been much enriched 
by carvings. The stalls in some of our old churches 
and cathedrals, the pulpit in Antwerp cathedral, 
St. Paul’s Cathedral, the house at Chatsworth, are 
fine specimens of the art. In Germany, in the 
Dutch Zeeland, at Lisieux, and other French towns, 
are good specimens of wood carving as applied to 
the external and internal adornment of houses ; 
while the Maoris of New Zealand were no mean 
adepts in the craft, and the South Sea islanders 
generally executed elaborate carvings upon their 
canoes and weapons of war. 

Cary, Henry Francis (1772-1844), an English 
poet, born at Birmingham, educated at Oxford, and 
vicar of Abbots Bromley, is chiefly noted for his 
translation of Dante’s Divina Commedia. He also 
translated Pindar’s Odes, and Aristophanes’ Birds, 
and wrote a continuation of Johnson’s Lives of the 
Poets, and Lives of the Old French Poets; and 
published editions of several English poets. For 
some years he was assistant-librarian at the British 
Museum. 


O 0 © © 


Caryatides, the priestesses of Artemis at 
Caryse. The word is generally applied to draped 
female figures which 
were employed in Greek 
architecture as columns 
to support entablatures. 

The best known instance 
is in the Erechtheum at 
Athens (imitated in St. 

Pancras church, Lon¬ 
don). Tennyson speaks 
of them as used in the 
Woman’s College de¬ 
scribed in The Princess. 

Male figures used for the 
same purpose were called 
Atlantes. There was a 
tradition which said that 
the people of Carym 
joined the Persians in 
their war with the 
Greeks, and that the 
Greeks in punishment 
slew the men and en¬ 
slaved the women, and 
as a memento of their 

disgrace made their images in national dress do 





CAttYATIS. 




























Caryopsis. 


( 371 ) 


Case. 


duty as columns to their buildings. In the same 
way they employed the figures of Persian soldiers. 

Caryopsis (from the Greek cavuon, a nut; apsis, 
resemblance) is the characteristic fruit of the grasses. 
It is composed of two, or more rarely, of three, 
carpels united into a one-chambered superior ovary 
containing one seed, which so completely fills it 
that the coats of the seed are adherent to the walls 
of the ovary. The whole of the grain, or small dry 
fruit, is often miscalled a “ seed.” It differs from 
the achene (q.v.) in being syncarpous, and from the 
cypsela (q.v.) and nut (q.v.) in being superior. The 
deep groove, frequent down one side of the caryopsis, 
marks the union of the two carpels. Nardus , and 
some other grasses, are exceptional, in having a 
monocarpellary fruit, which is consequently an 
achene. 

Caryota, a genus of palms having bi-pinnate 
leaves with cuneate leaflets with jagged ends. The 
fruits are small, round, purplish, and berry-like. 
Of the nine species, all natives of the East Indies, 
the best known is C. urens, the Kittool palm, 50 
to 60 feet high, with a stem a foot in diameter, 
and leaves reaching 20 feet in length and 12 feet 
in breadth. From its flower spikes abundance of 
toddy , or palm-wine, is obtained, from which 
jaggery , or palm-sugar, is prepared by boiling. 
Sago is prepared from the pith-like central tissue 
of the stem; and kittool , or Indian gut , a useful 
fibre for brooms, brushes, and ropes, is the ramenta 
or fibre of the leaf-stalk. 

Casablanca, Louis (1755-1798), a French 
sailor, born in Corsica, who, as a naval officer, was 
actively employed in the French fleet which aided 
the cause of American Independence. At the 
revolution he for a time mixed in politics, but as 
soon as possible quitted them for his more congenial 
element, the sea, and was appointed to command 
the man-of-war L' Orient. At the battle of Aboukir, 
after the death of his admiral, whose flag was on 
the Abouldr , he first secured the safety of his crew, 
and then blew up his ship. His little son would 
not leave him, and died with him. This incident 
has been celebrated by the French poets Lebrun 
and Chenier, and, with a modification of the inci¬ 
dents, by Mrs. Hemans. 

Casale, a fortified town of Italy, on the river 
Po, in the province of Alexandria, and 37 miles E. 
of Turin. It was the capital of the duchy of 
Monteferrato, and is the seat of a bishopric, having 
a fifteenth-century cathedral, an old castle, and 
several public buildings. The river is crossed by an 
iron bridge. Its chief industry is the manufacture 
of silk-twist. There are many Roman remains in 
the neighbourhood. 

Casanova de Seingalt, Giovanni Giacomo 
(1725-1798), a celebrated Italian adventurer, born 
in Venice, the son of an actor and actress, studied 
at Padua, and gave evidence of great and precocious 
intelligence. His escapades soon made Padua too 
hot for him, and he entered upon a life of advent ure 
which led him to many parts of Europe. In 1 755 
he was confined in the Piombi of Venice, and his 
daring escape the next year made his reputation 


throughout Europe, and he was acquainted with 
Frederick the Great, Catherine II., Suwarroff, 
Rousseau, Voltaire, Louis XV., and Mme. de 
Pompadour. Later he was banished from Warsaw 
for a duel, from Paris and from Madrid for other 
causes, and still later, recognising that a new and 
more serious era had set in, became the librarian of 
a “ prince without a library”—Count Waldstein of 
Bohemia—and composed his Memoires , a book of 
cynical confessions, entertaining, but not fitted for 
general reading by reason of their licentiousness. 
He has been called the wandering Jew of vice, and 
a dejoie faite ho mine .” 

Casaiibon, Isaac (1559-1614), a Calvinistic 
theologian, critic, and scholar, born at Geneva, and 
after an education disturbed by religious persecu¬ 
tion in France, to which his father—a Huguenot 
pastor—had returned, he was appointed at Geneva 
professor of Greek, in which he had made singu¬ 
lar progress. He was summoned to Paris in 1598 
by Henri IV. to teach in the university, but owing 
to his attachment to Protestant principles the 
king could not give him this appointment, but 
made him royal librarian. After the king’s 
assassination Casaubon went to England, where he 
was well received by James I., who made him 
prebendary of Canterbury and of Westminster, and 
gave him a pension of £4,000. Casaubon was a 
good critic, but it was as a Greek scholar that 
he excelled, and his numerous works enjoyed a 
great and extensive reputation. Justus Lipsius, 
Scaliger, and Casaubon have been quoted as a 
literary triumvirate. 

Cascade Mountains, a range of mountains 
upon the Pacific coast of North America, nearly 
parallel with the coast, and continuing the line of 
the Sierra Nevada of California, through Oregon 
and Washington territory, and joining the Rocky 
Mountains in the north, in the territory of British 
Columbia. The cascades from which the chain 
takes its name are caused by the river Columbia, 
which breaks through the range, and descends in 
numerous waterfalls. The principal heights of the 
range are Mount Hood (14,000 ft.) and Mount 
Jefferson, slightly lower, and the volcanic peak, 
Mount Helen"(12,000 ft.), and others. 

Cascarilla, the bark of the Croton eluteria, 
is employed in medicine. There are two officinal 
preparations, an infusion and tincture. They con¬ 
tain a bitter substance, cascarillin, and are of use 
in dyspepsia. 

Case signifies a narrative statement of facts 
submitted for the opinion of counsel, or a similar 
statement from an inferior to a superior court for 
its consideration. Since the year 1883 parties may 
concur in stating questions of law in a special case ; 
or, if it appears to the court or a judge from the 
pleadings or otherwise that there is a question of 
law which it would be convenient to have decided 
in that manner, they or he may order a special 
case to be stated. The Court of Chancery used to 
direct such cases for the opinion of a court of 
law, but such references are now unnecessary, the 
divisional court having full power to determine 






Casemates. 


( 372 ) 


Cashmere. 


the same, subject, of course, to appeal. In divorce 
and probate practice a party making a motion 
must file, among other papers, a case containing 
an abstract of the proceedings in the suit, a state¬ 
ment of the circumstances on which motion is 
founded, and the prayer or nature of decree sought. 
By an Act passed in the year 1857 (20 and 21 
Viet. c. 48), justices of the peace may be required, 
at the insistance of any party dissatisfied with their 
decision in their summary jurisdiction on a point 
of law, to state and sign a case for the opinion of 
the divisional court of the High Court of Justice. 

Casemates, in an ironclad, armoured bulk¬ 
heads protecting the guns, which project through 
portholes made in the casemates. 

Casein, a white friable protein substance [Al¬ 
buminoid] which occurs in the milk of all mammals 
to the extent of about 40 per cent. From milk it 
may be obtained by adding acetic acid, and 
washing the precipitated casein with water, alcohol, 
and ether. It is soluble in weak alkalis, and the 
solution coagulates if heated. 

Caserta, an Italian town, capital of Terra di 
Lavoro, and about 20 miles from Naples. The wines 
of the neighbourhood arc noted, and there is a 
celebrated palace built after the designs of 
Vanvitelli, one of the architects of St. Peter’s at 
Rome, with a park containing three different 
gardens, and a magnificent aqueduct nearly 20 miles 
long. There is a royal silk factory employing 
several hundred people. 

Cash-book. The cash-book records all money 
transactions. On the Dr. or left-hand side is en¬ 
tered all moneys received, and on the Cr. or right- 
hand side all moneys paid. 

Cash (Fr. cause) formerly denoted a box 
or repository of coin, and is so used by English 
writers. It has now a varying signification, some¬ 
times meaning ready-money in the shape of coin, 
more frequently coin and bank-notes, and in a 
wider sense is made to include any negotiable 
paper or security. 

Cashel, an Irish town in the county Tipperary, 
and province of Munster, 49 miles N.E. of Cork, 
and 30 miles S.E. of Limerick, on the left bank of 
the Suir, built on the slope of a hill rising abruptly 
from the plain. It was formerly the seat of the 
kings of Munster, and has many interesting ruins, 
especially those situated upon the celebrated Rock 
of Cashel. Among these are a round tower nearly 
90 ft. high, the king’s palace, Cormac’s chapel of 
Saxon and Norman architecture, and the twelfth 
century cathedral said to have been the largest in 
Ireland. There is a Catholic archbishopric and an 
Irish church bishopric here; and the town was till 
1870 a parliamentary borough. Henry VII. 
received here in 1172 the homage of the King of 
Limerick, and held an ecclesiastical council. 

Cashew Nut, the fruit of Anacardium occi- 
dentale , a large tree belonging to the order 
Terebinthacece, and native to the West Indies, 
though cultivated throughout the tropics. The 


tree bears clusters of fragrant rose-coloured flowers, 
which are succeeded by large, fleshy, pear-shaped 
receptacles bearing kidney-shaped fruits. I he latex 
of the stem dries black, and is used as varnish. A 
gum known as Cadjii gum, used by South American 
bookbinders to keep off ants, is exuded; the acid 
and slightly astringent receptacle is eaten ; the 
mesocarp of the fruit contains a quantity of black, 
causticl}" acrid oil, also used to keep off ants; and 
the kernels, when roasted, are wholesome and 
agreeable. 

Case-hardening is the conversion of the 
surface of wrought-iron objects into steel by^ the 
addition of a small percentage of carbon. This 
is effected by heating them to a red-heat in contact 
with charcoal powder, leather or horn parings, or 
other matter containing the carbon required to 
effect the change. The objects are then cooled in 
water or oil, and will be found to be encased in a 
thin skin of steel, ordinarily ^ to ^ of an inch 
thick. The depth of the steel coating depends on 
the nature of the wrought iron and on the duration 
of heating. Objects so treated are more durable 
and better capable of receiving polish. 

Cashmere (variously spelt, but Kashmir 
according to latest Indian authorities), a country 
of Northern Hindostan, bordering upon Thibet, is a 
mountainous region forming part of the Himalayan 
system. It includes valleys as well as mountains, 
the best known being the “Vale of Cashmere,” 
celebrated both in history and poetry for its 
fertility, and for the beauty of its scenery. This 
valley is surrounded on all sides by the Himalayas, 
and lies mostly betw r een lat. 33° 30' and 34° 35' N. 
and long. 74° 20' and 75° 40' E., thus being about 
120 miles long and about 80 miles wide, and having 
an estimated area of 5,100 square miles, being 
about 5,500 ft. above sea-level. The river which 
flows through the valley is the Jhelum, and there are 
two lakes in its course, through one of which it flows 
before changing its course westward to enter the 
Punjab. The best roads to the capital, Serinagur 
or Srinagar, are one of about 130 miles, from Rawal 
Pindi in the Punjab through the Jhelum valley, and 
another from Bhimbar, north of Gujerat, by a pass 
11,000 ft. above sea-level, over the Pir Panjal range. 
The floating gardens of the lakes are a conspicuous 
feature. The valley is renowned for the abundance 
and variety of its fruit, and the vine is largely 
cultivated. The capital is upon both banks of the 
river, which is spanned by seven bridges ; and its 
people are much occupied in shawl-weaving and in 
lacquer work, besides working in silver and copper. 
Cashmere became part of the Mogul empire in the 
sixteenth century, and was overrun by Sikhs in 1819, 
and its Maharajah is now under the protection of the 
British Government. It is now in great repute as a 
health station. The ruling people in Cashmere are 
high-caste Hindus, who in their upland valleys 
have better preserved the primitive Aryan type 
than those of the plains. Thus the colour is even 
of a lighter brown than amongst the Rajputs, 
while the women are often fairer than those of 
Andalusia. The men aro of medium height, with 
slightly aquiline nose, large eyes, often blue or 










Cashmere Goat. 


( 373 ) 


Cass. 


light green, thin lips, chestnnt hair, full silky 
beard, square shoulders, and thick-set frames, but 
like most Asiatics, falling off in the lower ex¬ 
tremities. They are quarrelsome and blustering, 
but great cowards, yielding like cravens to the 
least show of resistance. They wear a flowing 
woollen tunic and wide pantaloons, and dwell in 
houses whose wooden roofs and gables present a 
striking resemblance to the Swiss chalets. The 
language is a neo-Sanscritic dialect of intricate 
structure, written in a still more intricate 
character derived from the Devanagari. Most of 
the people of the Vale of Cashmere are Mohamme¬ 
dans of the Sunnite sect, though there are 
numerous Shiah communities in the towns, chiefly 
weavers. Some are also still Brahmans, while 
others have joined the religion of the Sikhs. Owing 
to a succession of calamities—epidemic, earth¬ 
quakes, famine, and maladministration—the popu¬ 
lation fell from 800,000 in 1826 to 492,000 in 1873; 
but since then it has again increased, and now 
(1890) numbers about 1,500,000. 

Cashmere Goat. [Goat.] 

Casimir, the name or title of many Polish 
princes. Casimir I., in 1041, made Christianity the 
prevailing religion of Poland, and Casimir III.— 
called the Great (1333-1370)—did much for his 
country. He founded a university, schools, and 
hospitals, and showed such regard for the lower 
classes of his subjects as won for him the title 
of King of the Peasants. He also greatly befriended 
the Jewish race out of love for his Jewish mistress. 
He drove back the Tartars who were threatening 
his kingdom, and added the Little and Red Russias 
to his territory. 

Casino (from Ital. casa, a hut) is a name 
generally applied to a building in which music 
and dancing, and other entertainments, are pro¬ 
vided for the public who choose to pay a price for 
entering. 

Caspian Sea, The. The largest inland sea 
of the world, lying partly in Europe and partly m 
Asia, and extending from lat. 36° 40' to 47' 20' N. 

_a length of 740 miles—and from long. 46° 50 

to 55° 10' E.: having an average breadth at the 
centre of 210 miles, and at its north extremity, 
where it throws out an arm to the E., a breadth of 
430 miles, and has an area of 180,000 square miles. 
The area of the Caspian must have been, at a not 
far distant geological period, of much greater extent 
than now, and it was probably connected with the 
Black Sea on the W. and the Sea of Aral on the E. 
Its present level is 84 ft. beneath that of the Black 
Sea, and 248 ft. below that of the Sea of Aral. 
The Caspian has three natural basins, a northern 
and shallow one, which receives the large rivers 
Volga and Ural, and partly owing to the great 
quantity of alluvium brought down by them, and 
partlv owing to the great evaporation that takes 
place is in process of gradual transformation into 
salt marsh, in spite of the great volume of water 
brought down by those rivers. I he middle and 
deep portion of the sea, and the saltest, extends to 
the Peninsula of Apsheron, where the ridge of the 
Caucasus enters the sea, and passes as a submarine 


ridge to the Balkan Peninsula on the eastern 
side. On the E. side, a bold coast-line formed by 
the edge of a plateau lying between the Caspian 
and the Aral recedes, and a large shallow bay is 
formed, which is terminated by the Balkan 
Mountains on the south, and is almost cut off from 
the main sea. This middle basin varies from a 
depth of 400 fathoms in the centre to one of 
30 fathoms upon the ridge above-mentioned. The 
middle basin receives the Terek, and some smaller 
rivers which flow through the plain that lies 
between the Caucasus and the Caspian. The 
southern basin extends from Cape Apsheron on the 
W., and follows the shore-line made by the Elburz 
Mountains round the S. extremity of the sea as far 
as Astrabad—a Persian town in the S.E. This part 
receives the Kur, which drains the southern slopes 
of the Caucasus, and receives the Aras (the ancient 
Araxes) in its lower course. This river Aras is the 
boundary between Russian and Persian territory. 
In the gap that lies between the point where the 
Elburz range trends from the sea, and the point 
where the Balkan Mountains touch the sea, the 
Attrek flows in, and the ancient course of the Oxus 
is plainly marked as having once led to the Caspian 
and not as now to the Aral. Another remarkable 
depression seems to show a former communication 
between the Caspian and a now dried-up bay of 
the Aral. The northern shores of the Caspian fade 
almost imperceptibly into the slope of the steppes. 
A system of canals between the feeders of the 
Volga and those of the Duna and Lake Ladoga 
unites the Caspian with the Baltic. There is a 
great range of temperature in the Caspian, and in 
winter the northern, and sometimes part of the 
middle basin are frozen over. Though there are 
no tides in the Caspian, it is subject to violent 
storms of wind which render navigation dangerous. 
The admixture of sea and river fish in the 
Caspian is remarkable. Among the former there 
are seals and herrings and salmon, and the sturgeon 
with its congeners—so valuable as an article of 
commerce both for their flesh, and for the caviare 
and isinglass they supply—is an estuary fish. 
Naphtha and petroleum abound on the shores ; 
and the Peninsula of Apsheron, with its town of 
Baku, is saturated with naphtha. The Russians 
possess three sides of the sea, and have a fleet upon 
it, and a line of steam packets; and the towns of 
Astrakhan, Derbend, Baku, and Krasnovodsk, from 
the last of which a railway runs to Merv and 
Samarcand, while from Baku a railway runs to the 
Black Sea. The southern shore is Persian. 

Cass, Lewis (1782-1866), an American general 
and statesman, born at Exeter in New Hampshire, 
was bred to the bar, and became a member o<f the 
Ohio legislature. He served in the war (1812-1814) 
with England, and rose to the rank of general; 
as Governor of Michigan—a post which he held for 
eighteen years—he was much occupied with the 
affairs of the Indians, who were the chief inhabitants 
of the region, and besides gaining land from them 
for the State, and amassing wealth for himself, he 
did much civilising and exploring work. In 1831 he 
was War Secretary to General Jackson, and in 1836 








Cassagnac. 


( 374 ) 


Cassava. 


lie was appointed plenipotentiary to France, and 
records liis high opinion of Louis Philippe in a 
work upon France: Its King , Court , and Govern¬ 
ment, published 1840. He was twice an unsuccess¬ 
ful candidate for the presidency, and held office 
as War Secretary under President Buchanan, but 
retired in 1860 over the question of North and 
South. Although an advocate of the slave trade, 
he was in favour of maintaining unity. His Indian 
experiences he embodied in a History of the 
Indians , published in 1823. 


Cassagnac, Adolphe Granier de (1806- 
1880), a French journalist, born in the country, 
came to Paris in 1832, and was a writer in several 
journals. His style gained for him fame, and 
embroiled him in duels and lawsuits. He was an 
Orleanist till 1848, and after that a supporter of the 
empire, and representative of his department from 
1852 to 1870. After founding many papers, he> 
became editor-in-chief, after the establishment of 
the rejDublic, of Le Pays. He also wrote some 
romances. 


Cassagnac, Paul Adolphe Marie (born 
1843), son of the above, and by his mother’s side 
of Creole extraction, also adopted the profession 
of journalist, and joined his father on Le Pays in 
1866. He was taken prisoner at Sedan, and was 
for a time kept upon German territory, but in 1872 
he returned to Paris, and again joined Le Pays as 
an ardent Imperialist, but has probably done the 
cause more harm than good. He has fought many 
duels, and caused many scenes in the Chamber. 
He now directs the journal L'Autorite (1891). 

Cassander (354-297 b.c.), King of Macedonia. 
Being passed over in the succession by his father 
Antipater, he allied himself with Antigonus and 
Ptolemy, and after gaining most of the Greek 
cities, including Athens, he invaded Macedonia, 
and by the year 306 had made himself King. His 
wife was Thessalonica, the sister of Alexander, and 
in her honour he founded the city, which bore her 
name. In his later life he joined Lysimachus, 
Ptolemy, and Seleucus against Antigonus, who was 
killed at the battle of Ipsus (301), and he left his 
crown to his son Philip. 

Cassandra, in Greek mythology, a daughter of 
Priam and Hecuba, who had the gift of prophecy 
bestowed upon her by Apollo, who, however, with 
the generosity which often characterised the gods, 
neutralised his gift by accompanying it with the 
condition that she should never be believed. 
Thus, her prophecy of the downfall of Troy had 
no further effect than causing her to be looked on 
as “ the wild Cassandra,” as ASnone calls her in 
Tennyson’s poem. At the sack of the city she was 
dragged from Athena’s temple by Ajax Oileus, and 
finally fell to the share of Agamemnon, and was 
murdered by Clytemnestra. 

Cassation, a French law word signifying the 
reversal of a judicial sentence. It is derived from 
cassare, which, in the barbarous Latin of the lower 
ages, was synonymous with irritum reddcre, to 
annul. The French Tribunal de Cassation received 
its full organisation under Napoleon., and has ever 


since continued under the title of Cour de Cassation. 
It is the highest court in France and receives ap¬ 
peals from all other courts. It consists of a 
president, 3 vice-presidents, and 49 ordinary judges 
or counsellors, a procureur-general or public 
prosecutor, 6 substitutes (known as advocates 
general), and several inferior officers. The judges 
are appointed by the President of the Republic, and 
their appointments are irrevocable. The court is 
divided into 3 sections : 1, The Section des Requites , 
which decides whether the petitions or appeals are 
to be received ; 2, the Section d,e Cassation Civile , 
which deals with civil cases; 3, the Section de 
Cassation Criminelle, which deals with criminal 
cases. These several sections do not decide upon 
the main question, but only on the competency of 
the other courts, and the legality of the forms and 
principles of law by which the cases have been 
already tried. If the law is found to have been 
violated, the sentence of the inferior court is 
annulled, and the case sent to be tried by another 
court. If this second court decides the case in the 
same manner as the first, and a petition against the 
decision is again laid before the Court of Cassation, 
then the three sections unite in order to examine 
the case, afresh, and if they find reason to pass a 
second reversal, the case is sent to be tried before 
another court. Should this third court decide in 
the same way as the other courts, and a petition 
against the decision be again presented to the 
Court of Cassation, the court requests a final 
explanation of the law on the point at issue from 
the legislature. The court also possesses (when 
presided over by the Minister of Justice) the right 
of discipline and censure over all judges for grave 
offences not specially provided for by the law. 

The institution of the Court of Cassation has 
proved highly beneficial to France; it has acted 
as a watchful guardian of the laws ; it has afforded 
protection to its citizens against arbitrary acts, and 
the misjudgments or misconstructions of the other 
courts. Placed by the nature of its office out of 
the immediate influence of political partisanship, 
it has maintained its high character for strict 
impartiality throughout all the changes of govern¬ 
ment and administration. Many of the most 
distinguished jurists of France have been among 
its members. 

Cassava, the starch obtained from the large 
fleshy roots of the euphorbiaceous Maniliot utilis- 
sima, the bitter cassava, and M. Aipi, the sweet 
cassava—both natives of tropical America, where 
they are largely cultivated. Both are shrubby 
plants, the former with yellow poisonous roots and 
seven-lobed leaves, the latter with reddish whole¬ 
some roots and five-lobed leaves. The coarsely- 
grated roots are baked into cassava cakes , from 
which the intoxicating drink pimarrie is prepared 
by mastication, fermentation, and boiling. The 
juice of the poisonous kind is rendered harmless 
by boiling, and is then the delicious sauce known 
as cassareep. If allowed to settle, it deposits a large 
quantity of starch, known as Brazilian arrowroot 
when simply sun-dried, or as tapioca when partly 
converted into dextrine by roasting on hot plates. 






Cassel. 


( 375 ) 


Cassiodorus. 


About 83 per cent, of tapioca is pure starch. The 
poison of the bitter cassava, which is dissipated by 
heat, contains prussic acid. 

Qassel, a partly-walled Prussian town, once the 
capital of the electorate of Hesse Cassel, now chief 
town of the province of Hesse Cassel, on the river 
Fulda, a bridge over which connects the old town 
with the lower new town. The streets of the 
new town are some of the finest in Germany, and 
the Friedrichs Platz is the largest square of 
Germany. Fronting this square are the residence 
of the former electors, and the Museum, which 
contains a library of 100,000 volumes, and among 
other curiosities a fine collection of clocks and 
watches, including the “ Nuremberg Egg.” There 
is also a fine collection of paintings at Bellevue 
Castle. In the neighbourhood of Cassel is the 
summer palace of Wilhelmshohe, where Napoleon 
resided after the defeat of Sedan. In the park is 
a colossal figure 31 ft. high of the Farnese 
Hercules. Baron Bunsen was a native of Cassel, 
and Spohr conducted the orchestra at the Opera 
House. The manufactures and trade are con¬ 
siderable, and there are many breweries. 

Cassell, John (1817-1865), founder of the 
publishing firm widely known as Cassell, Petter, 
and Galpin, and now as Cassell and Co. The 
difficulties that attended his own education set him 
to trying to make it easier for other people, and he 
in 1850 issued The Working Man’s Friend, and in 
1852 Tlie Popular Educator, which has been a boon 
to many a man and boy who were trying to educate 
themselves. In 1859 he entered into partnership 
with Messrs. Petter and Galpin, since which time 
the publications issued by the firm of every variety 
of interest are legion. 

Cassia, a large genus of leguminous plants of 
various sizes, many of which are in cultivation, 
having handsome pinnate leaves and showy yellow 
flowers which are not papilionaceous. Three of the 
ten stamens are long, four short, and three sterile, 
and the anthers open by pores. Whatever their 
shape, the leaflets are always oblique at the base, 
so that adulteration is readily detected. The leaf¬ 
lets (with which the pods are often mixed) of several 
species are the well-known cathartic drug, senna 
(q.v.). The chief varieties are, Alexandrian or 
Nubian, Aleppo, Bombay or Tinnevelly,and Amierican 
senna, the latter being the produce of C. marilandica. 
The seeds of C. occidentalis, a widely-distributed 
species, are known as Negro coffee, being used as a 
substitute for coffee, and are found valuable as a 
febrifuge. C. fistula has been separated as the 
genus Catliartocarpus from the peculiar structure 
of its fruit. This is a black, woody, cylindrical 
pod, one to two feet long, marked by three 
longitudinal furrows, and divided internally into 
numerous one-seeded compartments by transverse 
partitions. 

Cassianus, Joannes Eremita (or Massi- 
liensis) (360—448), a celebrated hermit, and one of 
the earliest founders of monastic institutions in 
Western Europe. After spending the early part 
of his life in the monastery of Bethlehem, he went 


to Egypt with his friend Germanus, and stayed for 
some years among the desert ascetics of the Nile. 
St. Chrysostom ordained him at Constantinople in 
403, and he then went to Marseilles, where he 
founded two monasteries. In theology he was 
opposed to the doctrine of man’s worthlessness as 
held by St. Augustine, and not going so far as 
Pelagius, has been called a semi-Pelagian. Of his 
works, that Dc Institutione Ccenobiorum and The 
Incarnation are the most notable. 

Cassican, any bird of the South American 
genus Cassicus, of the family leteridee, and charac¬ 
terised by the naked nostrils, the space between 
which is expanded into a frontal shield. 

Cassiduloida, one of the orders of Sea Urchins 
(Echinoidea), including those forms which possess 
a “ floscelle,” and which are not provided with 
jaws. A floscelle consists in the development of 
a star-shaped ornamentation around the mouth, 
by the ambulacra becoming expanded and de¬ 
pressed, and the intervening areas being raised into 
ridges. Living species are mainly tropical, and 
many are deep sea. Among British fossils of this 
order is the Jupiter’s Cap (Galerites albogalerus), 
one of the best known chalk fossils, and the flat 
Cake Urchin ( Clypeus sinuatus), common in the 
inferior oolite rocks of the Cotteswolds. 

Cassini. The name of a family of astronomers 
which furnished for four generations directors to 
the observatory of Paris. 

1. C. Giovanni Domenico (1625-1712), born 
near Nice, was educated by the Jesuits of Genoa. 
His studies in astrology led him on to that of 
astronomy, and in 1650 he was professor of astro¬ 
nomy at the University of Bologna. He made 
observations upon the comet of 1652, and formed a 
theory of comets. He showed himself a man of 
general science, and also displayed great practical 
abilities, so that it was only upon a promise to 
return that Pope Clement IX. allowed him to start 
for France, where he was offered the post of 
director of the Paris observatory. He became 
naturalised, and married a French lady, and in 
1671 began the series of discoveries that made him 
the most renowned astronomer of Europe. 

2. C. Jacques (1677-1756) succeeded his father 
as director, and like him was an original observer, 
but had little knowledge of contemporary thought, 
though he was acquainted with Newton. 

3. CiESAR (1714-1784), son of the above-men¬ 
tioned Jacques, succeeded his father as director, 
and also published a topographical map of France. 

C. Jacques Domenique (1748-1845), son of 
Caesar C. The fourth and last of the line of 
directors. He was the most philosophical of the 
family, and in 1769 undertook a voyage to test 
Le Roy’s chronometers, and also took part in 1779 
in the work of connecting the Paris and Greenwich 
observatories by means of a chain of triangles. A 
dispute with the National Assembly in 1793 caused 
him to be imprisoned for seven months, after 
which he abandoned astronomy and retired into 
private life. 

Cassiodorus, Magnus Aurelius, an Italian 







Cassiopeia. 


( 370 ) 


Cast alia. 


statesman and historian (468-568). who was 
secretary to the King Theodoric, and after his 
death the chief minister of Queen Amalasontha. 
He seems to have had great influence with 
Theodoric, and to have dictated much of his polic.y. 
Cassiodorus wrote a history of the Goths, which, 
however, only exists now as an epitome, and he 
left twelve Books of Letters which, of no great 
merit in themselves, are yet of great value for the 
light they throw upon the history of the time, and 
the general condition and management of the 
kingdom. The latter part of Cassiodorus’s life was 
spent in his native Calabria. 

Cassiopeia, or the Lady in her Chair, as it is 
sometimes called, is a constellation in the northern 
hemisphere, near the North Pole, and consists of 
five stars forming a W-shaped group. A new star 
was discovered in the constellation by Tycho 
Brahe in 1572, which exceeded all the fixed stars 
in brilliance, but gradually faded, and disappeared 
in 1574. 

Cassiquiare, a river of Venezuela in South 
America, which forms a bifurcation of the Orinoco 
with the Rio Negro to the south, which it joins after 
a course of 130 miles, and forms a water communi¬ 
cation between the Amazon and Orinoco with their 
branches, that is to say from the interior of Brazil 
to Venezuela. 

Cassiterides, or Tin Islands, were once sup¬ 
posed to be N.W. of Spain, and so marked in 
Ptolemy’s map, then generally considered to be the 
Scilly Islands or Cornwall, and now again thought 
by some to be some islands in Vigo Bay off the 
Spanish coast. Wherever the islands were, the 
Phoenicians traded with them for tin, but the like¬ 
ness of the Greek word for tin to a Sanscrit word 
has led some to think that the Phoenicians brought 
both metal and name from India. 

Cassiterite, or tinstone, is the principal ore 
of tin, and consists of the dioxide Sn0 2 . It occurs 
largely in Cornwall, Saxony, and India. It is hard 
and brittle, and has sp. gr. 6 to 7. It crystallises in 
the tetragonal system, generally forming prisms 
terminated by pyramids. 

Cassius, Caius, one of the conspirators 
against Julius Caesar, and one of his assassins. 
After a successful career as a soldier in the 
Parthian war, under Crassus, he returned to Rome 
in 49 B.C., and became tribune of the people. In 
the dispute between Caesar and Pompey he sided 
with the latter, but after Pharsalia he surrendered 
to Cassar, who pardoned and befriended him. In 
spite of this he appears to have been the chief 
mover in the conspiracy against Caesar, possibly 
through aristocratic prejudice, or from meanness 
of nature. After Caesar’s death Cassius went with 
Brutus to Macedonia and Syria, and was with him 
at the battle of Philippi, where they were attacked 
by Anthony and Octavianus. The division under 
Cassius was defeated, and he ordered his freedman 
to kill him, thus dying as a second-hand suicide. 

Cassivelaunus, Cassibelaunus, Cassibelan 
or Caswallon, the name according to Caesar {Bell. 


Gal. v. 11, seq.) of the British chief of the Cassi, a 
tribe settled north of the Thames in and about 
Hertfordshire, with St. Albans (Verulamium) as 
their capital. His military capacities caused him 
to be put at the head of a confederacy of Britons 
for the purpose of resisting Caesar’s invasion in 
54 B.C. He seems to have fought with gallantry 
and skill, but he was no match for Roman discipline, 
and possibly his nominal allies, the Trinobantes, 
played him false. Verulamium was stormed, and 
Cassivelaunus was forced to submit. 

Cassock, a loose coat or outer robe, generally 
worn in former times. The name is now restricted 
to the outer robe of a priest, or ecclesiastic, or 
other person employed in the service of the church. 
It differs in form and appearance from the soutane , 
whose wearing is restricted to persons in Orders. 

Cassowary, any bird of the Ratite genus 
Casuarius (with nine species, eight of which arc 



cassowary (Casuarius galeatus). 


found in the islands from Ceram to New Britain, 
and one in North Australia), forming with the 
emu the family Casuariidce. These birds are 
closely allied to the Rhea (q.v.), and are most 
abundant in the Papuan Islands. The cassowary 
stands about five feet high, and resembles the 
ostrich in general appearance, though the neck is 
much shorter. The head bears a horny casque or 
helmet, and, like the neck, is naked. Pendent 
wattles are present, generally brilliantly coloured, 
as is the skin to which they are attached. The 
wings are rudimentary, each with five quills ; the 
aftershaft of the dusky body-feathers is very long, 
so that these appear to be double, and the general 
character of the plumage is hair-like. The legs are 
very muscular, each with three toes, the inner one of 
which is armed with a long sharp claw. These birds— 
which usually live in pairs in wooded country—run 
and leap well, and, when attacked, kick violently 
forward, or use their short strong wings as weapons 
of defence. The eggs are few in number, green in 
colour, and the male takes part in incubation. 

Castalia, a stream issuing from a cleft in the 







Castanets. 


( 377 ) 


Castellio. 


Phaedriades, the cliffs at the base of Mount Parnas¬ 
sus, at Delphi in Greece. It was venerated as the 
haunt of Apollo and the Muses, and so came to be 
looked upon as a source of poetic inspiration. 

“ Castalius ” is a classical epithet for anything 
connected with Apollo, and the Muses are styled 
“ Castalides.” In modern times the spring bears 
the name of St. John. 

Castanets, from the Spanish word for chestnut, 
are two hollowed pieces of wood or ivory, shaped 
like the halves of a chestnut, and joined by a band 
or cord which passes over the thumb, the two halves 
falling into the hollow of the hand. They are used 
to make a rattling accompaniment to music or 
dancing, and serve to mark the rhythm. The Moors 
are said to have introduced them into Spain ; and 
the krotalon of the Greeks served a similar purpose. 
Nature has provided the rattlesnake with castanets, 
which however differ in shape from those used in 
Spain. 

Castanos, Francisco Xavier de, Duke of 
Baylen, was born about 1755, probably at Madrid, 
and received a military education in Germany. He 
was driven out of Spain by Godoy, but on the fall 
of the favourite he returned, and in 1808 gained a 
remarkable success at Baylen over the French, 
commanded by Dupont. He served with distinc¬ 
tion during the rest of the war, displaying much 
courage and skill at Vittoria in 1813. He was 
captain-general in 1823, and councillor of state 
three years later, following a moderate policy. In 
1843, after Espartero’s fall, he was made guardian 
of Queen Isabella. He lived until 1852. 

Caste, the name generally employed to designate 
the divisions of the Hindoo religious bodies in 
India, or rather a division partly religious and 
partly social. The system of caste prevailed in 
Eoypt and in Persia, but it is in India that it has 
been most fully developed. The theory of its 
origin is that the Aryan race on arriving in India 
looked down upon the aboriginal races whom they 
stigmatised as once-born, while they called them¬ 
selves twice-born. The twice-born themselves were 
divided into the priestly or Brahman caste, the 
Kshatryas or military caste, and the V aisvas or 
agricultural class. The aboriginals were called 
Sudras, and in the south of India, Pariahs. Repre¬ 
senting the subject allegorically they held that the 
castes all sprang from the primitive man, the 
Brahmans issuing from his mouth, the Kshatryas 
from his arms, the Yaisyas from his thighs, and 
the Sudras from his feet. Readers of Arthur 
Helps’s Realmah will remember Realmah’s three 
wives, the high-caste wife, the Varna or middle- 
class wife, and the Ainah or slave wife. Besides 
these castes there are mixed castes, of which the 
Chandala being the offspring of a Brahman and a 
Sudra. The Pariahs of South India are probably a 
mixed caste also. The system is now much modi¬ 
fied since the free intercourse of the natives with 
Europeans and with civilised modern life, and the 
Brahman is the only one of the old castes left. But 
the system has spread to trades, guilds, and callings, 
and even the servants have fallen into the custom 
of making their special work a kind of caste, and 


refusing to do anything but their own special task. 
But a loss of caste in any way, except that of 
changing from Brahman to Christian, is easily 
atoned for, and a money payment and slight cere¬ 
mony restore the offender to full communion. It 
may be said now to exhibit itself rather as a habit 
of mind than as a principle. The tendency to caste 
exhibits itself continually in the attitude of a con¬ 
quering race to the race it has subdued; witness the 
Normans and Saxons, the American white citizen 
and the negro, or even where there is great social 
inequality, real or supposed, as in England and 
most other countries. 

Castelar-y-Rissol, Emilio, born in 1832 of 
a middle-class Spanish family, and brought up as a 
Liberal Catholic, won literary distinction very early 
by a novel, Ernesto , and by many articles in the 
Madrid press. He also established a great reputa¬ 
tion for eloquence. Elected professor of history and 
philosophy in the University, and editing at the 
same time the Democracia, he exercised consider¬ 
able political influence, and in 1866, being mixed 
up in the abortive revolutionary movement, he was 
condemned to death, but managed to escape to 
France. There he wrote some interesting non¬ 
political sketches, Ricuerdos de Italia being the 
most graphic. Returning to Spain in 1868 he 
advocated a federal republic, actively opposed the 
government of Amadeo, and forced on his resigna¬ 
tion. In the republic that followed he played a 
leading part, but his Liberal Catholicism was 
acceptable neither to the Socialists nor to the 
Ultramontanes. In 1873 he was appointed dictator, 
but even with that amount of power he failed to 
make head against the Reds in the south, and Don 
Carlos in the north. He resigned next year and 
again took refuge in France, where he published 
among other works a History of the Republican 
Movement in Europe. Alfonso permitted his return 
in 1876, and, conscious of previous failures, he 
limited himself to verbal protests against the 
monarchy, nor did he attempt any revolt against 
the dynasty when the king died in 1885. 

Castellamare, or Castel-a-Mare, a port on 
the coast of Italy, 15 miles S.E. of Naples, situated 
at the foot of Monte Sant’ Angelo (Mons Gaurus). It 
commands a fine view of the famous bay, occupying 
part of the site of the ancient Stabiae, the scene of 
Pliny’s death at the time of the great eruption of 
Vesuvius in 79 a.d. The castle here was built by 
Frederick II. and enlarged by Charles I. of Anjou, 
and Alfonso I. of Aragon. The royal palace of Quisi- 
sana owes its foundation to Charles II. of Anjou, 
and its restoration to Ferdinand I. There are also 
many churches and convents, a cathedral, the seat 
of a bishopric, an arsenal and dockyard, barracks, 
etc. Ship-building is still the chief industry, 
though vessels of war are no longer constructed 
here. Linen, silk, and cotton goods are manufac¬ 
tured. In the neighbourhood are many handsome 
country houses and villas. 

Castellio, or Castelli, Benedetto, born at 
Brescia in 1577, entered a monastic order, but was 
a scientific follower of Galileo. He held a professor¬ 
ship of mathematics at Pisa, and afterwards at the 








Castellio. 


( 878 ) 


Castile. 


Sapienza College in Rome, and he invented, at the 
suggestion of Pope Urban VIII., a system for 
measuring the volume of running water. He died 
in 1644. 

Castellio, or Castalio, Sebastian, was born 
in Dauphine about 1515, his family name being 
Chateillon. Through Calvin’s influence he got a 
professorship at Geneva, but as he rejected his 
master’s theory of reprobation he had to resign, 
and settled at Basle. There he translated the Bible 
into Latin, and wrote several theological works, 
dying in 1563. 

Castellon de la Plana, one of the five 
provinces into which the realm of Valencia, Spain, 
is now divided. Mountainous to the N.W., it con¬ 
tains fertile valleys to the S. and E., and derives 
its name from a great plain artificially irrigated by 
the waters of the Migares. The capital bearing 
the same name stands five miles from the coast, 
and 40 miles N.E. of Valencia, and is an ancient 
walled town with several convents and churches, 
in which may be seen masterpieces of the local 
painter, Ribalta. The town-hall has a tower 260 
feet in height. There is a brisk trade in sail-cloth, 
linen, paper, earthenware, and fire-arms. 

Castelvetrano (anc. Entella ), a town of Sicily 
29 miles S.E. of Trapani, the capital of a canton. 
It stands in a fertile plain which produces oil and 
excellent wine. There is an old castle and several 
monastic buildings. Cloth, silk, cotton, with coral 
and alabaster ornaments, are made here. 

Castiglione, Baldassare, was born at 
Casatico, near Mantua, in 1478, and having been 
educated at Milan, entered the service of Ludovico 
Sforza, afterwards attaching himself to the court 
of the Duke of Urbino, who sent him in 1506 as 
ambassador to England. He was then envoy to 
Leo X., who made him generalissimo of the Papal 
army. Clement VII. sent him in 1525 as envoy to 
Charles V. at Madrid. He settled in Spain as 
Bishop of Avila, and he was suspected of having 
betrayed his master to the emperor. If so, he was 
a consummate hypocrite, for his famous work, II 
Corieyiano (“ The Courtier ”), nicknamed by the 
Italians II libro d'Oro, is one of the noblest 
sketches of the character of a gentleman, and is, 
moreover, a model of Italian prose style. He also 
composed neat poems in Italian and Latin, and his 
letters are elegant and witty. He died at Toledo 
in 1529. 

Castiglione, Lago de, a lagoon 10 miles long 
and from one to three miles broad, in the province 
of Siena, Italy. It communicates by a canal with 
the Mediterranean, and the town of Castiglione 
della PESCAJA is on its shore. Many other towns 
and villages of Italy bear the name Castiglione. 

Castiglione Fioretino, eight miles S. of 
Arezzo by rail, is an important centre of silk 
cultivation. 

Castiglione della Stiviere, a fortified town 
in the province of Brescia, Italy, 20 miles X.E. of 
Mantua. In 1796 Marshal Angereau here inflicted 
a severe defeat on the Austrians, and received 


subsequently from Napoleon the title of Due de 
Castiglione. The battle-field of Solferino (1859) is 
also in the neighbourhood. 

Castile (Spanish, Castilla ), an ancient kingdom 
occupying the centre of Spain, its name being 
derived from the forts (castillos) that pro¬ 
tected its frontiers against the Moors. It extended 
about 300 miles from N. to S., and 160 miles from 
E. to W., and had an area of 45,000 square miles. 
The northern portion, which was first wrested from 
the Moors, was called Old Castile, the southern 
half, conquered later, being known as New Castile. 
The former is bounded by the Bay of Biscay on the 
N., by Leon and Asturias on the W., and by Biscay, 
Alava, Navarre, and Aragon on the N.W. and W. 
Its area of 25,409 square miles is divided into the 
provinces of Burgos, Logrono, Santander, Soria, 
Segovia, Avila, Palencia, and Valladolid. Most of 
this tract consists of a lofty, bare plateau, flanked 
by the Cantabrian range on the N., and the Sierra 
Guadarama on the S. The climate is subject to 
extremes of heat and cold, but wheat grows well 
under proper cultivation ; wine, oil, and fruits are 
also produced, and there is plenty of good pastur¬ 
age. Timber is rare, but stunted oak-groves cover 
the lower ranges of the hills. The only large rivers 
are the Douro and Ebro. The mountains yield 
various minerals, but want of enterprise and of 
roads checks mining operations. The manufactures 
are inconsiderable, cloth being the chief. 

New Castile is bounded on the S. by La Mancha, 
on the W. by Estramadura, and on the E. by 
Aragon and Valencia. It has an area of 20,178 
square miles, and is divided into four provinces, 
Madrid, Toledo, Guadalajara, and Cuenca. Occupy¬ 
ing a table-land that stretches from the Sierra Gua¬ 
darama to the Sierra Morena, it has much the same 
climate as the northern province, but the heat in 
summer is more intense, and the broken nature of 
the ground towards the S. offers greater varieties 
of soil and temperature. Grain, oil, and wine, are 
produced abundantly, the Val-de-Penas vineyards 
being most highly esteemed. Saffron, madder, 
hemp, and fruit are successfully cultivated. The 
Sierra Morena is rich in marble and minerals, and 
the silver mines of Almaden have been celebrated 
for centuries. Cattle and horses are raised in 
great numbers, and merino wool is a valuable 
export. Manufacturing industries are at a low ebb. 
The chief rivers are the Tagus, Guadiana, Guadal¬ 
quivir, Segura and Jucar, but water is everywhere 
scarce. 

Castile was erected into a kingdom in the 
eleventh century under Sancho the Great of 
Navarre, who gave it to his son Ferdinand I. This 
latter added by conquest Leon, Asturias, and 
Galicia to his domains, and New Castile was also 
acquired. Ferdinand III. (1230) drove the Moors 
out of Estramadura and Andalusia, but the fortunes 
of the monarchy were variable until Isabella, sister 
and successor of Henry IV., married Ferdinand of 
Aragon (1474). Granada was soon afterwards 
annexed, the Moorish domination came to an end, 
and the kingdom of Castile merged into that of 
Spain. 







Casting. 


( 379 ) 


Castor and Pollux. 


Casting, the process of making objects in metal | 
by pouring it when molten into moulds of the 
requisite shape. These moulds are made by means 
of wood or metal patterns of the required objects, 
and are generally lined with dry sand, green 
sand, or loam. Iron, steel, brass, and other metals 
are now cast very extensively. 

Casting Vote, the vote given by the president 
of an assembly when the votes upon the two sides 
of a question are equally balanced. Some derive 
the name from the fact that this vote casts the 
decisive weight into the one scale or the other. 
The Speaker of the House of Commons, and the 
chairmen of Select Committees, Ways and Means, 
and Committee of the whole House, vote only 
when the voting is equal. In some assemblies the 
chairman has a casting-vote besides his ordinary 
vote. 


particularly described as otherwise, it is understood 
to be a gate or portwav in a battlemented wall be¬ 
tween two towers. When the cement is of a 
different tincture to the stones, the castle is said 
to be “ masoned ” of that colour. If the portway 
is defended by a portcullis, it must be specially 
mentioned, and when the field is visible through 
the windows and ports, the term “ voided of the 
field ” is employed. When these, however, differ in 
colour both from the castle itself and from the 
field, they are supposed to be closed, and they 
must be particularly blazoned. A castle with four 
towers, or, as it is more generally known, “ a square 
tower,” is occasionally met with, and is always 
drawn in perspective. If other towers, which are 
sometimes termed “ castellets,” rise from the battle¬ 
ments, their number must be stated, as also par¬ 
ticulars of any domes, cupolas, and banners which 
occur. 


Cast Iron. [Iron.] 

Castle (from Latin castellum , a fort), in a 
wide sense, signifies a fortified dwelling. Some of 
the earliest examples are the lake dwellings, and 
the many hill-forts which were in use among pre¬ 
historic peoples. The Musk-rat’s castle in Fenimore 
Cooper’s Beerslayer was a more modern example. 
The castle as now generally known among us, 
generally in the form of ruins, is the latest and 
final stage of the fortified dwelling, which passed 
out of use with the invention of gunpowder and 
the advance of civilisation. The germ of the castle 
seems to have been the keep, built on a mound, 
and surrounded by a ditch and palisade. This 
keep, which had the general assembly hall upon 
the ground floor, the family apartments on the 
second floor, and the garrison accommodation mostly 
in the upper part handy to the battlements, grad¬ 
ually became too restricted for the tastes of the 
day, and the more elaborate castle had in addition 
outer walls with towers at the angles, and con¬ 
taining' more extensive and comfortable buildings , 
the towers each forming a stronghold, and the keep 
providing a final refuge in case all the lest of the 
castle were taken. Drawbridges, which could :>e 
easily raised from within, and doorways defended 
by strong doors and single or double portcullises, 
and having over them apertures for pouring red-hot 
lead and other unpleasant things upon the assail¬ 
ants, increased the security of the castle. On the 
principle of an animal who has two entrances to 
his retreat, there was generally a postern dooi, 
which communicated with the outside, and was 
kept, when possible, secret. Many castles owed 
their fall to the discovery or betrayal of this secret. 
There are some fine specimens of castles in 
England, from Arundel downwards. J he castle of 
Bouillon, in South Belgium, is a fine specimen, with 
its double moat, of the latest (17th century) condi¬ 
tion of castle fortification. The term was also 
used in chess ; at sea, where it remains in the term 
forecastle; while most of us have built castles in 
Spain, or in the air. Examples of the castle fre¬ 
quently occur in heraldry both as a charge upon the 
escutcheonand as the whole or part of a crest. 1 nloss 


Castleford, a town in the E. division of the 
West Riding of Yorkshire, 10 miles S.E. of Leeds, 
on the river Aire, with a station on the Great 
Northern and North-Eastern railways. It is an 
ancient place, being identified with Legeolium, a 
Roman station on the Ermine Street between 
Doncaster and Tadcaster. Large numbers of glass 
bottles are made here. 


Castlereagh, a small market town in the 
barony of Castlereagh, co. Roscommon, Ireland. It 
is situated on the river Suck, 17 miles N.W. of 
Roscommon, and 115 miles from Dublin by rail. 
A considerable trade is carried on in agricultural 
produce. 


Castletown, or Castle Rushin (Manx, Bully 
Cashtel ), the capital of the Isle of Man, and seat of 
government, is situated on the river Silverburn, 
where it flows into Castletown Bay, 11 miles S.W. 
of Douglas. It is well built and clean, possessing 
a safe and spacious harbour, with but little trade. 
The old stronghold, Castle Rushin, was built by 
Guthred the Dane in 960, and now serves for a 
prison and municipal offices. The House of Iveys 
stands near it, and there are a town-hall, market- 
house, and other public buildings. King William’s 
College is about two miles distant from the town. 


Castor and Pollux, or Dioscuri, in Greek 
mvthology, the twin sons of Zeus (Jupitei) jy 
Leda, though Homer asserts that they were the 
legitimate children of Tyndareus, and there oie 
brothers of Helen. They invaded Attica to rescue 
their sister from Theseus, joined Jason in the Aigo- 
nautic expedition, took part in hunting the Can - 
donian boar, and finally engaged in combat with 
the sons of Aphareus, when Castor, being mortal, 
was slain. Pollux thereupon begged Zeus to be 
allowed to die with him, and it was arranged 
that they should take it in turns to visit Hades 
day and day about. Other legends declare that for 
their brotherly love they were promoted to stellar 
dignity. In any case they became worshipped as 
o-ods, Castor being the tutelary deity of horsemen, 
ivnd Pollux of boxers, whilst both took travellers 





Castoreum. 


( 380 ) 


Castro 


under their special protection. They soon found a 
place in Italian mythology, and were believed to 
have fought for the Commonwealth at the battle 
of Lake Regillus. Their festival was celebrated 
with great pomp on the ides of April. 

Castoreum (from Gk. castor , beaver), the name 
given to a secretion supplied by both male and 
female beavers. This secretion—brown, and having 
a peculiar odour—is contained in two glands or 
sacs, and among the Hudson Bay traders 10 pairs 
of these sacs were equal in value to one skin. 
Formerly castoreum was much used in medicine, 
and Bacon in his Essay of Friendship recommends 
“ castoreum for the brain.” The substance is still 
used as a perfume. 

Castoridze, a family of rodents, consisting of a 
single living species, Castor fiber, the Beaver (q.v.). 

Castor Oil, the acrid, mildly-purgative, non¬ 
drying oil obtained from the seeds of the euphor- 
biaceous plant, Ricinus communis. This plant is a 
native of India, but is now much cultivated in the 
Mediterranean region, and, for ornamental pur¬ 
poses, even in England, where, from its glossy, 
palmately-lobed leaves, it is known as Palma- 
Christi. Its flowers are monoecious and apetalous; 
its numerous stamens polyadelphous; and its three 
carpels united into a prickly fruit with three one- 
seeded chambers. The young stems are reddish 
and glaucous, and the leaves seven-lobed. The 
seeds are oval, flattened, grey mottled with brown, 
with a small micropylar aril. They contain about 
half their own weight of oil, the most valuable 
medicinal kind being obtained from the smaller 
seeds by hydraulic pressure without heat, or “ cold 
drawn.” Though long cultivated in Europe, castor 
oil was only admitted to the Pharmacopoeia in 1788. 
We import over 1,800 tons annually—two-thirds 
from India, and the remainder chiefly from Italy. 
The coarser kinds are used in soap-making, and in 
India as lamp oil. It is one of the best and most 
satisfactory of purges; dose for an adult about 
half-an-ounce. 

Castration, the removal of the testicles from 
the male animal. It is a common practice to 
castrate certain of the domestic animals, and 
special names are applied to animals in which the 
operation has been performed. In the case of the 
horse the term gelding is used ; in that of the bull, 
bullock or steer; and wether is the name given to 
a castrated ram. 

Castren, Matthias Alexander, the son of a 
Finnish pastor, was born at Tervola in 1813. With 
great perseverance he pursued his early education, 
and in 1830 entered the university of Helsingfors. 
His attention was now drawn to his native language 
and literature. He soon found that personal ex¬ 
ploration was necessary in order to collect mate¬ 
rials for generalisation, and he spent from 1838 to 
1843 in travelling. He translated the Finnish epic 


Kalevala into Swedish, and compiled two grammars 
of Samoyedic dialects. He was then sent on a 
linguistic journey throughout Siberia, the result of 
which he published in 1849. Being appointed to 
the chair of Finnish at Helsingfors in 1850, he was 
engaged upon his great Samoyedic grammar when 
he died, in 1853, prematurely worn out by his exer¬ 
tions. His valuable researches into northern lan¬ 
guages were chiefly published after his death. 

Castres, the capital of an arrondissement in 
the department of Tarn, France, is situated on 
each side of the river Agout, which is crossed by 
two bridges. Founded about the middle of the 
seventh century of our era on the site of a Roman 
station ( castra ), it was one of the first places to 
embrace Calvinism, and is still the seat of a Pro¬ 
testant consistory. Henry IV. of Navarre had a 
residence here, but in the religious wars the walls 
and forts were destroyed by Louis XIII. The 
streets are not well built, but the Lices form an 
agreeable promenade. Cassimeres, silk and cotton 
fabrics, soap, glue, etc., are largely manufactured, 
and in the neighbourhood are valuable mines of 
coal, iron, lead, and copper. Rapier, Dacier, and 
Sabatier were born here. 

Castro, Guillem de, born at Valencia in 1569, 
began life as a soldier, but forming a close friend¬ 
ship with Lope de Vega, took to dramatic composi¬ 
tion. He won European reputation by his play 
The C'ul , which served as a model to Corneille. He 
died in 1631. 

Castro, Inez de, whose story furnishes one of 
the most romantic episodes of Spanish history, was 
born in Galicia early in the fourteenth century, 
being, according to some accounts, the illegitimate 
daughter of Don Pedro de Castro, and a noble 
Portuguese lady. She was brought up at the court 
of the" Duke of Penafiel as the companion of Cos- 
tan<ja, the duke’s daughter. Costamja, in 1341, 
married Don Pedro, the Infante of Portugal, and 
her friend went with her to Lisbon, when the 
Infante at once conceived for her an ungovernable 
passion, and made her his mistress. The unhappy 
Costanca died in 1345, but it was not till 1354 
that Don Pedro married Inez, and even then their 
union was kept so secret that no proofs of it were 
forthcoming. The King, Alphonso, dreading the 
influence of Spain in case the children of Inez 
should succeed to his throne, and influenced by 
three rivals of her brother, consented to the assassi¬ 
nation of his son’s wife. In 1357 Don Pedro came 
to the throne. He forthwith inflicted terrible 
punishment on two of the murderers, though one 
contrived to escape, and according to a popular 
legend he had the corpse of his adored Inez 
seated beside him on his throne to share the 
honours of his coronation. A magnificent monu¬ 
ment, enclosing her remains, was erected at Alo- 
ba<ja, and was only destroyed in 1810 by the French 
soldiery. 


Printed by Cassell & Company, Limited, La Belle Sauvage, London, E.C. 































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